The random RL stuff thread

This article and video on the Durban sardine run made me think of the vagaries of RNGs and how they're not so bad in WoW after all (even the candy Love is in the Air one):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7921949.stm

It's RL stuff so I'm putting it here!

Prynkesse - been looking for an easy rhubarb & custard cream recipe but didn't find any that doesn't involve a food processor and a master chef kitchen. So instead here's a quick and easy recipe for rhubarb crumble which I make:

* fresh rhubarb (red stalky things)
* sugar
* cornflour
* vanilla sugar or extract
* butter
* flour (+ oatmeal)

- Turn oven to hot (180 degrees).
- Clean the rhubarb, remove stringy bits and cut into small pieces (size of a fingertip).
- Mix two tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of cornflour per pound of rhubarb. Sprinkle the cornflour over the rhubarb, add sugar and stir. Sprinkle vanilla sugar on top (if you use liquid extract, mix it into the sugar before you add that to the rhubarb).
- Pour the rhubarb mix into an ovenproof tin (a pie or tart tin works well) - it should cover the full base of the tin.
- Per pound of rhubarb, grab a cup of flour (make some of it oatmeal if you like - gives a better texture), then add half a cup of sugar (or less) and half a cup of butter/margarine (or more). Mix it with your hands or a hand whisk until it becomes a crumbly mess - careful if you use an electric whisk (you don't want it smoothly blended - you want a crumble!).
- Pour enough crumble to cover the rhubarb. Don't slap it with a spoon to fill in gaps - just pour over more crumble until it's all covered. The layer of rhubarb should be the same depth as that of crumble, roughly.
- Stick the tin in the oven, and let it cook for 25 minutes. If the rhubarb is bubbling up through the crumble, it's done!
- Serve with custard if you're British, or icecream/cream if you're normal.

Not the same as the swiss roll cream, but also yummy and easy to make. Hope you like it!

Thanks Marv

Its a little different to my own reciepe (which is rather less precise in terms of measuring, I tend to go by instinct, which 'usually' works ) But I will definately give yours a try! Vanilla sugar sounds like an awesome addition. Oatmeal in the crumble part is a new concept for me, I tend to use Semolina and ground almonds in mine, the semolina gives a crunch and almonds are just Nom! I'll let you know how it works out!

And custard with it in the popular choice in Ireland too, so its not purely the Brits

Pryn

Edit:

If you are a fan of an apple crumble, I can heartily recommend (and Squeek would seriously second it) a lash of Jameson whiskey in with the apples when you are stewing them. Irish Apple Crumble FTW!

I want to recommend Spotify to anybody who listens to music regularly on their computer.

You can sign up for it here: https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/

Basically it's a program that lets you stream music, but it has 90% of all music in the world (that I've searched for), meaning that basically, you own 90% of all music in the world on any computer you use.

For free users you get short radio adverts every 3-4 songs, but its otherwise unrestricted. I liked it so much I pay £10 a month for no ads. I've basically stopped listening to other music. There is so much here, just think of an artist, and you've got all their albums. It's got compilations, soundtracks, you name it. And it's totally legal for all your morally unhappy pirates.

The only downside is the bandwith it takes up, expect your WoW lag to go up to 200ms with it running.

EU Parliament elections are coming up, with national votes starting on Thursday and running through to Sunday. Gives you just a few more days to find out who to vote for! A good place to start your search is at the EU Parliament election map:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2009/countries/default.htm?language=EN

Select your country then scroll down to List of Candidates on the right hand side. If this just confuses you, here's a bit of extra info: once at the EU Parliament, MEPs organise into Political Groups (according to ideology, not nationality). There are currently 8 such groupings. Find out more about the groups at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_groups_of_the_European_Parliament

.. then backtrack and see what national MEP you should vote for to strengthen that group.

So, been playing Sims 3. It's addictive as crack, and I haven't been in such game-induced physical discomfort since Diablo 2. The funny thing is I don't feel the urge to play it when I'm not in it, but if I start it up the next 5+ hours of my life are GONE.

My first two sims are a recreation of Cardinal and myself (except with money ). Although I made a big mistake when I first made them: I moved both characters into the world at the same time, next to each other, then spent a week getting Cardinal's char started on his career while mine was standing outside her plot waiting. Problem was, when I was happy with that and decided to start on my own, main char I found Repo man to come and collect all the furniture in her premade house (a week without a job = fail). As if that wasn't bad enough, she was also pregnant from some chav loser guy who'd helped himself to her charms.. Yeehaw for trailer trash!

Anyway, rerolled them both and this time it's working as I wanted.. Cardinal's been playing his own scenarios too, but I'm not sure what his chars are or what they're doing. Everytime I walk past his pc it looks like he's plotting world domination from his den of evil lesbian vampire women.. Sometimes it's better not to know.

It's a fun game, I played the pirated version a couple of weeks back, it's better than the Sims 2, but with the lack of expansion packs it's really lacking in content. Fun for a couple of hours but after that it's dull. I have a Sim maxxed in 3 skills at the moment, the others around 6/10. Unemployed and £100,000 in pocket < yay for buying out businesses and hacking (PC skill for money making in-game).