Dark Shadow's Surprisingly Well-Lit Random Banter #217

[2D8HP]

* pokes his head in *

* deep sniffs *

Who even are these new people?

I love OotS, fantasy fiction, silly rants, D&D (but I haven't yet played the 3.5 or Pathfinder versions), voting, bicycling with my son, and Dragons sitting on a pile of treasure, I've only been posting for a little over two years (though I lurked longer than that), and I'll tell you most anything you ask, and probably more than that!

How have you been since you graduated college last year?

[Algeh]

I guess you mean Lecithin, aka. E322, which is basically the most widely used group of emulgators around. An emulator is used to bind fat/oil to any water-based substance, quite often Molke (Whey).

Without knowing the specifics, you're at least dealing with a highly processed and engineered kind of food.

Yeah, in the USA the label will say soy lecithin (or rarely, on foods imported from Europe, sunflower lecithin) because we don't use a numbering system for food additives here (except for dyes). It's in basically all chocolate except for the really dark kinds over here, because it's a cheap, shelf-stable emulsifier. (I think I remember hearing that lecithin was originally sourced from eggs and the word lecithin has a Greek egg-word somewhere in it, but my Greek is pretty terrible outside of math terms.)

Soy lecithin is in a great many foods here in the USA. It's on the long list of "foods that I suspect upset my stomach" so it's something I read labels for specifically and am very aware of the presence of. (Soy in general is on that "try to avoid" list. It's in basically everything cheap and processed here, so I end up avoiding a lot of convenience foods. Caramel coloring is also on the suspect list, which means I also don't drink cola. Given those restrictions, you'd think I'd have an easier time losing weight than I do, but my stomach is happy with both cheese and beer, so...)

[enderlord99]

* pokes his head in *

* deep sniffs *

Who even are these new people?

Well, I think a few of them called me funny at one point, so I'm going to go with "liars."

[Lector87]

I just published an opinion piece about games on the website of a national publication - and the only comment I've received so far was civil, well-written, and correctly identified a flaw in the article.

I feel that the internet has failed me. Where are the childish insults? Where are the garbled insinuations about my intelligence and parentage?

[2D8HP]

.....I feel that the internet has failed me. Where are the childish insults? Where are the garbled insinuations about my intelligence and parentage?

That does sound disappointing, I mean where's the sport in that?

[Lector87]

That does sound disappointing, I mean where's the sport in that?

Oh excellent, a new comment calls my favorite games "pretentious garbage."

I can now go weep in a corner while nursing my bruised ego, as God intended.

[2D8HP]

Oh excellent, a new comment calls my favorite games "pretentious garbage."

I can now go weep in a corner while nursing my bruised ego, as God intended.

What!?

No, no, no , no!

Get back in there with a disproportionate response of vitriol towards that commenter with escalating rancor until someone accuses the other of war crimes.

That's the proper way!

[Lector87]

What!?

No, no, no , no!

Get back in there with a disproportionate response of vitriol towards that commenter with escalating rancor until someone accuses the other of war crimes.

That's the proper way!

By gum you're right! They can't get away with this. Not until Godwin himself has blessed the thread with his all-encompassing hand.

*starts workshopping, muttering "your MOM is pretentious garbage no no, too obvious...can I bring in all your base somehow? the possibilities!"*

[Sermil]

By gum you're right! They can't get away with this. Not until Godwin himself has blessed the thread with his all-encompassing hand.

It's not over till the Godwin sings.

[AtlanteanTroll]

I love OotS, fantasy fiction, silly rants, D&D (but I haven't yet played the 3.5 or Pathfinder versions), voting, bicycling with my son, and Dragons sitting on a pile of treasure, I've only been posting for a little over two years (though I lurked longer than that), and I'll tell you most anything you ask, and probably more than that!

How have you been since you graduated college last year?

My dude. Who here doesn't enjoy D&D?

I'm fine enough. Quite surprised you remember that I graduate last year. I don't remember coming into the RB a year ago, but must have. Can't really talk about work, 'cause it involves the bolded, but y'know. Things are fine. Aside from the fact I'm totally going bald in my twenties, but whatever.

Well, I think a few of them called me funny at one point, so I'm going to go with "liars."

Now, see, your problem is this post is funny. Quite the conundrum. Curse you, self-depreciation.

[Knaight]

My dude. Who here doesn't enjoy D&D?

Me. I respect it for what it is, but no edition of D&D is on my list of roleplaying games I actually like.

[enderlord99]

Now, see, your problem is this post is funny.

Even if that post were funny (something of which I'm definitely not convinced) that wouldn't be a problem.

