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Woah there. We’re talking Game of Thrones, you play to win, so listing anything less than absolute cannon fodder as your #1 is a terrible mistake.

1. Qyburn. He’s all evil henchman n shit. He’s toast. Easy ten points.

2. Cersei, seriously, she’s going to die. Unless they’re going full GRRM and intentionally kissing off every fan that managed to stay a fan along the way, they’ve gotta have the payoff.

3. Euron. See… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:02 AM on May 1, 2019

Seriously, though, there should be a bonus point system for correctly guessing who kills who. Like, Tyrion kills Qyburn. Jaime kills Cersei. Asha kills Euron, Hound kills Mountain, but is mortally wounded, so Mountain kills Hound. Jaime is killed by, uh, Bronn? Payne?

And so on.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:06 AM on May 1, 2019

My bonus point system would have been a lot more effective if I’d just put “crushed by falling rocks” on everything.

But, you know, a three way tie isn’t bad. I mean, in this show, three of anything is unstoppable. It’s not like there’s a way to kill off three dragons, right?

Hey, uh, dirtyoldtown and traveler_, would you mind checking around the corner? I’m sure there aren’t any giant ballistas or anything...
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 3:17 AM on May 14, 2019

WOOHOO! I'm champion!!! What do I win?
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 3:36 PM on May 20, 2019

Hmm. Maybe this might spur a Tokyo meet up, if only so we can post “First!” in the grand spirit of message boards in 1999!
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 3:23 PM on May 17, 2019

Maybe this is my own crazy attempt to answer that what if, but I imagine the bright line not to cross is, “will you, potentially, have the opportunity to directly financially benefit from posting a thing on metafilter?” If the answer is yes, if the mere act of driving eyeballs to a site chances to line your pockets, maybe don’t do it?

And that seems entirely reasonable.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 3:53 AM on May 11, 2019

My brother comes home from work
and climbs the stairs to our room.
I can hear the bed groan and his shoes drop
one by one. You can have it, he says.

The moonlight streams in the window
and his unshaven face is whitened
like the face of the moon. He will sleep
long after noon and waken to find me gone.

Thirty years will pass before I remember
that moment… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 2:27 PM on April 22, 2019

Damn. It turns out the poem I posted here was the same poem I posted three years ago. It’s still good, but I’ll put this one here, too, just to make up for it:

Michiko Dead
BY JACK GILBERT
He manages like somebody carrying a box
that is too heavy, first with his arms
underneath. When their strength gives out,
he moves the hands forward, hooking them
on the corners, pulling the weight against… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 8:58 PM on April 22, 2019

Because I’m finally drunk enough, and the post asked for originals, here’s the best thing I’ve probably ever written, and, after careful realization of that fact, one of the last poems I think I’ll ever write:

The way you say dandelions
Makes me think of the veldt,
And the pride slinking forward,
Careful to avoid spilling their drinks,
Or soiling their tuxedoes.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:25 AM on April 23, 2019

On my university trip through northeast Asia, we started in Tokyo, then went to Kyoto, after Japan, we went to Taipei, Hong Kong, and finally spent a month in China. Going from the Midwest, where old, and history, meant maybe one hundred years (I've always been fascinated by that, where in Boston, old has a different meaning than Chicago, and then in a place like Los Angeles, an 'old' building is a fraction of an 'old' building in Chicago), to Asia, where old was measured in centuries was a… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 5:42 PM on April 19, 2019

When I was in my last year of high school and during vacations of my first year of college, I worked at a vaguely high end book shop (in the weird realm between Daltons and Barnes and Noble). Around the same time, the terrible movie Wolf came out. Jack Nicholson bit by a wolf, becomes a werewolf, etc, uses newfound vitality to fight off the young guy trying to take his job away from him. But for whatever reason, his character worked at a publisher. In all of the offices there were tons of… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 8:05 AM on April 6, 2019

I might have mentioned my bear before, but here’s a chance to tell you all the wonders of my bear, Pooh. I’ve had him since I was four and a half years old, when a family friend brought him back from a trip to Disneyland. He has been y faithful and stalwart companion since then, though he quickly lost his splendid red shirt (it was more of a vest, as I remember) and he’s slightly more two dimensional than he used to be, due to nigh on forty years of hugs. He’s also a remarkably dingy bear, more… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 7:07 AM on April 5, 2019

Every single member of my family smoked, but 80s anti-smoking ads got to me. The one with the tongue sticking out, covered in cigarette butts and ashes? “Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray”? As an unintentional side effect, that rendered me unable to look at an ashtray without the really unpleasant, unwanted image of licking the ashtray popping into my head.

