#the fridge saga

[clatterbane]

Thankfully obtained after work today: a cooler for a little temporary non-freezer storage! That's another thing we had, but it must still be sitting in our old house on Plague Island.*

(And yep, I really need to run the Roomba through here. But, I've been staying a tad distracted.)

Plus, some more chill blocks that are now in the freezer. Along with a couple of 1L drink bottles with water in them to help take up the slack as DIY reusable ice packs after he picked up half the commercial ones that I would have. We already had a few reusable ice blocks in there. I wish I had thought of the bottle solution before he even went out, so they could go into the freezer earlier. Ah well!

Currently inside there: that carton of milk I accidentally froze, which I was wanting to set back out to thaw and use anyway. Plus some lettuce I wanted to eat soon instead of throwing away while I was just clearing out the vegetable bin, because it won't hurt it to sit in there.

The milk situation shoud be win-win: it can continue thawing itself out, while also helping chill the cooler down before I add more ice packs to keep it that way! 😎

I decided to throw that insulated shopping bag in there too, because it shouldn't hurt and the little extra insulation might be useful. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Part of my galaxy brain strategic plan here is also that we should be able to grab that bag of refrigerator stuff out, to free up the cooler itself to shovel at least some of the freezer stuff into temporarily when the new fridge is on the way.

We are apparently getting this model instead of the Husqvarna, because it was actually in stock today:

That is also like $400-equivalent less expensive, and looks perfectly fine. Much better than what we've got now even before the fridge compartment broke down, so really not gonna complain.

Unfortunately, we'll most likely not get it until after the weekend. 😭 That store does indeed seem to be part of a smaller more local chain operating under some Elon franchise setup, and they handle their own deliveries/installations. But yeah, the delivery people are apparently pretty booked up through the end of the week and will get back to him tomorrow.

Was hoping for sooner, but we are in SO much better situation in the meantime since the freezer is still chugging along. *fingers crossed*

I am currently trying to get more perishables cleared out of the fridge before they can start stinking things up. Not much is going in the cooler, at this point. Stuff like pickles and vinegary sauces may be fine at room temperature if we use them up soonish, and a lot of other items are already untrustworthy. Mostly salvaging longer-life stuff like cheese and some vegetables.

* Which is indeed still in our legal possession, with a bunch of stuff in it that the moving company just did not get like they were supposed to. 😒 Unless burglars have been in after petty household shit like that, who knows. I am not too happy about Limbo House, but hey. It's complicated. That is indeed one reason why I am still surprised sometimes not to find items that we totally should have, though. I remember packing a lot of them.

[morganbritton132]

Eddie starts a live-stream in the kitchen and then immediately leaves the room because he forgot half the shit he needed in his studio. Meanwhile, Steve and Dustin are coming in from the backyard. They’re bickering about the injury Steve got.

Steve: It’s a splinter. I don’t care that your mom is a nurse, I don’t need her to drive to Chicago to remove it. This is just like with-

Dustin: Oh my god, if we would’ve called my mom then than maybe your nose wouldn’t look like that and you wouldn’t have spent the whole night at the hospital getting Miss Byers’ plate removed from your skull with Hopper.

Steve: Dude, what were you planning on telling her? The house was torn to shit and we put a dead dog in the fridge.

Eddie, standing in the doorway: …What the fuck?

Dustin:

Steve:

Dustin: It was for science

Steve, at the same time: It was dead when we found it

[alethianightsong]

When Rictus 'sneaks' in to snatch Furiosa, I'm like "How the hell do the Wives not hear this giant, clunky man?" then it occurred to me that they're used to Immortan Joe's "conjugal visits", so they probably heard the heavy, male footsteps and just pretended they didn't, hoping it was someone else's turn to be bothered by Joe that night.

[drumbot-merlin]

OH HOLY SHIT "CHOOSE" AS IN "CHOOSE BETWEEN KILLING THIS INFANT AND LETTING HIM DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU LOVE"! THIS IS ZEUS'S THING! SO WHEN HE MAKES ODYSSEUS CHOOSE BETWEEN HIS DEATH AND THE DEATH OF HIS CREW IT'S TOTALLY IN CHARACTER AND THEMATICALLY CONSISTENT!! WOW!

