Kneenibble's Knack for Knightly Knickers: a Knell for Random Banter #184

Downstairs, my dad is reading a 150 year-old 'sequel' to the King Arthur story written in Dutch. It's in language style from a 150 years ago trying to sound as if it were written 900 years ago.

I honestly have no idea how or why I tried to read a few sentences and succeeded.

Apparently it's pretty funny though. Dad, who is fluent in Dutch, says that it's like trying to read a Terry Pratchett book featuring the Nac Mac Feegle, if the book were written 150 years ago, and Pratchett were trying to make it sound even older.

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Originally Posted by MoonCat

Downstairs, my dad is reading a 150 year-old 'sequel' to the King Arthur story written in Dutch. It's in language style from a 150 years ago trying to sound as if it were written 900 years ago.

I honestly have no idea how or why I tried to read a few sentences and succeeded.

Apparently it's pretty funny though. Dad, who is fluent in Dutch, says that it's like trying to read a Terry Pratchett book featuring the Nac Mac Feegle, if the book were written 150 years ago, and Pratchett were trying to make it sound even older.

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Yeah, that always was my experience with Old English and Dutch when I've encountered them. Not completely incomprehensibly foreign like French or German or Cantonese or Arabic or Swahili, but enough that I feel I'd understand it better after I'd loosened up a bit.

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Originally Posted by MoonCat

Downstairs, my dad is reading a 150 year-old 'sequel' to the King Arthur story written in Dutch. It's in language style from a 150 years ago trying to sound as if it were written 900 years ago.

I honestly have no idea how or why I tried to read a few sentences and succeeded.

Apparently it's pretty funny though. Dad, who is fluent in Dutch, says that it's like trying to read a Terry Pratchett book featuring the Nac Mac Feegle, if the book were written 150 years ago, and Pratchett were trying to make it sound even older.

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That...actually sounds hilarious.

Ahh, nightly walks. Senses sharpened to the limit to take in absolutely nothing, a moment's respite for my mind. To experience peace...

On the other hand, the enhanced hypersensitivity can have its downsides as well. Such as when someone on the other side of a building (and probably a good 50-100 metres away from where you are) makes a sudden outburst to his friend next to him, and it feels like a gunshot in your ears. Ow.

How are you able to take such nightly walks and yet have people living in any proximity to you? :smallconfused:

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Originally Posted by LaZodiac

That...actually sounds hilarious.

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That too, haha. Touching base with one's inner Feegle is good for you.

As long as there's not literally a Feegle inside of you. That's just bad for your digestion. And life expectancy.

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Originally Posted by Coidzor

How are you able to take such nightly walks and yet have people living in any proximity to you? :smallconfused:

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I live in the suburbs less than 500 metres from the countryside. There usually aren't many people out at half past nine in the evening, and I can usually evade those who are by taking a quick turn onto another street.

Also, it isn't pitch black or anything, if that's what you think. Just silent and very still. Streetlights have this ability to give everything an air of presentness. It's like everything else becomes irrelevant, which is the mindset I strive for when I need to pace down.

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Originally Posted by LaZodiac

Time went thataway (points in all the directions).

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No, time went thataway *arm disappears*

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Originally Posted by Teddy

I live in the suburbs less than 500 metres from the countryside. There usually aren't many people out at half past nine in the evening, and I can usually evade those who are by taking a quick turn onto another street.

Also, it isn't pitch black or anything, if that's what you think. Just silent and very still. Streetlights have this ability to give everything an air of presentness. It's like everything else becomes irrelevant, which is the mindset I strive for when I need to pace down.

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That sounds pretty enjoyable, actually. I feel the same way :smallsmile:

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Originally Posted by Teddy

I live in the suburbs less than 500 metres from the countryside. There usually aren't many people out at half past nine in the evening, and I can usually evade those who are by taking a quick turn onto another street.

Also, it isn't pitch black or anything, if that's what you think. Just silent and very still. Streetlights have this ability to give everything an air of presentness. It's like everything else becomes irrelevant, which is the mindset I strive for when I need to pace down.

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Mmm, their flickering deaths when I stroll by has a different effect on me, if I understand you rightly.

Then again, I can't concentrate because the light keeps changing on me, haha. Messes with the animal life I encounter before I even get near it too.

...Been too long since I've been able to stroll in the countryside under a moonless, starless night...

