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    Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.

    Tastes Less Game'y
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    • TNP
      TNP @Auspice last edited by

      @Auspice

      She’ll always have a female voice, but if you want her to have an Australian, Indian, southern U.S., or some other accent to match your family’s speech patterns, you can absolutely do that.

      Alas. Though the accents are pretty cool.

      Auspice Derp 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Auspice
        Auspice @TNP last edited by

        @TNP said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

        @Auspice

        She’ll always have a female voice, but if you want her to have an Australian, Indian, southern U.S., or some other accent to match your family’s speech patterns, you can absolutely do that.

        Alas. Though the accents are pretty cool.

        Well, hey, on the bright side you can make Waze a dude. Or sometimes a boy band. Or sometimes C-3PO.
        😛

        Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Alamias
          Alamias @TNP last edited by Alamias

          @TNP Doesn't 'Alexa' let you change to Samuel L Jackson's voice, or am I thinking of one of the other ones?

          https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-L-Jackson-celebrity-voice/dp/B07WS3HN5Q

          Edited to add: Never mind. This isn't what I thought it was.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Aria
            Aria last edited by

            White People Problems: Bitching about the price of hummus.

            ....But I am also legitimately annoyed at the price of hummus. A single 8 oz tub is $4.89? WTF?!

            https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
            There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello

            Kestrel TNP 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • Kestrel
              Kestrel Banned @Aria last edited by Kestrel

              @Aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

              White People Problems: Bitching about the price of hummus.

              ....But I am also legitimately annoyed at the price of hummus. A single 8 oz tub is $4.89? WTF?!

              Hummus recipe:
              buy can of chickpeas
              drain can of chickpeas
              pour drained can of chickpeas in blender
              blitz

              cheaper, tastier, healthier, fresher hummus.

              Squeeze lemon and add tahini/salt/garlic if desired.

              — your friendly neighbourhood Israeli

              Aria Kanye Qwest 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 5
              • Pandora
                Pandora last edited by

                My favorite new author is a struggling young artist & I started supporting him on Patreon last year, in October. The tier I subbed at gets you a handwritten thank you card, a bookmark, stickers, and the best part - a collectible fridge magnet in the shape of one of the cans of the canned human meat they eat in the cannibalistic post-apocalyptic setting of the novels: "Good Boy" made of healthy young people, "Foi Ras" made from the liver of people that were force-fed corn, etc. It's grim, I love it.

                Anyway! I subbed in October. So that's October, November, December, and now the end of January. I didn't get any of the things in the mail! I was so miffed, and since I finished reading all the books to-date anyway, I cancelled the sub and added the reason was not getting the tier stuff. This was like 2 days ago. TODAY, I get a package in the mail from him with all the stuff and a personalized note apologizing that it took so long and including some extra freebies - including the full set of the magnets!

                I feel terrible for being an impatient asshole, but I'm too fucking embarrassed to re-sub. What do I do? So annoying!

                Tinuviel about 9 hours ago
                I hate you with the power of a thousand Pandoras.

                Aria G 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • TNP
                  TNP @Aria last edited by

                  @Aria Yeah, it's actually pretty easy to make. The only tricky part is getting the flavor right but once you do, you know the proportions from then on.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Aria
                    Aria @Kestrel last edited by

                    @Kestrel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                    @Aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                    White People Problems: Bitching about the price of hummus.

                    ....But I am also legitimately annoyed at the price of hummus. A single 8 oz tub is $4.89? WTF?!

                    Hummus recipe:
                    buy can of chickpeas
                    drain can of chickpeas
                    pour drained can of chickpeas in blender
                    blitz

                    cheaper, tastier, healthier, fresher hummus.

                    Squeeze lemon and add tahini/salt/garlic if desired.

                    — your friendly neighbourhood Israeli

                    You got any recommendations for adding tasty extra flavors? I have made it 'plain' at home before, but it's honestly the extra flavors that I miss.

                    https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
                    There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello

                    Kestrel 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Aria
                      Aria @Pandora last edited by Aria

                      @Pandora said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                      My favorite new author is a struggling young artist & I started supporting him on Patreon last year, in October. The tier I subbed at gets you a handwritten thank you card, a bookmark, stickers, and the best part - a collectible fridge magnet in the shape of one of the cans of the canned human meat they eat in the cannibalistic post-apocalyptic setting of the novels: "Good Boy" made of healthy young people, "Foi Ras" made from the liver of people that were force-fed corn, etc. It's grim, I love it.

                      Anyway! I subbed in October. So that's October, November, December, and now the end of January. I didn't get any of the things in the mail! I was so miffed, and since I finished reading all the books to-date anyway, I cancelled the sub and added the reason was not getting the tier stuff. This was like 2 days ago. TODAY, I get a package in the mail from him with all the stuff and a personalized note apologizing that it took so long and including some extra freebies - including the full set of the magnets!

                      I feel terrible for being an impatient asshole, but I'm too fucking embarrassed to re-sub. What do I do? So annoying!

                      Re-sub and say thank you. I recently received a Kickstarter for an indie tarot deck I ordered awhile back and somehow ended up with five nines and zero eights. I messaged the artist and she was so sweet and apologetic and offering me all sorts of free extras, but I told her not to worry about everything else as long as I could get the missing cards. They came super fast, she sent out a note to the other backers in case someone has many eights and no nines, and seemed really happy I was so chill about it.

                      It's okay to ask someone to fix a mistake in something you paid for! It's not okay to be an asshole about it.

                      Also, they would probably be happy to have the subscription money coming in again.

                      https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
                      There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • G
                        GreenFlashlight @Pandora last edited by

                        @Pandora said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                        My favorite new author is a struggling young artist & I started supporting him on Patreon last year, in October. The tier I subbed at gets you a handwritten thank you card, a bookmark, stickers, and the best part - a collectible fridge magnet in the shape of one of the cans of the canned human meat they eat in the cannibalistic post-apocalyptic setting of the novels: "Good Boy" made of healthy young people, "Foi Ras" made from the liver of people that were force-fed corn, etc. It's grim, I love it.

                        Anyway! I subbed in October. So that's October, November, December, and now the end of January. I didn't get any of the things in the mail! I was so miffed, and since I finished reading all the books to-date anyway, I cancelled the sub and added the reason was not getting the tier stuff. This was like 2 days ago. TODAY, I get a package in the mail from him with all the stuff and a personalized note apologizing that it took so long and including some extra freebies - including the full set of the magnets!

                        I feel terrible for being an impatient asshole, but I'm too fucking embarrassed to re-sub. What do I do? So annoying!

                        You are the wronged party. Your re-sub is forgiveness, not an admission of guilt.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • Kestrel
                          Kestrel Banned @Aria last edited by Kestrel

                          @Aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                          @Kestrel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                          @Aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                          White People Problems: Bitching about the price of hummus.

                          ....But I am also legitimately annoyed at the price of hummus. A single 8 oz tub is $4.89? WTF?!

                          Hummus recipe:
                          buy can of chickpeas
                          drain can of chickpeas
                          pour drained can of chickpeas in blender
                          blitz

                          cheaper, tastier, healthier, fresher hummus.

                          Squeeze lemon and add tahini/salt/garlic if desired.

                          — your friendly neighbourhood Israeli

                          You got any recommendations for adding tasty extra flavors? I have made it 'plain' at home before, but it's honestly the extra flavors that I miss.

                          Before I go into this let me start by saying that I am not a food snob and you can eat whatever makes your heart happy.

                          However, I will honour the tradition of my people (and all people who lay any kind of claim to any kind of food, ever, hello Italian grandmothers everywhere) by saying that the simple, authentic recipe is best.

                          These newfangled fancy-shmancy white people beetroot/pepper/whatever hummuses do not land with myself nor most Middle Eastern & Mediterranean people I know. Hummus is chickpeas, that's it. Keep it simples and traditional. You wouldn't put peas in guacamole, right? Right. That's just antisocial behaviour right there.

                          But some things are OK. Tahini makes it creamy, salt and lemon juice adds zing, and garlic makes everything better, always. I don't think there's a wrong way or a right way to add these ingredients because I'm a free hummus spirit and do what I feel like at the time. The only thing I would say is that these are the only ingredients you should add at the base, i.e., before you actually turn the blender on.

                          Everything else is toppings. For example, olive oil. It's incorrect to add olive oil into the blender because it tastes better folded in. It adds another layer of texture rippled and drizzled on top, like berries or chocolate through a cheesecake.

