first-must-burn's recent activity

  1. Comment on Getting out of my head with Camp Miasma in ~movies

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    One thing that distracted me the whole movie is that Gillian Anderson is canonically Dana Scully (X files) in my brain, so seeing her do something like this is both mind blowing and a reminder of...

    One thing that distracted me the whole movie is that Gillian Anderson is canonically Dana Scully (X files) in my brain, so seeing her do something like this is both mind blowing and a reminder of how old I am.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Does Shawarma Law give a more definitive answer on whether or not a Hot Dog is a sandwich? in ~food

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    This is covered by the I/invariant. A bowl of popcorn and a bowl of lucky charms are both bowls of I. However, you have a point about nachos. There is more than one way to prep them. If you have...

    orientation-agnostic carbs, for example a bowl of popcorn

    This is covered by the I/invariant. A bowl of popcorn and a bowl of lucky charms are both bowls of I.

    However, you have a point about nachos. There is more than one way to prep them. If you have not experienced sheet pan nachos, I hope you do, soon and often. These are what I had in mind with my claim, and I would argue that they are, to a first approximation, true "plate of D" nachos.

    You may have been exposed to what I would call bar nachos[1]. In the best case, toppings and chips are stacked on the plate in layers, but far more common is merely a pile of chips with all the toppings liked on top. These defy easy classification, but I would argue that the food on the plate is merely nachos in waiting[2], but by the time you have extracted a chip and loaded it up, that chip is once again classifiable as D.

    In the end, reasonable people may differ. I am happy to continue this discussion endlessly if we can find a way to do it while eating nachos.

    When I was in college, there was a place at Northgate called Zapatos. For $30 (a lot more money in the year 2000), you could get what they called "trash can nachos". It was a full size Rubbermaid Trash Can Lid (clean) covered with nachos. It took up the whole table. It was amazing. I wonder if I will ever look on it's like again.

    1. This variety of nacho is by far the most disappointing, but as a true lover of nachos, I say, if you are "a quart low" and need some bad, even bad nachos are better than no nachos at all. Any port in a storm.
    2. My argument treads close to the no true Scotsman fallacy. Nevertheless, unless one is willing to go at the pile with a fork, like a psychopath, I think my argument holds.
    1 vote

  3. Comment on Historic voter turnout powered US Democrats’ blue wave in ~society

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    What if you got paid to vote? Something real, like $100, and the amount pinned to inflation. I think that would be better than a penalty, though I suppose you could have both.

    What if you got paid to vote? Something real, like $100, and the amount pinned to inflation. I think that would be better than a penalty, though I suppose you could have both.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Getting out of my head with Camp Miasma in ~movies

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Well, it was . . . weird. I liked it. I think a lot of it went over my head. Like what was the deal with all the candy? I have a friend who is a filmmaker, and hearing them talk about the story...

    Well, it was . . . weird. I liked it. I think a lot of it went over my head. Like what was the deal with all the candy?

    I have a friend who is a filmmaker, and hearing them talk about the story behind a movie, the way it interacts with the genre, etc. is always fascinating to me. I am aware enough of criticism and critical theory to see the shape of those things, but in the end I feel like I am always missing something. I feel like I have wandered into a place where everyone speaks a different language. They are still "English" words, but when they say somethings and I respond, I can tell there's no true exchange of meaning, no meeting of the minds. So I just try to tap into what I can and not worry to much about what I may be missing.

    As an experience, watching it far exceeded my interaction with most movies. And I would not have had that if you had not taken the time to write and share what you did. So thank you for that.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Does Shawarma Law give a more definitive answer on whether or not a Hot Dog is a sandwich? in ~food

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    You make some good points, but I think trying to use food names as the classifiers makes it messy, so I wrote this to try to clean it up.

    You make some good points, but I think trying to use food names as the classifiers makes it messy, so I wrote this to try to clean it up.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Does Shawarma Law give a more definitive answer on whether or not a Hot Dog is a sandwich? in ~food

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    We think the true difficulty with the cube rule lies and the fact that the naming uses a mixed set of foods from different cuisines, with no reason why they should be the canonical name. As we...

