Random randomness

[LordMortis]

I've never made a turkey before so this should be an adventure after I go to thaw it.

I've been using the America's Test Kitchen recipe for the last few years. No complaints. The 2 main "parts" are 1) brine it first, and 2) use a V rack to cook it. With the V rack, it can be cooked at higher temps for shorter length. Let me know if you want more deets.

I may or may not come back to that. I'm not looking to invest in new racks and pans though at the moment. That's just more stuff that I don't use regularly, But we'll see. I won't start thawing until I eat more of the fresh food I have laying around.

[disarm]

Follow the wisdom of Alton Brown and your turkey will come out great...super easy

Alton Brown's Good Eats Roasted Turkey

[Daehawk]

I think Im a normal guy. 6' 190 lbs or so. But I seem to wear a big ring. Sizes 12 13 or 14. Usually 14. It surprised my wife who thought I was wrong when we went to buy a ring. Even the sales ass didn't think that until they measured my fingers and sized some rings. I dont have fat fingers either. I remember my wife saying after we met I should play piano as I had long fingers. To me they seem normal.

[Daehawk]

I think Im screwed when it comes to Alzheimer's. I new study shows loud music contributes to your chances. Then it said living alone and being lonely can raise your chances by 7. I dont recall my grandmother listening to loud music..lol.

[Unagi]

I think Im screwed when it comes to Alzheimer's. I new study shows loud music contributes to your chances. Then it said living alone and being lonely can raise your chances by 7. I dont recall my grandmother listening to loud music..lol.

The first sign is forgetting things like those days when you and your grandmother used to listen to loud music together.

[dbt1949]

AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

[em2nought]

AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

I'm sorry you had a mediocre Thanksgiving meal. Maybe you could ask if you could help with Christmas dinner. Tell them you really miss doing it instead of that they suck at it.

[Daehawk]

Ya sry man. Can no one cook these days?

[Daehawk]

Woo! The bathroom here isn't heated . Years ago it had a ceiling heater with fan...I love those! But it died and I removed it around 1993. The bathroom is way in the back of the house past the two back bedrooms I use as storage now. I keep the door that entire area closed and to help keep everything else a little bit better. Nothing is heated here except this bedroom I live in. Unless its below freezing then I break out space heaters for the pipes.

Anyways the bathroom does have a space heater. We've always used it like that. But its not kept on . Turn it on and close the door like 10 min before your shower and its fine. But to use the toilet you turn it on as you enter . That toilet seat is like ice at first sitting lol. Didn't seem to bother my wife much but I hate winter and that seat. Sit dawn I go Woo! Sounds like Ric Flair.

My step mom had fuzzy and super fuzzy seat covers even though my dad's house was always heated. I hated them. I mean they were comfortable but man they were easy to get dirty and they were so fluffy that you'd turn up the seat and start to pee and they'd fall and mess your stream up as you jumped back or it hit your pee'r

[dbt1949]

What kind of parents teach their kids when leaving the bathroom to leave he lights on and close the door?

[TheMix]

... bad ones?

[Daehawk]

I was again looking at live Xmas trees at Lowes. Me and D used to get them each Christmas for $20 - $25. Now they are $100 - $200+. Crazy inflation. We were getting ours in the 90s.

[Unagi]

According to the data, the trees are also getting much bigger, so it's a wash. Unfortunately, if you don't buy more lights - your tree looks weird.

[Blackhawk]

That's insane. I haven't messed with a live tree since 1999. I had no idea they'd gotten so expensive.

[em2nought]

I was again looking at live Xmas trees at Lowes. Me and D used to get them each Christmas for $20 - $25. Now they are $100 - $200+. Crazy inflation. We were getting ours in the 90s.

Hint: You only buy those after Christmas when they go on clearance. Oops, though you said Christmas lights. Buy those after Christmas. Long time since I had a tree, we used to hang lights on the ficus outside.

[Daehawk]

I think our last real one was 1996 or so.

[Blackhawk]

I was again looking at live Xmas trees at Lowes. Me and D used to get them each Christmas for $20 - $25. Now they are $100 - $200+. Crazy inflation. We were getting ours in the 90s.

Hint: You only buy those after Christmas when they go on clearance. Oops, though you said Christmas lights. Buy those after Christmas. Long time since I had a tree, we used to hang lights on the ficus outside.

That depends on where you live. I always buy wrapping supplies after Christmas and put them back for next year, but lights? Around here you're going to be stuck with the ones nobody wanted. I mean, if you're really into mixed green, blue, and pink lights on your tree...

[LordMortis]

And now fireworks on Turkey Day weekend are a thing. At least it's not crazy late and I don't own dogs. I know it's stereotyping, but don't ever live in a neighborhood of renters. My tiny corner of the world is never bouncing back from 2008 because slumlords will never sell their slumlord goldmines. For two out of the last 15 years, I've had neighbors I could happily ignore from the rental next door. For 13, they've been absolutely rotten people and the best I can hope for is they trash the house for a lot of cost before they leave.

