Posts made by Auspice

@paris said in RL things I love:

@auspice Yeah, I've been thinking of getting an air fryer sometime, maybe this summer.

I'm gonna be trying some sort of pork kofta rice deal tonight. Hopefully I don't burn the house down.

I really really recommend the air fryer if you can find one on sale. I've never been able to fry chicken for shit before (not a good enough pan for it, breading never wants to stay put, etc etc).

I made hella delicious chicken tenders last night in about 20? minutes. Chopped up the chicken, tossed in breading/seasoning, put in fryer for 6min per side. Not having the overly difficult cleanup (IMO) for wings is amazing, too. Because I love wings. So so much. But they're a hassle to make generally.

Tonight I'm gonna try a recipe said to reproduce the Taco Bell crunch wrap. I love those things so if I successfully start making my own.......

I am wondering if I can someday pull off a chicken fried steak in it. That'll be next paycheck, possibly.

@arkandel

Well, I also meant the meal thing in the light of: if all I'm doing is discussing the cost of shit, what makes a person think I'm inviting commentary on the meal and potential weightloss itself? No, damnit, if anything be all 'I've found <X> to be pretty cost effective!'

On the other front: I was mostly being facetious, but realistically... I think most people are too focused on themselves to care about others. When I have gone to a gym, I'm too busy angsting over whether or not I'm using equipment right than 'oh no did that person who glanced at me judge me.'

@ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@arkandel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

For starters it doesn't matter what shape you're in - unsolicited advice is a no-no. Even at any half-decent gym it never happens; no one should come over while you're working out to give you tips no matter if they're a world-class contender unless you already know them and that's the kind of relationship you have with them... or, I guess, if you're in immediate clear and present danger or something.

I am peeved by folks who be like: "I go to Planet Fitness because I don't get judged there!" The fuck you don't. Gym rats really aren't judging anyone but themselves; at least, the serious ones don't. And the best ones are the ones that wipe their equipment down, and stay off their fucking phones.

Aren't people too busy taking gym mirror selfies to judge anyone else anyway?

@arkandel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

But the worst, the worst is that he is constantly trying to weigh in and lecture people on their eating habits and diets. Like, @Arkandel knows what he's talking about. That's clear enough. But I don't want someone who eats fast food 2-3 times a day trying to tell me that my meal isn't good enough (I usually have a sandwich, carrots, and either an orange or pretzels depending on mood for lunch). Esp. when it's usually 'you should buy <whatever frozen diet meal he's into right now>.'

I'm sick of it, but really I'm sick of him. For so many reasons. But the slob behavior and the need to comment on everyone's eating habits are big ones.

For starters it doesn't matter what shape you're in - unsolicited advice is a no-no. Even at any half-decent gym it never happens; no one should come over while you're working out to give you tips no matter if they're a world-class contender unless you already know them and that's the kind of relationship you have with them... or, I guess, if you're in immediate clear and present danger or something.

The same thing happens with technical issues though. I've heard too many lectures about how Google is stealing our information from people who don't understand how any of this works - who are feeding Facebook everything they do the rest of the time. Personally if I'm sitting at a table and the conversation gets to these matters I shut up unless I'm asked.

The only time I've discussed my meals with coworkers is in a 'keeping variety in lunches is expensive, yo' sort of way. I've never, ever brought up weight loss or eating better. I know I eat better than most people I work with (if I pick up fast food it's because I was running errands on my lunch hour and that happens maybe twice a month). I'm not thin, I know this. I'm also not obese. But I also have health issues that make my particular situation different. No I can't just 'go running,' (bad hip/knees, I'm not supposed to do that, never mind the fibro). No I can't just 'cut out all <X>' (thanks to intestinal issues, I go through periods of time where I can only eat certain things without feeling sick. Yes, one of those things is bread so fuck off with the gluten-free diet, people).

Like if he's trying to get people to join in / support him in wanting to lose weight (he talks about his OWN weight loss in passing sometimes), cool, whatever. But just open up with that. Don't throw around your opinion on everyone else's state of being. It's just alienating.

@tinuviel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@arkandel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

The holiday season is usually reserved for tech requests by friends and family. "Hey, can you fix my computer issue? It will only take you a second!".

When I worked in IT (I was but a cable monkey and occasional hell-desk occupant) and my family would ask such questions, I'd charge them for the full hour. Even if it only took a few minutes. Stopped the requests soon after.