    We think the true difficulty with the cube rule lies and the fact that the naming uses a mixed set of foods from different cuisines, with no reason why they should be the canonical name. As we have noted elsewhere , is Sushi a burrito or is a burrito sushi? And even then, only certain kinds of burritos are equivalent to Sushi.

    A more egalitarian approach would be to use the Singmaster Notation originally proposed for Rubik's Cube, i.e. using UDLRFB to denote the sides, with F being defined as the part of the food one eats first, and U being defined as the part that rests on the serving dish.

    Then, a Chipotle burrito is a UDLRFB, a more traditional burrito is UDLR, but a maki roll is actually LRFB.

    A whole, traditional apple pie is UDLRFB, while a whole Dutch apple pie, or most other pies are merely DLRFB. Once sliced, the pies become UDB or DB, respectively. This gets away from such semantically messy notions as "bent toast".

    There are still some difficulties. For example, a slice of most American pizzas is DB. A Sicilian style piece of pizza is merely D, but this is acceptable because there is no intrinsic "front" to such a slice, as there is not to toast. However, a very thin-crust pizza with a definable but flat crust edge is also technically D, yet leaves the uninitiated no guidance on eating it. We shall leave this notion and the horror of eating pizza crust-first for future exploration.

    We must also take on the classification of the so-called "Nacho" from the cube rule. Given that the Nacho is one of the most perfect and delicious foods, we opine that it does deserve a first class naming. However a rigorous food theorist must adhere to the system, and in that respect we believe that it is not a question of starch orientation so much as scale. As eaten, a nacho is merely D, and the whole dish, a platter of D. [1]

    To then suggest, as the original cube rule does, that a Lucky Charm and a nacho are equivalent, is the greatest affront to the nacho. We should try to not let feelings enter into our analysis, but it does point to a gap in our classification, which we shall fill now.

    This new element classifies a starch item that has no natural orientation. We shall call this I for invariant. This encompasses a crouton, spaghetti [2], a piece of rice, and individual Lucky Charms. Therefore, there is a whole class of food items which are "a bowl of I".

    For completeness, we suggest a final notation, N, for null set, encompassing the cube rule notion of "salad" and being defined more formally as a food item having no structural starch.

    To summarize, we have proposed a formalization of the cube rule using an extended form of the Singmaster Notation. to classify food items. It is our hope that by adopting a culturally neutral, flexible system we can find more common ground. If we see that food unites us more than divides us, we may work together toward making a more perfect world.

    1. One hopes it is a large platter.
    2. But not, for example, manicotti, which is UDLR, or ravioli, which is UDLRFB.
    5 votes

  7. Comment on Does Shawarma Law give a more definitive answer on whether or not a Hot Dog is a sandwich? in ~food

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    ~ Madonna, "Bedtime Story"

    Words are useless, especially sentences. They don't stand for anything, how could they explain how I feel?

    ~ Madonna, "Bedtime Story"

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Does Shawarma Law give a more definitive answer on whether or not a Hot Dog is a sandwich? in ~food

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    A Chipotle/Freedbirds-style burrito is a calzone, but the more traditional open-ended style is a sushi. Actually, I'd be more comfortable arguing that sushi is a burrito.

    A Chipotle/Freedbirds-style burrito is a calzone, but the more traditional open-ended style is a sushi. Actually, I'd be more comfortable arguing that sushi is a burrito.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Does Shawarma Law give a more definitive answer on whether or not a Hot Dog is a sandwich? in ~food

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I am with you on tart, but I think bread bowl is actually an excellent alternative as well.

    I am with you on tart, but I think bread bowl is actually an excellent alternative as well.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Does Shawarma Law give a more definitive answer on whether or not a Hot Dog is a sandwich? in ~food

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Now I want to put sloppy joe in a hot dog bun. I think I know what I'm having for dinner.

    Now I want to put sloppy joe in a hot dog bun. I think I know what I'm having for dinner.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Formatting USBs with live Linux... what's the right way? in ~comp

    first-must-burn
    Link
    I have gotten a lot of good use out of gparted although admittedly not in the past 5-10 years. I have always used it with the Linux system rescue as a bookable CD, which probably dates my usage....

