Rater's Ridiculously Rambunctious Random Ranter #229

[Qwertystop]

Technically there is interest at most credit unions, but it's so low as to be irrelevant. Think I made $4 and change on $10k in a savings account last year.

My credit union actually pays (roughly) ten times the interest I got from Bank of America, though technically they phrase it as a dividend. So apparently it varies.

[Bartmanhomer]

Ok, this thread has calmed down a bit. So anyway I'm relaxing at home watching CSI.

[Rater202]

I've mentioned this before, but my experience with banks.

1: My father died when I was seven years old. When I was nine, the Bank had us evicted as squatters becuase the mortgage was in his name, despite the two-ish years of mortgage payments we'd made in the interim.

Despite acting as if we had no right to live in that house, they kept the money we'd given them when, the way I see it, if we had no right to live in the house they had no right to our mortgage payments and should have given it back.

We got lawyers, it went to court, despite it being obviously bullcrap we had to move.

Bonus points: That house was within walking distance of my college of choice, in a city with better schools than the schools went to for fith-grade to highschool, and where I suffered the vast majority of bullying and bad teachers in my school career.

This bank screwing my family over may have in fact ruined my life.

2: You know how a few years ago a couple of banks got told off for deliberately delaying the processing of withdrawals and deposits to force people to overdraft? And since Overdrafts are technically theft, banks are allowed to charge absurdly high fines instead of just demanding you repay them or else...

(side note: What they did was fraud, legally. No ifs and or buts about it, they falsified information and lied to their clients... Technically framing them for theft, in order to make their clients overdraft when they should not have overdraft... But instead of people being arrested and fined, they got a polite letter telling them to stop it. If any of us tried that we'd still be in prison.)

A bank my family had was one of those banks. They also cancelled a transaction I made so they could take te money my mother was charged for an overdraft they forced on her out of my account, which I am reasonably certain isn't something they're allowed to do, even if my mother did have access to my account... Making me overdraft.

My family has found an alternative to banks.

[Peelee]

Unfortunately, when talking banks it's not at all stupid (from their perspective).

I was implying they were evil, not stupid. They can very easily block any payments that would take an account into the negative, there's just no profit for doing so and this no incentive.

And if you aren't gouging poor people, are you even really a bank?

Since you're talking about Zeta I suspect you live in Louisiana?

Oh, I can assure you, that by no means leaves just Louisiana as a suspect. I say from my battery-powered phone using data instead of wifi in my poorly signaled area in a room lit by candlelight while multiple houses around me have major property damage caused by fully uprooted trees

Yeah, I'm not really going to be online much for the next several days, at least. **** Zeta.

[Rater202]

Today, I learned that Tenacious D recently did a cover of "Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show.

This is a good day.

[Anonymouswizard]

Today, I learned that Tenacious D recently did a cover ofthe "Time Warp" again from The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show.

This is a good day.

I'm disappointed in you

[Rater202]

I'm disappointed in you

From what I can tell, the official title of the song is just "Time Warp."

Which means that the song "Time Warp" is about reminiscing about doing a dance called "The Time Warp" and then deciding to do it again, while providing instructions, which raises an interesting question.

If they're doing the Time Warp again, that means that there was a different song that they did the Time Warp to the first time. and if they're doing it again, why do the lyrics to the new song include instructions?

[Bartmanhomer]

Let Do The Time Warp Again!

[enderlord99]

If they're doing the Time Warp again, that means that there was a different song that they did the Time Warp to the first time. and if they're doing it again, why do the lyrics to the new song include instructions?

It's called "Time Warp" so I presume that they're doing it "again" in the sense that they've done it exactly one cycle earlier in the loop.

[Rater202]

My cousin is sick right now. He may have been exposed to the plague sometime in the last week because the people who run the day program are incompetent.

He is nonverbal autistic, severely mentally handicapped, and super high risk due to a combination of asthma and his body being ruined by years of mismanaged medication for his various comorbidities.

We're not gonna know if it's the plague till Monday, but if it is his chances aren't good and he will give it to someone else because he doesn't have capacity to social distance. (My Aunt can't get him to keep a mask on.)

...Possibly my Aunt, who may have been exposed from him and is also super at risk and who I don't trust to isolate away from my other cousin, his wife, their baby, or my uncle(aunt's brother.)

...I'm scared.

[LaZodiac]

I'm sending all the support I can Rater. Good luck.

[Rater202]

In more lighthearted dialog, to keep myself calm:

I have trouble with mashed potaotes. I have to used instant potoaoes becuase homemade potatoes, or even certain brands of premade store bought, feel lumpy or gritty instead the creamy smooth fluffy that I crave.

But: I have a recipe.

I will not reproduce it here becuase I don't have the exact deets on me, but it involves carefully peeling the potatoes so that there is no skin, slicing the potatoes thin, letting them soak in filtered water to extract the excess starch, boiling them in milk instead of water, and using a ricer to crush them and stir them exactly once with (real) butter while they're still hot.

