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Soylent: The Totally Real Food Substitute That Totally Isn't Made of People (Probably)

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    kedinikkedinik Captain of Industry Registered User regular
    Zampanov wrote: »
    Almost everywhere I've ever worked there has either been a food truck or a guy or gal with a cooler full of tamales to sell at lunch.

    I have lived in two very different states and never ever seen a food truck in real life outside of a fairground or similar non-work related environment.

    also eating tamales every day is probably not a whole lot different than eating macdonalds every day, nutritionally

    My last office asked a different food truck to set up outside the building each wednesday.

    I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
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    ZampanovZampanov You May Not Go Home Until Tonight Has Been MagicalRegistered User regular
    is the food truck thing a california/college town thing

    r4zgei8pcfod.gif
    PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
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    CabezoneCabezone Registered User regular
    Might be a god all around weather state thing...dunno. I do know I drive all over the SF bay area and there's food trucks everywhere. Telsa has a different top end one out front every day.

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    QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    Zampanov wrote: »
    is the food truck thing a california/college town thing

    I've seen them in Cali, Texas, Hawaii, and here in Maryland.

    They tend to stick to places that have no food at all or a limited selection. I've usually seen them in office parks or military bases.

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    DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    This thread has made me curious... Are any of the commercially available shake meal-replacements legit, documented as healthy, and a decent idea to swap in for my lunch?

    If you're not planning on replacing every meal with them, there's less importance placed on them being complete nutritionally (since you can make up any deficiencies with other foods). Something like Ensure would probably be fine, but from what I've seen prepared protein/diet shakes are kind of on the expensive side for what you get, and might not really do a great job of producing satiation if taken alone. I haven't tried them to say for myself, though.

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    ZampanovZampanov You May Not Go Home Until Tonight Has Been MagicalRegistered User regular
    Quid wrote: »
    Zampanov wrote: »
    is the food truck thing a california/college town thing

    I've seen them in Cali, Texas, Hawaii, and here in Maryland.

    They tend to stick to places that have no food at all or a limited selection. I've usually seen them in office parks or military bases.

    gotcha

    I've always worked near brick and mortar food places

    r4zgei8pcfod.gif
    PSN/XBL: Zampanov -- Steam: Zampanov
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    override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    I live in Wisconsin and I've never seen a food truck outside of events

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    FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Quid wrote: »
    Zampanov wrote: »
    is the food truck thing a california/college town thing

    I've seen them in Cali, Texas, Hawaii, and here in Maryland.

    They tend to stick to places that have no food at all or a limited selection. I've usually seen them in office parks or military bases.

    Foodtrucks are also a thing in DC.

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    davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    edited August 2014
    The places I've seen food trucks (since I brought it up): Omaha,NE, for no known reason, Laramie, WY, because college town, Sidney, NE, because there is a weird imbalance of office workers to available food sources.

    Edit: oh god I almost forgot: Lusk, WY because a high school kid saw an opportunity and filled a need. You probably haven't heard of Lusk, I don't blame you. I think he actually sold his truck and business to his sister when he left for college, I am not joking.

    davidsdurions on
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    yossarian_livesyossarian_lives Registered User regular
    Fancy bastards in Lusk have all the good stuff. I'm from Gillette and we never had anything like that!

    "I see everything twice!"


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    FeralFeral MEMETICHARIZARD interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    edited August 2014
    As a native Californian,

    There are two types of food trucks in CA and both are ubiquitous

    There is the taco truck, which specifically cooks and sells Mexican food.

    Then there is the lunch truck, which is basically a 7-11 on wheels. Prepackaged shit like chips and muffins, a pot of coffee, fresh fruit, soft drinks. Maybe they make sandwiches or maybe they just have premade sandwiches in saran wrap.

    The former type, the taco tuck, is usually delicious and affordable. Serious, eat at a taco truck sometime when you're in California. You won't regret it. (Well, you might regret it - depends on how well your bowels adjust to delicious Mexican food. I refuse to accept blame if your intestine is weak like baby.)

