Day of Grace

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now I'm found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

Amazing Grace" (gospel)

Today, on the fourth Thursday of November, the United States are celebrating Thanksgiving. Please note, this public holiday is not about sleeping late nor tending to your cacti or eating lots of fats^† (not so sure about that one, though), but all about thanking God “for the providential New World and fruitful cooperation with its native populations”.

Which goes to show that a bad liver may surely kill you while bad faith won't.

The Final Blow

Right after the celebration of the Native American genocide with God on their side, the final blow is being delivered on the infamous Black Friday — also known as “Mad Friday”  in Quebec (a name I agree with 1000 percent). This is the time when there's a free-for-all rush on stores by ungraceful American housewives — much like a rugby scrum — so violent and thunderous no one can hear you cry for mercy.

It's a black Friday indeed for the police in charge of dealing with the chaos of heavy traffic congestion, accidents, shoplifting and other issues arising from these consumption binges.

What about Saturday?

Vade Retro Jupiter

As the ruling planet of Thursdays, Jupiter symbolises abundance, social fulfilment but also excess and overindulgence. Jupiter in retrograde phase until the end of the year invites us to turn inwards, to be more attuned to our inner voice and to the meaning of life, and change what's not right.

Let's make the best of a bad job and let us be touched by grace.

Namaste,

End notes

• ^ Sorry, some puns got lost in translation! Basically in French, grace sounds like “grasse” which means fat, hence “matière grasse” (fats). It is also used in idiomatic expressions such “grasse matinée” (literally “fat morning”) and “plantes grasses” (succulents) in the cacti reference.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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Sheep

The flu is here no more
Did it make you terrified?
You looked for contagion
Within the big lie
You bonded together
In a criminal world

You're so superficial
And think that you're special
But you're a sheep
You're a weirdo
Why the hell do you live in fear?
What's going on here?

I don't care if it hurts
You've given up control
You're gonna wreck your body
And sell out your soul
I hope that you notice
Everyone's still around

You're so superficial
Yet think that you're special
But you're a sheep
You're a weirdo
Why the hell do you live in fear?
What's going on here?

Oh... Oh...
He's conning us again
He's conning us
A con...
Con!
Con!
Con!
Con!

Wearing your face nappy
You'll get what you want

You're so superficial
Do you think that you're special?
Well, you're a sheep
You're a weirdo
Why the hell do you live in fear?
What's going on here?
Yeah, what's going on here?

Original text by CHARLIE CHESWICK

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War

One song that's more relevant than ever today is "War", originally written under the famous Motown label to be performed by The Temptations and finally recorded by Edwin Starr to become a major hit and probably the most popular protest song ever. During the following decades, it has been covered by countless artists. Clearly, music doesn't soothe minds — at least not for everyone. As a bonus, I'm also including an excellent cover by The Jam, which is my favourite because that's how I got to hear this song first. May it become a mantra.Ey@el

War, huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, oh hoh, oh
War huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again y'all
War, huh good God
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me

Oh, war, I despise
'Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go off to fight and lose their lives

I said
War, huh good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, just say it again
War whoa Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker

Oh war, is an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest within the younger generation
Induction, then destruction — who wants to die ?

War, good God, y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it, say it, say it
War, uh huh, yeah, huh
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, it's got one friend that's the undertaker

Oh, war has shattered many young man's dreams
Made him disabled bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious to spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life it can only take it away, ooh

War, huh, good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again
War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker

Peace love and understanding tell me
Is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way

War, huh, good God y'all
What is it good for?
You tell 'em, say it, say it, say it, say it
War, good Lord, huh
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it, nothing
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker

Cover version by The Jam

Original text by NORMAN WHITFIELD

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Devil Inside

Here comes the woman
With the look in her eye,
Raised on leather
With flesh on her mind,
Words as weapons sharper than knives,
Makes you wonder how the other half dies.

Here come the man
With the look in his eye,
Fed on nothing
But full of pride.
Look at them go,
Look at them kick,
Makes you wonder how the other half lives.

The devil inside...
The devil inside...
Every single one of us the devil inside.

The devil inside...
The devil inside...
Every single one of us the devil inside.

Here comes the world
With the look in its eye,
Future uncertain but certainly slight.
Look at the faces,
Listen to the bells,
It's hard to believe we need a place called hell.

Original text by MICHAEL HUTCHENCE

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How to Add Audiobooks to Calibre Library

Until now, I had to store my handful of audiobooks in my Kodi music library since it wasn't possible to add them to  Calibre alongside my other books, which wasn't very convenient not to have everything in the same place. Especially when you have the same audiobooks in other formats (digital or hard copies). But now, that's ancient history since Calibre's developer Kovid Goyal finally has implemented this missing functionality.

How to Add Your Audiobooks to Calibre

• Click on Add books - Add Empty Book (CTRL+MAJ+E).
  
  Thereupon you need to enter the number of books you wish to add, author's name, series title and book title (these options are especially helpful if you had a whole series or collection of books by a same author and wish to save the trouble of manually filling in these fields for each book) then click OK to valid.
  
