8th day of Summer Vacation: in which we talk about Altered Carbon, the TV show

We started watching Altered Carbon back in March, but work got in the way and we always wanted to watch at least two episodes at a sitting... and so we ended up finishing it last night.

I have thoughts. So many thoughts.

But first of all, I should clarify that this is only a discussion of the TV show. I've read the book multiple times, and there's a separate discussion to be had, where in I compare and contrast them. But that is not today, not this discussion.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

SPOILERS ABOUND.

If I hadn't already read the book and several spoiler-free but extensive reviews, I might have stopped watching half-way through the first episode. So confusing! So many people! So much darkness! (literal darkness, as in I couldn't make the action on the screen; also, so much spiritual darkness.)  But I hung in there, and it rewarded me with Poe, the AI-hotel, plus a hallucination of Rei, the long-lost baby sister.

Rei is played by Dichen Lachman, whom I have adored since her days on Dollhouse. She does a lot of work in the SF genre but I still feel like she doesn't get featured prominently enough. Chris Campbell is also terrific, if underused, as Poe.

The first six episodes proceed competently. Joel Kinnaman does a nice job of playing dark-and-broody Takeshi Kovacs. Martha Higareda delights as the hyper-competent Kristen Ortega. The entire Bancroft family comes across as weird, just something slightly wrong with each of them...which is perfect. There IS something wrong with each of them and it just takes Tak and the viewer a little while to figure out what it is.

Special shout-out to Matt Biedel, who does a fantastic job of playing Kristen's abuela in one episode, and then plays a very convincing Dimi the Twin in two other episodes.

Some of the scenes are just too dark, literally, and I had to depend on subtitles and intelligent guessing to deduce what was going on.

Episode seven changed everything for me. I love-love-loved Will Yun Lee's portrayal of Takeshi. I also felt that it was Dichen Lachman's best performance of the series; she's better when her character has a chance to relax a little. Renee Elise Goldberry is terrific as Quellchrist Falconer throughout the series, but this episode finally gave her a chance to do something meaty with the role, and she delivered.

Heck, did she ever deliver.

And that was a problem for me, because episodes eight through ten just felt flat to me. But I liked the pay-off, and I will definitely watch a second season if they make one.

6th day of Summer Vacation: in which we talk about Head On by John Scalzi

I just binge-read Head On (Lock in #2) by John Scalzi. I would have literally read it in one sitting, except that real life kept intruding. I made dinner, found the viola, walked the dog... and read. Voraciously.

It's really fun. Lots of good snark. Female detective kicking ass, etc. I still haven't decided what gender Chris is, but I generally read them as male. This might just be because I know the author identifies as male...

I usually treat Scalzi's books as must-read, but for some reason I'm having a terrible time getting into The Collapsing Empire, which isn't good as it's a Hugo nominee and I'm thus expected to read it by the end of July.

4th day of Summer Vacation: in which we watch sports all day

It was a really busy school year and I ended up recording a lot of things on the TiVo. Foremost among these would be the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. Well, the Belmont Stakes is on today, and Justified is potentially going to win the Triple Crown, so I made time to watch the previous two races while also cuddling the dog and doing some cooking.

Prior to that, a random tweet alerted me to the fact that it's also the finals of the French Open, and tennis is one of my favorite sports to watch... so Halep vs. Stephens it was, while I slurped down some cereal and tried to organize my morning.

In other words, I usually average less than 3 hours a week of sports-watching, and I put in something like 8 hours today. (I did fast forward over much of the commentary on the horse races.) I don't think I'll do that again, anytime soon.

1st Day of Summer Vacation: in which we realize that I've eaten out too frequently

Today: lunch at the local country club, which makes a nice gyro sandwich and has craft beer on tap. Saying good-bye to a great colleague, who's headed back to graduate school.

Yesterday: Korean BBQ with a close friend who felt that she needed to eat more protein. Holy heck. All the protein. Plus some banchan that I'd never tried before.

Monday: bubble tea at the mall. Lousy bubble tea. They weren't even sure they had tapioca boba available and tried to talk me into getting fruit boba instead. Fortunately, they had just enough tapioca for our orders. Then we went out for Chinese at a new-to-us place just north of here. They had great sushi - like, really really well done futomaki and Tango the Mango - and also Peking Duck without pre-ordering it. The rest of the meal was only OK, but I'd go back just for the sushi and duck options.

Sunday: burgers with two former students, one now in college and the other doing an internship over the summer. They're doing wonderfully well. It's so good to see them being independent and growing up to be Strong Women in Science.

Saturday: Brunch at Panera after my house-guest took the SAT. I had a very well made ham-cheddar-scrambled egg sandwich. She said the croissant was superior.

