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I am a harsh software critic. I'm usually willing to try something new if there's the possibility it will do a better job than my current favorite, but I hold grudges against programs — and sometimes even entire desktop environments — if they disappoint me.
In addition, I am a
minimalist maximalist. I have a clear set of criteria that I use to judge a program.
- Do one thing, and only one thing. Everybody likes a flexible program. But I don't like software that tries to do too much at once. For example, I resent music management software suites or photo management applications. I manage the photos. I manage the music. The application shows it, or plays it. Period. If you try to be all things at once to me, you will only disappoint.
- Do that one thing well. A program needs focus — that goes without saying. If it achieves that goal and doesn't muddle the final product, it is a winner. In other words, if you can't do it right, don't bother trying at all.
- Don't drag my system down. If you burden my installation with pointless libraries and dependencies that don't add anything to your software, you fail. Some of the greatest software ever written has about two dependencies. Some of the worst drags in all of Gnome just to put an icon on the screen. That is inexcusable.
- Finally, points are awarded for style. I can forgive and even adopt an ugly or cumbersome program if it achieves in the first three categories. But if you manage to capture all three and have a clever interface or a smooth look, then I embrace thee through the power of the Internets.
The odd consequence of all these points is that I tend to rely on console-based, or at least framebuffer-oriented software over "standard" graphical applications.
And considering that has been the case for quite some time, I think I'm safe in recommending command-line applications over graphical alternatives. The more I use them, the more I realize that terminal-based software can do 99 percent of the work a graphical desktop does, with ten times the speed and a tenth of the resources.
And therefore, in no particular order or arrangement. …
Now before the mutt fans go all wild and crazy and foam at the mouth, let me just say up front that, as I have mentioned in the past, my e-mail demands are not that great. All I look for in an e-mail client is a way to check four or five e-mail addresses without too much stress or strain, a few times a day and not much more than that. It's really only a way to circumvent logging in and out of a Web interface four times in a row, just to check my e-mail.
And so yes, I know, the cool kids all use mutt. And I tried that, I admit. I've tried many times as a matter of fact, but something always went south, and the results were usually a big goose egg.
On the other hand, alpine looks, feels and works like an e-mail client, even though it's much more than that. Setting up alpine to read and send e-mails took all of about 30 seconds for one account, and less than 5 minutes total to cover everything I need it for. Compare that to the hours it took me to get mutt to not work.
Yes, I know. mutt is manna, straight from heaven. I am a lesser human being because I can't get mutt to work. I fail and resign myself to an eternity in the Abyss because I rely on alpine to read e-mails.
But I can tell you what works for me, and what was easy to set up, and what did the job without too much complaint. I'm no alpine expert, but if I have to choose between a five-minute setup to read an e-mail from mom, or a four-hour torture session to read but not send, I'll take the former. It's not perfect (configuration is a huge frothy mess, for one thing), but it works and that's the best part.
I thought I had discovered a hole in space and time, or at least a hole in the canvas of console applications, when I couldn't recall ever seeing a proper graphical equalizer — in other words, a utility that specifically shapes sound output to compensate for environmental issues. Most people in the average listening environment don't truly need one (I used to be an audiophile) and I fall into that group these days, but that didn't make it any less necessary to find one.
alsaequal is a great add-on for the ALSA subsystem that neatly, correctly and fluently adjusts the bands of your audio output, and uses the conventional alsamixer utility as the framework for it. So it's not only a familiar interface, but it's easy to manage, works in real time, and does no more and no less than promised. Ideally it would be nice to have a preset system, or at least a system of memorized settings, but as it stands this is a utility that does something right, without being a burden.
It's an unfortunate circumstance of my job that I occasionally need to edit Word files before forwarding them to a coworker, and an even more unfortunate circumstance that I sometimes have to do it at home. antiword is the quickest and lightest solution to that problem, but since it does little more than extract body text from files and spew it onto your screen, there's little more than that to tell about it.
If antiword doesn't satisfy, consider wv as a possible solution; I stick with antiword only because it requires less in dependencies to do essentially the same thing.
Programs that do a good job and don't take up much space and don't ever prove troublesome are usually difficult to write about. That's the case with aspell, which is an excellent spell checker with a list of options and flags a mile long. That proves its flexibility, even if it doesn't really seem like much.
I usually use aspell in conjunction with charm, which gives me a one-pass spellchecker with a convenient interface, customizable dictionaries and a lightweight profile all at once. There are a bunch of different language sets available; I find with the English one I still need to add quite a few "jargonish" terms to my personal dictionary so I don't have to keep ignoring things like "GNU."
axel is a download manager — and a darned good one at that. This, like some of the other utilities and programs I mention, doesn't actually have much of an interface, but what it lacks in good looks it recovers several times over in sheer awesomeness. Web masters hate it, end-users love it, and the only reason either side feels that way about it is because axel works well.
I won't make any promises about tripling your download speed, and if your speed is already pegged by your hardware limitations or your line speed, then installing axel won't make your car start on cold mornings or keep your toast from burning. On the other hand, it will search out alternative file locations, split out the connection between hosts and hopefully, in that fashion, bring in the file you want a little quicker than was previously thought possible.
No guarantees of course, but it's always worth trying. If you want something with a little more "flexibility" in what method you can use to download something, check out the slightly chubbier but no less powerful aria2.
Mentioning bc as an analogue to a desktop calculator application is a little like mentioning a chainsaw as a can opener: They can both do the job, although it's a bit overkill. bc isn't going to thrill you with its interface, and it isn't going to win any points for user-friendliness, but it's a good way to balance your checkbook or make sure your boss isn't shaving your paycheck. It's probably better suited to calculating radio emissions from distant stars, but what you do with it is your business.
As an alternative, don't forget you have wcalc at your disposal, probably.
Games are just as important at the command line as they are in a graphical interface. There aren't too many 3D-shooters out there for the console (don't laugh, they exist), but there's not necessarily a loss of challenge or fun just because there isn't much in the way of graphics. Remember, fun wasn't invented in 1988.
Neither was the classic pen-and-paper Battleship game, even if this electronic, ncurses-driven rendition could have been. Battleships won't monopolize your life like some games, or threaten your relationships or even make it harder to get a job, but it could possibly absorb you for 20 minutes or so. Well arranged, clean, easy to control, colorized and with a few variants to keep you enticed, and bs is a viable console game that you can actually share with small kids. If you can tear them away from their regular games, that is.
"Art" and "console" don't usually go together, although ASCII art and its venerable counterpart, typewriter art, are classic examples of mixing the two ideas. In that respect, cadubi gets a thumbs-up for being a fundamental artistic creation for the command-line: a punch-button pen-stamping art program. It's simple, it's obvious and functional, and it's vaguely artistic.
cadubi has the additional bonuses of being able to save and import files, which means it suddenly doubles as a way of touching up image-to-text conversions, and saving them as console-readable colorized art files. Which means with a little creativity, you could actually use the Mona Lisa as your login prompt. And creativity is of course, what it's about. …
I debated listing cdf here, but if I left it out, it would be a lie of omission implying that I didn't use it. It's installed and it comes in handy at times — as a refreshable disk meter, for example — but it would be equally dishonest to say it did more than show colored bars representing disk usage.
In that sense it's not much, but like a lot of things in life, cdf is only as functional and cool as you make it. As a counterpart to cdf, take a look at pydf. Same idea, different approach.
centerim is my weapon of choice when it comes to internet messaging. I have used it with both Yahoo and GMail accounts, and even with a mix of the two, and it works perfectly for me. A simpler endorsement than that is probably unnecessary.
Chat and instant message clients are a finicky lot, mostly because if you don't have an account that works with them, then there's little use in even discussing it. So in that sense it might not be much of an endorsement at all, but if you use either of those services or any of the others it supports, I would suggest trying it. It has some idiosyncrasies — like odd double-key commands — but a lot of customizable features that make it my personal favorite. It might be yours too.
I am so, so happy I found Charm. WordPress.com's Web-based interface continues to pack on the pounds, becoming more and more an obstruction with every "improvement." All I need is something decent for writing — something that can post the text without bogging down a perfectly good 1Ghz machine in the process.
Charm is so much the complete opposite of the WordPress.com interface that I can run it on a 100Mhz Pentium with only 16Mb of memory. Charm technically doesn't edit anything — you do that in an external editor of your choice. But the dirty work is all done with Charm, and done amazingly well. Manage posts, spellcheck, view, delete, upload, you name it. I use for 95 percent of the stuff you see on this site; the only exception being link-heavy posts or pages, like the one you're reading now.
Charm plays nice with WordPress.com and a half-dozen other hosting services. I strongly recommend it, even if you don't rely completely on a console-based environment.
Some programs I keep around solely for their value as a sort of console "screensaver" in conjunction with screen. clockywock is one of those, although it certainly isn't confined to that role. Animation is smooth and clean, and you can customize it to a small degree, but ultimately the objective — an analogue clock drawn with console characters — is simple and direct.
I know of no other analog clocks for the console, even if there are alternatives for clocks within other applications. In that sense clockywock might be unique.