Or skulk in back alleys and rooftops under a dead sky, for that matter.

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Originally Posted by Coidzor

Mmm, their flickering deaths when I stroll by has a different effect on me, if I understand you rightly.

Then again, I can't concentrate because the light keeps changing on me, haha. Messes with the animal life I encounter before I even get near it too.

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Ahh, flickering lights. It was years since I last saw one.

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Originally Posted by Coidzor

...Been too long since I've been able to stroll in the countryside under a moonless, starless night...

Or skulk in back alleys and rooftops under a dead sky, for that matter.

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Speaking about dark nights, I once biked through a forest on a moonless, starry night (those are the darkest around these parts. The city lights are reflected in the clouds on cloudy nights and bathes the landscape in a dim, cold orange light) without any kind of illumination. At a good pace no less. That was quite an experience. Sadly, dark, moonless and cloudless nights are quite rare around these parts.

SLightly embarrassed to realize that, due watching the literal dozens of AMV's set to Gay or European from animes I watch, I know all the words.

The same goes for the more popular Avenue Q songs, for the same reasons, despite never having seen the play.

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Originally Posted by MoonCat

SLightly embarrassed to realize that, due watching the literal dozens of AMV's set to Gay or European from animes I watch, I know all the words.

The same goes for the more popular Avenue Q songs, for the same reasons, despite never having seen the play.

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Gonna be honest, that sounds sensible a thing to happen :smalltongue:

Hey guess what? I found recipies for mineral water!

That is, a spreadsheet that figures out how much of various salts you need to add (in milligrams) and several blog posts by someone else simplifying the whole thing enormously.

I didn't know that was a thing you could do, but it'll certainly be cheaper if I can convince my parents enough to get them past the "mad science" feeling it gives at a glance.

Or... you could just drink water :smallconfused:

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Originally Posted by Heliomance

No, time went thataway *arm disappears*

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No, we went time's way, and other stuff went the opposite way in comparison. Time is a direction, so it can't move. I fully expect that the duration for which I am uncorrected will be small.

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Originally Posted by Heliomance

Or... you could just drink water :smallconfused:

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Yeah but that doesn't have the whole "mixing up a batch of mineral water" thing.

I hope I didn't sound like a snob who only drinks mineral water or something. Just thought it was a cool thing to find that you can mix the stuff. And you can't deny it does taste different than tap.

It tastes like colored water, to me. :smalltongue:

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Originally Posted by Qwertystop

Hey guess what? I found recipies for mineral water!

That is, a spreadsheet that figures out how much of various salts you need to add (in milligrams) and several blog posts by someone else simplifying the whole thing enormously.

I didn't know that was a thing you could do, but it'll certainly be cheaper if I can convince my parents enough to get them past the "mad science" feeling it gives at a glance.

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Yeah, that's pretty much how the manufacturers do it: take common tap water and add a cocktail of different salts. Actually, I think I once saw such a salt cocktail being on sale in handy spice bags for personal use, but then again, it might be an (unintentionally) fabricated memory.

And you could always tap up your finished batches on used mineral water bottles and see if they notice the difference. Given, testing crazy-sounding stuff on others without their knowledge is kind of iffy, morally speaking, and generally frowned upon by your subjects (when they find out about it). It's probably to invite them to an official taste testing with the water served in small glasses. People are much more willing to drink strange stuff if it's served in small glasses for some reason. :smallwink:

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Originally Posted by Teddy

Ahh, flickering lights. It was years since I last saw one.



Speaking about dark nights, I once biked through a forest on a moonless, starry night (those are the darkest around these parts. The city lights are reflected in the clouds on cloudy nights and bathes the landscape in a dim, cold orange light) without any kind of illumination. At a good pace no less. That was quite an experience. Sadly, dark, moonless and cloudless nights are quite rare around these parts.

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What's weirdest is when the sky shifts and roils with the clouds and snow and the reflections of reflections go till they die and purple and orange are one and the same.

Reminds me of the discussion of octarine, really...

That does sound like an experience worth repeating if one could get some assurances as to motor vehicles...

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Originally Posted by Teddy

People are much more willing to drink strange stuff if it's served in small glasses for some reason. :smallwink:

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Makes it taste free, no? :smallamused:

What do you guys mean by "mineral water"? Cuz I know it as sparkling mineral water, which would requiew carbonation, or just bottled water, which is... water. Neither of which requires a recipe.

