Why You Should Keep Fruit In Mason Jars Instead Of The Containers They Come In…….
When you get your fruit home from the grocery store, the first thing you should do is remove it from the plastic containers they’ve come in and recycle them. Next, clean out your sink and fill it with water (you could also use a large bowl). Then, toss in a few tablespoons of distilled vinegar. You’ll then want to submerge your fruit in the water and let it soak for about 10 to 15 minutes. The purpose of this is to get rid of any mold or bacteria on the fruit which is what causes them to go rotten more quickly.
Once the fruit has had a nice soak, remove it from the vinegar water, transfer to a strainer, and rinse with cool water. Leave the fruit out to dry on a tea towel or paper towel. Once dry, transfer the fruit to mason jars and seal up those lids. This is the best way to make your fruit last, particularly berries, which tend to be very prone to mold and bacteria buildup.
And that’s it! Incorporating these few extra steps into preparing and storing fruit can help you eliminate food waste, save money, and keep your fridge stocked with fresh produce for much longer.
I haven’t thoroughly reviewed all of these myself yet but they were recommended by friends and I’m putting them here for both my future reference and just to share.
If this video helps even one person, it was worth it.
So, I’ve got a ton of ingredients that my body reacts to: corn, citric acid, gluten, chocolate, bananas, peanut oil–I’m all over the place.
It was so hard to read ingredient labels and just find food that I could eat. Grocery trips were unbearable, they took like two or three hours usually.
But I always had this idea on how to make it easier. So I quit my job and helped build an app over the past few years. And that app’s called Fig.
[A phone screen showing the app interface, which Tyler scrolls through. Top text reads: “First up: Do you follow any of these diets? Dietary restrictions are complex - it’s ok to select more than one!” Underneath is a checklist of ingredients and dietary restriction, including categories with suboptions.]
What makes fig unique is we’re trying to help pretty much everybody that has to avoid certain ingredients.
That means we’ve got a ton of things that you can select from–even really specific ingredients.
[Camera briefly returns to Tyler’s face again.]
And like I had dreamed of for so many years, checking ingredients is as quick as this.
[A phone camera scans the barcode on a bottle of spices. Details about the product appear, including an ingredients list and allergen statement. The ingredient “citric acid” appears in red all-caps. There is also an accompanying message that says “This product does not match your Fig.”]
And finding food you can eat is as simple as this.
[The app displays a scrollable list of food items, similar to a storefront. Each item has a save toggle and is accompanied by a photo, the product brand/name, and its size. There is a search bar labeled “search for a product.” There are also menus for narrowing the search; one is set to “allowed,” one is set to “Whole Foods,” and another unaltered menu is titled “Category.”]
[The camera returns to Tyler.]
So if you know anybody with food allergies, stomach issues, other dietary restrictions, I’d really appreciate it if you shared it with them.
[The appstore listing for Fig: Food Scanner & Discovery.]
It’s called Fig, it’s completely free, and you can get it on iOS and Android in the US.
The whole self love thing is good and all but some people can’t fathom being loved. They can’t imagine there being anything good about them. So they can’t simply just stop doing unhealthy things, there’s a process.
Before self love you have to invoke self tolerance and self neutrality.
If you can’t say “I love my body!” say “my body gets me from place to place.”
If you can’t say “I’m beautiful,” begin by shutting down the “I’m ugly” thoughts and saying “I’m a person.”
If you can’t say “I’m valuable” begun by shutting down the “I’m worthless” thoughts and say “all people deserve basic respect, and I’m a person.”
If you can’t say “I’m important,” or “I’m kind” say “I am the one who waters my plant every week” or “I am the one who tips the kind barista down the street” or “I am the one who makes sure my dog does not eat plastic” or “I am the one who leaves long comments on people’s fan fictions.”
some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.
I couldn’t remember the word “doorknob” ten minutes ago.
ok but the onelook thesaurus will save your life, i literally could not live without this website
Other fantasy fans: I’d like to read this series you keep mentioning but I’m a bit worried about gatekeeping.
