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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • The problem is that to get the look of chalk, you have to use something that applies at least close to the same, and nothing that would be waterfast or similarly durable is going to apply the same. Like pastels, they’re basically in between chalk and crayon in the way they transfer to a surface, but you can tell at a glance that it isn’t the same effect. The livers lines look more structured, fill in the valleys of something like cement or concrete more than chalk. And asphalt isn’t much different.

    So you have a few choices. First is to go with chalk and a fixative. If you’re going for something artistic, that’s your best choice. It won’t last forever, but it’ll look like chalk while it lasts.

    Second is to use grease markers. They’ll still smear, but should last through rain at least. It won’t look like chalk, but it’ll still have a similar enough vibe to maybe carry it off. You’ll have a limited palette unless you make your own, but you can get similar effects with something like cray-pas. It’ll be expensive as fuck though with pastels and such, that stuff isn’t meant for big projects.

    Then there’s temporary marking paints. Like the guys that mark power lines use. Won’t last forever, but it’ll take some wear before flaking off the surface. They won’t look like chalk at all, but if you’re doing something more like hopscotch lines, it’d be a better pick imo.

    It really comes down to your project. Like, I used to do fairly frequent sidewalk art on my own sidewalks with neighborhood kids. They’d do their thing, I’d do something a bit more complex. There’s sidewalk chalks that will hold up being walked on lightly for a few days as long as it doesn’t rain. Better than your typical chalk you’d use on paper or a chalkboard at least. Crayola was actually pretty reliable in that regard, but the colors were all primary or pastel; so you’d have to pick up anything else as regular artist’s chalk, which is a thing at most hobby and art supply stores.

    But if I wanted a section to last longer for some reason, I’d usually make my own parafin or beeswax blocks. A little cheap pigment (like tempera powder as one example), some heat and molds, you have a slightly crumbly chunk of color that won’t get rinsed away in the first rain. It’ll melt and make a mess in the summer though, so you won’t want it where you’ll walk on it much.

    Tempera paint actually does decent for very temporary but more wear resistant sidewalk art. Once dry, people can walk over it a little without it being wrecked. Rain makes it run though.

    Damn, I just realized I miss the fuck out of those days. Come home from work, and there’s a gang of kids waiting. Break out the boxes of chalk, and everyone is just making happy pictures all over the porch, the sidewalk, even the street if there were other adults to run interference with traffic. There usually were, but not always. Rule was that if there weren’t two adults that could manage traffic, the street was off limits.

    Since it kinda turned into a thing, there were days when not only my house, but houses all up and down the street would have suns and houses and stick figures under trees all over the driveways and such.

    Anyway, old man memories aside, it depends on what you’re doing.



  • Understand that most meals requiring this kind of etiquette tend to not have finger foods on the same plate as loose veggies or rice. So you’re talking about a really niche thing.

    I was taught that, other than bread, no food should be held in the hand while eating other food, and bread should only be used in that way with specific dishes, not as a general thing.

    So, first option should be another utensil. That’s what they’re there for. It’s unusual that you would have only one.

    If that isn’t present, then you would use another piece of food. You would ideally use a dry food, like toast or bread, but a breaded piece of meat served as a finger food would be acceptable if the dish is served without other utensils. It would be weird, but not unheard of.

    However, you shouldn’t finger the food at all. If the food isn’t a finger food itself, and you’ve been provided a utensil, you would normally expect to just leave what can’t be scooped up with said utensil.

    All of that said, the best etiquette advice possible is: when in doubt, slow down and watch your host. There’s really no situation outside in common etiquette where eating slowly is a bad thing. And, doing as one’s host is doing is equally universally acceptable. So chew well, placing your utensils down on the plate and engage with the other people. Dinner parties of any significant scope are not about eating as the primary goal. The dinner is the setting for social interactions. So, unless the host or most of the table are just shoveling it in, you have time to estimate the accepted behavior. And, if they’re shoveling it in, there’s your answer.


  • Aight, just a bit of background first.

    Back in that era, there was a hip-hop subgenre called miami bass. There was an offshoot of that called booty bass. The difference is largely in the degree of rap over the beats, and the nature of the beats. This only matters because Miami at that time was pumping out some serious club bangers. Shit you could really dance to, but would also rattle windows blocks away when played loud.

    Da dip was booty bass and a dance song. Like the twist, the macarena, the watusi, the tootsie roll, and other dance fads, the songs were meant to be danced to by the very dance the song was about.

    Da dip is basically a modified grind. I put my hand upon your hip (literally), then I dip, you dip, we dip. Dipping in this context is better shown than described.

    It’s a dance simple enough even drunks, and white kids, can do it; but it’s able to be elaborated on by more advanced dancers. Taken to an extreme, it runs fairly close to dirty dancing ala the movie of the same name. It’s all hips and grinding of groins. In it’s simplest version, it’s a couples oriented version of a line dance.

    And yes, you would indeed see people doing da dip. Not as popular as just straight up grinding on someone, but it definitely showed up when the song played, and when similar booty bass tracks would. It required less coordination than the tootsie roll or the butterfly for sure, so it saw a short degree of popularity.