[Florian]

Yeah, in the USA the label will say soy lecithin (or rarely, on foods imported from Europe, sunflower lecithin) because we don't use a numbering system for food additives here (except for dyes). It's in basically all chocolate except for the really dark kinds over here, because it's a cheap, shelf-stable emulsifier. (I think I remember hearing that lecithin was originally sourced from eggs and the word lecithin has a Greek egg-word somewhere in it, but my Greek is pretty terrible outside of math terms.)

Soy lecithin is in a great many foods here in the USA. It's on the long list of "foods that I suspect upset my stomach" so it's something I read labels for specifically and am very aware of the presence of. (Soy in general is on that "try to avoid" list. It's in basically everything cheap and processed here, so I end up avoiding a lot of convenience foods. Caramel coloring is also on the suspect list, which means I also don't drink cola. Given those restrictions, you'd think I'd have an easier time losing weight than I do, but my stomach is happy with both cheese and beer, so...)

Hm. Hard to answer. Ok, you might know I'm in the alcohol/beverage market and you might have noticed that I do have some hard to extreme "green" leanings.

1) You're right that Lecithin was first discovered in egg yolk and named after that. It´s a basic part of cellular ingredients in a lot of animal or plant matter and can be extracted, instead of needing to be synthesized.

2) Caramel coloring is a pretty basic thing that you don't use denaturalized saccharose to create. It´s not so much different from saccharose and any healthy metabolism should be able to metabolize it.

3) Soy is, well, a hull fruit, that can be used to create analogous but not identical effects. A mocha latte with soy milk might be totally different from one with cow milk when your body has not learned to metabolize it.

Overall, it might be that you focus too much on the "obvious" things, while other stuff is what is actually causing you to be unwell.

[Insane Jeenyus]

but my stomach is happy with both cheese and beer, so...)

which reminds me, I need to head to Jackalopes for a ared rye ale.

[Insane Jeenyus]

* pokes his head in *

* deep sniffs *

Who even are these new people?

I think what you smell is sewage backing up in my bathroom sink

[Florian]

which reminds me, I need to head to Jackalopes for a ared rye ale.

Mind asking them for the recipe and sent me an PM? Rye-based beer used to be a major style in my area until the soviet occupation, it´s been a lost art after that.

[Insane Jeenyus]

Mind asking them for the recipe and sent me an PM? Rye-based beer used to be a major style in my area until the soviet occupation, it´s been a lost art after that.

Sorry, the brewery closed right before I got there. I also think their recipe might be proprietary and may not just give it away. I will try again tomorrow.

[AtlanteanTroll]

I think what you smell is sewage backing up in my bathroom sink

You probably want to get that looked at.

[Insane Jeenyus]

You probably want to get that looked at.

the apartment complex has new owners and they are being slow with the stuff like that. They have some rreally nasty problems with the place that needs addressing before that, that if they don't there will be a revolt. besides, the stench only happens when I use the dishwasher or kitchen sink.

[FinnLassie]

My dude. Who here doesn't enjoy D&D?

I'm fine enough. Quite surprised you remember that I graduate last year. I don't remember coming into the RB a year ago, but must have. Can't really talk about work, 'cause it involves the bolded, but y'know. Things are fine. Aside from the fact I'm totally going bald in my twenties, but whatever.

Oh golly gee you really haven't been here for a year. I remember you announcing it, and as it sounds like, the year has been a busy one.

Fret not. My dad had super weak comb over game on his wedding day, trying desparately to hide the wide field of balded skin. He was 22.

[Florian]

Sorry, the brewery closed right before I got there. I also think their recipe might be proprietary and may not just give it away. I will try again tomorrow.

That would be weird. Commercial brewers know that we, along with winemakers, distillers and such, will never be able to patent our recipes and anyone operating within a WTO-affiliated country can only hope for a protected regional product (*) - or simple offer the better product to the market.

(*) A rather rare thing when it comes to beer, a lot more common when it comes to whiskey.

[Bartmanhomer]

I just can't stand whiners. I tried to be very sympathetic to them but it's comes to a point that I just want to stay away from.

[AtlanteanTroll]

the apartment complex has new owners and they are being slow with the stuff like that. They have some rreally nasty problems with the place that needs addressing before that, that if they don't there will be a revolt. besides, the stench only happens when I use the dishwasher or kitchen sink.

Sounds like something that would happen a lot, then. Unless you eat out all the time. I would definitely get on my land lord's case if I were in a similar situation.

Oh golly gee you really haven't been here for a year. I remember you announcing it, and as it sounds like, the year has been a busy one.

