so each time i cook something and keep 1/2 or 2/3 of it for eating later, i put it in the electric rice pot. i usually have 2 dishes (sometimes 3) stored in the pot. it keeps it hot-warm for days. i never really wash it, as i keep cycling between the old dishes and new adds.
every once in a while i manage to eat everything in it, and there’s a significant amount of meat juice and whatever water the veggies squeezed out while they were being kept hot in the pot at the bottom of the rice pot
I then just add a bit more water and cook rice with the juice mix
it comes out nice and salty and with meat smells
like this for example
the red there is probably tomato leftovers of some other dish prior
So I just reviewed AoT Chapter 139 (last chapter) and the summaries of the last manga arc leading up to Ch139. If we are to assume the author intended to create a right-wing subtext into the manga and try to find themes in there, here are some creative readings I can think of. Not everything will fit, as I might be misinterpreting and also some elements will be purely fictional creations to keep the manga itself entertaining/interesting.
== probably spoilers below ==
Eldians being exploited by Marley: Asia being colonized by European powers in 19th century. (Maybe specifically the U.S.; also could be read as the ABCD Trade Bloc against Japan – America Britain Netherlands (and I would take out China from the original bloc, as it doesn’t fit the narrative, and add France maybe)
Other nations outside of Marley that are competing with/at war with Marley: other European powers that didn’t get to colonize Asia but that are competing/at war with the above ones. So could be like Russian Empire, Germany, Italy, etc. Anime dialogues show that Marley was at war with most countries in the past, won them decisively, and was now in a lot of cease-fires and on some military clashes with some nations. So this could be the U.S./Britain winning WW1 and being not in active clash with Germany in the 30’s.
Eldians’ Titan power: Asia’s natural resources or maybe the “inner power of the spirit/mind” like something unique to the “Orient” that the West cannot understand
Marley using Eldian Titans to wage war with other countries: Britain, US, Netherlands using Asia’s natural resources to wage war with other European powers
Eldians living in Paradis: Japan
the story of how Eldians committed an ancient sin and were expelled to Paradis: beats me, maybe it’s a “Eldians in Marley have been brainwashed by Marley about this fake ancient sin! There is no ancient sin! Just like Japan did nothing wrong in WW2!” argument
Eldians in Paradis forgetting their Titan power: maybe pre-Meiji/modernization Japan or a Japan that doesn’t realize its true inner potential as a world power
Eren Jaeger intending to destroy Marley to save Japan/free all Eldians: WW2 Japan’s military command going on a crusade against the West+U.S. to free Asia from Western colonialism
The Power of the Rumbling: maybe a right wing fantasy about how WW2 Japan was actually powerful enough to win WW2
Mikasa killing Eren: maybe a right wing revisionism claiming that it was actually the people of Japan rebuking the military and deciding to not win WW2 that ended the war, and not Japan actually losing the war?
Eren’s founding Titan power brainwashing people/making people block some memories: during WW2 the people of Japan were just being brainwashed by the military command – it’s not their fault
The “While Eren’s methods were brutal, it was still for a greater good” subtext: “Imperial Japan’s military command did bad things but it was for a greater good: to free Asia”
In Ch129, Eldians who fought against Eren coming back to the island: maybe some right wing fantasy about how Asians misunderstand WW2 Japan and hate it but some of them are coming to their senses and starting to recognize the intent for greater good. (Well, there is an actual debate in academic circles that “Japan’s imperial occupation actually set the industrial foundation for each country’s post-war development”. That debate does exist within South Korea – although it’s highly political and lopsided towards the “that’s nonsense” side) This scene in Ch129 catches my eye because the characters are emphatically saying “to appeal for peace… we must tell them (the Japanese people who think Japan was at fault during WW2) the truth of that story, which unfolded before our very eyes”
Why did Japan appear as a country in the story, as something completley unrelated to Eldians?: So that people can’t criticize AoT as glorifying WW2 Japan since “Japan is a separate country inside the story! see?”
