This may just be me, but I've read a handful of books by Iain M. Banks, and found them all to have uneven or odd pacing that can make it easy to get stuck. If you like the overall vibe it's worth pushing through, and it's not just you!
Ruthalas
This is the way. It works great, I've been running it for years.
Now that is a high stakes strength check.
It's interesting because they went to some effort to get there shadows right, and possibly the sail boat, but not match simple things like umbrella colors.
Not bad, but I'd be interested to hear the story behind the choices!
Before marriage? oh no you don't!
Jorking it requires no ingredients (that I do not already possess) and is therefore free.
The refractory period is a hell of a thing
If you'd like to do this, consider instead an odd phrase that would not be guessable. Using a a string of generated symbols means that if a customer service representative ever asks for it, "it's probably a long string of random characters" will work to bypass it. On the other hand, if the color of your first car is "Albert Einsteins mustache" the service rep will be confused but unlikely to accept the wrong answer.
I assume because it makes the coin flipping part more absurd.

I believe that have swapped the Steam Machine in for the Kaaba at Mecca- the Islam holy site. The Kaaba is already a big black cube, so it works well.