What else to call such an odd medley update? Let’s start with a product review, shall we?
Behold—the CR-0351F three cup rice cooker by Cuckoo!
My wife and I had been using an old Aroma model for years. Boy, had we been in the dark ages… When our Aroma gave up the ghost (and it wasn’t ever really that great), we thought to finally pounce on a fine Japanese model. After all, most Japanese products are nonpareil (Panasonic as one fine example). Well, they’re also commensurately expensive in many cases, but quality isn’t something usually up for compromise.
But what if you didn’t have to compromise?
When all was said and done, it came down to the above or one from Zojirushi (Japan). Hehe, there was one from Panasonic as well, but that sucker cost as much as a car. We opted for the cute Cuckoo which came in at half the price and well under $100. Now, Cuckoo is a Korean company, and that did initially give me pause. I thought LG was the only brand from Korea that hadn’t at one point or another given me trouble, until I found out that they used to be Goldstar (don’t get me started on Goldstar—a tale of woe for another day). But then I thought, surely a proud (Aroma ain’t that) East Asian company wouldn’t mess about with rice!
To quote Tainaka Ritsu from K-On, a literal nominal expert on the subject: “No rice, no life.”
I was right. This CR-0351F model astounds. It’s easy to clean, utterly high-end, and packed with features. Just go to their website for further details, but what we love about it most is how perfect the rice is. It comes out like a cloud and never gummy. The basin cleans easily and is well marked for even half portions. Our old Aroma model forced us to make a minimum of 2 cups. Depending upon what you’re eating, that can be quite a lot for two people. This one makes from 1-3 with half cups in between. We found the cook time to be about the same, but this one also has a turbo feature. We haven’t had occasion to try that, but if I do I’ll update you. You can even customize cook times and temperatures to whatever you could possibly desire. I’m assuming that’s for real connoisseurs who want to walk into perfectly cooking rare varieties or blends of different rice.
All I can say is my favorite Korean word gleaned from all my K-drama watching: “Yah!”
I know it’s rude to yell “Hey!” at people, but if you don’t own one of these Cuckoos, you need to wake up! Run! And go get one!
What’s that? Oh? You’ve never owned a rice cooker? Once you do, you’ll never be without one.
And now for something completely different…
This week I finished my alpha 1.0 manuscript of my third big project—a very short novel or large novella set again in the 19th century. I like it—the story—if not yet the prose. As usual with one of my first drafts, it’s ruff, ruff, ruff. Hopefully it won’t take me too long to finish preliminary edits, but I’ve also got to make all kinds of passes from historical to character voices. It’s at least another year away, probably even more, and because of that I can’t really say much more than that its word count is almost exactly 40,000. I checked a similar book in my library and see that I’m a bit long, but when you finally see the kind of book that it is, perhaps you’ll understand.
In yet other news:
More libraries! Yes! The counties of Southwest Georgia are adding my latest book! That’s three more libraries, as before, along with a Bookmobile!
Yes, thanks to Director Whittle and all the librarians and staff of The Southwest Georgia Regional Library System, you will soon be able to check out A Southern Fried Fantasy Adventure Story from the Decatur County Public Library, the Miller County Public Library, the Seminole Public Library, and at any stop of the cute little Southwest Georgia Regional Library Bookmobile!
It was a pleasure meeting you guys in Bainbridge a few months back. I hope your patrons enjoy my book.
And finally, in news of the weird:
I recently received my largest royalty yet on my first book out of nowhere. Someone somewhere bought a big ole batch of ‘em, and for that I thank you. It wasn’t through Amazon, nor was it even BB direct. The order apparently went through one of the wholesale partners, so I don’t have much visibility. Anyway, if you enjoy it, please tell someone or show them, and remember to provide any unused copies to your nearest library. Whatever you do, just don’t let the books sit idle. Books are meant to be read.
Actually, I do have one last little note:
I’m within weeks of a decision whether to scrap the unlimited plan locking my second eBook to Amazon. Expect another post here relatively soon if I decided to open it up. The good news is that if I do, it will make the eBook available all over including via Hoopla; the bad news would be for those with unlimited who’d then have to either buy me or check me out digitally from their local library. There’s a downside for me as well, since currently this is my only means of running promotions on Amazon. They won’t let me when it becomes more widely available, so it would be goodbye to any future “countdown sales”.
