Last year I bought a freezer to put into my garage. The main reason for buying it was because I only had a drawer freezer in my refrigerator which wasn't big enough to store much of anything at all. So whenever something went on sale, I couldn't really take advantage of it. I didn't have the room. So I spent the money on extra freezer space... quickly filled it up by going crazy whenever something I like was on sale... then ended up wishing I had bought a bigger freezer.
All that food sitting in the freezer, but did I ever dig into it?
Not really.
It's put my Beyond Stack Burgers in there since I buy so many of them... but everything else just kind of sits in there.
Until I spent all my money on board games.
Given how horrendously expensive groceries are, I decided to start working my way through all the frozen foods I've been ignoring instead of buying new food. And it's been kinda an eye-opener.
First of all, I've fallen in love with frozen biscuits again. I bought five bags of those Pillsbury Grands! frozen pucks months ago because they were on sale for cheap. I think that I overcooked them at too high a temperature or something, they tasted awful, then I never cooked them again. All I needed to do was lower the temp and cut the cooking time. Delicious!
Second of all, I bought loads and loads of pizza sticks because I loved them so much. Then got tired of them. Turns out I just needed a break, because they are damn delicious. And now I'm probably going to get tired of them again.
Third of all, I have a habit of freezing any bread I have left over before going on vacation or whatever. Then I never eat it because it doesn't taste fresh. But here's the thing... it tastes great toasted. It also tastes great made into garlic bread. Or croutons. Or a grilled cheese even.
Fourth of all, I have loads of Morningstar Farms burgers in my freezer which I've all but abandoned. It was super-cheap on sale so I bought bags and bags of Grillers fake burgers. And almost immediately discovered my beloved Beyond Stack Burgers, which are the only burgers I want to eat. Because life is too short for less tasty veggie burgers. But, for reasons I don't know, I have also been ignoring all the other Morningstar Farms stuff in my freezer. Fake hot dogs, corn dogs, sausages, bacon, black bean burgers... you name it. That was a mistake, because those things I still love as much as I ever have.
And last of all, I had bought a bunch of bags of frozen fire-roasted corn. Never touched them. But then I was hungry and... oh dang is this stuff delicious! It's good microwaved. It's frickin' fantastic when cooked like BirdsEye wants you to cook it... spread out on a cookie sheet and over-roasted. I will never eat un-fire-roasted frozen corn again.
And so...
The great news in all of this is that I am saving loads of money eating food I already have instead of spending money I don't.
Given the heinous inflation, I'm willing to bet my freezer has paid for itself already.
There. I voted. Impossible to believe we still have 13 days of this shit.
This past week Apple announced a couple things that I was surprised didn't get announced during their big event weeks ago.
The first is the HomePod mini 2, which joins Apple's smart speaker lineup. I've got a bunch of the original HomePod minis throughout my home, and they're fine. Very, very limited in functionality, but fine. I'm able to control smart devices in my home, and that's all I wanted from them. What makes the new version different is that it has the new Apple Intelligence version of their Siri personal assistant built in. Which means it's only slightly-stupid as opposed to being stupid-stupid. I'm not finding the new Siri especially compelling, so this isn't anything to push me into upgrading. But for people who are upgrading for new Siri, I was shocked to see this in small print on Apple's sales page...
USAGE LIMITS MAY APPLY?!? I don't even know how to respond to that. Hell, I don't even know how to respond to "Coming in a future software update" because that's what they said about the iPhone they sold me, and that took years. But, in all seriousness, what the fuck? If Apple is going to limit your usage or start charging you for new Siri or whatever... then why the fuck would you buy this little speaker thing? I don't get it. At all.
The next device is Apple's HomeView, which is a "smart hub" product which has been rumored for years...
I have thoughts.
And so... no. I will not be buying any HomePod mini 2s or a HomeView. Too much bullshit is stinking up these products, and it seems insane to buy into any of it. Unless you're made of money. Or unless you don't care about getting taken advantage of by a GAZILLION DOLLAR COMPANY.
For so very long I thought the "Apple Tax" was worth it. You pay more, yes. But you get value for your money. Looking at Apple's latest, I don't think that's the case.
Yesterday I was doing yard work and injured myself, so I'm achy today, but still determined... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts...now...
• Wildwood! I own every LAIKA Studios film available and obsess over them. This movie will be no different. Holy crap what a phenomenal work of art...
The work that goes into a stop-motion LAIKA production is mind-boggling...
I see how they do it. But I can't believe that's how they do it.
• Excuse Me! Jan is speaking Dutch, but there's subtitles... and this killed me...
I laughed way too long at this.
• Flexibility! So there I was waiting for some pizzas to come out of the oven at the local pizza joint when I looked at the video games that were running. I saw Marvel Super Heroes, which I had seen before and even played. What I never noticed before is that the header art is by one of my all-time favorite artists: Arthur Adams! How cool is this...
