Zombiepirate

Simulators are one of the earliest PC game genres, and remain compelling experiences to this day, even if they're not as popular as they used to be.

I like all kinds of combat flight sims; the MS Combat Flight Simulator from 1998 was something special, and I've had some similar fun in IL-2 Sturmovik. The newest civil air sims are pretty great too, I'll pop on a podcast and make a flight. They're particularly cool in VR.

I've also found the MechWarrior games to be fun, but I've only played 2 and 5. I got to play a bit of Steel Battalion with the full crazy controller at a con a few years back, and that's got to be a lot of fun once you really know what you're doing.

So what's your favorite sim?

I've been slowly working through Kurosawa's movies, and I thought this could be an interesting discussion since there are so many of them.

I just finished Yojimbo, and it was fantastic. It pulls you into the story of a ronin who comes to town where two rival gangs are feuding, and he plays both sides off of each other. I really enjoyed how the relationship between the tavern owner and the ronin developed through the movie.

I think my favorite that I've seen is Seven Samurai. Even though it's been copied to death for other movies, this is still the best version. Kikuchiyo is such a compelling character, and Kambei is great to watch as the leader who you hope can rise to the occasion.

I've also seen Ran (which I loved as an adaptation of King Lear) and The Hidden Fortress (which I loved as an adaptation of Star Wars [jk]).

Which should I watch next? I'd like to get into something set in contemporary times, so maybe Rashomon?

I've been getting dried wood ear mushrooms at an Asian grocery to add to ramen for a while, and it's a game changer. I just put it in a mug of boiling water for a few minutes and then add it into the soup.

I recently got some dried shiitake, and that's an ingredient that I wish I'd known about before. You rehydrate them in boiling water and leave them for a few hours. After that, squeeze them out and prepare them like fresh mushrooms. Retain the water that you soaked them in and you can use it to infuse that mushroom flavor into whatever you're cooking. I made a mushroom gravy over rice yesterday, and it was great.

I think even people who don't normally like the texture of mushrooms might enjoy them; they've got a bit more of a "meaty" texture than fresh ones, not quite so spongy. You can also grind them up while they're dry and add savory mushroom flavor to anything.

It's a great way to always have mushrooms on hand. Do you have a way that you like to prepare them?

Obligitory "I have to use it for my job," so let's commiserate.

It's the worst program in all of the Office Suite. MS wrote the goddamn OS and email client, but for some reason if I have two instances open for two different inboxes and try to pull one up on the taskbar, the wrong instance will pull up every single time without fail.

My runner-up complaint is how when I use the search bar, sometimes it'll forget what I'm doing and when I hit enter it'll open some email instead of executing the search.

Every update makes it worse, so what drives you crazy?

In the tech sense- what is your favorite way that someone has used systems in unintended ways to do something cool?

I like the one where a guy used a wiimote for head tracking.