Discworld fans,slamming 41 books onto the table: Now, these books can be read in almost anyorder, but you are under no obligation to read all of them if you don’t want to. Would you like a list of recommendations? I have some reading charts if you want a visual guide. Here’s a hard-drive with all of the audio books on file. Or I can read you a section of a book each night over video-call? What’s the best way to help you enjoy this series?-
Okay, it may seem like a lot, but -trust me- 95% of the books can read as entirely standalone novels. This series is ridiculously easy to get into. With a couple of exceptions, you really can pick a random book you like the sound of. “Wyrd Sisters” and “Guards! Guards!” are my personal recommendations for starting books.
@peetamaellark You have got such a TREAT in store for you with Discworld, mate. This series is life-affirming, funny and utterly captivating.
Reblogging for usefulness and also to point out:
(a) that while Discworld books can be read in any or indeed no order, any reader with a phobia of spoilers - mostly just internal cross-referencing but enough to vex the vexable - should read in publication order as the only way to avoid them.
(b) that books 1 and 2, “The Colour of Magic” and “The Light Fantastic,” are often considered the two “worst” Discworld books or at least the ones least like how Discworld became, and can be ignored except by completists.*
* Terry said this aloud with his own mouth and later put it down in print, so it must be true.
Actually it’s noon for me, but it will be morning soon for most of you guys, so whatever. Here are some interesting or funny…
German Language Education Quickies
…for you to start the day:
To “write sth down” is “to write something up” in German (aufschreiben = upwrite).
To “come up with sth” is to have “sth fallen into you” in German. “I’ve finally come up with something” = Mir ist endlich etwas eingefallen = “To-Me is finally something infallen” ≈ “Something has finally fallen into me”.
Every German learner’s greatest frustration: Nouns have genders and they determine the grammar of the whole rest of the sentence too. But don’t worry, they make perfect sense: Fork is female, knife is neuter, spoon is male; Germany is neuter, Switzerland is female, Iran is male; and most logically man is male, woman is female [waaaait for it…] and boy is male but girl is neuter. - Easypeasy!
“To put sth [somewhere]” is two different words in German, depending on the shape or positioning of the thing that you put: stellen = ‘vertical putting’ or ‘to put standing’ (eg. a glass on a table or a book standing upwards); legen = ‘horizontal putting’ or 'to put lying’ (eg. a pen or a book lying on the side). If you’d for example use stellen with “pen” that would sound like you mean to put the pen somewhere in upwards standing position and be rather weird.
Also there are two words for ghost depending if it’s a real ghost like your dead grandma’s ghost = Geist, or a cartoonlike ghost like Casper the friendly ghost = Gespenst. Also there are two words for skull depending if it’s a real bone = Schädel, or the skull-symbol ☠️ = Totenkopf (literally 'deadhead’). And the list goes on… English is not very precise from a German’s perspective ):
German is very descriptive: A vacuum cleaner is literally a “dustsucker” (Staubsauger, male), a plane is [a] “flightstuff” (Flugzeug, neuter; and btw a vehicle is a drivestuff and a lighter is a firestuff), and a superficial cleaning of your face or body without taking a real shower or doing it otherwise thoroughly (without using a sufficient amount of water) is a “catwash” (Katzenwäsche, female) - another word that the English language is lacking completely by the way.
“Life’s not fair” or “You won’t always get what you want”? Booooooring! In German we say: Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof! = Life is not a pony farm!
Have a wonderful day!
This might be regional English (Northern Ireland), however I used “write something up” at Big School (late 1960s-mid 1970s). It meant the process of producing a “fair copy” from notes or rough work.
Also, and though it’s not a single word like die Katzenwäsche, English does have “cat’s lick”.
That too may be regional; I remember my Mum saying it about the sort of perfunctory hand wash which after playing outside was all too obvious.
“That’s just a cat’s lick, do it again and do it properly!”
Another term she used was about something being given “a lick and a promise”, though that wasn’t just about washing but anything like fetching the shopping, tidying my room, doing school homework and so on, which had been done in a hasty, slapdash and incomplete way.
