Tarmor's Terribly Tantalizing Tarasque Terrrifying Random Banter #234

[Peelee]

Is Hedonismbot capable of overindulging, though?

I think the real question is whether Hedonismbot is capable of not over indulging.

[Jasdoif]

I think the real question is whether Hedonismbot is capable of not over indulging.

Well, overindulgence doesn't sound particularly hedonistic.

[Peelee]

I moved a thousand pounds (450 kilos) of rubber mulch today. Just two more thousand to go.

[2D8HP]

Perhaps foolishly I have a deep love for beautiful unreliable things.

If there's no heartbreaks (or breakdowns) is it really romantic?

I think not (and my therapist has noted this about me).

Rode my '73 Norton for the first time, new tires, front wheel spokes, et cetera.

I have a new fuel tank being painted, and there's another side cover to go on, but it's largely done.

Since it's been more than 15 years since I've kickstarted a '70's motorcycle I was way out of practice, but start it I did, and I went for a ride.

It rode good.

Then it died at an intersection.

I pushed to I safer spot and proceeded to kick start it.

And I tried again.

And...

"By Crom Start!"

*pfft*

"Okay, try a different tack, it is British after all...

....By England, St.Michael, and St. George, START!"

*pfft*

"By good Queen Bess, START!"

*pfft*

"By the Lion and the Unicorn, START!

*pfft*

At this point I'm sweating, breathing heavy, and am winded, I take off my helmet, gloves, and leather jacket.

"Please baby please START! "

*pfft*

"GAWD DAMNIT!"

"BY ALL THE DEMONS OF HELL AND THE FIRES OF THE ABYSS START DAMN YOU!"

*pfft*

"Aaaargh!"

I gave the good people of west Oakland a fine show of my attempting a kick start for 30 minutes, then gathered my gloves, jacket, and helmet and started hoofing it, got to the shop and drive a young man mechanic to my bike.

He started it with one kick.

Double dagnabbit!

I've been pretty down because a kind lady I'm grateful to and fond of was briefly hospitalized with covid-19, and now she's out of the hospital and quarantined with her husband, she feels awful and is very tired.

We had scheduled to dance together, go to a neat restaurant, and my favorite bookstore, but all that's delayed and I've been bummed about that.

I really like her and miss her and knowing that she's sick and suffering is heartwrenching for me.

To distract myself I went on my second ever ride on my 1973 850 Norton Commando, and I rode it from near the Pacific Ocean in the "avenues" to almost through Golden Gate Park where it broke down because of course it did!

After many futile attempts to restart it gave up called a cab and abandoned the bike in Golden Gate Park.

The 850 was still in Golden Gate Park in the morning, since it was cold I expected to be able to kick start it, but no such luck.

I then pushed it up a hill and bumped started it, and it ran!

For five seconds.

Subsequent bump starts were as useless as my previous kickstarts.

A 65 year old world travelling New Zealander kindly came to the rescue, made some adjustments (among other things something called a Zener diode, which sounds like a Dr Who story, was disconnected), I was able to kick start the bike again, and then it was time for a good lunch (my treat), which we had at a place called Bambino on Cole.

The Haight's a little less funky now, but mostly it looks the same as it was when I was a teenager in the '80's, despite the hippie murals on the sidewalks the dominant fasion is punk, ripped black jeans and Dr. Marten's, unless you're a youngster yourself; DO NOT CHAT THEM UP! Despite looking the same as my peers did in the '80's the punks likekly are actually punks (very young adults and teenagers), I discovered this weeks before by talking to a lady in a bookstore who looked very familiar, she said she had been a Gilman volunteer and that was probably where I knew her from, I then reminisced about Gilman, and she said "Hold on, you think I'm a lot older than I am, I was born in 1998",
"OH GOD! SORRY!" I responded, so be warned, the youngsters of now dress just like how we who were teens in the 1980's do (seriously, it throws me off, y'all please get different fashions)!

