redbeanpork is the Worst

That is all.

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Well, I'll probably forget why I posted this in a few years, so I should probably explain.

I was working from home, trying to keep my virus contained, and I hear MrFodder laughing to himself behind me. He calls me over to look at his screen, and he's laughing at a picture of Connect One.

He insists that we play it, and we play rock-paper-scissors to decide who goes first. He plays paper and I play rock, so he gets to go first and congratulates himself on winning.

I go back to work.

Later, I get an invite from redbeanpork to play Tabletop Simulator. I tell him that I'm working, and he says it'll be a quick game. I click the Join Game button from the Steam chat window and it launches the game and a lobby password prompt pops up. He tells me the password and I try to join.

....

It fails to connect.

I'm curious as to what he wanted me to play, and check the friend lobby list.

It's Connect One.... -_-

Non-Dairy Lamington Ice-Cream

I recently discovered that MrFodder really likes lamingtons, so that inspired this month's ice-cream flavour. I had never had lamingtons before, and bought some to take to a board games night, but there was so much food that I forgot to grab them. MrFodder happily polished them off, but at least I got to try one to see what I was aiming for.

The only recipe I could find that wasn't an ice-cream bar / sandwich and that had sponge cake in it was this one from Nicko's Kitchen, which looked delicious, but was made with cream and sweetened condensed milk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4re2QcyGgY). It doesn't require an ice-cream machine if you want to try it for yourself. One of the comments asks if you can make it without the coconut and lamington (I assume they meant sponge cake). If you remove the coconut and sponge cake from a lamington, what do you have left?!

I figured I'd steal his idea and make it non-dairy. You can also make it vegan by making a vegan sponge cake, but I just chose a non-dairy one as I struggle enough making regular sponge cakes.

Ingredients
400 ml coconut cream
400 ml soy milk
175g raw sugar
50g dextrose
5g black soybean powder (I tried this to try and soften the mix, but it's optional, and didn't seem to work)
45g 99% cocoa chocolate

1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup sponge cake, roughly broken into 1cm cubes

(I used this recipe: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/sponge-cake-recipe/, except I only needed half of it - using 4 eggs instead of 7, and everything else was halved). I used the leftover sponge cake to make actual lamingtons, as MrFodder ate the one I was planning to use for today's photo.

Method
1. Heat the coconut cream, soy milk, raw sugar, dextrose, chocolate and soybean powder (if using) in a saucepan over medium low heat, whisking to dissolve everything. Heat until it just comes to a boil, then remove from heat and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. It should be cold before you churn it.

2. Make according to your ice-cream maker's instructions, adding in the shredded coconut and sponge cake halfway through.

3. Quickly place into a container and freeze until hardened.

It was a bit hard when I took it out of the freezer, but leaving it out for a few minutes was enough to soften it for scooping.

I used shredded coconut instead of desiccated so that you could taste the texture in the ice-cream, as I was worried the desiccated coconut would be too small. It really does taste like lamington, and it's one of the cases where the coconut milk flavour adds to the taste!

I wanted to make a strawberry mix to swirl in, but the strawberries I bought were mouldy. T_T Plus, jam in lamingtons seems to be a controversial topic.

I See the Light

Yesterday was the celebration of the 10th anniversary of SEE (Society for Electronic Entertainment), a.k.a. the gaming club at Melbourne uni. They had an event during the day at Melbourne Uni, which I unfortunately couldn't attend, as I had work. Fortunately, they had an after-work / uni event, which was a trivia night! Trivia: The original name for the club was going to be Nintendo Enthusiasts Society (NES), but clubs and societies didn't want there to be all these other splinter gaming clubs for other platforms, so the name was changed.

The trivia night was fun. The first round was about games from 2007 (when the club was formed) and 2017 (this year), and we really struggled on the current games - showing our age. But we managed to not come last, and I think we did well - I even managed to answer some non-Dota related questions! The only bad thing about it was that I don't think they expected as many people as they got, as we didn't all fit in the room they had (and I don't think the venue's claim that it would fit 100-people was accurate. 100 standing people, maybe, but definitely not seated people). Eggmond and Autofix helped out by repeating the questions, and for the music and visual rounds, we all stood closer to the screen.

