If it’s not a 55 gallon drum, don’t even bother bringing it.

I’ve got no strong contenders.

“Blind coding” “Script slopping” “Junk writing” “Not knowing what you’re doing, but it’s fine because you also aren’t capable of knowing what you’re doing” “Slop slapping” (as in “I had a problem with my computer, so I slop slapped a solution on it”) “Wasting GPU cycles so you can also waste CPU cycles”

50 years ago was 1976, which was before the 1983 reforms. In 2023, I see a prediction it will run out of trust money by 2035. In 2009, they were predicting the same trust exhaustion in 2037. In 2005, Bush’s campaign warned it would run out by 2042. You’ll notice that these dates keep moving closer and closer as we get more data. There are real structural problems in social security.

With the cap, social security collected 1,159,984 + 188,399 million dollars in 2024, on the 6.2% + 6.2% tax rate. Medicare with no cap at the 1.45% + 1.45% tax rate collected 441,003 million dollars.

That implies taxable income for medicare was 14,172,517 million dollars, and for social security it was 10,874,056 million dollars. Completely removing the cap on social security would fix the current shortfall, but leave the structural issues in the program intact. Maybe it would buy us 25 more years. There are still people living today that would pay in more than they can possibly receive back from the system.

In short, you’re telling the people funding your lifestyle, “Fuck you, I got mine”, then denying that that is what’s happening.

The restaurant didn’t murder the guy, but the reviewer requested a seat in the non-murdering section, so seating him right next to it loses a star.

… And he can do it again in 2-5 hours ;)

I made paneer, following a recipe I’ve used dozens of times before. The resulting cheese was perhaps softer than usual, and even after squeezing it and dripping for hours, the slow drip of whey continued, unabated.

I dared to try a bit. The texture was just as expected, with the familiar squeak as the cheese broke apart upon chewing, and just a hint of extra liquid. The flavor was also fine. I could have added more salt, but that’s a problem I’ve run into before, and I usually cook the paneer into something, so I would just make a saltier sauce.

I decided it would be fine to leave dripping overnight, but I thought something was unusual. It was late, and dark, and I was ready to go to sleep, so I needed an answer to the lingering doubt at the back of my mind. The bowl I hang cheese over to drip is one of my largest bowls, but I dumped out the accumulated whey anyways - then I went to bed.

In the morning, my wife woke me up in a panic, and I came downstairs to discover that the bowl had filled, then overflowed with whey. I dumped the bowl once more, cleaned up the mess, and then promptly dug a pit to bury whatever this approximation of cheese was. Maybe it will stop. Maybe it will flow down into the water table, and bacteria will digest whatever is in the Great Value whey.

In either case, I have made the important decision that the outcome is not my fault. Walmart is responsible for whatever occurs, and if I need to sell this house at some point in the future, I hope Walmart will disclose the state of affairs to the buyer, because I most certainly will not.

Three stars out of five.

I think most of those “this is how the locals say it” things are clinging to a fading past. My favorite was a Kitchen Nightmares episode where the owner tells Gordon Ramsay that New Orleans is pronounced “Naw-Lins” (with some drawl, not sure how to write that exactly), but every other time before and after, he says “New Orleans”.

I grew up near Baltimore, which people variously insisted should be “Bee-mer”, “Balmer” or… A couple others. The only one I’ve seen actually play out is residents of NYC primarily referring to it as “The City”, but that one is also pretty normal, so it makes sense that it would survive.

Not safe for le-outdoors

For me, it’s losing weight. Several times, I’ve burned 40-50 pounds, and can move much better, sweat less, sleep better, etc. Then I regain it, and have to climb the mountain again.

Dick with wine? Sounds like Friday night, amirite? Err… For straight women, obviously. And gay guys. And handsome prime numbers that… Nevermind.

When I was a child, my elderly neighbor grew pears, and they were the best pears. My parents live in the same house, and the pear trees my elderly neighbor grew are still in the same spot, still alive.

The pears on those trees aren’t the same anymore. They turn meally before they get soft, and they never get sweet enough. They don’t have the same strong flavor, and they don’t bake up well in desserts.

She taught me many things about growing plants, but never anything about what she did for the pear trees. So now pears aren’t what they’re supposed to be, and the reason is lost to me.