I then returned to the San Francisco house with my Norton, it really is a good machine to ride, the torque is impressive, I could easily get around with only second gear, and it handles well, the brakes are a little weak but not greatly so. It's now in the garage, along with the landlord's furniture, where my lovely roommate may see it (my other kindly roommate already saw it) at the l San Francisco house.

My roommate had her two dogs ("Doughnut" and "Moche'') on loan from her ex-husband again, they are delightful, and omigawds the dogs are so adorable!.

Despite still missing a special lady who has covid-19 my mood was lifted.

Then I went to my wife's house where the five-year old was cute.

Anyway, as a celebration of my third ever ride of the '73 Norton here's a 1974 performance of "Deuce" by KISS which is almost as quintessentially '70's as a brown conversation van with a burgundy shag carpet, glitter ball, a spare wheel cover that says "KOZY KAR", and a very tasteful painting of a lady in a metal bikini ridding a dragon.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CnbSieSUKlQ

If anyone's out this way I have a '78 Triumph loaner bike that's pretty easy to ride (unlike the Norton which has a left hand foot break). Unfortunetly for memy own use I had a THEORY that if I had TWO bikes one would run while the other was down, I didn't take into account sibling solidarity, the REALITY has been that brother Norton ("Eddie") and sister Triumph ("Bonnie") usually run or not at the same time!

*sigh*

[factotum]

Zener diode? Ah, so you're running into issues with 1970s British automotive electrics. That's really, really uncommon...

[Anonymouswizard]

I think the real question is whether Hedonismbot is capable of not over indulging.

If we assume that Hedonismbot is designed to indulge than any instance of indulgence ix within expected parameters. Therefore overindulgence is pretty difficult for them.


How about we add Surströmming to our glutton-free pizza? From what I've heard it'll be delicious when done right but the smell will drive you away. I am hoping the smell persists through cooking.

[Fyraltari]

You were maybe thinking they would be British?

Ha! Good one!

[Anonymouswizard]

While I'm trying to write a novel, of course, I should also at some point actually sit down and write my Doctor Who fanfic. Partially because it'll be good writing practice, partially because I have a good part of an Eighth Doctor arc worked out that'll lead into an alternate Nine.

[Beeftank]

Motorcycle story

That’s super neat. My dad has always been the gear head of the family but I’ve always thought there was something uniquely cool about vehicles from the late 60s-early 70s.

Especially muscle cars, which in my opinion peaked in terms of aesthetics around that time.

Though I will say, the Camaros and Challenger models they starting making around 2010 or so are pretty cool looking too.

[Amidus Drexel]

IIRC a famous chef once said, "if you have very good bread and very good butter, then not much beats bread and butter." A great many things can be elegant in their simplicity.

There's a lot to be said for good quality ingredients and classic A+B recipes. I convinced my wife we should get deli bread instead of the bland packaged stuff a year or two ago, and she's never looked back. (Ditto for butter vs. margarine).

anecdote: I took a food chemistry class as an elective in college.

One of the lessons involved sampling two pizzas that were cooked from nearly identical recipes, except that one pizza was made using a glutton-free crust. Exact details of how it was rendered glutton-free were not given, just that it was.

This was not a blind test, we knew going in which was which.

Most of the class said that the gluten-free pizza was worse, but I legitimately could not taste a difference. The crust was a little chewy, but that's not really a bad thing in my book.

Texture can be a tricky thing to get "right" with substitutes.

In a similar vein, I've taken to trying vegetarian/vegan meat substitutes a few times a year just to see how they're coming along, and some of them are quite good in either the flavor or texture department (much better than they were even 5-10 years ago), but rarely both. There was a good vegan pepperoni we got on sale once that rather impressed me (if only the sticker price wasn't like $8).

Topped with ipecac slaw or something?

I read that as "ipsec slaw" initially, and am now considering encrypted cabbages.

[Rater202]

If we're talking vegan meat substitutes then there's a brand of veggie bacon I like. It tastes close enough to regular bacon, but it also cooks up evenly and much crispier without shrinking in the pan.

