Christina's 5 questions for March 🤔

gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/~christina/

gopher://sdf.org/0/users/christyotwisty/phlog/2023-March-Five-Questions.txt

1. If you were a potato chip (potato crisp, croustille), what flavour would you be?

I once asked in a newsagents in Waterford if they had any plain crisps. The man behind the counter said "The only plain flavour we've got is cheese and onion."

If I have to *be* a packet of crisps, I'll be stale and well past my sell-by date because otherwise you might devour me. But if I want you to eat me, I'll be prawn cocktail flavour.

2. What's the most unusual way you've made a new friend?

I once met a friend of a friend in a pub and told him about my relationship that had just ended. We had a pretty intense conversation. Then we went off to a party that we'd heard someone was having, but we couldn't find it. So we crashed a different party that happened to be nearby, got asked to leave, and then crashed a second and a third on the way home. I never saw my co-conspiritor again, and I can't even remember his name, but for that one evening he was my bestest friend.

3. Tell me of a film, miniseries, play, or book wherein your sympathies for the protagonist shifted to the antagonist. What caused the sympathy shift?

I once read that films often try to manipulate your emotions so that by the end of the film you're happy that the bad guy dies. Creepy, isn't it?

I watched a French series about standup comedians where one of the main characters seems sympathtic, then seems fairly unpleasant, but by the end you get a more balanced view of him. The drip feed of information is the thing that changes you view of his behaviour. Good show, apparently didn't get watched enough to make a second series.

Guardian article about "Standing Up"

4. I wish to improve my Gopher phlog. I could justify the text, or add RSS functionality, or add external links of interest. What are your recommended resources for getting me beyond the basics?

Write what interests you. OK, that's a bit trite. Maybe "think about your link text" is my best advice. Gopher and Gemini give you very few ways to prettify things, and that's kind of the point. So work with what you've got. When someone's looking at a list of posts, all they have to go on is the link text.

5. What's an entree you prepare so well at home that you don't order it at a restaurant?

I wasn't sure what an entree is, so I asked Wikipedia.

Seems it depends where you live, which is confusing

Usually if I'm going out to eat, I want something that I wouldn't make at home. I want novelty.

There is one thing that I make that's delish but I've never seen it on a menu. If I did, I'd probably order it to see if it was any different. At my house it's called "the sprout dish". It's pretty quick to make.

1. Cube some cheese

2. Thinly slice some brussels sprouts and garlic

3. Stir fry the spouts and garlic, very hot, just for a minute or two

4. Add some stock (or white wine, or both) so the sprouts are just covered

5. When he liquid boils, stir in some mustard

6. When the liquid has almost all gone...

- stir in the cheese

- turn off the heat

- serve immediately

#5questions

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