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The kids were out until 2:30 am last night. And yet I managed to sleep well until they got home.
I'm getting better!
Though I can't shake the feeling I've forgotten something this morning...
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Fantasy NPC: Mad Cultist Of Ice... Doesn't he look familiar, though?there are no words to describe how touched I am. Thank you, friend.
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Wow. Gas is expensive here.
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Wow. Gas is expensive here.
Don't get Grandpa Nobody started.
Back in the 1970s, the air in California was so bad you couldn't see across the L.A. basin on a good day. The California legislature, actually being responsible for once, passed a goodly number of clean air acts requiring cleaner-burning gasoline and less-polluting cars. We have the most expensive gas and cars in the country. Yet the L.A. basin cleared up.
Fast forward 40 years. We have nearly double the population we did back in the "bad old days", and all the newcomers complain about our gas prices and our car emission requirements, and ask, "Why don't you get rid of them?"
My response: "Why don't you move back where you came from?"
Yes, I'm a prickly sort. (And you can remove the "ly sort" as you like.) But I've lived through the whole thing. I saw what our atmosphere was like before the clean air acts.
I, for one, am willing to pay more not to go back, thanks.
(As I always say, "If we had 4 million people, I'd say, 'Do what you want.' With 40 million, you have to take our overall impact on the environment into account, whether you like it or not.")
EDIT: Yes, we also have a LOT of gas taxes on top of that to try to discourage people from driving. All in all, we're a very car-unfriendly state. Which makes it hilarious that everyone still drives everywhere, especially in L.A.
I am watching Tasting The History With Max Miller and he mentioned (well, advertised as a sponsor) Hello Fresh and I started to wonder if NobodysHome gave them a try in his attempts to expand Impish cooking skills.
I am watching Tasting The History With Max Miller and he mentioned (well, advertised as a sponsor) Hello Fresh and I started to wonder if NobodysHome gave them a try in his attempts to expand Impish cooking skills.
I've tried to get the kids interested in cooking, and Impus Major wants to try, but he has a lot of trouble with even basic ingredient prep.
The Hello Fresh-like companies provide dinners that require significantly more cooking still; typically my prep time with them was around 20-30 minutes, and cooking time was another 20-30 minutes.
It's easier to start them with something like grilled chicken breasts, rice, and steamed broccoli. Virtually no skill required.
He *did* make a really good pasta primavera a few nights ago, but it was mostly me showing him how everything was done and letting him cut up some of the vegetables.
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Car unfriendly is better than the south, where urban sprawl is horrendous and people are actively mocked for trying to go carless.
Jacksonville, where I lived for a decade, is constantly listed as one of the worst biking cities in the USA.
My current town has a dedicated bike path between it and two of it's neighboring cities, a well run bus system, and is actually concentrated enough where you can walk between downtown and uptown and to the outskirts (basically across the entire city) in a little over an hour. I know because I did last week.
Jax, meanwhile, can take over an hour to drive across...
...in GOOD traffic.
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I am watching Tasting The History With Max Miller and he mentioned (well, advertised as a sponsor) Hello Fresh and I started to wonder if NobodysHome gave them a try in his attempts to expand Impish cooking skills.I've tried to get the kids interested in cooking, and Impus Major wants to try, but he has a lot of trouble with even basic ingredient prep.
The Hello Fresh-like companies provide dinners that require significantly more cooking still; typically my prep time with them was around 20-30 minutes, and cooking time was another 20-30 minutes.
It's easier to start them with something like grilled chicken breasts, rice, and steamed broccoli. Virtually no skill required.
He *did* make a really good pasta primavera a few nights ago, but it was mostly me showing him how everything was done and letting him cut up some of the vegetables.
I hate Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and every company like them.
Why?
Because if I'm cooking it myself, it should cost less than eating out, not the same. I don't care if it IS pre-portioned and set up. If I have to physically do the work and clean up the dishes, it should cost less. But the prices they advertise are consistently the same as if I were to just go out to eat.
Yeah, f&&* that. You can use YouTube to learn to cook.
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My grandad always said, "If you can read, you can cook."
I don't know if that is true for everyone, but it's how I learned.
My grandad always said, "If you can read, you can cook."
I don't know if that is true for everyone, but it's how I learned.
Same as me. Self taught. Definitely didn't learn it from my "has burned soup" mom. I also like watching videos of people cooking.
