Brainless moments

[Jadzia]

They've failed for me once or twice in the past. What kind of flour did you use?

Edit: Tried it a second time. Cake two had now 2.5 spoons of baking powder. It also did not rise, though its soft...but it tastes...bitter and sour to the same time.

The bitterness is from the alkalinity of the baking powder. If you get that flavour it means you have too much baking powder. 2.5 spoons is far too much. 3/4 of a teaspoon should be enough.

The problem may be:
- The basin was unsuitable -- It was either too wide or it had tapered sides, which would prevent it from rising properly.

- Mixture was too sloppy -- You could see it bubbling as it cooked, and the end result was a heavy, damp and stodgy mess. Use less water.

- Mixture was too thick -- The pudding rose a little but the end result was tough like rubber. Use more water.

I hope you have more luck on your next attempt.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I've did something on MySpace that I had completely forgot about doing, and when I saw it, I was genuinely pleased to see it as, I liked what I saw, also when I saw it, it was a complete reminder that, I had actually done that.
http://www.myspace.com/563807135/music/songs/guitar-solo-80327010?ap=1
That was weird... But cool... *Sips on his Coca Cola, eyes red like the label.
Hehe.

That's one of your best ones, imho.


Jadzia, do I understand this correctly: the recipe contains no eggs?

 

[Jadzia]

^ correct. There are no eggs used in this sponge pudding.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

interesting. I always thought sponge cake and sponge pudding were something bisquit-like (made fluffy by lots of beaten egg whites)

 

[Jadzia]

Eggs serve in baking as a raising agent and as a setting agent. In this mixture, flour serves adequately as the setting agent, and baking powder is the raising agent.

It's also a microwave recipe. It doesn't work in a conventional oven. Microwaves produces lots of steam very quickly, which is essential.

The difference between this and egg based sponges is that correct consistency of the mixture is fairly important in this recipe... which is hard to describe over the internet, and something we learn with experience.

 

[Lindley]

I had one on my vacation last weekend. I was trying to find the condo I had rented. I figured that if the key fit, I was at the right place. So I tried the key, and it didn't fit despite being at the correct number, which was confusing.

Then I realized I was trying to unlock the condo with my rental car key.

I just had a brainless moment.

I spent 2 whole hours looking over my program code to find a bug, only to realize the problem was that I was comparing a boolean variable to an integer value, instead of true/false! Boy does my face look red! Of course it would have been nice if the compiler picked up on it. If I can't use 0/1 interchangeably with true/false, then what possible purpose is their for the compiler letting that one slide?

Yep, typical brainless moment that we can all relate to.

Just wait until you spend all day pulling your hair out because you put a semicolon after an if statement.

 

[Yoda]

^I did that the other day.

Only took me 2 hours to figure it out, sucker!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I went outside this morning, and then as I tried to go back in I found the door locked. So I started panicking and thinking I got locked out (didn't even have any shoes on).

Then I realized I was trying to get in through the side door, but I'd left the house through the front door, which was wide open.

 

[Yoda]

I had a pretty nice one today. My beloved Cherry Coke Zero was on one of the better sales it regularly gets. Buy 2, get 3 free. So naturally I threw 5 in my cart. I got to the cash register. I put one on the conveyor belt-a-ma-bob and told the cashier that I had 5 total, including that one. See? I'm so smart. I save the cashier some hassle, the other 4 stay in the cart, pointless work is avoided. Yep, I'm pretty cool.

So, I get to my car. I put the other groceries into the car. Then I take one of my five cherry coke zero 12-packs and put it in the car as well. Then I push the cart 3/4 of the way to the return before I realize that the scanning trick doesn't actually work for getting my cherry coke zero back home.

 

[scotpens]

My father, whose work requires him to travel constantly, told me this one a few years ago. After a business meeting, he went out to the parking lot and couldn’t find his car. He searched up and down the lot, around the entire property — car nowhere to be seen. He was just about to call the police and report the car stolen when it suddenly dawned on him: “I’m in another city! I’m driving a rental car, not my own car!” Truly a facepalm moment.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

I just had a brainless moment.