That weird Eldian mass euthanasia mini-arc that apparently fizzles out: hmm so the Euthanasia Plan was that to end the cycle of violence, Zeke wanted to use the power of the Founding Titan to force every Eldian in the world to stop reproducing – this would mean that over a slow span of 80+ years, Eldians would each die out of natural death and at the end Eldians would cease to exist on earth. That would mean no more Titans, and world peace. But Eren only pretended to agree with the plan.. and last minute (Chatper 122?) betrays the plan, moving ahead with the world destruction. So when I think of this in the context of the aging crisis in Japan – people are getting older, people are not having babies, and population is expected to shrink – maybe right wingers are setting up a Left Straw Man so that they can criticize/mock the aging crisis from a right wing perspective. “You lefties who think Japan did wrong in WW2, are you trying to atone for the sins by not having babies? Bullshit! Make babies and Make Japan Great Again!”
HmM in retrospect the filming of the short blurb on Tuesday forced almost the entire core table team to wait in line for their turn to film for 30 minutes and some to read the script. Had i foreseen it, I would have brought a copy for the script for each person.
It was a free chance for way more eyes to look at the script and potential feedback.
the shady guys who called me twice offering “a doctor who can visit you at home for a free health checkup” sent me mail, and they never mentioned their company name in the calls, making it appear as they are a HealthNet program, but here’s the company name: SignifyHealth
It seems it’s trying to be a Postmates for doctors/nurses? https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Signify-Health-RVW29308014.htm
the thing that makes me suspicious of their “free health checkups” is because they don’t clarify what’s their profit motivation. they are not charging me (hopefully), and probably not the government either. Apparently they charge my insurance – in that case how on earth would the insurance company be happy to “partner with them” to create these expenses?
HealthNet’s website does not mention Signify anywhere. I think they are lying about the company’s affiliation to HealthNet. They are just leeching off the insurance industry.
or maybe HealthNet wants to sell patient medical information to the commercial sector but are somehow leashed by HIPAA so instead of trying to do this through the existing network of primacy care doctors they commission this to a third party that poses as a “tech company” and then they can legally circumvent regulations
I am taking this HBO Max cancelled customer survey, and the survey is a trip. There are like so many choices and some of them slightly overlap. I wonder if this is indicative of major performance problems within HBO Max and this is one of their last ditch attempts before shutting down the service. The survey site itself looks half-baked too. I also had no idea that HBO Max was HBO+something else.
This was Question #5 or something.
You indicated that programming content was a factor in your decision to cancel HBO Max. Which of the following were your primary content-related reasons for canceling HBO Max?
Again, while you may select more than one option, try to pick the one(s) that were most important to your decision to cancel.
The selection of movies wasn’t large enough
I watched most or all of the other (non-HBO) content I wanted to watch, then canceled
I only want the HBO programs so don’t need the other content
The HBO original programming didn’t interest me
There wasn’t enough programming that is culturally-relevant to me
There wasn’t enough content from the other brands (e.g. TNT, TBS, Adult Swim, CNN, DC Universe) that I liked
The Max original programming didn’t interest me
Not enough new programming added regularly
Not enough variety
I watched most or all of the HBO content I wanted to watch, then canceled
I had to wait too long in between seasons of the shows I watch
The original programming I’m most interested in hasn’t launched yet
A show I was watching ended its current season (please specify:)
I only wanted to watch 1-2 specific series
Other streaming services have more content that I want to watch
Not enough content overall
Not enough content for the whole family
Not enough programming I’m interested in
I was disappointed I couldn’t binge watch the entire season of the newest shows
The movies didn’t interest me
There wasn’t enough Spanish-language content
Other (please specify:)
i’m gonna try getting re-checked by the ENT doctor and see if they still recommend a nasal duct surgery to fix a crooked shape that could improve sleep breathing
in summer 2019 my ENT recommended the operation
I waited until end of 2019 to find the time (since they said that I would have bleeding inside the nose and generally be miserable for two weeks)
then end of 2019 they said that my surgery approval expired
and I switched my primary doctor with a new job
my new primary doctor recommended against the surgery -> currently here
been using a CPAP machine since 2017
as my condition worsened over 2020 and 2021, I got a bunch of pillows to help me sleep sideways. that’s not going too well.. sideways sleeping position is extremely taxing for my neck and shoulders, i rarely manage to fall asleep. maybe i’m doing it wrong
I also got some pillows and structure to sometimes sleep belly down. that’s.. a bit better, although I still need to figure out a good neck/chest height support balance
i also began exercising and going to the gym since 2018, as they said that apnea can start with obesity
so far i went from 240 pounds in 2016 to 205 pounds now
i have this (possibly irrational) fear of sleeping and then waking up with both nasal and mouth breathing ducts completely obstructed, unable to breathe in nor out (which I remember once happened when I was like 10 years old).. or something less severe, like having mucus deep inside the nasal duct..