    The second type, the lunch truck, is more or less like eating at a convenience store. Expensive and disappointing. But they usually park in corporate parka, industrial zones, construction sites, and other places where people work far away from the nearest real food source.

    Feral on
    every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.

    the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
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    FeralFeral MEMETICHARIZARD interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    There are also trendy hipster food trucks that cater to festivals in big cities where you can get like organic curry poutine fusion or whatever other quirky shit some dude in a conspicuously overgroomed moustache dreamt up over a bowl of purple kush.

    But those don't exist outside of the big cities.

    every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.

    the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
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    _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2014
    As J has noted, the emotional reactions people have to everything about this concept are baffling to me. We can argue about a lot of things, but I have no idea how one addresses "this is so stupid I'm not going to talk about it. But I will make sure I keep telling everyone they're stupid."

    Glad it is not just me.
    People considering eating a hassle and a waste of time is fucking horrible for me in general. And it's bad enough for society to be at the point where eating is considered a waste of perfectly good time you could spend producing for your corporate overlords, but it's even worse that people are apparently willing to pay a reasonable price for their own dystopia, it's like straight out a Futurama episode.

    I this this deserves a response. My inclination towards soylent, and any similar product, is not the result of some desire to maximize my productivity for the sake of appeasing some employer.

    Eating sucks.
    • It sounds gross.
    • It feels gross.

    The next time you sit down to a meal with other people, or even yourself, listen to what's happening around you. It sounds like everyone is congested, and sniffing with their mouths. It is one of the worst sounds. And if the sound were not bad enough, there is the chewing. Where you take a solid, and turn it into a liquid...in your mouth. And then little bits of that solid get stuck in your teeth, so you have to floss and brush and engage in more unpleasantries.

    Not everyone enjoys their embodiment.

    Edit: Here. Visual aid.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuCU6MHF6d8

    Skip to 12:30

    _J_ on
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    RT800RT800 Registered User regular
    Eating does sound gross.

    But I'd have to disagree that it feels gross.

    Nothing feels better than eating when you're hungry, drinking when you're thirsty, or sleeping when you're tired.

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    PLAPLA The process.Registered User regular
    I'm not surprised by the reactions. People not only hate certain types of cookies, they also hate that other people don't hate the same types.

    Same with sauces, preparation-methods, pizzas, et c.

    How dare you like gruel? You must hate food, unlike me, who loves food, except for all the things I don't like.
    You have ideas? You try things? Make new recipes? That's disgusting! Don't you know the traditions?

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    Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    Guys, I couldn't find masa harina.

    So I had to make a substitution....

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    SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    Man there are a lot of people defending snake oil in here.

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    PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
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    DelmainDelmain Registered User regular
    kedinik wrote: »
    Zampanov wrote: »
    Almost everywhere I've ever worked there has either been a food truck or a guy or gal with a cooler full of tamales to sell at lunch.

    I have lived in two very different states and never ever seen a food truck in real life outside of a fairground or similar non-work related environment.

    also eating tamales every day is probably not a whole lot different than eating macdonalds every day, nutritionally

    My last office asked a different food truck to set up outside the building each wednesday.

    We had food trucks come to our work literally every day of the week at my old place. We were a big gov't contractor though and in the middle of an area filled with those types, so we organized it and then some people from other places would come over and grab lunch in our little courtyard area.

    It was awesome.

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    _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    Man there are a lot of people defending snake oil in here.

    This is another criticism that seems odd.

    "Snake oil" is usually a pejorative term for fraudulent health products. "X will cure your gout!" when X does not, in fact, cure gout.

    Soylent would not seem to count as snake oil. It doesn't cure anything...unless we consider "death by starvation" a disease.

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    TraceTrace GNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam We Registered User regular
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    Man there are a lot of people defending snake oil in here.

    Man there are -alot- of people that don't understand what "snake oil" actually is.

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    davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    Man there are a lot of people defending snake oil in here.

    So far I only see soylent having committed the crime of having a shitty name. Maybe unsafe manufacturing?

