I just got the most adorable little Captain America. With a frisbee for a shield.

I had one of those at work - so cute!

I swear I can never make the recipe on the side of the rice box successfully. Sitting for 15 minutes, bring to a boil, let simmer closed for 35 minutes. AWFUL. It's soupy and I have to let most of the rest of the water evaporate not push as steam into the kernels. I google "brown rice basmati recipe" and follow the bring to a boil, let simmer for 50 minutes...and voila! One of the best pots of rice (it's a tense relationship--I am keeping score).

And after all that (FIFTY MINUTES) I find I don't actually have the chicken I was going it with its fluffy brownness. Luckily I have survival food in the freezer, so was able to whip up something, and...the dish¹ broke in my lap!!! Why is my food fighting so hard to avoid being eaten? I MUST OM NOM. I will overcome. Ooh! And time for half brownie!

¹ The last deep plate/shallow bowl from the Kat'n'Lori housewarming startup package. I liked those! Way more interesting than anything I own, and that perfect shape for something where you need a rim to help get the food on the fork, or it's something more liquid than normal, but you need to get a knife and a fork in.

Goodbye, dear hybrid placesetting. Goodbye. You served Los Angeles well.

I've gotten my rice cooking down now after I stopped using Western techniques and switched to Eastern methods.

Rice is my cooking nemesis. People say it's easy but I think they lie. Or have made a deal with a demon? Somehow it looks effortless for them but my rice does not ever work like that.

We need to know the plural of sparkly pink Batman. This is a good world.

It was pretty neat.

rice cookers rule

One of the hardest things about cooking rice is leaving the damn lid on the pot when you are supposed to and not lifting it to check on it until the allotted time is up.

I have never had a problem with rice. It is one of the few things I can cook with confidence.

I am looking for photography lighting help. I took some pictures five years ago, and I "learnt" quite a bit about lighting during the project, and seem to have forgotten it since then.

So I have a couple pictures, this and especially this that I can't work out how to recreate.

Playing around with levels on the second one makes me think the light was through a crack in the curtains. On the first, there's a standing lamp aiming up at me from the bottom right of the picture?

In my current project, I am more than bored by my face, but very caught up in light and limning. And skin is the best subject for that. I have bust out one of the standing lights (I have 4, but only two shades and 1 diffuser), even though at least one stand is hinky and the diffuser falls off when I sneeze. But I've only used one in a photo any time--and I think they're daylight bulbs, but I dismember.

I have a Nikon Speedlight which can't communicate with the camera (D3200) which I bought not to mount it over the camera (although using bounced light is fun). So I performed some flimflammery the first time I used it and got a mostly technically correct photo, but that was luck and guessing Flash Compensation setings.

I think I'm going back to the Strobist, who is the one I was taking cues from to buy all my lighting equipment. I want to be definite before I go into the camera store near me--they're very pushy.

BUT, basically--what would light gurus you recommend for simple portrait/fake studio lighting? Getting a new flash that communicates with a camera half its age? Different bulbs for the lamps? Reflectors? What colours?

I am settled on shooting with a 50mm prime lens for now (but my other lens is a slower 28-80) often wide open. Lens and body check!. But it's photography. The magic is in the photons and how we bounce them. I mean, I like the modelling I'm getting with my limited knowledge--they're decent, fills out 3D, the whole schpiel. NEED MOAR NOWLEJ.

ALSO, I found the manual for the Speedlight SB-24 on Scribd. Anyone willing to help a non-member out and toss it my way?

I've gotten my rice cooking down now after I stopped using Western techniques and switched to Eastern methods

I'm good with long grain white and brown rice. I think I've done decent jasmine rice, but it's not clockwork. Basmati rice, and brown? That;s two unknown variables, so I'm not going carry my previous assumptions over. Maybe there's a reason they're not toasting the rice grains. Maybe washing is more/less necessary. I don't like true trial and error, just going with things people have written down. But not written down on the side of the rice bag--they can ruin Uncle Ben's (kidding--I have no idea, I've never cooked it) with the wrong steps.

I really like recipes to go like my street directions--of course, you're going to tell me what you're trying to achieve. Putting in "don't go so far as to..." that's good so you know when you've blown it, but "You'll know you're almost done with this step when..."

One of the hardest things about cooking rice is leaving the damn lid on the pot when you are supposed to and not lifting it to check on it until the allotted time is up

I shake it and see if I can hear too much movement. Usually when I err, I err soupily.

Also, fuck, need to put these recipes into Evernote. How many people a) use Evernote b) use it for recipe management? A shared notebook would be great!

On the first, there's a standing lamp aiming up at me from the bottom right of the picture?

I'd say straight on (in terms of height) and slightly behind your shoulder. Your hand is shadowing your neck, not your face.