So, no, I’ve never smoked anything, as the physical act of smoking remains the most repugnant thing I… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 2:12 AM on March 31, 2019

I'm not proud (or really up on men's college basketball), but even so, I'm aware of the force of nature that is Zion Williamson, and that he probably should already be in the NBA. Barring a second shoe explosion, I can't see any way that Duke doesn't win... leading to a random fluke in the lottery that somehow lands the Bulls the #1 pick.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 9:09 PM on March 18, 2019

Wow. My amazing start and precipitous fall are honestly so spectacular as to be worthy of a VH1 special, if they did them on poor bracket choices. They’d be all excited about my first round, then the music would shift a bit as they talked about the second round, and then the straight on “he dead” somber music would kick in.

All I have left to save me is Duke, and only I am responsible for ending up in these tragic circumstances.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:06 PM on March 29, 2019

I’ve got threeish tools that I deeply love and would be, well, not lost without, but definitely a bit maudlin, considering how much use I get out of them:

I’ve got an inkbird Bluetooth temperature gauge. It has six probes, and it means I can set one probe into a smoker to gauge the heat from the charcoal, and have accurate instant readings of the internal temperature of up to five pieces of meat or whatever I’m smoking. I can also use it for when I’m poaching sausages to… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:23 AM on March 24, 2019

In the kitchen, when I’m reaching around someone to get something (or, say, to put something in the sink from around the person washing dishes) I’ll sometimes let out a soft “mmaahh” sound like the bird in Tiny Wings when it lands just right on a slope.

I know of no one in my day to day life who recognizes the sound I’m making, or the really relaxing game that it comes from.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:54 AM on March 10, 2019

I’ve given notice, and the conversation that I had with the owner was shockingly pleasant. We talked, over beers, for nearly five hours, and it felt like he was apologizing to me for things not having worked out how either of us would have liked. It was a pleasant talk, and it did change how I feel about leaving (I’m still leaving, I just no longer feel like I’d never set foot in the doors after).

Still, I’d tried to make a deal with myself, that I’d stick it out. I’ve… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:45 AM on March 2, 2019

Persoanlly, and I don’t mean to disparage fanfare, but I never use that portion of the site. I barely use askme, just because of time constraints in my daily life. I’ve only recently been able to dip back into the the site in general, and the movie previews on the blue are often how I even find out about trailer releases, let alone have a place to talk about them.

I get that prople who love fanfare want more people on fanfare, just as people on music want more people… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 3:56 PM on February 28, 2019

Because what kind of monster can't relate to or love their own kids properly?

terretu, I wish there was something I could do or say to help you, but this jumped out at me, and while it’s not good news at all, the answer is that there are all kinds of parents out there that are either unable or unwilling to relate to or love their children. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. Your parents were their own people, and when they had you, they had a… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 9:00 AM on January 29, 2019

joycehealy, I don’t know that this will be any help, but this morning, as I was talking to my older sister, trying to reassure her that, in the last week, I’d managed to sort of talk myself down from the ledge that I was on when last we spoke, I realized that I’d said as much as I had to say, and she who is living and doing and pushing for better things for more people than I can even begin to imagine, she had said her piece, and we, neither of us, who live so far from each other and talk so… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 7:09 AM on February 24, 2019

My "if I won the lottery" fantasy has, for years, been to go to Europe for a year and a half, spending the time learning charcuterie in Spain, France, and Italy. Like, proper jamon, learning to make chorizo, coppa, guanciale, pates, and all that sort of stuff. To somehow find a spot at the feet of masters of the craft and learn from them. Of course, it's hard to win the lottery if you don't buy tickets, and I'm too broke to throw money away like that.

Other… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 7:52 PM on February 20, 2019

I once received a Winnie the Pooh cookbook titled "Cooking with Pooh" in case anyone is looking for more FPP fodder, either in an adorable children's first cookbook post, or in a "oh dear god, they called it WHAT?" product naming disaster post.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 5:49 PM on February 13, 2019

Wait, the whole FPP thing... am I the only one who thinks it’s pronounced fffpoop?
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 1:21 AM on February 17, 2019

But--Metafilter does not, itself, have the social clout to create change on these fronts, does it?

