Friday, 29 November 2013

PS4! It's here!

    It's here! Fresh from Amazon, SDA just delivered my new, Day1 PS4! Can't wait to unbox, connect it and see how PSVita works with this new jewel!

    Assassin's Creed 4 is already prepared near the TV, ready to be played.

    I want inFamous: Second Son as soon as possible, too, and I hope they'll make some super-cool RPG/JRPG for this new, powerful consolle!

    The box is marked with a small blotch of blood, silent witness to the hard work that has enabled me to enjoy my new, blazing PlayStation 4: D

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Christmas Showcases

Whole showcase
    Like every Christmas, this year too we put alot care in the preparation of the outer showcases of our store.

    We decided to focus on red, white and green colors, pretty typical for this holiday season (and the colors of the Italian flag too: dunnow if this is a good thing, to be honest :P).

    It was a lot of work to prepare them, since, after attending a course of windows dressing, I have become quite a perfectionist in this field (a bit too much for someone).

    Still, I'm really pleased with the final result, even if I'm still forced to work with some animal products (mostly leather straps for watches). Things will changes in the future, anyway.

    Here follows a detailed gallery of watches window:


Home made Half-Bread

    Today, my girlfriend has prepared a home-made bread.

     To tell the truth, she started yesterday, using a process longer and more complicated than usual, finishing cooking it today.

     It is a bread made with a mix of normal and wholemeal flours. The final product was excellent, despite the interior resulted a little too dense than she expected!

    As for me, I was not impressed by the first sample, but I must admit that, by eating more, it is not bad at all!

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Tara the fugitive!!

Little Tara!
    Yesterday (Monday 25 november 2013), during the usual walk with Ennoia, me and my girlfriend came across a breton dog who, clearly confused and afraid, wandered on the streets of my small town.

    Many people have tried to close up to the animal, giving up quickly as their approach was not working. Someone managed to give him a caress, someone else made ​his dog play with the stray one. But no one has bothered to try to understand what he was doing around, alone and restless, without a human with him.

    So, following him for a while, we were able to approach and calm him a bit, and I stayed with her (we realized that she was a female) while my partner went to retrieve a leash to be able to lead the animal to the local police, as there was no identifying mark on her collar.

    The dog proved to be clean, well maintained and very quiet, and she followed us, without any problem, to the police office. Here the cops, after keeping us waiting 45 minutes outside in the cold, heroically managed to recover the device to read the microchip and to contact the owner (ironic mode on...).

    The surprise was great when we found out that the pet's family is my relative!! The world is small, isn't it, especially in towns like the one I reside in!

    In any case, great was the joy in seeing the dog, named Tara, wagging his tail with happiness, excited at the sight of her owner came to pick her up.

    A small misadventure ended well for everyone!

Friday, 22 November 2013

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Black Chest Edition, part. 1

    AC4 Black Chest Edition just arrived! Guys, it's much bigger than I thought! Ennoia too is quite iterested in it, as you can see from the photo ^_^ !

    I peeked inside the chest, but I'm going to open it up later, calmly. Finding a place to expose the whole box will be a problem, as my AC-dedicated cabinet is already full of stuff!!

    Cool. Now I just need Amazon to send me my PS4 to play this game -.-'

Friday, 15 November 2013

Instruments of torture

    If you are a researcher, even at the dawn of 2014, you can safely choose your favorite instruments of torture while sitting comfortably on your house sofa.

     Companies like Ugo Basile provide a comprehensive range of tools designed to coerce, frighten, blanching, drugging, electrocute or disorient a wide variety of animals, from rats to small birds and dogs. All provided with every kind of measuring instrument capable of recording the level of torture you are applying to the creature!

     For those who still believe in the fact that laboratory animals are treated with respect and care, I recommend you to browse through the following link, which bring you to Ugo Basile catalog:

     http://www.ugobasile.com/media/pdf/Catalogue.pdf

     Try to understand the nefarious ways in which these tools can be used.

     Necessary evil or lucrative business? As a good Veg, I strongly lean for the latter.