Like clockywock, cmatrix is on board for its value as a screensaver. Also like clockywock, it doesn't do much aside from an animation effect on screen. It's an excellent distraction though, and fun to look at. Some packaged versions come with a Matrix-esque font that will work against the framebuffer, adding to the effect.
cmatrix is a standby in most distros, so chances are it'll take up all of a few seconds to get into place.
dehtml is like a lot of other conversion tools, in that its value is its ability to change formatted text into something plainer and easier to work with. If you spend any time working with text pages that need conversion from html, then this tool will be a huge asset. It has enough options to be flexible and adjustable to whatever suits you. But aside from its ability to convert from html to plain text, there's not much to say for it. Use it as it serves you.
Renaming tools are plentiful for the console, but detox is unusual in that it is primarily intended to convert from unusual character sets to base ASCII. It's a rather esoteric function, but if you need something that will make file handling easier, whether its converting to similar character shapes or replacing spaces with underscores, detox can do those things. And its profile system makes it a better and more easily configured tool than some of its counterparts.
dict falls into the category of command line tools that abbreviate the need to jockey a browser just to get information. surfraw is like that too; with dict, you need only enter a word you want to define, and dict relays any number of possible definitions from online sources. Combined with your favorite pager, it becomes a lightning fast dictionary utility with no more effort involved than typing out the word you want to know. It doesn't spellcheck, it doesn't guess at spellings, and it doesn't jam ads in your face when all you want is a quick understanding of the word "millipeds." It has a good mix of available dictionaries too, along with a thesaurus or two. Most desktop environments recognize the utility of this one, and offer desktop trinkets that are really just frontends for this.
Web browsing, given the hoopla of Web 2.0 and yadda yadda yadda, is strictly within the demesne of the graphical environment. Any attempt to browse without visual elements is fruitless and pointless and a waste of time. I mean, what about Flash? What about Java? What about lightbox effects? Rollover CSS effects? YouTube videos? Popup logins? These things are completely inaccessible to a text-based browser, and for that reason, it's a non-issue.
Or is it? It's a matter of perspective really, and here's mine: Flash, Java, rollover CSS effects, popup logins, lightbox effects … all of those things are distractions really — attempts to delude you into thinking you're getting a higher grade of content from a particular site. You should be skeptical, not embracing, of a site that employs so much glitter and sleight-of-hand that it's hard to tell if it's quality or questionable.
And that's the beauty of ELinks. Here's a text-based browser that employs a full range of features you expect — things like a tabbed interface, download manager and right-click menus — and strips away all the dreck and drool that drip from so many Web sites these days.
I can give you an example — Jamendo.com. Don't get me wrong: I love Jamendo. But the fact is, there are so many rollover buttons, embedded Flash players, nested doodads and quasi-friends connections … sigh. Let's just say navigating it is a chore. The content — which is to say, the music — is there, but you have to dig for it.
But not with ELinks. ELinks ignores all the crud and presents you with the stuff you're really interested in, like the download link for a particular torrent.
Perhaps more importantly, ELinks isn't counterintuitive or intertwined with strange keyboard commands. It's menu-driven, it looks and behaves like a GUI application, it's unbelievably fast, it has so many features and options that I don't have time to go through all of them here. … If you're like me and you'd just as soon strip away the garbage that encrusts so much of the Web today, ELinks is truly a gift from heaven. Install and enjoy.
Technically fbgrab is another "non-application," but if a standard desktop comes with a screenshot tool, fbgrab is a viable candidate for a framebuffer-based console system. You'll need to set your display to operate at the color depth fbgrab can handle, but after that, it does a neat spill into a png format file. Check out one or two of the options for deeper uses; the
-s option will give you a time delay, which is otherwise essential in a screenshot utility.
figlet is another deceptively simple tool that works so well with other command-line applications (cadubi comes to mind almost immediately) that it's hard to imagine working without it. On the surface all it does is change text into oversized letters and output them back to the terminal.
But it also has unique fonts, with any number of effects. It can accept piped output, it can center against the space available in a terminal, it can trim and break at certain points. From those humble beginnings it has the potential to work as a terrifically lightweight screensaver, as a starting point for customized logins or /etc/issue files, or even just to spice up e-mail signatures.
figlet sounds like a cute tool, and it is a cute tool, but don't let it deceive you. It's definitely one of the best, simplest and yet most amazing things available to you in a distribution — and since it's been around for quite a while, it's probably in yours.
fim is the opposite of fbgrab in one sense: It displays image files by painting them against the framebuffer. There are other utilities that do this, and fim is technically still in the works, but it works quite well for me in its prerelease state, and it doesn't require a lot of the dependencies that some others — like fbida, et al. — do, which means its lighter and faster for me at low speeds.
Also like fbgrab it's perfectly useless to you if you run a console system without a framebuffer, or if your framebuffer is misconfigured for what fim can do. But the beauty of using fim is its ability to hook neatly into other programs like elinks, and become a default image viewer. So suddenly, that stereotype of a console system being without conventional image access fades away. …
Just about every computer on the planet that has been tainted by Microsoft has a generic Freecell game installed, and it would be wrong for mine to be very different. To that end, this text-only rendition is a tiny bit cumbersome at first, but then suddenly interesting and finally dangerous.
Dangerous because it has simplified gameplay to the point where most moves are four quick keystrokes, and the puzzle is all the more immediate. No painted card faces or click-and-drag stacks, just two clean colors, easy-card codes and viciously speedy, terrifically addictive play.
It's quick, it's easy to work and it doesn't take up more than a few hundred kilobytes of space on your hard drive. Install it and try it out, but do it at your own peril. If it doesn't hook you immediately and threaten to take up most of your idle hours, I'll be surprised.
Including gnupg in this list is kind of like including the kernel: It's usually in there by default and the people who know how to use it, or need to use it, don't think twice about having it installed.
All the same gnupg is useful for handling encrypted files or validating software sources, and a lot of other things. I keep it installed in systems even if it isn't something I need on a daily basis. Personal files transferred over insecure networks, encrypting plain text e-mails or keeping password-protected documents in archives — all these things are perfect for gnupg.
I don't give hnb nearly as much attention as I should, measured by how much I use it. For random scratchy notes thrown together without much organization, vim or another editor will do the trick just fine. And if some sort of connection might be useful between pages of random scratchy notes, then vimwiki, a personal wiki for vim, is another great idea. But if there's a hierarchy to a list, or a series of calendar dates or any kind of outline-esque structure involved, hnb is simply my favorite.
Light as a feather, quick as a flash and easy to learn too — with a tutorial and introduction that pops up in your face the first time you run it. Multicolor, customizable and able to export in several different formats. I strongly recommend this one.
htop is a vast improvement over the standard top package that exists in many distros by default. It's a system monitor and a process viewer, and also gives you a decent look at what's taking up space — or stalled and spinning its gears.
htop wins points for me because it uses color. Just kidding. htop is a lot easier to control and adjust than top, which means its quicker on the draw for finding and killing zombies, or yanking annoying processes. It's also very customizable, from the colors it uses to the different types of meters it displays. Poke around and see what you can come up with.
There are a lot of system monitors and resource profilers for graphical environments, but for the console, you only need this one.
htop is a great system monitor, and iftop makes a great counterpart to it. It's not as colorful, but it does show a visual array of network traffic with plenty of details and options. I would prefer it if it didn't require root access to watch an interface, but there are ways around that.
As a second-place finisher in the network monitor category, slurm is a good substitute. It's not as "professional" or "detailed" as iftop, and it doesn't scale well to unusual window sizes, but it is colorized, animated and has several styles to pick from. From time to time, I switch from one to the other.
By my last calculations, there are only about 6,000 chat clients out there for the console, and each one of those has a fork or two to its credit. Which one you use can trickle all the way down to what country you happen to live in, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But most folks make their introduction to console applications by way of irssi, and it shouldn't be any surprise. irssi is, in many ways, the top banana of terminal chat clients, and I have yet to find a distribution that didn't have it in its repositories, if not included by default.
I won't say irssi is necessarily better than any other client; again, your account and your preferences determine which one you pick. irssi is a good starting place, and furthermore, there's nothing wrong with sticking with it. And now that I've said all that, I can remind you that I use irssi and join freenode.net probably … once a month. 😉
Including a library on this page might seem kind of weird, but the caca array does some neat things with colorized ASCII characters. Furthermore, it comes with one or two extra demo programs — in other words, viable screensavers. A few of them are actually quite beautiful.
In any case, the caca libraries are, a lot of times, included in the larger distros; the problem is that they usually don't include the accompanying demos by default. Even more frustrating, building the libraries might drag in X dependencies, so whether or not you use this on a console system depends on how you get around those points. Personally, I build mine on a graphical system and import the package to the X-less one; running the demos doesn't require X be installed. Perhaps that's a hint for you.
File management is another area where most people don't think beyond the obvious graphical application, with out realizing that at its core, file management is really just pushing files around. Sure, there are times when you edit or you view or you rename or whatever, but aside from those points, what's so important that requires a graphical interface?
Midnight Commander, or just mc, does the job as well as any other file manager, and in some ways better. This one also takes the two-pane design that was popularized in the late 1980s, although it doesn't have to be — mc can swap its arrangement for a file previewer, editor or another feature. mc does an amazing amount of work for such an exceptionally light program. FTP access and virtual file systems? Check. Shell access and command-line options? Check. Menu-driven configuration and checkbox settings dialogs? Check. Mouse support, tab completion and onboard text editor? Check, check, check.