Maybe it originated as “a lick now and a promise to finish up later” but I never heard anything that elaborate.
I’d say we have exactly what is being described by OP, it’s a cat bath and it’s done with a washcloth or towel or something and a basin instead of a full tub or a shower.
I’m posting the links here because the link keeps on a loop with adfly
IF YOU DRAW OR DESIGN Instead of PHOTOSHOP, try GIMP Instead of LIGHTROOM, try PAINT.DOT.NET Instead of ILLUSTRATOR, try INKSCAPE Instead of INDESIGN, try CANVAorSCRIBUS
IF YOU DO STUFF THAT REQUIRES THESE OTHER PROGRAMS Instead of AUDITION, try AUDACITY Instead of ACROBAT PRO, try FOXIT READERorPDF ESCAPE Instead of INCOPY, try LOVING YOURSELF AND USING LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE (WHO USES THIS???)
IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS OR FONTS Instead of ADOBE STOCK, try PEXELS,UNSPLASH, or PIXABAY Instead of ADOBE PHONTS, try GOOGLE FONTSorDAFONT
IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS Instead of ADOBE STOCK, try MORGUEFILE.COM
Rather than gimp, use photopea
It’s not free but Clip Studio Paint basically does everything Photoshop does, is a one-time purchase, and is on sale rn for $30(as of 3/11/2022) and is usually only $50. Legit I’ve used so many free Photoshop options(Sai, Fire Alpaca, Medibang Paint Pro, GIMP, ect.) and CSP works great as an alternate option for any of them. Seriously check it out if you have the means it’s well worth the investment.
One of the most important things you need to worry about when you create an animation is the keyframes. Keyframe animators, are usually considered senior animators (in a professional studio) that decide on critical aspects of the animation. Each studio has different roles that keyframe animators have to fill, but generally speaking they are in charge of translating the storyboards into a fluid animation. Depending on the size of the studio, you may also find “regular” animators and in-betweeners. Since I come from a position of someone who does everything from the beginning to the end, you’ll be getting a more holistic view. Going into the animation hierarchy is really beyond the scope of this mini-lesson. I’ll be focusing on how you would want to handle yourself when you are creating keyframes for your animation, specifically keyframing characters.
First you would ideally have a character sheet (to make your life easier, to make it more accurate to the vision of the designers or directors or… to yourself)
I didn’t make one, but you’ll have to forgive me.
I like martial arts, so I wanted to try animating a “jump spinning hook kick”.
The first thing you need to do is to make the “keys,” or keyframes. For those who don’t know what keyframes are, they are just points in the animation that define major movements and/or change in movements of objects (in our case characters).
So here we have the character:
We definitely want the point of contact to be a key.
And the landing.
Now that we have the major keys down, we can start breaking them up into smoother and more refined movements. We have to ask ourselves how does the human body move when performing this kick and to answer that question you would have to get references!
Keep adding keyframes at important positions in the movement, this you really need to develop a feel for.
I added another element to the animation to have the character seemingly be reacting to something (just to make it more interesting).
Expand on what the element is by laying out important keys (as you did before)
Now as a key animator you are in charge of laying out the length of exposures each frame has. If you’re working in a professional setting, you will probably get an X-sheet (or exposure sheet). This is a good time to start thinking which frames need to be extended and which need to be shortened.
I wanted to exaggerate the kick so I extended the exposure of the kick.
Now that you have a blueprint of where you want to go, you can start filling in the spaces where extra frames are needed.
Really once you have your point A and point B set, it’s fairly simple to fill in the blanks. The important part is getting point A and point B just right. Having a smooth animation is not as important as having good movement (imo). Part of the charm that Japanese animation has is the interesting choice of shots/angles/poses that make up for the lack of frames (in comparison to the fluid frames you would normally see in a Disney animation).
Keyframes can also be used for changing the backgrounds, and perspective lines more broadly. Although seeing hand-drawn backgrounds has become rarer and rarer these days because of how much easier it is to generate it with 3d software.