[gilraen]

We were woken up at 2am by what I'm pretty sure were firework explosions. Even 4 inches of snow on the ground and freezing temps are no deterrent to assholes, apparently.

[em2nought]

My tiny corner of the world is never bouncing back from 2008 because slumlords will never sell their slumlord goldmines.

I'm not sure which came first terrible tenants or slum landlords. It probably wouldn't be a hovel if it hadn't been trashed by somebody in the first place. I hated being a landlord, and mine were likely only the cream of the bad crop of tenants. They only punched holes in the doors and the walls.

[Smoove_B]

Oh wow, I thought it was only my part of America. Yeah, there were a-holes all around me setting off fireworks on Thursday evening - around 6-8pm. Like legit up in the sky (not just noisy ground level nonsense) fireworks. WTF is wrong with people? I'm not in what I'd describe as a rental area, I'm living in secluded suburbia with single family homes nestled in a forest. My dog was freaking the f out.

[LordMortis]

I'm not sure which came first terrible tenants or slum landlords. It probably wouldn't be a hovel if it hadn't been trashed by somebody in the first place. I hated being a landlord, and mine were likely only the cream of the bad crop of tenants. They only punched holes in the doors and the walls.

Not true here. This area was fine until 2008 when the world decided they could walk away form their mortgages and pay cash for a nicer house up the street for 30% of the price they were paying on their current mortgage. These were $150,000 homes in 2007 money that were auctioning for $30,000 to future slumlords who cold then rent them as government subsidized rentals and make tons of cash with little investment as possible. The houses get paid for inside of three years, then it's all sweet profit minus trivial property taxes. Property values slowly rose but the damage was done and they're never going to be high enough to encourage the slumlords to sell.

[Daehawk]

I started Duolingo tonight .Spanish. Always wanted to try a second language and around here its the most used. Want to know what people are saying lol. Honestly me wit hmy ADHD doubt ill stay with it but shall see. its free and seems easy and fun. Learning by not realizing it sorta. I got 88% on my first lesson then went back and got the two I missed correct. I wasn't listening right ..if thats possible. Or maybe i misunderstood the test. But made them up and will watch closer next time.

Its not asked about a mic yet but I have one now.

[Daehawk]

You never get so much useless email until the holidays.

[Blackhawk]

I started Duolingo tonight .Spanish. Always wanted to try a second language and around here its the most used. Want to know what people are saying lol. Honestly me wit hmy ADHD doubt ill stay with it but shall see. its free and seems easy and fun. Learning by not realizing it sorta. I got 88% on my first lesson then went back and got the two I missed correct. I wasn't listening right ..if thats possible. Or maybe i misunderstood the test. But made them up and will watch closer next time.

Its not asked about a mic yet but I have one now.

I used the mobile version for German for three or four months. It's a great tool for learning the basics of a language, which then opens you up to more advanced ways to learn, many of which are free. Once you have the basics (I'd say to give it six months or a year), go look up some kids' shows in that language on YouTube or some streaming service, then move on to more advanced shows. After all, kids' shows are designed to teach the language.

Although I will say that the microphone helps - speaking the words is an important tool for learning a language. Where I'm coming from: in addition to German, I've had formal classes in Spanish, Latin, and 5th century Attic Greek (Attic meaning the region around Athens, not the form of the language they spoke when they were upstairs.) I'm not fluent in any of them anymore (if I ever was), and I barely remember any of my Greek, but I do still remember a lot of the process for learning languages.

I wasn't listening right ..if thats possible.

If you'll bear with me for a sec, I may be able to help you out a little when it comes to figuring out languages, and why it's not just possible to not be listening right, but it's normal and expected.

(This crap can be overwhelming. Don't try to learn it all at once. You'll just frustrate yourself. That's not my point in writing this. My point is just that you should be aware of it when learning a new language.)

One of the hardest parts of learning a new language is learning about that language's phonemes.

A phoneme is a distinct sound used by a language (the ssssss in 'sound', the eeeeeee in 'lean', etc.) That is, it is the sounds which, in a particular language, are recognized as different from every other sound. Each language has a different set. English has 26 letters - but we have ~44 phonemes. That means that we have 44 different sounds that we use in English. In addition to the ones that most people think of (the 'letter sounds'), we have things like ch in 'chair', or the ng in 'sing.' But think about non-English speakers.

Think about this thing.

There are two phonemes in that sentence for 'TH'. The breathy, unvoiced one in 'think' and 'thing', and the shorter, voiced one in 'the'. Unoviced: Think, thought, wrath, pithy. Voiced: This, that, bother. Two different sounds. One of the things that cause problems for people learning English is when we have two sounds that we see as different that aren't different sounds in their language. Example: For us, 'V' sounds different from 'B'. They're two different phonemes. For native Japanese speakers they are not. They don't have a 'V' sound, so when they start learning English they have to learn how to hear the difference, and they have to learn how to make a 'V' sound.

What makes it hard for English speakers to learn other languages is that other languages have sounds that English does not. T. P. Very simple sounds. What's the difference between the T in 'top' and the and the 'pot?' In English, they're the same sound. In Greek, they're not. What about the P in 'pit' and 'split?' They're different sounds in some Indian dialects. (For the curious, in both examples the first version of the letter involves a puff of air while you make the sound, while the latter does not.) English speakers usually can't tell the difference, as they're not different phonemes in English - we never learn to hear the difference when we're children, so it's harder to hear as an adult. We basically haven't learned to listen for that particular difference, as it's always the same for us.

So, the point: When you learn a new language, the hardest part is learning the sounds in that language that your native language doesn't have, or doesn't consider to be different from each other. It's why you may hear two words that sound almost the same, but are different - you haven't learned to recognize the sound that makes them different.

Example for Spanish:

A trilled 'r' is a completely different sound than an untrilled r. English: "But the dog!" Spanish: "Pero el perro!" English speaker learning Spanish: "But the but!" (Note that trilling Rs is very difficult for English speakers. It can be easier to learn to flap your Rs first.) So if you're taking a test and Duolingo says (doesn't spell) the sound 'pero', you have to be listening for which 'r' they used.

In some cases it's easier, too. English has around 20 different phonemes for vowels (examples: hate, hat, hot, coat, pit, spite, meet, look, flute, head, curse, sun, cure, boy, etc. Spanish has five (like in hot, bed, eat, poke, loot.) And vowel combinations are just the two vowels, pronounced one after the other - so still only five sounds. (English: A + I = A like in 'mate'. Spanish A (ah) + I (ee) = ah-ee.) So much simpler!

Related tip: Letters don't have built-in sounds, either, and can vary between languages, and sometimes there are new letters for specific sounds. A Spanish N is different from Ñ. And B and V are identical in Spanish, and can be pronounced two different ways (neither of which is a sound that exists in English, although they're close to B.) And now you know why people learning English hate the letters S, K, and C.

Last thing, repeating from earlier: This stuff can be overwhelming. Don't try to learn it all at once. You'll just frustrate yourself. That's not my point in writing this. My point is just that you should be aware of it when learning a new language. If you're having a problem with a test, be aware that it may be because there's a sound you're not noticing is actually different, and when the spellings throw you off, be aware that the letters may not work the same way that you're used to. Duolingo is good. It will teach you the actual sounds as you go, and minimize the problems, but it still helps to be aware of what's going on.

[Blackhawk]

And now I'm wanting to reinstall Duolingo and get back to German. That was a fun language to speak.

[em2nought]

Frog style smoked turkey 2 & 1/2 hour smoking time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SQSLNxIHUQ

[gbasden]

If you'll bear with me for a sec, I may be able to help you out a little when it comes to figuring out languages, and why it's not just possible to not be listening right, but it's normal and expected.

Thank you! I'm learning Spanish with Duolingo and Jumpspeak, and this was all really helpful! I took German and a smidge of Russian in high school, but none of my classes spelled those things out.

[Blackhawk]

Oh, and if you want a headache, try ancient Greek sometime. That one was a pain to learn, as the 'phonemes' weren't the sounds in and of themselves, it was the rise and fall of your tone was you spoke them.

νόμος = the law
νομός = place to graze sheep

The sounds themselves are identical. The only difference is that the tone rises in different places. In 'the law', the first O rises - if it were music, it would have two notes, getting slightly higher. oO. In 'place to graze sheep', it would be the second letter that rises.

NoOmos

NomoOs

And there are rising tones (oO), falling tones (Oo), and rising-falling tones (oOo.) Learning hear one word from another is a huge pain. It is a very musical language, though.

/edit - and holy crap, here's an expert reading from the same textbook I learned from! This was actually the first lesson.

[Daehawk]

They say the easiest language for an English speaker to learn is Norwegian then Swedish. Something about the vowels.

[em2nought]

I've been watching some vloggers from Baguio City, Philippines on youtube. It's interesting how much they combine English with whatever other language they''re speaking. I can understand them perfectly for a sentence, but then they lose me on the next one. Plus there seems to be a bit of Spanish thrown in occasionally which I can partly get the gist of. I think maybe it's Tagalog that they're speaking? On the island of Luzon.

From wiki apparently there are a whole crap ton of languages

The languages commonly spoken in Baguio are Ibaloi, Kankana-ey, Ilocano, Tagalog, and Pangasinan. Kapampangan, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Maranao, Maguindanaon and Tausug are also spoken to varying degrees by their respective ethnic communities within the city

Hearing them speak reminds me of a girl from Belize I used to know. Loved the sound of her voice.

