RL things I love

[OldFrightful]

@Auspice said in RL things I love:

And seitan works super well with Cavender's greek spice to make faux-gyro meat.

I had seitan for the first time two weeks ago. Reading this dredged up all the incredibly confused feelings that went through my head while chewing it, none of which were 'this tastes like and/or has the texture of meat'.

[Auspice]

@OldFrightful said in RL things I love:

@Auspice said in RL things I love:

And seitan works super well with Cavender's greek spice to make faux-gyro meat.

I had seitan for the first time two weeks ago. Reading this dredged up all the incredibly confused feelings that went through my head while chewing it, none of which were 'this tastes like and/or has the texture of meat'.

I think it really depends on how it's prepared. Kinda like tofu.

[Catsmeow]

I've tried all the various types of 'eating healthy'. I've been paleo, vegetarian, vegan, raw, juicing, water fasting, following the food pyramid, etc.

Seitan and I don't really get along. It's because I'm a texture eater and I have a hard time with it. That said there have been times in my life that I've eaten it and found a way to 'tolerate' it. So it's very much like all food and up to personal preference; I think.

[mietze]

I tend to not like seitan that's not homemade (or in-house made, if it's at a restaurant). But that ups the time consumption (and how you make it will greatly influence the texture, like making pasta).

[WTFE]

At the end of February I supported my third crowd-funding thing. While the first two were wargames, and were done by people I directly or indirectly knew, this third one was music and I'd never encountered the pair of musicians involved ever in any capacity. Their pitch video had enough intriguing strands of music that I suspected they'd put their most commercial foot forward for it and that their real music was something I wanted to listen to.

So I took a gamble and put in the highest tier of individual support.

Later I found some of their earlier work. I love it when my instincts are proved right.

[Arkandel]

My regular basketball group broke up a while ago after the school gym we were using became unavailable as of last August, which means it's been almost a year since I played.

I just subscribed to a new meetup at the UoT. I've missed playing a lot, dammit. Hopefully everyone there won't be in their early twenties and 6'5+.

[Catsmeow]

@Arkandel

If they are can you take video?

Asking for a friend

Also: My anxiety.

Normally, I don't like it and just tolerate it (like that ONE person in your family, you know the one). However, because I'm so anxious about this move and having a panic about thinking everything won't be done; I'm almost completely done packing everything I own two weeks early.

[WTFE]

I have always loved fountain pens, from childhood on. They're so much nicer to write with: no pressure, just slide them across the paper and leave a trail of crap writing behind. Ballpoints need pressure which eventually hurts your hand, and leave a trail of crap writing and dented paper behind.

Living in Canada, though, it was almost impossible to get decent fountain pens. At the affordable end were disposable (!) Parkers that were utter shit at every level. At the mid-range were overpriced Parkers and a few other smaller players that were utter shit, but at least weren't disposable. And at the high end you had stupidly expensive, gaudily decorated tubes that ... still wrote like shit. (Montblanc, I'm looking at you here!)

So I stopped using them.

Then I moved to China.

In China (for a variety of reasons, including one that's so funny you'd swear I was making it up if I told you so I won't) fountains are still the dominant writing instrument. Ballpoints are available and used, but most people reach for a fountain when doing anything serious. (Indeed you're NOT ALLOWED to use a ballpoint on some official documents for reasons which escape me!) As a result, I've gotten back into using fountain pens.

There's a problem, though, and that is nibs. A lot of times new pens' nibs are scratchy and hard to work with. They take some of the joy of a good fountain pen away. I had no idea how to deal with this beyond just gritting my teeth and writing with the pen until the nib is worn down to my writing position.

Then I found out I'm an idiot.

Because there's totally a way to get rid of those burrs and mis-matched tines without buying a hundred nibs and finding the ones that are perfect. It's really simple too. You get yourself one of these:

That is an ultra-fine grit Whetstone. The red side is sintered ruby and is 5000 grit. The mottled green side is jade and is 10,000 grit. A couple of minutes' work (and I mean that: about two minutes) and even the worst nib is turned into a smooth masterpiece that's a joy to write with. (It also clears up a few ink flow problems I had with one nib; not sure what the mechanism was there.)

So yes, that's ruby and jade, two gem stones, being used to fix up some cheap (by western standards) pens. 10cm×2.5cm×1cm. Meaning 12.5cm³ of ruby and 12.5cm³ of jade. As a whetstone.