Thursday, 14 November 2013

The Je'daii Code

"There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no fear; there is power.
I am the heart of the Force.
I am the revealing fire of light.
I am the mystery of darkness
In balance with chaos and harmony,
Immortal in the Force."

Ennoia ready for the rain!

    Here is Ennoia wearing her new anorak!

    To be honest, she does not feel very confortable with that thing covering her body, but, hey, it's warm and keep water away from her coat, so she definitively should take her time to get used to it :P!

   
    One thing is sure: she's a true poser!

Vegan Recipe: Vegetables & Tofu Stew

Seitan variant
    Today I'm sharing an easy but quite mouthwatering vegan recipe!

    People who tasted this dish were really happy and striken by the result, even if much depends if you like tofu or seitan.

    The very simple idea behind this is to create something similar to a peperonate, adding tofu and/or seitan and keeping the cooking time a bit shorter. You can experiment by using other vegetables, as the cooking procedure is always the same. For example, I use peas or beans, sometimes.

    It requires about 40 minutes to serve, including the preparation of ingredients and the cooking phase.

Vegetables and Tofu* Stew

Ingredients (for 2-3 people, according to appetite!)

    1x zucchini
    1x Small eggplant (or 1/2 of a large one)
    1x carrot
    1x Pepperoni (red, yellow or green, as you prefer)
    1/2x red onion
    3x cloves of garlic
    1/2 jar of mushrooms
    1/2 bottle of tomato juice
    200g of tofu*
    Oil
    Salt
    Chilli
    Oregano and/or basilic
    Flour

Variant with tofu and peas, but no pepperoni
Preparation

    1. Cut zucchini, eggplant, carrot, pepperoni, garlic and tofu into cubes (around 1cm is ok; garlic should be smaller); cut the onion into half moons.

    2. Fill the bottom of a high pot with a layer of oil (a bit less of 1cm is ok), put garlic and onion inside and brown them at slow fire.

    3. Add zucchini, eggplant, carrot and pepperoni, and simmer them for about 5 minutes, until the base made of oil is well absorbed. Add spices (salt and chilli) during this stage, in order for them to be absorbed by the vegetables.

    4. Add tomato juice. Cook everything for about 10-15 minutes (use the carrots as a hint: when they become soft, it's time to go to the next point!), keeping the pot covered and stirring occasionally to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom.

    5. Add mushrooms and tofu*. Cook the whole for another 5-10 minutes, always at low fire, stirring frequently. Around the end of this stage, add a tablespoon of flour to create a bit of creaminess (the level of creaminess depends alot upon what kind of tomato juice you used).

    6. Add oregano or basilic just one minute before removing the dish from fire.

    7. Serve with bread and beer!

*= Tofu can be replaced with seitan, but in this case, you should cook it a bit longer after you added it to the mixture (point 5). Still, seitan is pure gluten, so tofu is a healthier choice.

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Know the Force

The Sith Code and The Jedi Path
    Ahhhhh. My knowledge is now complete! I finally gathered the main tomes of both the Light and the Dark Side users of the Force!

    The two books that you see in the photos are a wonderful addition to the collection of any Star Wars geek.

The Sith Code - Interior 1
    These are two beautiful editions, exquisitely crafted in all aspects (especially the visual one, thanks to the high quality paper used and the impressive graphical layout), that contains a collection of informations about the two opposed orders of Force users: the Jedi and the Sith.

The Jedi Path - Interior 1
    The two volumes encompass many interesting details on the history, philosophy, the way to act, to fight, the creation of lightsabers, the use of the force of these two distinct factions.

The Jedi Path - Interior 2
    The constant references to some of the most important characters of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, from Darth Revan to Bane, Yoda or Anakin, make them a source of deepening absolutely necessary for every lover of the two main orders of Force Users, that forge the fate of the galaxy by thousands of years!
The Sith Code - Interior 2

     You can find both these books on Amazon.com, for the honest price of $17,00 / €15,00 . There is a rarer, cooler and much more expensive special edition, called Vault Edition that comprises a bunch of nice gadgets in addition to the books. Pity it doesn't exists in Italian (for now....!!)