Then I noticed Psylocke's weird... very weird leg position...
He right upper leg is perpendicular to her body (ouch!) and her lower leg is across the title of the machine there. It's a bit strange, but these are comic book characters and it's not anything too bizarre. No... it's her left leg that's just weird as all get-out. She could have easily lodged her knee against the giant "L" there, but instead her leg hangs straight down. It's such a strange choice that a part of me wants to believe that Adams didn't draw it like this, but instead he was asked to re-draw it like this so the logo wasn't crowded? No idea. Maybe it's not strange after all and I'm just jealous that I'm nowhere near this flexible!
• Mini! These kind of miniature builds fascinate me. Even if you don't want to sit through 25 minutes of him making the model, you can skip to the very end to see it completed...
I often thought that I would enjoy model-building. It's arts & crafty with a big dash of creativity, which is right up my alley. But the mess. I just couldn't do it. I know what my garage looks like when I do my woodworking. I cannot fathom having that kind of disaster in my home. Even if it was confined to one room.
• What DOESN'T Cause Diarrhea Any More? Okay... which one of you had sex with a bag of poop lettuce to create this horror?
Sexually Transmitted Diarrhea Is Spreading in the U.S.
• Tommy! Watching Abdul El-Sayed speak with an anti-American heckler at one of his rallies gives me hope...
The end of his response is everything we should want in the people who represent us at all levels of government. These faux "Christians" wanting their interpretation of their religion governing every aspect of our lives are the same people who shit their pants at the idea of having somebody else's religion even existing in the Land of the Free where our freedom to practice our religion is guaranteed by The Constitution of the United States of America.
• HOW? I cannot fathom how a piece of shit like Ken Paxton continues to convince people that he's a valid choice for Senator of Texas. I mean, I know the guy has so many scandals piled up that about the only thing he's qualified for is politics... but holy crap! The list is absolutely massive, and among the horrific shit on his record is ACCEPTING A PLEA DEAL FROM A MAN WHO ADMITTED TO REPEATEDLY SEXUALLY MOLESTING A YOUNG BOY, SO THE SICK FUCK ONLY SPENT ONE NIGHT IN JAIL AND DIDN'T HAVE TO REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER?!??
Seriously. Look at the list of fucked up shit. Look at it and tell me how he should in any way be holding public office. And the disgusting fuck won't debate BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT WILL GO BADLY FOR HIM! What the ever-loving-fuck, Texas?
And now... back to recovery!
Jenny visits me twice every night. The first time is around 2:00am. Most times I pet her for a few minutes, then off she goes. I think she just wants to make sure I'm still there or something. Other times she'll flop down and be petted for quite a while.
The second time she visits is always 4:00-4:30am. That's when I usually wake up to start in on work, and she knows if she's there she will get petted while I read emails.
But Jenny, being a cat, has no idea what a weekend is.
Which means she wakes me up around 2am. Wakes me up at 4:00am. Then, once I've fallen back asleep, she'll wake me again around 6:30am before her breakfast at 7:00am.
It's just how she's wired.
Fast forward to last night. I was getting maximum 4 or 5 hours of sleep all week, needed desperately to get some rest when I couldn't fall asleep, and ended up taking some sleeping pills around midnight. Once they kicked in, I crashed. Hard.
So hard that Jenny apparently couldn't wake me up at 2:00am this morning! I'm certain she tried, but I was in deep, deep sleep and didn't respond to her crying...
But don't worry, I was out of deep sleep for her 4:00am visit, as you can see.
And don't worry for me, because after I fed the cats and checked my personal email and social media for the week, I went back to sleep until 10:30am! I got a whopping 8 hours sleep, which almost never happens!
Because I have cats.
To wrap up this fine Caturday, I'm ending with this sweet rescue story...
Who the fuck would abandon a poor little kitten in the middle of a desert? Methinks that Gobi has used up a couple of their 9 lives!
As somebody who sweats more than what you'd think is humanly possible. Especially when it's unbelievably hot or muggy outside, there are few antiperspirants that really work for me without going for a prescription. My current one of choice is the Old Spice "Soft Solid.
As the name implies, it's not a liquid that you roll on... and it's not a solid that you brush on. It's in-between. You screw up the product through a top that has a bunch of holes in it. A really good idea which works well.
What doesn't work well? The fucking knob you use to twist up the product. It is not a solid piece of plastic. It's a knob with three small tabs that connect to the screw mechanism. Tabs that break incredibly easily. If you drop it on the floor? Knob breaks off. If you turn too hard? Knob breaks off. If you don't press in the right way while turning? Knob breaks off. It's incredibly frustrating given how a tube of the stuff is around $9.50. Your only option is to throw the tube away when the knob breaks off... or glue a piece of plastic into the screw so you can turn it.
