@BlueLineBae@midwest.social
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BlueLineBae

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BlueLineBae,
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This is precisely why I don’t actively seek promotions. Not only are there very few paths for someone to move up with my skill set, but if I do, I won’t be doing what I enjoy doing anymore. I just want to find the medium where I can make enough to live off of and also just do my work most of the time.

BlueLineBae,
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Well they’re not wrong lol

BlueLineBae,
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Bold claim when you remember all of the horrific UI that car manufacturers utilized before everyone started using Apple and Google’s UI. Sometimes I have to borrow an old car from someone and you just can’t find anything. Really, I’m more in favor of bringing back physical buttons for all basic functions, but a good UI will not only make it quick and easy to say change to the next song or view trip details, but it will also prevent you from performing more complicated tasks while in motion. We’ll see what GM’s solution is, but I have little faith.

BlueLineBae,
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For me it was the inspiration I felt from technological improvements. I grew up in a house where my father was a network engineer and would constantly have computers opened up he was tinkering with. And all through the 90s I saw more and more improvements that made me feel like the future would be even more amazing! This persisted well into the 2000s with the coming of social media and small commercial devices like MP3 players, cell phones, etc. It just seemed like everything was improving and that if a company stopped improving, another company would come along and give the people what they want! But now I live in a world where all of the things that used to excite me have betrayed me and anything new I am extremely skeptical of. I see all kinds of new and interesting technological improvements come along and while they seem like excellent ideas that would improve my life, I also see the many ways in which they would exploit me, my privacy, and my money. I would love to have a camera doorbell in which I can see who is at the door and talk to them while I’m not at home, but those devices are horribly insecure and you have to subscribe to their services. I just can’t do it and I wish we could go back to the days in which you could just buy a product that might improve in a few years and you didn’t need to worry about it watching you or costing money every month. Instead you could just be excited about your little gadget and dream about what the next version would be like.

BlueLineBae,
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During the pandemic, my husband and I started watching movie anthologies of various themes. One of them was of Director John Carpenter. To this day, of all the anthologies we’ve watched, that one is still my absolute favorite. His movies are so much fun, influential, and evolve in very interesting ways over time. If you haven’t already, I can’t recommend enough to watch his other movies. Glad you enjoyed this one!

BlueLineBae,
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I am in Chicago and so I don’t normally bring a lot of plants inside because I’m used to just planting perennials or replanting in the spring. But I do bring a few herbs inside and I also have a lot of succulents. If you have a south facing window, put as many plants as you can in that window and here rest can get put under a grow light. Make sure that window is properly sealed so as to prevent a cold draft or frost from getting in. Now some old Chicago homes use radiant heat under the windows which actually works very well to keep your plants warm and undamaged from a cold window, but I’ve found that an electric heater under the window works just as well. I doubt it will get cold enough in the south that you would ever need to move your plants out of the window, but if it does, they can survive a few days with low light. If you have a ton of plants, consider setting up a multi tiered shelf next to the window or somewhere else with lots of grow lights. That’s my method to the madness anyway. Don’t see why it wouldn’t work further south too.

BlueLineBae,
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I absolutely love all the opossum memes. And this one is top tier!

BlueLineBae,
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No I will not make out with you!

BlueLineBae,
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Is that really what happens? I always assumed that the tree just stops giving nutrients to the leaves. Never actually thought about it before.

BlueLineBae,
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I’m not big into Mac and cheese on account of the lactose intolerance. But I discovered that my version of this bucket is a 2 gallon bucket of lingon berry jam that’s sold on Amazon.

BlueLineBae,
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Depends on how often I make crepes. I usually split it into smaller containers and freeze it so it lasts me about a year.

BlueLineBae,
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I always keep fresh lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruits. I use fresh pineapple when possible, but Lakewood pineapple juice I find is the next best thing and nothing else I’ve tried is as good as that particular brand. I use other fruits fresh when they are in season such as blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc. Only other juice I use fresh is ginger juice, but I process it specifically to make ginger syrup which I freeze so then it’s not really fresh anymore, but it’s still quite potent after thawing. Aside from that, I buy most other juices from the store like 100% cranberry, carrot, cherry, celery, etc. Sometimes that’s out of laziness and sometimes it’s because you can’t find certain fruits or vegetables in my area like black currants.