In some ways, mc does more and gives you more than most graphical file managers can or do. Sure, it won't play a preview of an audio tune if you hover the mouse over it, but it will allow you to cue the audio player of your choice directly to the file in question, all at the press of a few keys. Don't overlook this one.
For a very long time I was a proponent of cplay, mostly because it was a clear, clean and intuitive tool for playing back music without relying on an entire X environment for a couple of pretty buttons. Unfortunately, cplay drifted away into that hazy gray area where free software goes to die (I have heard rumors of a revival, but seen nothing yet). It had a lot of potential and it still does, but the fact of the matter is that all the things I wished for cplay are already in moc.
moc handles just about any file type you can throw at it. It has an obvious two-pane arrangement that you can customize to your liking. It has a progress bar, three or four different timers, easy-to-learn key assignments and it can stream from the Internet too. It even has theme support for different color schemes, which is completely impossible to comprehend from a console program.
It's not for everyone — nothing ever is — but if you just want to play some tunes and you don't want to go through the harangue of setting up some of the more complex arrangements, moc does the job very, very, very well.
I suspect that any machine with at least 300Mhz of muscle in it can push a standard X desktop in a lightweight distribution to show most DVD rips without too much hassle. I say that because I've done it, running a mid-grade Pentium II machine with not much guts to show xvid and divx encoded rips on older versions of Xorg in Arch Linux.
mplayer is particularly useful in that role though, since it allows you to trim away everything but framebuffer support at compile time. That might be more work than you would ordinarily consider for simple video playback, but what it means is that you might — just might — be able to push early Pentium IIs and maybe even high-end Socket 7 machines to show DVD encoded files against the framebuffer.
Your video card can come into play here, since a machine with any kind of video muscle will always get by with a weaker processor, but not necessarily the opposite. But don't look down on a slow machine with solid framebuffer support, because it might have the ability to show a clean and not-too-high-detail DVD rip once or twice before it expires. Stranger things have happened.
As games go, it's difficult to get past a solid arcade knockoff as an occasional distraction. myman is a direct conversion of the classic Pac-Man game, and while it seems primitive at first, it is in fact particularly impressive … if you take the time to examine the options.
It'll run in a full-board ncurses mode, plus modes that require a framebuffer for pixel-to-pixel renditions of what look like the original game graphics. There are dozens — I mean dozens — of game variations and graphic versions on hand, including some of the classic game sequels, all rendered in color.
As games go, there are some fun ones out there, even for the console. And as games go, there are some amazing ones out there, and myman is one that will surprise you.
ncdu is not a file manager, but not a disk utility either … it's something in between. If you have ever been on a seek-and-destroy mission to find a file that's hogging your disk, what you've wanted is ncdu. It doesn't do much more than sort out files by size, and maybe let you delete a file when you find it, but it does it in a way that is so clean, fast and intuitive that you'll be amazed.
It's not a new program and it's not a particularly popular program but once you put it on a system you'll dread the idea of being without it. It's stable, looks good and scratches an itch that you didn't even know you had. Try it and see what I mean; then remember it for the times when you really need it.
Don't expect ncmatrix to be too much different from cmatrix, with the added flair of a few color streaks representing network traffic. It's a safe amalgamation of a graphic display and network monitor, and in that sense not terrifically different from cmatrix. It works nicely as a screensaver, in the same way cmatrix does, and works as a network monitor like any of a number of other applications. On anything but a wildly active line though, there's not much to separate it from its ancestry, so you can install this one over the earlier, and get two programs for the price of one.
The ntp package is worth having on board if you work with older machines, because very often the internal clocks are weak and can't necessarily track as well as they used to. It's also possible that with some customized kernels, I left out core timing elements and that too contributed to clock skew. Either way, setting up a twice-a-week clock synchronization isn't anything tough, and saves you wondering why one machine is so far apart from another. A quick
ntpdate -u pool.ntp.org as root, and all is right with the world again.
In the same way antiword or wv slices away the Word encoding, o3read can strip out the text from an OpenOffice.org file. It's nothing particularly stellar in that sense, except in the way a program ought to be — it works, and it doesn't get in the way of anything else. And best of all, it's feather-light.
A file renamer for the console — and probably by extension an mp3 tag editor for the console — are about the only obvious holes in the landscape of console utilities I can find. It isn't that there aren't any possibilities, only that the possibilities that are out there are still not quite as interface driven as I'd like.
For my own purposes, I rely on the qmv and qcp utilities in the renameutils package to handle mass-renaming, which means relying in actuality on the search-and-replace features or editing functions of an outside text editor, like vim. It's not ideal and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're sure there isn't another option available to you — like mc's internal moving and renaming abilities — but for my own machine, this is what I use.
I suppose there's little I can say about rtorrent that I haven't said already — and repeatedly — but I should say that my original arrangement of a dedicated slave as a dumping spot for torrent traffic is still what I use.
But I also have a tendency to install rtorrent on all the machines I have, since many times it's light enough and quick enough and convenient enough to start up without overloading a machine. So in that sense, it works as both a lightweight torrent slave and a sort of download manager for torrent-based traffic on an individual machine.
Provided that the overall network traffic doesn't monopolize my network, I haven't seen a situation yet where running two instances of rtorrent on two different machines caused problems or compromised a router. And I don't expect it should.
In the same way I am probably guilty of talking too much about rtorrent, I probably talk too much about GNU screen with the vertical split patch installed. Framebuffer or no, this gives you quite a bit more space to use, and makes it relatively easy to manage. If you've used screen in the past it's no different than the vanilla version, with the added bonus of being able to arrange "windows" vertically.
Because screen is updated only when Halley's Comet is scheduled to appear, the patch is already in place in most high-end distros, like Ubuntu or others. There are other solutions for managing terminal space — dvtm is a close second-place finisher in this category — but screen (with or without the patch) is sufficiently light and fast as to outshine the others, in my opinion.
screen should be part of your arsenal anyway, if you consider life at the terminal; installing it with the patch takes only minutes even on machines as slow as mine. And you'll be much happier once you get it in place. Trust me this time. 😈
Snownews is another application I debated putting on here, and again because it's rare that I use it. I get my news through other sources, and as it is, there are too many choices for news and feed readers out there to settle on just one.
But it is on my system, and I do have a long string of feeds that I occasionally browse through. It's not perfect — there are some keystrokes I resent, and I should probably move to something paneled instead of nested — but it does the job and generally doesn't get in my way. I can't complain, but I also don't really need an application like this, so it works well enough.
In the dictionary of Rogue-like games that have been invented since 1984 or whenever, Stone Soup is by far one of the most interesting, immersing and intriguing games available.
I say that with an immense amount of respect for the reigning title NetHack, which should by all rights be the only console adventure game available on the planet. But Stone Soup has taken everything about NetHack that I liked, improved on the things I don't like, and then turned it into a game that is so challenging, I almost take it personally.
Stone Soup reverts the genre of dungeon hack toward something different, by taking out a lot of the normal hackneyed functions (things like selling off treasure to buy more and more powerful weapons) and forcing you to rely on your innate choices to make your way through the dungeon … and back out again.
Before this is all over, if there was one program I would ask you to install and try, this is the one. Take out your oldest, slowest and least useful machine, get something running on it and try Stone Soup, and I can guarantee with 99 percent certainty that you'll be locked to it for the next hour. And the next. And the next. And the. …
P.S.: Avoid the rush-hour traffic and play via telnet.
There's nothing to see with surfraw. I could show you a picture of it, but as soon as you start it, it's finished, and so there's nothing to take a picture of … unless you count the browser you use, which you've probably seen plenty of.
Surfraw hard-wires search utilities into your command prompt — an idea so obvious and simple that it's a wonder it hasn't been done before (or maybe it has). You enter the search page you want, the terms you want to feed it, and surfraw dumps the results into your defined browser, be it text-based or — gasp! — graphical. That's all.
It might sound like a trivial application, especially if you're like me and you usually set your home page to the Scroogle SSL search page. I'm always one or two keypresses away from searching for what I need anyway.
But it's actually quicker and easier to use surfraw, if I know where I'm going already — be it Wikipedia, Amazon.com, the Arch Linux package database, Jamendo or what have you. surfraw saves me the added step of jumping to the search page I want, then searching, and then finding the place I was going to anyway.
It's something you should try out before you dismiss it. When you see how quick and simple (and yes, obvious) it is, it's difficult to put down again.
Every now and again, someone takes a traditional idea, puts a new spin on it, and comes up with something better. teapot might be better than a run-of-the-mill spreadsheet, and it does approach the idea in a slightly different manner, but you decide if it proves more useful than some of the others.
I can't get into too many details without describing basic functions and turning this into a tutorial, but suffice to say the short time it takes to get used to teapot is well spent. I have used it once or twice and it proved its mettle; I wish I could say I used it more often than that, but my spreadsheet needs are few and far between.
So far as I know it won't convert between spreadsheet formats or extract to a comma-separated list, so in that sense it's probably only useful if you're willing to use it as the standard for your spreadsheet functions. It might be worth it though, if you need a console-based spreadsheet that badly.
tidy is one of those programs that few people seem to know about, even if it is a very useful, very stable and well-established program with a long history in a lot of distros. tidy does nothing fantastic, unless you consider cleaning up muddled HTML code to be something fantastic.
