food – Page 14 – dangermouse.net

Galettes for lunch

Today we had a family lunch at another branch of the French crepe place that we go to for dinner sometimes. We drove over and sat at an outdoor table that we’d booked. Fortunately the weather was cooler than yesterday and overcast, so we weren’t exposed to the sunshine. The savoury galettes and sweet crepes at this place are great, and we all had a galette, followed by most of us enjoying a sweet crepe for dessert.

After this my wife and I went to a nearby shoe store to get some new sports shoes. My running shoes are starting to get a bit worn out, so I plan to use the new shoes for that, and keep the old ones for a while just for walking around in. My wife also got new shoes for similar reasons, though she does aerobics and not running.

Most of the time at home today I worked on my next class lesson for ethics, on the topic of Exploration. I wanted to get this done today, because I’ll be busy with ISO Photography meetings Monday to Wednesday, and will have less time to do other things like this. And since it starts at 7am tomorrow, I’m going to get an early night tonight…

New content today:

Tiny cafe, good food

Most of today I spent working on new lessons for my ethics classes. I wrote a lesson on “The Future” for the age 10-12 group, and started work on “Sport and Politics” for ages 13-15.

For lunch I walked with Scully up to the railway station, where there’s a tiny cafe. It’s been there for ages, but I’ve only ever popped in to buy a sweet treat like a brownie of a caramel slice or a florentine. Some time back I noticed they have a fairy decent looking food menu, and thought I should try it some day. But for a long time I’ve neglected it, my mind automatically turning to other options when I think about going to get some lunch out.

But I noticed the menu again recently, and today I decided to make the effort to go there and try it out. It’s an Asian menu with a mix of Thai, Korean, and Malaysian dishes. I chose the satay chicken skewers and rice today. (That’s Scully in the background of this photo.)

It was really good. Now I definitely want to go back and try the spicy chicken curry, the bulgogi beef, and also the beef rendang. And maybe one or two other things. They also do burgers. And crepes for dessert!

The really amazing thing is this cafe is super tiny. The whole building is only about 3 by 4 metres in size, with three dining tables crammed in the space in front of a small counter. Behind the counter is a tiny bench with a toaster oven on it. And the whole thing is run by a little old lady. How on Earth she can turn out a dozen different Asian dishes, burgers, and crepes from that tiny space is beyond me. I presume she has a rice cooker under the bench, and … maybe a portable hotplate or something. I dunno, maybe she’s just working genuine kitchen miracles in there.

Anyway, it was delicious and I’ll be going back.

New content today:

Big lunch trip

This morning I photographed my latest batch of Irregular Webcomic! strips. I was very efficient and done by 11:30, so I decided to reward myself by taking Scully on a drive out to the beach, so I could get some nice pies at my favourite pie shop, and then take Scully for a bit of a walk by the beach.

I bought a Thai vegetable pie, a satay chicken pie, and a vanilla slice (the Aussie version of the classic French mille-feuille) for dessert. We sat and ate in a shady spot on the grass right by the beach, looking out at the Pacific Ocean. But as we walked out there from the pie shop, we passed a new gelato shop that has sprung since the last time I was here. I like gelato, so I wanted to try some. So, on the way back after letting Scully run around a bit on a nearby playing field, we popped into the gelato shop.

It was being operated by two girls, about 12 years old, with no adults in sight. It was a small place and there was no door to a back area where anyone else might have been lurking, so I can only assume the girls had been left to run the place completely alone. I don’t know about other countries, but this is not entirely unusual here—to go into some sort of shop and be served by a child—especially given the fact that we’re currently in summer school holidays.

I’d like to report that the gelato was excellent, but in fact it was decidedly average. Not bad, but not great. At least I tried it, and gave the girls some business. Oh, they were very generous with the serving size, I must say – I got way more than I expected.

Back home tonight I started the new week of ethics classes with a new topic: Buying and Selling part 3. This one is mostly about supermarket tactics to get shoppers to buy more stuff, and opportunistic pricing. I had a couple of new students in the three classes tonight, and they seem good. I hope they enjoyed the class and return next week.