Fret not. My dad had super weak comb over game on his wedding day, trying desparately to hide the wide field of balded skin. He was 22.

Definitely. Which seems fairly typical for the average recent graudate, but I sure do love to pile it on.

Oof. See, if it was a hairline thing and not a thinning in the back thing, I'd just shave my head. At some point, you've got to just go ahead and embrace it.

[Amidus Drexel]

Happy pi day! (Or happy 1/2 tau day, depending on your proclivities)

I've been inactive here for some time myself - I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try and get back into the swing of things.

Oof. See, if it was a hairline thing and not a thinning in the back thing, I'd just shave my head. At some point, you've got to just go ahead and embrace it.

Fun! At this point, I'm mostly just waiting for male pattern baldness to ruin my glorious mane of hair. Only a matter of time~

[Peelee]

Happy pi day! (Or happy 1/2 tau day, depending on your proclivities)

I celebrate on July 22.

[AtlanteanTroll]

I've been inactive here for some time myself - I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try and get back into the swing of things.

Go back to DMing you fiend.

Fun! At this point, I'm mostly just waiting for male pattern baldness to ruin my glorious mane of hair. Only a matter of time~

Heh. Maybe I'll shave your head before I shave mine. For practice.

[DataNinja]

I've been inactive here for some time myself - I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try and get back into the swing of things.

Didn't you say something along those lines last time?

[Amidus Drexel]

I celebrate on July 22.

Ah, but you're only celebrating pi approximation day! (Not that 3.14 isn't an approximation, but it's less obvious - and can at least be read as truncating for space, rather than just being wrong )

Go back to DMing you fiend.

Heh. Maybe I'll shave your head before I shave mine. For practice.

I'll always be a DM in your heart, though if you see me there you might want to get those arteries checked.
(And, in fairness, also in my heart. It can be hard to be a player sometimes, as much as I miss it).

There's only one person allowed to mess with my hair these days, and even she's not allowed to cut it. You keep your scissors and razors away from me.

Didn't you say something along those lines last time?

I think so, yeah. It turns out that I'm easily distracted and have a lot of things on my plate, which probably comes as no surprise to the people even passingly familiar with me.

--
ION: Speaking of which, I'm taking a class right now that I can only describe as a "self-taught, group-project-class". Except those things are utterly divorced, because almost nothing explained in lecture has any serious relationship to the tests or the project(s) (of which there have been one and only one of each so far - it's more than halfway through the semester), and most of the information we need to know we're basically required to google. If I didn't need this class to graduate, I'd have dropped it already; there is no useful influx of information happening here, and I'm not really getting any meaningful practice at the things the class is about.

Not that I'm expecting a solution here - I just like complaining.

--
IOON: For all of you string-instrument players out there (specifically guitarists, but I suppose anybody comfortable with re-tuning their instruments might find this interesting), I've recently stumbled across a tuning that's fun to play with. D-A-D-G-Bb-d, on a guitar (so the low three strings are as in drop-D, and the high three strings are Gm). The low parts of the instrument are in a fairly familiar drop-D sound, while the high parts of the instrument allow for some interesting chord combinations (playing xxx765, for example, gives us D-D#-E), some really simple hammer-on/tapping patterns that do different minor scales, and since it's essentially half of two open tunings, you can get some use out of a slide too.

I've got a couple ideas I've been messing around with in that tuning - if I get a recording I'm satisfied with, I might link it here.

[Teddy]

ION: Speaking of which, I'm taking a class right now that I can only describe as a "self-taught, group-project-class". Except those things are utterly divorced, because almost nothing explained in lecture has any serious relationship to the tests or the project(s) (of which there have been one and only one of each so far - it's more than halfway through the semester), and most of the information we need to know we're basically required to google. If I didn't need this class to graduate, I'd have dropped it already; there is no useful influx of information happening here, and I'm not really getting any meaningful practice at the things the class is about.

Not that I'm expecting a solution here - I just like complaining.

I sort of had one of those classes. The lectures were about different kinds of testing. The project was "Here's the source code for CPython, we want statically allocated private variables (and retention of multiple inheritance), get cracking.". It was one of the best classes I've had. Hard as hell, but my team was pretty fantastic, and the project was so realistic that my actual assignments at work fail to have it beat.

[Peelee]

Ah, but you're only celebrating pi approximation day! (Not that 3.14 isn't an approximation, but it's less obvious - and can at least be read as truncating for space, rather than just being wrong ).

Well, yeah, but how often do you get to make a math joke in response to a math joke? You'll take 22/7 from my cold, dead hands!

[Insert rant about it looking better with the date format and everything other than the Greek letter being an approximation anyway]