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    yossarian_livesyossarian_lives Registered User regular
    Considering how fucked up the meat industry is right now I find the manufacturing criticism more than just a little cute. It's ok to not like the concept of a nutrient shake that replaces normal food. But some of the negative reactions in this thread are kinda goosey.

    "I see everything twice!"


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    TraceTrace GNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam We Registered User regular
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    AustralopitenicoAustralopitenico Registered User regular
    edited August 2014
    _J_ wrote: »
    As J has noted, the emotional reactions people have to everything about this concept are baffling to me. We can argue about a lot of things, but I have no idea how one addresses "this is so stupid I'm not going to talk about it. But I will make sure I keep telling everyone they're stupid."

    Glad it is not just me.
    People considering eating a hassle and a waste of time is fucking horrible for me in general. And it's bad enough for society to be at the point where eating is considered a waste of perfectly good time you could spend producing for your corporate overlords, but it's even worse that people are apparently willing to pay a reasonable price for their own dystopia, it's like straight out a Futurama episode.

    I this this deserves a response. My inclination towards soylent, and any similar product, is not the result of some desire to maximize my productivity for the sake of appeasing some employer.

    Eating sucks.
    • It sounds gross.
    • It feels gross.

    The next time you sit down to a meal with other people, or even yourself, listen to what's happening around you. It sounds like everyone is congested, and sniffing with their mouths. It is one of the worst sounds. And if the sound were not bad enough, there is the chewing. Where you take a solid, and turn it into a liquid...in your mouth. And then little bits of that solid get stuck in your teeth, so you have to floss and brush and engage in more unpleasantries.

    Not everyone enjoys their embodiment.

    Edit: Here. Visual aid.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuCU6MHF6d8

    Skip to 12:30

    Glad you shared your opinion on eating. But what I was referring to is a major point in the marketing of this product. They are trying to sell this to people by telling them "hey, it sure sucks to stop producing and relax for 20 minutes a day, here, for a reasonable price you can make sure you use those 20 minutes working more instead", and people are loving it, and I feel a strong rejection towards the whole thing.

    As for the emotional reaction to this product well yes, I have a strong emotional response to a guy telling me he has invented a goop that can substitute "traditional" food and that is a wonder because he has like hacked the system, man, and this is going to come out of tap and solve world hunger and is also totally eco-friendly. This emotional reaction is: this guy is full of shit.

    To this emotional reaction, another different one follows when it turns out this product is flour, whey protein and some supplements blended together. So, in short, it is a homemade recipe for the liquid food that doctors and bodybuilders have known for ages, it's pretty much traditional food thrown into a blender. After the marketing presenting it as a world-shattering, sci-fi food the emotional reaction I get is anger, because clearly this guy is trying to take me for a complete moron. It's like edible bitcoins.

    As for the product itself well, I have nothing against the concept itself. If you think eating is gross or don't have time and prefer to live on protein shakes then more power to you. There is a discussion to be had about this concept so prevalent among some people that the mind is completely detached from the body, and the body is nothing but a very inconvenient meat cell, but it's a discussion for another time and another thread.

    And I'm not a huge foodie but I still make sure to take 30 minutes at the middle of the day to enjoy the food in my uni cafeteria, which is usually cheap and good (I really look forward to the breaded fish on fridays) and eat, have a coffee, relax and think about stuff that's not work.

    Australopitenico on
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    electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    Complaining that people have different priorities to you is incredibly goosey and has some up more then once in this thread. But the pro-tip is that US employee treatment isn't going to be changed by whether or not this product exists, and this is the dumbest conceivable proxy by which you could choose to fight it.

    At least protesting the Google buses presents a plausible lever to manipulate San Francisco local government.

    Also, the product didn't "turn out" to be mundane. This was entirely up-front and known from the first time I encountered it. It has never been hidden in it's basic composition.

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    AustralopitenicoAustralopitenico Registered User regular
    Complaining that people have different priorities to you is incredibly goosey and has some up more then once in this thread. But the pro-tip is that US employee treatment isn't going to be changed by whether or not this product exists, and this is the dumbest conceivable proxy by which you could choose to fight it.

