I couldn’t do it. I don’t give up on many books. But with Shantaram I just couldn’t make it all the way through. I’ve never read a more unbelievable self-aggrandising autobiography. I got to when he’s in Afghanistan, and I completely lost interest.
I think there are things that you can learn about the world from reading Shantaram, but you need to filter out so much trash. The signal to noise ratio is not high enough.
One star. Maybe 2.
I recently spun up a Rocket.Chat server using Linode/Akamai’s pre-rolled scripts, and it mostly worked well. The main issue being that the URI included in all the emails was stuck as the host name of the server rather than the site-url as set in the settings.
The fix is as follows
First of all connect to the server console (be it via LISH or SSH or however). Install the Mongo database client
sudo apt install mongodb-clientsConnect to the database by running
mongoSelect the parties database
use partiesRun a query to find the Site_Url setting and confirm that the correct URI is set in “value” and the incorrect URI is set in “packageValue”
db.rocketchat_settings.find({"_id" : "Site_Url"}).pretty()Run a query to update “packageValue” to the correct URI (replace <correct URI> with your URI)
db.rocketchat_settings.update({"_id" : "SiteUrl"},{$set:{packageValue:"<correct URI>"}})Repeat the find query to make sure the change was made. Reboot the server and the problem should be solved.
I’m about a third of the way through Shantaram. Lots of people have told me that I need to read it, and that it’ll change my life. I’m always sceptical about bold claims. Especially life-changing ones. But now that I’m a third of the way through, I think that it will have a profound impact on my life. We’ll see. Stand by.
The thing I feel most confident about at the moment about Shantaram is that it’s an exercise in embellishment.
No, not like that.
6 years (and 4 days) ago, my eldest son went into the operating theatre, where the doctors were going to extract about a pint (imperial pint, not a fake South Australian pint) of bone-marrow. They do this with individual five millilitre syringes, one at a time. 120 of them. Anyway – let’s not dwell on that bit. This bone-marrow was for my other son who was 7 days into conditioning chemo as part of treatment for leukaemia.
It was terrible and difficult and shit, but also incredible. Because it worked, and I think we even had a pretty “easy” run compared to others. He’s here on the couch in the living room watching Survivor. Which is apt, now that I think about it.
Because he didn’t have any immune system until the bone-marrow took hold and started growing and producing cells, he was isolated in hospital. Triple doors. Positive pressure room. Two non-parent, non-medical, non-hospital-staff visitors. Total, for the whole time he was in there.
That whole time was tipped to be about 60-100 days.
And this is why I think we had an “easy” run. Because 34 days later he was out of the hospital and we were living in an apartment near the hospital while we finalised a few things before travelling back to Adelaide. Semi-isolation.
The hospital food was, by all reports, drab. So the first dinner out of hospital with “real” food had to be special, but still had to be home-cooked and fresh because of infection risks.
I was asked to make Massaman curry, and seeing that food disappear without any negotiating was incredibly special.
On that day Massaman became the most emotional and meaningful meal I can cook for my family, and I often have a quiet little moment with myself when I do.
Recipe has been requested. Here goes. If an ingredient doesn’t have a quantity listed, it calls for “some” of it where where “some” is what feels right.
1/4 cup peanuts
2 shallots (or half an onion)
5 cloves of garlic
inch-cube of ginger (ish)
1-2 chillies
lemongrass
ground cumin
ground coriander
small amount of nutmeg
cinnamon
cloves (1 or 2)
cardamom (black stuff, not with the pods)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
Potatoes
Peas (this is purely optional, but is how I cooked it on that night 6 years ago, so….that’s how it remains)
Put everything (except the potatoes, peas) in a blender with a bit of coconut milk and blend into a smooth paste.
Brown some meat, then add the paste and the remainder of the tin of coconut milk.
Cook until tender, adding water as required. Dice the potatoes and chuck them in and cook until it’s all done. Some more peanuts and the peas at the end.
Serve on rice.
.
.
I’d heard of Desert Island Discs before, but the most recent episode of No Such Thing As A Fish piqued my interest. Not so much about the programme, but about what eight tracks I would choose to bring along to my unplanned deserted island getaway. And what would be the ONE track I would bring.
I would need a belter. Something to really throw my everything into.
Something metal, to keep the evil spirits company. I was going to have a second mind-melting time signature category, but I think that can be combined with the metal.
Something sexy, to keep the evil spirits company.
Something gentle, but interesting. This will complement the sexy quite well.
A silly skatepunk song to goof around to. This will be a good one to double up for a teenage nostalgia song, too.
Now it’s starting to get difficult. Something grungy would be good, but…Ten or Siamese Dream?
Tom Waits gets his own category, but…what song? That’s tricky.
And for the final song, it has to be something folky. Something with a story. And I’m going to cheat a bit and pick three songs as one.
I am, of course, having second thoughts now that I’ve picked my songs, but this is where I landed this time. If I were to do this again at another time, with a different day behind me, I suspect I would end up with a different list.
The list ended up thusly:
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son
Meshuggah – Combustion (mind-melting and heavy as)
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros – Mondo Bongo
Portishead – Wandering Star (there’s a little half-second piano solo around the 2-minute mark that makes this song incredibly special for me. I don’t know why it’s so special, but that little repeated chord is something else.)
Blink 182 – M+M’s
The Smashing Pumpkins – Mayonaise
Tom Waits – Tango Till They’re Sore
The Decemberists – Crane Wife 1, 2, and 3.
I regret not including The Cranberries, but I don’t know what I’d take out. Knee-jerk reaction is to remove Blink 182 because they’re not a “good” band, but there’s an energy to the music that I wouldn’t want to part with. I think replacing the belter (Fortunate Son) with The Cranberries would be the way to go, and picking a suitably sing-y Cranberries song.
Picking a single song to keep me company until I’m rescued isn’t easy, but because this is the game, I will choose Wandering Star.
I’d love to hear what 8 songs you would choose to bring along – comment below. 🙂