Rogue protocol by Martha wells

 This is the third book in the Murderbot series and I suggest reading the others before this.

Plot

Murderbot continues their wandering throug space. Catching some newsthey fibd out that the legal after effects from the first book is still ongoing and that GrayCris (the shady company from the first book) did some shady stuff on the planet Milu under the guise of terraforming it. Not knowing about GrayCris dealings a new group has taken over the Milu spacestation in order to assess the terraforming facility with the hope of acually terraforming the planet.

Murder bot heads there to see whats up and if it could help dr mensah and her team. Hitching a ride on a transport ship along with two security personell. But GrayCris doesn't want anyone knowing its secrets and there is more than one danger lurking in the facility.

My thoughts

Having found out about their past in the last book it's clear that Murderbot Is a bit lost or at least aimless with no emediate goal. HItching a ride with various transports. I do like how Murderbot manages to get around by just asking the bots nicely. This is realy just a continuation from before the first book where Murderbot, despite gaining independence, keept foloving the Companies orders and protecting its clients. It's quite relatable, the feeling of knowing what you don't want but not what you do. This is one of the series strength how relatable despite not being human is very relatable.

Murderbot have a very dim wiev of humas partialy because of them being stupid and putting themself in danger that Murderbot then have to save them from. But mostly due to a number of them being cruel to them while they because of their programing was unable to stopp them. This is challenged when they met Miki. They are a bot that belong to the assessment team on Milu or at least the team leader Don Abene. Miki is innocent and concideres Don Abene and the rest of the team their friend. They are also quick to trust Murderbot. They originaly thinks Miki is just stupid. 

But soon realices that Miki trusts them because they have never given them a reason not to. For murderbot this comes with the realisation that the abuse they suffered is not a universal experience. Through this they also reasses Dr Mensha and what it would mean for them to go with her to Preservation.

All in all it's similar to the previous ones action mixed with introspection and a bit of suspense.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it, you can check it out here Rogue.

Save money #7 don't be afraid to alter recipes

 

Disclaimer while this works for cooking it's not always suitable for baking where ratios are more important.

A few years ago my sister had a Hello fresh meal-kit subscription. For those that don't know each meal-kit includes apart from ingredients also a recipe sheet. My sister saved the recipes with the thought of recreating the dishes later and soon found herself with a large stack of them. Realizing that she wasn't going to use them she let me pick out the ones I might like to try before throwing the rest of them out. I've made some of them but doing so I have realized that most of them asks for unnecessarily expensive ingredients. It's nothing big just things like consistently using pointed cabbage (29,9 kr/kg) instead of normal cabbage (19,9 kr/kg) even though having tried both I honestly cant tell any difference once it's cut up and cooked.

Ant that's the thing once an ingredient is cut up, cooked, seasoned and combined with other ingredients most minor differences will have disappeared. So you might as well chose the option that you already have at home or that's cheapest. I've compiled a list of things that cam easily replace each other.

Any kind of bean with any other kind of bean.

Spinach, cavolo nero, kale or any other leafy green thing.

Cauliflower with broccoli.

Cream fresh, ricotta and yogurt. (just double check if it's meant to be cooked that it won't split)

Tahini with peanut butter.

When I defrosted my freezer I found two leftover hamburger-buns (because they never sell them in the same amount as the burgers) they became garlic-bread.

In general things in the same biological family mostly works. So just experiment.

5 tips for new students

  

1. It you are going to write a thesis start considering the subject as soon as possible. You want to have time to do a preliminary check to see how doable it is and change it. Also this lets you start collecting notes for it early. If what you want to write about turns up in a text book write down the reference  and you don't need to find it later.

2. Keep all your thesis notes in one place and make sure you always gave it with you. If you have a good idea in the grocery aisle you don't want to forget it. When I first started studying ages ago that meant a dedicated notebook in my handbag today it means a folder on google drive.

3. Start immediately at a high tempo. The assumption is that studying is a full time job so spend 8 hours a day on lectures and reading. But some subjects are more chill than others and if so you can always lower the tempo later. But you don't wan't to cram late into the night the day before a test.

4. Don't buy textbooks, or at least buy as few as possible. They are expensive and you are never going to open them again, seriously never. Most if not all should be available through the university library but check local public libraries too depending on the book you might get lucky. If you find that you have to buy them try to get them second hand and sell them immediately.

5. When writing an essay read the question and guidelines thoroughly. Then read it again during the writing and again before you turn it in. You don't wan't to fail because you misread the question, or you went on a tangent. and you don't want to be like me who the day I needed to turn it in realized that I needed to add another reference to meet the minimum requirement.

Chilling reflections by Drew Hayes

Plot

After the end of the last book life has gone back to whatever counts as normal for our superheroes and villains. With the addition of Tories line of self-defense products that are being launched forcing her to spend be presentable and spend time in the corporate world. That it until a dimensional nova bursts and sends shock-waves through the multiverse including earth. For a time the barriers between dimensions are weaker causing random (and not so random) portals to open releasing various monsters.

The nova is a time of chaos but also opportunity for those like VRX77 who can more easily travel to this dimension. Traveling here means hiding from Lodestar but it's worth it because this Tori Is a 97% match and VRX77 will do anything it takes to get her.

the New science sentries are struggling with the death of their teammate at the end of the last book. Something that's hitting Ellie hard and professor Quantum is plotting to get the team back to how he wants it even if it means kicking out certain members.

My thoughts

I didn't know the short story collection would be so integral to this but it is. For a large part of the story Ivan is off doing his own thing after getting called away to an other dimension by a friend from one of the short stories. Which I don't mind between him and Lodestar there are a lot of potential deus ex machina characters.