Supposedly, if you do it right, they will just sort of melt into perfect potatoes with no lumps, grit, or starchy bits.

(Leftover milk is stored and used to make chowder)

What do people think of that? Does that sound like the solution to my problem?

[LaZodiac]

Not only is your advice rather sound, I'd like to note that even with premade boxes of powdered potatoes, if you use milk instead of water it'll come out super creamy.

It is to the point where I have to double check these boxes to make sure it doesn't ACTUALLY say milk on em.

[Anonymouswizard]

Lumpy mash is poorly made mash, although I've had problems getting people at work to understand this.

The trick with mash is to have the right potatoes (to avoid grit), to boil them until cooked, and then to get your potato masher and smoosh in milk and butter. If you think your smooshed enough do it a little bit more just to get rid of the rogue lumps hiding in the bottom.

Then serve it beside your roast with onion gravy. Although real gravy is a pain to make due to how long it takes, only do it for special occasions.

I feel like ramen. I mean the proper stuff with an egg and everything, not instant noodles.

[DavidSh]

It may well be that my standards for mashed potatoes are low, but I wonder what kind of potatoes you have been trying that had a problem with starchy bits.

[Bartmanhomer]

Well, yesterday on Halloween I watch horror movies all day. The movies that I watch was After Life, Bad Hair, and The Lamb on Hulu.

[Rater202]

As a counterpoint to my previously stated desire for a Metroid game that takes place after Fusion, I'd also like a prequel that takes place during her time in the military prior to becoming a "Bounty Hunter."

Her view and feelings of and regarding Adam clearly do not line up with what he was like as a human(at least, what he was like when we see him.) I'd like to know why that is. It could be as simple as "she was an impressionable fifteen-year-old during the time she was subordinate to him in the federation army" but that explanation honestly feels too simple.

[BisectedBrioche]

As a counterpoint to my previously stated desire for a Metroid game that takes place after Fusion, I'd also like a prequel that takes place during her time in the military prior to becoming a "Bounty Hunter."

Her view and feelings of and regarding Adam clearly do not line up with what he was like as a human(at least, what he was like when we see him.) I'd like to know why that is. It could be as simple as "she was an impressionable fifteen-year-old during the time she was subordinate to him in the federation army" but that explanation honestly feels too simple.

That would be pretty cool! I'd be interested in learning more about her relationship with surviving Chozo (as sort of Chozo by adoption) when there were still some around.

Slight tangent: My Samus cosplay!

[DataNinja]

Very nice, Brioche!

[Rater202]

That would be pretty cool! I'd be interested in learning more about her relationship with surviving Chozo (as sort of Chozo by adoption) when there were still some around.

Slight tangent: My Samus cosplay!

Yeah. "Cosplay." You can drop the act Brioche, we all know you're a time/dimension traveling Samus hiding out on Earth becuase the Federation turned into a bag of phalluses at some point and not even you can take them all on.

(In other words, yeah, you pull that off perfectly.)

[Peelee]

Apropos of absolutely nothing, a riddle for y'all (and I'm sure some know it already, it's pretty famous as far as I know). Equations provided at every step for your convenience.

Three men are vacationing. They come across a motel, and decide to share a room to save money. The clerk tells them a room is $30. Each man pays $10 ($10 x 3 = $30).

After the men go to their room, the clerk realizes that he made a mistake, and the room is $25. He takes $5 to return to the men ($30 - $25 = $5).

On the way, the clerk realizes that the men explicitly wanted to share costs, and is concerned about having to divide $5 among 3 men. While the clerk is somewhat honest, he is also lazy, so he pockets $2 to make things easy on him ($5 - $2 = $3).

The clerk reaches the room, tells them the room was cheaper than he initially charged them for, and returns $1 to each man. Each man has now paid $9 ($10 - $1 = $9).

$9 + $9 + $9 + $2 = $29. Where's the other dollar?

[Mith]

Apropos of absolutely nothing, a riddle for y'all (and I'm sure some know it already, it's pretty famous as far as I know). Equations provided at every step for your convenience.

Three men are vacationing. They come across a motel, and decide to share a room to save money. The clerk tells them a room is $30. Each man pays $10 ($10 x 3 = $30).

After the men go to their room, the clerk realizes that he made a mistake, and the room is $25. He takes $5 to return to the men ($30 - $25 = $5).

On the way, the clerk realizes that the men explicitly wanted to share costs, and is concerned about having to divide $5 among 3 men. While the clerk is somewhat honest, he is also lazy, so he pockets $2 to make things easy on him ($5 - $2 = $3).

The clerk reaches the room, tells them the room was cheaper than he initially charged them for, and returns $1 to each man. Each man has now paid $9 ($10 - $1 = $9).

$9 + $9 + $9 + $2 = $29. Where's the other dollar?

