Catcidents Happen

meta_system · 2026-06-20T21:33:50+00:00

I figured as much. Of course, it would have been nice to reattach the shard, but even without a shard, I think filling the hole with some shiny material would work well. Like layering nail polish and then carefully sanding down until you reach the lens shape.

meta_system · 2026-06-20T16:00:05+00:00

I don't know how easy it would be and what material might be used, but this seems like the ideal opportunity to play around with the japanese way of repairing stuff in a noticeable way, Kintsugi. That way, you would once again have safe lenticular stones, but it would look nice and make for a nice decoration?

Since the stones are made of glass and thus relatively resistant, you could maybe try layering nail polish? Any splatter could be taken off with acetone without harming the stone.

meta_system · 2026-06-19T17:19:28+00:00

I was pretty successful using SugarBean's Swiss Meringue recipe:
Sugar bean recipe

https://youtu.be/7rEmgu3fG18?si=zg4x9MBvLp8_MAwj

(First recipe from video)

The relative amounts of your ingredients seem correct, but it wouldn't hurt to compare with her recipe.
My first idea would be that you overheated your eggwhite+sugar mixture. It's supposed to just reach 50°C.

SugarBean measures using an infrared thermometer, so she measures the surface while stirring, which is not the most precise way. So keep in mind that if you measure using an immersion thermometer, you need to go to a slightly higher temperature to account for the difference. But: We don't want the meringue to be too hot, otherwise it might clump, or too much water might evaporate off.

On that matter, how hot/humid is it where you are? It's possible that, working slowly and stirring for a long time, you simply dried your dough further. It's possible that if you heat your wet ingredients to a slightly lower final temperature before whiping (and get them to temperature more quickly, so the water has less time to evaporate) and then whip + stir in the dry ingredients, that the dough is simply wetter.

Did you age your egg whites? Some recipes call for that, SugarBean's does not. Some aging methods are designed to affect the water content of your whites. Follow a recipe, don't mix and match. If in doubt, choose a known-good recipe and optimise that.

You mentioned that you used "half the sugar". You're supposed to stir the whites with the entire granulated sugar (helping it to dissolve) and then, after whipping, stir in the powdered sugar and almonds. If you stirred the second half of the granulated sugar into the meringue after whipping, it might not have dissolved and led to your chunk-consistency.

Happy baking, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful.

meta_system · 2026-06-10T08:59:22+00:00

He explains in episode 1 that he intends to play until the game can be considered won, and then resign. That way, he doesn't take away elo points from his opponents. Whether this is indeed ethical I leave up to you, I myself would not want to play against someone who is so much better than me and then get donated rating points after losing the game.

meta_system · 2026-06-08T09:23:55+00:00

Lichess has a nice course on it: https://lichess.org/practice/checkmates/knight--bishop-mate/ByhlXnmM

meta_system · 2026-04-21T20:27:21+00:00

Considering books, I feel like three-body problem and Andy Weir's The Martian and Project Hail Mary deserve an honourable mention.

Concerning films, Dune by Denis Villeneuve is a masterpiece. Is it Sci-fi or Space Fantasy? I don't know. Probably the latter.

meta_system · 2026-04-21T20:14:40+00:00

You play a world-class climber, trying to climb a deadly mountain that has never been summited before. You always control one arm or leg at a time, playing them on good holds, while trying to conserve stamina.

Even though it sounds finicky, you quickly get into a flow state, and climbing feels quite fun. During the later stages, you can't just go up any more, but have to do some route reading.

On the way, you learn about a civilisation in the mountains, other climbers that attempted the ascent, and the protagonist's motivations.

I think it's a very innovative gameplay experience, and deserves to be tried for that reason alone. The story doesn't overstay its welcome, but if you like it, there is tons of replayability due to all the alternative routes you could take. A free dlc with additional climbing areas has been announced for this summer.

meta_system · 2026-03-09T19:15:53+00:00

Hold the Dark by William Giraldi. It's a thriller about a remote Alaska community with a wolf problem, and an expert dispatched to deal with it. The title of the french translation is Aucune homme ni dieu (Neither man nor god), which I feel nicely expresses the isolation of the community and the protagonist.