I spent 2 whole hours looking over my program code to find a bug, only to realize the problem was that I was comparing a boolean variable to an integer value, instead of true/false! Boy does my face look red! Of course it would have been nice if the compiler picked up on it. If I can't use 0/1 interchangeably with true/false, then what possible purpose is their for the compiler letting that one slide?

Yep, typical brainless moment that we can all relate to.

Been there, done that.

I do about 90% of my work in PHP these days - maybe even 95% - and there's a trick I learned a while ago for catching that particular problem. The language has a triple-equal-sign operator, which means not only "is equal to", but also "is the same type as".

So while "1 == true" would be a true statement, "1 === true" would actually evaluate to false.

I once spent about six hours trying to figure out why I was getting a runtime error in my code that turned out to be caused by having two SQL result set handles open at the same time. Since they have different variable names, I have no idea why it's not allowed - but it doesn't work properly.

Now, if I can just figure out why my SOAP web service which was working perfectly less than a week ago suddenly stopped working properly on Thursday... the damn thing is returning the most useless error message in the history of error messages.

(We now return you to your regularly scheduled session of brain cramps by non-programmers. We apologize for the interruption.)

Oh, and I was having immense difficulty one day a week or two ago remembering words. Any words at all, not just technical ones.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How's this for a brainless moment:

I once bought Bose speakers.

 

[Yoda]

Been there, done that.

I do about 90% of my work in PHP these days - maybe even 95% - and there's a trick I learned a while ago for catching that particular problem. The language has a triple-equal-sign operator, which means not only "is equal to", but also "is the same type as".

Yeah, but in PHP I'll do shit like forget the $ sign. For some reason there's no warning or error when you do that.

So for instance:
$weight = 100;
$weight = weight + 5;
echo $weight // gives ya 5.

There's might be a way to configure the settings to generate at least a warning, but I'm not really in a position to change it.

And then of course as soon as I go back to any C style language I start throwing $s around like it's going out of style (which I suppose if you're going to a C style language it really is).

 

[Sean Aaron]

How's this for a brainless moment:

I once bought Bose speakers.

As long as you didn't try to evangelise people on how they're the best speakers ever I think you're off the hook. Now if you also bought Monster Cable to hook them up and convinced yourself you were getting better sound-quality than generic medium-gauge speaker cable off a spool at Radio Shack, I can't help you.

 

[PianoWizzy]

It took be 10 minutes to figure out why there were fireworks outside last night.

 

[Silvercrest]

In medical school, I mistook a preganglionic fibre for a postganglionic nerve during the orals. It was a trick question.

 

[Yoda]

You probably did that on purpose...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How's this for a brainless moment:

I once bought Bose speakers.

As long as you didn't try to evangelise people on how they're the best speakers ever I think you're off the hook.

No, I wasn't quite THAT batshit insane.

Now if you also bought Monster Cable to hook them up and convinced yourself you were getting better sound-quality than generic medium-gauge speaker cable off a spool at Radio Shack, I can't help you.

Never did that either.

(The Bose speakers in question were part of a so-called 'home theater set', but I later learned that the subwoofer, or what they claimed was a subwoofer, was anything but. Plus those dinky little cube-shaped speakers had approximately as much sonic output power as a squirrel passing gas.)

 

[Sean Aaron]

I got one of those Sony Home Theatre set-ups with four identical speakers, a centre channel and a powered sub. Pretty decent and I've had it for years. Eventually I think I'll just get a couple of floor-standing units with integrated subs and move back to stereo sound, but keep my receiver due to the multiple inputs.

5.1 was kind of fun for fifteen years, but I found wiring up the surrounds a big pain in the ass. I might stick with it if I get wireless surrounds, but I'm actually finding my current 3.1 setup good enough that losing the centre channel doesn't seem like a big deal; besides I listen to music more than I watch films.