[damnation-if]

on today's episode of Hashing Out Concepts Theatre, i spent a while today while waiting for my new fridge/freezer to be installed after my previous one died and i lost all my food hashing out a bunch of concepts for another game idea i have. (rest assured i'm not actually working on it as a game yet i just like to bash out a framework for things every now and then to make my brain do happy chemicals lmao)

putting all of this stuff under a cut since it's a bunch of images and also in case people aren't interested XD

i am regrettably a huge fan of comic books (mostly DC) and i've seen a couple of comic book inspired IFs popping up lately, though when it comes to my own interest, i'm definitely more into a straight interpretation of a comic book universe than a more. the boys-style universe - i'm into the camp lol, not so much the grim and gritty stuff. (though that's just my own personal preference)

anyway the idea behind That's Just Super is something that i really like about certain comics - giving the villains more of a purpose and rounded existence than just existing to be in somebody's rogue's gallery. the joker's angry defence of the batfamily from various other DC evil forces, lex luthor's furious resistance against brainiac alongside superman because it's His planet, damn it, DOOM throwing in with the heroes in every second marvel event comic... i really like stories where villains and evil characters don't always make the Most Evil choice just Because, but have clear and explainable motivations that sometimes bring them into what we'd consider a 'good' alignment because unlike in d&d, there's no real such thing as a concrete moral alignment.

(this is my banner design for it)

the basic idea is that an inexplicable cosmic event removes all of the superheroes from the planet, leaving it vulnerable to attack by evil mindflayer style aliens - unless the supervillains who remain are able to band together despite their more unpredictable, less cooperative natures and save the planet in the heroes' absence. after all... if aliens take over the earth, the villains can't take it over themselves.

here's my fun little UI design idea lmao...

the other major thing about That's Just Super that i've been hashing out is the pc. the basic idea is that you pick your villain identity from a list but you get to customise their like. birth name and secret identity, while the villain identity comes with its own name, costume, and set history (including occasionally past romantic encounters). i like playing around with the way that IF works with the idea of mcs and customisable mcs so i just thought it'd be a fun twist... it also allows me to create nice drama by having set occurrences in the past lol.

so i did some profiles for the nine villain options - three each of the DC triad of tech/metahuman/magic origin. they're all based on a specific kind of villain archetype, and i really tried to limit myself to ones where i could definitely pin down more than one specific influence so it didn't end up like me just making too many analogues haha... even if some of the influences are probably pretty obvious.

weirdly i haven't even Thought about ROs yet since i've been so focussed on the pc... maybe i'll play around with the partially set background idea even more and only have 1 possible RO for each villain choice or something. maybe a couple that you can romance as anybody... not sure. (talionis could definitely have a messy broken romance with his superhero for example)

apologies that readability isn't great but these are mostly just made for me lmao

[findingschmomo]

hey siri how do i not let anger fester in my heart

[morn1e]

had a dream last night where johanne was canon but she only appears in the last 2 panels of the final comic issue&it is when she came 2 the airport in a convertible 2 pick up medic w her only dialogue being like "come on i do not have all day🙄' &"ugh." .every1 lost their shit&started sending me death threats bcuz i ruined their fave character or whatever but also bcuz medic having a daughter bcame canon+medic did not end up w heavy. hate posts were everywhere. every1 were shitting themselves. &the hate got so bad i got my fridge stolen again

[averagelonelypotato]

lmao the men in gintoki’s life competing against each other for his affection wanting to buy him stuff only to realize someone else already bought it for him

[bogglebabbles]

I thought Constance was just obsessed with the Cheerios I had by the rat cage because it was human food and she was a stray before I adopted her, and I thought that she'd chilled out a bit on the attempts at human food after I eventually got rid of them just because she had the time to adjust to being a housecat. But one of the things I got from the food bank was a family-sized bag of cornflakes that I just opened yesterday and I had to get out of bed twice in the middle of the night last night because she would not stop trying to eat out of it, so I guess she just loses all reason upon being faced with breakfast cereals.

[clatterbane]

Been pretty busy this afternoon/evening, clearing out some stuff and moving things around in here. Shoving my table and the crap stored under it over into the corner was extra fun from the chair. ����

But, there should now hopefully be plenty of space open for the fridge swap tomorrow! Can hardly wait to get those in and running.