    At least protesting the Google buses presents a plausible lever to manipulate San Francisco local government.

    Also, the product didn't "turn out" to be mundane. This was entirely up-front and known from the first time I encountered it. It has never been hidden in it's basic composition.

    And yet it's advertised as anything but mundane. A point that you seem to be skilfully dodging. I personally have never complained that people have different priorities to mine, my beef is what this guys is saying his product is vs. what his product really is.

    If I say: "this water will quench your thirst and cure cancer!" and turns out it doesn't cure cancer people will be pissed at me, and saying "hey, but it DOES quench your thirst, doesn't it, why so negative?" is not a very compelling counter-argument.

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    JeedanJeedan Registered User regular
    edited August 2014
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    Man there are a lot of people defending snake oil in here.

    Like I said earlier, snake oil is a specific kind of bullshit claim.

    You can think the claim that soylent will cure world hunger is total bullshit (I do), but that doesent make it snake oil bullshit.

    Jeedan on
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    AustralopitenicoAustralopitenico Registered User regular
    edited August 2014
    By the way, if you are really interested in substituting meals for liquid stuff perhaps this would be easier, cheaper and safer for you:

    http://www.metromedicalonline.com/j53118c.html?gclid=CNmvt_vYpr4CFUuXOgodKj4ABw#.U_it0WOKXKG

    This is food for tube-feeding hospital patients. You can get a case of 24 cans (1 can is supposed to be good enough for a meal) for 48 dollars, which makes 2 dollars a meal and you don't need to order ingredients separately.

    Australopitenico on
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    japanjapan Registered User regular
    By the way, if you are really interested in substituting meals for liquid stuff perhaps this would be easier, cheaper and safer for you:

    http://www.metromedicalonline.com/j53118c.html?gclid=CNmvt_vYpr4CFUuXOgodKj4ABw#.U_it0WOKXKG

    This is food for tube-feeding hospital patients. You can get a case of 24 cans (1 can is supposed to be good enough for a meal) for 48 dollars, which makes 2 dollars a meal and you don't need to order ingredients separately.

    The nutrition information seems to suggest that the cans are 285 calories, so you'd be looking at 7 cans a day for a 2000 calorie diet.

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    Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    Jeedan wrote: »
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    Man there are a lot of people defending snake oil in here.

    Like I said earlier, snake oil is a specific kind of bullshit claim.

    You can think the claim that soylent will cure world hunger is total bullshit (I do), but that doesent make it snake oil bullshit.

    To me its the claims that Soylent is scientifically arrived at. Its not. not even close. self-experimentation and blog are not the equal to a case study published for peer review.

    And then having people getting gosey when its pointed out that the creator of Soylent is at best an enthusiastic amateur without any professional qualification whatsoever.

    If you want a liquid diet, try one designed by an actual professional dietitian.

    The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
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    AustralopitenicoAustralopitenico Registered User regular
    edited August 2014
    japan wrote: »
    By the way, if you are really interested in substituting meals for liquid stuff perhaps this would be easier, cheaper and safer for you:

    http://www.metromedicalonline.com/j53118c.html?gclid=CNmvt_vYpr4CFUuXOgodKj4ABw#.U_it0WOKXKG

    This is food for tube-feeding hospital patients. You can get a case of 24 cans (1 can is supposed to be good enough for a meal) for 48 dollars, which makes 2 dollars a meal and you don't need to order ingredients separately.

    The nutrition information seems to suggest that the cans are 285 calories, so you'd be looking at 7 cans a day for a 2000 calorie diet.

    Right, so not cheaper. But still probably better, you can always buy some flour and "mod" it. Or maybe sugar.

    Australopitenico on
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    Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    japan wrote: »
    By the way, if you are really interested in substituting meals for liquid stuff perhaps this would be easier, cheaper and safer for you:

    http://www.metromedicalonline.com/j53118c.html?gclid=CNmvt_vYpr4CFUuXOgodKj4ABw#.U_it0WOKXKG

    This is food for tube-feeding hospital patients. You can get a case of 24 cans (1 can is supposed to be good enough for a meal) for 48 dollars, which makes 2 dollars a meal and you don't need to order ingredients separately.