Widespread, immediate change, maybe no. I’ve said this before, though, that being a member here and taking part in these discussions has changed my vocabulary, has changed the my word choice and the way I speak. It continues to do so, and those changes aren’t limited to my time spent here. I take those changes with me into my daily life, and yeah, I’ve… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 2:53 PM on February 15, 2019

I love a smell I’m never going to smell again. Growing up in Kalamazoo meant access to the Galley, a sub shop on the outskirts of the Western Michigan University campus. By the time I left town, they had sandwiches numbered up to 32, all sorts of quality meats and cheeses. My favorite was the #29, roast beef and corned beef with provolone, seasoned with Italian seasoning, pepper, oil and vinegar, wrapped in white butcher paper that the vinegar and oil would leave translucent grease spots on.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:42 AM on February 10, 2019

ninazer0, I’ve thought the same about telekinesis. Why throw large, heavy, easily dodged things like cars at people? Why not shred the car into thousands of jagged projectiles? Or, hell, why not throw the person you’re fighting in front of the car? Make it look like they ran (move their limbs) out into traffic.

The only time I thought, yeah, that makes sense, was the prison break scene in XMen 2 (I think) where Ian McMagneto rips the iron out of the guard’s blood and… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 4:45 AM on February 9, 2019

I’d really like to see a tale of the tape sort of breakdown of luck powers, Longshot vs Domino. I mean, it seems like they have essentially the same power, but that can’t be, because that might mean that Rob Liefeld was, gasp, a lazy writer?
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 7:11 PM on February 9, 2019

I have a pair of boxers from old navy, burgundy, printed all over with hedgehogs. I love them, but I only wear them on days that I think will be special, or, days that, by wearing them, will become special. I never wear them when I have to work, and I almost never wear them unless I’m going to be with Mrs. Ghidorah most of the time. When such a day arrives, I’ll notify her that today is, in fact, a hedgehog day, to which she usually rolls her eyes. My hedgehog boxers are wonderful.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 8:30 AM on January 27, 2019

Got my payslip tonight (payday is the 25th, and at least this year, they didn’t fuck up and pay us a day after Christmas), and for the second or third month in a row, my pay is lower than I was supposed to be getting when I took the job. It’s nothing blatantly illegal, it’s all based on working tons of overtime (again, perfectly legal in Japan), and due to the stress of working in this kitchen, and having to be the babysitter of a bunch of malformed idiots, while the real manager just sort of… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 3:58 AM on December 25, 2018

Jesus, shapes that haunt the dusk, I’m so sorry to hear that.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 2:27 AM on January 22, 2019

A girl whom I worked with in high school, who may or may not have called herself my girlfriend, she was easily the person whose kiss I have most thoroughly enjoyed. Aside from the physical pleasure of the kiss, for however, I don’t know, the kisses smelled like vanilla and the physical difference between skim milk and heavy cream. I remember waking up the morning after kissing her and still smelling vanilla and my high school concept of whatever cream was supposed to be like, and smiling.… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:50 AM on January 13, 2019

cooker girl, as someone also in the throws of aging and wondering just what the hell happened that things have turned out quite so *this* rather than the so often promised, much preferable *that*, I wish I had better, more positive news, but as far as I've been forced to follow this road and figure these things out for myself, people bear it because it must be borne. We carry on because the weight of all that must be borne hasn't yet proven itself to be unbearable, because deep down inside, we… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 7:38 AM on January 13, 2019

I’ve mentioned this before elsewhere, but if you’re ever in Wisconsin, search out Serendipity. It’s a fruit ale brewed by New Glaurus, a brewery that only sells inside Wisconsin. Their beers are very, very good, and their fruit beers (and I’m not a fruit beer drinker) are unearthly perfect. Serendipity itself is a blend of cherry, apple, and cranberry, supposedly from a year where the cherry crop was off, and they were unable to source enough of the grade of cherries they use for their regular… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:31 AM on January 8, 2019

Gotanda sent me a New Years card, which was really nice, with a supportive message on it. New Years cards here are kind of a thing, you send them to family and coworkers and friends, but you (at least in my experience) tend to send them to the same people every year, and you don’t tend to get a lot of new people on your list, and for the most part, I don’t send many any more, and I don’t get many in return, so the card from Gotanda was a pleasant surprise, as was Mrs. Ghidorah being confused and… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 12:30 AM on January 5, 2019

In the interest of offering New Years appropriate music, might I offer

Hope, in the form of 100 Resolutions by the Lawrence Arms

And relief, in a song I discovered way, way too late, but still came to me just when I needed it: This Year, by the Mountain Goats.

Let’s hope this one is better than the last. You’ve all been a boon, a real boon to me, and I’m better for this place being a part of my life. Thanks to everyone, and happy new year.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:13 AM on January 1, 2019

Local food treats is where Japan is a Viking!*

Seriously, due to the mass shift of the population towards Tokyo, a lot of the rural prefectures are desperately trying anything they can to increase tourism and prop up local economies. This has resulted in really pushing 名物/meibutsu, or locally famous goods. For the most part, that’s food. Think matsuzaka beef, and then, seeing that wagyu had this big name recognition, every other prefecture started trying to find… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 4:08 PM on December 2, 2018

Gotanda is almost right about monja yaki. Really, really close. It’s not really like snot though. It seriously looks like someone barfed on a hot plate and let it cook down until the chunks charred.

