#it's the same kroger branding but something is off...

[britishchick09]

ralph's and an owl slide church in garden grove! ;D

[dea-certe]

Wanna know the shitty thing? It really is the same paycheck.

It's why I haven't eaten out in......jfc like 4 months. Not even like a stop at McDonald's or something. It's all been something I bought at a grocery store.

It's why I bring my cup every day to work and get 2 liters instead of individual bottles and cans, along with a yeti cup full of ice. Because the ice fills up a lot of the cup and the 2 liters melt a lot of it and it extends the life of my soda so a 2 liter bottle can last me 2, sometimes 3 days.

It's why I started shopping at 4 different stores for groceries because I shop the sales. I make my list for the week after I make the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus for the week and get the list of snacks and drinks everyone needs. I check the apps for Kroger and HEB and Walmart and write down which ones have the lowest price for each item and wire the lowest price next to the items and then I go to aldis and buy everything that's the lowest price there, then hit the other 3 for whatever other items I need.

It's why we buy store brand of everything, except for the few things we can't compromise on (shampoo, toothpaste, the hot pockets the kids eat for lunch because they will not eat the off brand and I don't blame them).

It's why we don't have dessert, like ever, not really. We get a box of otter pops every month or so. That's about the most dessert like thing.

It's why I've been scrapping and saving for the past 2 and a half months, whatever amount I could, and putting it in a lock box because I knew back to school was gonna be expensive. My son needs all new clothes because he's grown 5 inches this summer, and my oldest really needs new shoes, but we're reusing the backpacks and pencil cases and anything we can from last year because this is gonna be a very tight budget.

I can't remember the last time things weren't tight. It's been over a year since I haven't had to budget literally every cent, every mile I drive (I know exactly how many mpg my car gets and exactly how much it costs me to get to and from work and exactly how much little detours like stopping to pick up cheese or milk or eggs or meds cost), every bite of food I eat.

But my kids have clothes that fit, and school supplies, and can eat hot pockets for lunch, and my oldest has her paints (she like guache and watercolor the most) and 4x6 in canvases ($12 on Amazon for a pack of 25) and my son is able to eat as much as he wants while he shoots up an inch or two every couple of weeks (he's hungry all the time and eats so much, but by god he has his snacks and meals and he doesn't go hungry while he's fueling his growth spurts).

They have more than I did. So it's worth it, but why is it so hard? When did it become this much of a struggle? I'm so tired of this being the paycheck I'm using to provide for 2 kids.

[callipraxia]

Feeling a bit despondent today. My head hurts, chiefly due to my grandmother having a bad night and waking me up multiple times to look for people who aren’t here. My grandmother’s also having a bad day today, keeps forgetting that my grandfather died in 2006 and trying to call him by calling the house phone - which is quite impossible, since we’re currently inside the house in question, and you can’t call a phone from itself. The WiFi is out, so I can’t distract her with the television or her Kindle, either. It’s raining hard, and has been all day. Nothing much for us to do but me to drink tea while she smokes cigarettes, I suppose, so out comes @sovonight’s The Perfect Fandom Box (of Gravity Falls-themed teas) again.

Technically, the next tea up for review should be Dipper’s, but it has a lot of unfamiliar flavors and no caffeine, so I’m skipping it for now in favor of something that will hopefully suit the weather, suit my mood, and help with my headache. The next tin in the box is one of the three (3) Ford-themed blends in the box. This one is made up of teas called Assam Melody, Pu’erh Hazelberry, Lapsang Souchong, and Cocoa. I don’t know what a hazelberry is supposed to taste like, but a mix of Assam (a strong black tea varietal from India), shou pu’erh (aged post-fermentation black tea), and Lapsang Souchong (Chinese black tea which is smoked, traditionally over a fire of pine wood, while being processed)…I’ve never had all three at the same time before, but they all meet the three criteria my tea needs to suit today, and throwing a few cocoa nibs in never hurt nobody. In light of all that, I shall, once again, trust the tea gods about the Unknown Element of the hazelberry and shall photograph, steep, and drink.

Once again, a nice, full tin. The bits are smaller than the ones in the Bill herbal from last night, but getting a spoonful out without making a mess still proved a mite challenging. Possibly I’m just failing at spoon usage this week; based on how unsteady my hands are when I try to take photographs, this is a theory with some potential merit. As long as I don’t roll a crit-fail and waste a substantial amount of leaf, though, we’ll basically be okay. Here is the leaf while it is steeping:

I mostly smelled a sort of diluted Lapsang Souchong smell on the dry leaf, and this is also true of the wet leaf. Three minutes on the sand timer, and it was time to pour:

The Kroger brand Deluxe Original Macaroni and Creamy Cheese Sauce was not, of course, one of the items used to prepare the tea, but you can see a bit of the kettle today. It’s a pretty good electric kettle: the body is mostly glass, so there’s no plastic leaching into your water or metal making it taste funny, and it can be somewhat temperature-adjusted. I can’t do precise temperatures like one can on a really fancy kettle, but a dial hidden just behind my teacup changes the heat level at which the kettle auto-shuts off. For black tea, that traditionally means a full rolling boil, so the kettle was turned up to its highest setting to make this cup. I have also now waffled on long enough that it should be a good drinking temperature, so on with the tasting.

*sips*

*sips again*

*sips a few more times*

It’s not quite what I think I was expecting, but it is very nice, very nice indeed.

Interestingly, the smell of Lapsang Souchong isn’t as strong on the finished cup, at least now that it’s cooled a little, as it was on either the dry or wet leaves. Lapsang is still the first thing I taste, though, which isn’t a surprise - I’ve heard this stuff referred to as “bacon tea,” so it’s not exactly subtle. I’m not tasting a lot of distinctly Assam or distinctly shou pu’erh notes, but as I drink more of it, I think I can see them in there. There’s a…minty, is the only word I can think of to describe it, characteristic to a lot of Lapsang Souchong, and I think the pu’erh’s natural ‘camphor’ taste is backing that up well. The woody, earthy qualities of pu’erh are also mixing, I think, with the Assam to provide the Lapsang Souchong with a more solid ‘base’ than it has on its own - I enjoy the stuff, but if I have a complaint, it’s that it can taste a little too ‘thin’ - all sharp smoke and sharp minty/mentholated notes with no smoothness. The pu’er-Assam blend is providing that smooth base as well as both smoothing and strengthening the minty note into something pleasanter. When I swallow, I get a fleeting impression of cocoa-sweetness, probably also boosted by the sweet notes of the teas - my favorite Assams can taste like drinking a cup of honey, if you make them just so, and pu’erh’s camphor note translates well as sweetness and I tend to perceive smoke as having its own sweet note in addition whatever the tea base there might be silently contributing. All of these traits are very muted here, though, just bringing out the hint of cocoa, and it’s definitely not a sweet tea. Just a little bonus feature as it goes down your throat.

As the cup has continued to cool, I have also started to notice a slight flavor I think of as “nuttiness,” but I can’t say for sure that this is actually due to the presence or absence of nuts. Aftertaste is slightly prickly, as though I had eaten something with just a hint* of pepper in it, but is primarily what I’ve seen people call the “clean cardboard” aftertaste of Assam. Usually, when you say something tastes like cardboard, that’s bad, but with Assam it’s generally a good thing. I have never tasted actual cardboard because I am not yet quite that adventurous, but that fresh cardboard smell you can get from a packing box, something papery in general - my fellow office supply addicts will understand, I think, what I mean about this being the taste of that smell and that being a good thing. Or perhaps one could compare it to a mild version of new-leather smell, like an expensive handbag - or, perhaps, even a really fancy journal. ;)

Overall, another hit and another one I’ll have no trouble finishing off the tin of. If anything, it might prove more difficult not to order more of it once it’s gone. I’m also interested in tasting all of the base teas separately to see if that changes my opinion of where various notes are coming from…if @sovonight doesn’t work for Adagio as part of a formal mission to part me from my money, then they should at least get a gold star of recognition from the company, if even a majority of the rest of the teas in this set are as good as the first two I’ve tried.

Oh, and although the macaroni wasn’t intended to be part of this review, I can now confirm that they pair really nicely together. Supper significantly improved from its usual state today.

