ashmire13 wrote:

Keith the Thief wrote:
I found it to be very hit or miss (converting to mobi).
Even relatively normal material (e.g., our family genealogy book) doesn't convert very consistently.
It's readable, of course, but there will be w eird t ypos like   this that drive me bonkers, and that's just text conversion.

I've just run the DMG PHB and T1-4 through calibre into Mobi and they look ok so far, the text is faint, but that may just be the PDF scan that I've used, but I'll try and see what I can do with that. They're great in iBooks, so this was just an experiment really, just to see if they'll work on a kindle.

Could be just what I need on my nice new kindle fire

Do any of you guys have some deer antler spray for sale or trade?  I'm pretty sure it's not banned in my profession.

 

Badmike wrote:http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/02/0 ... ll-street/

From the comments on that article:
"It's just silly and dated, and it's the kind of silly and dated that comes from a multi-billion-dollar company, that'd sacrifice children to Yog-Sothoth if it meant keeping Superman's rights, claiming that it knows crap about populism."

Went to the 31st annual North Texas Irish Festival today:

http://www.ntif.org/

Lots of great food, drink and music.  Typical fair fare like you might expect at pretty much any American festival.  Corn dogs, turkey legs, kettle corn, cotton candy, etc.  But the real draw was the mostly authentic Irish/English/Scottish foods.  Several booths had bangers and mash, Irish stew, Scotch eggs, fish and chips, Cornish pasties and quite a few other interesting items.  After a couple pints of Guinness and a bowl of Irish stew to start off the afternoon, we listened to some musicians and checked out some of the booths selling all sorts of stuff.  Sampled some yummy shortbread, soda bread and an incredible gingerbread made with stout beer.  More music and walking around and we started getting hungry again.  After a couple of pints of Smithwick's I found myself in front of the Caledonian Kitchen booth gearing up for my first taste of haggis.  I almost chickened out and ordered a Cornish pastie instead but I figured if I can eat Vegemite and keep it down, haggis should be a cinch.



Did I manage to eat all of it?  Yep.  The neeps (rutabagas or parsnips...tasted like parsnips anyway) were very good and the tatties (potatoes) were probably just more for rounding out the plate more than anything.  The haggis itself was obviously not what you might find in a traditional country kitchen somewhere in the heart of Scotland, but based on what I read about this booth, it was as close as we can get in the U.S.  Minced beef, lamb, liver with barley or oats and "Traditional Scottish Spices"....whatever those are.  It tasted best mixed with the potatoes.  Could have used some garlic and a bit of pepper.  

Will I eat it again?  Probably not.  At least not until I can get to Scotland during Burns Night for a real haggis.  Didn't find anyone serving up black pudding.  That's next to cross off of my food bucket list.  

PS shame you couldn't find any black pudding. It's lovely and no "English Breakfast" is complete without it.

hehe john always makes me smile when he goes off on one of these things about food and beer  

black pudding is most excellent. white pudding is nice too, though i like black more.

amazingly i had haggis burgers while up in scotland year before last....was most amusing but very nice and yes, i had added some extra pepper and a few other things for my more selective taste with these things.

but yes, some excellent food to be had.....and am glad to see even texans can find some decent food from time to time rather than that biscuits and gravy nonsense    

best, Al

*waves*

Sardan wrote:Are the items you list considered "interesting", i.e. exotic?  

Nah....nothing exotic about them.  I usually reserve that term for stuff that looks disgusting but tastes amazing or the exact opposite (stuff that looks tasty but usually causes vomiting afterwards).  Ethiopian food comes to mind.

Sardan wrote:"Neeps" are turnips, although that term means several things. What the Scots call turnips, we in England call swede (Swedish turnip) and a quick google tells me that in America this is rutabaga.

I've eaten turnips quite often.  Usually a bit on the bitter side so I tend to stay away from them.  The neeps weren't bitter at all so I assumed they were using parsnips simply because finding swede/rutabaga in my part of the U.S. is fairly difficult.  Not sure exactly how they prepared them after boiling but they were soft and flavorful.

killjoy32 wrote:hehe john always makes me smile when he goes off on one of these things about food and beer

It's taken me 40 years to really start enjoying the different things the rest of the world has to offer.  Always excited to try something new.  Next time you are in the States Al, we'll have to take you to a proper Mexican restaurant for a nice bit of cabrito and menudo (enjoy "Googling" those).

killjoy32 wrote:and am glad to see even texans can find some decent food from time to time rather than that biscuits and gravy nonsense

If smoked brisket weren't already, I am sure biscuits and gravy would be the unofficial state meal of Texas.  It's just trying to decide whether to have sausage or hamburger cream gravy that is always such a difficult decision for me.  

Sardan wrote:PS shame you couldn't find any black pudding.

There is at least one Dallas establishment that offers a full English/Irish breakfast but it is a good drive from where I live and none of my family or friends are eager to go there just so I can give it a try.  And eating breakfast out alone is boring.     Frankly, the black/white pudding doesn't sound nearly as strange to me as having canned beans for breakfast.  It's hard enough for me to even consider eating huevos rancheros or chilaquiles but Mexicans put beans in pretty much everything so....  

Sardan wrote:kingofpain did they have the English national dish - curry?

Not that I saw but there were a lot of booths that I didn't get to see the entire menus.

And my weekend experiencing other countries is over now that Tottenham have disposed of Arsenal.  Poor Gunners.  Back to reality.  

It is hard to believe that today marks the five year anniversary of the passing of Gary Gygax.

Yes indeed, thank you Gary.