Notes

A short NFB film narrated by Pierre Berton. Toronto shedding its reputation as a "fussy old lady" of a city — becoming a place of colour, industry, and movement.

And thirteen years later — Toronto in 1971.

Ray is known for his Pather Panchali, but if you don't have patience for his slow trilogy, this is a glimpse into his mind.

A mix of silkpunk, gorgeous world-building, mythology, and gods. There are way too many characters, which might annoy many readers. I enjoyed the detailed historical retelling of the events leading to the formation of the Han dynasty. It was a solid first book, but like Dune, I’m just not invested enough in the world to finish the quartet.

Over the last year Joanna Newsom has become a favourite of mine. A true original.

Digging into her albums Divers and loved the song, Leaving The City. And, then I discovered this live version by her and heard it in a completely different light.

I've been meaning to play Bloodbourne for years now. The PC emulation has finally reached a place where it looks to be running smoothly. Eight hours in and it has been extremely fun experience.

The world of Bloodbourne is so beautiful, I keep taking screenshots of it.

Boubacar Traoré & Ali Farka Touré being cool and making music.

Tyler, The Creator is at it again with his new album, CHROMAKOPIA. The best surprise from that album is stumbling upon the sample he used for 'Noid,' 'Nizakupanga Ngozi' by Ngozi Family. This opened up the world of Zamrock for me – a genre from the early 70s that's a fusion of African music, rock, blues, and funk.

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A masterpiece of a song that I keep revisiting from Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

Brahms’s Deutsches Requiem from the 1978 Salzburg Festival with Herbert von Karajan conducting and Gundula Janowitz and José van Dam as the soloists.

Ingredients #

For spinach purée:

• 2 bunches, spinach leaves, cleaned, (blanched in boiling water, place in cold water to retain green color)
• 1 inches ginger, grated
• 2-3 garlic pods, roughly chopped
• 2 green chili, chopped

For saag paneer preparation

• 1 tbsp Ghee
• 1 tbsp oil
• ¼ tsp cumin seeds
• 3-4 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• Pinch of asafoetida
• 2-3 small onion, chopped
• 2-3 garlic pods, chopped
• 1 medium Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tbsp Dried Fenugreek Leaves crushed
• ½ tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Red chilli powder
• Spinach, blanched and pureed
• ½ cup hot water
• 250-300 gm Paneer, cut into cubes
• 3 tbsp Fresh Cream (35%)
• Salt as per taste
• Fresh cream for garnish

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Cooking Process #

• In a pot, blanch spinach leaves in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Remove and immediately transfer them into cold water.
• Now, in a blender, add ginger and garlic to make a paste. Then, add the blanched spinach leaves and blend until smooth.
• Heat ghee in a pan. Add bay leaf, cumin seeds, and asafoetida. Stir for a minute.
• Next, add onion and garlic. Sauté until they turn translucent. Then, add tomatoes and stir until soft. Add turmeric, red chili, dried fenugreek leaves, and coriander powder. Mix well.
• Now, add the prepared spinach puree, hot water, and adjust salt. Stir to combine.
• Finally, add the paneer cubes, sprinkle with garam masala powder, and allow it to cook for another minute.

Ingredients #

For the Gravy

• 4 large Tomatoes, cut into half
• 2-3 large Onions, sliced
• 3-4 Garlic pods
• 1 inch-Ginger, sliced
• 5-6 Cloves
• 1 inch-Cinnamon Stick
• 3 Bay Leaves
• 5-6 Black Peppercorns
• 2 Green Cardamoms
• 2 tbsp Butter
• Salt to taste

For Chicken

• 2 tbsp Butter
• 1 tbsp Red Chilli powder
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• Prepared Gravy
• 3 tbsp Fresh Cream (35%)
• 1 tsp Honey
• Cooked Chicken, shredded
• 1 tbsp Dried Fenugreek Leaves
• Fresh Cream for garnish
• Coriander Spring for garnish

To cook chicken

• Marinate 1 kg chicken pieces (small cubes) with ginger-garlic paste, red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, and turmeric. Then, shallow fry in a pan (use any oil).

