Post

Lower Slobbovia wrote:

Sorry, My Friend. I never saw anything in The Embassy.

Phew! That's good.
I was testing a script that could post on embassy RMBs, but didn't want it to actually post on their RMBs in the testing stage, as that would just be unwelcome spam. So instead of posting "Testing a message" to the region=the_embassy page, I got it to post the message "Testing a message for the_embassy" to region=where_the_wild_things_are. All I need to do now is include "the_embassy" in the URL instead of in the message.

The script reads my list of embassies, checks which ones I'm permitted to post to, then checks that I wouldn't be double-posting, and checks that I'd have at most two of the last ten posts on their RMB, and only then would actually post. So it could post on hundreds of embassy RMBs without being too spammy on any individual region.

It needs a couple of enhancements still. First, while it needs to use "the_embassy" for the URL, it could be nice to include the phrase "The Embassy" in the message. Second would be to keep a list of exclusions - say someone specifically asked not to be sent automated messages.

All Wild Things wrote:

I picked the plums from the tree in the back garden at the weekend. I'm now starting to brew up some plum hooch. I've made a couple of batches in the past. They were strongly alcoholic! The recipe says to add three parts sugar for five parts fruit. I'm thinking I'll put less sugar in this time round, so that it will be less alcoholic. I'm tempted not to add any sugar at all, and just see how it turns out with the natural sugar from the plums. I'm nervous I'll just end up with sour, yeasty plum juice instead though. I don't add the sugar and yeast until tomorrow, so I have a day to make up my mind.

I was brave, and left out the sugar entirely. The result was disappointing. Today was hooch bottling day. It tastes like watered-down plum juice. On the plus side, it's not yeasty, and it's not sour. But it's lacking flavour. To try & fix that, I've put some ginger in one bottle, cinnamon in a second, and vanilla in a third. I'll let them sit for a few days, then give them a taste test to see if that helps the flavour.

I like the idea of a no-added-sugar hooch, so I think I'll try it again another time (it seems weird to use all-natural ingredients, then throw in a load of refined sugar). The recipe I used said to add 10 litres of water for 5kg of fruit. I think I'd try using just 5 litres next time, so as to concentrate the flavour more.

Or maybe I could use honey instead of sugar?