Last month I was at the store and couldn't find the soft solid. I was mortified it had been discontinued, but then found out that they had stopped making the tube red, but changed it to white. The first thing I did was turn it over to see if they had fixed the stupid-ass knob. They had not...
And, sure enough, the fucker breaks as easily as ever. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that one of the three flimsy tabs that connect the knob to the screw has already broken off (the red one on the left broke off completely).
Now, one could infer that this is a money-saving or environment-saving deal. But it really can't be. The amount of plastic involved is fucking miniscule. I mean, just look at the knob on this tube which is 1/3 the price...
Which is to say that the only reason Old Spice pulls this bullshit is in the hopes that the knob breaks off so that people have to toss it and buy more product sooner than they otherwise would have if the knob wasn't a piece of shit.
Guess I'm looking for another deodorant. Try to have some understanding if I walk up to say "hi" and am sweating through my shirt.
I had to run home to meet somebody this afternoon.
And then had to rush back to work afterwards because I had a Zoom call I needed to be on. Usually this wouldn't be an issue because it only takes me 4 minutes to make the drive.
But this is me we're talking about, and so...
=sigh=
I don't know why I can't catch a break lately.
Probably because this is me we're talking about.
Before he was burned alive for resisting Spanish colonization, a priest asked Chief Hatuey if he would accept Jesus and go to heaven. After thinking a little, Hatuey asked if Spaniards went to heaven. The priest answered yes. The chief then said without hesitation that he did not want to go there but to hell so as not to be where they were and where he would not see such cruel people.
I thought of that today when I saw this...
I am in total agreement with Chief Hatuey. I don't want to be anywhere near these faux "Christians" who use their faith like a weapon and are so needlessly cruel and vicious towards people they don't like.
There is nothing "Christ-like" about them.
Fuck all of them.
I've made my feelings about AI quite clear. When it comes to AI "art"... it's theft. When it comes to AI "writing"... it's theft. AI has mined the hard work of countless creatives in order to make a Frankenstein monster that's delivered to you based on what you want it to provide.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
AI needs vast resources to operate, centered around the data centers which power them. And the more you look into it, the worse it gets.
AI many, many times does not provide accurate information. Which means a lot of people relying on AI for information are being lied to. And this is how misinformation starts, which is destroying us.
It goes on and on.
There are, however, many uses for which AI can be a benefit. One of my favorite has been AI analysis for weather patterns to provide more advanced warning to people in the path of weather-related danger. Or analyzing patient scans to provide better care. Stuf like that.
But, no, I don't endorse AI when it comes the mass-adoption models we're getting.
This morning I took a look at Facebook's Muse AI agent to see if it was worth destroying the planet to install more data centers.
But first thing's first. I asked my fuzzy Muse avatar to add some bear ears. And this is what I got...
Adorable.
And then I got to work. Asking Muse to help me with finding information, shop for the best prices, and helping me build a travel itinerary.
The results were better that what I've seen from other AI models, but there were always problems. Information wasn't entirely accurate. Travel itineraries were basic. And shopping usually ignored a bunch of places where I would have checked if I were charged with finding the best price...
I tried five times to have Muse find the best price on an item. It only did so three of the five, and I was able to find better with minimal effort twice. And so... would I trust Muse to hunt down the best price for me as a shopping agent? No, not really. I'd be too worried that it would give up before searching all the places I would check. The only way this would be useful to me would be if Muse checked a lot more places, including those that I didn't know to check and finds lower pricing than I could find. And what about finding the best shipping inclusive price? Without that, it's all pretty useless. Maybe it finds an item $10 cheaper at one place... but the shipping cost makes its total price $5 more? That just means I'm paying more. Which is certainly not worth stripping the planet of resources.
And so... cute as Muse is, I'm going to be ignoring it. Like I'm ignoring most AI tools that are being unleashed because they aren't worth the trouble.
Maybe if I asked Muse to turn into a cat?
Finding vegetarian and vegan substitutes for foods I like is so much easier than when I first stopped eating meat decades ago. There's just so many options out there. But I'm not always loving those options. Cheese, for example, is always tough. I've bought so many fake cheeses that I can't even count them. My favorite vegan alternative so far is from Chao, but it's still nowhere near being as tasty as real cheese. But I keep looking.
Fake vegan meats I like are far easier to find.
My latest obsession is Ground Bef (textured soy protein)...
I love it most on nachos...
It's also great on taco pizza and taco burgers because it picks up seasoning so well. I've tried making Sloppy Joes out of it, however, and was not a fan. Any time I put it in a sauce (like a red sauce for pasta) it gets kinda rubbery, I think. I did like it in Chili though.
My next recipe from my childhood I'd like to try is Spanish Rice. Rice, tomato sauce, bef, peppers, and spices. If I can keep it from going rubbery, that will sure bring back memories.
I think.
I haven't had the stuff in probably 40 years.
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