    I have gotten a lot of good use out of gparted although admittedly not in the past 5-10 years. I have always used it with the Linux system rescue as a bookable CD, which probably dates my usage. It's a great tool for expanding Windows partitions without reinstalling Windows. I've even used it to copy a windows partition onto a new drive and then expand it. I like the visual aspect because it's easier for me to be sure that I'm doing what I think I'm doing. Also a lot of the operations you can stack up and visualize before you actually commit to the operation.

    4 votes

  12. Comment on House Kintsugi in ~life.home_improvement

    first-must-burn
    Link
    What the wall is made of? I think of grout as being used for tile, but maybe the terminology differs. My only caution about adding the pigment to the grout is the grout is usually made to be...

    What the wall is made of? I think of grout as being used for tile, but maybe the terminology differs. My only caution about adding the pigment to the grout is the grout is usually made to be smeared over the crack and then wiped off. If the pigment you add doesn't wipe off the wall cleanly, then it might work better to grout it and then paint over the grout, even though that's not the true kintsugi way.

    Regardless of the material, I'd say either make yourself a separate test piece to try it out on, or pick a small, unobtrusive part of the wall that's hidden by furniture. Then you'll have a better idea what's involved. It sounds like a very neat project! I hope you'll share a picture when it's done.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Getting out of my head with Camp Miasma in ~movies

    first-must-burn
    Link
    Okay, your essay has sufficiently intrigued me that I want to watch it. Nice job! I generally don't watch horror films, so I have to figure out how to watch it without warping my algorithm.

    Okay, your essay has sufficiently intrigued me that I want to watch it. Nice job!

    I generally don't watch horror films, so I have to figure out how to watch it without warping my algorithm.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on What's your favorite action scene? in ~talk

    first-must-burn
    Link
    The opening scene of the Matrix, seeing it for the first time on the big screen, when I didn't know anything about the movie. That first bullet time shot, her going through the window, "Get up,...

    The opening scene of the Matrix, seeing it for the first time on the big screen, when I didn't know anything about the movie. That first bullet time shot, her going through the window, "Get up, Trinity. Get up.", why is she running toward the dump truck? So much to take in. This clip is short by about 20 seconds, but I couldn't find a better one.

    Kiss of the Dragon has two:

    Pool ball vs machine gun

    And the actual kiss of the dragon - warning, very graphic

    From a video game, the ashtray maze from Control

    8 votes

  15. Comment on Setting up own email FQDN (and maybe service?) in ~tech

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Second vote for mxroute. I used to bounce around between the many generic cpanel shared hosts as they load the servers up with more and more users and the server's source IP getting spam...

    Second vote for mxroute. I used to bounce around between the many generic cpanel shared hosts as they load the servers up with more and more users and the server's source IP getting spam blacklisted.

    On mxroute, you're really paying for space, so you can have lots of mailboxes. I have half a dozen domains configured with maybe a dozen mailboxes on the same account. They generate ssl certs for the webmail domains, so you can securely access your mail that way.

    On the amazon@ idea, I have been doing this for years. That is called a catchall address. Detailed steps follow, but the result is:

    1. you get all your "real" correspondence at one address
    2. You get all your marketing email at another address, AND you never lose marketing emails you wanted (e.g. shipping notifications) due to spam filtering.

    Here is what I recommend:

