u/HeyItsMau

Saw a comment that in California, Sweet and Sour entrees are pre-sauced, which is crazy to me as an East-Coaster. Started realizing there's a lot a few other differences I heard about, but I'm curious to learn more.

• Chow Mein on the West coast seems to be the traditional, Hong-Kong style fried noodle dish, but on the East, it's chopped veggies in a saucy white gravy and more or less interchangeable with Chop Suey.
• East coast doesn't have canteen style take-outs, where you pick prepared entrees from steam trays. This is common on the East coast for traditional Chinese food, but not Chinese-American.
• Not sure how true this is, but seems like West coast doesn't have what I think of as egg rolls with thick doughy skin. Their "egg rolls" are what I think of as spring rolls.
• I rarely see Orange Chicken on East coast menus.

Anything else?

AppleTV show starring Tatiana Maslaney. The setting is primarily supposed to be Sunnyside, but I'm 90% certain most exterior scenes were filmed in north-west Astoria - can't really hide the Hell Gate Bridge in many shots. I think they even digitally transposed the Sunnyside arch into some Astoria neighborhoods.

And if anyone cares, the show has a fun plot but dialogue can be a little contrived at times. A decent watch overall. It's no Widow's Bay.

A common game design that's kind of a pet peeve of mine across RPGS is having to hunt for chests and constantly backtrack for like, a single grape or things that easily acquired in shops. This goes double for doing this in towns. I'm open to it for mid-late game dungeons where the rewards are presumably better, and I am willing to grind at my own pace.

So, will I be missing out on meaningful progression if I just bypass chest hunting in the early game?

A new indoor pickleball spot opened minutes away from me. As a 40-year-old newish parent, I haven't done any meaningful physical activity in years and have never played pickleball. But I'm relatively okay shape and played racquetball in college. All this lead me to sign-up for an Advanced Beginners ladder league that is a 2.5 - 3.0 rating (which I have no concept of what skill level that means).

About 14 other league players. I'm the sole male (not trying to say AT ALL this is an advantage, just that I stand out because of it). I'd like only 5 other players are my age or younger, and the rest are 55+. It's clear some of the older players have better technique than me, but it's clear that I'm the strongest player but a decent margin, simply because I've got a little (well...maybe a lot) more hustle in my physical condition.

We played six matches with rotating partners, and my team won each by a decent margin. I've had some nice conversations, but I overheard some people saying, "oh he's really good", and it's getting a little in my head that they aren't saying that as a compliment. I had one teammate directly tell me she "doesn't like the way I play" because I chase after shots and am willing to put my body on the line a bit (let's just say I ran into the fence a couple of times and laid out once or twice to save a shot). I think she meant it as like, "You're going to hurt yourself" and projecting a little because she's told me about her two artificial knees, but I don't know...felt a little resentful.

Just all the optics makes it seem like I joined a beginners league to beat up on old ladies, but I truly just had no idea what to sign up for. Any advice to like...present myself a little more humbly without having to inhibit myself? Like, I'm not willing to go as far as lose games on purpose, but I just don't want to stick out like a sore thumb.

Just a casual observation. Thankfully most locations have the option to adjust sugar levels. 0% and letting the tapioca add the sweetness is more than enough for me.

Help settle this debate! Do you think the narrative shifts to the real world when it asks what the Goldfish sees? Like, is the Goldfish in the classroom with the Teacher and Kids? Or is the Goldfish in the book within the book that the teacher is reading to the kids? Argument to be made for point 1 is that the Goldfish doesn't follow the pattern of unusual animal colors and it's just "goldfish" not, "gold goldfish". Thoughts on this very important question?