Hope that helps, I realize these are very basic but hopefully I can expand into more complicated stuff in the future.
per request, here’s the websites that I use to find torrents, in approximately the order that I go through them when looking for new content:
FOR GENERAL SEARCHES
limetorrents.cc (collects torrents for you from across many different websites)
rutracker.org (Russian website with a huge collection of well-moderated torrents for everything you can think of. you have to create an account, and be prepared for some things to be exclusively in Russian. make sure you’re looking in the description for if there is also a translation for English, or whichever language you happen to want)
filelisting.com (torrent collector that is able to search the specific content within a torrent to return more relevant matches; especially useful for finding smaller specific files hiding within larger torrents)
zooqle.com (another site that collects torrents from across other websites)
torlock.com (torrent collector)
idope.se (torrent collector)
magnetdl.com (torrent collector)
torrentfunk.com (torrent collector)
torrentus.to (torrent collector)
toorgle.com (torrent collector)
FOR MOVIES AND TV SHOWS
1337x.to (this is the first place I check for any and all non-anime movies or tv shows)
rarbg.to (VERY convenient for browsing for episode packs of multi-season tv shows)
thepiratebay.org (quality has severely declined in recent years, but still useful for finding a quick torrent of certain movies)
torrentgalaxy.to (all-around good search engine for movies and tv)
nyaa.si (the ONLY SITE I use for anime and manga. I have been able to find 99% of my anime/manga requests using this site alone. almost always provides a healthy torrent with a great quality to file size ratio, and with dual-audio, which allows you to get both the sub and dub within the same torrent)
FOR BOOKS
z-lib.org (amazing collection of ebooks available for direct download in epub, mobi, and pdf format. there is a daily limit on how many you can download, which can be increased by making a profile, or avoided altogether by using a VPN to change your IP address whenever you reach the limit. personally, I love this site so much that I donate regularly to get unlimited downloads)
mobilism.org (great source for books and audiobooks)
libgen.fun / libgen.rs (popular ebook site that provides several mirrors to ebooks including torrents. Textbook focused)
nyaa.si (specifically for manga)
FOR GAMES AND SOFTWARE
I almost never stray from this list when it comes to software and games. These are sources that have been widely used and verified by the pirating community, and that have an outstanding reputation for delivering virus-free and functional applications. Anything not from one of these sites I would treat like a threat until personal testing has proven otherwise.
fitgirl-repacks.site (best source for video games, hands down. you don’t even need a VPN if you use the “filehost” download options)
diakov.net (my number 1 go-to source for software downloads. the files are hosted, which means you download them through links to websites like rapidgator or turbo.cc, etc. the good news is that you get a direct download and don’t have to worry about torrenting precautions…. The bad news is that the file hosts can take a long time to finish a free download. also, the default language of the software may be in Russian and you’ll have to change it if you want English or otherwise. but it’s proven itself to be a very reliable source of software for me)
monkrus.ws (highly recommended and trusted repacker for various popular software)
macbed.com (trusted source for macOS software)
mobilism.org (trusted source for both Windows apps, and mobile apps for Android/iPhone/iPad)
FOR RARE STUFF/WHEN NOTHING ELSE WORKS
these websites are DHT crawlers. without getting technical, all you need to know is that they are very powerful search engines that can help you find rare torrents that other sites can’t
Plot armor is when important characters seem to survive each and every treacherous obstacle that is thrown their way just for the sake of the plot. The readers know that your protagonist is important and won’t meet their demise because who else will defeat the bad guy in the end? This can result in underwhelming battle scenes, loss of suspense and an overall boring experience.
Here are some ways to avoid having your readers notice the plot armor (because let’s be honest, it’s there whether we like or not) or at least make it more realistic:
1) Injure your characters. Let it be known that no one is safe. During the heat of battle, the prized soldier loses his sword arm. The invincible superhero receives PTSD after witnessing a terrible event. Raise the stakes!
2) If they escape, make it believable. Did they sacrifice something to escape? Did a past experience give them the wits and knowledge to outsmart the danger? Justify your protagonist’s escape. Don’t make it an easy get away just because you need them out of the situation.
