Fyraltari's Fiercely Friendly Random Banter Thread #226

[Tvtyrant]

To their credit, they tried to let me down easy. There's still enough vagueness that I'm not sure what I did do or didn't do. Mostly I just feel pathetic. I've been afraid for a long time that anything good I touch turns to garbage. I guess that was right after all. I'd feel a little less lonely about the whole thing if I could talk about to anyone in my friend group, but they've got too much going on as it is.

...Phew. I'll try to post something less depressing. Maybe some jokes, yeah? They won't be funny but still.

Do they actually have too much going on or are you using that as an excuse to self isolate? It is okay to lean on people, you are worth it and your friends know that.

[Insane Jeenyus]

Ok, slightly off topic question:

Since the local grocer is always sold out of heavy whipping cream for my coffee, My question for all the coffee and tea drinkers is thus,

What is/would be the go to alternative to cream if you use is if you [collectively] had lost access to it?

I am not asking for a friend. I am using whole milk and it is nowhere near the same.

[The Fury]

Do they actually have too much going on or are you using that as an excuse to self isolate? It is okay to lean on people, you are worth it and your friends know that.

Right now they're worried about one of a few things: Whether my (now) ex is doing OK, Smash Bros, or Animal Crossing. Nobody has responded to me, nobody has reached out to me.

I was afraid something like this would happen. Things like this always happen. Eventually people in my life have no use for me. It's understandable but it still hurts.

Ok, slightly off topic question:

Since the local grocer is always sold out of heavy whipping cream for my coffee, My question for all the coffee and tea drinkers is thus,

What is/would be the go to alternative to cream if you use is if you [collectively] had lost access to it?

I am not asking for a friend. I am using whole milk and it is nowhere near the same.

I'd use half and half if it's available.

[Insane Jeenyus]

Right now their worried about one of a few things: Whether my (now) ex is doing OK, Smash Bros, or Animal Crossing. Nobody has responded to me, nobody has reached out to me.

I was afraid something like this would happen. Things like this always happen. Eventually people in my life have no use for me. It's understandable but it still hurts.

I am sorry, but all I can give you is e-uncle-hugs.

I'd use half and half if it's available.

Thank you for your response. it is much appreciated.

[Anonymouswizard]

To their credit, they tried to let me down easy. There's still enough vagueness that I'm not sure what I did do or didn't do. Mostly I just feel pathetic. I've been afraid for a long time that anything good I touch turns to garbage. I guess that was right after all.

Sending you my best wishes. I really hate it when people do that at either end of a relationship, but I understand not everybody can bounce back from 'it's not me it's you' as well as I can. Your thoughts are not true, but they will feel true for anywhere from weeks to years, and the only thing you can do is fight them and find the things you haven't turned to garbage.

The one time I got dumped was also by text, and I was just insulted. I'd seen them the day beforehand, they had ample opportunity to dump me in person, and yet they tried to distance themselves from the action as much as possible. Anybody who won't look you in the eyes when doing it was garbage in the first place (heck, the only time I've admitted having a crush in anyway but in person was when they'd already guessed and started bringing it up).

[Aedilred]

Ok, slightly off topic question:

Since the local grocer is always sold out of heavy whipping cream for my coffee, My question for all the coffee and tea drinkers is thus,

What is/would be the go to alternative to cream if you use is if you [collectively] had lost access to it?

I am not asking for a friend. I am using whole milk and it is nowhere near the same.

I'm not familiar with American cream terminology but the idea of putting actual cream in tea horrifies me on some inexpressible level anyway. I do put milk in but I tend to prefer (for tea) the less creamy stuff.

These days though I am trying only to buy unhomogenised dairy milk (which is creamy) so that goes in. Or oat milk.

28-32mm is scale better suited for painting/modelling. (Myself, I don't play wargames to have an excuse to paint figures, I paint figures to play wargames.) It's okay for urban conflicts which are mostly infantry based, and of course roleplaying games.

At 6mm, you cannot have the requisite amount of terrain density to have a realisitic map to use proper real-world tactics. (I.e. really hard thinking exercises.) You can't do Maneouvre Group, which is basically a real-world tactics simulator, at 6mm scale; it's too fiddly. (Because you have to do thing like turn the tank turrets, because your tanks can't see everywhere.)

6mm (and close approximation) is fine for BattleTech (but that, in essence, is nearly 28mm just lensed differently, because your key elements are pretty much the same size/proportional board share).

144 is the ideal scale for moderns/sci-fi, since vehicles are sensibly small enough (which also makes them a goodly chunk cheaper) you can have a reasonable number and still have room to maneouvre. (And I mean "maneouvre," not "be incapable of moving far enough to cross the board in less than 10 bounds" like a large number of wargames rules.) But which are big enough to allow you to turn the turrets sensibly. With village template and fold-flat buildings, you can locate an urban area enough to be able to properly fight over it (urban areas should have at least ten buildings, and far more buildings than infantry units) which priorly, you'd have to fight at 25/28. (This is becase at the klarger scales, you can afford to have a mm or two displacement in putting troop into or out of your building, where as at small scale, your margin for error is far less).