  • Not too bad.

    But I was fucking around while trying to learn to ride a bike. Went too fast, hit a bump on a dirt road. Went over the handlebars, slid face first a few feet into a ditch.

    Now, like I said, I wasn’t badly injured. It was all just scrapes and bruises. But they were deep scrapes from my forehead all the way down one side of my face, then my chest and belly, plus along the inner side of my right arm from trying to stop myself.

    Every scrape was filled with dirt and gravel, which had to be picked out. Then it all needed flushing out. So by the time it was all done I was high from endorphins and crying and screaming, looked like a shredder had beaten the shit out of me, and was both throbbing and burning along the entire scraped section.

    Then I had to go to school like that lol.






  • Not all of them, no.

    Most of them don’t do those nice, sturdy bubbles at all, but they’ll get close. Iirc, almond milk comes closest…

    It matters in some recipes whether or not the milk substitute will have the right properties. Say, something like a mushroom cream sauce, none of the substitutes work because there’s just not duty enough fats. Milk gravy is hit or miss, with almond being the least bad choice iirc. American style biscuits, soy and almond do okay, but need extra acid to get a good rise like you can with buttermilk. But they sub in fine for regular milk in terms of texture and taste.

    Stuff like that. Blowing bubbles is a quick way to test a fake milk. Or even types of cow milk, or milk from other animals. Goat milk, as an example, is so close to cow milk in terms of structure it’s an easy substitution if flavor isn’t a factor. The powdered milk you can get for long term storage or baking is no better than the usual non dairy stuff when reconstituted, and not even as good as skim milk despite being the dry parts of skim milk.

    For good bubbles, you need fats. And they need to be similar enough to milk fats, so there’s a high degree of parity between a bubble test and cooking outcomes


  • If you’re wanting to do stuff like festivals, you’d probably want to find a clown school.

    But doing it as a volunteer, all you really need is a suit, a face, and skills. Juggling, balloon making, card tricks, etc. Then you reach out to facilities and work out the arrangements for a performance. Hospitals can be a tad restrictive about who gets to do shows for pediatric wards, so you’ll likely want to try nursing homes first and build up a local rep.

    You can also try to hook up with local sideshow type troupes. Clowns aren’t always welcome, but you can usually pick up some skills if you’re honest about it. The fire performers won’t teach you, but jugglers and magicians will usually share some basics as long as you aren’t trying to shaft them with it.



  • The thing is, it’s not a blanket statement of what must be done. It’s a principle that is guided by the combination of logic, emotional control, and, as strange as it may seem, empathy.

    It stands as a metric to process one’s actions and choices. The individual vulcan accepts that the needs of all vulcans as a whole are more important than their own needs. This doesn’t mean that there is no debate. It’s the framework for the debate.

    As the individual vulcan weighs options, they seek to determine what is the most benefit, and therefore the greatest need. They use logic to measure opposing or contradictory options, but they also consider the non physical ramifications.

    Expanded into the federation, it becomes a measure for all sapient beings, not just vulcans. And that’s where the empathy of vulcans comes in the clearest. They’ll weigh the emotional harm to emotional beings as a need that must be factored into a decision.

    But it also includes as part of their culture that no single vulcan is perfect, and that logic is a tool that must be developed. They can disagree with the decisions made about what the needs of the many are. It’s just that every individual sees the logic of their own needs being secondary.

    It’s an expression of the vulcan equivalent of religion





  • There isn’t a single one for me.

    However, I gotta put a lot of weight to the “all the way” that’s pretty much the default in my area. Mustard, onions, slaw, and what’s called either hot dog sauce, or chili sauce. Which, the sauce is similar to “hot dog chili”, but not the same; it’s a little different spices and in cooking methods. Secret family recipes abound.

    It’s an amazing combination when paired with any of the standard store brands, or the “red” hot dogs the are popular here in the south.

    I’m also a big fan of mustard and kraut. I tend to prefer it on fancier frankfurters and other kinds of sausage, brats and kielbasa in particular.

    There’s the “pizza dog”, aka an “italian” dog. Has zero to do with Italy anything that I’ve ever seen, but that’s what it gets called sometimes. This is a double preparation dog. You cook the franks however you prefer (I recommend either “dirty water” or a mid tier beer boil). You then place them in buns, top them with your choice of tomato sauces like marinara, then with the usual “italian” melty cheeses; mozzarella, provolone, maybe some parmesan. Do this in a baking pan or whatever, then put it in at 350F until the cheese melts and slightly browns.

    You can get fancier with that, but it’s absurdly satisfying just like that.

    I don’t mind what I call a basic dog. Bun, frank, mustard and ketchup. That’s for when you’ve got a really solid flavored dog that you want to savor. The acid from the mustard and ketchup cut through the fats as you chew, bringing the meat flavors back across your palate in waves. But a lot of the time, I’d rather do kraut and mustard if the dog is really rich on its own.

    I fucking love hotdogs tbh.