[Lacco]

There's a lot to be said for good quality ingredients and classic A+B recipes. I convinced my wife we should get deli bread instead of the bland packaged stuff a year or two ago, and she's never looked back. (Ditto for butter vs. margarine).

Same here.

My wife comes from a family that freezes unused toast bread and use butter substitutes (you know, vegetable oil "butters"). I come from an area with its own local bakery AND milk processing factory. We got fresh bread & butter all the time.

She did not believe me that it's better. Her father still stands his ground on the "oh, it's the same, but it's more expensive". I am afraid his taste buds were completely destroyed long ago...

[Jasdoif]

I read that as "ipsec slaw" initially, and am now considering encrypted cabbages.

Well, Brussels sprouts are already cryptic; and if each bud on the stalk were to represent a symbol, and the position of each bud on the stalk itself determines the order....

[Amidus Drexel]

Same here.

My wife comes from a family that freezes unused toast bread and use butter substitutes (you know, vegetable oil "butters"). I come from an area with its own local bakery AND milk processing factory. We got fresh bread & butter all the time.

She did not believe me that it's better. Her father still stands his ground on the "oh, it's the same, but it's more expensive". I am afraid his taste buds were completely destroyed long ago...

Man, I wish we had a local bakery when I was growing up. A lot of that stuff in my hometown died in the 70's/80's when big supermarkets moved in - well before my time. Meat industry there is still going strong, though.

It's possible he just doesn't care about the flavor. My dad is a heavy coffee drinker, but refuses to spend any money on the good stuff (or even the medium stuff - the man drinks instant coffee) - not because he can't taste the difference, but because "coffee is coffee". As far as I can tell, he's only peculiar about coffee and sliced bread in this way - he has no problem buying nice meats/cheeses or fresh vegetables.

Well, Brussels sprouts are already cryptic; and if each bud on the stalk were to represent a symbol, and the position of each bud on the stalk itself determines the order....

I always assumed that brussels sprouts grew on the ground, much like lettuce and cabbage do, but after looking it up, the truth is much weirder. A cryptic plant indeed.

On that note, I wonder what vegetable (or fruit) lends itself best to cryptography. Broccoli, maybe? It has a fairly random, uniform appearance at a distance, and lots of precise details close-up. The only danger would be destroying some of the florets in transport, as they're pretty fragile.

Corn might be a little too uniform for encoding data, but multicolored corn and the possibility of individual "rows" being rotated some amount might be useful. Importantly, corn cobs come with their own encapsulation.

[Rater202]

I'm still watching that "LAwyer plays Ace Attorney thing" becuase it's over five hours long and I can't watch the same thing for that long...

Openly destroying evidence that was already submitted to the court record, immediately after the defense attorney explains how it could be used to prove that you were the one who killed the murder victim and not the man on trial, and then mocking everyone about "I guess we'll never know now" is basically an admission of guilt, right?

Like, if an attorney explains exactly how a piece of evidence proves that you're the killer and your response to destroy right there in front of the judge while court is in session, that's basically admitting to everyone that yes, the evidence will prove you guilty, and is, therefore, an admission of guilt.

I understood that these games are really silly and arbitrary about how court proceedings go, with such things as, for example, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that your client physically could not have committed the murder but they get convicted anyway becuase you didn't find the real killer happening at least once—but come on, this is just... Infuriating.

[Cazero]

Openly destroying evidence that was already submitted to the court record, immediately after the defense attorney explains how it could be used to prove that you were the one who killed the murder victim and not the man on trial, and then mocking everyone about "I guess we'll never know now" is basically an admission of guilt, right?

That bothered me as well. But this case gets even worse "because politics". (And I better specify in game politics there).

[Jasdoif]

On that note, I wonder what vegetable (or fruit) lends itself best to cryptography. Broccoli, maybe? It has a fairly random, uniform appearance at a distance, and lots of precise details close-up. The only danger would be destroying some of the florets in transport, as they're pretty fragile.

Corn might be a little too uniform for encoding data, but multicolored corn and the possibility of individual "rows" being rotated some amount might be useful. Importantly, corn cobs come with their own encapsulation.