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Process For the Base Gravy #

• In a heavy-bottomed pan, add ½ cup of water.
• Add tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, and all the whole spices. Mix well.
• Add 1½ tsp of butter, salt, and mix thoroughly. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
• Once the tomatoes are soft, use a hand blender to blend the gravy until smooth.

Process For Butter Chicken #

• In a pan, add butter and allow it to melt. Then, add red chili powder and coriander powder and cook for a minute.
• Pour in the prepared gravy, mix well, and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add fresh cream, honey, and cooked chicken. Mix well and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
• Finally, add dried fenugreek leaves and cook for 2 minutes.
• Transfer the butter chicken to a serving bowl. Garnish with fresh cream and a coriander sprig. Serve hot with roti or rice.

I love Sanderson's books, but I find his exploration of the medium of fantasy writing a whole lot more fascinating.

• Sanderson’s First Law of Magics: An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic

• Sanderson’s Second Law can be written very simply. It goes like this: Limitations > Powers. (Or, if you want to write it in clever electrical notation, you could say it this way: Ω > | though that would probably drive a scientist crazy.)

• The third law is as follows: Expand what you already have before you add something new.

Sanderson's Creative Writing Class on Youtube

Jason Fried (Basecamp) during a Q&A on his ideal course,

It would be a writing course. Every assignment would be delivered in five versions: A three page version, a one page version, a three paragraph version, a one paragraph version, and a one sentence version. I don't care about the topic. I care about the editing. I care about the constant refinement and compression. I care about taking three pages and turning it one page. Then from one page into three paragraphs. Then from three paragraphs into one paragraph. And finally, from one paragraph into one perfectly distilled sentence. Along the way you'd trade detail for brevity. Hopefully adding clarity at each point. This is important because I believe editing is an essential skill that is often overlooked and under appreciated. The future belongs to the best editors. Each step requires asking "What's really important?" That's the most important question you can ask yourself about anything. The class would really be about answering that very question at each step of the left is the point.

Leverage points — These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.

From Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

The classic example of that backward intuition was my own introduction to systems analysis, the world model. Forrester made a computer model and came out with a clear leverage point: Growth. Counterintuitive. That’s Forrester’s word to describe complex systems. Leverage points are not intuitive. Or if they are, we intuitively use them backward, systematically worsening whatever problems we are trying to solve.

So one day I was sitting in a meeting about how to make the world work better — actually it was a meeting about how the new global trade regime, NAFTA and GATT and the World Trade Organization, is likely to make the world work worse. The more I listened, the more I began to simmer inside. “This is a HUGE NEW SYSTEM people are inventing!” I said to myself. “They haven’t the SLIGHTEST IDEA how this complex structure will behave,” myself said back to me. “It’s almost certainly an example of cranking the system in the wrong direction — it’s aimed at growth, growth at any price!! And the control measures these nice, liberal folks are talking about to combat it — small parameter adjustments, weak negative feedback loops — are PUNY!!!”

PLACES TO INTERVENE IN A SYSTEM

• 12. Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards).
• 11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows.
• 10. The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures).
• 9. The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change.
• 8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against.
• 7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops.
• 6. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to information).
• 5. The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints).
• 4. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure.
• 3. The goals of the system.
• 2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises.
• 1. The power to transcend paradigms.

A young man came up to Mozart and said, ‘I want to compose symphonies. I want to talk to you about that.’
Mozart said, ‘How old are you?’
‘Twenty-two.’
And Mozart said, ‘You’re too young to do symphonies.’
And the guy says, ‘But you were writing symphonies when you were ten years old.’
He says, ‘Yes, but I wasn’t running around asking other people how to do it.’”