Depends what period you're playing, I think. What I collect and in principle (though in practice rarely actually) play is either skirmish games or big-battalions historicals: specifically ancients and English Civil War, where relatively featureless battlefields are pretty much expected. For moderns (by which I mean anything 20th century or later) or sci-fi gaming then yeah, 6mm isn't going to work.

[LaZodiac]

Ugh. Deliberately avoiding my dumb brand of humor and talking about how upset I'm feeling isn't working. Especially since I just got dumped over text and I have nowhere else to talk about it.

*sends hugs* I don't really have any advice for this, sorry, but you've got my support.

[Peelee]

Ugh. Deliberately avoiding my dumb brand of humor and talking about how upset I'm feeling isn't working. Especially since I just got dumped over text and I have nowhere else to talk about it.

You have my sympathy.

To their credit, they tried to let me down easy. There's still enough vagueness that I'm not sure what I did do or didn't do. Mostly I just feel pathetic. I've been afraid for a long time that anything good I touch turns to garbage. I guess that was right after all. I'd feel a little less lonely about the whole thing if I could talk about to anyone in my friend group, but they've got too much going on as it is.

...Phew. I'll try to post something less depressing. Maybe some jokes, yeah? They won't be funny but still.

Sometimes things just don't work out, and it's not really anyone's fault. And, just like all people, you deserve to have something better than that, even if you may disagree at the time.

I'm not familiar with American cream terminology but the idea of putting actual cream in tea horrifies me on some inexpressible level anyway. I do put milk in but I tend to prefer (for tea) the less creamy stuff.

So am I, so I looked and found this handy guide!

UK cream guide
NAME	MIN MILK FAT	MAIN USES
Clotted cream	55%	Spooned, or spread like butter. A traditional part of a cream tea.
Extra-thick double cream	48%	Thickest available fresh cream, spooned onto pies, puddings, and desserts (cannot be poured due to its consistency)
Double cream	48%	Whips easily and thickest for puddings and desserts, can be piped once whipped
Whipping cream	35%	Whips well but lighter, can be piped once whipped
Whipped cream	35%	Decorations on cakes, topping for ice cream, fruit and so on.
Sterilized cream	23%	?
Cream/Single cream	18%	Poured over puddings, used in sauces and added to coffee.
Sterilized half cream	12%	?
Half cream	?	Some cocktails

US cream guide
Half and half	>10.5%	To whiten coffee (and tea).
Light cream/Table cream/Coffee cream	>18%	An old style product for whitening coffee and also as an enriching ingredient in sauces and other recipes
Whipping cream	>30% <36%	Used in sauces and soups and as a pourable or whipped garnish. Whipping will only attain soft peaks. Some products labeled "whipping cream" contain small amounts of gelatin as an added stabilizer for improved whipping.
Heavy cream/Heavy whipping cream	>36%	For whipping when small stable peaks are desired. Also used as a luxurious pourable garnish on fresh fruit and hot cereals.
Manufacturer's cream	>40%	Used in commercial and professional production applications. Not generally available at retail until recently.

If you go to the store, the most common one you'll find is heavy whipping cream. At least, in the dairy aisle. It's what I use in cooking, like when I make stroganoff. Seems like y'all Brits got us handily beat on the cream front, I may need to check out this other Birmingham sometime.

[Aotrs Commander]

So am I, so I looked and found this handy guide!

Where's evaporated milk, otherwise known as the pudding equvilent of tomato sauce?

Depends what period you're playing, I think. What I collect and in principle (though in practice rarely actually) play is either skirmish games or big-battalions historicals: specifically ancients and English Civil War, where relatively featureless battlefields are pretty much expected. For moderns (by which I mean anything 20th century or later) or sci-fi gaming then yeah, 6mm isn't going to work.

Fair. Yes, ECW and such are definitely less dependant on needing the terrain density, and the figure scale for those games tends to be more or less an abstraction anyway, because you're never using one-to-one anyway (we played 15mm using DBM and Horde of the Things (well, in the end, because we are talking BLEAKBANE here, we played DBM-H, which was a conversion of HotT to DBM-scale.)

(Dad tried 15mm sci-fi early on, but decided it didn't work in place of 25 and late, when he and his mate wrote Maneouvre Group, found 12mm is a much better fit.)

[Peelee]

Where's evaporated milk, otherwise known as the pudding equvilent of tomato sauce?

Off with the other milks, since this is about types of cream.

[Fyraltari]

Off with the other milks, since this is about types of cream.

Cream is basically fancy milk.

[Peelee]

Cream is basically fancy milk.

So those tables are the fancy tables, and the condensed milk still isn't fancy enough.

[Anonymouswizard]

So those tables are the fancy tables, and the condensed milk still isn't fancy enough.

I mean, sure, but what about evaporated milk?

[Peelee]

I mean, sure, but what about evaporated milk?

