Pottermore, Prime Rib, Pumpkin Pie, etc.

Lots of things going on!

Music Stuff

Music music music.  Finished up a commission, and will need to try to quickly knock out two more (short) ones in the early part of December.  Also, ~Monthlies 2018.11~ is released!  Was really fun drawing the cute quail for that album cover.

Pottermore Stuff

I forgot to mention a long time ago that I got around to taking the Pottermore sorting quiz -- previously I had only taken the Patronus and Wand quizzes.

My Patronus ended up being a Brown Hare, not too much I can really say about that.

My wand was a bit more interesting, "Ebony wood with a Phoenix feather core 14 ½" and Unbending flexibility".  It's pretty spot on, as Ebony is for people who hold real strong to their beliefs (yep) and aren't afraid to be non-conforming because of it (yep).  Phoenix cores are rare and difficult to tame, which I don't think is particularly surprising either, makes sense that I would get something tricky and complex.  The wand is pretty long and skinny, but so am I, haha.  And do I even need to comment on "unbending flexibility"?  Of course...

I ended up sorting into Hufflepuff, yay!  I always knew it'd be Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, but didn't know which one.  I don't think I could stand either of Gryffindor OR Slytherin, so as long as I'm out of those two I think I'd do just fine.  Ravenclaw was my initial thought since I'd be with a bunch of nerdy bookworms, but in hindsight, Hufflepuff is probably the house for me.  I'm no Hermione, that's for sure, and I think I'm set apart from Ravenclaw a bit by my focus on the practical and pragmatic...I think I would get into trouble if I'm around too many intellectuals who strive for knowledge and debate just for the sake of itself (speaking from experience...).  And I would prioritize my consistency over my intelligence in a heartbeat -- I've always been more Green than Blue, after all (in regards to Magic: the Gathering).  I think Ravenclaw would be more willing and ready to change themselves in order to do things more efficiently or just adapt to changing circumstances whereas Hufflepuff is more content with things just comfortably staying the same.  I think that also speaks to my Introverted Thinking being tertiary rather than primary or secondary; I definitely have an interest in understanding the logic and systems of how things work but I'm more than willing to sacrifice that when it comes into conflict with the tried and true.

Game Stuff

Hollow Knight - My completion percentage is climbing quite more quickly than I anticipated -- I'm already at 97%!  I feel like that's a bit of a misleading number though, as there's definitely a lot more than 3 more things I have left to do.  I've just gotten the other half of the Kingsoul from the White Palace and am now ready to go through that door and get the Void Heart.  I've still got some charms to go find in random places as well, and I still have a ton of geo to collect in order to get more of the unbreakable charms, etc etc etc.  But it's still been fun so far!

Dark Souls - Not too much to report, but we've cleared out most of the rest of Sen's Fortress (minus the annoying Titanite Demons in the tar pit, but I'm thinking maybe to do those after another trip to the Undead Asylum to grab the Rusted Iron Ring).  We've started going through the very first part of Anor Londo with the huge knights, which were quite intimidating at first but are a lot easier once you figure out how to best tackle them (just tightly circle around them and stay near their butts).  At some point it might be a good idea to try and farm some more sunlight medals to get access to Great Lightning Spear, though that does require 30 Faith so I've got some time before that'll even be possible to cast (we're at 25 faith right now, guess I should start investing more into faith -- the last point was into dex).  We're still swinging around the Iaito +10, which has been serving well, though we'll see if we open up any other useful weapon choices once we meet the giant blacksmith.

Xmas Stuff

Surprise!  I thought I was done with xmas letters but I actually got another mailing address, so I just finished my =32nd= (and final?) xmas letter.  I still need to figure out a few more gifts but I've actually already handled a lot of them which is nice.  Shopping online via Amazon is definitely making things easier this year...

Coding Stuff

In addition to having LoopMuse updated and running again, I've also gone and rescued/updated RelentlessWaves!  Huzzah!

Cooking Stuff

I did it!  I made prime rib! (not actually "prime grade", but let's just say a rib roast is considered "prime rib")

I got way too much meat from the butcher (I seem to have a issue panicking in these sorts of situations!), so I split it into two and cooked it twice.  This is definitely the most money I've ever spent on meat before...made sure to enlist help making it go to good use...

Made sure to apply liberal salt and pepper and stick them uncovered in the refrigerator beforehand.  I kept on thinking I had been too heavy-handed with the salt, but that didn't end up being an issue at all.  I guess you really do want to season it super well when it's a piece of meat this big.