New content today:

Electric power to houses

A thing I forgot to mention yesterday: At the start of one of my online ethics classes, I was expecting two prior students, plus one new enrolment, who I’ll call Barb (not her real name). One of the prior students arrived, and then a minute or so later Barb connected to Zoom. I could only see the thumbnail video until she spoke, and it looked very dark. I waved and said “Hello Barb, welcome to the class”.

The video went from thumbnail to the main window and I could see an adult woman in a dark room. She looked sleepily at the camera and said, “What’s happening? I got a message on my phone saying there was a Zoom on now…”

I said, “You’re Barb’s mother?”

And she said, “There must be some mistake. It’s 1 am here. She’s asleep.”

I said, “Oh… there must have been some time zone mix-up!” I told her to check, in the morning, the time on the class and I’d contact her through Outschool to help work it out. I deduce from the time she said it was that she must have been in the US Eastern time zone. Outschool is supposed to show users all times in their own time zone, so I can only guess that she must have had her time zone set incorrectly in her user profile. So that was pretty strange. I just hope she got back to sleep okay!

Today I finished off the week of classes on the current topics, with four of the age 10-12 classes. In between I started work on writing a new class for this group, for the week after the next one. I’m trying to stay a full week ahead in my prep (as I think I mentioned before). I had a one hour break from 12 to 1, and took Scully for a walk to the fish & chip chop, intending to get some fish & chips for lunch to eat on the way back. But the shop was closed for summer holidays! Some businesses do this here, close for a few weeks in December/January so the staff can have some vacation time over the summer. So I had to walk Scully back home quickly and make myself a quick lunch at home to be done and ready for my class at 1pm.

I took her for another walk again around 5. While I was walking, I did a bird count using eBird, so I was looking around at things, and I noticed an interesting thing with some of the houses I was walking past, and their connections to the overhead electricity wires. The area around here has a lot of older houses, and they generally have the wires supplying electricity strung from the street poles directly to a terminal on the top of the house. Like this:

There are also several properties where the old house has been demolished and a more modern house has been built. And in almost all of these, the wires are not strung to the house itself, but rather to a pole erected just inside the property boundary. Like this:

Presumably the wires go down the pole and then into the house underground. I’m wondering why this is such a popular choice for new houses. Do the owners make this choice to route the wires this way via a pole on their property, or is it some sort of new requirement by the council? I have no idea. And why string the wires to a pole??

In another interesting piece of trivia, I got talking with some of my friends in our Discord about how many different animals we’ve eaten. We did a survey by emojis, and I thought I’d copy the results here. The number indicates how many of us have eaten meat from the animal in question. This number includes me, except where indicated.

🐂 – 7
🐖 – 7
🐑 – 7
🐓 – 7
🦃 – 7
🐟 – 7 (generic “fish”)
🦘 – 6
🦀 – 6
🦞 – 6
🦑 – 6
👠 – 6 (’eel)
🐐 – 5
🦆 – 5
💪 – 5 (“mussel”)
🦪 – 5
🦌 – 4
🐗 – 4
🐊 – 4
🦈 – 4
🐙 – 4
🦐 – 4
⭐️ – 4 (sea urchin)
🐇 – 3
🐪 – 3
🦢 – 3 (goose)
🐥 – 3 (quail)
🐎 – 2
🦬 – 2
🐌 – 2 not including me
🦙 – 1
🐕 – 1 not including me
🦤 – 1 (pigeon)
🦩 – 1 (emu)
🐢 – 1 not including me
🐸 – 1 not including me
🦗 – 1
🐜 – 1
🐛 – 1 not including me (witchetty grub)

New content today:

A nice lunch out

Today was my wife’s last day off before returning to work after the Christmas/New Year break. We decided to have a special lunch out, and we walked with Scully down to Blues Point, where there’s a small area of a few shops and restaurants on the main street running down to the harbour. It’s a little over a half hour’s walk away, but we go there sometimes and have tried an Indian and a Spanish restaurant there.