*and I do mean ‘just a hint.’ Raise it to the level of a whole ‘clue’ and I’d probably experience at least mild discomfort am, unfortunately, the poster child for white people who can’t deal with spice; table pepper registers as hot to me, so it’s quite possible nobody else will register this element of the tea at all.

[nickgerlich]

The TV Is The Store

About 25 years ago I read an interesting white paper from Accenture. Remember, this was long before smartphones, smart TVs, and smart appliances. About the only thing we had that was remotely smart was our Palm Pilot. If you owned one of these, you were pretty cool.

That white paper envisioned a time not far off in which they speculated shoppers could use their Palm Pilot or similar device to shop. But here’s where it gets a little creepy. Suppose you were sitting on a public bench outside your office building, and saw a person go by whose outfit you found particularly attractive. In this futuristic world you could simply point your Palm Pilot toward that person, and specifically at a particular garment. The onboard camera would scan it, find it online, and after a couple of taps and clicks, you could make it yours.

Wow. There’s a lot to unpack here, because Google reverse image search did not come along until only a few years ago. I guess if you can imagine it, you can make it reality.

I also read a paper in which our TV shows would literally be video showrooms of paid product placements. The idea of paid placements was not at all a new one, but when coupled with that Palm Pilot again, you could point to that Fortuny lamp in Monica’s apartment on Friends, and buy it.

Here we are in 2025, and none of this played out quite like the dreamers dreamed, but we’re getting there. In fact, shoppable TV is now a growing phenomenon. Why do you think that Walmart bought Vizio TV? Simple. So they could advertise products—and make them available for sale—on the home screen. Vizio is the third-highest selling brand of televisions in the US, and it is now a dedicated advertising platform for Walmart.

Generally speaking, though, shoppable TV has boiled down to QR codes that can be scanned, and then the featured item can be purchased. Amazon used it on Black Friday last year when it broadcast an NFL game. I have seen it on The Today Show. Kroger used it in a recent promotion on Hulu.

The stats are compelling. We have seen products featured on television for so long that we have come to accept it, and we use it to discover new items. And let’s face it: We are probably never more than a few feet from our phone, and may in fact have it in our hands. This makes shopping extremely easy, even easier than having to open an app or website on any device.

Although Roku found consumer engagement to be significantly higher when consumers are prompted to use their remote control instead of their phone, I see problems with that. It would be clunky entering my data to buy something, whereas scanning a QR code with my phone could easily link to my payments, and I could be done in seconds.

All of which means we had better be pretty careful waving our phones around the room! We might go on a shopping spree and not even know it.

The common thread connecting the Accenture paper with the shoppable TV of today is ease of shopping. The goal of marketers is to make it as simple as possible for us to buy things, almost as if on impulse. It is little different from all of the items we find surrounding the checkout stands in retail stores. While we are waiting in line, it is easy to be distracted when we are least expecting it. The same holds true for shoppable TV.

Amazon understands this well. It is hard to buy anything without also seeing a bundle of things that other people bought. Upselling is as old as the hills. Once again, the goal is to make it easy to buy more stuff.

Some things never change, and those folks at Accenture were pretty prescient. Maybe not perfect, but they saw a world in which it would be simple to shop. Thankfully, though, it’s nowhere near as creepy as the way they imagined.

Dr “Please Don’t Point At Me” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[bluejaywalker10]

You know, something that really pisses me off is the concept of marginal profits or savings. Like gas for example. If I've got gas that might be ten cents cheaper a gallon than at another place, I've saved a whopping $1 every ten gallons. If I fill up once a week for a year, that adds up to $52 extra dollars I've been paying. But not buying the cheaper gas isn't going to make an extra $52 materialize in my bank account. $52 over a year isn't going to buy me insulin, or get me the extra $400 a month I need for rent. Even if I was really "foolish" with my money it doesn't make that much of a material difference. If I spark joy in myself buying deodorant and face wash that's more expensive, oh no! I bought some that was $16 for both, and if I got cheaper stuff I'd probably have them for $8. I go through them pretty slowly for whatever reason, so if I pay an extra $8 every six months I've "wasted" $16 over the year. Add it to the $52, I've wasted $68. $68 is the cost of a good grocery run, so I guess the reason why I wasn't eating for the rest of the year was because I didn't find cheaper gas and toiletries. That isn't gonna make me rent. Doing that for brand name groceries vs off-brand groceries, spending $20 a month for fun subscriptions, I did some quick math for me and that would be about $1,078 if I fucking quadrupled my numbers. $1,078. The cheapest rent in my area is MINIMUM $1,200 a month. But I guess I can't move out because my ARFID only lets me eat brand name Pop Tarts instead of the Kroger ones.

And don't get me STARTED on marginal profits with companies. I'm a repair technician for DeWALT Factory Service and there were seventeen late clock-ins at work last week. The production manager brought us into a meeting and said that if everyone's five minutes late every day for a year, that adds up to hours and days of lost work. I'm sorry, what? Because again, that's not time you're actually getting work done. I dunno about you but again those five minutes from each person don't actually materially add up to eight hours or whatever that someone was dicking around or late. They don't actually mean anything. All they mean is I get anxious and feel such incredible guilt when it's hard for me to get up in the morning, and my boss sees the same number of tools repaired on my production reports.

It's all bullshit and I'm so tired. The best budget in the world won't save someone from rising costs of living and the strictest tardy repercussions aren't going to make the damn numbers go up.

[earaercircular]

Is recycling a waste? Here’s the answer from a plastics expert before you ditch the effort

KEY POINTS

· TerraCycle and Loop founder and CEO Tom Szaky says the economics of the recycling business are broken in key ways, but consumer and corporate interest in building a circular economy continues to grow.

· Low oil prices, bans on imported recyclables in countries like China, and the latest trends in packaging design make it harder to recycle.

· Still, the recycling CEO says getting to a low-waste or even zero-waste economy is the way the world once was and can be again.

Recycling may make you feel better in a very small way about your role in helping to avert a global apocalypse, but even in “friendly” places, from John Oliver to NPR podcasts, recycling, especially of plastics, is being given a hard look. More people are wondering: Does it work?

The debate is not new. For years the economics of plastic recycling have been questioned. But the problem is not going away. The globe is already producing two trillion pounds of solid waste a year and is on pace to add more than a trillion more on an annual basis in the coming decades, according to World Bank data. A recent study found that the 20 top petrochemical companies in the world, among the group Exxon Mobil and Dow, are responsible for 55% of the world’s single-use plastic waste, and in the U.S., specifically, we are generating about 50 kilograms of throwaway plastic a year, per person.

The Covid pandemic has heightened attention to the issue, as use of disposable goods went up anywhere from 30% to 50%, according to Tom Szaky, CEO of recycling company TerraCycle and reuse platform Loop, who joined CNBC’s Leslie Picker on a recent CNBC Evolve Livestream about sustainability and business. He says concerns about the macroeconomics of waste management systems suffering economically are real, and there are ways to solve it that don’t just rely on government. We all need to take a deeper look at how we recycle beyond the feel-good blue bin, and what we can do to get past the problems.

1. The economics of recycling are broken.

Szaky says recent reporting on the economic issues for plastics recycling and restrictions around the world on imported recyclables, which are both weighing on the sector, are not an anti-environmental attack but “absolutely rooted in facts.”

He says it is important for consumers to understand that just because you recycle an item does not mean it will be recycled in the end.

“What makes something be recycled in a country doesn’t have to do with what we normally think: Can it be recycled? Most of the things we put in blue bins that are not recycled are put in the garbage because they are things waste companies can’t make money off, and that is the true bottleneck,” he said.

The right question is “Can a garbage company, the actual company in charge of the recycling in the geography, recycle it at a profit?”

According to Szaky, what’s happened is a profitability model that is decreasing as oil prices have gone down, which started in 2015, and even after a commodities market recovery post-Covid, have stayed down relative to recent history. The petrochemicals companies that make plastics rely less on recyclables when the price of their core commodity, oil, is lower. Second, China stopped importing recyclable waste, a move followed by other countries in 2018.