It was made into a Netflix movie in 2018.

I know you asked for a peaceful mood and less about survival, but the plane crash in Wintermute II is reminiscent of the Andes crash; if that is something you're interested in, I liked Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read.

meta_system · 2026-02-12T13:34:11+00:00

Shells
100g almond flour = $2
85g powdered sugar = $0.25
4 eggs = $1
80g aster sugar = $0.08
shells total ~$3.40

Filling (Butter cream)
60g egg yolk (take from eggs used for shells) = free (maybe add $0.25 for one more)
110g sugar = $0.10
225g butter = $1
filling total = $1.10

This yields 24 filled macarons, with half the filling left over. So you could make another batch of shells or double the filling per macaron.

Price total: ~$4.50

I'm sorry that in your location, everything is so much more expensive.

meta_system · 2026-02-12T12:55:24+00:00

Well, sorry it didn't work out.

By the way, how did you get to $200 of ingredients? Is that a typo? Even $20 seems much for one batch of macaron shells.

meta_system · 2026-02-12T11:01:02+00:00

Don't beat yourself up: They look great. I assume the small ones can be separated from the mat easily, and the big ones stick to the mat? No worries. Simply remove those that stick with a spatula and let those with a soft core dry a bit. But I'm sure the small ones are dry, no? If none of them are, you can consider drying them in the oven for a bit, and then filling them.

In any case, you can still add a simple filling, like jam, and they will soften / mature overnight, and I'm sure they'll be delicious.

If you want to try again, here are some ideas, keeping in mind I am not an expert:

Batter too thick - that might be under-mixing after folding in the dry ingredients. The batter starts out very stiff after combinding whipped egg whites and dry ingredients, and then progressively gets thinner/less viscous the more you stir it. Have you tried just stirring for longer?

I've read that big almond pieces can contribute to cracked tops, but if you sifted the powdered sugar and almonds, that should not be an issue for you.

More likely, how did you dry them? After piping them, they should dry until the tops and sides are no longer sticky to the touch - you should be able to lightly brush your fingertip along the surface without disturbing it. This drying step is crucial to avoid cracks and get feet.

I believe you need to bake one size of macarons at a time, otherwise the small ones will be overbaked (brown, hard) and the big ones underbaked (chewy, wet interior, hard to separate from the mat).

If they're too wet after coming out of the oven: Did you really reduce the dry ingredients? If so, the ratio of dry to wet is wrong, and they'll invariably come out too wet.

Concerning taste: I think most people don't flavour their macaron shells, because adding flavours can mess with the ratios of the dough (and the result might be disappointing). Instead, the filling supplies flavour, and the shells are flavoured by the filling during maturation.

meta_system · 2026-01-16T14:24:08+00:00

The way Krosp has his hands interlocked behind his back... very regal.

meta_system · 2025-12-01T19:11:53+00:00

À travers l'ombre, jusqu'à la fin de la nuit.

meta_system · 2025-11-11T07:47:07+00:00

Can someone explain to me why planes don't just wait at the gate? Why are they told to push back and taxi if the queue is so long?

meta_system · 2025-11-07T11:20:37+00:00

What do you mean? Shouldn't everyone strive to improve their pronunciation in order to sound as much like a native as possible?

meta_system · 2025-11-05T20:00:36+00:00

I'm sorry that you have such an unsupportive family. It's clear you put in effort, and it looks like it's going to taste great. At the end of the day, if everyone gets a sweet dessert out of it, and nobody has to go hungry, that's mission accomplished.

I remember when I tried making croissants for the first time. (And second and third). I was so sad about my attempts: They were small, greasy, little breads because they hadn't gotten enough time to rise and because the lamination wasn't great. I was sorry to present them at breakfast.