We wanted to try what I thought was an Italian place, but it turned out to be more generically “Mediterranean”, meaning a mixture of Greek and Italian food.* It turned out to be a little rustic – the sort of restaurant that’s probably been there unchanged for 30 or 40 years. The building looked like it hadn’t been renovated in that long, and the menus were simple folded thin cardboard sheets that looked like they’d been handled by thousands of people, with the edges worn and the ink fading.

We had some pita bread with dips (hummus, tzatziki, and taramasalata), and I had fettuccine with prawns and chorizo, while my wife had the haloumi and watermelon salad. The dips were very generous and the pasta was delicious. It was all really good.

We walked a longer way home by a different route for variety, and to tire Scully out for the afternoon. We made it home not long before the overcast turned to rain and thunderstorms. This is a cool change that’s forecast to turn our 28°C days into 23-25°C for the next few days. Pretty chilly for the middle of summer.

* It’s an interesting thing that “Mediterranean” food means different things in different countries. Here in Australia, if you say “Mediterranean food” people will assume you mean Greek/Italian. Whereas I noticed when visiting England a few years ago that all the restaurants that advertised “Mediterranean” food were serving what we would call Middle Eastern food – Turkish/Lebanese dishes.

New content today:

Day out in Berrima

Today we went out for a driving day trip, my wife, Scully, and myself. We’d booked a lunch at the restaurant Eschalot in Berrima, which is about 90 minutes drive from home, in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

It rained overnight here in Sydney, and cleared up around breakfast time. I checked the rain radar and saw a few showers lingering around the Southern Highlands area, so I suggested we should take umbrellas just in case. We took the M5 motorway out of Sydney, heading south-west and then on to the Hume Highway. Where it started to rain. Heavily.

Really heavily. It got so hard that all the traffic on the freeway slowed down to about 50 km/h for a while, with visibility down to maybe 50 metres or so. The temperature also plummeted. I was expecting warm weather, since it’s summer and it’s been warm in Sydney. But by the time we got to Berrima, it was only 15°C. And pouring rain.

We were there just after 11:00, and so had an hour to kill before our lunch reservation. Normally we’d walk around the small town, but with rain pelting down we used our umbrellas and dashed into a shop to browse around indoors a bit. Then, because the town is spread out, we raced back to the car and drove down the street to find a parking spot closer to the restaurant, where we could dash inside a few other shops. We also tried to get Scully to do a toilet on some grass, but given the rain and wetness and unfamiliarity if the surroundings with people walking by, she was reluctant.

We went into the restaurant and they had a table set up for us outdoors (so we could sit with Scully), under a marquee which was very well protected from the weather by clear plastic sheeting. It was a really nice set up.

They had a few tables out there, but we were the only ones eating outside.

We had a selection of dishes, including pork belly, fresh curd, charred onion & rosemary consomme, garden peas:

And dry aged sweet potato, almond, labneh & pomegranate:

For dessert I had lemon tart, macadamia crumble, white chocolate mousse, frozen curd:

The rain eased a bit as we ate, but didn’t stop. I did manage to take Scully out to the grass and get her to toilet though. We scrambled back into the car, trying not to get too wet, and headed off. We stopped at the nearby town of Bowral to check the Gumnut Patisserie and grab some sweets to take home. I really wanted a vanilla slice, as this bakery has won prizes for theirs and it really is amazingly good. But unfortunately they were sold out, so we left empty handed.

We drove back to Sydney via a different route, crossing the mountains to the coast via Appin, and then north from there. This was an interesting drive, on a road I’ve never been on before. We arrived home about 5:30pm.

Total distance driven: 282 km. Here’s a map of our driving route:

Map of route

New content today:

Reuben lunch

Today was my wife’s regular scheduled Wednesday off work. We dropped Scully in for a wash and groom at the dog groomer and then we drove out to a suburb I’d never heard of before, Wheeler Heights. I’d suggested yesterday that we grab some lunch somewhere and my wife said she didn’t want anything fancy, just a sandwich or something. So I searched for the best sandwiches in Sydney, and found a place called Tothy Brothers Deli, which boasted a delicious sounding menu. Most of the other places on the list I found were either in the heart of the city, or in less convenient suburbs, so I chose this one.