                          Harissa is a good addition for a spicy kick. You wanna be extra? Gochujang sauce will do pretty much the same job. It should be layered in a ring, encircling the big dollop of hummus in the middle and not touching the edges of the container, ideally. This is so that with every dip you can choose whether to layer it on or not. You don't want it to actually mix with the hummus, ever, you want it to be paired, like salsa vs. sour cream vs. guac. Other things to sprinkle on top include paprika and various herbs, but again, these are garnishes, not to be mixed in too early on. Parsley is the obvious choice but coriander is fine if you don't have the gene that makes you hate it. Drizzling on a little bit of tahini sauce is also nice, but you shouldn't make tahini sauce just for the sake of hummus, and it's its own thing that tends to confuse the unfamiliar so best leave it if you don't know what that is. (The cliffnotes: you need to add lots of water. Tahini should never be eaten on its own. It's not meant to be. Lots of people think they don't like tahini because they don't know how to prepare it so they just get a mouthful of sticky bad texturedness. It needs to be frothed and seasoned. I like adding dates.)

                          But I will let you in on the one big secret that all white people seem to miss: za'atar. Good lord, za'atar.

                          Za'atar is the stuff of gods. When hummus started popping up all over the place in the last decade or so I thought it was kind of cute and weird but OK, good for Westerners discovering a good thing. Za'atar seems to be the final frontier. Undiscovered magic.

                          Do yourself a favour and check yourself into your nearest middle eastern market or whatever and buy yourself some za'atar and then just put it on literally everything. Eat it out of the jar, even. But definitely, absolutely, slather it all over hummus.


                          This is all a lot of fancy though and I don't want to intimidate anyone. Hummus is perfectly fine all on its own. You don't even need salt and lemon and the other stuff. It's really OK to just drain a can of chickpeas and blend it and call it a day. Nobody will judge you. We aren't Italian grandmothers.

                          But, if you haven't yet tried za'atar, thank me later.

                          EDIT: Extra bonus points, soundtrack to prepare hummus to the tune of: https://youtu.be/eOpCMbNegW0

                          Aria 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Derp
                            Derp Admin @TNP last edited by

                            @TNP said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                            @Auspice

                            She’ll always have a female voice, but if you want her to have an Australian, Indian, southern U.S., or some other accent to match your family’s speech patterns, you can absolutely do that.

                            Alas. Though the accents are pretty cool.

                            Pfft. You're thinking too small.

                            It should be named Alfred, and be voiced by Michael Caine. Obviously.

                            Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • Aria
                              Aria @Kestrel last edited by

                              @Kestrel I was mostly thinking toppings, not weird blended in flavors. (It's already weird that we serve hummus cold.)

                              I will admit, however, to liking a good white bean hummus with garlic and za'atar and pine nuts. That stuff is delicious and I have no regrets.

                              https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
                              There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello

                              Kestrel 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                              • Kestrel
                                Kestrel Banned @Aria last edited by Kestrel

                                @Aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                                (It's already weird that we serve hummus cold.)

                                Oh my goodness, preach.

                                I stick to the basics. It sounds like you're doing OK.

                                My father who happens to be the biggest hummus fan I know goes in for glazed mushrooms, caramelised onions and cooked chickpeas on top. Personally I don't but it's fairly traditional. e.g.:

                                alt text

                                I prefer to keep it simple with:
                                — fresh chopped parsley (see above)
                                — paprika (see above)
                                — extra virgin olive oil (somewhat lacking in the above)
                                — all the za'atar (extremely lacking in the above)
                                — lots of harissa, or gochujang sauce, I like it 🌶🌶🌶
                                — tahini sauce (recipe)

                                If I'm feeling extra:
                                — various (any) seeds, e.g., pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, etc.
                                — a smattering of nutritional yeast, both for that B12 fix and because I like the flavour

                                Served with:
                                — heat, obviously, and thank you
                                — hot wholemeal pita bread fresh out the oven
                                — dill pickle spears and olives, the tartness really just adds something for me
                                — tabouleh (a very fine parsley salad)
                                — chopped israeli salad (the super simple traditional kind that consists of just finely minced cucumber, tomato, onion and some seasoning, no fancy variations)
                                — 4-5 falafels, if I'm really that hungry, but all of the above is usually more than enough

                                But the above is just an insane feast that realistically I wouldn't be having unless I was at a restaurant. I tend to just keep hummus in the fridge and dip some seeded toast into it like anyone else. I usually don't even have it with oil/salt because you know, watching that figure.

