Sep 10, 2016, 8:40 PM
RL things I love
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@SG said in RL things I love:
Clearly this is a dastardly act of "cultural appropriation" according to Oberlin College students.
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@Tyche ...meanwhile, most of us who remember college from about 20 years ago are doubtless thinking: "Are you fucking kidding me? I would have killed for even crappy grocery store sushi as an option in the dining hall, fuck you so very very much."
We bastardize everybody's food, dammit.
It's what we dooooooooooooo. Nobody is really especially singled out on this particular front.We've done it to pretty much everybody. Even European cultural foods are very different here from the originals in notable ways. (Paging @WTFE re: American Chinese food vs. actual Chinese food, to insert appropriate and better-informed rant here.
)And now I miss European yogurt. Again. No, our 'greek yogurt' is not the same thing ...closer! But still not it. Fuck you so hard, college kids. COLLEGE KIDS!!! </Tucker and Dale>
ETA: So I guess the RL thing I love is European yogurt, because fuck me, how could someone not?
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When I first read that Oberlin fiasco months ago I started laughing like mad at the Chinese person who was complaining about the culturally appropriated General Tso's Chicken complaining how it was boiled, not fried like at home.
He's a fucking poser. A liar. A total and absolute fraud. He's either never actually set foot in China or he's lying about the food he ate while in China.
How do I know this? Because General Tso's Chicken is not a fucking thing here! It doesn't exist except as an American import. (And to be fair it's a pretty popular import--once adjusted to local tastes. Don't ask about the adjustmentsâŠ) It is a dish born in the USA and bred in the USA. The real-life General Tso (properly Zuo Zongtang--more evidence of the dumb shit being a poser), contrary to the idiot stories surrounding this dish, never ate it. (It would be difficult for him to do so seeing as he died about 90 years before the dish was first created.)
The Japs whining about the purity of sushi are full of shit too. I've been in Japan (albeit ever so briefly) and you can get sushi that's easily as bad as what Oberlin was serving. I mean for fuck's sake there's sushi in vending machines! So much for the "intense respect" the dish is given in "authentic Japanese culture". (Someone apparently forgot to circulate the memo among the authentic JapaneseâŠ)
And bĂĄnh mĂŹ? Really? "Vietnamese" people are talking about bĂĄnh mĂŹ as if it were a dish? It. Fucking. Isn't. BĂĄnh mĂŹ means "bread" for fuck's sake! It applies to any bread made with wheat. Any one. And it's the bread. Not the sandwiches (note the plural!) made with it (although through synecdoche the sandwiches are often called just bĂĄnh mĂŹâŠin ENGLISH).
Which bĂĄnh mĂŹ did the "Vietnamese" chick mean when thinking about "comfort food from home"? BĂĄnh mĂŹ káșčp kem? (That's an ice cream sandwich.) BĂĄnh mĂŹ chay? (Vegetable sandwich.) BĂĄnh mĂŹ thá»t, maybe? (Meat sandwich.) Or any number of a thousand other variants? There simply is no single dish called bĂĄnh mĂŹ. What she described as an "insulting" version of bĂĄnh mĂŹ would probably be wolfed down in actual Vietnam without comment ⊠unless the food was shit, of course. (And given that this is university cafeteria food that likely cost them about two bucks, it probably was shit. But not because it was "appropriated".)
The Oberlin students undermined any hope of ever being taken seriously on any subject with this little idiot stunt of theirs. The modern left is going to have to learn that not everything is political, not everything is problematic on oppression grounds (I'd be FAR more concerned about listeria outbreaks in cafeteria food than the hysteria that broke out there!), and that sometimes you can complain about things in and of themselves (this food is shit!) rather than making up lies so you can use the nuclear option.
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I also love making fun of people who sorely deserve it, but perhaps that should be another thread.
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@WTFE said in RL things I love:
He's a fucking poser. A liar. A total and absolute fraud. He's either never actually set foot in China or he's lying about the food he ate while in China.
Yeah, this.
I'm actually Chinese. Cantonese, to be specific. It's bloody impossible here to find good Chinese food, but I live in Ohio. There's a joint in Cincinnati that's decent, and that's only because the chef is Cantonese, used to work in a Cantonese restaurant, and is basically a FOB. Also, he's pretty cool to talk to.
Most Chinese folk I know -- my parents, my relatives -- know where the good stuff is (in Toronto). But we understand that the Americanized-Chinese food is entirely its own, and treat it as such.
Plus, deep-frying anything and then dousing it in sauce is so stupid: you absolutely ruin the texture of the food when you do this.
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And Gany hits on the first of the many alterations to "General Tso's Chicken" to make it palatable to the localsâŠ
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@WTFE said in RL things I love:
And Gany hits on the first of the many alterations to "General Tso's Chicken" to make it palatable to the localsâŠ
Whether Western people recognize or not, the Chinese are damn fine cooks when it comes to fried food. Mandarin fried bread is so damned light and flavorful, it's like having a gossamer orgasm in your mouth. So, when it comes to fried food, trust your damned Chinese to do it fucking right.
