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«12. . .1,7861,7871,7881,7891,7901,7911,792. . .2,5572,558»

Congratulations to Shimbonil! Shimbonil is this week's Viking Art Rewards winner and has been gifted the Legendary card ABU AMMAR.

To make sure your nation has a chance of winning a Legendary card, please take the following steps:

1. Join the World Assembly with your Balder nation if you are not already a member.
2. Endorse our Delegate North East Somerset.

Please see the below dispatch for more information on Viking Art Rewards:

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Viking Art Rewards
Delivering NationStates cards to the World Assembly nations of Balder.

The Delegate and Government of Balder are pleased to launch Viking Art Rewards. The Delegate and Government are distributing viking plaques, carvings and figure stones, in the form of NationStates cards, to the exploring and warrior WA nations of Balder.

Once a week, a WA nation endorsing Delegate North East Somerset shall be randomly selected to be gifted a card of Legendary rarity. Each time, the card gifted to the winning WA nation will be randomly drawn from among the Legendary cards in the card deck of Balder Dispatches.

To make sure your nation has a chance of receiving a Legendary card, please take the following steps:

1. Join the World Assembly with your Balder nation if you are not already a member.

2. Endorse our Delegate North East Somerset.

The table below records the winning WA nations gifted Legendary cards as part of the Viking Card Rewards and the card they received.

[background-block=#304a80][hr][center][size=130][color=#ffffff][b]🞜 Legendary Card Winners 🞜[/b][/color][/size][/center][hr][/background-block]

Date

Winning WA Nation

Legendary Card

18 February 2020

Teesside

Corsaria

25 February 2020

Prexico

Hesperonis

3 March 2020

Francovania

Automagfreek

10 March 2020

Akorros

Valinon

17 March 2020

Economichunger

New Good Order

24 March 2020

Vantom

Wilkshire

31 March 2020

Nackatoue

Trixmonia

7 April 2020

Exotica

The Bruce

14 April 2020

Shimbonil

ABU AMMAR

21 April 2020

Velossia

Annihilators of Chan Island

28 April 2020

Adis

McMasterdonia

7 May 2020

Oxontonia

Undivulged Principles

14 May 2020

Wynnland

Zamri1138

21 May 2020

Bortas

Cavallino33

28 May 2020

Shogunate tamriel

Great Nepal

9 June 2020

Ravon

Farnhamia

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Region 🞜 LinkForum 🞜 LinkDiscord
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Read dispatch

Lin-ying and Feema

Good afternoon Balder!

I thought I might as well share this essay of mine here with residents in Balder; the subject is the history of early Balder and Osiris. It's a special chronicle of the creation and discovery of Balder.

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=483455

Please enjoy. And if you have any questions or comments, share them in the thread!

Garomia, Lin-ying, and Feema

Bowzin wrote:That sounds amazing! I had a simpler meal of just some steak, salad, and potatoes!

It was definitely delicious. Last night, we had ham sandwiches and tomato soup. Tonight, we'll be using a portion of the leftover ham (and the bone), and some of the gravy, to make lentil and ham soup tonight. And later this week I'll probably make use of the last scraps as a protein add-in to my fancy ramen (which includes egg, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, thinly-sliced green onions, a cup of thawed mixed veggies, and some flavor enhancers like oyster sauce).

It's really lovely what food opportunities open up to you when you learn just a *little* cooking. It's almost the reverse of the usual results of minor knowledge. Instead of "he knows just enough to be dangerous," it's "she knows just enough to be make things delicious."

Aelyria wrote:It was definitely delicious. Last night, we had ham sandwiches and tomato soup. Tonight, we'll be using a portion of the leftover ham (and the bone), and some of the gravy, to make lentil and ham soup tonight. And later this week I'll probably make use of the last scraps as a protein add-in to my fancy ramen (which includes egg, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, thinly-sliced green onions, a cup of thawed mixed veggies, and some flavor enhancers like oyster sauce).

It's really lovely what food opportunities open up to you when you learn just a *little* cooking. It's almost the reverse of the usual results of minor knowledge. Instead of "he knows just enough to be dangerous," it's "she knows just enough to be make things delicious."

