Enderlord's Random Banter #230 (Friendly warning: Might teleport. Don't get wet.)

[Bartmanhomer]

The elvish name of the Dark Elves in the The Elder Scrolls series of video games.

Cool. I'll look into it.

[Peelee]

What blood? If there's blood in your steak, it wasn't butchered correctly.

And likely breaks a bunch of health laws, regardless of where you live.

Also, meat manufacturers love to pump water into the meat as much as they can. Meat is sold by weight, water is heavy and cheap, so there's a pretty obvious solution there if a company wants to maximize profits and isn't terribly concerned with ethics. So even that myoglobin is very watered down.

Lastly, while I'll never shame anyone for eating food how they like it, I highly recommend never getting steak at a restaurant and only cooking it at home if you like it well done. It's easy to tell if the meat has gone off a little when it's undercooked, but significantly harder to tell when it's overcooked. I'm not saying all restaurants keep meat past the time they should be tossed, but a well-done streak in a restaurant is most likely going to be their oldest cut. Still might be perfectly fine, but the odds are lower than with medium or lower. Cooked at home, you know 100% it's fresh.

Of course, I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum - I order my steaks rare, I could eat carpaccio all day long (and my wife and I just made it ourselves at home just the other week!), I know the very few places in town that will do a burger rare (better than a rare steak, I tells ya!), and i swear it's heaven taking a couple of the meaty bits of uncooked bacon to snack on while you cook the rest.

Oh, and as for meat with big globs of fat hanging off it? A good butcher shop (preferably standalone) will be able to help with that.

[Anonymouswizard]

I miss living five minutes walk from a great butcher. He'd keep rabbits back after hunting if you told him you wanted a couple, and I believe often got his hands on game. I tell you, it's next to impossible to get rabbit anywhere, a good butcher who hunts them is amazing.

But yeah, a competent butcher is a must have, they'll be able to advise you on what cuts to use for your purposes and how to cook it if you ask. Plus they tend to make really good sausages.

[Peelee]

I miss living five minutes walk from a great butcher. He'd keep rabbits back after hunting if you told him you wanted a couple, and I believe often got his hands on game. I tell you, it's next to impossible to get rabbit anywhere, a good butcher who hunts them is amazing.

But yeah, a competent butcher is a must have, they'll be able to advise you on what cuts to use for your purposes and how to cook it if you ask. Plus they tend to make really good sausages.

Plus, standalone butchers always have the best house seasoning.

[Irennan]

How many other chaotic good dark elves, except for Ellistraee can you name?

Most of her followers? Which means thousands of them? There are many named ones as well. Qilué, Liriel, Iljirene are the first three that come to mind. Not to mention that Eilistraee had a whole nation before the high elves genocided them via magic nuke, and that she still has her own communties, if small, and her own culture.

[Rater202]

Me: Sits on floor to play with kitty

Also me: Immediately regret it when I get back up and all the joints in my arm start to ache.

I am now finally starting to consider the value of cybers, because those are more likely to exist in my lifetime than rejuvenation serums are and injecting myself with axolotl DNA and hugging the microwave is more likely to kill me than give me a healing factor.

[Anonymouswizard]

The only elves that I vaguely like are Shadowrun Elves, who are 100% humans with pointy ears. But it works because genetically they're a human species (if they even count as a separate species to sapiens sapiens), and the vast majority of them were raised in human cultures rather than the two specially created elf ones, and so it all makes sense.

Even then I mainly tolerate elves because I like orks and trolls. And I'm not a big fan of the metavariants as a whole, so I don't even care about Shadowrun's fuzzy dark elves (night elves? I forget the name they use). But the normal elves are cool enough, especially with the fact that the game uses them to feel with types of discrimination and abuse orks don't cover.

I guess part of it stems from being in a party of eight where I played the only character without an elven parent. Just got burnt out in all varieties of 'elves are better', especially because I was the only group member who had planned for the inevitability of melee combat when you have eight PCs fighting monsters who tend not to have ranged weapons, and as such could have gutted any of them if I got into sword range. No, you are not better, I'm almost as good with a bow as you (Fighter with 16 DEX) and can beat you at fencing with a blindfold on.

Give me an orc in the party any day, they don't tend to 'help' negotiations by teleporting my Cleric (currently engaged in the talks) halfway across the pub. My Cleric with the Overconfidence drawback, as well as Dislike (Elves)* and a bunch of drawbacks to suggest a very traditionalist character with a subdued sense of humour. His 'funny trickster' character learnt exactly why people have a problem with elves, said action was not funny, performed without consent, happened because the character wasn't paying attention, and almost ruined the entire evening's efforts. Yeah, given how people tend to play elves I'm really not sold on them, the mad alchemist who carried explosives around in a densely populated dwarf hold caused less problems (partially because it took him one incident to switch his alchemical grenades to a setup that wouldn't go off if he fell over, and every subsequent time he pulled out one of his creations it was legitimately useful).