Both issues are critically important to the business model of recycling and the health of the infrastructure because they circle back around to how much demand there is to collect those material types.

“And it all hurt the business construct for recycling companies and that means our recycling capabilities are deteriorating,” Szaky said. “Recycling is not out there trying to do the best it can but maximize profit and we need to think about that as we aim for a more circular economy,” he said.

2. A packaging industry mega trend is working against recycling

The biggest global trend in packaging is not helping. Efforts to reduce costs in products and packaging are “objectively reducing value” Szaky said, “which also makes them less recyclable.”

The “lightweighting” of packages, making them have less physical material and more complexity as a result of that design challenge, makes them less profitable to recycle.

All of these economic issues lead to a situation in which what people would like to see is not what they would actually see if they went behind the scenes in the recycling industry. But Szaky says at the same time, consumers want to recycle more, and more companies are leaning into their own recycling.

What companies decide to do about recycling on their own initiative — and pay for — can be done in spite of the challenging economics and can still pay off for the companies in the future. That’s the TerraCycle business model, working with companies to fund their own voluntary recycling efforts. And that is more important at a time when the economics of consumer recycling are a mess.

3. Why companies don’t recycle enough, but should more

Szaky says what’s really important right now is companies deciding to lean in and create their own recycling programs. But he says it is still not easy for the corporate mindset to embrace.

“As a retailer or brand, if you just frame it as ‘the right thing to do’ the funding will be small and sporadic because there is no P&L logic to do it. But if you can use it to drive foot traffic like Walmart with car seats or Staples with pens, it can be monetizable,” he said.

Brands that run their own recycling programs should be doing it as part of a plan to drive more market share and brand preference. And he says it becomes “monetizable in a recognizable way” the bigger they become and the faster they can grow. “That is true for any sustainability measure a company is looking to implement in the short term.”

Some products won’t be recycled unless companies are the recycler.

A dirty diaper or toothbrush or cigarette is not recyclable because it costs too much. It is another economic problem, not a physics or chemistry one.

TerraCycle recently launched a diaper recycling program in Holland and now it is expanding to many countries.

“Diaper recycling doesn’t make sense from an economic perspective. It is expensive to collect and process,” Szaky said. But for the company that leads, “it can drive core value maybe better than TV ads,” he added.

Consumers want to do the right thing, and companies may want to do the right thing as well in acknowledging an environmental crisis — and fund a feel-good marketing campaign — but Szaky stressed that they need to see “not just the right thing, but that it will pay back.”

Szaky’s business recently teamed with a luxury watchmaker on the world’s tallest landfill: Mt. Everest. The mountain is littered with oxygen tanks from previous climbs and the watchmaker was able to both clean up the mess, an expensive undertaking, and source metal for its watches, which may add to the story it sells consumers in a way competitors can’t match.

4. The real solution is obvious: Consuming less

The white elephant, the fundamental answer to the challenge, is modulating consumption downward, but Szaky says that is a hard one for the business world to champion. “It is fundamentally de-growth.”

Even working with companies to create products from recyclables and where the recycling is part of the product story and selling point, “is not the answer to the garbage problem,” he says.

It may be among the best ways to manage waste in a circular economy, but Szaky says we will need to aim to go back to a world where garbage doesn’t exist.

“Before the 1950s, we received milk from the milkman and mended clothes and cobbled shoes,” he says.

Reuse does still exist at scale today in certain markets, such as beer kegs and propane tanks, but not nearly enough, and without the convenience of an infrastructure which makes return easy and widespread. That is one of the keys he sees for the future.

5. Reusable versus recyclable

While the goal of zero waste is ambitious, it is realistic to imagine a world in which more consumer products become reusable, if they can be easily returned in the circular economy.

Reusable versions of products from Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Walgreens, and hundreds of other retailers are being, or will in the future, be made available to consumers.

Szaky envisions the buy-and-return-anywhere model as a key one for the future.

“Buy your favorite shampoo bottle in a reusable form at a Walgreens in New York and drop it off at Burger King and buy an Impossible Whopper in reusable packaging too, and drop that off somewhere else.”

This model can help solve a big problem: consumer behavior. Szaky says while there is a significant consumer market motivated by environmental concerns and consumption, for the recycling industry to really work it needs to avoid relying on the most-motivated consumers. Even plastic recycling that is economic today, such as soda bottles, only results in 1 in 4 bottles being recycled. The No. 1 goal for most consumers will remain convenience and value.

A reusable package is an upgrade over a disposable package in an objective way, and with the convenience of drop-off locations it can lead to an easier shift in behavior, but it has to be offered at the right value to consumers. “With all three things coming together we can switch a consumer who maybe doesn’t even care about sustainability and that’s frankly the most important,” Szaky said. “We need to bring everyone along, not just people who view this as a high-passion project.”

6. Economics are busted but the recycling mindset matters

For all the debate over recycling and the hard facts about its economics, Szaky says there is a reason we talk about it so much.

The individual journey with sustainability always begins with recycling. And that remains key and a reason to figure out how to fix its short-term and long-term challenges.

When people start recycling, it does open the pathways to a broader change in mindset.

“It may lead to a plant-based diet instead of animal protein, or a smaller life, or biking ... creating even more important outcomes,” he says. “But first we have to solve the business problem.”

Source

Eric Rosenbaum : Is recycling a waste? Here’s the answer from a plastics expert before you ditch the effort, in: CNBC,22-05-2021 https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/22/is-recycling-a-waste-heres-the-answer-from-a-plastics-expert.html

[kneelbeforeclefairy]

Me vs my father in the enjolras is javert's son Les Mis AU that is my life

So. Me. 28. THIS close to her master's degree. Liberal. Socialist. Mixed kid. New Yorker. Just got home from living on her own in Greece. Been living away from parents for seven years. Queer. ADHD . Rsd. Imposter syndrome. Bad at rejection. Torn between two parents who are STILL fighting for me.

Living with Father because who picked the year of the coronavirus to give up her life .62. Barely completed high school. Said Regan was the best president he lived through. Trump voter. New Yorican who doesn't understand the world doesn't see him as white. Conservative who moved south and got worse. Blue lives matter dude. Not Batman.

Will not STOP. Provoking me.

It started with him mentioning you can't get aunt Jemima syrup any more because....you know . Me saying yes you can. The brand firs of all hasn't rebranded itself yet. It currently is still aunt Jemima and the packaging hasn't changed, still widely available. It's just going to rename itself. Get told no it's not "you can't do that any more." interrupted. Get to squeak out the bit about its gonna be the same recipe just called something else. Auntie J maybe. I think that's a good syrup name. He laughs and says it's gonna be BLM syrup.

(and you know what I find that trivializing but if that's what they wanted to name it who cares.)

(more context. His grandfather was black. He told me about being told as a kid by his father that little brown boys just say yes sir to the police. He got The Talk)

And then it goes to Porgy and Bess. Porgy and Bess is on so we watch it. All of us enjoy it thoroughly. He says "isn't this racist? What's the difference between this and aunt Jemima?"

Me.....

I have to get this information put as fast as possible . He's not really listening. He doesn't care. He's not asking . He doesn't find them both genuinely racist. He just....seems to want to catch me out. I try to explain. Porgy and Bess DOES Have some problems. But it was written in 1935 and was one of those Fair For It's Day things. Launched the careers of a lot of black classical singers. Still does. Some charecters might be a little sterotypical (Sportin Life did not age well) but in the hands of a good production and a good actor depth can be found. Rewrites have been made.

But I don't get to SAY any of these things. I try. I, well spoken, bordering on eloquent, stumble through a few poorly thought out points about interpretation and employment and he didn't see the difference between a classical singers playing Bess at the met and being well payed singing beautiful music and even if the roll is somewhat sterotypical and a product of it's times, through a good actress can become a wonderful three dimensional role, or at least no less than any other opera heroine and a poor black woman playing a completely one dimensional mammy sterotypes to sell syrup to enrich white people while playing off their own created nostalgia for oppression of the black race cause I WASNT PREPARED FOR FUCKING WAR OVER PORGY AND BESS. He just asked the questions. I'm on the defense. I've never even SEEN it before. I'm not ready to defend it. I didn't know I was going to have to. Hell, I'm not sure if it IS racist or problematic yet, we're 15 minutes it. He seems to know why I'm watching it at all if I'm so sensitive that a syrup name must trigger me.