  
• Your book is now displayed in the cover browser (or list depending of how you have configured Calibre to look like) and you may fill in the missing information by clicking on Edit metadata individually and proceed as you would for ebooks.
• Once done with the metadata, click on Add Books - Add data files to selected book entries then select all the audiofiles of your audiobook folder and click OK.
• Select your book again and right click to Open Book Folder - Open Book Data Folder.
  
  In the data folder where Calibre has previously copied all your book audio files, select all files and open them with your media player to create a m3u playlist which you may save in a temporary folder.
  
  
• Back to Calibre, Edit metadata individually then Add new format for this book and select the m3u playlist you've just created with your media player and click OK.
  
  You will now be able to play your audiobook by clicking on this format in the book details as you do for ebooks.

NOTE: Same as for ebooks, you may delete original audio files and playlist as Calibre has copied them all in its library.

A New Easier Way to Catalog Your Printed Books in Calibre

• Six months ago, I explained how to add printed books to Calibre by creating as many dummy TXT files, which was quite a tedious task. Now there's a much easier and quicker way to do that as we saw while adding audiobooks since all you need to do is Add books - Add Empty Book then edit metadata as previoulsy explained.
• If you've used my old method, you may delete the dummy text files using unneccessary space on your hard disk by selecting your books and Delete specific format files for selected books.
  
  Thereupon a list of format will be displayed according to what's available in your selection of books. Just tick TXT then OK and you're done.

NOTE: If you have books both in paper or digital format, no need to create several entries for the same books. Instead create customized columns for printed book formats which you may then fill in manually where applicable. I have also added a field for audiobook length.

Hoping this tutorial will be of any use to you.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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A Midsummer Night Delight

A recipe inspired by my love of tasty treats and the bagfuls of juicy blackberries I picked up by the river, coping with the hot sun, unfriendly bugs and tangles of sharp thorns and stinging nettles. To cut it short, that's an all-burned, bitten and scratched yours truly in tatters who thought her hard labour deserved two treats in one. That's how I came up with the heavenly idea of combining my brownie recipe with my chocolate pie recipe. The result turned out so divine I had to share it with you (I mean, the recipe, no point in licking up your screen!).

Ingredients

Serves 8:

Cake

- 450 g sweet potato
- 15 fresh dates
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoon raw cocoa powder
- 70 g ground almond
- 60 g oatmeal
- 1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping

- 225 g cashews
- 80 ml water
- 60 g coconut oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tbsp raw cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp agave syrup
- ¼ tsp vanilla powder
- 100 g blackberries
- chocolate chips

Instructions

Make cake: peel the sweet potato, cut it into pieces and boil for about 15 minutes. Drain and purée.

Pit and cut dates in small pieces and mix with 6 tablespoon of water. Add sweet potato purée, vanilla and cocoa.

Grind oatmeal to make flour. Add ground almond and salt and add to dough.

Transfer to a square baking pan lined with baking paper. Bake 40-50 minutes at 180°C.

Mix all the ingredients for the topping and process to a thick smooth dough.

Remove cooled cake from pan and arrange on a serving plate. Cover with topping before it hardens and smooth with a spatula.

Decorate with fresh blackberries and sprinkle with chocolate chips for crispness.

Allow to chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours before serving. Tastes even better if you can wait overnight.

NOTE: Also tastes great with gooseberries and why not try with raspberries or other berries which generally blend well with chocolate.

I haven't tried it yet, but it would be nice to bake the dough in muffin pans to make cupcakes and use a pastry bag to arrange chocolate cream on top.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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Chocolate Bliss

For those who aren't lucky to go on holiday this year, as a consolation here's a tasty  quick and super easy recipe (no cooking required) to indulge into a sweet chocolatey bliss. Tested and approved by my beloved gang of gourmets.

Ingredients

Makes 12 mini pies:

Crust

- 180 g buckwheat flakes
- 60 g almond powder
- 2½ tbsp coconut oil
- 2½ tbsp agave syrup

Topping

- 225 g cashews
- 100 ml water
- 60 g coconut oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tbsp raw cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp agave syrup
- ¼ tsp vanilla powder

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients for the pastry together in a large bowl using your hands to get a consistent, grainy mixture. Add some coconut oil if necessary.

Scoop the dough in the silicone moulds, about one heaped tablespoon each. Use a glass jar, the same diameter as the moulds to press the crust on the bottom and sides. Let it sit for 5 minutes in the freezer to harden and bake for 15 minutes at 180°C. Once cooled, unmould and arrange on a large dish or plate.

Mix all the ingredients for the topping and process to a thick smooth dough.

Scoop over the pie crusts and allow to chill in the fridge for about 6 hours.

NOTE: You may use oatmeals instead of buckwheat flakes if you are not gluten intolerant. Although the gluten in oats is a different molecule than the one found in wheat, which is far less aggressive and in lower concentrations. However, if you're very sensitive to gluten, you may still experience inflammatory responses. Buckwheat does not contain gluten but its greatest advantage is to contain all the essential amino acids the human body needs.

You may choose not to bake the crust. If so, let sit 30 minutes in the freezer. You may also add some cocoa to colour the crust.

Blessed art thou Saint Chocolate, amen!

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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