site banner
PaperclipPerfector  18d ago (text post)   2256 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 1, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

What's your favorite small indulgence? Something that is pure luxury, occasional, but small.

-- Scheduling a day so that I can work out with no time crunch at precisely 10:00am. That is the PR time. Fully awake, stretched, nothing can fatigue me yet, ready to go.

-- Taking the long way home to drive through the woods with the windows down, with some kind of iced beverage. With a podcast, with my wife, with my dog. Just depends on who or what I'm hiding from.

-- Buying end of week out of money options on whims and hunches for small sums of money, then spending all week monitoring them to figure out the exact moment to sell. Very very narrow net positive over time, but it's fun in the way poker is fun.

  • Greek yogurt. One of those 500g tubs with 50g of protein and packing it all down with berries, nuts and honey. Quality grubbing. (Also: 1kg tub of cashew butter. Stuff is ludicrously good, but I need to be careful as I can go overboard.)
  • Midweek afternoon at a movie. Don’t do it often, but I almost never regret it. Trouble is, most of the cinema chains don’t show any quality movies nowadays, and I can’t be bothered watching something Marvel. Years ago I watched Coen Brothers movies or arthouse or foreign language pics on a Wednesday at 2pm. Good times.
  • I enjoy doing f* all work in January. Lots of other people are hammering through the fake New Year’s goals. So several days in January I might chop some wood, light the fire and read a whole book in the short daylight hours. Bonus marks if it’s a book set in winter. The Brothers (short book by a Finnish author about Finnish-Russian wars in 1800s) and Julius Winsome (about a man who lives in the woods with his dog until he gets some unwanted visitors) both ticked all boxes.

I found cashew butter to be underwhelming. Peanuts are quite plain and peanut butter is delicious, so seeing as cashews are already delicious I was expecting cashew butter to be even better. Turns out it was kind of plain.

It's an acquired taste, I found. Initially I found it to be ... unusual. I really like cashews, which are sort of creamy / tasteless, but cashew butter had a much stronger taste (for me!) But I soon loved it and ate way too much straight off the spoon. (It was really hard to get where I for 2-3 during Covid, and supplies have not returned to pre-pandemic levels just yet.)

Idk about your local theaters, but ours have started showing a lot of classics. You pretty much have to check the website to find them.

Am outside the US (assuming you're inside...) But our local cinemas show almost nothing that isn't mainstream and current. Unfortunate, but also it's providers responding to the market. The great films I watched in those places years ago, often it was just me and a couple of others who showed up.

Having a Sunday morning breakfast by myself at the local diner counter, with bottomless coffee and taking 90 minutes or more to eat, drink, and read.

Prefer the booth against the wall so no one can come at you from behind.

Prefer the booth against the wall so no one can come at you from behind.

How’s life in the Wild West?

  • A kebab, chips and Coke from the kebab shop around the corner, which for my money is the best kebab shop in the city.
  • Coming home from work and knowing I have my house to myself to do whatever I want
  • Eating a good burger with fries and a soda
  • Enjoying a video game or book when it's raining outside
  • Adding a text file to a 3GB folder called "Arguments Won"
  • Feeling good after doing a workout I nearly talked myself out of doing
  • Sitting in the middle of an empty theater

Say more about “Arguments Won”?

Cigars! I've been getting into them since I stopped smoking cigs/spliffs/vaping and man they are so nice. The occasional cigar, especially with friends and a nice beer or glass of whisky, is hard to beat.

Also, ice cream and a bubble bath. Mmm.

Diet soda.

Have you tried Coke Zero?

Yes, there was Coke Zero, but now there is just Coke Zero Sugar with a slightly different taste and formula.

I’d say the bulk of my diet soda consumption at various points has been Coke Zero Sugar.

The number of calories and sugar in a regular bottle (or can) of Coke is eye-popping when you start paying attention.

What's your favorite small indulgence? Something that is pure luxury, occasional, but small.

I spend an entire day without internet or phone, except my Kindle. It makes for a good mental reset.

Listening to other people’s conversations. I’m extremely curious, so if I have a spare half hour somewhere in public, it’s a fun indulgence.

Cookie butter.

Darn Tough socks.

Reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality again (again).

EDIT: Posting on the Motte!

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats