Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
and FACE.
(Vigilante Man weeps because you're stupid., Thu 30 Jun 2011, 23:06, 7 replies)

Give us this day....
Not too long ago, I learned how to make bread. Nothing fancy, no artisan mixed multi-grain sourdough here. Just plain, white bread using nothing more than flour, water, yeast and salt.

I had to because we were in New Zealand with approximately $3 to our combined names (Mrs. Ryushin and I). Our first Payday was a good week or so away, and the nearest family support was about 15,000 miles away.

Take 8g of dried, activated yeast and add to 300g of warm (apx 40oC) water. Put this aside for 10 minutes (until there is a light foam on the top) - mix 500g of flour with 12g of salt, then add the water and yeast mix. Knead thoroughly (about 10-15 minutes) until you have formed a quite elastic dough (it should be smooth to the touch) then place this dough into a lightly floured bowl and cover with a dish towel. Place this in a moderately warm room (22-24oC) for roughly 2 hours (until the dough has doubled in volume). Turn the proofed dough out onto a work surface and form a rough loaf shape (tuck the 'edges' under the dough to smooth the sides) and then cover again and leave for another hour. During this time, heat an oven to 240oC, and place an oven dish with water in the bottom of the oven (this gives your bread the nice, crunchy crust). Uncover your fully-proofed loaf and place it into the oven. Give it 15 minutes at 240, before reducing the temperature to 200 for an additional 15 minutes. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.

Now that we both have real jobs and are quite comfortable, we tend to buy bread along with our other groceries, but I was making this stuff so regularly for a while, I don't really think I can forget how to now.

Length? About 40cm with a nice, deep golden crust.
(Ryushin, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 23:06, 1 reply)

HQ 4971
the number plate of a truck which nearly printed same on my forehead some decades ago.
(haberman is singing in the changes, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:56, Reply)

Saturday 19th November 1994 the lottery numbers were 4, 10, 23, 33, 13, 21
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:46, 4 replies)

I know that people are already getting shot down for gaming stories, but fuck me I put Super Mario 3 on Virtual Console the other way and it was like I'd never been away.

Even remembered how to get the white coin airship.

I'm not even single.
(thenumber18, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:45, 2 replies)

The Bessemer converter
was invented in 1855.

By Henry Bessemer no less.
(Waspard has your wank bank account details, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:45, Reply)

Cruisers
I studied War at university (yes really). I had a whale of a time and enjoyed it immensely. Most of the degree has faded gracefully to the back of my mind but my dissertation seems oddly unwilling to do the same. The title?

"Regional variation in Washington Treaty heavy cruiser design 1922-35"

This is something that I am still worryingly proficient at. The design, philosophy and employment of a category of warship that was built as a result of a conference that occured 89 years ago and of which none survive. It makes some of the stuff people know about vintage computers look pretty up to the minute. This extends to a weird ability to remember the individual units from various photos that are "commonly" (a relative term here) published of them. This is an ability so sad, you can't even impress other nerds with it.

Length? Roughly 600ft with an all up weight not including crew, ammunition or provisions but including boiler feed water of not more than 10,000 tons.
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:43, 3 replies)

slide rule
squares cubes and roots
all to two significant figures
(the other guy not the one that gave you coochie warts, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:43, Reply)

Someone else mentioned bible verses, here's one of two I always remember (The other being John 3:16)
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall make your paths straight."

I learned that 14 years ago, fucking hell.
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:37, 7 replies)

Using vi
or vim as it is now.

Actually I still use it so I'm talking bollocks as usual.

Carry on.
(wimbley is feeling hungover, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:35, 4 replies)

Frutini
Still remember the location of most of the secrets in Super Star Wars... and some nights, when the air is still I am plagued by these sounds HUNH HUNH HUNH HUNH HUNH HUNH huh huh huh FRUITINI FRUITINI FRUTINI
(Angus the Anus, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:34, Reply)

up down left right a+start
(court escaper, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:28, Reply)

In order to load a small diameter tape on an AS/400
one must mount the tape and press the tape load button twice in quick succession. Not once, but twice. Not thrice, for that is too many. Twice is the number of times you shall press the button. No more, no less. Once is not enough by a margin equal to the number of times one has pressed the button when one has pressed the button once.