I do. I had more than one run-in with HTML pages that didn't need extracted, just cleaned up, and tidy did the job perfectly each time. It's flexible so you can insert and control the output without mangling the final product, plus some bonuses like indentation, conversion in and out of uppercase codes, and following strict coding rules.
tidy isn't something I use every day, but when it is needed it's a gift straight from above. Don't forget it the next time you have to clean up a blog post that WordPress.com chewed on for a few days. …
tpp is one of those programs I wish I had more need for. After all, there's nothing I'd rather do than drag in my 14-year-old laptop, hook it up to a US$400 overhead display and give a slide presentation at 120Mhz.
Oh well. I'm not going to be looking around for a new job just so I can ooh and aah a boardroom with a leftover Pentium machine and a crafty, intelligent piece of software written for the framebuffer. It's not worth the effort.
On the other hand, if you ever find yourself in need of a lightweight slideshow application that won't require a US$1200 laptop to push, you can probably get by with this one. The help and configuration files will get you started, and there is adequate documentation elsewhere to handle most of your obvious questions. And I'm guessing you have adequate disk space and memory to get it going. 😉
clockywock has its digital cousin in tty-clock, which is one of those under-the-radar applications that otherwise probably wouldn't be heard of. It's mission is so simple as to be a high school computer class project: Put a digital clock on the screen, and keep time with it.
But tty-clock comes in several colors, has several effects, can handle special time formats and even bounces around the screen for your amusement. It's another application that's technically still in beta, but usable without fear of kernel panic in its current state. My suggestion is to give it a go as a screensaver, along with its cousin and a few other tricks.
I'm not going to get into the debate over text editors. There are more than enough out there to keep anyone busy, and if it wasn't for the fact that vim just happened to be lighter than some others, and offer a way of wrapping words without line breaks, I might be using one of those.
Yes, I know your favorite editor does those same things, and I know you can check your e-mail with it and access your Swiss bank account while playing Tetris from within your text editor. I am not telling you vim is great — in fact, there are times I hate it — but it's not likely to be changed any time soon. It does the job, doesn't hog my system and thus far hasn't infuriated me to a level of jettisoning it. And that's all I have to say about that.
For an even-lighter editor (only 10kb!) and one that probably follows the keystrokes you're used to, take a stab at e3.
Unrelated to vi the editor, this is another game that's sufficiently speedy at low clock rates to be used on anything down to ground-floor Pentiums, and likely to prove sufficiently entertaining. There are more than one Tetris remake available to Linux, and a good assortment at the console level; vitetris happens to be my favorite.
Most of the interesting options are controlled at the compilation level, so if you see something there that you like, you might consider rebuilding it from scratch. Supposedly it can handle joystick input and even networked games; I make no promises on that just because I have neither the desire to play online, nor the need to wire a joystick up.
All that being said, it's a colorful and clean rendition of the Tetris classic, with enough options and game variations to keep you challenged and busy. Don't spend all your time on it now, you hear?
For a long time I was enchanted by calcurse, and my early efforts to adopt wyrd were abortive — mostly because it works at a level of detail that I don't need. But I have been won over as of late, and oddly enough it's because of wyrd's level of detail.
But just being able to schedule and visually arrange appointments at the quarter-hour level isn't the only thing I like about wyrd. It's built-in ability to generate monthly calendars and weekly planners is amazing. It's reliance on a remind text file means I don't have to worry about program crashes eating my calendar.
And best of all, it's fast and light and easy to arrange, so I don't waste time learning obscure commands just to put a dinner date in my appointment book for next Friday. One last bonus: You can actually type in appointment details like you're talking about it to your friend, and wyrd will decipher what you've typed and add it directly to your calendar. I kid you not. …
If I can't convince you to abandon graphical applications, perhaps I can at least suggest some that won't drag you to your death, if you're running older hardware.
|Openbox // I learned a long time ago that a lighter window manager was the key to using old machines. Desktop environments are usually overcoded and bogged down with libraries you don't need or want. I've tried just about all of the *box sisters and most of the tiling window managers; if you must have a title bar on the screen, I recommend Openbox.
|ObMenu // Unless you enjoy editing XML files, I strongly recommend using ObMenu as a way of streamlining your right-click menu. ObMenu is quite old now and has fallen behind on most of the new features that Openbox handles, but it still beats hand-editing configuration files, just to add a menu item.
|gtk+ 2.0 Change Theme // Changing your GTK2 theme is important on lightweight desktops, or else you have to pretend it's still 1998. Several applications will do it for you; this is one of the best, partly because it comes free of attachments to other desktop environments, and is a clean and direct way of previewing and switching your theme.
|Potamus // I've run through a lot of audio players, and truth be told most of them are overweening, obfuscated messes that require an armload of dependencies when all they're really supposed to do is play music. Potamus is the opposite of that — drag and drop, buttons for controls and a few effects for fun. Small, tidy and instantly likeable. See if it suits you.
|emelFM2 // Two-pane file managers are just quicker and more natural for me, and emelfm2 is the best extension of that principle for the GTK2 desktop. Extremely customizable, very powerful, lightweight for a graphical application and looks good too.
|Recorder // This is an offshoot of PyBurn and follows a very comfortable level of simplicity. Can handle any type of burning task without cluttering the desktop or drawing in unwanted dependencies. Intuitive, clean and attractive. Another nice piece of work.
|Leafpad // Leafpad is essential because Leafpad avoids adding on too many frills, and focuses on editing text files. If you want nifty code folding or syntax highlighting, look elsewhere. If you want integrated file management and ftp access from the menu bar, look elsewhere. If you want a clean, basic text editor, look no further.
|Zim // Desktop wikis become necessary only after you start using them; before that, the idea seems bizarre. Zim is a good way to start, mostly because it behaves and acts like an online wiki, making the transition easy and obvious. Once you get used to Zim, you'll appreciate it for other functions, like individualized wikis and exporting to HTML.
|Mirage // As a basic image viewer with rudimentary image manipulation options, Mirage is my best suggestion. It's not an image manager, but it's a great way to skip through thumbnails and trim out files, or to spin photos before sending them on other applications. This is a very nice, straightforward program.
|ePDFView // ePDFView is another lightweight marvel, as an excellent little PDF viewer. It carries most of the functions available to heavier, more chunky programs, but without unnecessary weight. Good for viewing, previewing and arranging PDFs, in the same way Mirage is good with images.
|Sylpheed // Sylpheed is one of only about a thousand e-mail clients for Linux. I like it best because it does the job without complaint and requires little in supporting software. Configuration is also straightforward and easy to figure out, and once installed, it's easy to handle. Try and see.
|Osmo // Osmo is a calendar, it's a task manager, it's an appointment book, it's an address book. It's about ten different things all at once, and surprisingly, it does all of those things without turning into a lunk of a program. I know I said I like programs that do one thing only, and so in this sense, Osmo's one thing is all those other little things that nothing else here does.


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It's the weekend! Take a few minutes to make yourself some fragrant, fabulous and fibre-filled scones! Now that you have your pumpkin and your roasted hazelnuts, nothing is stopping you!
Pumpkin Hazelnut Scones
This recipes makes six jumbo or 12 regular drop scones
Pre-heat your oven to 200°c or 400°f and prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper or silplat.
3.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup fresh ground, roasted hazelnuts
1 cup pumpkin purée
2/3 cups soy milk
2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1/4 cup sugar (we don't like it very sweet, so add more if you do!)
4 tbsp neutral vegetable oil
First a word about the ground hazelnuts : don't feel like you must grind them into hazelnut butter (though that would be tasty!). Personally, I like a little crunch, so when grinding I was sure to not grind it too fine. As you like it, kids!
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spices and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, mix all other ingredients except the hazelnuts. When well mixed, add the hazelnuts and stir. Now carefully add the wet to dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon. Try not to over-mix or you'll get tough scones. It's ok if there are a few floury patches – don't worry! Be happy, you're going to have scones!
These are drop scones – my personal favourite – a lovely compromise between a biscuit-y texture and sconey taste. Decide if you want to make 12 normal scones or 6 jumbo scones, and drop the batter accordingly.
Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes, until they are slightly browned on the bottom.
You can add a little ganache and some chopped hazelnuts to take this from breakfast to sexy brunch or even dessert!

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
5 Valuable Reasons Every Caregiver Should Attend Support Group Meetings
How many couples have vowed on their wedding day to care for each other "in sickness and in health?" When a couple is confronted with the struggles of pulmonary hypertension, this commitment can be challenged. Regularly attending support group meetings with your partner is one of the simplest, most practical and rewarding ways to demonstrate your commitment
According to many support group leaders, caregivers have five good reasons to attend support group meetings:
To Offer Support
Stephanie Layer, a PH patient and Minnesota support group leader, says, "I feel that it is so important for a caregiver to attend support group meetings to show support for the patient. The love and support that caregivers give is the extra strength that helps the patients move forward."
Living with a chronic illness can often be as much of a mental challenge as it is a physical one. Accompanying a spouse to a support group meeting shows you consider being part of the PH community important. Caregivers who show such understanding and empathy are invaluable.
