wendy's spicy chicken sandwiches slap in a way i've yet to experience from any other fast food sandwich
As a fellow kinda-not-really vegetarian, peep this. The world of not-chicken vegetarian/vegan replacements has expanded somewhat in the last year or two from what I have seen. Or at least the package of (Dinosaur shaped) Vegetarian nuggets I had a few weeks ago tasted enough like chicken that I didn't mind the difference.
Nuggets I can generally go without, but I'd probably pick up some of those dinosaur veg nugs to try. I know for the substitute meats, chicken seems a bit more advanced than some of the other ones. I also heard there's a place nearby that does a really good non-chicken sandwich. I'll have to try it.
it's the only fast food that i crave specifically - i would say popeyes fried chicken is better fried chicken but something about a WSCS just really does it for me, i dunno it's just a spicy chicken patty, shredded lettuce, and mayo i believe - can't remember whether there are onions
A bit more work on the current painting. My beer is done this weekend, and I am looking forward to tasting it. I am creating a rain garden, and will probably put some time into that this weekend. It'll basically be a long trench that our garage downspout drains into. Work to be done consists of digging the trench, and running about 50ft of drain pipe under the ground to it. I collected a bunch of cattail and swamp grass seeds last fall that I need to plant after it's been dug out. I'll take pictures. Covid-19 is officially here in Michigan. My daughter's school system just cancelled all after school activities. I bet she has a week or so left of the school year. Thought about NotPhil today. NotPhil, I hope you are well.
all classes at my university have been canceled starting noon today - everybody's been told to go home, classes now online only so that's gonna change my next couple months a little bit have a syntax class poem (made from example sentences on the board talking abt semantic role assignment + one of my own) john might have been seeing stars john might have been falling john might have been dying john might have been receiving coded messages john might have been a rat! good luck in not catching coronavirus everybody - today has been really surreal now that it's closer to homejohn might have been watching tv
Haha, for certain values of "close" I guess :) But yeah, UVA (which is about an hour west of me) just announced a couple hours ago that they were going all-online until at least early April. My brother is eagerly awaiting word of what VA Tech is going to do, and I'm curious about more local (to me) institutions.
My parents visited with my 3 year old nephew over the weekend - mum got a cute photo of he and I jamming on the piano. His curly hair is the best - before I lost mine to the great Male Pattern Baldness War of 4 years ago, mine was the same. ` A friend is coming round this weekend bearing all kinds of whisky for me to taste - he went to this big festival last week and brought some goodies back, intent on getting me into the world of whisky. Time will tell if it suits but I'll hardly turn down the attempt! Once everything has been tasted we'll turn to the tradition of 1v1 Quickscopes on CoD, 1 sip for 1 death, 2 if it's a particularly humorous death. I'm nearly 30 so this will surely haunt me on Sunday. Also the Final Fantasy 7 Remake has me all kinds of excited. The music of the opening in the demo genuinely brought a tear to my eye. My brother and I would play that game end to end while he was in hospital/home with whatever new injury he had. Now we're all grown up with careers and lives, and this game brings us straight back down nostalgia alley. I work for a University and we're planning the "what-ifs" for if COVID-19 hits us properly. Most of our Department is actually setup already as we have a large cohort of distance students (some as far away as the UK) so it only takes some tweaking of the undergrad papers to get them up to speed. I'm yet to be allowed to trial working from home but having done it before I know it's possible. Students and staff are about the same as usual, not many people outwardly panicking. But we've only had 5 cases so far, early days yet.
Felt well enough to take on the clock yesterday. Pulled the movement, de-gunked it, lubed it. Apparently you aren't supposed to oil the chime governors or else they don't govern properly and you get uneven chiming. Who knew! So I just rubbed the governor pivots down with 99% IPA because it's what I have and I already regret it because the gouging on isopropyl on Amazon is enough for me not to do any printing right now. On the plus side, yay medical suppliers. We were able to buy an entire case of cavi-wipes yesterday. We've used three containers in three years; we now have thirteen containers because you know what? cavi-wipes dun gettin' USED up in this bitch. Spent ten minutes talking to the neighbor yesterday, the one whose grandson came over and cut my christmas lights, who came into my house and threw my daughter's boots on his roof, the one I have the cameras for. They're moved back in despite the fact that the house on this side is still covered in Tyvek, despite the fact that their lawn is full of ladders. The decommissioned septic tank they didn't know about (I have them upending it with a bobcat by accident on video), the sewer pipe they accidentally cut and all the rest means their contractor lost $25k on the project because it was a fixed bid. He's decided that he can't put the siding back up because it was too damaged to begin with (I believe it) so he wants another $10k to close up the house. Not only that but he didn't put an exhaust fan in the kitchen so they failed their electrical inspection so they took down the cabinets that were too tall and didn't permit a hood and ordered new cabinets and there's two sets of cabinets in the garage and they'll probably have to pay both of them. They're out of money, the contractor is out of money, they needed to take out a HELOC in order to pay the rent on the place they were in for three months ($5k a month! Jesus!) and if there's no resolution by June they'll need to apply for another permit again by which time the east side of their house will have been Tyvek and nothing else for eight months. She doesn't work. She chain smokes and is in her mid '60s. Her adult daughter is in a wheelchair with muscular dystrophy. There are three paychecks, two disability payments and two workers paying for that household of five and they just took on an additional $250k in debt. Two of those jobs are custodial, one of those jobs is tutoring (I think). That's the house where I worry about the knock-on effects of a coronavirus pandemic.
