ten good things

[kaberett]

1. One of the picture prompts Duolingo gives you when you're learning German and it asks you to translate "the sugar"? Is a bowl of sugar with vanilla pods in. I am charmed, and also sort of curious about whether it does that for other languages and I just... haven't noticed.

2. I am signed up to the London Business School Behavioral Research Lab, which means I sometimes get an e-mail inviting me to participate in a study in exchange for cold hard cash. This morning I got to drink a small quantity of beetroot & passionfruit juice (selected from a tray containing a variety of juices), read some feedback about it, and then give my own. It took about 15 minutes all told, I got paid a tenner for it, and I continued very gently learning to like beetroot. (It was surprisingly tasty, and paid for half my new ereader. This makes it a win all round.)

3. I've actually been managing to swap e-mails with P over the past few days! He's been responding! It's been lovely, not least because he pointed out an excellent bit of costuming that occurred in Elementary 4x17 that completely passed me by -- namely, both times Joan acts in opposition to Morland, she's wearing a white tie and black shirt and he's wearing a white shirt and black tie.

4. I think I have worked out why some of the creme brulee attempts have gone grainy! I'm pretty sure (I have not kept adequately detailed notes) that it happens when I pick up cheap extra-thick double cream and let it out with a little milk, as opposed to just using double cream. So that is a mystery solved, for all the mechanism remains somewhat opaque to me. (Ideas?)

5. ... A. just brought the last creme brulee through, with the last of the strawberries he picked up for me last week on top, and two spoons, and proceeded to lean companionably against me while telling me all about how en-GB-oed is his problematic fave. hashtag domestic bliss, etc etc etc.

6. I got to stick my name at the top of a file in the Dreamwidth codebase, today, because I'd written more than 10% of it (or 100 lines, whichever is smaller; in this instance, 10%). It's a tiny feature that like one person (possibly two people?) is going to (be able to) use, but I think that's still actually the first time I've got to do that, and I am Contented.

7. I had shakshuka and bagel for breakfast, and bagel and cheddar and cucumber and a strawberry for lunch, and textures and flavours and yes.

8. I was on time to (or early for!) all my appointments in spite of Tube Shenaniganry (the Piccadilly line just wasn't for much of this morning, okay), and the staff at my local station did a top-notch job of looking out for me, and then pleasant brief commiseration occurred on my way back in. (People who have had that much of a morning 100% get me explicitly thanking them and wishing that the rest of their day gets better.) (I gotta say, given what today's been like for them, I really hope they enjoy tomorrow's strike.) And then I made a phone call I really didn't want to, and removed another source of uncertainty; and then I dealt with some other stressors. Yes.

9. I am so endlessly, immensely grateful for having a warm and comfortable bed that makes me hurt less and that soothes me. (I have a memory foam topper from freecycle; memory foam pillows from my mother; a weighted blanket of my very own; soft duvet covers, and soft micofleece blankets, and stripy tulip pillow cases my mother thought I should have.)

10. Have a ridiculous song. (Oh right, what was actually going to go here was mild amusement at the intersection of interests of public transport, graphic design, zoological illustration and a specific animal species that means I've probably managed to luck into sorting A a Very Appropriate Present -- this is not spoilers, I've had a chat with him about how much effort I'm willing to go to in order to achieve the thing -- but I sort of wandered off into being distracted. So have two cheerful things for the price of one.)

Comments

[syntaxofthings]

Re #1: Wondering if it has anything to do with Germany not having vanilla extract (you can get packets of Vanillezucker instead, which is slightly difficult to translate recipes with).

[kaberett]

Huh, Austria and Switzerland do. But -- nonetheless it is very much a thing My Grossmutti Did that my mother also did that I consequently also do, that monoglot anglophones tend to find kind of baffling (and then they go out and buy ludicrously expensive tiny packets of the stuff). Currently we've got my vanilla pods in an old jam jar filled with caster sugar, and Adam's in the icing sugar.

So yeah, it's very much that I'm used to Vanillezucker being a Germanic Thing, and I'm just wondering if it features the same photos for non-German languages.

[stephdairy]

Curious. When I lived at Greenend Steve put vanilla pods in the sugar and I don't think he has any German ancestry. I think I remember it being claimed they stopped the sugar caking.

(S)

[kaberett]

... huh, that is very much not a claim I'd heard before!

[syntaxofthings]

This might be a thing where I'm coming from the monoglot anglophone perspective (having not had living German ancestors and being in the U.S. where Vanillezucker is not a thing). My thought is that Duolingo is also from that POV, and my bet is that the photos are different for German language. Super interesting though.

[kaberett]

(Actually I think the US ~~in general~~ has more Culturally German going on than the UK does -- more influence by immigrants, I think?)

[birke]

I think the photos must be different for each language. In the Irish Duolingo lessons, sugar is represented with paper packets.

[kaberett]

Awesommme. I've noticed the photos varying a bit, but the fact that they actually do vary by source and target cultures as well is very cool. :D

[tree_and_leaf]

I do that (from German influence).

[ghoti]

re: number 4. it may have something to do with relative amounts of lactose in cream vs milk. or ratios of fat:sugar or something. idk, but is my best guess, for all that biochemistry and i are not friends.

[kaberett]

<3! Thank you. :-)

[ewt]

re: 4: I *think* double cream basically doesn't want to curdle/separate because of the composition of it; it basically requires a lot less careful handling than other dairy products. By adding milk you're lowering the fat content and/or adding something that separates.

For example, I have made cream of tomato soup with double cream and tomatoes and garlic and, er, that's about it, and it's lovely and smooth. Using single cream, or even a bit of milk, would make it distinctly dodgy because of adding both acid and heat.

I don't know the specifics of how it actually works, though.

[kaberett]

That is a good point and one that I can probably use to jump off from if I decide to investigate further! Thank you :-)

[silveradept]

These good things are very good, and I enjoy reading that you have good things.

[ex_we935]

en-gb_oed is my problematic fave, too! I fell into the habit of using it instead of en_us a few years ago. (The rest of us tend toward typical en_gb, though, with one of us who uses en_us.)

—James

[kht]

Hooray for good things! Memory foam is awesome!