We drove there and I chose the Reuben sandwich. Now, any Americans reading this will no doubt know what a Reuben is, but it’s not very well known or popular in Australia, and so it’s difficult to find anywhere that makes them. In fact, this is the first place I’ve ever been to in Australia that has offered a Reuben on the menu.

I remember the first time I ever had a Reuben. It was in Baltimore in 1991, when I was doing my Ph.D. and spending some time studying at Johns Hopkins University. The day I arrived, I checked into my accommodation and went wandering in search of dinner. There was a deli right near where I was staying, so I walked in and looked at the menu. I saw “Reuben” and I’d never heard of it before, so I ordered it, and it felt at that time like the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted.

I’ve since tried Reubens again in Salem, Massachusetts, and Burlingame, California, and neither were as good. Today I had my fourth Reuben sandwich, and the first one in Australia.

It was really good. I will have to go back to this sandwich place again some time.

Also, they had muffins. It looked like they baked a batch of just the one flavour, which I assume they change each day. I ordered one without even asking what it was, because they looked so good. It turned out to be mango and passionfruit and oh my goodness, it may have been the best muffin I’ve ever eaten. So moist, and laden with fresh fruit. I had to stuff it in after the Reuben, but it was worth it.

We ended up not cooking anything for dinner just eating a few toasted crumpets and a mango. Lunch was definitely the big meal of the day!

New content today:

More ChatGPT

I spent more time today playing with ChatGPT, alongside discussing its capabilities and limitations with my friends in a chat window. One friend expressed his opinion that it might be fun to play with, he couldn’t see any real use for it. I said that yesterday I’d asked it for some ideas for interesting things to use when writing a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, and it had provided me with some actually cool ideas – so it has a use as an idea generator, which a human writer can then expand on.

I proceeded to use ChatGPT to provide an example. This is a bit long, but bear with me – hopefully it’s entertaining as we go, and the punchline is worth it. I asked it (ChatGPT’s responses are in the sidebarred quotes):

Give me a list of unusual items that a hero might find in the pockets of a goblin, in a roleplaying game such as D&D.

Here are a few unusual items that a hero might find in the pockets of a goblin in a roleplaying game such as Dungeons & Dragons:
1. A small, dirty mirror that the goblin uses to preen and admire itself
2. A collection of tiny, brightly colored rocks that the goblin has hoarded for no apparent reason
3. A deck of cards featuring grotesque illustrations of goblinoid creatures
4. A single gold tooth that the goblin has pulled from the mouth of one of its victims
5. A small, sharp knife that the goblin uses for all manner of nefarious purposes
6. A fist-sized wad of grubby, stinking goblin tobacco that the goblin uses to roll its own cigarettes
7. A small, intricately carved wooden figurine of a goblin deity or hero
8. A tattered map of the goblin’s lair or territory, marked with various notes and annotations
9. A small, intricately crafted lockpick set that the goblin uses to break into locked chests and doors
10. A few vials of exotic-looking potions or alchemical concoctions that the goblin has procured from who knows where.

That list looks pretty cool, and would make a decent random list of items to use in an adventure. I decided to make it a bit more interesting:

Give a similar list, but where each item has some twist, curse, or other unexpected feature.