3) There are consequences. Every action sparks a reaction. Have there be realistic push back. Your character shouldn’t be immune to the rules and laws of your world.
4) Detailed Explanations. So, your character needs their limbs, their sanity and anything else you could strip them of. How do you make it seem like they’re not immune to everything then? Equip them with what they need (knowledge, weapon, confidence, etc) and really sell it to your reader on how they survived.
There’s no way a teenaged girl stakes a 400 year old vampire just by picking up a branch and defending herself. Equip her with some knowledge of vampires (fanfics to the rescue?), an ancient relic that she unknowingly wears around her neck and an insane amount of adrenaline… and maybe I’ll believe it.
5) Kill off other characters. Have their deaths affect the protagonist.
If you’re saying, “well, I need Chrome because I need such-and-such extension for my job”, the computer will not explode if you install another browser. Use Chrome ONLY for work tasks and use Firefox for everything else. If you’re concerned about losing your bookmarks, Firefox can import your Chrome bookmarks.
[ID: Firefox Library window. The “Import and Backup” panel is expanded, displaying the option, “Import Data from Another Browser”, which is also circled with a red MS Paint ellipse. ID end.]
For $5 a month, you can completely conceal your online activities from your ISP in a manner that isn’t just immediately monetised or turned over to the cops. No, it’s not free, it does cost money, but the money doesn’t go to line a billionaire’s pockets.
I wonder how much of this is because of work/school from home forcing people to use Chrome so all their stupid monitoring softwares and platforms can work.
This is also your reminder that you don’t have to use just one browser. You can use chrome for all the monitoring bullshit your office wants you to run and use firefox for everything else.
Be sure to add the multi account containers extension to your firefox, which allows you to be logged in to multiple accounts on the same website at the same time in the same window but in different tabs.
look on my five open tumblr accounts (not sideblogs, accounts!) ye mighty and despair.
Firefox is super good, folks. It’s good in a general “google shouldn’t own everything in the entire fucking world” sense AND in a “this is an actual good product that does lots of cool shit” sense.
ALSO make sure to add the Ublock origin extension on Firefox - I haven’t seen a youtube ad in five years and you don’t have to either.
While you’re at it, why not add the Wayback Machine extension so that if you go looking for a page that has been taken down the wayback machine will automatically offer you an archived version instead; also handy for documenting people’s shitty takes and winning arguments after they delete the original post!
Worried that Firefox is going to slow down your computer? In benchmarks, modern versions of chrome and firefox are pretty much the same speed but you can still install the auto tab discard extension ANYWAY so that it will snooze unused tabs in order to keep your computer running faster. Set it to sleep, discard, close, and store tags at your discretion!
And while you’re at it: install Firefox as your mobile browser for android and add those extensions to your mobile browser! Mobile adblock is here, baybee, save your data and enjoy a better mobile experience! And install it on iOS! iOS can’t add extensions, but at least it’s better than safari, and if you want a somewhat more private iOS browsing experience try firefox focus for iOS (which is also available on android but you can accomplish the same thing with extensions).
Anyway, firefox is good.
Also: in January 2023, Chrome is making some changes to plugin architecture that effectively neutering adblockers. If you want good adblocking, you won’t have it in Chrome. Use Firefox
(In fairness, some Chrome-derived browsers like Vivaldi and Opera have openly parted ways with Chrome about this, and more power to them, but Firefox is the way to go.)
Realistic Stuttering: “Sorry, I uh… I didn’t mean- I didn’t mean to do that…”
When people stutter, they usually reword what they’re saying as they speak, and subconsciously insert “filler words” such as “uh, like, you know,” and etc.
*puts on speech therapist hat*
ACTUALLY! It depends on why they are stuttering.
A Nervous Stutter results in what is called Mazing, or rewording the sentence. That is the classic “I, um… well I… look it’s just that… so we…” that @hellishhues is talking about. When someone is mazing their words you’re seeing a form of Speech Apraxia where the brain is having trouble forming verbal speech. This can be brought on by brain damage, memory loss, anxiety, nerves, and several other things.
The root cause of a nervous stutter is a disconnect between the mouth and the brain.
