Brown rice

PBA method: boil brown rice to get rid of arsenic, then cook as usual in the rice cooker.

Prepare a big pot of water, heat to boiling. The amount of water does not need to be accurately measured. The important thing is for there to be much more water than rice, to help leach out the arsenic. For me, it's about 3-4 quarts (liters) of water.

Wash and strain 405g uncooked brown rice.

Add the cleaned rice to the boiling water, boil for 5 minutes, uncovered.

Strain out the rice again, discarding the cooking water.

Put the rice into the rice cooker, add clean water to the "3" mark. Finish cooking in the rice cooker.

Cleaning: the scum that is left in the big pot can be scrubbed off with baking soda.

Kabocha

Clean and scrub.

Microwave for 1-2 minutes to soften the skin and make the squash easier to cut.

Cut in half, scoop out the seeds.

Cut into 1-inch chunks.

Toss with kosher salt, neutral oil, pepper.

Roast at 425F for 15-20 minutes.

RetroArch

Installing and configuring RetroArch in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, running on a Lenovo X220.

Fresh install of Ubuntu comes with RetroArch, but I couldn't find the cores. There may have been easy fix (Settings > User Interface > Menu Item Visibility > Show 'Core Downloader') but I've already changed too much, and I don't feel like doing another fresh install to try. 

Snap package could not play in-game audio, possibly because of sand-boxing. Do not bother with snap package.

Installed the PPA from github:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libretro/stable && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install retroarch

Had to modify the config (vi ~/.config/retroarch.cfg) so that

libretro_directory = "~/.config/retroarch/cores"

libretro_info_path = "~/.config/retroarch/cores/info"

And create the info directory (the cores directory already existed)

Start (or restart) RetroArch. Now Main > Online Updater > Core Downloader should be visible, but don't click it yet. First choose

• Update Core Info Files
• Update Controller Profiles
• Update Cheats
• Update Databases
• Update Overlays
• Update GLSL Shaders

Do one at a time, don't rush.

Then choose Core Downloader and you should be able to find e.g. mGBA, melonDS DS, and so on in the list.

Transfer ROMs over to e.g. ~/roms/gba and ~/roms/nds directories, using scp for example.

Then scan for them: "+" symbol > Scan Directory > roms/gba or roms/nds or even just roms.

If everything was setup correctly, the main menu bar should have a GBA icon or an NDS icon. If not, check the cores can be loaded. 

FWIW, "pulse" was the default sound driver, there was stuttering in Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA). The "alsa" driver should be better (it was).

RetroArch controls

• F1 quits the game 
• Pressing ESC twice quits RetroArch
• Navigating the menu using the keyboard: Backspace goes up a level, arrow keys up and down menu, ENTER to dive into a menu item.

Things I tried that didn't work

• The Lakka distro wraps RetroArch in LibreElec. Nice, but could not get the x220 to display externally, and sound buttons did not change sound volume.