He's not concerned it IS racist. Just seems to want to catch me in inconsistancies. Why do you watch this but you want the syrup renamed

(I didn't bring up the syrup. We were talking about the difference between brands in the north and south. He just brought up the fucking syrup and said it wasn't there any more. By the way. It is. I saw it in the fucking Kroger. And I literally do not care about the name of syrup. it's largely symbolic sure but if they want to rename themselves because yeah totally cringe history that's their business. Fine. It literally does not affect me. The recipe is there I'm just gonna call it aunt j or whatever)

And then this morning when I showed him a picture of the Alexander the Great statue o took on Thessaloniki

(masters degree in macedonian history/archeology, me)

He says

He SAYS

"I'm surprised they haven't taken that down."

In this stupid sing song way.

(like obviously this statue thing is an American thing with some England thrown in. I don't know much about Greek politics but I'm PRETTY FUCKING SURE they weren't invovled in the American transatlantic slave trade or the age of exploration my dude)

But he says "it's imperialism isn't it?'

Me "well yes but..."

"he conquered the world didn't he? Did he or did he not conquer the world. You think he did that by being nice to people?"

"well you'd be surprised how much alliance building and diplomacy was used but yes but--"

"so how's it different? Did he conquer the world? Did he own slaves?"

"actually probably not as macedonia wasn't really a slave society and the Persians DEFINITELY didn't have slaves"

"well I just think it's the same"

(frustrated. Can't show emotion or he wins. Already cracked a few days ago when he was talking about a cop iniured by "the mob" and COULDN'T because how many of my people were injured by them? And had to tell him to stop. Told he wouldn't talk politics. Does the above count)

Me. Lightly. "You're unable to grasp nuance. And you're just trying to provoke me"

Something happens. Subject changed. Did I win? Did I lose? We're always battling.

Thing is.

Yes.

There is an INCREDIBLY subtle and nuanced discussion to be had about imperialism in general and its effects and how even ancient imperialism effects us to this day. And how we view warfare and conquest in general and the stories we tell. I would argue Alexander was great because of his kindness, the cultural exchange he sparked, his clever tactics , his mastery of grand strategy, his diplomacy, his ability to use image, and only last his undefeatedness in battle. But I wasnt the one who called him Great, to whoever that was it was about the war. There is A LOT about Alexander and his affect on Persia,which, while we shouldn't layer modern politics over it (especially race based one. Yes Alexander was Caucasian but WHITENESS didn't exist then and Persia was the sophisticated empire , Greece was tiny and insignificant. It's just that Greece wrote the story and got to paint them as barbaians but it has nothing to do with race and they REALLY REALLY WEREN'T and even the Greeks knew that) did destroy an empire and affects the region to this day. Persian perceptions of Alexander are obviously not as kind, and equally important.

So yes there is a discussion to be had about that. And why we venerate a man who did kill thousands and why, I would argue, he still is a very good person who, despite his faults, does deserve that statue.

But we weren't having that

We were playing gotcha.

Cause even if he Couldn't grasp the difference between Alexander the Great, who yeah, totally did sell thebans into slavery in a system that attributed slavery to bad luck and if he had lost would have expected the same treatment to anyone who was not killed,and Confederate generals who thought and entire race was inferior due to their birth, fought for their continued enslavement, committed treason to the country he loves SO much, and LOST, and were memorialized in stupid statues by a bunch of sore loser white supremacists in an attempt to rewrite history to turn what could have been and should have been an Embarrassing chapter in a regions history that should have been healed from into the DEFINING THING about that area despite lasting onl five years and still the symbol of pain and murder to a large percentage of our population within VERY CLOSE TO LIVING MEMORY that has affects that are still here in a very real way because *gestures vaguely at everything* and have caused riots TWICE in your lifetime because it hasn't changed has it and also YOU'RE NOT SOUTHERN and why do you care?

Then I'm not sure what to say.

I don't know what he wants. He wants me catch me out? Debate the liberal cause they're so stupid ? Vent frustration at the liberal because fox news tells you to hate them? His way of processing Something he doesn't understand? Men can't ask for directions? He wants me to argue him, some nerd version of beating the old man at basketball? He feels inferior to his kid so he's gotta put me in my place? A nerd version of not letting the kid beat you at basketball? Test me? Make me prove myself? Make me represent all liberals so he can win?

I don't know what he wants. But I'm SICK OF IT.

And I'm sick of being torn between the mother who is frightened and overbearing and the father who seems to want to always make me keep up.

And I cant

Deal

With

Conservatives

Any more!

[ificouldhelpyouforget]

Curious Tag Game

Another one I wasn’t tagged in. Let’s go!

Who were you named after? No one. My mom wanted me to have a name no one else in the family had since there are several duplicate names in the family.

Last time you cried? Almost today for no apparant reason. Probably the last time was last month on my period. I really don’t cry often, so I don’t know.

Do you like your handwriting? Not really. I wish it looked nicer, more like text. My cursive is atrocious, so I don’t care about it getting better. Just my print.

What is your favorite lunch meat? Honey ham, honey-roasted ham, pretty much most hams.

Longest relationship? My current one. Started dating four years ago. Married three years this August.

Do you still have your tonsils? Yup. I haven’t had an issue with them thusfar, so they’re still there.

What is your favorite kind of cereal? Cinnamon Life is up there along with Fruity Pebbles.

Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Depends on the shoes. Converse high-tops, yes. Converse low-tops (is that even a thing), no.

Do you think you’re strong willed? About the things that matter to me, yes.

Favorite Ice Cream? Blue Bell’s banana pudding, Breyer’s natural vanilla, and pretty much most cookie dough ice creams.

What is the first thing you notice about a person? Hair, face, height, eyes... the basic physical things.

Football or baseball? Neither? I only watch the Superbowl (maybe) and the only baseball I hear about (no thanks to my friends in MO) is the Cardinal team.

Favorite doughnut? I like the crueller, regular glazed (preferably Krispy Kreme), some of the custard filled ones as long as it’s vanilla, and I like the fruit filled ones when it’s strawberry or raspberry.

Last thing you ate? Kroger brand frozen chicken strips toasted in the oven with Chick-fil-A sauce.

What are you listening to? My dog running around the basement and breathing like he hasn’t had a breath in an hour.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Cerulean. Favorite blue, made in the same year I was born, bright and bold... it’s literally me as a Crayon.

What is your favorite smell? Fresh books, new cars, fresh fruit, baked goods, men’s cologne when it doesn’t beat your nostrils with the smell.

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? My husband - literally as I was getting this set up to answer.

Hair color? Currently it is a faded reddish color. My natural is a bland blonde. Sorta brown blonde. Dirty blonde. I like red hair better.

Eye color? Blue with a little yellow and some tones from hazel eyes.

Favorite food to eat? Chicken, pasta, junk food. Yeah.

Scary movies or happy ending? SCARY! Like, I enjoy happy endings, I do, but sometimes ya girl just needs to be spooked.

Last movie you watched in a theater? 1917. Saw it the day before everyone started quarantining. But there were enough people freaking out about COVID-19, that there weren’t many people there.

What color shirt are you wearing? Seafoam green.

Favorite holiday? HALLOWEEN! And then Fourth of July.

Beer or wine? Gross, neither. Beer smells like piss and wine is what my mom gave me when I had the stomach flu to get it out (blackberry wine to be exact - old southern thing). Give me something fruity with rum, please.

Night owl or morning person? Night owl for sure. Especially now that I have no schedule. Sleep is a myth.

Favorite day of the week? Wednesdays were pretty good before this quarantine stuff. So were Sundays. I liked Saturdays, too, because we’d go to Panera (Bread Co. in St. Louis) for lunch. Then I started working and had to miss out.

Favorite animal? Snow leopards.

Do you have a pet? We have a black cat named Nox (we got her after we got married) and a German Shepherd named Carter that we got August of last year (he’s going to be a year old next month!).

