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| Relax. This meme is about the violent ones. Which is a lot of 'em. |
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| Maybe the hot ones do that. The ugly ones sleep naked to punish you. |
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| "parties" versus "party's"... sheesh |
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| Wear gloves when handling the business cards. Don't leave prints. |
Saturday, May 31, 2025
images
ululate!
Loretta Swit has died at 87. For a long time, she was the TV version of "Hot Lips" Houlihan on the long-running series "M*A*S*H" (1972-1983) based on the 1970 Robert Altman movie of the same name (where Houlihan had been played by Sally Kellerman)—a movie that was set during the Korean War but which unsubtly critiqued the Vietnam War, still ongoing at the time (the movie was based on a 1968 novel, also titled MASH, by Richard Hooker). I never thought Swit was the prettiest of actresses—she never inspired any youthful lust in me—but she was funny, smart, and talented—yet another fixture from my childhood. From what I gather, her death was from "natural causes." RIP.
Mother Nature smiles... for the moment
It looks as though, tomorrow, the daytime weather will be warm, but nighttime temps ought to make for comfortable walking. Tomorrow evening, around 6 p.m., I'll train out to Yangpyeong Station and walk 33K to the city of Yeoju. This walk will be an all-nighter, from 8 p.m. until a bit after dawn at my slow pace, and I'll likely rest a lot along the way. I've decided to do this walk instead of the 35K walk from Hanam to Yangpyeong, mainly because I just like the Yangpyeong-Yeoju segment better. The 35K stretch is nice, and both segments have their monotonous moments (all the tunnels from Hanam to Yangpyeong; a 3-5K bit that's not quite along the riverside from Yangpyeong to Yeoju), but the 33K stretch includes two dams, which you don't get anywhere along the Hanam-Yangpyeong route. Warmer weather means I'll have to bring along at least two bottles of water. You know how much I love the Korean summer.
the new, lower-sugar cookies
I made good on my threat to make even lower-sugar chocolate-chip cookies. The chips themselves are still real semi-sweet chocolate, but because I switched out Truvia brown sugar, which is 50% real sugar, with BochaSweet brown "sugar," there is now no added sugar aside from the chocolate chips. I really should do the macros for this recipe. I assume the cashews, which are not considered the best for people attempting keto (best nuts = Brazil nuts, walnuts, and macadamias), also contain some carbs. Still, the cookies—which were already low-sugar when I was using Truvia—are now even lower in sugar. Expect a breakdown of the cookies' macros sometime next week. Frankly, I'm curious to see the macros myself.
Behold:
As always, these are made with almond flour, which means they need help to spread while baking, so part of the procedure involves smooshing the cookie-dough balls almost flat. I use some parchment paper and a small glass to press down on the cookies, which then bake at 163ºC/325ºF. In my quirky oven, I bake using only the bottom burner for nine minutes and thirty seconds, then I set the oven to use both top and bottom burners for two minutes and thirty seconds to ensure browning on top. Once done, the cookies are taken out and allowed to cool for at least an hour, which gives them a chance to harden. I usually end up with a batch of about sixteen cookies thanks to the addition of chocolate chips and crushed cashews (or other nuts), plus a bit of extra raw dough, which I eat as the "chef's tax." The recipe comes from ADIDAF (All Day I Dream About Food), whose keto recipes are generally good, with some occasional duds (like her keto bread). The cashews and BochaSweet are my own alterations.
I didn't get to make sauerkraut and coleslaw on Friday, so these become Saturday projects. With my batch of sixteen cookies, I can eat four a day for four days, but I'll likely be skipping this Sunday since I plan to go on a little walk from Yangpyeong to Yeoju—an all-nighter.
Oh, yeah: my other major alteration is that I use almond extract instead of vanilla extract, which makes these cookies smell and taste insanely good. I don't know that I'll ever use sugar-free chocolate chips to make these; I feel as if that would ruin them, rendering them insipid. With almost all of the carbs gone (except whatever's in the almond flour and the cashews), they'd be boring. Munch on, O brave ones!
Friday, May 30, 2025
from that to this
I'll be sending my buddy Mike the 300 dpi version of this. First the original, blown up way past thumbnail size; next, the improved version—somewhat more abstract, but smoother-looking thanks to the initial pass with Illustrator. A vector version is coming. I promise.
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| original: was only about 150 pixels wide, 72 dpi; hand-drawn, colored in Photoshop |
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I ran the first image through Illustrator, then converted it to a raster Photoshop file at 300 dpi for Mike's image; everything else was done via Photoshop Elements 2022. I totally redid the neckwear ("chain of office"), and in looking at the image now, I see some lines that need to be thickened for the sake of evenness. I'll make those changes before sending a file to Mike. |
Expect the 300-dpi version in an email, Mike.
Here we go, with thicker lines in certain places:
...or should I thicken up the lines of the hat?
ADDENDUM: Andrew Rother writes in to say he thinks the hat's lines need to be thickened up as well. Your wish is my command:
I won't be thickening the neckline.
progress report
I'm working on a colorized version of the Mike-as-Richard-III image I'd shown the other day (see here). This is all being done in Photoshop, so it won't be a vector file, which is too bad. Once I learn more about Illustrator and graphic design in general, though, I'll come back to the image, colorize it, and publish it as a vector file, scalable to whatever size. For now, Mike will have to make do with 600 dpi.
I'm also spending the day cooking up (1) almost-keto chocolate-chip cookies using 100% BochaSweet (Truvia, which I'd used before, is 50% real sugar), (2) sauerkraut with my leftover cabbage, and (3) coleslaw, also with my leftover cabbage. I'll be making some hot-dog chili over the weekend, which means keto hot-dog buns. I might also slow-cook some pork, add my low-sugar (not keto) BBQ sauce, and have some pulled-pork sammiches.
Thursday, May 29, 2025
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