[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation

Share one of your meals today!

I've been holding on to this thought for quite some time and don't know where to share this. Too long and not random enough for a shower thought, so here it is I guess.

Car manufacturers really like their LEDs to be as fancy as possible lately, and more and more turn signals on cars have this "sequential lighting" show they do. Basically, the type of turn signal I have a problem with is the one that gradually fills up the turn signal light bar, then turns off everything when the bar is full, i.e. Audi cars in this video

IMO, not only does the animation feel clunky, I also think its a safety issue, albeit a relatively minor one. The point of indicator lights is to tell other drivers your intentions. They should be fully noticeable the moment you turn on your turn signals, and should not be halfway lit first. It probably would also introduce a delay in driver response, but I have no scientific evidence to back this claim up, so take this as just my opinion.

Instead, they should do it the opposite way where the light bar fully lights up first, then gradually shrinks. Or the Mazda way of turning on quickly then dimming down slowly like in this video. Or the combination of these two, where the light bar has a gradient end that tapers away when shrinking. (Seriously, having a gradient or a gradual dim is so much more elegant. Why don't more cars do this?)

Okay rant over. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

Did your parents ever take a deeper interest in you and your interests outside of your needs?

The schizophrenic mix of lighthearted filler stories and serious tragic ones, the fake chemistry between the hosts.

To me it makes them sound like aliens trying to act human.

Feel free to have a look at

• !movies@lemm.ee
• !showsandmovies@lemm.ee
• !animation@lemm.ee
• !horrormovies@lemm.ee

I happened to notice today that the "Itchy and Scratch Land" episode of The Simpsons aired just over 30 years ago (on Oct. 2nd, 1994).

That means that, for a full 3 decades now, I have checked every single gift, souvenir, and tourist shop I've been in for a Bort plate. Its not obsessive and I'm not going out of my way, but if I see a rack of novelty license plates I make a point to look for Bort.

Anyone else, or am I alone in this particular pop culture predilection?

First, apologies if this isn't appropriate for a community called "casual conversation". I just don't know of another conversational community to post in. I am more than happy to delete this on request.

Does anyone out there seem to get addicted to their bad moods? Like, you've been feeling down on and off for a week. Instead of seeking out media, conversations, etc. that you know you like and makes you happy, you'd prefer to keep absorbing unhappy media and talking about unhappy things to keep you unhappy. It's almost like you begin to enjoy being unhappy and you don't want it to stop. What the fuck is even that though? Are some people just meant to be insufferable like that? I don't understand why this happens. When I'm happy, I want to continue to be happy. When I'm down, I want to continue to be down even if there is no discernible reason.

Just curious on your thoughts. Thanks for your time.

Today I saw a totem pole made of skeletons. I tried to come up with a word for it, something like skeletotem pole and accidentally imagined a similar sounding scrotum-totem pole.

Now you are going to imagine one. Do you draw faces on them? Position them to make eyes and stretch them out?

You're welcome.

Over the years, I've run into a few things that weren't immediately-obvious to me.

One of the big ones was eating pomegranates by opening them underwater. For those not familiar, pomegranates have a lot of red seeds and white husk between them:

Cutting a pomegranate or even opening a pomegranate tends to burst at least some seeds. The seeds are sticky and stain and tend to spray juice when pierced.

However, if you just cut through the outer hull of the fruit, then open it by hand underwater in a bowl of water, any juice that would have sprayed out is just grabbed by the water. Even better, the (inedible) white husk floats, so it self-separates instead of sticking to everything.

Today, I decided to try eating a watermelon with a spoon. In the past, that's tended to also make things spray, so I tried a grapefruit spoon, one with serrations that runs down the side. And that works great -- the spoon is like a knife, can go more-cleanly through the watermelon than a regular spoon, and still lets you scoop up the watermelon.

Any other neat tips that might be unorthodox or that people might not have tried or know about?

Free speech is what he said 🙄 I am still being blocked.

Feel free to have a look at

• !movies@lemm.ee
• !showsandmovies@lemm.ee
• !animation@lemm.ee
• !horrormovies@lemm.ee