[bluetooth77posts-blog]

Bluetooth speakers

On the off chance that you need something that gets noisy, can go with you anyplace, has insane great battery life, and will stop people in their tracks, at that point this may be for you. Simply be set up to compensation a pretty penny for it kroger feedback 50 fuel points survey.

Apparently the two best all-around waterproof speakers are the JBL Charge 4 (which is as of now on this rundown), and the UE Boom 3. The enhancements are quickly observable when you contrast it and the past UE Boom 2, as it currently has a totally new structure that is comparable while all the while extending its utilization cases. While the more established UE Boom 2 was tube shaped, the new Boom 3 is presently essentially a similar estimate and state of your normal water bottle. So whether you need to hurl it in the cupholder of your vehicle or sea shore seat, it's currently more compact than any other time in recent memory.

While the sound hasn't improved a lot and still isn't our top choice, the IP67 waterproof form, the capacity to combine it with more than 100 other UE speakers, and the way that it skims simply like the littler UE Wonderboom practically checks all the crates. It likewise has a 15-hour battery that isn't astounding however will get you through a normal day. Additionally, there's a different dock you can get for remote charging in the event that you need, which is in fact cool. In the event that you invest a ton of your energy outside and need a speaker that won't kick the bucket in the downpour, this merits looking at for travelers needing solid Bluetooth speakers kroger customer satisfaction survey.

You shouldn't be shocked that an Anker item made this rundown for the best value for your money. They have a background marked by making modest items that sound great, however the Anker Sound core Flare really makes that inheritance a stride further. Despite everything it won't burn up all available resources, yet now it looks more premium than past models.

The organization discarded the matte plastic structure of past models and rather went with a substantially more present day texture secured speaker. It's still IPX7 waterproof so you won't need to stress over harm from water, and you additionally get a brilliant LED radiance on the base that includes some decent surrounding state of mind lighting. Battery life isn't the best and sound quality is dull here, however at the cost, it clashes with probably the best sub-$100 speakers available no ifs, ands or buts.

There are a great many Bluetooth speakers on the planet and it'd be outlandish for us to survey them all, yet that doesn't prevent us from attempting to get our grimy hands on every one of them. On the off chance that a speaker made it onto this rundown, at that point you can be certain we've had first-hand involvement in them and in quite a while put them through our whole survey process.

Not exclusively do we straightforwardly audit and test the same number of sound items as we can, however we additionally consider what others are stating about a given item. We need our perusers to be content with their buys and that implies we needed to limit being "the best Bluetooth speaker." For this situation, we required it to sound great, be generally reasonable, and tough. In the event that a speaker's expected use is for outdoors or climbing, we ensured that it's gotten an official IP rating. For the most part, if Bluetooth speakers perform well, there's no compelling reason to overspend for overspending.

Working this site is every one of our day occupations and we're focused on streamlining the exploration and buying process for our perusers. By the day's end, we understand that you can go through an excessive measure of cash to get the most flawlessly technology awesome result of X-class, yet we regard that numerous buyers don't fall into that classification. Eventually, we need you to adore what you buy and none of us may profit by guiding you toward or away from a specific item kroger feedback survey for fuel points.

Also, we consistently update this rundowns and are open to remarks, so if your most loved Bluetooth speaker didn't make it, let us know and tell us why it's your top pick. By the day's end, we work with sound items since we love them, and on the off chance that you feel so constrained, we propose you pause for a minute to peruse our morals approach.

Tribit isn't speaker brand you may have known about, yet it's line of Bluetooth speakers sound much superior to anything they ought to at their cost. The MaxSound Plus ($56) is my preferred model. It has double forward-terminating drivers and uninvolved radiators in a 8-inch long pill shape.

[jekabeth]

Recently left a facebook support group...

I had joined an NCS (dysautonomia) support group a while back.

I noticed at first, most people asking qiestions were very new to the illness world.

Me being 10 plus years in, I was more than happy to try to answer questions while reminding them that everyone is different and they should always consult their doctor.

More recently however, I started making posts on the page about some topics and situations from my personal experience.

On all posts, there were multiple people ready and willing to bite my head off for one reason or another.

One example, my specialist told me that Tilt Table tests are now considered unnecessary because of new technology. Most docs don't know this yet.

I posted about my experience with my tilt (10 years ago) where they forced me into a faint. I was told if I was going to faint, they had to let it happen.

Anyway, I made the post letting people know that there is a new test that doesn't cause as much stress on our system and gives more information.

I received comments saying to "be careful of my harmful words bc tilt tables save lives". Most comments were along the same lines. One comment replied to them saying that I was just spreading awareness for another option that might be better for some people.

Other posts I made were a link to some compression stockings that have helped fit my situation better. They are more like long tight socks and because I am mostly sitting on my couch, they work for my needs.

The comment on that one was "those might be cute, but some people need actual support stockings. Those would do nothing for me".

I posted about a fruit smoothie brand I get at Kroger to try to get something healthy in my system. Comments said too much sugar in that. (My husband pointed out to me that it said no added sugar but contained sugar from the fruits.)

So much unnecessary negativity on facebook. So I'm out of there! ✌

[middleagedangst]

Marching to the Beat of a Handmaid’s Drum

A pro-choice manifesto... by a dude

_________________________________________________________________

Freedom of choice. It’s as American as apple pie, baseball, and watered-down beer. As Americans, we get to choose what we buy, where we eat, who we love, whether or not we like someone based on their opinion of The Office… You get where I’m going. Exercising your choice is a great display of your patriotism and love for this nation.

Sometimes our freedom of choice gets ripped away from us. It can happen when the grocery store you frequent decides to stop carrying your favorite brand of powdered mashed potatoes (I’ll never forgive you, Kroger!). But sometimes, it gets ripped away by the very people who took an oath to serve you and protect all of your freedoms, even the ones that live in a gray area.

Avoiding human interaction and wasting time on my phone has never been more obnoxious. Between all the President’s shit-tweeting, to our planet being on fire, to all of the other depressing shit going on, just even trying to read the news sends my pulse into a near-fatal death spiral. It’s hard to find a good pick me up and dog videos and other real-life blooper reels can only get you so far.

But speaking of death spirals…

Let’s discuss the latest thing to fall into one, the freedom to make a different kind of choice, a woman’s right to body autonomy and abortion.

(Okay liberals, before you get all bent out of shape, I know I’m just another privileged cisgendered white man who deserves to be burnt at the stake and for that reason, you may ignore everything I write and instead sit and yell at your screen so others know you have a black belt in woke-jitsu. Trust me, same team. Kumbaya and shit.)

This whole abortion debate has me pretty fucking confused. First, wasn’t this shit settled back in ‘73? And second, I thought this was America, where we have freedoms so great terrorists hate us and the government was supposed to keep their noses out of our business? Whatever happened to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?” The American dream? What the fuck America? Is Lady Liberty too strung out on God, guns, and OxyContin to remember the hood she came from?

Making laws that hinder a woman’s individual liberty is some shit that isn’t exclusive to state governments. The Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, fucking ISIS, all have laws intended to keep women subservient and powerless over their own life. At least they’re honest about their theocratic motivations. What say you, Georgia, Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, Utah, Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas? The dumpster fire of Ohio is even trying to take it one step further with a bill that, in a way, caters to the religious right’s push for abstinence by equating any contraceptive that prevents fertilization to abortion. Fortunately for me, the bill makes no mention of a situation sock.

I have to ask, do the politicians that are supporting these laws actually think that they’re going to really stop anything? The people that think its wrong or don’t want one are already not getting abortions. Sure, it might put a dent in overall numbers and make law-abiding citizens think twice before getting the procedure, but no law will ever stop it completely. History has shown time and time again that trying to legislate morality is futile. Prohibition, the drug war, bestiality- all failed attempts at controlling the morality of the sovereign by the political class. Abortion is no different. Women got them before Roe v. Wade, and I’ll bet that they’ll get them after these laws take effect. It might help some of these pro-lifers sleep at night knowing that they have done something to protect the life of an innocent child, but is restricting human rights worth saving the potential life of an unborn fetus?

