Steve’s Very Late Reactions To The XBox One

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So after all the news about Amazon, I’m going to return to what I had intended to write for the beginning of the week – my reactions to the XBox One (which is the third Xbox, try not to think about it too hard) and what it means for careers and creativity.

To say the least, the reaction to the announcement is not exactly positive, and even the Onion got in on the act. Kotaku is in their usual form on these things with a pretty good roundup of the features.

But you’re here to see what I think, and watch me talk endlessly about it and career repercussions.  So let’s get to it . . .

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Thoughts on Amazon and Fanfic, Part Two, Electric Boogaloo

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So now that Amazon is going to try and publish fanfic, now that I’ve done my anal-retentive analysis, what do I think it means? What’s going to happen? What are the repercussions?

Now it may surprise you that I’m not going to make definite predictions. I’m going to look at probabilities/possibilities with a little bit of how we can make this positive.

Now, before I go on let me state that in general I am for this idea. I like the idea of less restrictive, more supportive approach to fanfics. I do support help getting people published. I would like to see more engagement in publishing. I can think of plenty of things that are bad and that can go wrong (which I’ll address later), but I am in general, for this idea.

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Curry Diary 5/29/2013: Yes, I love Japanese Curry

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JapaneseCurry

I love Japanese Curry.

Japanese Curry done right is something special.  It’s a thick, sweeter, almost gravy-like curry that goes great on just about everything.  It’s very popular in Japan, a signature dish in the Japanese Navy, and it seems there’s an ever-growing amount of specialty curries coming from the land of the Rising Sun.

I say good.  More curries.

You’ve probably seen the roux blocks in stores or had a good Japanese curry at some point in your life.  It’s everywhere.  It’s incredibly popular in Japan, both at home and eating out.

Of course, again, the best part is you can toss it on rice-plus-something and have a delicious one-dish meal.  It’s the sauce that makes everything special – and a good sauce makes it amazing.

However, I’m not exactly thrilled with a lot of the options.  The Curry Roux blocks that you get in stores are loaded with sodium (even if they’re so delicious).  Some recipes themselves are a bit fatty as well, or involved some timed preparations.  Curry Roux can leave a bit of a gritty taste depending on brand.  Also I’m a freeze-and-eat kind of guy so I couldn’t find anything fitting someone like myself who wants to freeze the curry so I can serve it any time – usually you make it with whatever you’re going to cover with the sauce.

So I decided to make my own recipe.

I plan to document it here as “Curry Diary” so I can share my wisdom, my knowledge, my experience my tears, and I dunno, whatever happens when a guy tries to make homemade Japanese Curry.

Now on a serious note, this actually embodies an important principle of good cooking: owning a recipe.  Really good cooking comes from doing something until you get it right (read: you like it).  That teaches you a lot, that personalizes the recipe, and that makes sharing it all the more powerful.

I’ve been doing this for awhile, so the next few posts are going to catch you up . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.