Box of mostly pickles and sauces at the ready!

That is the side by side units, but I don't think it should take up quite double the width of the existing one. At least there is more than enough room for something bigger, with the existing fridge in right next to what was meant as a dining nook.

[morganbritton132]

Eddie, posting to Tiktok: i just remembered this one time when Steve was on tour with me. He was moving around the bus, not really awake.

Eddie: I was letting him do his thing, monitoring the situation because I’m the best boyfriend - now husband - ever but I could tell he was getting agitated

Eddie: So i said, “Stevie, you’re safe. What’s the worst that’s ever happened to you on a bus?”

Eddie: And that was the wrong thing to say

Eddie: Something bad happened to him on a bus!

Eddie: I don’t remember if he told me but if I find out a jock had something to do with it…

Eddie: Well, I’m rich now and I’ll pay a kid in your neighborhood to slash your tires every day of goddamn week. Tommy.

[faebriel]

crying i went to rousseaus man for the link and forgot i had wilbur niki AND schlatt is not okay tags on it. i mean not wrong but

[drumbot-merlin]

HOLY SHIT EPIC THE MUSICAL THUNDER SAGA SPOILERS

CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT SCYLLA?!???

Can we talk about how both Scylla and Eurylochus foreshadow Odysseus's secret?

Scylla: "Deep down you hide a reason for shame"

Eurylocus: "I've got a secret I can no longer keep"

Can we talk about how it seems at first like Scylla's lyrics are targeted at Eurylochus for listeners who don't know what will happen next?

Scylla: "Deep down you know that we are the same"

Eurylochus: "I opened the wind bag while you were asleep"

Scylla: "Leaving them feeling betrayed, breaking the bonds that you've made"

Can we talk about how the lyrics don't seem to quite fit Eurylochus's betrayal?

Scylla: "There is no price we won't pay, we both know what it takes to survive"

Can we talk about the role Scylla's lyrics play in slowly revealing that Odysseus deliberately sacrifices 6 men from his crew?

Scylla: "Deep down, we only care for ourselves"

Odysseus: "Eurylochus, light up 6 torches"

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW DEEP DOWN, WE'RE LONELY DEMONS FROM HELL?!?

[theendofmybody]

the worst part about all of this is that i had to pack up all of my beautiful vibrators whilst tearing my house asunder and now i havent been able to use them

[fixomnia-scribble]

Scientists are very serious.

This is a post about science. And soup.

Dr. Elinne Becket, a microbiologist from Cal State University, is in the middle of one of those Fridge Experiments that happens to us all - except in this case, she is uniquely placed to unravel the science down to the microbial level.

While cleaning out her fridge, Dr. Becket found that a tub of family-recipe beef vegetable soup had turned bright blue. “Ok I'm outing myself here,” she tweeted, “but there was forgotten beef soup in our fridge we just cleaned it out and it was BLUE?!?!? Wtf contam would make it blue??? Like BRIGHT blue!!  Even w/ all my years in micro I'm not handling this well.“

Read on for a breathless and ongoing saga of Soup and Science, and the wonderful international community that is Academic Twitter.

Academic Twitter quickly reminded her of her Responsibilities to Scientific Inquiry. (Cue the chanting from around the world of “CLONE THE SOUP! CLONE THE SOUP!”)

“I can’t believe y’all talked me into going back into the trash.” she tweeted in response, over a photo of a puddle of beautiful Mediterranean-sea blue soup in the trash bin, with bits of veg and noodles arising from the depths.

Scientists being scientists, Dr. Becket agreed to take a sample and send it to colleagues for cloning and microbial analysis.This involved getting arms-deep into the trash bin of Old Soup. “I’m never forviging @ATinyGreenCell (genomic biologist Sebastian Cocioba) for this.” Dr. Becket tweeted, with a photo of a properly dipped and snipped and VERY blue q-tip in a small clear plastic tub.

Diving into decomposing soup was not the only hazard. She writes: “My mom (who made the soup for my birthday) came across this thread and now 1) I have to answer for letting her soup spoil and 2) she's worried @ATinyGreenCell will figure out her secret recipe.“

Dr. Becket and Sebastian were able to culture the Blue Goo!