With this you will also sometimes see the classic “S-s-s-sorry…” especially if the person has been training to speak clearly and is now at a point of fatigue or stress where they are not mentally capable of forming the words.
The other kind of stutter is a Physical Stutter, sometimes referred to as slurring, and another facet of Speech Apraxia. This stutter is caused when the muscles of the mouth, tongue, and throat are physically unable to form certain sounds. This is most often seen in the very young and victims of brain trauma.
Sounds are acquired at different ages, so a 2-year-old will probably not be able to clearly pronounce certain words (which is why toddler sound so off when they’re written with developed dialogue). These mis-pronunciations are sometimes referred to as lisping, but only if the sounds are run together. If the person starts and restarts the sound because they got it wrong, it can also sound like the classic sound stutter.
But it all depends on why the character is stuttering!
Do they have Speech Apraxia, Audio Processing Disorder, muscle dysfunction, or another medical reason to stutter? (1)
Are they stuttering because of anxiety, stress, or fatigue? (2)
Does the stutter stem from intoxication or blood loss? (3)
All of those will sound different!
1 - Will have mazing, repeated sound stutters, and be the classic stutter that annoys OP.
2 - This is where you’ll see the repetition stutter, mazing, rephrasing, and filler words.
3 - This is where you are more likely to see starts and stops and slurring of words.
My mum has apraxia and I just wanted to say that’s one of the most concise and clear ways I’ve seen it explained, thank you!
^^^
I myself repeat letters when I’m stressed, so my characters do too, but I didn’t know before about the different causes for stuttering. I will refer to this in future. Thank you.
One of my favourite pop culture useless pieces of information that I know is the fact that trends in horror movies can tell you about the general fears of the world at any given time in cinematic history.
Sorta!
1940s - You have people still alive that remember Jack the Ripper, you have the Axeman of New Orleans and two world wars. The classics are being made for shock escapism and dark stalkers are also popular (usually trusting people turning out to be the enemy).
1950s - post-nuclear bomb. Giant monsters, or unknown blobs are the trend.
1970s/1980s - modern era begins, and serial killers are becoming known and prominent. Slasher films are the trend. The Cold War also drives the fear of invasion, so a few alien films come out in this time.
1990s - a horror movie lull, and lull in wars and disturbances.
2000s - fear of invasions and biological warfare. Zombie movies become the trend.
Here you go! It’s just a random article, but it’s a fun starting point. It outlines the ideas better than what I did above. Fears, politics etc all play a role.
Explaining to straight adults that much of queer history happened within their lifetime and they were unaware of all the extremely important events and how many laws there were to prevent us from thriving because they werent part of queer circles themselves is like…
-leans in close-
How would you like to know about the war in Ba Sing Se?
My dad LOVES learning about the Cold War. It’s full of drama. Backstabbing, cross-double-cross, spy gadgets, secret identities. It makes for great stories and as a journalist he loves a good story.
Me: oh yeah, I was just watching a documentary on the Lavender Scare. Fascinating that it was so recent in our history.
Dad: ….the what?
Me:
Me: -explaining that the moral panic of the 50s slowed down in the 70s only to start back up again with the aids epidemic in the 80s-
Dad: I remember that. It was scary times because no one knew how it was spread.
Me: what if I told you… that they could have slowed the spread of it, but chose not to because it seemed like only queers were affected by it and the government didnt see any problem with all of us dying.
Dad:
Dad: okay heres a simpler question for you- what’s with drag queens and Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand? I feel like every drag queen I’ve seen has a Dorothy costume in their lineup.
Me: -deep breath- okay so let’s go back to that lavender scare for a minute and how it intersects with the golden age of hollywood…
Me, ten minutes later: and that leads up to that famous picture of a drag queen dressed as Dorothy protesting in front of Trump Tower with the sign that says ‘surrender donald.’
Dad: that’s a pretty recent photo though.
Me:… uhhh… 1982.
Dad: … you’ve been hating that guy since before you were born, huh?
Me: oh man, wait until you hear about my opinions on Reagan.