It's nice and rainy here. At least it was yesterday. I've been browsing potential obnoxious mods for my GTI. Headlights? Spoiler extender? Not sure what I'll do. All that stuff is pretty ridiculously expensive. Edit: oh yeah, almost forgot there's a video for an old song up on the ol' youtube:
Don't know about Europe, but in The States, headlights are rarely touched due to DOT Restrictions being hard to meet. Tails are a much more common mod. For less than about $5,000 you can get a combination of spoiler, wheels, and tail lights that'll make your car stand out. Beyond that you're looking at the bodykit, paint, etc. to push your car into new territory. Other people tend to push for go fast mods, but your car is already pretty zippy and if you're not racing it, you're really just buying bragging points. For what it's worth, I've kept my FR-S stock. Cars, except speculative cars, don't really retain their value, especially if they're daily drivers. So the car is already a sunken cost, any more you spend on it, is further sunken cost. Depending on who you ask, mods also make a car harder to sell than if you leave it stock, cause suddenly now you have to find a buyer that not only likes your car, but also your taste in mods. Don't get me wrong, modding is awesome and I love seeing what people do with their cars, but I wouldn't say it's too practical. That said, if you do decide to do something, I'd love to see how it turns out.
For sure, my interest in modding isn't a practical pursuit. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be driving this car until it falls apart, and it's pretty cool, so I've been a lot more keen on doing something to it. I don't think I'll go too crazy though, but I've been watching a lot of exhaust mod engine note videos the last couple days.
Started making my own granola! It came out wayyyyy too dry but the next batch should be great. Nut free and dairy free! After getting this down I’m going to try making some sunflower butter energy balls, overall trying to get away from store purchases protein bars / climbing snacks. Tempted to try making my own plantain chips too but that might need a Grubski or something. Wondering how much longer until mandatory measures are put into place for Covid-19.
The recipe I use is 3 cups oats, 1 cup seeds/nuts, 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup honey or brown sugar. And then cooking it on 250 for about an hour, stirring every 15 min. It looks like it isn't cooking for about 45 minutes, then it browns and gets crunchy. * actually I looked it up and I've used 1/4 and 1/2 cup oil with that recipe and didn't write down which was better, so maybe this isn't helpful.
Well we are on full time work from home now until indefinitely. Great for our physical health not great for my mental health. I am allowed to continue using the work gym — a service that I pay for — and will probably up my attendance to 3x a week. I’m going to tweak my schedule in other ways, like doing my runs in the morning, to help proactively avoid some of the issues I tend to run into when full time WFH. Issues like? Why shower, you’re not leaving the house today so why bother. Why get dressed, no one will see you today, why bother. It’s great that many people have the executive functioning and overall mental strength to continue these sorts of self care routines when no one else is there to see them, but historically, I don’t. I’d love to believe I’ve become a healthier person mentally since the last time I fell into those traps but the last time was definitely still within the past 3 years so, proactively changing my schedule to help force some of that will certainly not harm me. Right now, my in person TX interview is still on. I hope it stays that way. I want to be my most charmingest for this, and no one is at their most charmingest when they’re talking on the phone. Yours in resignation and while eating many chicken wings (f you, I went hard on leg day today and squatted the most I’ve ever squatted), Refugee
Update: in person interviews are now cancelled. Legs are still sore and I ran 4 miles. I have a very generous friend who invited me to WFH at her place which is happily enough at the beach, so I’ve taken refuge here today/tomorrow. I’ll finally fulfill a long term goal of a Long Beach run (attempted unsuccessfully twice before). Also, corona has shown up up north but not down here at the beach yet, so this could even be considered a precautionary measure. Because I was honest enough to tell my boss that I have issues with working from home and believe it has a negative impact not only on productivity but also mental health, now I get to have a 2x as long meeting with her tomorrow for our regular catch up. I appreciate the effort, but it’s not the toll of working from home for two days that I’m worried about. It’s the fact that our leadership said they are making this decision at 30 day intervals and have not even established criteria for when they’d consider lifting this moratorium. I can wfh for two weeks. More than a month? That’s my issue. And I’ll be honest — this is a measure we are forcing on all workers we possibly can. That means people who didn’t have laptops have had them specially ordered just so they can be forced to work from home full time without ever having done it before. That’s managers managing remote associates who have never had to do it before. I really don’t believe I’m the only person who’s going to feel mental health impacts of this. I get that we need to think about public health and value it, I just think that long term, there are going to be other costs as a result.
