#unitasker

[noisytenant]

also i dont want to dismiss peoples experiences but like cheap kitchen appliances start at like $20-$30 and pretty much all of them can radically improve your life in some way and pay for themselves in avoided takeout/convenience food within a few months.

if theres a type of cooking process you engage regularly and you have any amount of disposable income, i'm of the opinion that a dedicated appliance is always a worthwhile investment

[evalempire]

After his death, Babish's soul was sent to Hell for being a culinary deviant. There he must eat and rank every hot dog. Not every hot dog brand, EVERY HOT DOG! And they're all boiled.

It is said if you put your ear as close as you dare to the hot dog water of any hot dog vendor, if you listen very carefully, if you take the tiniest of sips from that forbidden elixir, you will hear Babish still riffing about hot dogs from his kitchen in Hell.

[variousartiststopic]

the unitaskers - the last pillar of light

indie rock, noise rock

[bethlammen]

Tag rant

[ryotaiku]

I keep hearing people defend unitaskers saying "it's better to have a tool that does one thing really well than to have a tool that does multiple things poorly" and I want to strangle them.

Tools do not become automatically worse just because they can do more than one thing. If you remove the nail-pulling side of a hammer. it doesn't make it any better at hammering. A tablet is not worse than an E-reader just because it can do more than E-reading. Using a pan to make toast is not inherently worse than using a toaster. It's not better to have a tool that can only do one thing really well. It's better to have a tool that can do multiple things really well.

This mentality is so fucking garbage and I'm sick of hearing it repeated.

[sweaterodyne]

why don’t i have a COOKIE PRINTER 😭

[waelstange]

Why am I so bad at making rice? It’s so good and I’m so bad at making it.

[hyenaswine]

can they show a version of oppenheimer where i watch the first half & come back the next day & watch the second half but i just pay for one ticket

[ladytemeraire]

Exactly! Like, I am (at this point) fully physically abled, but a friend got me one of those under cabinet jar openers as a Christmas gift, and it's genuinely one of my favorite kitchen tools. Could I just brute force most lids or go digging for one of those rubber jar opener grips? Yes! Does this make my life way easier? Also yes! And I guarantee people who can't brute force it appreciate it being $15 instead of way more!

"oh I shouldn't get that disability aide, what about people who REALLY need it"

yeah so what actually keeps disability aides out of people's hands is when they're considered such a niche product that the people selling them charge more money

this was brought on by being curious about something and discovering that a cheap talking keyboard is over 600 usd

while knowing a certain member of my family would ABSOLUTELY say "oh no let that go to someone who REALLY needs it," if they could only get the words together to actually phrase it that way

[copperbadge]

I remember you've posted about making your own bread before, and basically want to know what your gut reaction to the idea of this thing is.

[ID: An image of a Cuisinart bread machine box, displaying a "compact automatic bread maker", full size results with compact footprint! The machine is shiny metal, square, and has a loaf of bread peeping out the window in the top.]

Oh, I learned to make bread with one of these things! They were HUGELY popular in California in the 90s so I made bread in one about once a week for most of my teen years, and I inherited the family's machine when I got my first apartment in college. I owned a bread machine of one kind or another until I think probably around 2012, well after I started making loaves by hand. They're great for people who don't want to take the considerable time needed to learn to make bread by hand, for people who don't have a mixer that will knead dough or can't knead by hand, or for people who want fresh bread but a little more automated.

Even now I use my KitchenAid mixer for kneading pretty much any dough I make that isn't foccacia or pizza dough. It's not even that I can't knead dough or don't have the time, it's that I just straight up don't want to, I don't like the feeling of dough stuck to my hands or the floury mess it makes on the counter.

I'm in support of the Bread Machine; yes it is a unitasker and yes it does not produce bread as nice as handmade bread, generally, but it's a good first step for beginners and a great way to control the ingredients in your bread without having to babysit it extensively. So I guess my gut reaction is nostalgia mixed with affection -- it's a tool I don't need anymore, but it was a great tool when I did need it.

[hillbillyoracle]

I've been enjoying the 20+ year old portable DVD player I found at my parents' place. But it was really struggling and flat out wouldn't let me finish some movies. So we sprung for this combination DVD/BluRay player and I've already watched 3 movies in it.

It got me thinking about why I have been gravitating toward unitaskers (DVD player) over multitaskers (laptop, phone). I think it's because for every use you add to an object, you add friction to using any individual use case.

If I want to watch a DVD on this player, I just put it in and press play.

If I want to do it on my laptop, I need to connect an external drive, not get distracted by anything else on my laptop, put in the DVD, select the media player, press play, and resist the temptation to do anything else on the laptop for the run time of the film.

And I know there are people who would scoff at that being that difficult and I mean I get it, but willpower is limited and environmental design uses up none of it.

So all hail the unitaskers.