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Originally Posted by araveugnitsuga

There are actually two types of "butcher-bird".

The Butcherbird which is indeed Australian and the Shrike or Butcher Bird which is the one that is indeed... a butcher and isn't native to the southern hemisphere.

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The Australian butcherbird is a "butcher" as well.

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Originally Posted by LaZodiac

One of the birds steals shiny things. The other one impales other birds on spikes. The difference COULD save your life.

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You're thinking of the Euopean or possibly American magpie. Australian magpies are more closely related to crows and currawongs, and could kick those magpies' arses.

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Originally Posted by Coidzor

Makes it taste free, no? :smallamused:

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I was thinking more along the line of "less poisonous", but yeah.

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Originally Posted by Serpentine

What do you guys mean by "mineral water"? Cuz I know it as sparkling mineral water, which would requiew carbonation, or just bottled water, which is... water. Neither of which requires a recipe.

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The first (I think), which, apart form being carbonised, also contains minerals (at least in my part of the world), and quite a cocktail of minerals at that. Modern declarations of content are boring and won't always list the specific amounts of each individual mineral, and instead just mention something generic like "added minerals", but I've seen bottles where they meassure the individual metals in µg. Those are always interesting to read.

Also, there are also those wells that produce natural mineral water (i.e. water with a high mineral content). Meassuring the radioactivity of the water in those can be quite interesting. :smallwink:

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Originally Posted by Serpentine

What do you guys mean by "mineral water"? Cuz I know it as sparkling mineral water, which would requiew carbonation, or just bottled water, which is... water. Neither of which requires a recipe.

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Mineral water is water with minerals dissolved in it. They make it taste different. Generally that includes carbonation, but not always (there's other minerals too). Nominally (that is, going by the packages of any namebrand I've seen - San Pellegrino, etc.), the minerals get there naturally in the groundwater and then they sterilize it without filtering out minerals and bottle it.

What I found (in Wired mag, actually, not some foodie thing) was the URL of this blog, which has said ratios. That post has links to another blog (the bit about someone else testing it), which gives more info in how to do it if you don't have a scale that measures tenths of a miligram.

But... ALL water has minerals dissolved in it, unless they're all distilled out :smallconfused:

It's almost as if paying more money for BRAND WATER is stupid or something :smallwink:

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Originally Posted by Serpentine

But... ALL water has minerals dissolved in it, unless they're all distilled out :smallconfused:

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Bah! I drink only distilled, de-ionized water. There are no molecules in it aside from hydrogen and oxygen. I don't even BREATHE on it. Well, that's what I would do if I was filthy rich, anyway. As is, I can barely afford tap water.

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Originally Posted by LaZodiac

It's almost as if paying more money for BRAND WATER is stupid or something :smallwink:

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Lies, my consumption of Evian is perfectly reasonably, I have no dependency to it's mineral formula; no dependency at all!

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Originally Posted by Serpentine

But... ALL water has minerals dissolved in it, unless they're all distilled out :smallconfused:

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Well... Yeah. When you say it like that...

They're more concentrated though (compared to tap water). Something like that. Can't deny it tastes different, anyway.

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Originally Posted by Dimonite

Bah! I drink only distilled, de-ionized water. There are no molecules in it aside from hydrogen and oxygen. I don't even BREATHE on it. Well, that's what I would do if I was filthy rich, anyway. As is, I can barely afford tap water.

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I've been led to believe that distilled water tastes weird.

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Originally Posted by Qwertystop

Well... Yeah. When you say it like that...

They're more concentrated though (compared to tap water). Something like that. Can't deny it tastes different, anyway.

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I can. In fact, there've been experiments done where they put tap water in a brand-name bottle and bottled water in a cup and said it's tap-water, and people have insisted that the tap water in the bottle was better.
Granted, it depends on the tap water: the stuff where I am now tastes fine but has an odd chemical smell, and the tap water in Armidale was HORRENDOUS, even leaving white scum everywhere at the uni colleges. Conversely, though, I often prefer GOOD tapwater to some bottled water, which I tend to find slightly too sweet.

I am so unable to do anything due to laziness... augh. Water is that wet stuff, right?

Hey guys, Homecoming starts in 10 minutes, should I go?