It's a pity that the vast majority of the answers to this qotw will be no more interesting than the above.
( argyleblanket The man on the roof works for me, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:23, Reply)

I used to be able to pity Liberal Democrats

( monkeyboyalpha jumping on the bandwagon since, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:22, 1 reply)

DOS Gaming
I know:
1: How to make a boot disk
2: How to swear at a bastarding boot disk when it doesn't bastarding work even after you've followed all the bastarding instructions to the bastarding letter.
3: How to plead with a boot disk
4: How to bargain with a boot disk
5: How to cry quietly in the corner at a boot disk
6: How to blackmail my parents into buying me a SNES.
(universalpsykopath loves what you've done with your hair., Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:13, 1 reply)

Every Alien Deserves Great Big Ears

( TheMattInAHat has a particular... odour..., Thu 30 Jun 2011, 22:04, 3 replies)

Lazarus Long
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:52, 1 reply)

Ramsay Tupper has reminded me
I can count up to 397 in Latin. Why 397? Because to say 398 in Latin would be "two before one hundred before five hundred", and I never learnt the word for "five hundred".

Edit: I can also recite "Jabberwocky" word for word.
( MatJ LOOK, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:47, 2 replies)

IDKFA
IDDQD

Were it not for those, I never would have defeated the last level.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:47, 4 replies)

i can read a map, use a compass and write a page of words without gettong a sore wrist
and i can make a bicycle sound like a motorbike by putting a card through the spokes


Old skool
( zulu eh?, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:46, Reply)

I can safely pilot a Cobra MK III into an orbiting station
without using the docking computer.
( VampireMonkeyOnSpeed a super sexy sexual sex terrorist sex, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:43, 6 replies)

If you get me proper proper pissed
I start quoting Shakespeare. Can't do it when I'm sober.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:43, Reply)

All the lyrics to all the B.A.D. songs that are playing on the radio right now.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:24, 1 reply)

I know how to club Mrs Uzzard and drag her without doing too much damage. You have to bash her on the back of the head, not the front, and pull her by the hair not her feet or else sand and rocks gets up her bits.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:22, Reply)

OK, so people remember Sonic level select cheats.
But what does this do?

Up C Down C Left C Right C A Start and HOLD DOWN A!
(The Luggage is haunted..., Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:20, 7 replies)

I promise that I will do my best
To do my duty to God,
To serve the Queen,
Help other people,
And keep the Brownie guide Law.


I also know the Lord's Prayer, in the old school style.
If you are of a similar vintage then I expect you do too.
That is because it used to be law to learn it in primary school. So I don't know the seven times table but I do know the Lord's Prayer, thanks 1970s education system.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:10, 6 replies)

Where are you?
I still remember something, but I'm more interested in knowing if someone else remembers it too.

No, it's not that, you dirty minded b3tan. It's actually a licence plate number.

A309KKA.

We used to walk to primary school together, before phones when you still had to co-ordinate a walk to school with good timing and knowledge of when we both left our respective houses.

But our route around the old cemetary passed a house on the corner, which had this beaten up red car. We were already blood brothers, the kind with actual blood. We had to deepen our friendship further.

No idea why, but we said that we would both memorise the number plate together. Somehow the fact that we both knew something weird made our bond stronger than a clasped bloody handshake.

But then the bugger stopped talking to me some years later. We went on to the same school together, still best mates, then something happened. No idea what I did, might have been parents' intervention for something (we were about 14 at the time) but anyway, we kept bumping into each other rather awkwardly at school. Every time I saw him I thought:

A309KKA.

Length: 7 letters... can't you count?
(MrTeapot hasn't played with himself since, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:08, 11 replies)

On Mount Olympus' Topmost Top, a Fat-Eared German Viewed a Hop.

(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:05, 3 replies)

Zelda: ocarina of time
I remember my way through every temple. Apart from the water temple, that shit is impossible.

Yes ladies, I'm single. Form an orderly queue by the N64.
(Mong goose, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:03, 3 replies)

snow......bl**dy snow
When I was in infant school we had one of those really old computers with basic games on. Must have blown the entire years budget on getting this one crap computer but hey. When I completed one of the games a little purple man appeared on screen and told me I must remember the word "snow" and the teachers were adiment you were to remember this as it would help you later on...
25 years later and still no use for it but heres hoping... I also remember cheats for most Sega Master System and Mega Drive games....

Why the fuck do i remember that but cant remember the phone conversation I had 3 min ago????
(snarf81, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 21:02, 1 reply)