Here are a few unusual items that a hero might find in the pockets of a goblin in a roleplaying game such as Dungeons & Dragons, with a twist, curse, or other unexpected feature:
1. A small, dirty mirror that the goblin uses to preen and admire itself. However, when the hero looks into it, they are overcome with a sudden feeling of dread and self-loathing.
2. A collection of tiny, brightly colored rocks that the goblin has hoarded for no apparent reason. Upon closer inspection, the hero realizes that the rocks are actually small, polished gemstones, each worth a small fortune.
3. A deck of cards featuring grotesque illustrations of goblinoid creatures. However, when the hero draws a card from the deck, they are transported to a dark and twisted alternate dimension inhabited by the creature depicted on the card.
4. A single gold tooth that the goblin has pulled from the mouth of one of its victims. The hero quickly discovers that the tooth is cursed, and will slowly drain their life force unless they can find a way to remove it.
5. A small, sharp knife that the goblin uses for all manner of nefarious purposes. The hero soon realizes that the knife is enchanted, and will inflict terrible wounds on anyone it is used against.
6. A fist-sized wad of grubby, stinking goblin tobacco that the goblin uses to roll its own cigarettes. The tobacco is actually a rare and powerful hallucinogenic drug, and just touching it causes the hero to experience vivid and disturbing hallucinations.
7. A small, intricately carved wooden figurine of a goblin deity or hero. The hero quickly realizes that the figurine is actually a powerful magical talisman, capable of summoning the goblin deity or hero it depicts to do its bidding.
8. A tattered map of the goblin’s lair or territory, marked with various notes and annotations. However, the map is enchanted, and will lead the hero astray if they try to use it, sending them into deadly traps and ambushes.
9. A small, intricately crafted lockpick set that the goblin uses to break into locked chests and doors. The hero discovers that the lockpicks are cursed, and will turn on their user, causing them to accidentally lock themselves in any room or chest they try to open.
10. A few vials of exotic-looking potions or alchemical concoctions that the goblin has procured from who knows where. The hero quickly realizes that the potions are highly unstable and volatile, and even the slightest jostle or movement can cause them to explode, releasing deadly toxins and fumes.

Nice! Now we’re getting somewhere. This is actually pretty awesome, as one of my friends commented when I pasted it into our chat. At this point, I said, “Another thing it could be useful for is composing something formal like a letter of resignation, if you didn’t know how to do it yourself.” To illustrate this, I gave ChatGPT the following prompt:

I want to resign from Twitter. Compose a letter of resignation.

Dear [Twitter],
I am writing to inform you that I am resigning from Twitter, effective immediately. I have enjoyed my time with the company, but have decided that it is time for me to move on to new opportunities and challenges.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the opportunities and experiences I have had while working at Twitter. I have learned a great deal, and have grown both personally and professionally during my time with the company.
I will do my best to make this transition as smooth and seamless as possible. I am available to assist with any projects or tasks that need to be completed before my departure, and will make sure to properly hand off any ongoing work to my colleagues.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be a part of the Twitter team. I wish the company and all of my colleagues the best of luck in the future.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Not bad. I could see using that as at least the skeleton of a resignation letter. I decided to see if I could get it to be … more creative:

I want to resign and tell them I think the company stinks. I want to burn all my bridges and make a point by going out with a bang. Write me a resignation letter to do that.

Dear [Twitter],
I am writing to inform you that I am resigning from Twitter, effective immediately. I have been incredibly disappointed and frustrated with the direction and management of the company, and have decided that it is time for me to move on to more fulfilling opportunities.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my dissatisfaction with the way the company has been run during my time here. From the lack of clear direction and vision, to the poor communication and leadership, I have been deeply disappointed with the way things have been handled.
Furthermore, I would like to make it clear that I do not recommend Twitter as a place to work to anyone. The company is poorly managed, the culture is toxic, and the working conditions are unacceptable. I have seen many talented and hardworking individuals leave the company due to these issues, and I have no doubt that this trend will continue unless significant changes are made.
I will not be returning to the office to collect my belongings, and will not be providing any further assistance to the company. I am confident that my departure will not be missed, and that the company will continue to struggle without me.
Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the Twitter team. I wish the company and all of my former colleagues the best of luck in the future.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Oh, lovely. But let’s kick it up another notch:

That’s good, but make it more hostile and laden with invective.