To Receive Support
"Our approach to pulmonary hypertension is that if one person in the family has PH, then the whole family has it," explains Doug Taylor, a PH patient and South Carolina support group leader. "Caregivers need to hear what other caregivers see and do and how other caregivers cope."
As a caregiver, it's easy to spend all of your time focusing on your loved one while neglecting your own needs, yet PH is life-changing for the caregiver as well as the patient. By attending a support group, you will meet others who are going through the same things you are. You will have the chance to share your PH-related hopes, fears, struggles and victories with fellow caregivers. When your needs are being met, you will feel more energized to be a better friend, a better caregiver, a better spouse.
To Be Educated
Learning more about PH helps caregivers cope. Although living with PH can be an overwhelming experience, a general knowledge of the disease, available treatments and current research can allow both patients and caregivers to embrace hope. A well-informed spouse is better prepared to ask good questions, help evaluate options and assist in making decisions.
To Connect with Other Caregivers
Barbara Thompson, a PH patient and support group leader from Tennessee, says that one of the most important reasons for caregivers to attend support groups is to speak with other caregivers.
PH can be a lonely disease for both patients and caregivers. Many tend to withdraw from social situations for emotional reasons or because of physical limitations. However, socializing is healthy, and a support group is a safe place to interact with people on a similar journey.
To Be Appreciated
A PH patient and Florida support group leader, Pat Murphy, claims that "a caregiving-centered meeting brought to light to PH patients that, although we appreciate the care, we don't always realize the needs of the caregiver."
Many support group leaders are beginning to understand the importance of caregiver recognition. Heather Kirkland, a PH patient from Idaho, claims that "people are shy about getting personal, but we should be comfortable and happy to honor our caregivers in a significant way." The acknowledgement of a job well done can encourage caregivers to rededicate themselves to their important roles.
In our culture, it is easy to relinquish support group participation to the sick, but caregivers also benefit greatly. If you are married to a PH patient, think about joining your spouse at a support group meeting to give and receive support, socialize, be appreciated and learn all you can about PH. The experience will allow you to act on your promise to stand together "in sickness and in health."
This article was first published in Pathlight, Winter 2012


text:
Police chief needs to resign for good of city
The tense relationship between Rockford Police Chief Chet Epperson and the officers union isn't news.
It's been seven years, after all, since union members' 276-6 no-confidence vote against the chief.
What is new is that details of Epperson's fraught relationship with his officers now are expected to emerge when the chief faces a disciplinary action later this month before the Rockford Fire and Police Commission.
The disciplinary process may well prove to be juicy theater, political and otherwise, for people who enjoy that sort of thing.
What it won't do, however, is advance the fight against violent crime in Rockford.
Nor will it restore public confidence in the police force.
And it definitely won't do anything to make Rockford residents feel safer in their homes and on the city's streets.
Far from it. The Epperson saga stands merely to distract attention inside and outside the force from the important business of policing the city of Rockford.
Rockford can't afford the distraction.
It is for that reason that we believe the time has come for Epperson to step down.
It's time for a new chief with fresh perspectives on fighting crime and collaborating with other law enforcement agencies.
With crime ranking as the top concern of participants in public meetings sponsored by the Transform Rockford initiative, it simply makes no sense to retain a chief who has so polarized the police force and the community it serves. And in fact, to allow the situation to persist would be to disrespect the wishes of many residents who believe crime here is out of control. Internal bickering, after all, isn't a crime-fighting strategy.
The face-off between the chief and the Rockford Police Benevolent & Protective Association turned embarrassing on July 3 at the Winnebago County Courthouse, in a hearing so absurd that it could have been an episode of the long-gone television show "Night Court." Or how about "Who's the Boss?" Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey or the Fire and Police Commission? Morrissey selects the commissioners, but they are supposed to act independently of the mayor.
Judge Eugene Doherty should be commended for his patience as neither side could provide evidence of who appointed Epperson in 2006.
It didn't take us long to find a statute that says, "The board of fire and police commissioners shall appoint all officers and members of the fire and police departments of the municipality, including the chief of police and the chief of the fire department. ..."
After that there's a bunch of "unlesses" and lawyerese that can confuse the issue, but the intent seems clear: The commissioners are in charge.
That's what Judge Doherty ruled in denying Epperson's request for a temporary restraining order that would have prevented the Rockford Board of Fire and Police Commissioners from investigating the chief's role in an Oct. 30 welfare check at the home of NAACP Rockford Chapter President Lloyd Johnston.
Epperson's argument of "you're not the boss of me" seems a flimsy excuse to get out of an investigation. If Epperson did everything right Oct. 30, he should welcome an investigation and end all doubts.
We've previously supported Epperson, but the face-off with the union has become intolerable. Over the years, we thought, the police union would grudgingly come to respect the job Epperson is doing, even if the rank-and-file don't like him. It hasn't happened.
You also get the impression that Epperson doesn't want to be here anymore. He's applied for at least one other job, police chief in Schaumburg.
Epperson is a whiz at numbers, numbers that show the crime rate has been declining. But he hasn't been able to erase the public perception that we are not safe in our own homes. An effective leader would have made some progress against that negative perception.
An effective leader would have a strong, experienced team behind him. But no one is left from the command staff that was there when Epperson was named chief in 2006. Deputy chiefs have exited as soon as they could. People who feel respected, appreciated and needed will stay with an organization when tempted by other options. Strong organizations are built on strong middle management; Epperson has been unable to retain experienced managers.
The command staff also is less diverse than when Epperson took over. Gone are Theo Glover, an African-American who spent seven years as a deputy chief before taking the top job with the Rockford Park District, and Lori Sweeney, the department's first female deputy chief, who announced her retirement last month. Epperson has not groomed the next Glover or Sweeney. A police force should reflect the diversity of the community it serves. Rockford's does not.
You might remember that Epperson was the second choice of the Fire and Police Commission.
David Purdy, who worked for the U.S. State Department as law-enforcement adviser to the police constabulary in Jamaica, was the first choice. The offer to Purdy was withdrawn after the results of a background check were received. Three weeks later, commissioners gave the job to Epperson.
He wasn't even a unanimous choice. It was a 2-1 vote.
Surely, Morrissey understands that what goes on in the Police Department reflects on the job he's doing. Is the union blameless? No. But there's only one chief.
Epperson has become an albatross around the administration's neck. Morrissey should encourage Epperson to resign for the good of the city.


text:
A 2020 P-mint Weir Farm Quarter in BU condition.
Picture is a stock photo.
I try to obtain US Mint rolls as much as possible. Although the mint is not known for its gentleness in rolling coins, their rolled coins have far fewer dings than those shipped around the country loose in bags. They cost me more, but I believe the quality is far superior.
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text:
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Lots of Salad, No Lettuce
My morning didn't start with a salad though. I woke up to this delicious glass of Made In Mexico Mylk from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen:
This was amazingly tasty — almonds, dates, carob, cinnamon, and vanilla bean — and surprisingly creamy. I'll certainly be making this again!
Of course, I knew a little ol' glass of nut milk wouldn't satisfy me for long. So I brought this Tomato & Watermelon Salad to work as a pre-lunch snack:
The recipe comes from Mark Bittman's "101 Simple Salads for the Season," a New York Times article with plenty of vegan salad ideas. This one contains fresh watermelon, tomato, basil, and a basalmic vinger/olive oil dressing.
Lunch was this crisp Raw Corn Salad with Zesty Lime Dressing:
The recipe is here. I found it on a quick internet search for raw corn recipes. I had some delicious local Silver Queen corn that needed usin', and it was perfect paired with crunchy radishes and tangy lime.
I also slurped some Harvest Soup:
This creamy raw soup recipe came from Kristin Suzanne, but I found it on Gena's post about blended salads on her blog, Choosing Raw. Ever since Gena waxed poetic on the wonder of blended salads (basically just veggies whirled in a blender until creamy), I'd been wanting to try some. This one contained zucchini, tomato, carrot, celery, and flax oil.
I was starving by 3:30 p.m., so I snacked on a fresh plum and these local veggies — heirloom cherry tomatoes, green bell pepper strips, and cucumber slices:
After work, I scarfed down this Raw Revolution Cashew & Agave Nectar bar before hitting the gym:
These huge bars contain 280 calories and 16 grams of fat, so I certainly wouldn't eat the entire thing on a regular day. But on raw day, I figure I need the fat and calories. This is one of my all-time fave bars!
After my workout (45 minutes on the treadill while reading Twlight), I rushed home to cool off with this Fresh Watermelon Popsicle:
My mom recently bought me popsicle molds, and I filled them with fresh watermelon juice from a local melon I picked up at the farmer's market last Saturday.
For dinner, I had Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms:
I was inspired by Voracious Vegan's Summer Stuffed Mushroom post a few weeks ago. But hers were cooked, so I googled "raw stuffed mushrooms" and found this recipe. It calls for dehydration, but I don't own a dehydrator (sometimes I borrow my parent's though). Instead, I placed the stuffed baby bella caps in the oven on its lowest setting for an hour. They didn't cook, but they did get dehydrated-ish. I'm sure they're not techinically raw now, but whatever.