Driving Places:
2012, LA: Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles (approx. 23 miles), between 4 - 6 PM, Saturday -- an hour and a half
2021, Memphis: home to the airport (75 miles), 8 - 9:30 PM {-ish}, Monday - Friday -- an hour and a half
1998 - 2000, Missouri: TN/MO border to MO/IA border (no clue on the mileage, and I refuse to do the research) {I-55 to St. Louis, I-70 to KC, and . . . I-29?? north past St. Joe} -- Twelve. And. A. Half. Hours. (out of a 16-hour trip to get to the college I attended)
Random trivia.
I'd have to take a bus 40 miles (64km) to be able to get on a train.
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Last day of vacation.
I live in Madison, why would I want to go anywhere else.
I suppose that's the problem with people from Madison.
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My favorite part of Biomutant?
No encumbrance mechanic!
That's right, I found 25 different hats, but I'll be damned if I'm selling them.
Driving Places:
2012, LA: Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles (approx. 23 miles), between 4 - 6 PM, Saturday -- an hour and a half
2021, Memphis: home to the airport (75 miles), 8 - 9:30 PM {-ish}, Monday - Friday -- an hour and a half
1998 - 2000, Missouri: TN/MO border to MO/IA border (no clue on the mileage, and I refuse to do the research) {I-55 to St. Louis, I-70 to KC, and . . . I-29?? north past St. Joe} -- Twelve. And. A. Half. Hours. (out of a 16-hour trip to get to the college I attended)
Random trivia.
...that last one can't be right...can it?
I live in Madison, why would I want to go anywhere else.
Our New York is better than your New York.
There was a TON of construction ongoing on I-70 during that time period. Slow rollin'.
EDIT: And that travel time counted the stops for meals, too. If I gotta be behind the wheel, I *refuse* to stay hungry for long.
EDIT 2: Mostly, I just refuse to stay hungry.
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(1) Much of California, especially southern California, was designed with cars in mind. If you don't have a car, you can't get to work, so our entire infrastructure already severely disadvantages the poor.
(2) As mentioned, due to our enormous population and our dependence on the car, major cities without good air flow suffer from significant pollution issues, leading to clean air acts that make cars more expensive and hurt the poor even more.
The more difficult yet more sensible solution is to repair our public transportation infrastructure to make it easier for those without cars to get around.
So of course the major political push is to remove all the clean air restrictions to make cars cheaper.
I lived through the oil embargo of the 1970s, where gas was rationed and you could only get gas every other day (cars with even license plates could buy gas on even days, and cars with odd license plates could buy gas on odd days). So, surprise surprise when I bought my first car gas mileage was my #1 concern, and I got a car with an EPA estimated 34 mpg. My (leased) second car got 43. My third car got 51. When gas broke $5/gallon a few years ago, we were still paying under $100/month for gas . So I have a fairly strong personal bias against people who buy 18 mpg SUVs and then complain about gas prices.
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Same as me. Self taught. Definitely didn't learn it from my "has burned soup" mom. I also like watching videos of people cooking.My grandad always said, "If you can read, you can cook."
I don't know if that is true for everyone, but it's how I learned.
My mom used to boil chicken. I definitely did not learn to cook from her.
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2012, LA: Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles (approx. 23 miles), between 4 - 6 PM, Saturday -- an hour and a half
When I lived in downtown LA, I drove to the Santa Monica beach on Christmas day, and did it in 25 minutes. It kind of depressed me, because I knew the other 364 days of the year that drive is reliably 90 minutes.
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It's funny; of all the things I regret about the way we raised our kids, "Not having a regular dinnertime" is #1.
Not because of the frequently-cited social aspects ("It's the only time most families talk to one another." Not mine), but because of the simple time management logistics.
With my family, every day of the week, 363 days a year, the table was to be set at 6:00 pm sharp. Dinner was served at 6:30 pm sharp. There were NO exceptions to this rule.
What it taught us as kids:
(1) Paying attention to the clock and planning around a time obligation.
(2) Fulfilling a time obligation every single day.
(3) Planning and scheduling in order for dinner to be ready at the correct time.
In short, all the skills my kids are woefully lacking. They cannot schedule themselves even if their jobs depend on it, they can't keep up with even relatively light homework loads because their time management skills are so poor, and they can never find the time to help out in the kitchen even though they want to because they don't know when to schedule the free time.
A regular dinnertime isn't just about getting the family together every day. It's about teaching every member of the family to manage their time accordingly.
My mom used to boil chicken. I definitely did not learn to cook from her.Same as me. Self taught. Definitely didn't learn it from my "has burned soup" mom. I also like watching videos of people cooking.My grandad always said, "If you can read, you can cook."