Not a fan. I’d rather have Osaka’s terrifying concoction of doteyaki, which is konyaku, cow ligaments, and white miso boiled down on a hot plate into a gelatinous goo that’s actually prettt nice.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 1:02 AM on December 3, 2018

I spent a week making it on a giant hot plate for Minoh at a beer festival once. Having to explain what it was to Tokyo area people was a challenge, as most Kanto area people have never even heard of it. Still, better than monja.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 1:23 AM on December 3, 2018

I’d love another Tokyo meetup, but due to the crazybusy, the best I can do is a small window after six on Saturdays along eastern Tokyo, or a slightly longer window on Sundays, also from six.

Thought at this point, I seem to be hosting small scale meat ups every month or so.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:08 AM on December 3, 2018

My most favorited comment is basically from the thread a week after the inauguration (Jesus, it was only two years ago?!) about my reaction towards Bannon, Miller, and the rest of the Nazis in republican clothing taking up positions of power and influence in the White House. It's me, talking about attending a Holocaust Memorial Day service at my synagogue where I found out a man I'd known most of my then young life had escaped a camp, and another man I'd never met showed me the numbers tattooed… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:27 PM on November 30, 2018

.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 8:52 AM on November 27, 2018

I think I’m done with thanksgiving. I’ve made the effort, living in Japan to host a thanksgiving for friends, usually on the weirdly convenient Japanese national holiday that’s right around the same time. Last year, I managed to make it home for thanksgiving for the first time in 20 years, which was all kinds of great, in one way, because I’ve ended up on a path where I cook for a living (which is great, but also I’m well aware my body isn’t a young persons body, and I know my time in this… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 1:38 AM on November 25, 2018

I’m so sorry for your loss, gingerbeer. rtha always struck me through her comments as an incredibly kind person. I’m almost certain that we interacted a couple times in different threads, though I don’t recall exactly when, but I do remember a solid sense that someone who I’d never met cared about me without having met me in real life, and that carried me through that time. She will be missed by many, and as you mourn, maybe you can take some small comfort in that there is an entire community… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:35 AM on November 12, 2018

Two that I remember, for different reasons.

One, working at a BBQ restaurant in Yokohama, close enough to the US Navy base in Yokosuka that we got a lot of people from the base, family members, and so on. I didn't usually leave the kitchen area, but for some reason, I was upstairs, and a group of three women asked me about the desserts. I usually made the apple crisp, another guy made the pecan pies. I told them I'd just made an apple crisp that morning, and they all… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 3:15 PM on September 23, 2018

I would dearly like for Japan to adopt daylight savings time, combined with a permanent hour shift back. In the summer, as things stand now, in summer, the sun comes up just after four am, and sets just around seven at night. Three hours of daylight gone if you get up at 7 am. If you go to bed at 11, you're spending four hours in darkness, using electricity to power lights and such. One permanent hour back, and then add in summer daylight savings time.

I would like to… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 9:48 AM on September 16, 2018

bookmammal, I worked in a bookstore in the late 90s, and I had something similar, though it's mostly gone now. I remember, though, when the movie Wolf came out, Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfieffer, set at a publishing company. Pretty forgeta me, except I remember noticing that most all of the books on the shelves were the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time hardcovers, but with all of the text removed, just leaving the art on the spine.

Having run a restaurant, and working in one… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 11:50 PM on September 8, 2018

I've recently discovered the joys of running shoes, not for running (bad knees, bad back) but for how wonderfully cushy they are. But those aren't my shoes. My shoes are in a book case masquerading as a locker in a staff room in Tokyo. I bought a pair of no-slip kitchen shoes, I wore them all of a day because the supposedly no-slip sole becomes the slipperiest thing in all of existence when it meets that utterly uncommon element in a kitchen: water. Yes, wet floors somehow render no-slip shoes… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 6:37 AM on September 1, 2018

This mug, it vibrates?

Also, it ships to Japan. That's pretty great.
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 7:31 PM on July 25, 2018

I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am without my aunt, uncle, and cousin asking me to come live with them to finish high school. I was not going to graduate on time. I was friendless, and due to a lot of issues at home, I simply didn't go to school. I avoided leaving the house. They actually offered twice, but the first time, I stupidly said no, feeling offended, sure than I could turn things around on my own. The following year, it was clear to me that if I didn't take their offer, I would… [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ghidorah at 7:45 PM on July 23, 2018