[petewentzisblack1312]

i'm really glad to see someone out here spreading the gospel that Pete is mixed-race, as a mixed-race person i'm sick of seeing us get whitewashed. even though i am part Asian and not part Black, i feel a connection to Pete that comes from both of us being mixed-race and the nonwhite part of us being erased by those around us, so seeing someone fighting that erasure makes me feel all nice and fuzzy inside. keep spreading the good word!

its what i do baby. can never drop this url because its so multi functional and i hate a unitasker.

[briarpatch-kids]

I'm very funny about which unitaskers and small appliances I allow into "my" kitchen, a big griddle and stand mixer live on my countertop and I have two different types of purpose built canners, but also I won't let anyone get me an instant pot or rice cooker because fuck em.

[housecow]

My mom’s air fryer has a rotisserie chicken tool in it, should look into that so you don’t end up with a unitasker

i WANT a unitasker this thing is a behemoth AND you can make legit gyro/shawarma w it!!!! no downsides!!

[docholligay]

Dr. Holligay Tries Things That Aren't Running: Zumba

It's January second! The air is cold, the frost decorates the windows, and the gym is heaving with bodies, people assured that this is the year for them. It is my month of the year that recalibrates me into remembering how to streamline my daughter's morning so we get out of the house in time to get a slot at childwatch.

So, Jewlet annoyed that I rushed along the intricate ritual of "sitting and reading 80 books at least halfway" we go into the YMCA, and get a spot in childwatch, and all is well. I dress out into my running gear. I walk by the front desk. There is a--oh hello, what's this?

Every year, my YMCA holds a fitness bingo. This is mostly for the benefit of newbies, in that it encourages a sampler of all kinds of classes to see what you'll take to. I do not do the fitness bingo. I do not explore. I run. I put my headphones on and jog on a track, and I think about absolutely nothing. Or everything. Perspective. Once a week I physically toss myself into a strength class so that I have some semblance of bone density when I get older. I love my fitness routine. But. On the countertop, my Achilles heel.

An expensive and indefensibly unitasking kitchen item. I would never buy this. Ever. I would not consider spending three hundred dollars on this. But it is free. For the low price of luck and being willing to diversify my portfolio. I take a bingo card and consider my options.

The good thing, about being a generally social and cheerful person with a recognizable fluff of red hair, is that people notice me, they remember me, they think of me. This is also the bad thing, because as I'm looking this over and absent-mindedly walking toward the track, a gal we'll call Martha, who was actually my neighbor as a child, calls out to me.

"Oh, Doc! Are you gonna come to class with us?"

Something like six women including the instructor are staring at me, smiling, and I realize I have no good defense. I want that stupid kitchen item. I'm sitting here thinking about how to take classes every day and obtain kitchen item. It may as well be this.

"What IS this?" I ask.

Friends, it is Zumba. Zumba, for the uninitiated, is a latin-based jazzercise type situation, with full choreo and salsa steps. There will be many older woman in this class, should you walk in, but do not let that fool you. They will absolutely make you look a fool. "Idiot can't even do a grapevine into three toe taps into a spin!" Says Gladys.

But I don't have a defense! It's on the bingo card, it's even in the row where Boot Camp is, which I do attend every week anyhow, and I'm standing there. NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT. I know this is a bad idea, I know it is, and yet I walk in.

As it turns out, I'm more than willing to tolerate mild humiliation for the promise of an unnecessary and expensive kitchen item.

Let me tell you what, I am giving it my all. I am dancing with the stars, and by 'with the stars' I mean, 'Gladys and her compatriots are wiping the floor with me.' But I am me in all things, and I am giving it my all. I'm giving baby deer gambols across a field ten minutes after being born, I'm giving drunk Midwestern drag queen, I'm giving enthusiastic and untalented Mexican toddler at the annual Fiesta Mexicana. I am jumping and doing the full jumping jack every time I can, because my functional knees are my only stranglehold over Gladys.

I don't like to pay attention ever when I work out, and this was nothing but attention. I got to the end of a 50 minute silver shoe latin dance party and I felt like I had just done my taxes by hand. The instructor has the audacity to come up to me, who tripped over her own water bottle while trying to serve up a hip thrust, and tell me I did a great job for my first time.

I thrust forward my bingo card for her to mark with their special stickers.

I will keep you posted as to the rest of the month. I will have that stupid as shit appliance.

[radical-revolution]

As we jump frantically from one activity to another, we develop an aching sense of missing out on our lives. The remedy is to pay full attention, even in short interludes, many times a day. As a venerable old Tibetan lama said to me high up in the Himalayas, “Short moments, many times.”

• Nourish yourself! Eat a meal mindfully, noticing the colors, the flavors, the texture of what you are eating.

• Throughout the day, experiment with walking mindfully as you go from place to place. Try not to multitask, and instead allow the walking to be a means to reset and gather yourself. Feel your feet against the ground and the sense of your body moving through space. No texting or phone calls!

• Unitask by focusing on just one activity for a small portion of time, settling your attention on which touch sensation is most predominant. Perhaps the feeling of your feet against the floor, or something you are holding or transporting.

Sharon Salzberg