First off, that child you’re hell-bent on protecting might just end up to be a real asshole. We all know a few. It might become a drain on society, or be a mass murderer, a drug addict, war criminal, or even worse, a Democrat. Will it be worth all your zealotry then? Will it be worth saving that life that then becomes all the other things you despise? What if the child needs your help getting by, or being fed, or getting a good public education? Are you going to be pro-life then? Or are you going to complain they aren’t a desirable example of a human being and a bad American? It seems easy to want to protect that life while still in the womb, but it’s apparently much harder to want to help that same life flourish.

That’s my main problem with pro-lifers. They say they’re all about life being born and we should do everything we can to protect the ones that can’t speak for themselves, yet when it comes to actually helping a life outside of the womb, then all attempts are deemed socialist and unamerican. Universal healthcare. Fuck that. Raising the minimum wage to a living wage, communist. Programs that would help the less fortunate and end a cycle of poverty, nope. What about the life that already exists? Shouldn’t it be important to help protect the mother from having to potentially raising a child alone or when they’re already struggling to make it? Dare I even mention that in cases of rape, the woman would always have a constant reminder of that incident, or that the rapist still has parental rights?

I’ll take a pro-lifer seriously when they openly condemn war, capital punishment, factory farming, eating meat, pollution, racism, sexism, police violence, poverty, hunger. Until then, I don’t think you can truly label yourself pro-life. All you can label yourself is pro-childbirth. Or pro-government control. Statistically speaking, most women who get abortions are already poor or misfortunate. Many of these children forced into this world will be brought up poor (Poverty affects health. Look it up.), or raised in an abusive home, have parents that neglect them or are addicted to drugs. How is that a good thing? What is so great about having to live that way?

It’s nice to want everyone to have the same values as you when you live in a nice suburb with decent schools and a healthy tax base, but when every day is a struggle and surviving isn’t that easy, your decision making and sense of what’s right changes. It shouldn’t be anybody else’s prerogative to dictate how others live their lives.

We should be moving society in a direction where abortions aren't really desired. There are ways we can do that but many of the same people that want to ban abortion don’t want to pony up some more money on their tax bill to do so but are willing to make sure they pay for extra law enforcement and jail for those that violate their will. Instead, it seems we’re totally fine with moving back to a time where women had less control over their own lives. Barefoot and pregnant seems to be the baseline for how these politicians view women.

So maybe instead of being assholes and restricting a woman’s freedom, find other ways to minimize the number of abortions in this country. How about allowing for easier access to birth control, especially in poorer neighborhoods? How about funding comprehensive sex education? Genital mutilation-free male birth control. That one’s easy, mix it straight into Viagra. Boom. Done. You’re welcome science. Invest in better public schools and higher education, more homeless shelters, addiction treatment facilities, psychiatric hospitals, and jobs programs. Expand taxpayer-funded healthcare for all. Give handjobs a better PR team. Literally, anything is better than resorting to stripping rights away. Show a little humanity.

Even though you might not agree with the practice, there are benefits to turning the other cheek. Studies have shown that access to abortion helps lower poverty and crime. Fewer people will be brought into the world at a disadvantage which means society as a whole gets better. Fewer children in foster care (which is expensive, by the way). Less money needed for social programs. Less crime, so fewer spent on prisons. This is a bottom-up problem and it is deserving of bottom-up solutions. Instead of acting like the morality police, take some time, know why these things happen, understand and act with some compassion.

I know that as a man, I don’t really have a say in what women do with their own bodies. It’s none of my fucking business, and it’s none of yours too. I'm not making an argument as to what constitutes a human life and whether or not it should be considered murder. That’s a whole other discussion. I’m making the case that as a sovereign adult citizen of the self-proclaimed “free-est country on the planet” a woman should have the actual freedom to make a decision that will serve their own best interest and do it safely.

Showing resistance to this display of power and control is needed, perhaps now more than ever. If you agree with a woman’s right to choose, if you believe in self-governance and freedom, then take to the streets, be obnoxious, vote the fuckers responsible out of office, make your voices heard in the most annoying ways possible. Act like the gun nuts. Because you never know what the dicks in Washington will try to take away next.

Having an informed and motivated populace is what the government fears. You have power. You have a voice. Use them.

[nightinghoul]

The Year of Swedish Fish (2022):

(A Facebook crosspost)

I'm kind of weird about New Years resolutions in that I don't really like them, but sometimes I accidentally make them, or there's a theme or a word that works it's way into my mind. This year, I made a very intentional decision to have a positive, ridiculous, fun resolution that would make me feel good. I resolved to to eat Swedish Fish. It was the best resolution I've ever made, and I highly recommend that everyone try making a stupid, easily attainable goal for the year at least once.

My first batch was a Christmas present from my nephew's lovely fiance, Billie, and another from my brother-in-law, Brent. It was a lot of fish to start out with, and lasted me through February.

I'm March, I bought some colorful pastel Swedish Fish Eggs, which were basically miniature gum drops with tiny Swedish Fish mixed in. I started feeling powerful and bought a bag of just the Fish from Kroger a couple of weeks later. I said to myself "I'm a gosh-dang adult, and I'll buy a huge bag of Swedish Fish whenever I want." (Yes, I think gosh dang, inside my adult mind. Gosh golly gee! Hot diggity dog! Son of a gun! I can do whatever the fuck I want!)

Then I bought myself some other things, which is always surrounded by a lot of guilt for me. Gifting is a very strong love language for me. It's tangible to me. I have a hard time understanding people, but I understand a gift. I stumble over words sometimes, but I can give a gift, and it says what I want to say for me. I wanted to express the same thing to myself. I wanted to express "I hope this makes you happy" to me. I have a really difficult time with my self talk. So in lieu of practicing positive mantras, I bought myself a cool vintage tobacco pipe. I collect them. They make me happy!

I gifted myself with a couple more pipes over a few months (I actually got a whole batch thay came with a stand, and I haven't added them to my collection photos yet!). Then I started gifting myself with healthy things. I gifted myself with time alone, and exercise. I gifted myself with books, art, friendship, and improved health. These more spiritually substancial gifts to myself did help with my self esteem, but for a while, I really lost sight of the most important thing: Congealed corn syrup, artificial flavors, and red 40, in the shape of fish.

In July, I refused to buy a bag of red white and blue Fish, because the flavors sounded awful, and because I'm uncomfortable with nationalism and flag waving: It's okay to say no. Twice, I tried off brand versions, and they were simply not right: Sometimes going without is better than settling. In October, I bought my very last Swedish Fish - a single red fish in a tiny package: Sometimes less is more. I also learned that the rainbow fish are hard to find.

2022 really had its ups and downs. The best part has been spending time with my new friends, as well as keeping in touch with friends I met last year. I also continued with the pet portrait business I started towards the end of last year (I think?) when I just made a leap of faith and started offering them on my art page one day. I have had steady commissions since then, and for the first time in my life, I feel like a success! Plus, D and I have both had excellent recoveries from surgery!

The bad parts have been awful. Pinky passed away so suddenly a couple of months ago, and my heart is still in pieces. And it's been a year of worry for pets and human loved ones alike.

I look forward to 2023... and I'm scared, for some reason. I'm nervous for time to pass. I suddenly feel weirdly superstitious about the number 3 for no reason. But I look forward to it all the same. Something Swedish Fish didn't teach me - I learned it all on my own: We forge ahead, because stopping is not an option. This is best done in full immersion. Or, as another famous fish once said: "Just keep swimming!"

Happy holidays, folks, and may 2023 be your year! 😊

[nickgerlich]

The Wonder Of It All

The way we dine out—or in, as it turns out—continues to change before our very eyes. Third-party delivery is an industry now. We have evolved from boring, bland food courts at the shopping mall, which are primarily populated by miniature versions of the same brands we find along city streets, to food halls, where mom-and-pops occupy stalls among shared kitchen facilities.

Ghost kitchens have also become common, with established brands running secondary brands out of the same facility, as well as those owned by DoorDash that welcome mom-and-pops, along with corporately-owned ones like Inspire Brands’ kitchen in Atlanta with Arby’s, Sonic, and all of their other brands. It’s all about delivery.

