h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have you read any of David Eddings or Roger Zelazney's books? The Belgariad and the first five of the Chronicles of Amber are my favorites.

Belgariad is somewhere in the stack marked booksIplantoread .. (and high in it as well).. Amber chronicles are all done and the first four were very good. # five less, and then ... welllll... 6-10 were a bit... really

I recently bought myself one of those palm type handheld organiser tamagochis (like you can see in airports.. neatly dressed men standing in a close group looking discussing, talking, and looking stealth like.. comparing to see who's got the smallest with the most colours.. so I found out it's about their organiser and they are really exchanging data (what data? .. they're not sure themselves). now I've bought one of those myself and I can squeeze in little groups like that if only I could be serious and not long enough. Anyway I found you can store LOTS of electronic books those devices so when I travel I just need my tamagochi organiser (feed it every day or it will die) in stead of a stack of books.

Lots of books I *want* to have a paper copy off thoughh..

Have you seen the project gutenberg site(s)? Wonderful idea, plain vanilla texts of copyright expired material for free.

http://promo.net/pg/

Ah, yess.. that's my main source for non - copyright material. Now I'm terribly ashamed to say I do have some .. "almost non-copyright" material.. or illegal scans.. of course just so that I can recognise it and discuss it and say how awfull it is..

(* amazing the work some people make of that! scan page by page, OCR it, format it, correct it, ... but it does fit in a handheld screen *)

No one told me the BBC provided a recipe binder for everyone on the BBCi. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/binder/binder.shtml

got 4 out of 10 at the hapless chef game and ran out of time

Bookmarked

I'll have to try that game when I get a spare moment.

... even the second time (same questions) 5 out of 10

Finally had a moment to play the hapless chef game. 7 out of 10 the first time. The pasta question was the most confusing(no idea what those names for flour mean, it's semolina here). I misread pate as plate in the other question. Second time through 10 out of 10...it called me Jamie Oliver.

I should take a closer look at the recipes on the BBC site and make use of that binder.

called you Jamie Oliver.. really.. cheeky

I've accepted that I'll not reach that stage .. until I start noting down the correct answers

Jamie Oliver, indeed. Probably a hint that I've spent too much time watching cooking shows on television. Not to mention reading cookbooks.

cooking shows on television I got ed off with those.. same as diy shows.. splot, splashj, cut, cook, and hammer: there's your wonderfull looking dish (or boookshelf, four poster betd.. depends).... irl it just doesn't work that way welll... at least not for me.. I break the egg just wrong and spend a minute getting the shell out , the sauce stays thin and watery or I saw the timber half an inch short and no one else to blame but me

Dad taught me some of the basics of cooking. He knew how to do the important stuff such as: Season a cast iron skillet, cook a pancake, boil an egg, make proper coffee, dig a foxhole...

boil an egg, dig a foxhole.. basic skills
If I really need to I can make a good meal.. even some of the fancier things.. (* note there was quite a long time when I didn't cook myself had it all ready made for me *)

oh, and bake a pizza.. don't forget the pizza (open fridge, open package, heat oven, cook in oven for ~15 minutes, eat )

An egg should never be over boiled as it will be too dry. A fox hole should be deep enough to lie down in and not be seen but not so wide that a tank tread can fit down into it and don't forget to cover it with a blanket and bits of brush at night. Thanks Dad...

I was eight when I started cooking. My sister cooked a lot of things with a microwave. My brothers and I cook without much in the way of convenience foods (and no microwave). Both of my brothers cook very well. Now that I think about it, my nephew is teaching his wife how to cook.

.. 17 and 18 ( my kids ) only now start to (learn themselves) how to cook. (18 lives in a university town since a month .... cook or starve ) 17 by now has seen the examples and "makes notes".
I learnt myself how to cook.. and I survived

Our family was a bit more spread out age wise. My sister was 16 and my brothers were 13 and 8 when I was born.

Mom was such a bad cook that we "borrowed" her cookbooks . She certainly wasn't using them. The first things I ever cooked were made using an Easy bake oven(toy that uses light bulbs for heat). That must have been the Christmas of 1976.

.. "borrow" cookbooks ..
and for tonight we (18 is around for the weekend) had lasagne.. messed around with meat, vegetables, tomatoes, pasta and an oven .. easy

Lasagna is one of my favorites. A little , garlic bread, and ...

well.. yess.. garlic bread .... as for the .. 17 doesn't like ( ) and 18 and me go for with food so there we are ...