It had a point in the middle that felt very much like it was the end. With the main threat being neutralized. This book however is one where different characters follow different plots intersecting one another rather than converging like the other books. 

After Ike's death in the last book the characters ever present need for more power takes on a new urgency. Tori realize that even her new suit made from the material she stole from Alfred Settler doesn't hold up as well as she had hoped against VRX77 and the other more powerful foes they are coming up against. In this world there is always someone stronger and so getting stronger just means more difficult opponents.

Also professor quantum gets worse the more you learn about him to the extent that it's questionable why he is even in the AHC. At least if Quorum or Lodestar knew about it their reaction would be interesting. At least in this there are a sense of petty revenge in that his plans all fail and some theirs steal his stuff.

The epilogue sets up so much plots and I can't wait for the next book.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Chilling.

Witch king by Martha Wells

This book has been languishing on my to read shelf for far to long. I originally bought it because I like other books the author has written (Murderbot) but this one never really caught my attention. 

Kai wakes up imprisoned and held in stasis/dead under water with his demon powers bound. Realizing he has been dead for almost a year and now that he is free he sets out to find out who and why he was held prisoner and where his missing friends are. Since he found out they had disappeared at the same time he had. Finding a larger conspiracy then he was expecting. Interspersed in this is flashback from his youth and the war against the Hierarchs and rebellion he and his friends lead against them.

My thoughts

There is a lot of world building here to be explained, about the demons and their powers, about all the other kinds of magic users and their powers. This isn't really helped by every other chapter being a flashback too the original was and rebellion. The war it an other thing to be explained though even after reading quite a bit it's still confusing. There is some big meeting happening and they have been kidnapped to keep them from going but its not clear what the meeting is about or why it's important. All this explaining means that it took a long time for the plot to get going, over a hundred pages. In general it feels like a sequel. Maybe it's because of how it started, with them already imprisoned and with all that happens before. But just as it feels like a sequel it also feels like it never really got past the beginning. Even after 300 pages it still feels like it haven't really started.

Appart from this it's fine, but I don't like the characters as much as I like others she has written. Though that might have to do with this book having a larger number of them. All in all it's a bit meh to me. The descriptions are good, so is what action there is and the descriptions of magic but there is nothing tat realy speaks to me. In the end I might read the next in the series if it seems like it has more plot but also I might not.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Witch king

Save money#6 make stock

 This is a bit of an experiment since I've never done this before. But I was inspired to do this when I saw a video about environmentalism and a person said she saved her kitchen scraps to make stock. This was from a zerowaste perspective but it works equally well for frugal people. Not that stock is that expensive but still. 

So before I begin I should say that I've never made stock before. I know my sister tried to do chicken stock once and ended up throwing it all away so I'm not super confident. I decided to try it. 

Looking through my big cookbook I actually found a recipe for vegetable stock. So rather than look for another I used that. The recipe assumes using whole vegetables rather than scraps but well see. 

For a while I have been gathering scraps like carrot and parsnips peels, leaves from cauliflower, onion and other things. This was the work of a few weeks so I put it in boxes in the freezer and slowly filled them. 

Cooking

I'm not going to include the recipe here because it's not my recipe and I'm sure there are plenty you can find. But it was basically put vegetables and salt in pot add water, boil then let simmer. Finally run it through a sieve. To make it more flavorful I threw in some oregano. I have some growing (dying) in the window so the wilted pieces went in as well.

At this point I realized I have nothing to store it in except some glass jars which is less than ideal for freezing. I did worry that the jars would break when it froze but I also wasn't sure it would last in the fridge. I tried to not fill them completely and luckily they didn't crack. 

Results

I'll admit this takes some time both to gather the scraps and to cook the stock. I'm currently at a point where I work from home and so have time to keep an eye at a pot that need to simmer for a few hours. 

I've used it in a few things since then some couscous and a soup. It's worked well though it is less salty than stock-cubes and it is less versatile so ill still be using them but this was I fun little experiment and I'm already starting to gather scraps for the next batch. 

Handbok i livets konst by Epictertus

Those that read my labour day post might recognize this book since it's the book I brought to read on the picnic.

This is a Swedish translation of the Greek original. In English the title would read Handbook to the art of life more commonly known as Enchiridion of Epictetus. It's technically not written by Epictertus either but is a compilation of his thoughts written by his student. 

Most importantly it's Roman/greek philosophy from around 100 A.D. Epictertus was for a time a slave belonging to Emperor Neros secretery. Meaning he and an interesting combination of high influence and low status. He was part of the stoic movement which among other things focused on self control and duty. 

My thoughts

The book it short only 70 pages and is made up of 53 texts each raging from a singe sentence to two pages. So it's a very fast read even if you stop to consider it. 

A lot of the texts express what is today called the circle of control. Basically that you should recognize that there are things in your life that you can control and things you can't. In Epictertus the things you can control are your own thoughts and actions. Everything else should just be accepted for what it is. He does take it a bit too far though when he talks about how one must accept the loss of things and family. He isn't wrong everyone you know will die eventually but the way it's phrased is a bit cold hearted especially since he doesn't seem to think that the loss should upset you. In general nothing should upset you. 

This is the parts where you are reminded of him being a slave and so having less control of his life than most.  

Apart from self control another theme is doing ones duty and to consider ones reputation. Though it does hold people to an impossible standard to the point that I think would sap any joy from life. I'm thinking of text nr 33 which says to avoid invitations to parties and to talk as little as possible. That just unnecessary harsh.