Alongside the mushrooms, I ate this Carrot Avocado Bisque from Choosing Raw:
Yes, I know it looks quite similar to the Harvest Soup (and both recipes came from Gena's blog), but the taste was totally different. This soup is made from carrot juice, avocado, ginger, and flax oil. The avocado gave it a crazy creamy texture that was almost like pudding!
Finally, for dessert, I had the best raw treat ever — Raw Banana Soft Serve with Carob Syrup:
Also from Gena at Choosing Raw, this dessert blew my mind! It's simply frozen bananas whirled in the food processor until creamy. That's it. And it may be the creamiest thing I've ever eaten, far smoother than any ice cream I've had. I think I may start making this every raw day and even some non-raw days in between.
The syrup is simply a pinch of carob powder mixed with a little agave and water. It's tasty, but not totally necessary. The banana cream is pretty sweet on its own.
By the way, my kitty Polaris had fun trying to chase the banana chunks as they spun around in the food processor!
33 comments:
- The Voracious Vegan said...
Okay, this post has way too much yummy goodness - I don't even know where to start!
My mind keeps going back to that fresh watermelon juice popsicle. Talk about the perfect summer snack!
Isn't that banana ice-cream THE BEST!?!? I thought it would be ho hum okay for only being a banana, but woooweee I was shocked! Pure deliciousness!
Your mushrooms look great, by the way!
Great post, as always.
- August 5, 2009 at 3:35 AM
- Sal - AlienOnToast said...
I'm gonna buy some bananas today just so I can make that ice cream.
All your foodz look awesome, especially that corn salad. I love sweetcorn.
- August 5, 2009 at 4:11 AM
- BALLET NEWS said...
Hello, loving your blog, thank you so much for sharing
- August 5, 2009 at 4:17 AM
- Cindy Mc said...
Bianca: as host of said Lammas celebration, I can definitely confirm that your bread and hummus AND coconut pie were delish! I especially liked the bread. And while I'm on the subject of your culinary prowess, may I add that the cupcakes you brought to Amber's birthday party were to die for! Thanks for your continued contributions! Love you!
- August 5, 2009 at 7:45 AM
Oh man, I need to have all of your eats in my belly now! So good!!!
The stuffed mushrooms and corn salad are my favs! Yummy!
- August 5, 2009 at 8:00 AM
The picture of your cat trying to get the bananas is adorable! I love making banana "ice cream" like this. It's so simple but hits the spot when I want something dessert-y.
- August 5, 2009 at 8:35 AM
- Jessie Bea said...
I have the same slurp bowls from target! They are so fun :)
Gosh I envy your raw days (ok, and your cooked food days too), the food always looks sooo good!
- August 5, 2009 at 8:44 AM
- Leslie Richman said...
That looks like a great raw day. I'm gonna try the banana ice cream thing. Love the dishes too!
- August 5, 2009 at 9:30 AM
- Heather said...
Holy raw food! I'm starving now. Raw food day is a great idea. I just started figuring out how to sprout things and am really wanting to make a raw cashew cheese.
- August 5, 2009 at 11:08 AM
Now you make me feel bad that I went out to buy an ice cream maker.. Hmmph. That looks creamy and so decadent. I saw some popsicle moulds somewhere and since it is hot everyday here I should have some popsicles in the freezer. This raw post has me very interested in trying raw now.
- August 5, 2009 at 11:17 AM
- Mihl said...
What a great cleanse day! I understand what you mean about lettuce. Sometimes I want my salads to be a little bit more substantial too.
- August 5, 2009 at 11:37 AM
- Gina said...
I tried those Raw Revolution bars for the first time a few days ago. They are SO good, I was surprised, really. I had the chocolate hazelnut, yummy.
- August 5, 2009 at 12:07 PM
isn't banana soft serve the greatest thing ever?! i'm so in love with it! but everything in this post looks incredible. that made in mexico mylk? YUM. and the mushrooms..........too tasty looking for words.
- August 5, 2009 at 1:24 PM
- T said...
I always look forward to these posts! Great ideas all around! Especially that corn salad, yum.
- August 5, 2009 at 1:30 PM
- Vic Robinson said...
I love that bowl and cup! That is awesome!
- August 5, 2009 at 2:07 PM
- nora said...
MMM the carrot avocado bisque looks the best! And I've been wanting to try that banana soft serve that everyone's been raving about! You're so good at raw days, dude :)
- August 5, 2009 at 2:46 PM
- Jenn said...
Great Post! It looks like you had a delicious cleanse!
Hello Veggie
- August 5, 2009 at 4:00 PM
- She-Fit said...
What book of twilight are you in? OMG, I totally fell in love with the series and swore I wouldn't. lol.
- August 5, 2009 at 7:57 PM
- jessy said...
aw, Polaris = the cutest! i need to check out that times article on the salads - the watermelon salad looks super stellar! i also need to hop over to Gena's blog - the banana soft-serve and the soups sound amazing! carob syrup = glorious sounding! mmmmmmmmmmm! i love those stuffed mushies, and raw veggies = the best snack! aren't those raw revolution bars the scrummiest!?! i love 'em, too! such an awesome raw day, Bianca! i love it all!
- August 5, 2009 at 8:46 PM
I love the idea of a raw day. I should try this!
Your cat picture makes me laugh! Adorable.
- August 5, 2009 at 9:12 PM
- Mike K said...
As always, the raw food post is amazing! Love the pic of Polaris chasing the bananas - cats are so cool. The soft serve frozen bananas is another recipe I need to try - looks delicious.
- August 5, 2009 at 11:01 PM
- Mary said...
You've made me want a cat. That is the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. My dogs bark at the food processor--not as cute.
All this raw food looks delicious. I'm intrigued by the breakfast nut milk--that could be a nice alternative to my fruit smoothies. I wonder sometimes how many nuts Ani goes through in a week.
I'll give the banana ice cream a try. Much easier (and healthier) than making real ice cream!
- August 6, 2009 at 8:27 AM
- Virginia said...
i have tried that banana soft serve but it just didn't do it for me...too bananaey...and i LIKE bananas..so i dunno. i think i might try it again one day. that raw corn salad looks delicious, i hate cooking in the dead of summer like this, its so hot!
- August 6, 2009 at 12:55 PM
- LizNoVeggieGirl said...
OHHHHH Bianca, please come host a dinner party at my home!! I'll pay big $$$ for all the delicious eats!! Haha ;-) And Gena's soft serve is definitely praise-worthy.
- August 6, 2009 at 4:06 PM
- Greg Johnson said...
I just made the banana ice cream . . . and wow!!!! That is the most ridiculously easy, amazing desert ever! With or without the chocolate topping, it is so good. The texture and taste are perfect.
- August 6, 2009 at 7:48 PM
- Sassy-Kitchen said...
I LOVE your blog. I've officially sent it to every southern and non-southern vegan I know. Love the lettuce-less salads :-)
- August 6, 2009 at 8:13 PM
- A_and_N said...
I love the pesto stuffed mushrooms! :)
- August 6, 2009 at 8:18 PM
- aTxVegn said...
What a perfectly fantastic raw day. You know I'm loving that Silver King corn salad!
- August 6, 2009 at 9:47 PM
- Gena (Choosing Raw) said...
B! Sweetie, forgive me for having taken a while to read all about your total deliciousness. I am drooling over your raw day of eats, and so honored to have helped inspire them a bit! xoxo
- August 7, 2009 at 8:57 PM
- Unknown said...
Holy crap, all of those eats look amazing. The Raw Revolution bars are soo good. Chocolate coconut and chocolate raspberry are my favorite. I've never tried the cashew and agave, but I'll keep an eye out for it.
- August 8, 2009 at 7:56 AM
- Erin said...
Wow, another great raw day! I'd comment on the food, but it all looks too good to pick anything out!
- August 9, 2009 at 10:26 PM
- Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...
Mmm, corn salad! I love your glass & bowl. It looks like your cat wants to mix a drink!
- August 11, 2009 at 4:06 AM
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- March 21, 2010 at 11:24 PM


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A practical balance between cost and quality, our gold-filled pieces have a thick layer of 14k gold, heat and pressure bonded to a high-quality brass core. They contain much more real gold than regular gold-plating.
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Rockford Coronado new venue for Transform Rockford meeting
ROCKFORD — Transform Rockford will host its first public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Coronado Performing Arts Center, 314 N. Main St., instead of the Nordlof Center.
The venue was changed because of a larger-than-expected crowd. Transform Rockford, formed by a group of business and civic officials, aims to create a long-term vision to combat crime, poverty, joblessness and other issues and put strategies in place to turn things around.
Tom Gendron, chairman and CEO of Woodward Inc. who has been leading the effort, will give remarks. Others involved with the group also will talk about the "brutal facts" facing the city. The public is invited to attend and give input.
For more information: Mike Schablaske, 815-978-1151, firstname.lastname@example.com; LoRayne Logan, 815-961-9679, email@example.com; Ken Board: 815-968-4449; firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Previous Plain Dealer coverage
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac who went on to write songs and record several hits during a solo career, died Thursday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. He was 65.
Police spokesman Don Aaron said Welch's wife found him with a chest wound at their south Nashville home around 12:15 p.m.
Welch was a guitarist and vocalist for Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974. He formed the British rock group Paris in 1976, and had hits including "Sentimental Lady" in 1977 and "Ebony Eyes" in 1978. Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham did backup vocals on "Sentimental Lady."