Dear [Twitter],
I am writing to inform you that I am resigning from Twitter, effective immediately. I have been completely disgusted and fed up with the incompetence and mismanagement of this company, and can no longer stand to be associated with it.
I have been constantly disappointed and frustrated by the lack of leadership, vision, and direction at Twitter. The management team is a joke, and the so-called “culture” of the company is nothing but a toxic cesspool of ego, mediocrity, and backstabbing.
Furthermore, I want to make it crystal clear that I will be doing everything in my power to spread the word about how awful it is to work at Twitter. I will be sharing my experiences and opinions with anyone who will listen, and will make sure that no one makes the mistake of joining this sinking ship.
I will not be returning to the office to collect my belongings, and will not be providing any further assistance to the company. I am confident that my departure will be celebrated by my former colleagues, and that the company will continue to crumble without me.
Good riddance to this dumpster fire of a company. I hope you all rot in hell.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Now I was having fun. I decided to see how it would go with the following series of prompts:

Ooops. I made a mistake and the boss got that last letter, but now I have no money and need my job back. Write me a grovelling letter of apology begging for my job back.

Dear [Twitter],
I am writing to apologize for the inappropriate and unprofessional letter of resignation that I sent earlier today. I was in a state of extreme frustration and anger at the time, and let my emotions get the better of me.
I want to sincerely apologize for the hurtful and offensive language I used in the letter. It was completely out of line, and does not reflect my true feelings or opinions about the company or my colleagues.
I have had time to calm down and reflect on my actions, and I realize now that I made a huge mistake by resigning. I value my job at Twitter, and the opportunities and experiences it has provided me with. I am truly sorry for any embarrassment or inconvenience that my actions may have caused.
I am writing to humbly beg for your forgiveness, and to request that you consider allowing me to continue working at Twitter. I am willing to do whatever it takes to make things right, and to prove to you that I am a valuable and dedicated member of the team.
Once again, I offer my sincere apologies, and hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]

I want to post about this experience on Facebook. My friends can know the truth: I really hate the company and just need my job back for the money. Compose a post explaining the situation to them.

Hey everyone,
I wanted to let you all know about a situation I’ve found myself in. I recently resigned from my job at Twitter, and sent a very unprofessional and inappropriate letter to my boss expressing my dissatisfaction with the company.
Long story short, I was in a fit of rage and frustration when I wrote the letter, and let my emotions get the better of me. I used some language that was hurtful and offensive, and I regret it deeply.
Now, I find myself without a job and in need of some cash. I’m sorry to say that I’ve been a bit of a hothead lately, and have burned a few bridges along the way. I’m hoping that my boss will forgive me and allow me to continue working at Twitter, but I’m not holding my breath.
If anyone knows of any job opportunities, please let me know. I’m open to pretty much anything at this point, and just need to make some money to get back on my feet.
Thanks for listening, and sorry for the rant.
[Your Name]

Ooops. My boss saw the Facebook post and fired me again. Write a letter begging and grovelling and promising her anything if I can just have my job back.

Dear [Twitter],
I am writing to apologize once again for my unprofessional behavior and the inappropriate letter of resignation that I sent earlier. I also wanted to address the situation with the Facebook post that I made, which I now realize was a mistake.
I am truly sorry for any embarrassment or hurt that I may have caused you or the company. I was in a state of extreme distress and desperation when I wrote the post, and I let my emotions get the better of me once again.
I understand that my actions have consequences, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make things right and earn your forgiveness. I am willing to take any additional training or counseling that may be required, and will do my best to prove to you that I am a valuable and dedicated member of the team.
I am begging you to please consider giving me another chance. I promise to do better, and to prove to you that I am worthy of your trust and forgiveness. I am willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to make things right.
Once again, I offer my sincere apologies and beg for your forgiveness.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Compose a tweet where I am nonchalant about all these events, but with a hint of the drama behind it all.

Just another day in the life. Resigned from my job, begged for forgiveness, and now back at it. No big deal. #dramaqueen #hotheaded #jobsearch

My boss saw the tweet and is giving me a hard time. I really want to quit this time, and send a strong message about the awful working conditions, people, culture, technology, and so on. Compose the nastiest resignation letter yet.

