ennui's recent activity

  1. Comment on 'The Three-Body Problem' is... bad in ~books

    ennui
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    I love this series, and at the same time I would mostly agree. I appreciate the others' comments about how the prose might be better in Chinese or how the context of the first book might be...

    I kept waiting for it to go somewhere, and when it was over I thought to myself, "that's it?"

    Maybe someone can give a different perspective on it, because right now I'm just frustrated I spent money on it.

    I love this series, and at the same time I would mostly agree. I appreciate the others' comments about how the prose might be better in Chinese or how the context of the first book might be speaking more to a Chinese audience. As a Westerner, though, I just feel like the entire first book is a prologue to something really, completely different. The whole grandiose space opera that unfolds in this series occurs in the third book, and almost the entire conceptual point (the Fermi paradox and one of its many explanations) is laid out in the second.

    I cannot guarantee you that you will like the other books, but I can almost certainly say they will feel different, and you might find ideas that you like in them. I can also promise you that it does indeed go somewhere.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on A list of commonly recommended cookery books in ~food

    ennui
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    Here is the list of what's on my bookshelf, English-language at least. I am vegetarian. I do not care if a particular book is famous or not, some of my favorites I bought just because I liked...

    Here is the list of what's on my bookshelf, English-language at least. I am vegetarian. I do not care if a particular book is famous or not, some of my favorites I bought just because I liked someone's blog post.

    Love Real Food

    This is the one that's a staple in my kitchen. What I love about it is how unpretentious it is; hardly anything is super innovative and some things are downright cliché, like how often the combination of cilantro and limes and avocados appears. But all of it is delicious and filling, and most of the recipes do not contain any ingredient that cannot be found in a standard supermarket. Not very fancy, extremely practical.

    Bowls of goodness

    Similar to the above, but with slightly less variety and slightly more editorializing on the dubious health benefits of this or that. Will always cherish it for the rawmesan and the midsummer salad.

    Plenty

    I want to love this book, but I just cannot. Don't get me wrong, the recipes are great to read, great to look at, sometimes great to prepare; picking 3 or 4 season-appropriate dishes is sure to make for a great dinner party. But it is clear they were written by a cosmopolitan restaurateur who has no concern for how easy it is to acquire certain articles, or how much food are you really getting per unit of time and effort. Great, but not practical; makes cooking a conscious effort rather than joy.

    The Vegan Stoner Cookbook

    Similar situation to the above, for slightly different reasons: instead of fancy hard-to-get produce, it often features quite specific semi-processed food mostly found in North America - Trader Joe's and the like. Since I do not live there anymore, and adapting these recipes defeats their simplicity and practicality, it's the least used of my books. But it's fun! And if you do have a Trader Joe's around, it's probably useful, too.

    Bread Baker's Apprentice

    A book about baking bread, from before the Great Pandemic Sourdough Revival. If you just want to make sourdough bread, there's better books - but then there's also reading a random blog. Instead, this takes you through an assortment of breads - sourdough! Baguettes! Foccacias, and challah, and pannetone! Very much recommended.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Sound enthusiasts - share your system in ~hobbies

    ennui
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    First, I am no audophile nor do I have much experience comparing between various pieces of kit. But I do feel like I am in a budget audophile's sweet spot with a few pieces accumulated over the...

    First, I am no audophile nor do I have much experience comparing between various pieces of kit. But I do feel like I am in a budget audophile's sweet spot with a few pieces accumulated over the years.

    The core: an '82 NAD3020B I bought about 15 years ago for the equivalent of ~$50 or so. The previous owner replaced the condensers and it's still in great condition. I love this thing and am willing to invest quite a bit of effort/money to keep it running for another 40 years.

    The NAD is driving a pair of Monitor Audio BX2 bookshelf speakers. They are about 8 years old and a great improvement over my father's Fisher speakers from the 1980s I had before.

    The latest addition is a FiiO BTA30 Pro DAC/Bluetooth receiver. In all honesty, the audio system was getting less use recently after yet another 3.5mm-RCA cable connecting my laptop to the amp kicked the bucket. I do sometimes stream but for the most part I play music from the laptop; connecting a Chromecast I had lying around to simply play the music I had--not the music from Spotify--proved to be much more annoying than I expected, requiring commercial software or half-baked open source drivers, neither of which worked quite well. About a week ago I got the FiiO and it's been an amazing addition to rejuvenate the system; suddenly I have near-transparent, low-latency wireless connection and I honestly cannot say I am missing anything.

    Oh, and I also have a pair of 80O Beyerdynamic DT770 which currently reside at work. They sound great... but more importantly they are insanely comfortable.