Thankfully, my father is a developer. They assume guy with CS degree will be able to fix all the IT issues, not realizing that dev is a totally different beast and while MOST people in dev keep up with stuff, not all do. My dad is totally capable, but when it comes to pure tech stuff, I'm better.

But the family all still flocks to him. It at least means if/when he shops out to me for answers, I'm dealing with someone who knows what they're doing. I don't have to give the step-by-infuriating-step details, just the 'Oh yeah, go into the settings and change <X>.' reply.

On that food front: my boss is a big guy. And not just sort of broader-built-bigger-naturally... Like, they had to special order a chair for him, big. And he's sort of unrepentant about it, too. Like, I get being comfortable in your own skin, but when you're management and your office is such a mess from all the bags of food you haven't thrown away, food stuff on the ground, etc. that no one wants to be in there (the other day he complained it's because there's no trash can 'on hand,' I pointed out that we all walk right by a big one every day to/from our room... lot of my coworkers privately mentioned later they thought it hilarious that I called him out).

Anyway. This guy is the sort who will message people on their way in to work asking if they'll pick food up for him. If you work a full shift with him, you'll see him eat 3-4 times. Like, full meals. I've seen him take snacks off of other peoples' desks, insist he'll replace it later (people who aren't in the office), and then never do so and claim innocence when they ask what happened to it.

But the worst, the worst is that he is constantly trying to weigh in and lecture people on their eating habits and diets. Like, @Arkandel knows what he's talking about. That's clear enough. But I don't want someone who eats fast food 2-3 times a day trying to tell me that my meal isn't good enough (I usually have a sandwich, carrots, and either an orange or pretzels depending on mood for lunch). Esp. when it's usually 'you should buy <whatever frozen diet meal he's into right now>.'

I'm sick of it, but really I'm sick of him. For so many reasons. But the slob behavior and the need to comment on everyone's eating habits are big ones.

@paris said in RL things I love:

@misadventure There's a method called the pot-in-pot method that sort of does this, but I don't have any stainless steel or pyrex bowls.

The bowl I use for this, I got off of Amazon for cheap. I should have paid a bit more and gotten a better-fitting one, but... it works, the lid closes, it's just finicky. Anyway! Amazon for the stainless steel bowl. Do recommend.

I've only done the method once and it was... tricksy.

https://pinchofyum.com/instant-pot-wild-rice-soup is my favorite InstantPot recipe so far. I made it often last winter because one batch will provide me dinners for a week and it's super easy. The hardest/most time consuming part is chopping the veggies. I also love corned beef and cabbage, but that's really just 'take your favorite crockpot recipe and find the right timing for the instantpot' (there's a few out there that'll give you timing for it).

My favorite thing this year: my air fryer. Found a super cheap one during Black Friday sales (so it's pure manual settings, no digital; I just use my kitchen timer rather than its timer). Oh man. It is so awesome to be able to fry stuff and eat it and not get sick from the grease. And the chicken I've made is SO GOOD. Nice crispy skin and wonderfully moist meat. I finally found a garlic parm wing recipe I like.

I've also made quesadillas in it (again, without being greasy! yay!) and sweet potato fries.

Between InstantPot and the air fryer, I've really been able to cut down on the amount of easy/quick (and often not-so-healthy) meals I kept around for bad fibro days. I love them both.

@betternow said in RL things I love:

@auspice That is standard procedure. They will also upsize something at the original cost to stay in brand first, before going off brand.

It's good to know! I leave a lot of things marked 'do not substitute' generally because I don't want to randomly pay more. Today the things that got substituted were things I needed. Now I won't risk going without stuff I want for fear they'll do like Instacart would (srsly, their shoppers made dumb choices when it comes to substitutions... if I want 8oz of tomato paste, get the other brand's 8oz. Not the other brand's 16oz. )

I've been doing the curbside pickup at Walmart because if your order is over $50, there's no added fee. And as far as I have been able to tell, prices are the same as in-store. So it's just... a lot easier on my legs to do it that way (and cuts down on impulse buys!). I mean, I get groceries twice a month and I've gone from $80-100 per down to $60-80 per. So it's def. helping.

But today I discovered... I had the store brand for two items and they were marked as substitution-OK. They got substituted (for name-brand items) and I got charged only for the original cost.