I'll be working during dinner time tonight so I'll probably just bring home a pizza :D
As for cooking, I know basically nothing haha

Vamperiall and Endorga

I know one recipe from scratch and that's Chili :P

The rest of the stuff I eat is just stuff I can heat up in an oven or a microwave...

Vamperiall, Lin-ying, and Endorga

Fooooooooo wrote:I know one recipe from scratch and that's Chili :P

The rest of the stuff I eat is just stuff I can heat up in an oven or a microwave...

I had vegetable soup and tobasco for dinner. Good stuff. For lunch I had 2min noodles and grapes. This is the way.

Lin-ying

Hey! sorry if random does anyone here have any book to recommend? Just want to spend my quarantine time reading

Thank You!

Lin-ying, Feema, and Shadow dealer news

The grand conch islands

Swiftnian wrote:Hey! sorry if random does anyone here have any book to recommend? Just want to spend my quarantine time reading

Thank You!

What are some of your general interests?

Lin-ying, Feema, and Shadow dealer news

Is there anything like the world fair for Balder?

Lin-ying

Bowzin wrote:I'll be working during dinner time tonight so I'll probably just bring home a pizza :D
As for cooking, I know basically nothing haha

There are three secrets to making your food a jillion times better.

The first is mirepoix (which goes by other names for specific cuisines, e.g. the Cajun "holy trinity" is a variation). Chop up a stalk or two of celery, a large carrot, and a small onion, nice fine dice. Sautee them in oil over medium-high to high heat for five to ten minutes. Throw some minced garlic over the top for the last minute of cooking. I guarantee you, you can add this to ANY savory sauce or soup and it will taste a zillion times better. Using a small amount of oil and cooking the vegetables on their own like this allows the flavor compounds to react with one another, providing much richer flavor without any need for salt.

The second is roux, specifically for soup. Melt some butter, toss in an equal amount of flour once it's nicely melted, and whisk like the dickens over medium-high heat. Don't stop whisking until you're ready to take it off the heat. 3-5 minutes gets you a white roux (appropriate for cheese sauces, cream-based soups, alfredo sauce, etc.) 5-10 minutes gets you a blonde roux, appropriate for all kinds of gravy, darker soups, chili, whatever. 15-20 minutes should get you into brown or "chocolate" roux territory, which is used for things like gumbo. Adding roux to your soup (cautiously, you don't want to overdo it) provides natural thickening, and reduces the risk that a soup or sauce will "break" (meaning, reduces the risk that the fat/oil separates from emulsion in the broth). For most sauces, a couple teaspoons of roux per cup of liquid is plenty; for gravy, probably twice that much, but again, take a light hand, and tweak the liquid as necessary (e.g. add milk to the gravy if you've thickened it a little too much).

The third is deglazing. All that means is, when you cook food (usually meat, but anything) in a hot pan, you'll get crusty brown bits stuck to the pan. Don't ignore those or wash them out. That is literally pure flavor just begging to be brought back into solution. Even if it looks thoroughly burnt, do not despair: you can almost always get amazing flavor out of such things. Keep the pan over medium-high to high heat (the heat helps the deglazing process). Splash in a tablespoon or two of cold water, wine, or an acid like vinegar or citrus juice (I prefer lime juice myself). Quickly scrape the pan with a hard spatula--the hot pan should make the liquid bubble and sizzle, and you'll see the liquid turn brown as the deposits dissolve. (You must be quick, or else the water/alcohol will evaporate too quickly and you won't get much deglazing done.) That brown liquid is the essence of every pan sauce ever made, and is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. Scrape up every scrap of it you can get, because you're just adding more flavor every time you do.

Do these three things (particularly 1 and 3) and your cooking will become orders of magnitude better than it was before. It really, truly is one of those "one simple trick, home chefs hate him" kind of things, where there are amazing food flavors hiding behind incredibly simple techniques, if you just know what to do.