Friday: Indian food. Delicious, but far too much dairy. I lost track of the dairy pills I'd taken.

Thursday: Italian food with visiting relatives from the Phillipines, followed by ice cream. I got Thai Ice Tea flavor. It was amazing.

Wednesday: Starbucks coffee with an almond croissant. I will do almost anything for almond-flavored baked goods. Also, I love the easy availability of non-dairy coffee options.

Tuesday: really good ice cream at a locally owned shop. I did two separate trips out there with students and ended up eating a LOT of ice cream. Plus all the dairy pills in my purse. I believe I tried Strawberry Oreo, Bergamot, Double Dark Chocolate, and Coffee.

0th Day of Summer Vacation: in which we read about multiple choice testing

Hi everyone! Long time no see... it's been a crazy busy year, mostly positive, but still just leaving me with almost no time in which to blog.

Today, I handed in my last official things at noon. So it's not really the first day of summer vacation, but I thought I'd establish a good habit. I'm not going to make myself blog every day, as that's clearly unrealistic, but maybe four times per week would be doable.

This afternoon, I took an accidental nap, drove a friend to the airport, did a small grocery run (and forgot the shopping list, and thus only got 4 of the 8 things that were on it), and read the first half of Learning and Assessing with Multiple Choice Questions in College Classrooms by Jay Parkes and Dawn Zimmaro. It's a little dense, but mostly quite readable and I'm getting a lot out of it. My plan is to skim the first time (this is the stage I'm currently in) and the read more closely while taking notes the second time. Currently my favorite part is that all the examples are being drawn from a statistics classroom and a science classroom, which means that I actually understand most of the questions being used as examples.

I have a long to-do list this summer and doing some casual professional development is high on that list. I took out five books from the library and I might be back mid-summer to pick up more.

I've got a few restaurant and book reviews planned for the rest of this week. Stay cool, stay dry, stay hydrated...

My best recipes: Cranberry Sauce Coffee Cake

Lightly adapted from Cranberry-Nut Coffee Cake, page 428 in New York Cookbook by Molly O'Neill. Original recipe by Marilyn Froim. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup plain yogurt (whole-fat) or sour cream

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1 1/2 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce, preferably home-made

1) Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Butter (and flour?) a 10-inch tube pan. 

2) In a nonreactive large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until blended. Add the eggs and almond extract and beat well. 

3) Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat into the creamed mixture alternatively with the yogurt. Add the almonds and stir to combine.

4) Spread half of the batter evenly over the bottom of the pan. Spread half of the cranberry sauce over the batter. Spoon in the remaining batter. Top with the remaining sauce. (Don't smear it out... you want it to sink into the batter as the batter rises around it.)

5) Bake the cake until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Remove from the pan and finish cooling on a rack. 

My best recipes: Molasses Cookies with Chopped Candied Ginger

Molasses Cookies with Chopped Candied Ginger

Adapted from Great Cookies by Carole Walter

◦  1 1/2 sticks, unsalted butter

◦  2 cups all-purpose flour

◦  2 teaspoons baking soda

◦  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

◦  1 teaspoon ground ginger

◦  3/4 teaspoon salt

◦  1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

◦  1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, plus more for rolling cookies in

◦  1/4 cup dark molasses (85 g)

◦  1 large egg

◦  1/3 to 1/2 cup finelychopped candied ginger

Directions

1.Melt the butter in a 3 quart, heavy saucepan over low heat.

2.Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt and cloves and then set it aside.

3.Using a wooden spoon, stir 1 1/2 cups of the sugar, molasses, and egg into the butter, mixing until smooth. Add the dry ingredients, one-half at a time, and blend well.  Put the dough in a large plastic freezer bag, or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes until firm.

4.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment.

5.Shape the dough into 1-inch balls or you can use an ice cream scoop to form the balls. (or you can make 2/3 inch balls, which don’t spread quite as much.) Place some sugar in a shallow bowl, and roll the dough balls in the sugar to coat them. Place the balls on the prepared cookie sheets 2 inches apart from each other as they will spread. 

6.Bake the cookies for 8-12 minutes until the tops begin to crack. Remove from the oven and leave them on the cookie sheets for three minutes and then remove the cookies with a thin metal spatula to cool on a rack.

Makes 24 big cookies or 48 small ones

Tips

These cookies freeze really well. You can store them in an airtight container, just layer the cookies with wax paper in between and they should last up to 3 weeks.

All cookies need to be the same size so that they will bake evenly. To insure that all your cookies will be the same size, use an ice cream scoop.

If you’re shipping your homemade cookies for the holidays, these ship extremely well.

The dough keeps in the fridge for at least a week. 

You can order finely chopped candied ginger at Nuts.com 

Original version of this recipe at Mama's Gotta Bake. 

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