And then there’s yet another wrinkle, this one from Wonder and its 30 proprietary brands all created under one roof, and ready for pickup or delivery. Wonder just raised $700 million in capital to fund a rapid expansion. The company had started with food trucks trying to deliver the same concept to wherever they could find a place to park, but has now opted to go with brick-and-mortar locations. With 10 units now in New York and New Jersey, and one inside a Pennsylvania Walmart, the company plans to have 90 food halls by the end of 2025.

And it’s a great idea. Some 90% of orders are made online at their current kitchens. But perhaps more impressive is the fact that the smoke and mirrors they have created to shroud the fact that they own all of the brands attests to the veracity of the concept.The diversity of offerings is impressive, from American comfort food and burgers, to Asian, Mexican, Indian, salads, and more.

Oh, and all from the same commercial kitchen. That’s no small task, and to be able to pull it off without accidentally putting the wrong food into a bag or box labeled for one of the other brands they offer, means that they probably ought to stick to just using Wonder as the umbrella for it all. One name, no problem.

The concept addresses multiple needs and desires. Top of the list, of course, is convenience. Busy American households don’t have as much time to cook as they would like, especially after a long day at the office and a tedious commute home.

And there’s the beauty of everyone in on the order can pick whatever they want, with no one bound to pizza or any other stand-alone food genre. You want Indian street food? Fine. And I’ll have Pad Thai.

Lastly, it builds on the food hall concept, that it is free of the big brands we see everywhere. It is no secret that fast food has been struggling a bit of late as dietary preferences continue to expand.

To be fair, Wonder is not the first to try this. Two other companies have tried in the last few years, and not fared well. One of them even partnered with Kroger to allow for pickup as well as delivery. Some fine-tuning is in order here, and perhaps Wonder can make it work. The Walmart unit reflects the giant retailer’s shift away from Subway and McDonald’s leasing space inside, and if the one unit thus far is successful, look for more in other Walmarts.

I like this idea a lot, perhaps because I do love me a good food hall in the first place. The people with whom I am most likely to dine don’t like fast food, and prefer more esoteric categories of food. Being able to choose from among multiple options is golden.

To be perfectly honest, I have made myself hungry while writing this. While I don’t have the option of something like Wonder out here on the High Plains, I can at least whip up something tasty and healthy, and not otherwise available at a diner or fast food joint.

And that is pretty much the Wonder business plan in a nutshell. Evolution is a very good thing. Bon appétit, y’all!

Dr “Leaning Into Cumin And Garam Masala Today” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[shelbywanders]

Less than $100/wk on groceries?!

If you’re anything like me, you don’t like wasting your money. You have to get your money’s worth, or it’s not worth it at all. One of my biggest struggles was grocery shopping. I HATED spending so much money on food that would just be gone in a couple of days! Dropping $200 on food a week was NOT my cup of tea, but hey, you have to eat! And grocery stores are just so tempting...

Right now, it’s just me & my fiance that eat the food. We have a four-month-old who is exclusively breastfed, and we also use cloth diapers, so we literally don’t spend any money on her when it comes to groceries! I know, love it while it lasts, right?! Even though it’s just the two of us, we were still spending way too much for my liking on groceries. But now I’ve gone from paying almost $200 a week on groceries to less than $100. And when I mean groceries, that includes all household items and toiletries. So really, I spend about $50-$60 on just food a week! How do I do it? Well honestly, there’s not a lot of tricks to it!

First things first, what are we eating this week? That’s the first question I ask myself when I go to make my grocery shopping list. Wait, back up. You don’t make a list? There’s your first problem! 

Lists are VITAL to spending less money at the grocery store. Lists aren’t just great to remember things that you need to get. They serve other purposes too! I easily spend 50 bucks over my budget if I go into the store without a list prepared so now I won’t be caught dead without one. You might think that it’s silly to need such a thing, I mean come on. You’re an adult. Lists are for children. No! Listen, lists help keep my life together! When we go to the store, our eyes wander everywhere. They land on things that tempt us. You really didn’t plan on buying donuts at the store, but you spotted some, and they look soooo good..now you want them! When you write down only the things that you need, it’s easier to bypass the things that tempt you in the store. When you’re shopping from a list, your attention is focusing on the things on the paper. Therefore, you spend money on only the things you need this week and less on random items that just catch your attention when you don’t know exactly what you need. It might seem crazy that just a simple task like making a list can save you money, but you would be surprised! If you currently don’t make a list before you shop, I highly suggest to try it out and see how it goes for you! 

So now we know we need to make a list. But what goes on it? It’s time to make a menu! It’s easy to forget things when we just make a list out of thin air. This is where Pinterest comes in so handy. Pinterest is a social media platform where people share recipes, home decoration ideas, inspiration for crafts and so much more. The first thing I do is get on over to Pinterest to help come up with new and easy recipes for dinners. I plan out my days and decide on what we’re going to have each day. 

I am a sucker for cheap and easy meals. I mean, I have a baby, and I don’t have time to cook a dinner that takes an hour to prep and then another hour to cook. I have come up with so many dinners that are less than $10, and pretty much all of them take less than 30 minutes to make from start to finish. Some dishes take an hour to cook, but only a few minutes to prep. Those types of meals are my favorites! The only reason why I suggest Pinterest is because if you’re like me, I am not creative in the kitchen. I can cook just about anything, but if I don’t have a recipe, I have no idea where to start! I also hate having the same things over and over again, it just gets boring! It’s so easy for me to go onto Pinterest, search cheap dinner recipes and find so many different recipes to try out that don’t break the bank and help switch it up a bit to keep things fun and exciting in the kitchen! 

Once I find my 7 dinner meals, I go to each one of them, and that’s how I form my list. I figure out what I need for each meal, take out what I already have at home and configure a shopping list from that. This way, I’m not just buying random things that I think I might or might not use this week. After I make my list from the recipes, I go back and add the rest of the foods I know we’ll need and then all the rest like household items and toiletries. Things that I usually add for example would be like eggs, milk, and bread. Cereal for breakfasts and lunch meat for lunches. You know, things that we use every week and that I know I need to buy no matter what the menu is. 

I do realize that many people do this with their shopping lists. They know what they want to make, so people make a list of things that they need to get so that they can make it. It’s not unheard of! I used to do this too, but I would never make an actual menu for the whole week and plan my entire day out foodwise. Until I started to do that, I was still spending more money than what I wanted. 

Making your menu

It doesn’t stop there! When I make my menu for the week, not only do I try to find cheap and easy recipes to follow, I try to find things that the items that I buy for one recipe will be used in another recipe too. For example, if I plan on making chili one night and I need to buy say, tomatoes, onions, and ground beef for it, I know I want to also make tacos another night so that I can use half of the tomatoes, onions and ground beef that I bought for chili for tacos too! I can buy one bigger can of tomatoes for .89 cents and split it and use it for two different meals. It’s all about looking at different recipes and seeing how you can save yourself a couple of bucks by buying bigger packages of items but using them for multiple meals. 

Doing your shopping

Stores are different around the world. In my city, the biggest grocery stores that we have are Walmart, Kroger, Meijer and Aldi’s. I have shopped at all of them to compare them, and I always come back to Kroger and Aldi’s. When I do my shopping, I buy everything except protein (all the meats) at Kroger and I buy my protein at Aldi’s. Why? Because have you been to Aldi’s before?! Their protein is super cheap! Sure, it might sound annoying having to go to two different places for groceries, but I save $50 bucks easily by getting my protein at Aldi’s rather than just getting them at Kroger. So don’t be afraid to check out other grocery stores in your area and compare and contrast the prices! It might be worth it to go to two different places if you’re saving money! It is to me. 

When I shop, I always buy the generic version as they are pretty much always the cheaper option. I know, the word generic sounds ugly. But honestly, most of the generic versions are still basically the same as the fancy name brand stuff! Besides, I just can’t get myself to buy something that is X amount of money when I know there’s a cheaper option available. But that’s just me! I mentioned earlier that I don’t do any couponing. Every now and then, I’ll have a coupon that I’ll use but other than that I don’t use any. Should I? Probably! But what I do pay attention to is sales. Sales! Sales! Sales! Kroger has a lot of great deals which helps my budget a lot. Never ignore the sales! 