Becket posted a photo of three petri plates of streaked beef bouillon agar at 72 hours incubation, at 37C, room temp and 4C. She writes: “Left the plates where they were for another 2 days, except the 37°C one was brought to RT, which then grew white stuff over the yellow stuff and stinks to high heaven. RT looked the same. 4°C had impressive growth. Restreaked them all onto TECH agar, awaiting results!”

Sebastian, from his lab, tweeted a photo of three more covered petri dishes, with early results: “Great progress on isolating the glowy microbe from our #BlueSoup! It's so fluorescent the streak is GREEN. Still needs another restreak as it seems there is a straggler but should clear up in the next plate. Exciting!”

Then yesterday, Sebastian tweeted out an updated photo of his plates under daylight and blacklight. “Whatever grew on the #BlueSoup colony plates overnight glows under UV, but only on King's Agar B! That particular media is used to tease out fluorescein expression in pseudomonads. What are the chances that the same cell line expresses fluorescent AND blue pigments?“

“Looking closer, there definitely is a handful of different microbes showing distinct phenotypes. Could be that the blue producer and the fluorescent microbes are totally different microbes!”

At which point, Professor Cynthia Whitchurch of Norwich, England, responded: “Consistent with P. fluorescens being at least part of the #BlueSoup community. The fluorescence is due to production of the siderophore pyoverdine which is up-regulated when iron availability is limited. P. aeruginosa produced this too but my guess is you have blue Pf.”

And Australian agricultural researcher @WAJWebster helpfully tweeted a petri dish of ALL KINDS of colourful bacterial colonies from white to yellow to orange to stark black, with a cheerful: “You need bact-o--colours? I got you, fam.”

The best part is that as of today, March 9, 2023, THE BLUE SOUP MYSTERY CONTINUES. WE ARE WATCHING SCIENCE HAPPENING!

A paper is being written. And Dr. Becket’s mum is getting an author credit as the proprietary owner of the #BlueSoup recipe.

Dr. Becket’s Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/bielleogy

Sebastian Cocioba’s Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/ATinyGreenCell

Fun IFLS story is here: https://www.iflscience.com/microbiologist-investigates-after-her-beef-soup-turned-blue-in-the-freezer-67894?fbclid=IwAR0H27KqVZhzzrosnjzzKkxuKASZ-0L0Lt6hGwCRDJK8xvFbbSlyS4JvwlM

[sunny44]

Bye bye binky!!

Pairing: Lando Norris x Mom!Fem! Reader

Warnings: none I guess and English is not my first language

Summary: You and Lando are trying to get rid of your daughter’s binky.

The Norris household was in constant motion as always. Lyla, at two years old, was a curious and energetic child, always running from one side to the other, dragging her toys and, of course, her inseparable pacifier.

For Lando and me, the mission to get her to stop using the pacifier was becoming a saga.

Lando was sitting at the kitchen table, looking pensively at a list of methods we had thought of.

“What else can we try? It seems like we’ve done everything.”

I stopped washing the dishes and sighed, looking at him.

“I think we’ve tried all the possible advice. Let’s review?” Lando picked up the list and started reading.

“First, we tried the pacifier fairy approach.”

The Pacifier Fairy

One quiet night, Lyla was getting ready for bed. I sat next to her with a storybook.

“Lyla, did you know there’s a pacifier fairy?” I said excitedly as she looked at me curiously.

“A pacifier fairy?”

“Yes,” I replied. “She visits big boys and girls and takes their pacifiers to babies who need them. In return, she leaves a special gift.”

Lyla’s eyes sparkled. “A gift?”

“That’s right. How about leaving your pacifier under the pillow tonight?”

Lyla hesitated but ended up placing the pacifier under the pillow. The next morning, she found a small new toy in place of the pacifier, but the magic didn’t last. When night came, Lyla cried for the pacifier, and Lando and I ended up giving it back to her.

The Reward Calendar

The second attempt involved a colorful calendar on the fridge. Each day Lyla went without the pacifier, she would get a star sticker. After a week, she would get a big prize.

“Lyla, look how many stars you’ve already earned!” Lando said, pointing to the calendar.

Lyla smiled proudly.

“Wow, and o get a prize?”

