Posts made by hedgehog

I'm a big fan of a more judicious use of brevity. I've always had a bad tendency to glaze over when confronted with giant walls of text in both descs and poses, so I appreciate when someone is able to edit themselves gracefully.

For example, it's perfectly acceptable to me to write, 'Jane's expression turns regretful as Robert voices his opinion, and she looks down at her hands, contemplating the way the light plays off of the gold and diamond rings on her fingers. With a quiet sigh she taps her manicured nails against the tabletop, a nervous gesture, then focuses her brown eyes upon Robert again, her gaze steely. "How /dare/ they bring the child into this?" She asks the attorney, her voice cracking. Clearly there's a degree of protection she feels for the little girl, regardless of how it undercuts her carefully cultivated cool demeanor.'

I prefer poses be about 4-5 sentences, unless it's rapid-fire conversation. I like description to a degree - it's okay to say, for example, Elizabeth wears a series of gold and diamond rings on her fingers', but annoying as fuck (to me) to read a very specific detailing of the cut and clarity and provenance of each piece of jewelry, when it's not something that would be immediately noticeable upon first perusal of the character desc. It's rarely something that is of much import to a scene, and, well, if they're all Treasures or Wonders or enchanted artifacts, then that's something that you can throw into a +view. But I am digressing.

I like to see poses that: have an idea of the time and place/space in which they are occurring; show a behavioral quirk of the character, be it a nervous gesture or a tic or reflection of a flaw; don't delve into thought-posing or meta-posing overmuch (but I still buy Telepathy to react to those anyway); resolutely refuse to veer into second person; and provide actual meat to react to - unless, again, it is rapid-fire conversation. I hate feeling like the setting and space and anything else that I have striven to provide for others is completely fucking ignored by their need to showboat and be the center of attention, rather than actually collaborative.

For mine, I use 80/20 beef, either matzo meal or oatmeal, egg, season salt, dried onion, parsley and black pepper. I have discovered that oatmeal (good old Quaker in a cardboard can) does a great job of both binding the meat and keeping moisture in. I have made it both in a loaf pan and a 8x8 pyrex by shaping it in the middle.

I hate vegetables in it; especially plain onion (hence the dried). My in-laws have been known to use a mix of kosher turkey and beef, and put hardboiled eggs in the center, eastern European style.

Penzey's Spices used to make a multi-spiced sausage blend that was good for flavoring, but it looks like they discontinued it. Their Tsardust Memories blend sounds fun, though, and would give the sweet-salty tang that ketchup does without the need for it: https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/tsardust-memories/c-24/p-624/pd-s

@TNP

Or you can be like my in-laws and have meat, dairy AND pareve dishes. And kosher for pesedach, too.

At least they're only Conservative, so they don't lawyer everything else about shabbat.

@Miss-Demeanor

From the article:

'Tips for the boys in the now-ditched assignment, meanwhile, included “Don’t feel entitled to a kiss (or more),” “Use good manners,” “Be honest,” “Don’t drive recklessly,” and “Don’t exaggerate to your friends about what happened on the date.” Which honestly adds up to some pretty good advice — for any gender, that is.'

@Ganymede

We did attempt to do Lucky's at one point, but it was lunchtime on a Saturday and too crowded. I am just glad we no longer have to go to The Breakfast Club. shudder

And of course they're all in the Oregon district.

@Ganymede

Opinions on Smashburger? I found the one on University Place inadequate at best.

Best burger I've had in recent memory was from Shake Shack. I cannot eat 5 Guys anymore because they and their peanuts triggered an agonizing gall bladder attack that resulted in my being in the hospital for 4 days right before Thanksgiving 2015. Culver's varies depending on the franchise; the ones by my dad's house in WI are fantastic, the one I went to in Indiana (on the way home from Dayton, no less) was dull and did not assuage my craving. I find Epic Burger to be not so much. Red Robin's sit down restaurants are better than their express versions. Johnny Rockets in Santa Monica was better than the one in Skokie. But then, L.A. also has Astroburger, or did, anyway,

Locally, we are lucky to have Edzo's and Kuma's, both independent places. Gold Coast Dogs also has a fantastic char-burger. Still miss In-N-Out, though.

@Coin

'Ways of Seeing' is an incredibly important work, especially when it comes to studying subcultures. We'd never have gotten Hebdidge without him.

@Vorpal

Heck, people are still recording 'Lilli Marlene' today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH-rs-1LSig

More egregiousness - apparently Sofia Vegara is a good example of 'late teens', according to this wiki:

http://coh.spork.com/index.php?title=Penny

When you find that handful of players and characters that you and yours click with, and you actually look forward to logging in in order to hang with them; how it reminds you of why you got into this hobby in the first place.

Along similar lines, anyone have an opinion on 'Crazyhead'?

I got both the original red and blue D&D books back when I was in the sixth grade, so, 1982.

@Thenomain

Best part of that game is when you'd get to the Tower, but you were starving to death, so you'd get BOTH the death sound and the victory sound when your turn started.

@Bobotron

From what I understand there was some kind of homophobic/transphobic kerfuffle that went on with the original actor. Which...I'm pretty sure he had to read scripts to accept the role, so, it's not like he didn't know what he was getting into...

@Auspice

Yes. Extremely.

@Insomnia

Had a Mac at the time, so I used Savitar.

@surreality

You're old? I was there when Jaded Gamer's original shitty, non-forum'ed webpage went up.

@Ganymede

SO SCHMALTZY. I am one of those terrible people who is super cynical about this book. My aunt gave me a copy after my son was born and told me all about how it made her cry and I was just like 'but this is creepy as fuck!'

Womp womp.

Hotel key cards. Usually not on purpose, though I was really bummed that the vintage Deco hotel I stayed at in Copenhagen this summer used actual keys in their vintage Deco doors. Same with the Grand Hotel in Toronto - you'd think that a hotel with two-storey rooms would have cards instead of a clunky key to cart around.

I also should have kept the key card from our Beaches Resorts vacations. But, as it stands, I have an assortment of Hyatt and Marriott key cards, as well as Hilton, Kimpton, W, and the Godfrey (which is in Chicago, and is a party hotel really far up its own asshole with hipsterism and pretension).

@HorrorHound

I really don't like Vampire. I like you, though.