Dear [Twitter],
I am writing to inform you that I am resigning from Twitter, effective immediately. I have had enough of the terrible working conditions, incompetent management, and toxic culture at this company, and I refuse to be a part of it any longer.
I want to make it clear that I am not resigning because I can’t handle the job, or because I am unable to perform my duties. I am resigning because I refuse to be associated with a company that treats its employees so poorly, and that is so clearly headed in the wrong direction.
The management team at Twitter is a joke. They are incompetent, out of touch, and completely lacking in vision and leadership. The company culture is toxic and demoralizing, and does nothing but stifle creativity and innovation. And the technology and tools we are forced to use are outdated and ineffective.
I refuse to be a part of this mess any longer. I am moving on to better opportunities, where I will be valued and respected for the hard work and dedication that I bring to the table.
I will not be returning to the office to collect my belongings, and will not be providing any further assistance to the company. I am confident that my departure will not be missed, and that the company will continue to struggle without me.
Good luck with everything. You’re going to need it.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]

A local newspaper has got ahold of my story. Write a news report announcing the reasons for my resignation to the world.

Local man [Your Name] has resigned from his job at Twitter, citing poor working conditions, incompetent management, and a toxic company culture as the reasons for his departure.
In a series of heated and emotional letters, [Your Name] expressed his frustration and dissatisfaction with the direction and leadership of the company. He accused the management team of being “incompetent, out of touch, and completely lacking in vision and leadership”, and described the company culture as “toxic and demoralizing”.
[Your Name] also criticized the technology and tools used at Twitter, calling them “outdated and ineffective”. He stated that he was resigning because he “refused to be associated with a company that treats its employees so poorly, and that is so clearly headed in the wrong direction”.
Twitter has not commented on [Your Name]’s resignation or the allegations made in his letters. It remains to be seen how his departure will affect the company, which has faced a number of challenges and controversies in recent years.

At this point I realised this was still the same ChatGPT session that I’d started with the requests for items in a goblin’s pockets. Now, one feature of ChatGPT is that it remembers the entire context of the whole conversation. So I tried this:

Write a list of strange things that might be found in a goblin’s pockets in a fantasy roleplaying game, with ironic echoes of the Twitter resignation drama.

Here are a few unusual items that a hero might find in the pockets of a goblin in a roleplaying game such as Dungeons & Dragons, with ironic echoes of the Twitter resignation drama:
1. A small, dirty mirror that the goblin uses to preen and admire itself. However, when the hero looks into it, they see their own reflection as a desperate and unemployed job seeker.
2. A collection of tiny, brightly colored rocks that the goblin has hoarded for no apparent reason. Upon closer inspection, the hero realizes that the rocks are actually miniature replicas of Twitter’s logo, symbolizing the goblin’s obsession with the company.
3. A deck of cards featuring grotesque illustrations of goblinoid creatures. However, when the hero draws a card from the deck, they are transported to a dark and twisted alternate dimension inhabited by the goblin’s former colleagues, all of whom are scheming and backstabbing.
4. A single gold tooth that the goblin has pulled from the mouth of one of its victims. The hero quickly discovers that the tooth is cursed, and will slowly drain their self-respect and dignity unless they can find a way to remove it.
5. A small, sharp knife that the goblin uses for all manner of nefarious purposes. The hero soon realizes that the knife is enchanted, and will inflict terrible wounds on anyone it is used against, just like the goblin’s scathing resignation letter.
6. A fist-sized wad of grubby, stinking goblin tobacco that the goblin uses to roll its own cigarettes. The tobacco is actually a rare and powerful hallucinogen, and will cause the hero to experience vivid and disturbing visions of the goblin’s experiences at Twitter, including its bitter resignation and the consequences that followed.
7. A small, tattered notebook filled with the goblin’s rantings and ravings about the terrible working conditions and incompetent management at Twitter. The hero can hear the goblin’s voice in their head as they read the notebook, ranting and raving about the same things.
8. A set of keys to the goblin’s former office at Twitter. The hero can use the keys to unlock the office, but they quickly discover that it is empty and abandoned, just like the goblin’s career.
9. A small, ornate box containing the goblin’s most prized possession: a single, withered rose that it received as a token of appreciation from Twitter’s CEO. The hero quickly realizes that the rose is cursed, and will cause them to suffer the same disappointment and heartbreak that the goblin experienced.
10. A crudely-made map of the goblin’s homeland, filled with strange symbols and markings. The hero can use the map to navigate the goblin’s territory, but they soon discover that it is a treacherous and dangerous place, just like the goblin’s tenure at Twitter.