that’s why when i sometimes wake up at 3am and notice nasal duct feels obstructed, and can’t manage to rinse it out, i get scared of falling back asleep and end up staying wake through the rest of the day.
this has been happening somewhat often last month, and took a toll on my daytime productivity
The new COVID-19 variant first identified in India, the Delta variant, which now makes up 6% of all covid infections in the U.S., has still some unknowns but depending on how the variant characteristics turn out, could cause yet another major wave, maybe in Fall/Winter 2021, especially in unvaxed regions, and possibly be vaccine resistant (still under research)
1/ I know everybody’s sick of playing 3-dimensional Covid chess. Sorry, but the Delta variant forces us back to the chess board. Ergo, this 🧵. If you’re fully vaxxed, I wouldn’t be too worried, especially if you’re in a highly vaxxed region.
i went to a couple coffeeshops for the past two days but other than the fact that there’s people there (which is nice), my home is much better for everything – seats, drinks, temperature, and the choice of working in the bedroom without distractions or on the work desk.
in 2018, a work colleague used a phone app to create this character, with a frowning face. they used it on the work Slack as their profile picture, and each time we saw the colleague type in chat it looked like they were angry due to the frowning face.
I found it funny and one day drew this terrible webcomic
featuring the frowning face and called the character the “angry asian potato”, parodying the famous angry asian man
i even bought a domain name, social media accounts, and made a little website to host the comics, thinking that I might draw regularly. Ended up never doing a whole lot more, except this one piece:
Now that I do consulting, I thought I should capitalize on all my google search ranking points on my personal blog website and convert the blog website into a semi professional-looking consulting.. website or something. something work related.
But then I can’t shitpost on my blog like I did back in the day, so I repurposed the old webcomic website, which was dead, and made it into my shitposting blog. And kept the blog name.
my daily routines are so space-monochromatic that they probably are the best recipe for an early alzheimers
the only thing saving me is the daily cooking
this vegetarian fried rice was amazing
Blue Apron continues to be top tier in the meal kit industry getting out delicious recipes and experimenting with new styles week after week
i even tried the bougie competitor (Green Chef), which is 20% more expensive than Blue Apron for the 5 weeks on trial discount, still Blue Apron was better
everyday a new tasting experience
currently I’m getting Blue Apron on Thursdays and cook them over the extended weekend, and then on Mondays I get Home Chef.
Home Chef has a mix of options, some are regular meal kits, but they generally are much simpler than Blue Apron and don’t taste as amazing. But they also have this middle-of-the-way-between-prepackaged-and-cooked options, which consists of a bunch of ingredients, all pre-chopped. All you have to do is to follow instructions and mix some ingredients in their aluminum tray and put it in the oven, then afterwards pour sauces/other garnishes on top. it tastes a bit better than refrigerated meals
so it fits better with the weekday eating to squeeze in between work and meetings
here’s an example of Home Chef’s not-meal-kit but not-prepackaged hybrid: https://www.homechef.com/meals/sweet-chili-coconut-shrimp-with-pepper-and-edamame-rice
they call this lineup “oven-ready”
it’s been a very long time since I used Hello Fresh – 2 years. they started sending me emails saying that they will give me a new promotional discount despite me being an existing customer (since I used up their promo 2 years ago), so I might try them sometime again
also it seems almost all meal kits recipes have already been entered by someone else on the Lose It app, so it’s easy to count the calories (probably cooking your own thing or restaurants will be very hard to track accurate calories and nutrients)
some even going to speculate whether different groups of humans throughout history just randomly breathed with their mouth because that’s what everyone did
10am Arrived at Rite Aid. Unlike 4 weeks ago for my 1st shot, I’m first in line! Nice.
11am Back home, not feeling much yet. Took a shower. Playing Northgard on the computer.
12pm Had half of a hamburguer and fries. Omg is this 800 calories even when halved? It was delivered a bit cold, too. I wanted to know what the rage about Shake Shack was about..
1pm Start to feel some generalized pain. Took 2 caplets of 500mg acetaminophen and started watching Netflix. Some pain in the shoulder.