Still not fancy enough. I don't think evaporated milk even knows what a tuxedo is!

[enderlord99]

Where's evaporated milk, otherwise known as the pudding equvilent of tomato sauce?

Evaporated milk is just whole milk with some water removed. Whole milk is roughly 4%.

[halfeye]

Evaporated/condensed milk only comes in cans (that I know of), it's more liquid than cream, but it is very concentrated and may have a higher fat and sugar content.

[LaZodiac]

I went for a walk today, to get some fresh air and to banish the leg demons. I decided to take some pictures, of which I will share one; of the cool wood portal thing we have down town.

Behold; a hole in space and time.

[Qwertystop]

I went for a walk today, to get some fresh air and to banish the leg demons. I decided to take some pictures, of which I will share one; of the cool wood portal thing we have down town.

Behold; a hole in space and time.

Very nice indeed.

[Sermil]

I went for a walk today, to get some fresh air and to banish the leg demons. I decided to take some pictures, of which I will share one; of the cool wood portal thing we have down town.

Behold; a hole in space and time.

It must be a hole through time because there's snow around it! We haven't had snow in months.

I mean, I live in low-land California, we haven't had snow in years. But we also haven't had snow in months.

[Aedilred]

You have my sympathy.

Sometimes things just don't work out, and it's not really anyone's fault. And, just like all people, you deserve to have something better than that, even if you may disagree at the time.

So am I, so I looked and found this handy guide!

<snip>

If you go to the store, the most common one you'll find is heavy whipping cream. At least, in the dairy aisle. It's what I use in cooking, like when I make stroganoff. Seems like y'all Brits got us handily beat on the cream front, I may need to check out this other Birmingham sometime.

That is curious: it seems that our cream is indeed "creamier" than yours. When I think of cream, I don't tend to picture anything lighter than single cream, and I don't really use anything lighter than double cream at home. Which is probably why the idea of putting cream in tea/coffee seems weird to me, because when I think "cream" I'm picturing something much heavier-duty than is actually used - whereas in fact it's probably not far off the unhomogenised milk that I now use (including for tea).

[Insane Jeenyus]

Well, for my coffee or making roux I use heavy whipping cream

[Peelee]

That is curious: it seems that our cream is indeed "creamier" than yours. When I think of cream, I don't tend to picture anything lighter than single cream, and I don't really use anything lighter than double cream at home.

I've never heard of light cream or "whipping cream" without the heavy over here (and obviously manufacturers cream). Half and Half is supposed to be half milk, half cream, and I never questioned the "cream" part until now. But if someone in the US says cream, they pretty much mean heavy whipping cream.

Well, for my coffee or making roux I use heavy whipping cream

Case in point!

[Rawhide]

I'd never heard of "hard cider" until there was a need to distinguish "cider" from "sparkling juice (aka soft cider)".

[Peelee]

I'd never heard of "hard cider" until there was a need to distinguish "cider" from "sparkling juice (aka soft cider)".

Y'all got carbonated non-alcoholic cider?

[Rawhide]

Y'all got carbonated non-alcoholic cider?

I do not understand.

Here cider is alcoholic. Over in the US, they are such weaklings that they had to make non-alcoholic cider, thus the need to distinguish "hard cider".

[Peelee]

I do not understand.

Here cider is alcoholic. Over in the US, they are such weaklings that they had to make non-alcoholic cider, thus the need to distinguish "hard cider".

I mean if I go to the store and grab a jug of apple cider, I'm getting apple juice that hasn't been pasteurized and filtered. It's definitely not "sparkling".

[Rawhide]

I mean if I go to the store and grab a jug of apple cider, I'm getting apple juice that hasn't been pasteurized and filtered. It's definitely not "sparkling".

Ok, fine, not sparkling.

But this is worse, it's just plain old juice. And it's not even consistent across the US! There's pasteurised and/or filtered apple cider, and unpasteurised and/or unfiltered apple juice. Some are even sparkling!

[DataNinja]

And it's not even consistent across the US!

To be fair, I feel like half of America's jollies come from confusing most Commonwealth countries with their stuff. (And vice versa for said Commonwealth countries.)

[Peelee]

Ok, fine, not sparkling.

But this is worse, it's just plain old juice. And it's not even consistent across the US! There's pasteurised and/or filtered apple cider, and unpasteurised and/or unfiltered apple juice.

Last I knew it was standardized; filtered and pasteurized is juice, in for both is cider, fermented is hard cider.

Also, on that "weak Americans" bit... this is how I imagine all Aussies talking to Americans.

ETA:

To be fair, I feel like half of America's jollies come from confusing most Commonwealth countries with their stuff. (And vice versa for said Commonwealth countries.)

And I'd show you how I imagine Canadians if youtube had that Corner Gas clip where Hank is confused about when to use metric vs American Customary Units.

[Rawhide]

Last I knew it was standardized; filtered and pasteurized is juice, in for both is cider

Not standardised, not a legal distinction. Some companies capitalise on this...