* Which the GM let me switch an earlier disadvantage to because of this character.

[Rater202]

That fic I mentioned... yesterday? Day before? Arbitrary Execution. It's got more than a little of that sort of thing. More "corrupt bureaucracy" than "social issues", I suppose.

It really is quite good.

EDIT: Wait, no, I mentioned that in the Pokemon thread, didn't I. Current conversations are blending, I got confused. Link added.

So I did this in the Pokemon thread but since the story was mentioned here, for the sake of completeness:

Good read. Very engaging, sympathetic protagonists, interesting twist on the setting, parts fit made me cry, so... Not the best ic I've read, but definitely in the top ten.

[Anonymouswizard]

The dangers of a polyamorous relationship: nobody can agree on what breed of kitty you should get when everybody's finally able to move in together.

[Rater202]

The dangers of a polyamorous relationship: nobody can agree on what breed of kitty you should get when everybody's finally able to move in together.

Gonna be honest, I think if that's the biggest problem with your relationship then you're doing pretty good.

[The Fury]

Gonna be honest, I think if that's the biggest problem with your relationship then you're doing pretty good.

Absolutely. "What kind of kitty-cat should we get?" is the kind of problem I would kill for.

(I know it's not a breed strictly speaking, but tuxedo cats are my favorite.)

[Anonymouswizard]

Gonna be honest, I think if that's the biggest problem with your relationship then you're doing pretty good.

Spoiler

Show

There lyeth the humour.

Absolutely. "What kind of kitty-cat should we get?" is the kind of problem I would kill for.

(I know it's not a breed strictly speaking, but tuxedo cats are my favorite.)

My favourite colouration/pattern is silver tabbies. Just so darn cute.


Never got the appeal of solid back cats, patterns just look so much nicer.

[Rater202]

I don't think I've ever owned a cat of a specific breed.

The cat I had most of my life until she had the stroke was a tabby we got from my father's office: The office cat got out and bred with an ally cat that we did not know the pedigree of.

The current house cats we have came from my stepfather's garage cat--a dark grey stray that wandered into the garage shortly after my cat died--got out and cred with another stray.

We were going to bring one of the kittens into the house when they were old enough and then give the others away to good homes... and instead we brought in two of the kittens and kept the rest in the garage with the (now fixed) mother.

My stepfather might be a cat lady.

[Cazero]

The dangers of a polyamorous relationship: nobody can agree on what breed of kitty you should get when everybody's finally able to move in together.

I know this can be difficult (my cat is territorial as heck), but have you considered getting all of the kitties?

[Rater202]

So apprently Netflix now has a TV-MA-rated gritty live-action reboot of The Winx Club, which I learned when I say my mom watching something, asked what it was, and she showed me the title. I then mentioned some details from the original to clarify that it was the same thing, which she confirmed.

Why? Why is this the world we live in?

Why is something that I got made fun of for watching in middle school becuase it was too girly and innocent for the tastes of the handful of people I let know I watched now fodder for this kind of thing?

[The Fury]

So... People here know words. Is there a more neutral word for "anxiety?"

From what I can tell, me talking about having anxiety is offensive. Since I don't actually have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

[Rawhide]

So... People here know words. Is there a more neutral word for "anxiety?"

From what I can tell, me talking about having anxiety is offensive. Since I don't actually have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

Tell them that you don't have to have a "diagnosed anxiety disorder" to feel anxious (i.e. experience anxiety). Really, if they try to claim otherwise, that is offensive.

[Lacco]

Tell them that you don't have to have a "diagnosed anxiety disorder" to feel anxious (i.e. experience anxiety). Really, if they try to claim otherwise, that is offensive.

I agree. Last I checked, anxiety was a feeling that anyone could have. Anxiety disorder is... well, a disorder.

Maybe I'm wrong and I should not feel anxious unless I get the diagnose! That would be nice. Someone just tell it to my brain.

@The Fury: maybe use "I feel anxious" instead of "I have anxiety". But still, it's strange someone gets offended in relation to your feelings.

[enderlord99]

So... People here know words. Is there a more neutral word for "anxiety?"

From what I can tell, me talking about having anxiety is offensive. Since I don't actually have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

"Nervousness" is equivalent. "Apprehension" is a more-specific emotional subcategory.

[Peelee]

So apprently Netflix now has a TV-MA-rated gritty live-action reboot of The Winx Club, which I learned when I say my mom watching something, asked what it was, and she showed me the title. I then mentioned some details from the original to clarify that it was the same thing, which she confirmed.