BlueLineBae,
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My gripe with the weather isn’t that it’s there, it’s that it disappears sometimes for days and it’s too small to click on it. I tried to fix this by adding a separate weather widget, but that means I now have 2 weathers on my home screen and I can’t get rid of the one that doesn’t work :/

BlueLineBae,
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Stock the stacks with stonk stocks!

BlueLineBae,
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GRAB A BRUSH AND PUT A LITTLE MAKEUP!!!

How to get into the habit of cooking >1 portions?

I always cook for myself alone which means I’m used to cooking just one portion, or 2 portions which I end up eating in one sitting anyway. I usually improvise my meals and my brain just seems hardwired to measure quantities for a single portion meal. Does anyone have any tips for scailing your cooking up to cook for groups?

BlueLineBae,
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I have found that there are different skills you need to learn if you’re going to make food for 1-2 people vs 4 people or 6+. You’ll find that you can’t simply scale up every recipe you have and that some recipes would require a commercial kitchen to achieve for larger groups. The best you can do is know your kitchen and equipment and its limitations. For example, if I make crab cakes, I need a pan to fry them up in. My pan only fits 4 cakes and you need 2 per person. So what is the solution if I’m cooking for 4 people? You can add another pan if you have one and have another burner open or you can set the oven to a low temp to keep the first batch warm while you cook the second batch. Some items I will cook in the oven instead on the stove if I’m cooking for more people, but then you need to make sure you’re not using the oven for something else. Aside from that, lots of things scale up well. I’m actually living temporarily with my parents and will scale up certain dishes simply by doubling the amount. If I make pesto with chicken, I have a large cast iron pan that I cram 4 chicken breast halves into and then add pasta to a pot in twice the quantity. Then of course there are large scale meals. I’m taking 6+. I usually try to utilize an outdoor grill in this case and make lots of sides ahead of time that can be served cold or warmed up. I hosted Thanksgiving once and I had to make a planner for the meal to make sure I had all the pots and pans I needed at the right time. Don’t know how people do that every year, but it was fun to do once and I learned a lot. I had to cut dishes out because I only had so much oven space or burners or dishes to put them in. In the end, you’ll learn with practice.

BlueLineBae,
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As a graphic designer, I have seen a LOT of weird stock photos. This was a new one and I didn’t expect it. Congratulations?

BlueLineBae,
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I don’t drink instant as my daily coffee, but I do use it for baking and cocktails. When you want coffee flavor in something without the grainy texture of coffee grinds, instant coffee is the best solution because it dissolves entirely. It’s great for ice cream, frosting, coffee cake, coffee syrup, or anything else of the sort. I’ve also found that the quality of instant coffee has improved significantly over the years, so it does actually make a pretty decent cup of coffee in a pinch.

BlueLineBae,
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Ah yes, I love my coffee flavor coffee with a shot of espresso.

BlueLineBae,
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I don’t understand people that tie up their dogs like this. They’re just asking for the dog to be taken. And I don’t know about you, but I assume people who steal dogs don’t steal them to re-home them. So why do people do this? Don’t you love your dog? Wouldn’t you want to prevent this entirely preventable situation if you love them? Of course, this particular photo has a whole other element of absent mindedness, so I guess they’re just plain stupid ¯_(ツ)_/¯

BlueLineBae,
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You can do a lot but it depends on how much you can get away with in your apartment. I was lucky enough to have a landlord who didn’t give a shit about the property or what you did to it as long as you paid your rent and didn’t make trouble. This was an appartment building that was over 100 years old and renovated sometimes in the 90s. So when my husband and I moved in we did a whole lot of stuff. We took out all the lightbulbs and replaced them with LEDs and put the old bulbs back in the boxes for when we moved out. We replaced the broken halogen light fixtures with LED fixtures. We replaced the thermostat with one that has timed settings. We removed the broken crumbling plastic window fixtures and replaced them with blackout fixtures and double hung curtains. We added sealant to the windows which didn’t have any for some reason. We replaced one of the door seals and would fill window cracks with paper in the winter. I’m guessing a lot of this stuff you couldn’t get away with in a strict apartment and some people wouldn’t want to do all that or know how to. The only reason we did is because we could and we intended on being long-term renters. In the 5 years we were there he never cared and never raised our rent. But all of those things saved us money on gas and electric over those years. Obviously if you own a place, you can do more things that are even more effective and permanent, but this is a rental we’re talking about. Just make sure you know what you can get away with before you do it.

BlueLineBae,
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It is the same guy. He used to just have the 1 channel Wendover Productions. Then he started experimenting with smaller form videos by going through a Wikipedia page and making videos about the weird topics on the page. The videos were successful enough that he made a separate channel dedicated to these shorter videos and that’s Half as Interesting. He has a couple other channels too, but he rarely posts on them because most of his other content is now on Nebula.

BlueLineBae,
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I started doing it for my dog but with the added bonus of it also being good for me. Then I started losing weight even though I didn’t change anything else. I just stopped being a couch potato for 15 min twice a day. Who knew it was that easy?

BlueLineBae,
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The most expensive ingredient in my falafel burgers is the cardamom. Small price to pay considering how dirt cheap all the other ingredients are and that they’re mad delicious 😋😋😋

BlueLineBae,
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I second this. There are lots of elements on a website that seem redundant or self explanatory today now that we’ve had 30 years of websites. But you simply can’t assume this because everyone has a different amount of website navigation experience. Older people need everything to be labeled clearly and plainly and younger people are more familiar with app environments and might be inclined to look in unusual places for what they need. God forbid you take away the “home” link in the navigation “because everyone knows the logo links to the homepage anyway”. No they do not. One of the best books on the subject is “Don’t make me think” by Steve Krug and they have loads of excellent examples of why you can’t just assume things like this.

BlueLineBae,
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I’ll tell you why we’ve made it here. For as long as I’ve been a designer, the website has served as the face of companies and therefore subject to direct criticism from the higher ups. Too many times would my team create something wonderful that would meet all our needs and test well only to have the President chime in and say he wants ticker tape in the hero… for no particular reason. And also can we add this and add that and blah blah blah ok now it’s a pile of garbage that’s crammed full of stuff you don’t need and is confusing to use. Skip ahead to today where graphic designers have taken over the world and made everyone forcefully subject to extreme minimalism. Who’s laughing now!?! Maniacally laughs

BlueLineBae,
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I’ll tell you what I want… Katamari Damaci online multi player. Imagine the final level where you roll up the world but with the mechanics of the multiplayer mode that was already in place. It’ll be like agar.io where you get bigger and you absorb other people as you get bigger or you get absorbed because you weren’t quick enough at growing. They could update the levels to be themed and add new items and Easter eggs for you to discover and pick up. I want this soooooo bad! I want to play with my friends and strangers. I want different play modes where you get the biggest in the time, pick up the most of a specific thing, capture the flag, use your katamari to play golf but it gets harder if you pick up weird shaped stuff that throws off your balance, Easter egg hunt, racing, team games where you absorb the enemy!!! I want it alllllll!!!

BlueLineBae,
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I was reading the comments and realized that most people would want to forget a good movie so you can enjoy it again for the first time. But the first thing my negative ass thought of is “well I really wish I could remove the movie Tusk from my mind”.

BlueLineBae,
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It’s a popular opinion depending on who you ask.

BlueLineBae,
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This right here. The amount of notes I had to leave on instacart saying things like “do not buy if rotten” or “check for broken eggs” which seem like overly obvious things was too much for me. I had enough after I could get my vaccine and the last grocery order I put in involved frozen food. In spite the store being relatively close to my house, the tracker showed the driver go alllllll the way out to the suburbs 30 min away after leaving the store. Then when they delivered my groceries finally, I went to put everything away and realized the bagger didn’t put the frozen stuff in a cold bag. So all that stuff was completely ruined. Never ordered groceries again. But I also laughed at the time I ordered 1 zucchini and they picked out the smallest zucchini I’ve ever seen in my life. Like… ok there’s nothing wrong with it, but I didn’t even know 2 inch zucchinis even existed 😂

BlueLineBae,
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“I don’t get what the big deal is. I stare at the sun every day.”

Internet Archive can emulate games and old software.

!textfiles - A silly milestone we passed sometime this year: The Internet Archive now emulates (to various degrees, of course), over 250,000 pieces of software, hardware, and electronics, thanks to the effort of a dozen emulation projects and all of them running in the browser. Live again, ancient software!

BlueLineBae,
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This is amazing! I haven’t opened up After Dark since I was a child!!! Thank you! I’m going to have to look through this for more nostalgia deep dives.

BlueLineBae,
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I remember checking out an origami book in 3rd grade and liking it so much that I just continually renewed it all year and memorized a bunch of designs. Skip ahead to 7th grade and I was in a math class with a terrible teacher and I wasn’t doing well and constantly getting Cs and Ds. So to make myself feel better, whenever I would get homework or tests back from that class with low grades, I would turn it into something beautiful 🥲. The following year, I had to retake that class. The only time I’ve ever had to do so. Except, this time I was doing phinominally to the point that my teacher questioned why I was even in her class in the first place. Almost like it was the previous teacher that was the problem… Anyway, I still remember that first book I checked out all those years ago and still remember some of the designs. It gave me a pretty good outlet for my sadness when I needed it.

BlueLineBae,
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I agree. I’ve never been in management but I also have absolutely no desire to be a manager. Any place you work, they emphasize opportunities to move up in the company and they like to talk about a career path for you. Well what if I’d rather just develop more skills in the field I have and become even better at it for reasonable pay? But unfortunately it’s bad to say you don’t want to move up in a company. I’m not sure why though, maybe it says I’m lazy or stagnant or something? I would just rather focus my development on what I’m good at and become even better at that thing. But fuck me, right?

BlueLineBae,
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Tricks? I just enjoy them. But I think the most important part of making sure you’re eating enough of anything in a healthy and varied diet is to meal plan. I grocery shop to accommodate most everything I need for the week with some gaps here and there for leftovers and eating out. I usually eat Greek yogurt with fresh berries, walnuts, granola, and chia seeds for lunch. So I’ll stock a big tub of yogurt and a couple packs of whatever berries look good that week. Sometimes I’ll get tired of yogurt, so I’ll eat some eggs or leftovers. Dinner is where most of the planning lies. I stock a few regular items that I always know I can make different meals from in a pinch and then I plan maybe 1 or 2 meals that require more planning and non-regular grocery items. So for regular items, I like to keep chicken pre-processed and prepared in the freezer, potatoes, rice, onions, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, and lettuce. Those items plus whatever I have in the way of canned goods can make a lot of different meals such as cream of mushroom chicken, chicken sandwiches, chicken stir-fry, etc. For the in-depth meals I either plan to pick up what I need to make something that week, or I make a workhorse meal that makes a ton of food that I can process or freeze for use later to make quick easy meals. Some examples of this include pot pie filling, pesto, or raw falafel. All of these take at least an hour usually more to prepare a massive batch. But now that it’s done, I have many many meals that I can eat just from thawing out a portion from the freezer. So there you have it. My only tricks are that I enjoy fruits and veggies and that I’m very well versed in meal planning. To be fair, meal planning is not easy and it is definitely a skill that I think everyone should learn to develop. But once you do, you won’t need to worry about if you’re getting enough of the foods you need because it’s all part of the (meal) plan.

BlueLineBae,
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I don’t know why, but this reminds me of my favorite Hank Hill quote: “Why would anybody want to do drugs when you can just mow a lawn?”

BlueLineBae,
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Once you pop… that’s great!

BlueLineBae,
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I also have an unfinished basement that I’m working on sealing. Generally the dust comes from the unsealed concrete. Assuming your unfinished basement actually has concrete walls and floor, you can do the same to prevent the dust in the first place. They sell concrete sealer at hardware stores and you can have them color it to your liking as well. Just need to wash the floor and walls first, then paint it with a couple coats depending on the brand of paint. Aside from that, if you don’t want to seal the basement, you’ll just want to create a walled off area using sheets or plastic or similar that will prevent dust from getting into the area and then using an air purifier like you mentioned. This is really only good as a temporary solution, but it could work fine for a quick fix while you figure out your basement situation.

BlueLineBae,
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I had a boss once that lived across the street from the office. I lived in the south suburbs where snow would blow from cornfields onto roads and create massive snow drifts that had to be cleared. A blizzard hit and I brought my computer home just in case I couldn’t exit the neighborhood. Sure enough, massive snow drifts piled up. I told him I was unable to come in, but I’d be happy to work from home that day. No dice. He was able to come in just fine. I had to walk out to the main street and take a pic of the massive snow mound in the road before he begrudgingly let me work from home. I’m happy to say I have a better boss these days.

BlueLineBae,
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The only safe way to can mods is by using a pressure cooker which will allow the jars to reach a high enough temperature for safe canning. Do not attempt to water bath can a mod.

BlueLineBae,
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Oh shit. I think this is my favorite one so far. An excellent start to the long weekend 👌

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