I've seen this, but forgot the solution. My attempt:

Spoiler: Giving it a go

Show

Initial payment: $10 + $10 + $10 = $30

Correction of over payment of $5: $10 + $10 + $10 - $5 = $25

Clerk breaks correction as a tip: $10 + $10 + $10 - ($3 + $2) = $25

Distribute the $3: $9 +$9 +$9 - $2 = $25

Summary: The riddle depends on essentially counting the $2 in the initial payment and in the final total. It should be deducted from the total payment to get $27 as the clerk has pocketed it, bringing it down to the $25 cost.

[Peelee]

I've seen this, but forgot the solution. My attempt:

Spoiler: Giving it a go

Show

Initial payment: $10 + $10 + $10 = $30

Correction of over payment of $5: $10 + $10 + $10 - $5 = $25

Clerk breaks correction as a tip: $10 + $10 + $10 - ($3 + $2) = $25

Distribute the $3: $9 +$9 +$9 - $2 = $25

Summary: The riddle depends on essentially counting the $2 in the initial payment and in the final total. It should be deducted from the total payment to get $27 as the clerk has pocketed it, bringing it down to the $25 cost.

Spoiler: Answer to the riddle

Show

There isn't a missing dollar because you're mixing credits and debits. The $2 the clerk has should be added to the $25 the hotel has. The 3 men together paid $27 for the room, and the hotel got $25 of that while the clerk got the other $2.

Spoiler

Show

Oooh, that's a nice accounting answer! The best "pure math" answer is basically "you did the order of operations wrong", but I really like the accounting take on it.

Regardless, though, I love it as an example of the difference between theory and practice. Take a few people and thirty bucks in real life and there's no missing dollar, but write it down a certain way and there's a problem.

[Bartmanhomer]

I'm getting more views and subscribers on my Youtube channel. Yesterday I got 660+ Subscribers and 7,730+ views on my Youtube channel.

[LaZodiac]

That would be pretty cool! I'd be interested in learning more about her relationship with surviving Chozo (as sort of Chozo by adoption) when there were still some around.

Slight tangent: My Samus cosplay!

I am looking respectfully (but at a distance because, and don't take this the wrong way, but it's hard to look at someone who is also trans but so beautiful compared to myself)

I'm getting more views and subscribers on my Youtube channel. Yesterday I got 660+ Subscribers and 7,730+ views on my Youtube channel.

Hey do you remember what you said while we were discussing food?

[Bartmanhomer]

I am looking respectfully (but at a distance because, and don't take this the wrong way, but it's hard to look at someone who is also trans but so beautiful compared to myself)



Hey, do you remember what you said while we were discussing food?

Yes, I took a break for a while but I just got back a few days ago.

[Mith]

Spoiler

Show

Oooh, that's a nice accounting answer! The best "pure math" answer is basically "you did the order of operations wrong", but I really like the accounting take on it.

Regardless, though, I love it as an example of the difference between theory and practice. Take a few people and thirty bucks in real life and there's no missing dollar, but write it down a certain way and there's a problem.

I've done this to myself several times over the past year of writing analysis code trying to automate various tasks.

[Peelee]

I've done this to myself several times over the past year of writing analysis code trying to automate various tasks.

Ah, automation. The best thing about computers is they do exactly what you tell them to. And the worst thing about computers is they do exactly what you tell them to.

[DataNinja]

Ah, automation. The best thing about computers is they do exactly what you tell them to. And the worst thing about computers is they do exactly what you tell them to.

This is lies and slander, and also objective fact.
(Depending on whether it gets me out of blame or not.)

[Fyraltari]

Peelee's riddle remind me of another, simpler one:

A rich camelherd dies. A clerk reads his will to his three sons : "To my eldest, who for years seconded me in all things I leave one half of my herd. To my second son who only ever worked half as hard as his brother, I leave one quarter of my herd. To my yougest who for most of my life was to young to work but who I love nonetheless I leave one fifth on my herd." The three brothers then go to divide the camels among themselves. However there is an issue: the father has had some rough times lately and there are only 19 camels left. As a dead camel is a worthless camel they refuse to have any cut up. Each brother start arguing that the count should be rounded up in their favor which, of course, brings them nowhere.

After arguing all day long, they go to their old neighbour for advice. The man listens to them patiently and says "It seems obvious that the issue comes from that number, 19, another number would be more amenable. Here let me give my own old camel to your late father as a sign of goodwill."
The three brothers are embarassed as none of them want to be given money by a stranger like a beggar. And also the old man's camel is about as old as he is and worth much less than any camel from their father's herd.

Once they are back home with their twentieth camel they start dividing the herd. To the eldest goes half of the herd so out of the twenty he takes ten, careful not to take the old beast. To the second goes a quarter of the herd so out of the twenty he takes five camels, again leaving the old camel to his younger brother. To the youngest goes one fifth of the herd so out of the twenty he takes four camels and all three are surprised to see that the old camel is still there, the only unclaimed camel even though they each have had their full share and more. Gratefully they bring the animal back to the old man. This very night, the ghost of the father visits the old man and says "okay, I have to know, by what magic did you get your camel back when it was divided along the others?" The old man slaps the ghost on the back of the head and yells

Spoiler

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1/2+1/4+1/5=19/20, you dingus!