I don't know if that is true for everyone, but it's how I learned.
I like boiled chicken.
Occasionally.
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My mom used to boil chicken. I definitely did not learn to cook from her.Same as me. Self taught. Definitely didn't learn it from my "has burned soup" mom. I also like watching videos of people cooking.My grandad always said, "If you can read, you can cook."
I don't know if that is true for everyone, but it's how I learned.
I like boiled chicken.
Occasionally.
I like soup. I love braised chicken (like coq au vin especially). But unseasoned chicken boiled until it is cooked through does not excite me.
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Fencing was on in the afternoon, as it's a holiday, so I went to that, then went home and did garden construction work, while binging on a podcast about Jewish demonology, which is something I knew absolutely nothing about beforehand.
My neighbour (who is a joiner) saw what I was doing (re-doing the decking from scratch, including the frame, and looked very unimpressed.
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Fencing was on in the afternoon, as it's a holiday, so I went to that, then went home and did garden construction work, while binging on a podcast about Jewish demonology, which is something I knew absolutely nothing about beforehand.
My neighbour (who is a joiner) saw what I was doing (re-doing the decking from scratch, including the frame, and looked very unimpressed.
I'm guessing anything I've "learned" about it from watching Supernatural is probably wildly inaccurate.
Decking, that is.
** spoiler omitted **
...what if your license ended with a letter?
You laugh, but it's true. I predate vanity plates. All California plates were in the form NNN LLL (number number number letter letter letter), so it was the final number on the plate, and there was no such thing as a plate with no numbers.
EDIT: Or if there were plates with no numbers (for example, possibly some government or dealer plates), I'm sure there was some kind of rule for it, but I was a kid so I didn't think of such things.
All I know is literally half the population of Illinois has vanity plates. I don't know why but it's true.
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My brother had "Biotch" approved. Apparently they thought it was biotech shortened. It was not.
And it truly depresses me that, "We need to remove all these environmental regulations to facilitate oil drilling and natural gas extraction throughout our state," is still a solid political platform.
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** spoiler omitted **
Whoring themselves for employers is kind of their thing. There's a reason why something like 80% of the call centers based in the US are in New Mexico.
There's also a reason why Breaking Bad was set in Albuquerque as opposed to LA.
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All I know is literally half the population of Illinois has vanity plates. I don't know why but it's true.
Because they're vain?
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You know you're old and tired when you're doing your chair stretches and you think, "When Madonna did it it was sexier."
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I got a substantial raise at work.
** spoiler omitted **
Whoring themselves for employers is kind of their thing. There's a reason why something like 80% of the call centers based in the US are in New Mexico.
There's also a reason why Breaking Bad was set in Albuquerque as opposed to LA.
hm. interesting.
59°F and cloudy, with a 10-15 mph wind: Check.
Need to close up the house because it's too chilly: Check.
Need to take allergy medicine because pollen levels are insane: Check.
Must be June.
I got a substantial raise at work.
Hell yeah CY!
Nice to see there are companies that actually value their employees.
On the road for over five hours and we're still in Texas.
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Yeah, it's pretty pathetic. A "substantial raise" at Global Megacorporation is anything in the 3% range.
What's that? "Isn't the Cost of Living index in the Bay Area increasing by more than that every year?"
Why yes, yes it is. (Except, apparently 2020 and 2021 for SOME reason.)
Global Megacorporation: "You deserve a pay cut every year for continuing to work for us."
And then they complain about employee churn. Go figure.
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Yeah, it's pretty pathetic. A "substantial raise" at Global Megacorporation is anything in the 3% range.
What's that? "Isn't the Cost of Living index in the Bay Area increasing by more than that every year?"
Why yes, yes it is. (Except, apparently 2020 and 2021 for SOME reason.)
Global Megacorporation: "You deserve a pay cut every year for continuing to work for us."
And then they complain about employee churn. Go figure.
Don't get me started. I just had the hands-down best annual evaluation of my entire professional life, my boss loves me, my students love me, even the parents love me, but none of that will mean more money because our enrollment numbers are down and *no one* is getting a raise this year.
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At least they give you a reason.
My first year as a full-time teacher California had a massive budget surplus (in spite of our reputation as a "loser" blue state, we have budget surpluses a surprising amount of the time if you look at the chart).
The state mandated an extra 15% to all public schools. Our teachers' union was "proud" that they got us all 6% raises. The school president? She got a 30% raise to a salary higher than the state governor.
I despised my teachers' union.
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Am in LA. Planning to ride a bike on a trail somewhere. We will see how it compares.