Of course you pay for what you get. This little motherfucker set me back about…

…THREE FUCKING BUCKS U.S.!

What a world!

(The sintered diamond whetstone at 12,000 grit was too expensive for my tastes. At ten bucks.)

[Cupcake]

So I was reading how in an interview Kevin "Fucktard" Sorbo insisted that the Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus and even though collectively people have long since been "no, Romans, ok" about it, if people are gonna blame Jewish people for it, and without his death they wouldn't have their religion, I now kind of want to write a parody:

"It's okay, It's okay, you're welcome!/You always say that it was the Jews/What can we say except you're welcome!/He dies for all your sins, what good news!"

[Autumn]

[Misadventure]

I always thought it was the Jews didn't save Jeshua, choosing someone else, and the Romans didn't really care but he had broken the law according to some few. Given that God planned for/needed/made this happen, I don't see how anyone gets blamed. Divine Plan. This Lamb must die.

[mietze]

I assume he's a Christian. Jeez, you'd think he'd be more grateful!

[mietze]

Plus Christians are doing an awesome job of destroying Jesus and his teaching now. Maybe he's just jealous!

[Thenomain]

@mietze

Being a Neil deGrasse Tyson-style atheist, I know quite a few christians who are kind and caring and as far as I can figure live the teachings of Jesus the Christ.

To keep on theme with this thread, they are RL things (people) I love.

[Arkandel]

I'm Christian. I hate the things some Christians say or do by justifying them in a way which sounds like they represent everyone else in the group, too.

I think these days what I hate the most is organized religion, regardless of which one it is. Although the new Pope sounds like a cool dude.

[Cupcake]

The AHCA has failed; Americans will have the ACA for the foreseeable future.

[Autumn]

@WTFE said in RL things I love:

In China (for a variety of reasons, including one that's so funny you'd swear I was making it up if I told you so I won't) fountains are still the dominant writing instrument. Ballpoints are available and used, but most people reach for a fountain when doing anything serious. (Indeed you're NOT ALLOWED to use a ballpoint on some official documents for reasons which escape me!) As a result, I've gotten back into using fountain pens.

As a minor-league enthusiast for the fountain pen myself, I am now intensely curious as to the reason why fountain pens are still the dominant writing instrument there.

(And now I need to go and get a whetstone and see if this can resuscitate some of my late father's delightfully retro but awkwardly scratchy vintage Parkers.)

[surreality]

OK, so this is sort of a game thing. (I will call it my stereotypical Libra balancing act for bitching about something game and not game related at the same time in Random Bitching? I'm just gonna run with that.)

...I think I got the code I've been fighting with for about a week to work, finally. Which is the kind of thing that will probably make all of the competent coders look at me like I am an idiot, but I already completely own that when it comes to code•, I am a complete idiot, which is what makes this tantamount to a sheer miracle.

I know that writing this will surely jinx the shit out of me, and it will break in some new and creative way that makes the game implode into a pile of pixie dust, but for now, I am going to cheer and chair-dance to myself because I now have the fussy, anal-retentive +where code of my middle-aged cranky bitch dreams.

•...and many other things, too, but for now, I'm sticking to talking about the code. <cough>

[WTFE]

@Autumn said in RL things I love:

@WTFE said in RL things I love:

In China (for a variety of reasons, including one that's so funny you'd swear I was making it up if I told you so I won't) fountains are still the dominant writing instrument. Ballpoints are available and used, but most people reach for a fountain when doing anything serious. (Indeed you're NOT ALLOWED to use a ballpoint on some official documents for reasons which escape me!) As a result, I've gotten back into using fountain pens.

As a minor-league enthusiast for the fountain pen myself, I am now intensely curious as to the reason why fountain pens are still the dominant writing instrument there.

Until literally this year they were unable to make the balls for ballpoints themselves. This meant they had to import them which jacked up the cost.

(And now I need to go and get a whetstone and see if this can resuscitate some of my late father's delightfully retro but awkwardly scratchy vintage Parkers.)

A minimum of 4000 grit to shape (I use 5000) and 8000 grit to polish (I use 10,000). Anything lower than 4000/8000 and you'll make the pens worse, likely.

[Auspice]

I recently watched through the episodes of British Baking Challenge on Netflix. One challenge was a Madeira cake.

Shortly after watching said episode, I decided I wanted to make an orange one. With an orange rum glaze.

Today, for the first time, I modified recipes / used them as inspiration instead of just following a recipe to the letter...

...and omg it came out amazing.