Our team was called "Happy Birthday, Autofix", and it was really nice that everyone sang Happy Birthday to him when they called out the final scores, thanks to Eggmond's encouragement. Note: It wasn't actually his birthday.

The best part of the night was the speeches at the end. Autofix opened, speaking about the earlier days of the club, and how people thought we were stealing TVs, because we were always carrying them around to club meetings. It was really heart-wrenching when he spoke about the affect the club has had on him, and the friendships he has made - most of which have endured well after we left university.

Eggmond and some other guy spoke next, and I'm too old to remember them, but they also said similar things - that the club was a place where they felt like they belonged, and they made some great friends.

The same definitely applies to me. While I managed to find solace in the second floor clubs when I first joined, I was not as into sci-fi / fantasy, roleplaying games, board games as most of the other people. There were a lot of people who were into computer games, and it was those with whom I bonded with the most. When a dedicated computer / video game club started, I found it a lot easier to participate in club activities, even if the games weren't necessarily games that I played.

I don't know if it's because, as Eggmond mentioned, a lot of people in the club shared an "outcast" background, but I've always felt like the friends I made in the club were the kind of friends who are fiercely loyal, and once you've formed a bond, they'll stay friends with you, even if you don't see each other very regularly. Gamers may have a reputation for being socially awkward, or abrasive, but the people I met were welcoming to others, and mostly just happy to find other people to share their hobby with.

That doesn't mean there wasn't any drama - there definitely was. I heard about the attempts to diversify the membership base, with a "girl's night" and an attempt to make the committee 50% women - but I don't want to get sucked into the diversity argument today. I just like that at the end of the day, the club is about getting people together to play games, and as far as I can tell, it's still doing that. There are other gaming clubs at the other universities now, and it makes me really happy to see inter-university eSports!

I can't really talk about what I've gotten out of the club without mentioning MrFodder. I definitely don't think we would have gotten together without the club, and it is something that has definitely changed my life for the better.

My experience being part of the committee also gave me a bit more confidence. Anyone who has asked me will know that I prefer being a follower to a leader, but I always seem to find myself in leadership-type positions. Being part of a group of leaders was nice, as I did have people looking up to me, but being able to share the leadership meant that I was never at the forefront of anything - and I'm really glad I was never the president.

For the most part, I would have to echo the sentiment of the others and say that it was the people I've met through the club which made it the great experience that it was, and I hope that it will do the same for future members.

Couch to Melbourne Marathon

I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. To be honest, I find it a bit stupid to pay someone else money for me to put myself through pain, but MrFodder reminded me of the $400 challenge. A told me that it's a mostly flat run, and it's a different experience running in a proper race, compared to running by yourself, so it's something I should experience.

I bumped into someone at the office, who was one of the first people I met when I joined the bank. He can get over 13 on the beep test, and is incredibly fit. Despite my constant insistence that I'd rather play computer games, and I'm not the kind of person who does sports, he would keep telling me that anyone can be active if they work for it. He has always been really friendly and encouraging. He never pushed me to do anything that I wasn't comfortable doing, but would always gently prod me to move out of my comfort zone, telling me that he wanted to see me grow stronger.

A and I were chatting about the Melbourne Marathon when he came up to say hi. When he realised that I was considering it, he put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eyes and said, "I'm so proud of you, Fodder." And that was when I decided that I was going to sign up.

Need to push myself to be more disciplined and start getting up early again.

I've signed up for the 10km over 60 minute run. I don't even really care what my time is, just getting to the finish line will be enough of an achievement for me.

Almost Vegan Milo Ice-Cream

As an Australian, Milo is a way-of-life. It's one of the things I find hardest to resist when it comes to eating things containing dairy. I love milk (soy milk), I love malt, and I love chocolate, so Milo is three delicious things in one package. Then I saw a reddit post saying how the real way to drink Milo is to have a can of Milo with a tablespoon of milk. Why did I never think of this before?! However, I did an un-Australian thing and bought a small can of Milo.

While we were on the plane back from Fiji, our plane had TV screens drop from the ceiling. When we boarded the plane, one of the screens was down, while the rest were retracted. MrFodder and I made a bet on whether the one that was already down would retract later, and I bet that it would. The loser would make Milo ice-cream.