For a culture that developed shrimp toast and shrimp chips, trust me when I say that they'd never make the fucking mistake of dousing deep-fried food with sauce.
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I dislike shrimp, yet shrimp toast is yummy.
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I am a fan of actual Chinese food. I am also a fan of the Americanized stuff. But I don't think one = the other.
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So I went and attended the first Seattle Hamiltunes - I've mentioned it earlier in the thread. I'd love to say I got up there and sang my songs and was amazing and awesome and people wildly applauded and I'm making a note here, huge success.
Truth is, I got up there and I stumbled in some spots, I went flat on more than one occasion, and it's a little difficult to talk myself out of thinking that the folks other than my friends were wincing every time I stepped up to the stage (although apparently my Burr Shot First tee got rave reviews).
Here's my take-away, though. Six months ago, a year ago, if I'd done this and done so badly, my depression would have been of epic proportions. I would have been absolutely miserable, I would have ripped into myself and felt worthless and ashamed and likely vowing never to go back. And if I'm really, really honest, my bestie probably would have gone on a discreet, don't-tell-Cupcake suicide watch. (No, I'm not kidding.)
Instead, here I am, kind of 'eh, okay, I kinda sucked, but I can get better!' I will most likely go back, will probably sign up for solos again, and I've had more people tell me they were proud of me than not. Somebody on here said Lin-Manuel would think I'm a rockstar regardless, and I carried that with me after all was said and done. The fact that I feel this way, that I haven't dragged myself in the dark, though...
This was a triumph. I'm making a note here; huge success.
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When a conversation with a co-worker over e-mail essentially devolves into us sending each other pictures of people wearing extreme rococo wigs.
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Canadian Outage online, or things like cell reception. It lets you check things like Steam and if it's down in other countries, as well as hotspot maps showing the most effective areas.
Can be hit or miss watching the twitter comments though - steam is down right now, but people don't like the new review system and it catches anything mentioning steam. Interesting to see what servers are up, or what's down all the time.
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Made it through my phone interview only stumbling over my words a couple of times. However, I think I managed to play it off as just being too excited. >.>
Either way! Did well enough that she scheduled the 2nd phone interview with me at the end of the call.
...unfortunately that's stage 2. Of 5. I'm gonna spend a lot of time on pins and needles over the next few weeks. >.>
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@Auspice said in RL things I love:
Made it through my phone interview only stumbling over my words a couple of times. However, I think I managed to play it off as just being too excited. >.>
Either way! Did well enough that she scheduled the 2nd phone interview with me at the end of the call.
...unfortunately that's stage 2. Of 5. I'm gonna spend a lot of time on pins and needles over the next few weeks. >.>
Best of luck. I always find that the high after a good interview is countered by the depression of waiting and further depression if you don't get the job. This is one of the main reasons I don't job-hunt much, but when the payoff works it's great.
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My employer-off-the-record has taken us to a corporate retreat for Mid-Autumn Festival. I love the place and I haven't even seen the sights yet.
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It's late, but I have to say this.
I've been playing MU*s for around 20 years now. I've been a robot for the last 15. I've not been the best player, from a staff perspective. I've not been the best staffer from a player perspective.
But someone out there, I think, took a shot. Said to himself or herself, Ganymede is someone that can get things done if she wants to. If you push her a little. If you give her the chance.
Something happened, and it's all I can think about, for whatever reason. As a player. And it's so great that I'm still up, thinking. And I'm thinking: what can I do to get other players on board? What can I do to take this opportunity and fucking do something about it?
Understand, I'm sure some people think I'm the bee's knees. Thank you. However, with twins to take care of, a partner in school, and a full-time job, my online time is scarce and mostly slow.
Yet someone said, you know what? Fuck that. This is a player that can do something. And that opportunity was enough to pull me home from something I love doing, to do something else that I love doing.
Maybe they didn't think about that when they took the chance. But they took a chance, whether they knew it or not, and I'm going to do something with that chance.
If you're on a game that you enjoy, and you're given a chance to make it better, just do it. Don't take it for granted, ever.
I just hope that I can spread my joy -- my absolute joy -- to others.
So, thank you, powers-that-be on Fallen World. I don't think you comprehend how thankful I am.
And thank you to the players that have kept me there. You know who you are.
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More 'RL things that amuse me,' but...
Around 8:40pm, roughly, there was a knock at my door. Kinda 'wtf,' but thought- ok, I've been playing games with buddies for a couple hours. I may be laughing loudly and keeping someone's kids up. The walls here are pretty thin (I hear the guy above me snore at night).
Open the door to two women. Asian. Dressed modern. Ooooookay.
Then I see the bibles in their hands. Double oooooookay. They don't seem Mormon. Or Jehovahs.
Lead lady then goes: "...Have you heard of God the Mother?"
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Turns out they follow a branch of Christianity (that I've never encountered before) that has interpreted the bible to mean there is a second God (God the Mother) and/or a female aspect of God.
I may need to dig out my copy of the bible just so I can mark down those verses for my own amusement in the future.
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@Auspice
Sounds like you ran into some of these guys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Mission_Society_Church_of_GodThey didn't even begin to scratch the surface of crazy that they have going on.