Just stumbled across a reference to this at Lou Romano’s weblog —

TotoroForestProject.com

Totoro Forest Project is an international charity effort to save Sayama Forest, also known as Totoro Forest. This endangered sanctuary on the outskirts of Tokyo is where director Hayao Miyazaki got the inspiration for his much-loved character “Totoro”.

Over 200 top international artists from animation, illustration and comics are donating artwork especially created for this cause. Find out more about the auction event, preview the incredible art collection, and please consider supporting the Totoro Forest Project with your generous contribution.

There’s been no mention of this on the blog recently, so I thought I’d drop in a note about it now: I’ll be the Guest of Honor at StoCon ‘08 from the 1st through the 3rd of August. The convention venue is the Kulturhuset in Skarpnäck, a suburb of Stockholm (you can get there easily on the Metro: it’s about a 20–minute ride). If any of you are located locally, it’d be super to see you!

This is going to be a lot of fun, as while I’ve been to a lot of other cities in Europe, I’ve never yet made it up to any part of Scandinavia — and it’ll be super to be able to be there in the summertime.

(For those of Peter’s Swedish fans who might be wondering — unfortunately he won’t be able to make it: he presently has a work commitment that will be keeping him home.)

Here’s a Google map of where the convention will be.

View Larger Map

Tags: Stockholm, Sweden, convention, science+fiction, fantasy, media, Star+Trek, Diane+Duane

We’ve been idly looking for something to replace our old rusty hibachi. This looks like a nice possibility. It’s British (but the sales source is in the US: must see who’s carrying it locally).

The grilles both swing in and out and are height-adjustable (with the big one, the swing facility this means you can add charcoal or wood chips or whatever without fuss). The ash box underneath has a handle and pulls off for emptying. The chopping board is bamboo. Behind it you can see the utensil hooks.

Very neat!

We’ve been idly looking for something to replace our old rusty hibachi. This looks like a nice possibility. It’s British (but the sales source is in the US: must see who’s carrying it locally).

The grilles both swing in and out and are height-adjustable (with the big one, the swing facility this means you can add charcoal or wood chips or whatever without fuss). The ash box underneath has a handle and pulls off for emptying. The chopping board is bamboo. Behind it you can see the utensil hooks.

Very neat!

For those (Twitterers & others) who were inquiring — the recipe is over here at The Foppish Baker. If I want crumpets, I have to make them myself: the local supermarket doesn’t carry them. This is okay, though, because there’s no way a store-bought crumpet can compare with one just baked.

There are a lot of crumpet recipes out there that don’t work. Either the batters come out too thick — so the bubbles can’t break and leave the necessary holes on top — or they’re too sloppy, and the bubbles either come out too small to let the melted butter in, or break too soon, so that again you wind up with a “blind” bake with no holes. This batter works perfectly, though.

My only alteration to this recipe: I add two packages of yeast instead of one. It seems to improve the flavor.  Also, you don’t really need the two kinds of flour for this recipe — they’re preferable, but not absolutely necessary. Just make sure you beat the batter the full two minutes the first time. You want to make sure the gluten develops enough.

BTW, there’s no need for special crumpet rings: I use regular-size tuna cans with the tops and bottoms taken off (we have one of those can openers that mills the edges smooth). Butter them well inside between each batch. It’s pretty easy to use a flat knife to knock the rings up and off the crumpets as soon as the outsides are solid: that way you can set them aside to cool so you can handle them as soon as the crumpets in the pan or on the griddle or bakestone are done. (Yeah, there’s a crumpet recipe on that page. It’s not as good as the Foppish Baker one: I’m going to replace it. The English muffin recipe, though, is terrific.)

When you toast these, do it under the grill / broiler, or in a toaster oven that lets you do just one side. Then… the butter.

NOM NOM NOM NOM. 

Tags: crumpet, bread, toast, bakestone, home+baking, butter, griddle

This is fascinating stuff. Apparently Radovan Karadzic decided that to successfully elude capture, he needed to ditch his armed entourage. Having done so, he then disguised himself as a very full-bearded white-haired guy with glasses and settled down in Belgrade, renting a suburban flat under a false name, passing himself off as a practitioner of alternative medicine, even working with a local GP. He moved freely around Belgrade for no telling how long, and apparently even the people who rented the flat to him weren’t suspicious of him.

Apparently he was actually caught (while traveling on a bus) three days ago: the delay in revealing they had him may have been because the authorities were waiting for the results of DNA testing to make sure they actually had the right man.

(headshake) In the “disturbing concept” department: the disguise makes him look a little like Albus Dumbledore.

Tags: Karadzic, news, Serbia, capture

Anywhere in Dublin, day or night, you’re likely to be knocked flat by people hurrying along with their heads down as they clutch their mobiles and text each other like crazy.

Now suddenly I’m can’t lose the image of people hurrying through the streets of Vegas, day and night, heads down and clutching their eDecks, gambling like crazy. 

(Of course the casinos and gambling providers would need to cover the city with a WiFi cloud… but if there was enough money in it, it’d happen in a Vegas minute…) 

Friends,

It’s up at last.

There are a lot of places where this notification needs to be posted, and a lot of explanations and profound apologies to be made… but for the moment it just seems best to get the news out.

Chapter Seven is now available online for subscribers: it’s linked to from the normal TBM subscriber gateway page. The same old username and password that worked for previous chapters will get you in. (If you can’t find your login info, email me and I’ll send it out to you pronto.) HTML and PDF versions are there right now: the mobile .prc vresions will go up in due course, as soon as we receive the conversions.

If you’re not a subscriber, the chapter will go public on the 28th of the month. Look for the link to its gateway page in the left-hand menu at the project page at http://www.the-big-meow.com.

Once again, I’m deeply sorry for the immense delay. I’m going back on the old one-chapter-per-three-weeks schedule: Chapter Eight will be going up in mid-August. Additionally, the book has become a couple of chapters longer in the course of being restructured — check the project schedule for the anticipated posting dates.

Thanks again, everybody, so very much, for your patience during this past crazed and difficult year. More info shortly.

Best — DD