Getting home

Wait, you mean there’s more to saving money after the shopping is done? Yes! You’ve done your shopping, you’re tired, you’re ready for a bath & some wine, but you have more money saving things to do! When I used to grocery shop, I would buy one of those big things of chicken breasts (you know, the ones that look like this)

And I would just keep it like that. It wasn’t until I started portioning out my meats (therefore portioning all my meals out) that I started saving a lot of money. Not only do I portion all my meats out, but I also cut them in half. I mean those chicken breasts are HUGE! I buy the big thing of chicken, take each chicken breast and slice em in half and make twice as many meals as leaving them whole! And trust me, they are still big enough for a meal! I portion them out for two in a freezer bag. When we need to buy pork, we always buy a pork loin and then I cut them into chops if I need them or just leave it as a loin. I do the same thing when I portion them. Each meal gets its own bag. With a pork loin that costs 5-10 bucks (depending on the sale that week), you can make 3-4 meals out of it! When I need to buy ground beef, I buy the big 5 lb rolls and cut them in thirds or in half, depending on what I am using the beef for.  These are just some examples of what I do with the meats I buy! 

The last time I went to Aldi’s, I spent $11 on a pack of chicken breasts. They are huge, so we cut them in half, and after portioning them out, we had 11 meals! 11 meals for $11?! Yes, please! Not only does portioning the meals out help save you money, but it also makes thawing and preparing meals a lot easier too because all you have to do is take a bag out the freezer and into the fridge to thaw. No sorting out your meals or having to think about how much of what you’ll need. 

So there it is! How I spend less than $100 a week on groceries! No tricks or couponing. Just planning and organizing your week makes such a difference in the money that you’re spending! To end this blog off, I wanted to include an example menu & list that I would use at my house to give you all a visual. 

Menu

Mon- Oven Baked Meatball Sandwiches

Tues- Creamy Swiss Chicken Bake w Buttered Noddles

Wed- Garlic Rosemary Pork Loin w Green Beans & Mashed Potatoes

Thurs- Chili

Fri- Chicken Enchiladas w White Sour Cream Sauce 

Sat- Pulled Pork Sandwiches 

Sun- Lemon Buttered Tilapia over Rice 

List

Bread for subs, pasta sauce, mozzarella, ground beef. Noodles, butter, mayo, parm cheese, sour cream, swiss cheese, chicken. Garlic, rosemary leaves, green beans, mashed potatoes (instant), pork loin. Tomatoes, onion, tomato sauce, ground beef, cheddar cheese, chili seasoning packet. Chicken broth, green chilies, tortillas, butter, mozzarella, sour cream, chicken. Hamburger buns, bbq, Worcestershire sauce, onion, chicken broth, garlic, brown sugar, pork. Lemon juice, butter, rice, tilapia. 

As you can see, there are several items for each recipe that repeats itself. I’ll use the big ground beef for both meatball sandwiches and chili. I’ll use sour cream in the swiss chicken and chicken enchiladas, also use the mozzarella with the meatball sandwiches and enchiladas, also the butter in a ton of dishes... you get the picture! All these recipes are very different from each other yet contain a lot of the same ingredients that you can use for multiple purposes.

I’ll add on any extras like cereal, milk, eggs, bread, and other drinks. Add the household things that I might need like laundry or dish detergent and then toiletries, like shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant. And then there’s my list! This was actually my grocery shopping list a few weeks ago. I spent less than $100 on it all! 

Other comments & tips! 

I realize that many people have bigger families to feed, but that’s okay! All of this can still help you. Most of the meals that I make, while there are only 2 of us, they could definitely feed more like 4 people. I make a lot so that I have leftovers that I can quickly heat up for lunch the next day! 

The thing I like the most about making lists from menus is that it is super customizable. If your budget is $200 a week, you can make a more extravagant list. If you have time in your life to make more time-consuming recipes, you can change up your menu with more ingredients too! Just because I personally like to stick with simple but tasty and fast recipes, doesn’t mean you have to! 

While I tend to buy generic items, there are plenty of ways to spice them up! I almost always buy instant mashed potatoes (I know some will cringe at this) but just add some salt & pepper, butter, garlic & sour cream & a tiny bit of cream cheese, you would think it was homemade! I buy the $1 jars of pasta sauce, add some garlic, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese & bam! So much tastier and it’s so easy to do! 

If you’re interested in the recipes that I love to make (All under $10 and 30 minutes or less to cook!) make sure to follow me on my Pinterest to see what I pin! 

https://www.pinterest.com/shelbywanders

Thank you so much for reading! I love saving money and love to help other people do it too! After all, saving money = happy life! 

[dapperblueberrieser]

Off brand sodas are so strange to me. They taste like the same soda, but something is off. The can feels a little weird, and soda tastes just a smidge off for you to know it’s off brand. Kroger Big K Dr. k zero sugar zero calories 12 Fl oz (354 ml)

[glassandmetalwings]

why and how did you start doing art? do you like to read? if so, what was the last thing you read and did you like it? what is your favourite flavor of ice cream and why? unicorns or mermaids? witches or werewolves? if you were a tree, what kind of a tree would you be and why? what hogwarts house are you?

Why and how did you start doing art?

I mean, in a way I think I’ve always done art. Art was actually part of what identified me as GT years and years ago. But if you mean, like, more than just as something a kid does...probably fifth grade-ish? My friend Kat got this book on drawing manga, and I got really into it, and I remember buying a sketchbook before I went off to Brazil that summer (for those who have seen it, that’s probably why I still carry my pencils in a pencil bag with the Brazillian flag on it, by the way).

As for why...that’s hard to pinpoint. There were a lot of things I enjoyed, and even excelled at when I was younger. Horseback riding, swimming...okay I’m sure there were more but those are the two that come to mind. But art was just...always there. Always accessible. There was always something I could use to ‘make’, and people seemed to like what I made, so...

Do you like to read? If so, what was the last thing you read and did you like it?

I do, but I haven’t really just say down and read for awhile-not for pleasure, at least. I poured over a ton of CE things around this time last year to keep my tech certification...

Last thing I read, or tried to read...I tried to start The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán, because it’s been on my shelf for some time now. But a few chapters in and it just felt too...try hard? Like he makes a note at the beginning that this is a world nothing like ours, but the map is only slightly different from Europe, with geographical names and courtly titles barely changed. And in contrast, was going so far out of his way to describe the dinosaurs without naming them...it was headache-inducing, and I’m someone who, while far from an expect, has a decent amount of dinosaur knowledge.

Maybe I’ll give it another shot some time. It might be the type of thing you need as an audiobook.

What is your favourite flavor of ice cream and why?

Most forms of chocolate, mint, and combinations of those two! Kroger caries an ice cream flavor called Denali Mint Moose Tracks that’s absolutely amazing and I will never pass up! It’s just this good balance of rich chocolate and soothing mint (which is great for those nights when my stomach is upset from anxiety and pure chocolate ice cream seems like an awful idea), and if you let it melt just a little then the fudge ribbons are...ahhh....

B&J, for a brief period, made a chocolate-hazelnut ice cream that was heavenly, but it was discontinued and I only had it once at a shop up in Boulder. I’ve tried the same flavor from a few other brands, including a local place, and...it’s really hit-and-miss. More ‘miss’.

Unicorns or mermaids? 

Probably mermaids. I like the ones that are modeled after specific fish, like a lionfish mermaid, or a hatchetfish mermaid. Give me mermaids with bioluminescence and unsettling features. I love the deep sea.

Witches or werewolves? 

That one’s a lot harder! I like both! I honestly don’t know if I could pick one...No, I can’t. That’s too hard.

If you were a tree, what kind of a tree would you be and why?

Maybe an aspen? But that would make me more like several trees at once...I dunno, there’s something special about aspens to me. Their leaves are so vibrant, but their trunks are beautiful in winter scenes too. I just...no symbolism here, I just like them a lot.

What Hogwarts house are you?             

It’s been a long time since I took the test...I think I was a Ravenclaw? Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff...which one of those sounds more accurate?