[Blackhawk]

Afrikaans is the same way. It's frequently mixed with equal parts English in a way that makes you feel like you're hearing something you know, but then you aren't.

[hitbyambulance]

Afrikaans being a 'modified' form of Dutch, which is already not that far off from English. Nynorsk (new Norwegian) is the modernized Norwegian that is extremely streamlined, simplified and not difficult at all for English speakers.

i took German in high school and college, then moved to 'new' Norwegian for a year. much rather later, i did Swedish for a year in 2008/09 when i was plotting on taking advantage of Finland's 'right of return' at the time (but failed to relocate there.) for the past year i've been doing Russian - both Duolingo for daily upkeep practice and i have an online tutor in Kazakhstan for actual lessons through preply.com - italki.com is another option for online native language tutors. (never had formal language lessons in Spanish, but i've picked up enough in my everyday surroundings i can muddle by in it)

going to Berlin end of January, so i will have to downplay the Russian for a while to brush up on the ol Deutschesprak

[Blackhawk]

German has always been on my 'want to learn' list (which is why I picked it when I had the chance.) A big part of that, honestly, is just because I enjoy the way it sounds - the same rationale behind choosing a musical instrument.

The odds are that I won't ever need another language, but you also learn a lot about history and culture when you study them. And did I mention that I find language itself fascinating? Spanish in junior high was because it was available. Latin (high school) and ancient Greek (college) because I had this silly idea of minoring in folklore and mythology (I had to leave college about halfway through.) French is also on my list. I don't know that I want to speak it, or even become competent in it. I just want to know how to pronounce it. Whenever I see a French word or phrase (or place name, or...) in a book, I know that I'm going to have dig to find the pronunciation.

Beyond that... hmm. Well, if I'm not worried about needing to converse in whatever I learn, why not Anglo-Saxon?

[em2nought]

A big part of that, honestly, is just because I enjoy the way it sounds - the same rationale behind choosing a musical instrument.

Always liked when they sing the French anthem in Casablanca. My sister taught me how to sing "La Marseillaise", or at least I think she did. She might have done the same thing to me that my brother did to her when he taught her how to sing "Oh Tannenbaum" in total gibberish.

"Oh Tannenbaum, oh Tannenbaum, guten morgen c’est la vie"

[Daehawk]

Only my 3rd day but surprisingly Im keeping up on my DuoLingo Spanish work. Im not sure im learning to speak anything yet but I am learning words and sentences so i can actually understand text. Not but a few words yet but its more than I knew 3 days ago.

[Fardaza]

I've been watching some vloggers from Baguio City, Philippines on youtube. It's interesting how much they combine English with whatever other language they''re speaking. I can understand them perfectly for a sentence, but then they lose me on the next one. Plus there seems to be a bit of Spanish thrown in occasionally which I can partly get the gist of. I think maybe it's Tagalog that they're speaking? On the island of Luzon.

From wiki apparently there are a whole crap ton of languages

The languages commonly spoken in Baguio are Ibaloi, Kankana-ey, Ilocano, Tagalog, and Pangasinan. Kapampangan, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Maranao, Maguindanaon and Tausug are also spoken to varying degrees by their respective ethnic communities within the city

Hearing them speak reminds me of a girl from Belize I used to know. Loved the sound of her voice.

My wife is a Filipina from Luzon. They indeed speak a mix of Tagalog and English. Tagalog is the official language of the Philippines, but there are hundreds of other dialects in use around the islands. Most kids learn English in school. They are often taught in English as well. Spain controlled the area for over 300 years, thus the vowels in Tagalog are the same as in Spanish.

Upstream in this thread there was a discussion of relocating to SE Asia. There are pluses and minuses to all countries, but consideration should be given to the Philippines. You will easily be able to communicate with most people. They often actually enjoy practicing their English with native speakers. Although they will joke that their nose bleeds when they try. Because of Douglas MacArthur during WW2, they have a general fondness for Americans. We did save them from the ugliness of the Japanese occupation after all. We had a naval base there for decades. Unlike many countries, most Filipinos actually like Americans.

[Jaymon]

My experience learning German




Der, Die, Das, and Die - OK, I'm with you so far.

Den, Die, Das, and Die - OK, thats a bit different, but I think I've got it

Dem, Der, Dem, and Den - Now hold up, I am pretty sure you told me that der is masculine, whats going on here?

Des, Der, Des, and Der - Holy Frankfurter, I don't even know what genetive means, no wonder German sounds so angry, its from the constant migraine everyone has trying to remember how to say The. I think I'll go do something easy, like learn how to spell in English.

[Jaymann]

Das ist immer schlect.

[LordMortis]

From thirty years ago,

Kennst du Ingo
Ja, Ingo ist mine freund.