                                One slightly fancier type of hummus I do like is called "meshulash", which translates literally to triangle. It doesn't look anything like a triangle, but it combines three styles in one dish, hence the name:

                                alt text

                                I've never attempted to make anything so sacred on my own; I leave that to professionals.

                                N.B., apologies to everyone for my derailment of this thread, and please blame @Aria for getting me excited about hummus.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • Kestrel
                                  Kestrel Banned last edited by Kestrel

                                  Back to RL peeves, disgruntlements and irks.

                                  I just saw a fashion advert on Facebook for stylish anti-pollution air masks.

                                  If that's not peak capitalism I don't know what is.

                                  G Auspice 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                  • G
                                    GreenFlashlight @Kestrel last edited by

                                    @Kestrel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                                    Back to RL peeves, disgruntlements and irks.

                                    I just saw a fashion advert on Facebook for stylish anti-pollution air masks.

                                    If that's not peak capitalism I don't know what is.

                                    Health insurance is worse, but this is damn close.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • Auspice
                                      Auspice @Kestrel last edited by

                                      @Kestrel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                                      Back to RL peeves, disgruntlements and irks.

                                      I just saw a fashion advert on Facebook for stylish anti-pollution air masks.

                                      If that's not peak capitalism I don't know what is.

                                      Yes/no.
                                      It's showing up because of that virus, but they've been a thing for a handful of years at least because of kids with severe asthma and allergies and such who need to wear them.

                                      And I'm pretty in favor of lettIng the kid with a health condition have a cool thing to help them feel better about it.

                                      Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.

                                      L. B. Heuschkel Derp Kestrel 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • L. B. Heuschkel
                                        L. B. Heuschkel @Auspice last edited by

                                        @Auspice Can confirm. I mean, I have to wear an air mask in some places because of asthma; dust does murder on me. I'm a hell of a lot more inclined to get a funny one. XD

                                        http://keys.aresmush.com -- Come to Chincoteague, we have ponies.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                        • Derp
                                          Derp Admin @Auspice last edited by

                                          @Auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                                          @Kestrel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                                          Back to RL peeves, disgruntlements and irks.

                                          I just saw a fashion advert on Facebook for stylish anti-pollution air masks.

                                          If that's not peak capitalism I don't know what is.

                                          Yes/no.
                                          It's showing up because of that virus, but they've been a thing for a handful of years at least because of kids with severe asthma and allergies and such who need to wear them.

                                          And I'm pretty in favor of lettIng the kid with a health condition have a cool thing to help them feel better about it.

                                          The partner has one for CF reasons, too. His is kind of badass.

                                          Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • Kestrel
                                            Kestrel Banned @Auspice last edited by

                                            @Auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                                            @Kestrel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

                                            Back to RL peeves, disgruntlements and irks.

                                            I just saw a fashion advert on Facebook for stylish anti-pollution air masks.

                                            If that's not peak capitalism I don't know what is.

                                            Yes/no.
                                            It's showing up because of that virus, but they've been a thing for a handful of years at least because of kids with severe asthma and allergies and such who need to wear them.

                                            And I'm pretty in favor of lettIng the kid with a health condition have a cool thing to help them feel better about it.

                                            I live in London which is a city with a toxic air pollution crisis. I'm pretty sure this is the only reason Facebook is targeting me with these ads.

                                            I follow a whole-food plant-based diet, have never smoked, rarely drink. A few years ago I had what felt like sinusitis except it lasted literally 2 years. I saw a few NHS doctors about it to try and figure out wtf was wrong with my nose and was told I had a "nasal polyp". (Non cancerous growth blocking my respiratory system and making it hard for me to breathe.)

                                            When I asked what that is and why I have it, considering the healthy lifestyle I lead, my doctor told me, 'Oh don't worry! Everyone in London has them.' At the time I was walking 10,000 steps a day, often through crowded, polluted streets. After that I stopped.

                                            Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, this has been part 1 of why Kestrel campaigns with Extinction Rebellion and is so angry, all of the time.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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