I don't know if this was a slip-up on their part or standard procedure, but I know Instacart never did that. If it got substituted, you paid the price of the new item (which caused me to watch things like a hawk when they were shopping because their shoppers often grabbed ridic things that were like 'Oh, the $4 one isn't available so here I'll grab this $12 one that's twice the size!').

Regardless. I'm happy about it. Got everything I needed and at the original cost (well, not counting the must-be-weighed produce but that's to be expected).

@ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@pandora

These are just transparent assholes to me.

Dat mental imagery tho

@too-old-for-this said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@auspice The worst part is I even HAVE chapstick AND use it. I just... end up licking my lips without thinking!

What's worse is when you don't have chapstick or vaseline or anything and they're so broken and chapped and you just... can't... stop... yourself... (This is why I have chapstick in my car... on my desk... in most of my jacket pockets...)

So I picked up Book of Demons on Steam today (it looked interesting and I got a 66% off coupon as one of my little things in the winter sale) and... holy crap I like this game.

It's like Darkest Dungeon meet Diablo meet CCG. It's definitely a rogue-like, so if you aren't a fan of those, I'm sorry. But it's not a stupidly hard rogue-like (unless you put it on that difficulty!). The art is fantastic and I love it so much.

All of your abilities/equipment are dictated by the cards you find, which can be upgraded and improved over time (Shadow Sword is OP, forreals). You start out as the Warrior, but there's also a Rogue and Mage that you can unlock (pretty early on). I haven't played as them yet, so I can't speak on their playability!

One neat thing is that it estimates how long a dungeon/area will take and even lets you pick the size of it (bigger dungeon = takes longer = more lewts). It's a great background game (I played off and on today during the slower work hours).

But seriously, isn't this art great?

@too-old-for-this said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@auspice I split my lip sneezing last week. I still have a tiny scab because I also have a terrible habit of licking my lips when I'm nervous or concentrating.

And in the winter, too!
(I'm squirming at work rn counting down the minutes until I can flee to my car with the chapstick XD)

@thenomain said in The Board Game Thread:

@auspice said in The Board Game Thread:

After watching some videos about it, I really want Sagrada. Has anyone else played it?

Imagine Yahtzee, but on a grid, and everyone else keeps taking your goddamn dice.

A++, would recommend. Best with 3+.

I'm guessing it's on TTS?
(Someday I need to... actually play stuff on TTS. My schedule is apparently utterly horrendous for being able to play things with anyone.)

After watching some videos about it, I really want Sagrada. Has anyone else played it?

@wretched said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@auspice I have done similar, shrugging my shoulder and stretching and then pulling a muscle int he back of my neck that was sore for a week.

It's like 'these are parts of natural movement, they should not cause injury.'

I see a heating pad in my future tonight when I get home.

Speaking of 'stupid shit that bodies do:'

I yawned and pulled a muscle in my neck earlier.
That's just not fair.

@ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

It's still better than the sprained ankle I had in my sleep last year.

My wrists like to pop out of joint or the joint locks up. Really, really easily. Like, stupid easily. Zipping a jacket? Woop. Enjoy spending the next twenty minutes getting the joint to unlock!

Happens in my sleep sometimes. And in my sleep it can wrench bad enough that I go see a doctor for the pain, but I've had to start making up stories for how I injured my wrist because I got sick of hearing: 'it's impossible to hurt yourself in your sleep.'

I meeeeeeean. Bodies are weird yo.

Have another vegan/cruelty-free brand: https://www.blackmooncosmetics.com

Closer to UD in prices, but: https://www.blackmooncosmetics.com/collections/black-metals/products/emperor

Lookit dat shit.

@too-old-for-this said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@aria Might I suggest 'splurging' on your own car code reader? It will let you scan the computer when the check engine light comes on so you can tell them exactly what's wrong. They aren't terribly expensive anymore and you can snag one off Amazon with good ratings.

The HouseHold Hacker guys reviewed one recently that they said was really good. If I can find the video, I'll link it! It was surprisingly affordable.

ETA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FKDFYZ3/ $29
They were rather surprised by it. They checked it against a full read out of their vehicle and it matched, so they said it's worth the price to keep on hand.

@hedgehog

These are the situations I tell people when they ask about writing professionally.

The 'could you do this and not hate everything?'

I can which is why I do write freelance (and am hunting for a prof. gig), but man it makes me wanna shake the person who allowed such copy like a polaroid.