We love carrying handy little thumb drives everywhere we go, but at times they can be delicate little fellows. Blogger Dmitry Brant—having lost too many thumb drives to his washing machine—set out to make his thumb drive impervious to harm.At the office where I work, I had found a supply of epoxy that the hardware engineers use for various purposes. This epoxy comes in little packets, with each packet composed of two pouches containing different substances that, when mixed together, produce the hardening epoxy. I knew about the supply of epoxy for a while, but I hadn't made the connection between the epoxy and the flash drives until one day, in a moment of total enlightenment, I held up my flash drive in one hand, and an epoxy packet in the other, and began to laugh uncontrollably.Hit up Dmitry's post for the full rundown on how to turn your regular thumb drive to an indestructible epoxy drive. Got your own methods? Let's hear 'em in the comments.
That same day, I took an ordinary USB flash drive, removed the plastic case so that the PC board was completely exposed, mixed up some epoxy, and poured it onto both sides of the board, making sure that all the electronic components were fully covered, and only the USB connector exposed. After about 5 minutes the epoxy hardened, and the result was even better than I hoped. The flash drive became indestructible!
Do you dig zombies? Have you ever wished that George Romero's films kept their edge, but had better character development? If so, you’ll want to check out The Walking Dead. It’s a “post-zombie” story, so it is more concerned with the survivors of a zombie apocalypse trying to go on with their lives after society has collapsed. It’s extremely character-focused and incredibly well-written, making it all the more shocking when you realize that absolutely no one in the series is safe from being killed. The realistic art pulls no punches, though, so if you can’t handle much gore, you might want to look for something a bit lighter.
There is nothing cuter than Owly, which is one of my wife’s favorite book series. It follows the world’s cutest owl (Owly) and his unlikely best friend (Wormy) through a series of gore-free adventures. It is so adorable that you may want to throw up from overexposure to cuteness. The best part is that the stories lack text dialogue, making them a great introduction for early readers to the joys of sequential storytelling.
Neil Gaiman has developed a very loyal fan base outside of comics with his films and novels, though his Sandman series is one of his most endearing and influential works. It is one of the original titles for DC’s Vertigo imprint, which prints Y: The Last Man and Fables.
My wife’s absolute favorite graphic novels are all by Jeffery Brown, who writes a series of autobiographical graphic novels about failed relationships and general heartache. His style is really simple, but intensely relatable.
It’s hard to recommend any superhero books to new readers (especially women) because they are so interconnected and rely too much on stories from the past. Still, superhero comics are the cornerstone of the comic book industry and so I am often asked where the best place to start for new readers is. I always fall back on Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: The Killing Joke.
Crime comics are getting to be a pretty big genre these days and a lot of the books that are popping up are really good. My absolute favorite of these is Criminal, which is put out by Marvel’s Icon imprint (which is like DC’s Vertigo in a lot of ways). Each volume of Criminal is a stand-alone story, though they all take place in the same “universe” and feature a few cross over characters. Unlike most crime stories, this series follows the criminals rather than the folks trying to catch them. The lush, grizzled artwork by Sean Phillips is the perfect compliment to Ed Brubaker’s atmospheric writing, with the brilliant colors by Val Staples being the icing on the cake of creative awesomeness. Reading it feels a lot like watching an extremely good movie. There are four or five trades out now and all of them are simply fantastic.
Since we are working under the assumption that our new reader has read Fables, they will already have a handle on this concept already. Since they probably liked Fables, they should also love League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (don’t worry, even though the movie was horrible, the comic is amazing).
One of my absolute favorite graphic novel series is Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series, which is a manga-inspired tale of a Canadian slacker musician who falls for an enigmatic American delivery girl and must fight her 7 evil exes before he can officially be her boyfriend.
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Heat a large saucepan on a high heat. Once it is hot add the whole seeds and toast them until they sizzle and crackle. Now add the oil and then add the chopped onions and reduce the heat to low. You can optionally add 1 or 2 Whole Star Anise which help bring out the sweetness of the onions and imparts a subtle aniseed flavour but remove them once the onions are cooked. Cook the onions gently and slowly until they turn a golden brown colour.
Make a paste of the ginger puree, garlic puree, curry powder, Turmeric powder, Chilli powder, with a little water. Add to saucepan and stir in well and fry for a couple of minutes.
Now add your 800g Cooked Chicken Tikka stir in well.
Mix the Yogurt, Tomato Puree, Onion Puree, together in a jug with the water or stock and pour into the saucepan and mix in well. Turn up the heat until the sauce begins to simmer and leave to simmer for 10 Minutes. Stir occasionally.
Finally sprinkle in the Garam masala and stir in well for the final 2 minutes of cooking. Garnish with the 1 Small onion, 2 Deseeded Tomatoes, chopped into a very fine dice and serve.
Enjoy!
