Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

button-mashers of the world unite

Last night, Rob and I hosted a small video game night with Shawn and Dari. Rob and Shawn are more serious gamers than I am: I tend to be an ardent practitioner of Dari’s “button-mashing” strategy, with scant knowledge of combo moves or even which button does what. After a few rounds of Soul Calibur III, I did figure out which button did most of the hitting moves, so I stuck with that for the rest of the evening.

I’d meant to make dinner for everyone, but I’d forgotten to pick up a crucial ingredient at the grocery store, so we ended up getting take-out from Delhi Dhaba down the street and making rice in our spiffer-dooper new rice cooker. (Earlier in the week, Dari had joked that the rice cooker could probably defeat us all at Soul Calibur. I have no doubt.)

I also took a first stab at making lemon sorbet with our new ice cream maker. I was surprised to find that sorbet is a little more involved than ice cream to prepare: You have to make up a simple syrup of water and sugar ahead of time and let it cool, squeeze 1½ cups worth of lemon juice and then scrape off some lemon zest. (My hands still smell lemony.) After all the work, I think it turned out pretty well — though, next time, I want to figure out how to make it just a smidge less sweet. I also want to take a stab at making ice cream or frozen yogurt. Yum! There’s a definite sense of accomplishment in making this stuff on my own, and I have the added benefit of knowing exactly went into it. (Even if what went into it is sugary or full-fat … at least there aren’t any funky preservatives or artificial colorings or random things I can’t pronounce.)