“Yes, if you keep it up!” I replied, excited.

But halfway through the week, Lyla had a crying fit so intense that we had to give in again, giving her the pacifier.

The Substitution

Trying a new method, we decided to buy several toys and stuffed animals to offer as new comfort items for her.

“Look, Lyla, a new teddy bear!” I said, showing the brown teddy bear.

Lyla took the teddy bear but quickly dropped it and went back to the pacifier.

“I want my binky, Mommy.”

We tried various different toys, but nothing seemed to offer the same comfort as the pacifier for Lyla.

The Gradual Approach

We decided to adopt a gradual approach.

“Let’s limit the use of the pacifier to just bedtime,” suggested Lando.

“Good idea,” I agreed. “That way, she can get used to it slowly.”

During the day, we put the pacifier away and distracted Lyla with games and activities. However, each night, the separation was met with tears and whining. Once again, we found ourselves giving the pacifier to calm her down.

The Distraction Tactic

The last attempt involved constant distractions. Whenever Lyla asked for the pacifier, we offered some fun activity.

“Let’s paint a picture, Lyla?” I suggested, holding a set of watercolors.

For a while, this worked, but Lyla soon began to insist on the pacifier, even in the middle of activities.

Lando sighed as he finished reading the list.

“None of this worked.”

I approached him, placing my hand on Lando’s shoulder.

“I think it’s time to try something new. Something that will really make Lyla want to say goodbye to the pacifier on her own.”

And that’s how we came up with the balloon idea. The hope was that by turning the farewell into a celebration, Lyla would better accept the change. With a final sigh of determination, Lando and I prepared for the final attempt.

“Tomorrow morning I’ll go out to buy donuts for breakfast, which she loves, and the balloon. Then we’ll do it,” Lando said, and I agreed, finishing organizing the kitchen so we could go to bed.

…

The morning sun lit up our house, and the day was perfect for a celebration. Lando and I were sitting on the floor, surrounded by toys and building blocks. Lyla was beside us, firmly holding her pacifier. We had already planned everything. I arranged the donuts on a tray so that when she let go and the pacifier was gone, she would have something she loved to eat and perhaps help her forget.

“Lyla, look!” Lando said, kneeling beside our daughter. “How about we send your binky to the sky? So it can travel around and see new places.”

Lyla looked at the balloon and then at the pacifier, holding it even tighter.

“Daddy, I like my binky.”

“I know, sweetheart,” Lando replied softly, stroking Lyla’s hair. “But you’re a big girl now. And big girls don’t need a binky, right? Besides, it’ll be so much fun to watch the balloon fly!”

Lyla hesitated, but the idea of seeing the balloon rise seemed interesting. Finally, she let go of the pacifier and allowed Lando to tie it to the balloon. Lando handed the balloon to Lyla and smiled.

“Ready to let go, Lyla?” Lyla held the balloon with both hands, her eyes fixed on it.

“Ready.”

With one last look of hesitation, she let go of the balloon. We watched as it slowly rose higher and higher into the blue sky. For a moment, everything seemed fine, but then Lyla looked like she was about to cry—we could see her lips trembling. But then Lando and I started jumping and shouting with joy.

“Woohoo! Bye-bye, binky!” shouted Lando, raising his arms.

“You did it, Lyla! How amazing!” I shouted, clapping.

Lyla looked at her parents, surprised by their reaction. Slowly, a smile began to form on her face. She stood up and started jumping too, imitating her parents.

“Woohoo! Bye-bye, binky!” she repeated, laughing.

We continued to jump and laugh together, our joy spreading to Lyla. Gradually, she forgot about the pacifier and focused on the fun of the moment.

After a few minutes, we stopped to catch our breath, still laughing. Lando picked Lyla up and hugged her.

“I’m so proud of you, Lyla. You are very brave.” I joined the hug, kissing Lyla’s forehead.

“You did something amazing today, sweetheart. We are very happy.”

Lyla smiled, feeling proud.

“Does this mean I’m a big girl now?”

“Yes, you are,” Lando agreed, stroking her head.

After a few minutes, we went inside to eat the donuts and celebrate that we had finally said goodbye to the pacifier.

Bonus scene!

Landonorris instagram stories

“Bye Bye Lyla’s binky”