From there, the next tricks are to use fresh ingredients whenever possible, and start getting a feel for the kinds of recipes that benefit from specific herbs and spices. (For example, rosemary has a strong flavor, which means it works well as a single herb added to light-flavored meat like chicken, or as one herb among several for more full-bodied meats like beef or ham; tarragon, by comparison, is a very delicate flavor that is easily lost if you aren't careful, and thus works well for things that require very little cooking and have their own delicate flavor, such as eggs, or possibly shrimp.)

Oh...and most important of all...USE SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE. Like, actually TASTE the food as it's finishing up. And if the flavor seems a little weak? Add a dash of salt and a few twists of fresh-ground black pepper. Stir to combine, and taste again. Keep tasting until it gets just right. So many people don't do this! It's so incredibly easy, and it make your food taste way better!

Endorga and New sauerkrautia

Efrem zimbalist jr

Swiftnian wrote:Hey! sorry if random does anyone here have any book to recommend? Just want to spend my quarantine time reading

Thank You!

If you enjoy science fiction or fantasy, then I recommend anything by George R. R. Martin.

Lin-ying, Swiftnian, and Feema

Good morning there Balder

Lin-ying

Endorga wrote:Good morning there Balder

gweetings

The black leaves

Bowzin wrote:I'll be working during dinner time tonight so I'll probably just bring home a pizza :D
As for cooking, I know basically nothing haha

It's surprisingly easy to throw tolerable stuff together! I made a risotto out of an old pack of arborio rice, chicken, bacon, stock cubes and red onion this evening. Took a little while but it tasted great.

Post self-deleted by Swiftnian.

Efrem zimbalist jr wrote:If you enjoy science fiction or fantasy, then I recommend anything by George R. R. Martin.

Thank you very much<3

Lin-ying and Feema

The grand conch islands wrote:What are some of your general interests?

Sorry if late, I do not really mind what genre it is cause I love all genre

But thank you for replying <3

The grand conch islands and Feema

The central pacific free state

Got myself a bunch of books a few days ago so I actually got a list at hand:
"Atlast Shrugged" A book about objectivism which basically is the foundation for modern day libertarianism (Also it inspired the Bioshock series). Havent read it so no clue if its any good
"Roadside Picnic" science fiction story about looters in the forbidden zone. Lots of weird magic stuff happens there and its obvious allegory for nuclear energy (foundation of the the s.t.a.l.k.e.r video games) . Super good read (Also I think you can read it for free online?)
"I have no mouth but I must scream" Super duper dystopian horror novel. Not for the faint of heart some of the stuff in that book is pretty disgusting. Good read tho (Also free pdfs online I think)
"Fahrenheit 451" Also dystopian novel. Its a book about the importance of written information and who gets to decide what is true. Good read but also weird ending
"Simulacra and Simulation" author seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and society, in particular the significations and symbolism of culture

Lin-ying and Feema

The central pacific free state wrote:Got myself a bunch of books a few days ago so I actually got a list at hand:
"Atlast Shrugged" A book about objectivism which basically is the foundation for modern day libertarianism (Also it inspired the Bioshock series). Havent read it so no clue if its any good
"Roadside Picnic" science fiction story about looters in the forbidden zone. Lots of weird magic stuff happens there and its obvious allegory for nuclear energy (foundation of the the s.t.a.l.k.e.r video games) . Super good read (Also I think you can read it for free online?)
"I have no mouth but I must scream" Super duper dystopian horror novel. Not for the faint of heart some of the stuff in that book is pretty disgusting. Good read tho (Also free pdfs online I think)
"Fahrenheit 451" Also dystopian novel. Its a book about the importance of written information and who gets to decide what is true. Good read but also weird ending
"Simulacra and Simulation" author seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and society, in particular the significations and symbolism of culture

nice reads

Lin-ying and Feema

Swiftnian wrote:Hey! sorry if random does anyone here have any book to recommend? Just want to spend my quarantine time reading

Thank You!