2pm Feeling dinged, with some fever and almost asleep (possibly slept on the couch for half an hour), went to lie down face down for about an hour. Usually when doing this I struggle with stuffiness in the nasal cavities, but this semi nap was pretty straightforward – I can breathe normally with my nose, which is unusual. It was a heavy ding – like gravity was twice what it usually is and everything was pulling me down. No headaches.
4pm Got up and finished the hamburger. I regret putting some dumplings in the rice cooker thinking that I might be able to keep at my daily goal of 2,200 cal max because all the moisture made the fries soggy. A rewarmed, dry hamburger and fries could have tasted great. As I move around the house a bit, the dingy feeling and sleepiness slowly recedes, with some minor pain in the shot area. If things go well I might be only out of commission today, returning to more or less normal activities tomorrow.
6pm The hardest part of all this is not having any more calories I can ingest for the day. I think I am starting to feel a bit of fever again. Getting two more aceta caplets.
8pm went lie down, looking at stuff on the phone
10pm sleep
Sunday
3am Woke up, more water. Fever seems entirely gone, seeing how light my body feels compared to yesterday
4am I’m having trouble going back to sleep so I took the nighttime version of acetaminophen.
9am Woke up
10am Breakfast. Body feels pretty heavy. Did it get worse than how I felt at 3am? Or is it a side effect of having interrupted sleep mid-sleep? (So feeling sleepy). Playing Northgard.
12pm Lunch. Body definitely feels heavy. Do I have fever? I can’t tell.
Also, I was thinking about this at 3am – this vaccine is mRNA, so it’s different from the old school ones which was just a weakened virus. So if the vaccine is just telling the body to produce antibodies, why do we still see flu-like symptoms? I thought weaker symptoms was a characteristic of vaccines with weakened viruses. Ok so hmm.. the flu-like symptoms apparently originate not from the virus itself, but from the body’s immune system response to it. So that’s why we still experience those symptoms. The difference is that unlike an actual infection or weakened virus, there’s no risk that the virus wins against the immune system and causes major damage to the body. Hmm although for COVID-19, doesn’t most of the damage, in the lungs for example, come from the immune response and not from the virus itself?
1pm Lunch. If recovery is this slow, it looks like I’m gonna spend tomorrow Monday out of commission as well. Good thing it’s a federal holiday.
Tried playing some of the old games that had long-winded dialogues that I didn’t have the patience to go through. But picked them up because these are controller supported. Unfortunately it’s still boring even when with fever. Reinstalled and played Civ5.
4pm Having some trouble breathing. But I had these symptoms even before the vaccine, for about two years. I would wake up very tired, have some trouble breathing at a couple moments throughout the day, all the while feeling tired and drained. So this is probably the vaccine but it might be compounded with whatever was happening beforehand as well. Took 2 caplets of aceta.
6pm Dinner. Feeling pretty well so far, still a slight fever but it seems to be receding. Although this was the pattern yesterday too, so we’ll have to see how it is tomorrow.
Played Civ5 and EU4.
9pm My armpit lymph feel swollen, it hurts a bit when I touch that side. Maybe the immune system is in the cleanup stage, even though there never was any virus involved?
12am Tylenol PM and sleep
Tuesday
5am Got up for some water. As usual, the kitchen smart lights were on again. It does this randomly every few days, not sure why.
9am Woke up. I had a pretty good sleep, I think. Still a bit of fever.
10am Breakfast
1pm Went outside for a bit to pick up lunch. I think this is the fist time I walked outside since the vaccine. It’s much warmer than previous days (73F)
2pm Had a work meeting. The fever is not something serious, although it does get in the way of focus. Although it wasn’t too different before the vaccine either, which is… i’m not sure how to call this feeling – disappointing? Anticlimactic?
5pm Dinner
8pm Played Xcom
1am Sleep
Wednesday
4am Woke up out of breath with congested nose. Got scared of going back to sleep with the nose this congested, as usually has been happening before
6am Got out of bed to play Xcom
10am Breakfast. Ok, this is it. I don’t feel fever anymore. We are back to the old. Although armpit lymphs feel either swollen or bruised. The nasal congestion is the years-long apnea problem, unrelated to the vaccine.
11am Lied down for a bit
12pm Got up and made lunch. Start doing regular work.
at one point the way our group of friends would “show off” how buff we were was by going to the school soccer field, jumping on the soccer goal post, hanging upside down using your legs from the goal post bar, and then doing abs crunches.
