Random Thought Thread

Dudes of the site:

If you were sent a little something nice by post, what would you like to receive?

Spoiler: Context

A guy I've chatted with for couple months went to Hawaii & sent me omiyage of specialty candies.

We're not anything—we haven't even met in person—but I feel obligated to send him something back. I mean, it feels like bad form to get a gift & not return the favour.

But I'm not sure what to send him. Like what sort of things generally are fun or enjoyable to receive in the mail?

I've sent girls flowers & chocolates & things, but there doesn't seem to be a culturally approved go-to gift for boys.

 

His last name, 'Obi-Wan's friend', and 'fry cook' are just about everything I learned from googling him and I have absolutely no memory of this character, hahah. I don't think I've seen Episode II since it came out, to be fair.

I dunno, I got flowers once, but that was from a girlfriend and it's probably not entirely appropriate between friends. Since he sent you candy, you could send him candy? No one hates getting candy.

 

Wow, really?

 

I grew up on the orig trig - we had them on vhs when I was a kid and rewatched them all the time - but I never got into the prequels that much. I was [googles] six when TPM came out so I remember being really into it then, but I just don't remember being that into the second two, honestly (I think I got really bored with the love story aspect). I liked TFA and Rogue One, though. I promise I'm not being a smarmy purist

 

When I was in the Marines, my girlfriend sent my flowers once. They ended up at the company office before the 1st Sgt made me take them and do a little marching and rifle drill with them for everyone's amusement...

But it sounds like you live in a slighly rural area, how about something locally produced? We have a local commercial beekeeper near where I live, so I send people jars of all-natural local honey all the time.

 

Cut out the middle-man. Send the bees.

 

Send him a book. If he doesn't like that, he's not the kind of guy you should be talking to.

 

Yes.

What else could it say?

 

Do men like getting flowers?

My mom hates getting flowers: they die and they can bring bugs and they offer no utility.

For some reason, I've always assumed men felt the same way about flowers as my mother.

That is a good idea. Something special local.

I wish I knew what that is, but I can investigate.

I tend to give passes to those who aren't interested in one area of the creative so long as they are knowledgeable & into some other. For instance if you can contribute to a discussion of the cinematography of In the Mood for Love, you don't have to critically analyse Heart of Darkness with me.

I don't strictly know one way or another if he's a bibliophile, but he is a photographer and has shared passionate insights into other arts. So if he isn't a big reader . . . I'll probably pardon him.

(Although he still will have to endure me ramble about the brilliance of some excerpt of Austen's as much as the use of colour in the BBCA's Dirk Gently's Hollistic Detective Agency series as much as any other odd thing that's all of sudden taken my fancy.)

The only noods I send, I'm afraid.


. . . actually, now I'm incredibly tempted to send him instant ramen with no explanation.

 

A Marine staff sergeant once asked me to bring a can of calamari from California to Texas and hand it off to an Army staff sergeant who was stationed on an Air Force base there. I didn't ask any questions, and the handoff went off without a hitch.

 

I mean, I agree with your mom on principle, to be fair. But it's the thought that counts, imo.

Also to be fair, I have a simplistic, dog-like love of just getting things - any things. I'd probably be excited if someone mailed me some dirt Maybe I'm not the best test case.

 

I don't think dirt would make it through Agriculture quarantine, but pm me your address and I'll snag some random office supplies (three or four post-its, half a dozen used staples, and a rubber band or three) and I'll make a care package for you for your birthday

 

I’m weirdly jealous of this offer.

 

Used staples?! How did you know?

 

Apparently I’m in the beginning stages of an allergy sickness. My throat feels stuffy, thick, and hoarse and I can’t speak above a whisper...

Oh dear...

 

You can still type just as loudly, right?

 

One of the things I did to amuse myself on my bus rides back and forth to the hospital when my husband was an inpatient there for two months, was checking out fashions, artificial hair colour, etc, of people who got on and off. The practice of dyed hair was practically universal in YOUNGER women (and young men as well, to some extent.)

Some older ones had let themselves go grey and/or white ...which perfectly suits their skin changes that come with age. Other older ones do the 'I am now blonde' schtick. But the younger ones? Nearly ALL of them had artificially-coloured hair. Some blatantly so.

It's a fashion these days, I guess. My only concern is about the long-term safety of hair colouring products (henna being the big exception.) And wondering when/if they will ever decide to stop. It's like tattoos and body piercings. Fashions I don't subscribe to myself, but it's an interesting thing to look at and think about.

Unlike people who dyed hair back when I was young, these folks don't seem concerned about trying to look natural. Instead, it's totally the other way around. So it must be a different take on the process. Less about hiding flaws and more about making a statement. (Whether it's a statement of individual style, or a 'See me do what everybody else does' statement is up for discussion.)

 

I assumed it was a "John has a long mustache" style coded message...

 

I reread Christiana Rosetti's No, Thank You, John and I still absolutely love it.

It's probably the best "friendzone" poem to date (but I'm very open to suggestions for contenders).

 

Probably one for the Brits of the site only, and then of a certain age, but I wanted to share this, in particular the 'Match of the Day theme tune as lounge music'. It's brilliant.

 

Just discovered a great way to clean a greasy oven top is with kitchen paper dampened with cooking oil.

Seems totally contradictory, but it works!

 

No! That makes perfect sense

There are two basic types of chemicals: polar (imbalanced electrical charge) and non-polar (balanced electrical charge), and in general, polar molecules can only dissolve in polar molecules and vice versa.

Water is a polar molecule

Two smaller hydrogen atoms connect to a larger oxygen atom in a pair of Mickey Mouse ears. The side with the two hydrogen atoms is more positively charged, and the side opposite the two hydrogens is more negatively charged.​

And oil is non-polar, so water famously doesn't dissolve oil.

Styrofoam is non-polar, which is why it dissolves in gasoline (poor man's napalm) but not in water. Also, don't try to use it to hold paint unless you're going for a Jackson Pollock effect: "This is how the paint spills all over the canvas after eating through the styrofoam cup."​

What makes soap so handy is that it's a polar molecule (which means that it dissolves in water), but the negatively charged side is so long – and the charge spread so thin – that it's able to pick up non-polar residue by pretending to be non-polar.

Whereas, if you're just using non-polar cooking oil, then it picks up non-polar residue without the residue having to be tricked by sneaky soap water