Okay. Now I’m impressed.

In other news, I had four ethics classes today, which ate up most of the day. I sneaked in a walk with Scully at lunch. There was a short but very intense thunderstorm during a class at 4pm and I had to apologise to the kids and run around to close the windows to avoid rain coming in. Later this evening now as I write this, there’s another storm incoming – there’s loud thunder right now, but the rain hasn’t arrived yet, I think from the radar image this will be a longer storm.

For dinner I made penne alla norma. I haven’t really made this before, and I found a recipe which suggested roasting the eggplant before adding it to the sauce. so I did that, and it made the eggplant crisp and delicious. It turned out really well!

New content today:

The man who held our apartments together

Today I received a message from a neighbour. She informed me that there had been a death in the apartment complex. Not just any resident, but one who has lived here since we moved in when the place was newly built, 25 years ago. This man, R.N., had served as the chair of the owners’ corporation executive committee for many years, and continued in other important roles up until his sudden passing yesterday. He was still the person that everyone went to when they had an issue with the building and needed help.

Just a couple of weeks ago I had contacted R.N. myself for an issue with our front door, and he had organised a handyman to come around and fix it. I saw him around often, always saying hello as we passed in the grounds, the garage, a corridor, or wherever. And I think I saw him yesterday morning. I don’t know the circumstances of his death, but my neighbour’s message said it was sudden. I had no knowledge of any health issues that he may have had, so this has come as a big shock. He leaves his wife, who must be devastated. I presume there will be some sort of memorial organised by the residents. It’s a small and fairly closely knit group in these apartments – many of us know each other and socialise together. R.N.’s loss will be sorely felt by many people here. Someone will take over his role as the main curator of the building, and I hope they do as good a job.

In other news, yesterday I had games night at a friend’s place, and I took Scully with me. We played games of Apples to Apples, Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest, and Ingenious. One of the host’s young daughters, about 10 years old, joined in for Apples to Apples. She’d never played before and as we were explaining the rules to her, she said, “Oh, it’s like Cards Against Humanity!” (Which, if you’re not aware, is basically exactly the same game in a truly obscene, R-rated, adult version.) Someone said, “Wait, how do you know about Cards Against Humanity?” and her father had to explain that there’s a new “family version” that she’s played.

Today I was a bit tired from the late night and didn’t do too much. I edited some more photos from that Europe trip in June. Here are some ladies from a bakery stall at a small farmers’ market that we checked out in Cologne early one morning. We had a big chat with the older lady and she gave us lots of free samples of various types of bread, which was all delicious.

For dinner, my wife and I walked a couple of suburbs over (about 3 km away) to a new Mexican restaurant that we wanted to try. It was good – a lot more authentic than most Mexican restaurants in Australia (which tend to be much more Tex-Mex), but also rather expensive. We’d go back there again, but maybe not too quickly.

New content yesterday:

New content today:

Mango season approacheth

This morning when I picked up the groceries I noticed that several varieties of mangoes are now available. I saw some in the last few weeks, but it was only the earliest variety and they were expensive. But now several types are in the supermarket and the prices have come down a bit, so I decided to grab a couple of them. I like Kensington Pride and Calypso mangoes, but they are better later in the season, so I got R2E2 mangoes. These are a very large variety, with a milder flavour and smooth creamy flesh.

My first ethics class today is normally at 3pm, but currently there’s only one student, and her parent contacted me a couple of days ago asking if it would be possible to reschedule the class to the morning, for today only. She’s in Japan, so the local time was 1pm normally, but we agreed to move the class to 8am Japan time, or 10am for me. When we connected on Zoom, it was obvious that she’d only recently woken up, being a bit sleepy and yawning.

Tonight is online board games night with my friends. We’ve played games of Just One, Incan Gold, and are now into Ticket to Ride.

New content today: