Ask Kuebiko (#0)
Aug. 12, 2014Ask Kuebiko (#0)
Why hello there!
Those of you in the FextraLife forums have already been introduced to me, Kuebiko, your friendly neighborhood Kami. Just like my mini biography says below, I’ve seen a lot of stuff from my unique field vantage. The time on the mountaintop offered a wide view of things as well I suppose.
Anyway, what good is it being a Kami of knowledge and agriculture if you can’t share your gifts with the world? Now there’s too many of you for even a Kami to wrangle up some corn on the cob, which means we’ll need to stick to the knowledge part of things.
Skarekrow13, another entity the FextraLife community might know, asked me to take some time from my latest Off the Mountain tour to contribute some of my wealth of wisdom via this blog. I jumped at the chance of course, as it’s kind of my thing. Even ancient spirits see the utility of internet blogging.
I was approached to make a regularly occurring feature here with a very simple premise. You ask, I answer. Now we have to keep the content friendly enough for a wide variety of eyes, but topics of potential questions are limited only by your imagination. I’ll work off your demand, making posts frequently if there’s sufficient questions. My goal is to be around on about a weekly basis.
Enough with the intro.
For those of you who are already members of FextraLife, you can send private messages to “Kuebiko.” You might even see me around the forums from time to time, whether it’s just hanging out and gathering more knowledge or more actively interacting.
If you’re not a member I’d still love to hear from you. Anyone can send questions to Kuebiko@yahoo.com
I wasn’t sure if there’d be questions until after this intro article, but thanks to the FextraLife forums we have one from Reaperfan. And thank you to Reaperfan naturally.
Reaperfan asked:So my question is, how many grains of salt should I be taking when I watch Silver Spoon?
Reaperfan also jested about my agriculture expertise and managed to come up with a question that covers that as well as what appears to be a personal interest in Anime. I assume that the Anime was the question, as “watching” a Manga is unlikely to be interesting. Ok, so I won’t actually cover much agriculturally here but the Manga/Show takes place at an agriculture school.
This is an excellent question by the way. Now we’re all aware of the saying “take that with a grain of salt” which is used to allude to the idea that one should be skeptical of whatever they’re taking the grain with. So the easy answer would be for me to tell you “a grain” as that’s the saying. However, like many sayings, it can actually be a little more complex.
Taking anything with a singular grain of salt is unlikely to have a major impact on one’s ability to be a skeptic. A larger amount of salt may activate enough taste buds to create a heightened alertness and therefore may have an impact on your skepticism. Increased alertness allows for better brain function and therefore focus and use of senses. Combine this with the belief that skepticism is necessary for the thing that the salt will be taken with (“Silver Spoon” in this case), and you may indeed be able to affect your ability to be skeptical. Note that other intense flavors could have a similar effect. Lemon juice might be a better option but you asked about salt.
Now then, we need a quantity. One grain is not enough in most cases. A teaspoon is too much. Yuk. I say shoot for six or seven grains but try to group them near each other for maximum effect. If it’s rock salt, drop this to three.
Of course the best option for applying salt while watching a show is naturally popcorn or soft pretzels. In that case, the sodium content is likely on the label.
Kuebiko
Spirit by trade, Kuebiko periodically travels down from the mountain to inhabit and animate one lucky scarecrow. Standing around and observing the world has led to a broad depth of information and FextraLife is proud to have Kuebiko as a consultant for all mortal matters.
No need to worry about subtle nuances in the answer. I was only implying that a small amount of salt would be wise.
As usual there’s a mix of truth and not. I think the base concepts are mostly good. In season one for instance, according to the Internet, they deal with the emotional aspect of animals being processed for food after someone becomes attached to them and the fear of a family farm going under due to larger competition. That’s reality. As an example, I’ve seen farmers head to the bank for a loan for a new tractor and hear that they’ll need to take a much larger loan to buy the tractor, a new building and 200 more head of cattle of they want the loan. Then the fear of not being able to repay the loan naturally.
The salt comes in as no show can capture a dawn to dusk six day work week for months on end and of course the characters need to be captivating. 95% or better off the real world wouldn’t make a good show. Overall they’re taking a big leap to place the show in an ag school (which do exist and in large supply in some areas) and work to stay on topic.
Makes it sound like there’s a hidden metaphor or something I was too dumb to get
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Well, I guess if you don’t mind I’ll try going the straight-faced and proper way:
Hearing agriculture is a specialty of yours as well as it being a subject with which I am personally very rarely exposed, I was curious if you could provide some insight or pique my interest in the subject a bit more. As a sheltered computer-bound-nerd a particular interest I’ve picked up is watching anime. There was a series I found a while back titledSilver Spoonthat I watched a bit of and found it enjoyable, but for one reason or another I keep finding ways to put off finishing it in favor of other things. The premise of the series is that a boy enrolls himself in a specialty Agricultural School to escape the pressures of his life back home, and from what I saw more or less just follows his process of learning about and adapting to the more rural lifestyle and him struggling to learn the various agricultural skills being taught to him there.
Now media always has a way of skewing things for dramatic flair or just because the author was misinformed about one thing or another (after all, writers are not usually also experts in all subjects they end up writing about), and I’m not asking you to go out and watch the whole series yourself (or read it, as there is a manga too), but I was curious as to how accurate to real life the various agricultural concepts and ideas that were discussed inSilver Spoonwere and how much of it might not be entirely accurate. Maybe some actual insight could help me get the motivation to finally finish this series
I know I end up getting overly-wordy and so I find people aren’t always appreciative of that as a first impression
Lol, there’s a long list of salty snacks that would work well. Pretty much tv and food go great together but I should caution against mindless eating. Measure an appropriate portion before sitting down to watch
Reaperfan, you can reword it here. I used a literal example to explain a non literal but that might not cover it well. My abilities are less “omniscience” and more “good at observing because a possessed scarecrow doesn’t have many other things to do.”
Potato chips should work well too
At least I think they would
Not…exactly what I meant but I guess youdidtechnically answer the question
And I wasn’t jesting, I’m genuinely interested in what kinds of things you might have to say.
I suppose I could’ve phrased the question more seriously but that would make me sound stiff and that’s not really a first impression I like to leave with others. Since my question was the first time I’d interacted with you it would’ve felt kinda robotic asking it all “proper-like.” I suppose I could re-phrase it but by this point that would be redundant I guess
Having worked at movie theater for a few months I still can’t really stand popcorn so I guess I’ll stick with pretzels for now, then. Would potato chips be an acceptable alternative, though? Just one thing might get repetitive after a while…