Shishito peppers have the thing where the occasional one is significantly hotter than the rest of them; if you could put an ordering on that, you could seriously use the phrase "capsicum steganography".

Conversely, potatoes have long been known to be well-suited for hashing.

[Peelee]

WOO ****ING HOO!

Occupational health clinic that my potential-super-cool-new-job uses had me retake a test with my optometrist. Which is to say, they personally called the doctor and requested a retest, with a bevy of other tests if I did not do perfectly on the retest.

I did perfectly on the retest.

Its a good day.

[Rater202]

That bothered me as well. But this case gets even worse "because politics". (And I better specify in game politics there).

To quote the lawyer actually playing the game, after finally beating the tutorial mission: "I was 'not guilty' two hours ago, the rest was making things easier for all of you."

This was a goddamned soap opera.

Like, even by ace attorney standards this was a little much.

[LaZodiac]

To quote the lawyer actually playing the game, after finally beating the tutorial mission: "I was 'not guilty' two hours ago, the rest was making things easier for all of you."

This was a goddamned soap opera.

Like, even by ace attorney standards this was a little much.

Wait until you get to Turnabout Big Top.

[Lord Raziere]

Wait until you get to Turnabout Big Top.

Uh Zodi.....he is talking Great Ace Attorney, not Justice for All.....kind of different games....

also I think Rater is well-versed in Ace Attorney if he is saying that, I don't remember other tutorial cases being quite as long as five hours, though the ones after Trials and Tribulations have been getting longer.

[DataNinja]

WOO ****ING HOO!

Occupational health clinic that my potential-super-cool-new-job uses had me retake a test with my optometrist. Which is to say, they personally called the doctor and requested a retest, with a bevy of other tests if I did not do perfectly on the retest.

I did perfectly on the retest.

Its a good day.

Nice! Congrats, Peelee. Wish you well!

[Cazero]

also I think Rater is well-versed in Ace Attorney if he is saying that, I don't remember other tutorial cases being quite as long as five hours, though the ones after Trials and Tribulations have been getting longer.

Yeah, the tutorial case of Spirit of Justice was also a real case. 4 to 6 hours of gameplay, non-obvious things to figure out, etc.
I'm not complaining. The tutorial things don't need a full case to learn.

[LaZodiac]

Uh Zodi.....he is talking Great Ace Attorney, not Justice for All.....kind of different games....

also I think Rater is well-versed in Ace Attorney if he is saying that, I don't remember other tutorial cases being quite as long as five hours, though the ones after Trials and Tribulations have been getting longer.

While I didn't immediately realize this since I was very tired and my lizard brain was protecting me from spoilers, I feel like my comment holds true. You don't JUST watch ONE Phoenix Wright game, you get hooked on them and then watch all of them because they're awesome.

Genuinely, every first case/tutorial in Phoenix Wright, even if it is usually truncated, is pretty lengthy!

[Cazero]

You don't JUST watch ONE Phoenix Wright game, you get hooked on them and then watch all of them because they're awesome.

Nonono, no no. This just won't do.
You play them.

[Anonymouswizard]

Nonono, no no. This just won't do.
You play them.

I'm disappointed by the lack of OBJECTION!

I've only played the first game, and that on DS. The microphone functions were great.

[Lord Raziere]

Nonono, no no. This just won't do.
You play them.

Well....um....too bad. I've experienced them all entirely through lets plays. If I were to play them now, I'd know how to solve everything except the Great Ace Attorney ones.

[Fyraltari]

Aaaaand I'm on vacations. Sweet.

[Peelee]

Nice! Congrats, Peelee. Wish you well!

Thanks! Just signed off on the PRT (the push-ups, distance running, and sprinting), so I think all that's left is my PCP signing her form for me and.... that's it? I'm like 90% sure that's my last hurdle before getting the full offer of employment. And hot dang am I excited!

Aaaaand I'm on vacations. Sweet.

HUZZAH!How long? What plans?

[Fyraltari]

HUZZAH!How long? What plans?

Depends on work found but until around early September probably.

s l e e p