Why? Why is this the world we live in?

Why is something that I got made fun of for watching in middle school becuase it was too girly and innocent for the tastes of the handful of people I let know I watched now fodder for this kind of thing?

Yes, how dare the world get more open-minded and tolerant.

So... People here know words. Is there a more neutral word for "anxiety?"

From what I can tell, me talking about having anxiety is offensive. Since I don't actually have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

Has someone actually raised this issue with you? Like others have said, "anxiety" is a perfectly normal emotion and someone gatekeeping it sounds patently ridiculous - I can't imagine that flying with HR or a group if friends (don't know what situation you're in with this).

[Anonymouswizard]

I know this can be difficult (my cat is territorial as heck), but have you considered getting all of the kitties?

We'll probably end up with more than all the kitties! Including a British Blue we didn't plan on but somehow managed to turn up.

[enderlord99]

Yes, how dare the world get more open-minded and tolerant.

I think he meant "why are innocent things getting violent remakes" not "why are innocent things becoming acceptable"

[Peelee]

I think he meant "why are innocent things getting violent remakes" not "why are innocent things becoming acceptable"

So I decided to look into this more. Apparently, the originating was Italian and broadcast in multiple countries. The US distributor heavily censored it. So it sounds more like a sanitized version that may not have been representative of the official shlw is the base here.

But every further than that, example time! I love Law & Order. One of the best shows ever. L&O: SVU not so much - it's just law, no order. It's a pure cop show, and not a great one at that. But I have a great power available to me - I can simply not watch it and not r judge people who do watch it. The fact that I dislike something didn't mean that nobody should like it. If there's someone out there that loves The Last Airbender movie, they sound be allowed to enjoy it without judgment. All the people who apparently dig that teen-drama Archie show shouldn't have to face "why does this thing you like even exist"?

[Fyraltari]

So apprently Netflix now has a TV-MA-rated gritty live-action reboot of The Winx Club, which I learned when I say my mom watching something, asked what it was, and she showed me the title. I then mentioned some details from the original to clarify that it was the same thing, which she confirmed.

Why? Why is this the world we live in?

Why is something that I got made fun of for watching in middle school becuase it was too girly and innocent for the tastes of the handful of people I let know I watched now fodder for this kind of thing?

Because there isnan audience for it as evidenced by your mother watching it?

[The Fury]

Tell them that you don't have to have a "diagnosed anxiety disorder" to feel anxious (i.e. experience anxiety). Really, if they try to claim otherwise, that is offensive.

So with that said, would you say that "I feel anxious" is more neutrally phrased than "I have anxiety?"

I would genuinely like to know. I'm trying to be more conscientious about which words I use.

[Rawhide]

So with that said, would you say that "I feel anxious" is more neutrally phrased than "I have anxiety?"

I would genuinely like to know. I'm trying to be more conscientious about which words I use.

They are the same thing. Anxiety is a noun, anxious is an adjective.

"This [thing] causes me a great deal of anxiety."
"I am feeling very anxious because of [thing]."

[Mith]

We'll probably end up with more than all the kitties! Including a British Blue we didn't plan on but somehow managed to turn up.

I am late to this discussion (life is hectic enough at the moment that it's hard to tune in here), but I recommend a Norwegian Forest Cat. While all kitties are good kitties, I am absolutely enamoured with those big floofy cats.

[Peelee]

I am late to this discussion (life is hectic enough at the moment that it's hard to tune in here), but I recommend a Norwegian Forest Cat. While all kitties are good kitties, I am absolutely enamoured with those big floofy cats.

Seconded. I love big cats.

[Form]

I know this can be difficult (my cat is territorial as heck), but have you considered getting all of the kitties?

Yes! Get all the cats! More cat == more good.

So with that said, would you say that "I feel anxious" is more neutrally phrased than "I have anxiety?"

I would genuinely like to know. I'm trying to be more conscientious about which words I use.

Maybe? Being conscientious is fine and all, but I get the sense someone's making a problem out of a non-issue. You shouldn't have to feel like you're constantly walking on thin ice when you're just conversing normally.

[Anonymouswizard]

I am late to this discussion (life is hectic enough at the moment that it's hard to tune in here), but I recommend a Norwegian Forest Cat. While all kitties are good kitties, I am absolutely enamoured with those big floofy cats.

While I personally prefer shorthairs, yeah Norwegian Forest Cats are beautiful. But thanks to university courses we don't have to decide on the first kitty for about three years, and it'll likely be a Moggy or a British Shorthair (being by far the most popular breed over here for their dignified look and fairly friendly attitudes).

But we plan to be responsible kitty owners, and so due to my issues with the most commonly pushed method we have discussed alternative ways of controlling our (theoretical) pets' reproduction.