So during our lunch break we went to the field, I felt like I could do it, I jumped on the goal post and tried to hang upside down. The problem is that the goal post was not screwed on the ground and when I jumped on the goal post it started to swing a little, creating a pendulum effect. I was midway trying to adjust my pose into upside down when that entire 10 feet long post flipped down and hit my left ankle real hard against the ground with the post’s weight on it.
From what I recall, it didn’t hurt too much. It cracked my ankle bones a bit, I went around school with the lower leg cast for about 3 weeks. We had a theater class final presentation (acting out a theater piece) before my cast was off, so I did my role standing in crutches. There was one scene where another actor would yell at me “shut up, drunk! go home!” and was supposed to throw me a bucket of water. The force of the water threw me off balance and I fell from my crutches which caused a commotion on the group of 100 people who were watching the theater play hehe
My second Moderna shot is scheduled for Saturday morning.
I’m trying to get ready. That involves trying to get back in shape a bit, doing workout and trying to pace it throughout the day before. Also, catch up on all these late work projects, in case I am down for a long period after the vaccine. I read that some people it’s not a big deal, but some people struggle for many days. This is a very important period for our team and I’d prefer not to be out of commission for too long, if possible. This is perfect timing, as the Monday following is a holiday.
For the past 5 weeks, I’ve been struggling to get any work done. There was the physical fatigue/daylong tiredness, not getting enough air while sleeping, feeling anxious with creating proposal documents, eating too much all day and putting every single thing on hold while telling myself that the work project was the highest priority – that included exercise.
I’m doing only exercises on the Ring Fit. A few days ago, I saw a post on loseit from some guy who only exercised on an Elliptical machine. Elliptical machines! Those are nice. Running on them was one of the nicer experiences from going to the gym last year. I could run on them all day, as long as there is something to keep me distracted. Maybe watch TV. Should I buy an Elliptical? Hmm… it may be worth it if I can put myself to do cardio for extended periods. I looked up more information, and decided to get a rowing machine instead, as people say it’s a better. It’s a much simpler machine, and cheaper.
I received the rowing machine last Friday, opened the assembly manual, and then closed it back. It must have 100 pieces. I’m gonna try to build it slowly over the days.
I stocked up on easily cookable mealkits and things to do during the daytime in case I end up struggling with fever for multiple days after the second shot. Already tested playing the Xbox Pass version of Octopath Traveler over SteamLink – it kinda works, although WiFi and controller signal is a bit spotty from the bed. Lined up TV shows to watch, maybe a book if there’s no fever. Lying bed, convalescent, is not that hard. The hard part is to not fall asleep while lying in bed during the day. Because if you sleep during the day then your sleep cycle gets messed up.
After the 2-week wait period after the shot, I think I want to go to a spa. They are reopening. I think I’m also gonna stop going to the acupuncturist. I haven’t felt a whole lot of difference and it’s crazy expensive. Maybe I’ll go get some back massage.
We are also having an in-person work meeting next month.
i’m gonna study korean grammar
so i can explain better when intermediate level people ask q’s
wish there was a book or document that
1) is written in english (so that I know how to explain grammar in english)
2) only explains grammar rules, and is not structured in a learner-friendly format where you are learning grammar, learning vocab, familiarizing yourself with the expressions while still keeping you motivated (that’s a lot of side knowledge i don’t need)
they exist, but only in korean language – the old school books
in english, it’s almost invariably gonna have #2
i explain korean grammar using spanish language grammar analysis rules, and i’m almost certain that that’s the wrong way of explaining it
so in the 2020 Dem Presidential Primaries there was a candidate named Mike Gravel from somewhere up there in the midwest, Governor of North Dakota or something. He didn’t do well, dropped out very early.
Apparently during the campaign he created a YouTube channel to promote the campaign but then repurposed it as the “Gravel Institute” and now they are an educational channel promoting left politics and socialism.
so a month ago I came across this super interesting video about mount baekdu:
It is a new channel that just skyrocketed with extremely high quality vids.
I came across another vid about volcanoes, and turns out that this is the same guy’s previous channel.
The guy published videos for 2 years, racked up 500k subscribers, but then decided to make a new channel in late 2020. Why?? I’m so confused.. his last video has an extremely low view count, that’s true.. but 500k subs! That’s gotta count for something!