Here's how the first slab turned out.  I used a reverse sear, meaning low and steady oven heat to cook the roast all the way through to medium-rare, followed by a short blast in a blazing hot roasting oven to brown the exterior.

The slices looked (and tasted) great, and they're mostly medium-rare throughout.  I had it with a bit of simple store-bought horseradish cream which I enjoyed.

The second slab (which I don't have photos of) was sort of more interesting as it had been in the fridge for around 4 days before I roasted it.  I decided to trim off a bit of the exterior since I reasoned it had probably gotten TOO dried out (or possibly even gone bad) during its fridge time.  I'd like to think that was the right call given that 4 days is beginning to creep up into "I'm dry-aging this meat" territory, but I can't really say for sure.  It turned out just fine either way, though I got a bit impatient and used 180-degrees instead of 170-degrees for the low roast, so it was probably a bit less evenly cooked.  It ended up being a mistake as the roast was ready way before the correct eating time so I had to reheat it.  Not the end of the world certainly, but the first one probably ended up being better.

I'd say it was a success all around.  Having a better cut of meat would probably increase the flavor, but there's only so much I'm willing to splurge on something like this (I guess it is once a year...).  Maybe getting a higher grade / more marbled piece, but way smaller?  I also know to not worry about oversalting next time, too.  Once other thing is that I think I can shorten the high heat browning step a little bit.  I think the exterior crust ended up being browned well enough and there's a tiny bit of grey banding near the edges of the roast.  I'd rather sacrifice some of the browning to get rid of some of that grey, I think.

Anyways, hooray!  Now to stay light on red meat for a while...speaking of which, it's been forever and a day since I've just cooked a plain ribeye steak, so that may probably be the next real red meat item to try?  I haven't actually done the whole sous-vide followed by blowtorching in a hot cast iron pan thing yet, so I could definitely try that.  ....maybe after the holiday season is over, lol.

Oh, cornbread happened too:

It was pretty....fine.  Not super delicious by itself, but I mean, cornbread isn't naturally super delicious?  It was a bit overcooked because I had totally forgotten I was using the convection setting on my oven, so whoops!  Could have probably been more moist if I had not made that mistake.  The bottom side definitely got burnt:

But the middle was pretty alright, so phew.

Oh, also, pumpkin pie happened:

Lol turns out I don't have a photo of the ACTUAL pie so you just get a photo of the "leftover filling" pie, which was much scrappier.  It still tasted fine though!  There wasn't really too much to mess up here, just blend all the filling ingredients together and bake it...simple and effective, and it definitely tasted like....good pumpkin pie.  Would I make it on a regular basis?  Probably not.  The apple crumble thinger that I make is probably a bit more exciting.  But if I am making a pie, this might be the one!

Oh yeah, I also have a carbon steel wok now!  My first attempt at properly seasoning it was...not super successful, but I think try #2 has been more successful!  It's definitely way more finicky than cast iron, but I've been having pretty moderate success cooking onions and sausage and mushrooms and such in it so far.  There is still some sticking for sure, but it cleans off without having to use steel wool or anything, so that's fine.  The real test is whether it can deal with fried rice and scrambled eggs, but perhaps I'll cook other things with it a bit more before I throw those things at it.  Last time I tried making fried rice I just ended up with a whole bunch of residue that I had no good way of getting off so I ended up just starting over from scratch, which I'd prefer to not have to do again...all in all it is pretty fun cooking in a wok though!  It's nice that you can just use however hot heat you want and it can take it, and the deep curved sides make things really easy to push around.

Ludum Dare 43

Starts tomorrow!  Wish us the best of luck! =D  I've updated to Unity 2018, which hopefully should not cause any issues.  (also updated to the latest of LeanTween and SInput)  Unity 2018 has its own pixel perfect camera implementation (currently a preview package), which I might play around with once I get back to Rhythm Quest development as a replacement for the other pixel perfect camera scripts I use.  I don't see anything in the changelogs about fixing seamless audio in WebGL though =(  Bleh.

Life

In general is going pretty well, with the notable hiccup/bump here and there that I'd rather not get into.  But yes, in general I'm doing well!  Keeping busy with a bunch of good things, while not getting =too= stressed out.  Every so often I will have days of existential crises about the past, but that's something I feel is part of my very being, so I don't really think that's something I would even try to reconcile...

Anyways, I would say 4 out of 5 mostly* (?) right now, which honestly is what I'm happy with.  I'm not one to need a 5 out of 5 all the time...