    The nutrition information seems to suggest that the cans are 285 calories, so you'd be looking at 7 cans a day for a 2000 calorie diet.


    Its made for comatose bedridden hospital patients.

    I think the average person burns more calories by thinking in the course of a day then what this provides(in a single meal).

    The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
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    Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    Apothe0sis wrote: »
    Guys, I couldn't find masa harina.

    So I had to make a substitution....

    Guys?

    Guys?

    The substitution was people.

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    TraceTrace GNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam We Registered User regular
    Apothe0sis wrote: »
    Apothe0sis wrote: »
    Guys, I couldn't find masa harina.

    So I had to make a substitution....

    Guys?

    Guys?

    The substitution was people.

    It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people.
    Chairman Sheng-ji Yang
    "Ethics for Tomorrow"

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    JuliusJulius Captain of Serenity on my shipRegistered User regular
    Glad you shared your opinion on eating. But what I was referring to is a major point in the marketing of this product. They are trying to sell this to people by telling them "hey, it sure sucks to stop producing and relax for 20 minutes a day, here, for a reasonable price you can make sure you use those 20 minutes working more instead", and people are loving it, and I feel a strong rejection towards the whole thing.

    I just checked out the site and watched the commercial and it felt just like a Veridian Dynamics commercial from Better of Ted.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuVS5OAo6k&list=PLFA32C1347789C3D0

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    TraceTrace GNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam We Registered User regular
    You know what.

    I could say the same goddamned thing about protein shakes and supplements for bodybuilders as some of you are saying about soylent.

    "Oh, so you don't want to spend time eating like a normal person and getting your nutrients like -everyone- else? You must just want to get to work for your corporate overlords and not waste any of their precious time or money you corporate slave."

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    AustralopitenicoAustralopitenico Registered User regular
    Trace wrote: »
    You know what.

    I could say the same goddamned thing about protein shakes and supplements for bodybuilders as some of you are saying about soylent.

    "Oh, so you don't want to spend time eating like a normal person and getting your nutrients like -everyone- else? You must just want to get to work for your corporate overlords and not waste any of their precious time or money you corporate slave."

    You got it all backwards. The ones saying "hey, isn't eating a waste of time when you could be working instead" are Soylent themselves. Some of us are just horrified that they consider it a selling point.

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    CycloneRangerCycloneRanger Registered User regular
    This seems like it would be great for backpacking. My current breakfast of cold rolled oats and powdered milk isn't exactly a taste sensation and I could see replacing one or two daily meals with a nutrient sludge. Further down the road, in a hypothetical future where spaceflight is common enough that everyone can't have a staff of food scientists on the ground creating meals, soylent might be helpful in flight.

    The synthetic milk thing is much more interesting, though.

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    ElJeffeElJeffe Moderator, ClubPA mod
    Feral wrote: »
    There are also trendy hipster food trucks that cater to festivals in big cities where you can get like organic curry poutine fusion or whatever other quirky shit some dude in a conspicuously overgroomed moustache dreamt up over a bowl of purple kush.

    But those don't exist outside of the big cities.

    This kind is all over Sacramento, and the food is generally delicious, if overpriced. Also unhealthy as all get out.

    I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
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    QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    Trace wrote: »
    You know what.

    I could say the same goddamned thing about protein shakes and supplements for bodybuilders as some of you are saying about soylent.

    "Oh, so you don't want to spend time eating like a normal person and getting your nutrients like -everyone- else? You must just want to get to work for your corporate overlords and not waste any of their precious time or money you corporate slave."

    You got it all backwards. The ones saying "hey, isn't eating a waste of time when you could be working instead" are Soylent themselves. Some of us are just horrified that they consider it a selling point.

    Why?

    This again seems to be you horrified at the thought that people don't put eating at the same priority you do. That is absolutely a selling point for me since it means I can leave work that much earlier.

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