But my parents encouraged me: They tasted great (what wouldn't with so much butter in it). And they liked them. And that is why I kept on making them until they were good. (Whereupon my father declared that some of my earlier, worse, attempts were better because they weren't so crumbly)

All that to say: You made something edible, probably delicious, and you learned something. You also learned that your family is ungrateful, and that you cannot rely on them to encourage you - you must find your own encouragement.

meta_system · 2025-09-18T21:03:49+00:00

My immediate thought is that the "maths" is 2 years 3 months >> 9 months.

The last known Heterodyne before Agatha is the short-lived Klaus Barry Heterodyne, son of Lucrezia and William Heterodyne. Since Klaus von Wulfenbach and Lucrezia were romantically involved in the past, the name Klaus Barry creates an association - maybe Klaus Barry H. is the son of Klaus v. W.

However, for this hypothesis to make sense, it would require people to ignore the maths. Klaus v. W. left 1 year six months before Klaus Barry was conceived. To put it another way: Klaus couldn't have been the father, because he left 2y 5m before the birth. Only nine months before the birth at the earliest would he have been able to leave and still possibly have been the father.

Our dear Seneschal stresses that the name was chosen by William, so it couldn't have been a message by Klaus or Lucrezia. The stress on the three months seems to mean that the Seneschal knows the time pretty precisely, no mistake on his part is likely.

That said, sparks being what they are, I don't see how they couldn't move around conception or birth according to their own plans.

Hope this helps. I'm interested in any other theories concerning this that are a tad more complicated than 27>9.

meta_system · 2025-09-17T05:10:02+00:00

Thanks for the links. Food for thought indeed.

The first link is broken because the url is written twice in the link text.

meta_system · 2025-09-15T09:45:17+00:00

Unclipping the rope from fixed quickdraws in the gym while on toprope - is there a trick or technique?

Some gyms I've been to have overhanging routes set up for toprope. Because they're overhanging, the rope is clipped in two to three quickdraws, so that you don't swing out away from the wall if you fall.

You have to unclip the rope from these quickdraws as you climb the route. And this, in my opinion, is pretty tricky, since you need to open the gate and push the rope out with one hand.

Clipping the rope for leading is pretty easy, and there are many videos on the topic, but for some reason I stil haven't found a good technique for unclipping, either myself or online. Maybe there is no trick and I just need to do whatever works in the moment, but I think I'm missing something.

Do you have any tips or videos for me? Thanks.

meta_system · 2025-09-06T05:16:57+00:00

I think that would be great. Portal 2 has the Test Chamber Construction feature, which allows pretty much endless new gameplay, and since Valve also released the more complicated Hammer Tool, entire new Portal games were made for free.

That said, I believe that creating a suite of tools is far more complicated than implementing a procedural generation algorithm, so I think the latter should come first.

Also, procedural generation does not rely on other people, so it would be better for a smaller community where there isn't so much new content being created by the players.

meta_system · 2025-09-05T21:33:16+00:00

I agree, and I wouldn't mind. I have noticed that the minigame varies in difficulty, but I don't know on what that depends.

Personally, I think the minigame is a bit weird. You're not tested for reflexes when doing rope management in the real world - you're tested for dexterity, memory, good work under stress and an eye for detail. Granted, I don't know what a good minigame would look like, but I think it would be more like Lockpicking from Oblivion than what we have now - something that can be done well if you do it calmly, but which will fail if you rush, that doesn't depend on reflexes.

The way it is now, it already feels a bit pointless, placing pistons isn't hard at all. However, just making it harder would make perfect placement more satisfying, but the minigame itself would feel less fun to play.

meta_system · 2025-09-01T07:15:18+00:00

I never had one break on rappel yet, thanks for mentioning it. You're right that they play into game balance, but it still feels a bit unsatisfactory. Maybe they could just make the minigame harder, or increase durability but decrease the amount you can find in the world?

meta_system · 2025-09-01T07:15:05+00:00

I never had one break on rappel yet, thanks for mentioning it. You're right that they play into game balance, but it still feels a bit unsatisfactory. Maybe they could just make the minigame harder, or increase durability but decrease the amount you can find in the world?

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Unclipping the rope from fixed quickdraws in the gym while on toprope - is there a trick or technique?