I was supposed to deliver a mini-lecture on basic physics seminar this Friday, but… It's remote work for me. Recorded this and next week's tutorial, sent out homework, and picked up three weeks worth of books from my reading list. Fortunately, I stockpiled about two months worth of non-perishable food, and four months of meds and other necessary products long before things got crazy. It might be a terrible thing to say, but I relish the opportunity to sequester myself without getting judged for it. The last four months were filled to the brim with drama, ludicrous (by my standards) amount of social obligations, and generally people-centred problems. Seriously need to decompress. Probably gonna mix playing games with continuing the work I mentioned last week.
I don't care what the calendar says, spring is here. If you ask me, we didn't really have a winter this year, just fall, more fall, then spring. The wife and I got to go to a lecture on raptors the other week. It was held outdoors so the crowd was real big at first because a bunch of onlookers would just wander up and see what was going on. For a lot of people, it was too cold to just stand around, so they didn't stay long. By the time things were done, Dala and I were the only ones there, so I got the chance to shoot the breeze with the presenter and I learned quite a bit about background care for the animals. Here are some things I learned . . . The birds totally know who the various care takers are and have preferences. If you're known for giving lots of treats, they're a lot more comfortable with you entering their cage than if you're known for being one of the ones for taking them to the vet. If the bird is on the ground when you enter their enclosure, that's a hard way to start things out, because they're in a vulnerable position and will be stressed because of it. Similarly, if you're stressed about interacting with the bird, they pick up on that and things won't go well, so if you enter the enclosure and are thrown off for any reason, it's best to leave and come back. When taking a bird out in the open, it's important to be careful. For example, if it jumps off the handler's arm and is attached to the leash, the handler can't twist their wrists because they might damage the bird's ankles. Also, if there are other birds of prey in the area, and they see a handler with an odd hawk or owl or vulture out, they might harass said handler and bird to protect their territory. Some of the smaller birds aren't as easy to handle for beak trimming and such. So handlers will often put their food on bricks, so while eating, their beaks and claws will rub against the bricks and be worn down naturally that way. A well taken care of bird can live for about thirty plus years, depending on the species. Vulture poop absolutely eats through leather leashes. They're also wicked smart and people really take to them for their personalities. It was a pretty fun ten minute chat and honestly, I gotta say, I kind of wish they talked about behind the scenes stuff when talking about these birds cause some of the stuff involved in their care sounds absolutely fascinating. Hope you're all doing well, Hubski. 2020 is shaping up to be a crazy year, so be mindful to take good care of yourselves and be good to the people around you.
I was best man at my brother's wedding last weekend. It was a wonderful day. My speech went down well. People seemed most impressed that I had managed to memorise 800 words. Writing them was much harder. Either way, the bridge and groom had their perfect day which is what's important. Kayaking is going well. There's a local run that you can only paddle when it's rained a lot. It rises and drops fast. A few weeks ago we managed to catch it just as it was peaking. It was a meter higher than I'd done it previously and it was the most fun I've had in kayak for a while. The water was super fast and bouncy. Massive wave trains running for 5 or more minutes. The way that river features transform at different water levels is fascinating. https://streamable.com/d5uw2 We went over this weir and it was maybe fastest I've been in a kayak. Certainly the fastest I've accelerated. As soon as I hit the bottom the planing hull of the kayak activated and I just skimmed over the surface for about 5 or so meters. It was rad. See how in the video above you can only see one step to the weir? At previous levels, three steps of equal height were visible. That's how much water was going over it. I'm supposed to be leaving for a kayaking weekend in Wales tomorrow. Though this evening my throat has started to feel scratchy and I've been coughing. What's more, my dad and brother are both showing flu-like symptoms. Seeing as though I'll be sleeping in a hostel with a load of people, I may have to cancel for the greater good. I'll see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow. Love ya Hubski. Sorry I don't post that much but I'm always lurking.