    • Set to your main mailboxes like normal: user1@example.com. Configures spam filters for this account like normal.
    • Make one extra mailbox for the catchall: marketing@example.com. The name doesn't matter. You never send mail from this address or give it out.
    • Configure a subdomain like biz.example.com, and make a catchall rule that routes anything @biz.example.com into your marketing mailbox. Now anything @biz.example.com goes to marketing@example.com. You sign up for things with amazon@biz.example.com, hilton@biz.exsmole.com, etc.
    • Turn off the spam filters on the marketing mailbox (both in the server and in your email clients). Everything you get there is going to look like spam.
    • If you start getting real spam on one of the biz aliases (that is, hings unrelated to the sender), change your email to a different alias with that service and use the mxroute dashboard to route the spammy one to :blackhole:. Example (this really happened): I buy shoes and sign up with zappos@biz.example.com. I start getting spam there (unrelated to shoes), so I change my address to zappos2@biz.example.com, then black hole the first one. I email support and tell them they have a leak. I start getting spam on zappos2, so I close my account, blackhole the second one, and buy shoes elsewhere.
    • Keep your top level domain without a catchall because you'll get a lot of spam to random addresses. People don't seem to spam the second level domains.
    • Add a couple of forwarders that point to marketing@example.com like mkt1@example.com, mkt2@example.com. This is because every once in a while, I'll hit a site that rejects the biz.example.com address as "not a real address" and use the tld forwarders instead.
    • There may be some aliases you want to see in your main mailbox. For example, when I sign my daughter up for summer camp, I use campname@biz, but I want to see the emails because they have daily announcements that are time sensitive. Use the mxroute dashboard to add a forwarder from campname@biz.example.com to user1@example.com. That way I still didn't leak my "real" email address. I can turn the forwarder off after the camp is over.
    • Grey area: some companies offer a large bonus coupon when you sign up. I buy jeans all at once and retire all the old ones, so I create a new account (lee2@, lee3@, etc) every time. I use the same shipping address and CC, so if they wanted to crack down on this, I think they could. I no longer have a moral/ethical qualm about exploiting these loopholes when dealing with corporate entities.

  16. Comment on 2026 United States midterm elections distractions topic in ~talk

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I filed a bug for this years ago :)

    I filed a bug for this years ago :)

    5 votes

  17. Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk

    first-must-burn
    Link
    My dad has had GIST for the last 17 years. This week, he had his third surgery to remove a 2cm tumor from his abdomen. This one ended up being in the omentum, not attached to the bowel, so they...

    My dad has had GIST for the last 17 years. This week, he had his third surgery to remove a 2cm tumor from his abdomen. This one ended up being in the omentum, not attached to the bowel, so they didn't remove any (in the last surgery, they removed 2 feet of intestine). This means his recovery was a lot simpler, since it's mainly the incision that has to heal. The surgery went well, the recovery is going well, we got him home yesterday.

    Even though everything went well, this week has been exhausting. The schedule chaos, the big emotions from every side, making sure my mom is eating and sleeping, trying to fit in any amount of remote work, plus I had to replace my phone in the middle of the week.

    They finished their move from Texas to Ohio in the weeks before his surgery. In the plus column, their new apartment is a 15 minute walk from the cancer hospital where he had his surgery. But there is the added chaos of having moved and significantly downsized their stuff recently.

    I've written more about my parents' situation elsewhere, but this week really impressed on me how much more limited they both are, both physically and mentally. I had good talks with both my mom and dad separately, and it's clear that they have some rocky time together in the future. The irony of course, is that this is exactly how my mom's parents'relationship played out in later years.

    If I have taken anything away from this time, it's reinforcing the idea that I need to continue to put time, effort, and intentionality into my relationships with my wife. I don't want to wake up one day and find she has given up on me and all that's left is resentment. We have tools (like individual and couples therapy) that weren't realistically available to my parents, so I think there is hope.

    If you made it this far, thanks for listening to my ramble and giving me a space to air things out.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on Looking for advice: How do I find out what stocks to invest into? in ~finance

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I can definitely say my retirement accounts have not 2.5xed in the last 5 years, although perhaps we will see over the long run.

    I can definitely say my retirement accounts have not 2.5xed in the last 5 years, although perhaps we will see over the long run.

  19. Comment on Looking for advice: How do I find out what stocks to invest into? in ~finance

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Yeah, that's why this is a very rare event - you don't often see a "historic low" on a blue chip stock, but when I see the opportunity, I take it.

    Yeah, that's why this is a very rare event - you don't often see a "historic low" on a blue chip stock, but when I see the opportunity, I take it.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Looking for advice: How do I find out what stocks to invest into? in ~finance