Here's my Milo ice-cream recipe.

Ingredients
800g soy milk
50g dextrose
137g raw sugar
130g Milo (contains milk solids, so it's the non-vegan part of this recipe)

Method
Heat all the ingredients in a saucepan over medium-low heat, whisking to dissolve everything into the milk. Heat until it just comes to a boil, remove from the saucepan into a container and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Prepare according to your ice-cream maker's instructions.

It's pretty soft, but not as creamy as I'd like. I think I might try adding some pea protein next time. It also melts pretty quickly, so you have to be careful of that, otherwise it'll become icy when it re-freezes. So addictive though. We've almost gone through an entire litre of it already.

Pro tip: Putting a scoop of ice-cream in a glass of milk is a really stupid idea. You end up with milk everywhere (when it overflows from putting the scoop in), and also a sore stomach from eating it all.

Muddy the Waters

One of the other touristy things I enjoyed doing in Nadi was visiting the Sabeto Hot Springs and Mud Pools - better known as the "Mud Pools". For the price of $30 FJD per person, you get assigned a guide for your group (who will show you around and hold your camera to take photos, as it's really hard to take photos when you're covered in mid). The first thing you do is grab some mud from a bucket and starting coating yourself with it. It feels really weird, and a little gross, but it was a pretty hot day when we were there, so the mud was also nice and cool. Oh, you do this in your swimming gear, so don't worry about getting your clothes dirty.

The guide will take some photos of your group after you're covered in mud and they make some pretty funny photos, as depending on how much of your face you covered, you will look like Mr Popo when smiling.

After that, you climb down those stairs into the mud pool. It looks pretty unintimidating, but once you get off the stairs, your feet sink into mud that goes halfway up your calf and you're just walking in this slimey goop. I wasn't expecting it, so I nearly screamed when my foot sank into it. You get used to it after a while, and it also becomes something that's nice and refreshing once you get used to it. You're supposed to wash as much of the mud off as you can while in the mud pool - though it's pretty tough, since the water is also quite muddy.

Once you're somewhat clean, you move into a thermal pool, that felt a lot like the hot springs we went to while in Japan, though not as hot. Our guide told us that the water from the thermal pool is fed in from this pool, which is 73 degrees Celsius. I took his word for it and didn't feel compelled to find out for myself.

You're welcome to hang around in the thermal pool for as long as you like, but if you want, you can hop out and get a message, or look around at some stalls selling handcrafted jewellery. Overall, we probably spent about two hours there (mum and MrFodder got massages).

The locals claim that the pool will heal all kinds of things, from colds to skin problems. I can't speak to the latter, my eczema improved a lot a couple of days later - though it could just be a placebo thing, it's hard to say. The mud pools were about a $20 FJD taxi ride from our hotel in Nadi, and we were lucky that our driver was willing to wait around for us to finish, as there didn't seem to be a taxi rank or anything nearby.

Vegan Coffee Ice Cream

Another one for the monthly ice-cream challenge! MrBrioche thinks that it doesn't matter what kind of coffee you use for ice-cream, whether good beans or instant. I begged to differ, so I had planned to do a blind taste test in the office, but didn't have time to make my instant coffee ice-cream, so it'll have to wait until I'm back from Fiji.

I was a bit worried that the extra coffee would add too much water, and I didn't want to use coconut anything because I didn't want there to be a coconut flavour in the ice-cream, so I was unsure how it would turn out.

Ingredients
800g soy milk (yes, grams, I couldn't be bothered getting a measuring cup out)
50g stevia
175g raw sugar
1 cup coffee made from an aeropress
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Heat all the ingredients together. Cool in fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Prepare in ice-cream machine.

I was surprised how simple it was, and even after a day, the ice-cream was really soft! There were a few icy bits, and the coffee flavour wasn't as strong as I'd have liked - it was more like an iced coffee flavour, rather than actual coffee, very sweet. I might try again with dextrose and see how I go.

MrFodder really liked it, so that's a good sign. I also want to experiment with adding a bit of chocolate for a mocha flavoured ice-cream.