My uni just transitioned to online classes for the 2 weeks following spring break. Sound move - let people who may contract covid-19 over spring break discover it before they become a risk to others. Also, sick AF with a gnarly cold with a midterm tomorrow. ☠️ Showerthought: Do y'all think covid will hurt my job-hunt?
Good call on the online stuff - we're just going through some tests of our systems to shift entirely to online here in NZ. Our postgrad papers are all online but the undergrad is normally exam based and comes with some decent tutorials. We haven't been hit by it but I'm glad we're preparing as we're going to enter our flu season next month!
Oddly enough, our department's dean forwarded an e-mail yesterday stating they weren't planning on going online yet. BUT, there have been whispers to faculty to get ready just in case, so the swap after a week of break should be ez pz. No time like the present to do your testing. I see Australia's got some cases. I'm not too savvy on that corner of the globe, does NZ get a lot of traffic from AUS, or susceptible from tourism?
Yeah we're just trying to get things ready in case we have to - we're a part of the Medical School unfortunately so I have no idea how they're going to handle the clinical side of things for the aspiring Drs. They'll figure it out though. Yeah we have a lot of back and forth with Australia though it's more us to them than the reverse. Tourism is a huge part of the NZ economy too, we'll feel a pinch eventually I think. Right now it's business as usual, but everyone is giving the future a side-eye just in case. I say we haven't been hit, we've actually had 5 cases but the number hasn't jumped for a while. But the old incubation time before symptoms show might be holding things back.
Garden beds are dug up and ready for planting. Seedlings are not quite ready yet though. Work project is about to run out of budget a couple weeks before finishing. This is the same overshoot as usual even with new project planning protocols, so it looks like our department jumped through the new hoops while changing nothing. Daylight savings brought my preferred schedule and the traffic patterns into better sync, so that's been nice.
It’s been a busy week! Went to my parents country house for a Maslenitsa Celebration this weekend. It’s a Slavic tradition to welcome spring where you make pancakes and burn a straw woman. We didn’t have straw but made an epic woman with moving arm to set on fire, with an epic soundtrack by the tiger lilies I would not blame the neighbors if they think we are Satanists. We were only missing a couple naked virgins for a complete picture. The plastic recycling nonprofit I’ve gotten involved in has been going good. Tons of work to do now, because 2 ephemeral summer city installations have offered us a spot . So we need to write them plans, proposals, budgets and all that. I’m also the one coordinating our installation at the makerspace since the people in charge there are my burner friends. Loving being busy like that. I just hope the corona virus doesn’t affect my summer tour business too much because then I’ll need a real job. Lots of my sound/lightning crew friends are freaking out since events and shows are being cancelled.
In the final days of February I attended a conference interstate. On Tuesday I woke up with a mild cold. Today I received an email from the conference organisers that a participant at the event has tested positive to COVID-19, and anyone who attended the conference who gets a sore throat, cough, aches etc before 13 March should isolate themselves and seek medical advice. So here I am.
It could be a mild cold, so continue to practice defensive hygiene and avoid close contact with others. If you can stay home, that’s the most effective way to avoid transmission. No one should seek early exposure to the virus. Even under dire forecasts, a sizable fraction of the population will avoid getting sick. A virus that is perhaps ten times deadlier than the seasonal flu will have more severe symptoms than the seasonal flu. But if you do need medical care, its good that it is relatively early. Things are going to be messy in April and May. Here’s an interview with a recovered patient that outlines his symptoms as his infection progressed. He is in isolation but looks healthy, is exercising and painting and studying Russian. Prepare for a few weeks of recovery, make sure bills are paid. Try to stay positive and practice gratitude. Recovery rates are around 99%, and reinfection appears to be rare. Take care of yourself, try to eat and sleep well. We will all OD on information, so take offline breaks. Be well, best wishes and please let us know how you fare.
> A virus that is perhaps ten times deadlier than the seasonal flu will have more severe symptoms than the seasonal flu. Not necessarily. If you think of symptom severity as a bell curve, Covid-19's symptom severity bell curve center could be further to the right, but also have fatter tails. There is evidence for this since some people are asymptomatic.
Agreed, it's not necessarily true that every person with Covid-19 will suffer more than every person with seasonal flu (many of who might also be asymptomatic). The seasonal flu is already bad enough to be worth avoiding, and the higher risk of fatality, and the risk of communicating to vulnerable people, argue against casually considering this new bug just another kind of flu.
Cheers, wasoxygen. I'm not particularly anxious. That said, we had a prominent case here earlier this week involving a GP who tested positive after developing "a mild cold", so I won't take any chances. Will see about getting tested tomorrow.
Separate Pubski question! Thoughts on purchasing really, really cheap flight tickets for travel between now and mid June? Too irresponsible? Totally okay w/understanding of the risk?