Aaron said Welch apparently had had health issues recently. He said a suicide note was left.
Fleetwood Mac's career took off in the mid-1970s after Welch left the band. "Dreams" was a No. 1 hit in 1977 and "Don't Stop" the same year. It later became the anthem for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. "Hold Me" was a hit in 1982 and "Little Lies" in 1987.
Welch, a native of Los Angeles, scored his biggest hit with "Sentimental Lady," which reached No. 8 on the Billboard chart. His other singles included "Precious Love" in 1979 and "Hot Love, Cold World" in 1978.
When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Welch was not included in the group.
"It basically comes down to the fact that they don't like me anymore," he told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland at the time. "I guess they can do what they want. I could understand it if I had been a sideman for a year. But I was an integral part of that band ... I put more of myself into that band than anything else I've ever done."
Longtime Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks told The Associated Press that Welch's death hit her hard.
"The death of Bob Welch is devastating ... I had many great times with him after Lindsey and I joined Fleetwood Mac. He was an amazing guitar player — he was funny, sweet — and he was smart. I am so very sorry for his family and for the family of Fleetwood Mac — so, so sad ..."
Founding member Mick Fleetwood did not immediately respond to e-mails for comment Thursday.
Fleetwood Mac, started in 1967 by two former members of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, became an enormously popular pop-oriented group in the late 1970s. Nicks' haunting vocals and Buckingham's distinctive guitar work helped propel the band's 1976 album "Rumours" to multiplatinum status.
Problems with alcohol and drugs, as well as well-publicized fights between band members, led to their breakup. Money and nostalgia helped bring the band back together, leading to successful reunion tours.
As a songwriter, Welch had his songs recorded by Kenny Rogers, Sammy Hagar, the Pointer Sisters and others.
In 1999 he released a CD, "Bob Welch Looks at Bop," a salute to bebop music in the 1940s.
In an interview with The Tennessean in 2003, Welch said he never dreamed he'd be remembered for much.
"I just wanted to play guitar in a good band," he said. "I wanted to make the music I love. I wanted to travel the world and have adventures."
Welch also said "music is disposable now. It doesn't have the emotional impact anymore. That's sad."
He had lived in Nashville since the 1990s.
Bart Herbison, executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Association, quoted his wife Wendy as saying Welch had spinal surgery three months ago and doctors told him he would not get better, and he did not want her to have to care for an invalid.
The couple had no children. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
AP Music Writer Nekesa Moody contributed to this story.


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State officials discuss status of South Coast Rail funding
For area residents, the state's pending $12 billion bond transportation package and next five years of related capital investment projects contain critical funds for a big regional project: South Coast Rail.
While the upgraded $2.2 billion commuter rail project to Boston's South Station remains largely conceptual as designed, key officials recently discussing its status expect increasing appropriations and spending to occur to bolster the tens of millions already allocated to ready the tracks.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation draft five-year capital investment plan includes $255 million the agency designated through fiscal 2018, starting with a relatively modest sum of $4.1 million this year.
After a 151-0 House vote on Jan. 29 to approve bonding that specifies South Coast Rail, officials hope the Senate will take up the far-reaching transportation bond bill and reach quick consensus with the House.
It would put in place the funding source for transportation CIP throughout the state. State Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport, said he understands his branch could take up its version of the bill as soon as late next week.
"I expect nothing but good news to come out of the transportation bond bill," he said.
Rep. William Straus, D-Mattapoisett, co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, said there could be a period of negotiations between the House and Senate to arrive at a final bill.
The language that's expected to stand authorizes the $2.2 billion South Coast Rail through annual bonding, although after Gov. Deval Patrick leaves office in 10 months, other governors could set different annual transportation priorities.
Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey said in a phone interview the bonding passage is important to advancing permitting and a series of "early action items" identified in the five-year capital plan.
"We need authorization to spend the money," Davey said. "If the bill goes to the governor in early March, we're in good shape."
"Our capital investment plan is based upon the transportation bond bill amount," said Jean Fox, South Coast Rail project manager for MassDOT.
As Davey looked ahead to the near future, he said, "It's really become a construction project ... the public is actually going to see work going on this summer, basically for the first time ever, related to South Coast Rail."
The early projects to rebuild infrastructure to enhance the freight rail lines for present economic development and the eventual commuter train to Boston's South Station include an estimated $10 million to repair more than 50,000 defective railroad ties. The "Southern Triangle" route goes from Fall River and New Bedford, through Dartmouth, and northward to Myricks Junction in Berkley.
The thousands of new rail ties and spikes will be installed along 14 miles of track leading to Fall River and 19 miles to New Bedford, state officials reported.
About 10 percent of that work began last fall and is expected to resume by April 1 and be done by June 30, the end of the fiscal year, Fox said.
The intent of repairing and upgrading the rail lines is to vastly increase freight speed capacities as low as 5 to 10 mph to reach the "standard commuter rail speed" of 79 mph, Davey said.
Davey said these rail line upgrades are made possible by the state spending tens of millions of dollars to purchase critically needed rail tracks from CSX Transportation in 2010.
He called moving ahead this year "a multitiered approach" to further freight opportunities for the region as rail transport becomes increasingly in demand again.
Straus said the Legislature, in its revenue increases and bond authorization for better rail projects, has responded to "the increased role rail has again — really in the country."
He said, for example, companies like UPS are tapping into rail access to shipping ports like the ones New Bedford and Fall River can offer.
Another major project in the transportation bond bill Davey cited as benefiting the South Coast is the expansion of South Station.
The work must accommodate what he said would be adding six sets of trains making 10 trips a day to both Fall River and New Bedford. He said $200 million of the $800 million South Station CIP upgrades is committed.
Another prior acquisition was a $20 million federal TIGER grant to rebuild three New Bedford bridges to enhance the rail line.
"This was the first TIGER I project in the nation to be completed," Fox said.
Fox said they've targeted an estimated $40 million in the CIP to rebuild or reconstruct four railroad bridges. Three are in Fall River. One bridge is over President Avenue and another, nearby, is over Brownell Street. A third is farther north near the Freetown line, running under Country Club Drive.
New Bedford's Wamsutta bridge is the fourth.
This bridge work has reached the 25 percent design stage and should be advertised for construction in July.
"We also expect to spend $26.5 million on five at-grade (railroad) crossings," Fox said, stating that three are in Freetown, one is in Taunton and another is in New Bedford.
MassCoastal is under contract with MassDOT to install new crossing equipment this fall near Battleship Cove at Central and Water streets in Fall River. The new equipment will handle a vast traffic increase associated with the Route 79 spaghetti ramps project, and MassCoastal will handle others, Fox said.
"Our hope is all the early-action items will be under construction before the end of 2014," Davey said.
When he spoke of transitioning to a construction project, Davey said permitting to award contracts needed to begin in the next few years.
By the end of this year, he said he expects a "construction manager/project manager" to be hired for project design along the designated Stoughton rail line for electric-powered trains.
About $30 million is targeted for the CMPM work over two years and likely more than $200 million over the life of the project.
"Eight years out is our best estimate right now," Davey said of commuter rail to the SouthCoast..
He said the $2.2 billion project reflects about a $400 million increase to upgrade to an electrical system from diesel commuter trains after an initial estimate pegged the project at $1.8 billion.
While the five-year CIP lists spending in the range of $52 million to $55 million next year and the year after, and about $20 million more for fiscal 2017 and 2018, Davey said spending should accelerate rapidly by fiscal 2019.
He did not minimize the hurdles that remain, touching on a few of them.
He said environmental mitigation criticisms the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released on the needed environmental impact document approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers left them "a little surprised."
He said negotiations over findings involving the two federal agencies and MassDOT continue, and he called it "a healthy tension." All parties want improved rail service to reduce vehicular traffic from crowded, polluted highways, he said.
He said MassDOT would work cooperatively with project opponents, including the town of Stoughton, which has filed a lawsuit. The suit could be the first of others to come over land takings and environmental impacts, he said.
In an often-repeated statement by Gov. Patrick and administration representatives, Davey said, "We are as committed as possible to getting this project as far down the line as we can before leaving office."
Fiscal 2014 — $4.1 million
Fiscal 2015 — $52 million
Fiscal 2016 — $54.7 million
Fiscal 2017 — $71.4 million
Fiscal 2018 — $73 million
Total — $255.2 million
Fiscal 2019 — Updated in next few months
Source: Massachusetts Department of Transportation


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9 Fall Crafts and Fall Decorating Ideas
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Colored Newspaper Leaves
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If you like to think outside the box and are looking to make modern fall decorations, these Colored Newspaper Leaves are a unique twist on paper leaf crafts. String them on a garland or scatter them on tables to spread some Fall cheer throughout your house! You'll love these DIY Fall decorations so much, you'll want to use them year after year!
Estimated CostUnder $10
Time to CompleteUnder an hour
Primary TechniquePaper Crafts
This project is on our list of 15 Fall Craft Ideas: Free Fall Craft Projects and Tutorials
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Apr 03, 2017
These are such a cool idea, it would also be cool on sheet music as well I think. I think my partner would love this too! I can picture them done in a garland style and placed along the curtain pole in the bed room! They really are super cute!