Since you like all genres, I strongly recommend Chris Paolini’s Inheritance series if you haven’t already read that. Any Tom Clancy is great but they’re super long. The mysterious Benedict society is entertaining as well as good for mystery fanatics. I’ll probably post more later as I think of any more of my favorites

Swiftnian and Feema

Swiftnian wrote:Sorry if late, I do not really mind what genre it is cause I love all genre

But thank you for replying <3

Isaac Asimov is always a good choice for science fiction. Ursula K. LeGuin tended to write much softer sci-fi, but I can generally recommend her work as well, and she did some very good fantasy too (Earthsea). If you want something a little more philosophical and aren't repulsed by religion in your fiction, GK Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday is very good (If you stick with it, the ending is lovely but the lead up to the climax was somewhat emotionally draining for me), as are his Father Brown mystery stories. Speaking of mysteries, Sherlock Holmes is always a good pick and you can get them for free online because they are public domain. Agatha Christie is another good mystery author, though I only really know her Hercule Poirot stories.

Edit: be careful with Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. It is closer to a polemic than a novel: the story exists more for Rand to communicate her ardent belief in her "Objectivist" philosophical/ethical theory than to tell an exciting tale. This has become something of a meme, in that there's a very long speech by a character (John Galt) which doesn't involve much of any action or interaction of the cast, and instead is just Galt monologuing about how terrible it is to have any kind of cooperative enterprise that isn't drilled down to extracting payments from others (or the like).

If you actually want the foundation of modern libertarianism, skip Ayn Rand and go straight to Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, Utopia. It's an actually serious work of political philosophy and the major modern challenge to the "justice as fairness" principles that John Rawls articulated in his work. (Rawls and Nozick are pretty much inarguably the most important political philosophers of the 20th century, at least in English.)

Northern Mount Celestia, Lin-ying, Swiftnian, Efrem zimbalist jr, and 1 otherFeema

The grand conch islands

Swiftnian wrote:Sorry if late, I do not really mind what genre it is cause I love all genre

But thank you for replying <3

I'll give you a handful of recommendations then :)

1) The Thirty Years War Europe's Tragedy by Peter Wilson
2) All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque
3) Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut
4) The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas
5) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams **

**Find a copy of this that contains all 5 or 6 short stories for maximum adventure.

The central pacific free state, Swiftnian, and Feema

The grand conch islands

So I've been away for a few years....where has the endorse button moved to?

Lin-ying

The grand conch islands wrote:So I've been away for a few years....where has the endorse button moved to?

Bottom of the page, but you aren't in the WA, so you should join first :P

The grand conch islands and Lin-ying

The grand conch islands wrote:I'll give you a handful of recommendations then :) <snipped>
3) Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut

Oh God. I bloody hate Slaughterhouse Five. Incredibly depressing. Nonlinear timeline, so it literally cannot have a "climax" or any other real story structure. Full of pseudo-philosophy and infuriating mock-koan non-thoughts like "so it goes." The only book I can honestly say that I dislike more than it is Ethan Frome, which is the single most depressing story I've ever read, and I've read Night by Elie Wiesel.

I get that Slaughterhouse Five is Vonnegut trying to deal with the grief and horror he experienced due to surviving the Allied firebombing of Dresden. "So it goes" is supposed to be liberation from grief. The "human" or "bum" Christ is supposed to break away from the omniscient morality license and the imposition of an (allegedly) alien, inhuman God into imperfect, human life. But both achieve the opposite in the end. "So it goes" passively accepts the cruelty of life--don't rage against the heavens, people die in some moments, but hey, they "are" alive in their past, so it's fine. Just a temporal inconvenience, nothing more. It's okay to destroy the universe and feel nothing at all about this fact, there are still moments where the universe isn't destroyed. And Vonnegut's "bum" Christ (as with most amateur philosophers' attempts to "fix" Christianity) completely misses the point of both (a) why Christ was fully God and fully Man (a point most such authors conveniently forget), and (b) how it can be that the moral framework of Christianity works whatsoever. Lewis's Trilemma is meaningful for a reason: moral philosophy does not simply condense out of thin air, it must be grounded.

Cards on the table: I hate this book in part because I had to do a "beginning, middle, end" book review for one year's Summer Reading assignment for HS honors English. It was the worst experience I'd ever had with literature up to that point. But I still think the book is massively overhyped and largely empty-headed.

Lin-ying

«12. . .1,7861,7871,7881,7891,7901,7911,792. . .2,5572,558»

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