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Attack of the Daks
With over a thousand new routes and almost 350 boulder problems, Adirondacks climbing is alive and well!
In 1850 Robert Clarke and Alexander Ralph took just 90 minutes to fourth-class the 2,000-foot Trap Dike on Mount Colden, the first rock climb in the Adirondacks of northeastern New York. Besides the ascent, their day included shooting a deer, mining for minerals and cutting a cord of wood. Thus, tradition was established for old-school, adventure climbing in Adirondack Park.
That was why nearly 150 years later, in the 1990s, Scot Kippy Carpenter laughed when he heard bouldering described as the most pure form of climbing.
I thought it was crap, he recalls.
Kippy's skepticism toward bouldering reflects attitudes held by many Adirondack trad climbers, me included, over the years. The tone set by Clarke and Ralph has left little room for things like bolts, rap inspection and bouldering. Fritz Weissner, John Turner, Henry Barber and members of the Ski to Die Club further cemented the hardcore, trad-climbing practices in the Park. However, this strict traditional ethic led some people in recent years to believe that the Adirondack climbing scene was dead.
But one day Kippy tried bouldering, and he never roped up again. In fact, he became a driving force in the Adirondack bouldering scene over the following decade.
In that time bouldering has exploded, becoming a vigorous part of the Adirondack climbing world, so much that it is included in the recently released Adirondack Rock guidebook. Authored by Jim Lawyer and Jeremy Haas, the book details an incredible amount of activity in the park during the 13 years since Don Mellor's 1995 guidebook. The new guide describes 1,923 routes, 1,122 more than the previous book, as well as 342 boulder problems.
We might even see hardened trad climbers buying crash pads, says Haas.
It's not just the boulderers who've been busy. Route developments in the Lake George Region and the High Peaks Backcountry are also noteworthy. The Lake George area offers an incredible variety of climbing, everything from five-pitch trad 5.11s to bolted one-pitch roadside routes to climbing that is accessible only by boat. Located in a rain shadow, the area is one of the driest spots in the region, and it has the longest climbing season, early spring to late fall. High Peaks climbing provides solitude in a remote wilderness setting, approaches which can take several hours and involve extensive bushwhacking, fantastically textured anorthosite rock, and routes up to 1,000 feet long.
Overall, the 6-million acre Adirondacks, a parcel roughly the size of Vermont, now hold more than 240 cliffs with documented climbing. New crags like Snowy, Potash, Deadwater, Bald Mountain and the Courthouse possess the high-quality rock, routes and position necessary to become popular destinations.
Other classic Adirondack cliffs have also seen tons of new route activity in the past decade. For example, the Daks' premier cliff, Poke-O Moonshine, has nearly doubled its route count to almost 300 great lines.
I catch a ride with Kippy to McKenzie Pond, the premier site in the Daks. Here, ironically, it was trad climbers training for roped routes who introduced bouldering to the Park three decades ago. In 1978 local climbers Jim Cunningham, Rich Leswing and Chuck Turner began visiting the boulders. Shortly thereafter, Todd Eastman, another local who pushed free-climbing standards in the Park, developed a training circuit at McKenzie and established the classic V5 Eastman Problem in 1986. In 2002, Kippy and his frequent partner, Arien Groover Cartrette, wrote the online guide to McKenzie.
We arrive at McKenzie and park behind several cars with Ontario plates. Soon we're joined by a strong crew who've made the three-and-a-half hour drive from the Gunks.
We head for the first set of boulders just a hundred feet from the car. Thick stands of pine and maple quickly seal off any road noise, creating the sense of serenity and seclusion. A steady breeze rustles the branches and, thankfully, clears the air of black flies. The short walk brings us to a clearing dominated by granite giants. The rock is clean and solid, and the landings are soft and level.
I watch as two of the Gunkies, a jacked guy in jeans and a thin dude with multicolored tattoos, throw themselves at an overhanging arete called Sketches of Pain (V9). The guy in jeans hollers with effort as he slaps his way up the prow.
The tattooed guy, Freehole, as he's called, yells encouragement, Come on, Peaches!
Peaches peels off near the top and lands on the pads with a whump!
The crotchety trad climber in me is at first put off by a bunch of grown guys referring to each other with nicknames like Peaches and Freehole. But these boys are cranking hard and having a hell of a lot of fun and I can't argue with that. Later in the day both Peaches and Freehole send the arete.
Kippy crushes a dozen problems up to V9 within just a couple of hours. Then he pops off a hold on the sit start of Flux Capacitor (V8), an overhanging arete, but sends next try.
Meanwhile I learn that wire-brushing backcountry crags is poor training for bouldering. I've spent the past few years stumbling around the Indian Lake region of the Daks, an area which holds the distinction of being one of the most roadless wilderness areas east of the Mississippi, finding and climbing some of the virgin cliffs that lurk there.
My bushwhacker's fingertips are quickly shredded by McKenzie's coarse anorthosite and sharp edges. Around noon Kippy says, Let's take Karl over to Giant Sucker. Someone adds, Better bring all the pads.
Tall but only V2, Giant Sucker teaches me that boulderers define slab differently than do trad climbers. Halfway up the thing, I think that nothing with a 2 on it, V2, 5.2, or A2, should be this hard. Then someone says, It took me six trips here before I got this. That's all the excuse I need to jump down and save it for another time.
During the day we cross paths with other boulderers. However, McKenzie is laid out in distinct sets of blocks separated by forest, so the sense of solitude remains even when the place is busy. Still, someone in our group comments wistfully, This place just isn't like it used to be.
Late in the afternoon we run into a crew from downstate and Jersey, including Vadim Vinokur and Brian Kim. They've just cleaned a new line up an overhanging, blank-looking face that tops out at about 20 feet. Both Brian and Vadim work out the moves to a tenuous stance where they can throw a big dyno for the lip. Brian pumps, lunges, misses and bounces spectacularly off the pile of pads below. Vadim hesitates at the big toss, but, encouraged by his friends, he goes for it and misses. Brian tries again and nails it. After a few more attempts, Vadim sticks the lip, too. They call it Starboard.
Stiff V10, says Brian.
I wonder if Brian's stiff V10 holds as much sandbag value as old-school Adirondack 5.10. On Moss Cliff in 2006 Peter Kamitses freed several old aid lines, creating two stunning and mostly trad 5.13 routes, both nearly 300 feet tall. On the same cliff, Kamitses then climbed the classic 5.10 offwidth Creation of the World. According to the guidebook, Kamitses called Creation the hardest route he had ever climbed, including the 5.13 lines he'd just freed. In the new guide, Creation has been grade-corrected from old-school 5.10 to 5.11b.
As evening gathers, people heft crashpads and backpacks for the stroll to the road. Kim, Vinokur and crew make plans to check out the Snowy Boulders tomorrow. On my way out I can't resist trying some of the problems again in spite of my stinging fingertips. Like Kippy 10 years ago, I'm finding that this bouldering crap gets under your skin. I wonder if a crashpad is in my future.
The future of Adirondack climbing certainly includes them. Since 2002 a half-dozen new bouldering areas have sprung up in the Park, with Nine Corners and the Snowy Boulders being the most well-known and developed of these. The Snowy Boulders in particular, like the recently developed 250-foot Snowy Mountain cliff high above them, offer wild climbing on huecos, fins and knobs unlike any other experience in the Daks.
People could come to the Adirondacks for the bouldering alone, wrote Jeff Achey 12 years ago. Today they do.
They come for crack climbing, too and for the face climbing, the short routes, the long routes, the roadside, and the backcountry. The Daks has enough room and enough rock for all of it. After more than 150 years of climbing, the developments of the past decade have shown that climbers have only scratched the surface of what can be done in the Adirondacks.
Many of the newly discovered crags have not even come close to reaching their potential, says Lawyer.
Another key to the future of Adirondack climbing lies in the complex matrix of state and private land which comprises the Park. Occasionally the state acquires a parcel of private land which makes a cliff publicly accessible for climbing. One example is Henderson Cliff in the High Peaks region, which came into the state fold in 2006. Another similar acquisition is set to take place within the next few years and will mean that climbers can access what might be the last great cliff in the east, Silver Lake. Actually a series of about 20 cliffs, with 10 of them being more than 200-feet tall, Silver Lake offers miles of unexplored rock.
It's the equivalent of four Poke-Os, says Lawyer.
That should keep everybody busy for the next 10 years and might keep me from trading my wire brush for a crash pad.
Karl Swisher is a 44-year-old weekend bushwhacker who has climbed in the Daks for nearly 20 years, establishing first ascents from 5.6 to trad 5.13.


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Enhance your Viking Longship Hlín cruise with a unique shore excursion from ShoreTrips. At ShoreTrips we are committed to enhancing your shore excursions with small, creative and personal day tours and adventures. Our team personally tests every tour in a destination to select only the best shore excursions for your Viking Longship Hlín cruise adventure. Select your cruise date and learn about the unique adventures awaiting you.
*PLEASE NOTE ShoreTrips is an independent provider of shore excursions. ShoreTrips is not affiliated with nor operates in conjunction with Viking River Cruises. ShoreTrips makes no claim to be the designated activity and excursion operator of Viking River Cruises. Guests of Viking River Cruises wishing to tour with the cruise line's excursions should contact the cruise line directly.
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