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RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

Wannaplan? said:
(words)
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I get it.

Part of the struggle: for me is the feeling of insecurity, especially right now. I've been unemployed for well over a year. I'm thinking I'll never work as a planner again. If I'm facing age discrimination, what good is going back to school to learn another field? I'm starting to research how to start my own planning firm, but when I see the desired qualifications on some of these RPFs/RFQs for even the simplest of jobs, I wonder how a startup solo practice can ever compete.

Meanwhile, my (ex-)wife works in a field where she can pretty much point at a job, say "mine", and it is. She quit her job at the end of last summer because she was burnt out. She's fully confident she'll get something else when she feeks ready. She will. When we were together, I remember headhunters were always emailing her with tempting offers for 100% remote jobs.
 
mendelman said:
[/insert-racially-insensitive-meme-here]

o_O
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Wok Cooking GIF by Nigel Ng (Uncle Roger)
 
mendelman said:
[/insert-racially-insensitive-meme-here]
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With my nephews here in Buffalo, and my (ex-)nephews in Ithaca, I took on the role of being "the racist uncle they never had". When I see them, at least once I have to say something like "A wise man once told me never to trust an Argentinian with your horse. I haven't seen anything that proves him wrong." or "You really don't want a family of Walloons moving in next door. I've heard stories."
 
JNA said:
How many of you own & cook with a wok?
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My mother had one that would sit over the stove element on a rack. I think she used it twice. We had an electric given to us as a wedding gift. I believe it was used once. When I want wok-made food, I'll visit a local proprietor that knows the trade secrets; my favorite ethnic food.
 
JNA said:
How many of you own & cook with a wok?
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I do not. My parents got one in the Great Wok Fad of 1990-1991 but my mom could not comprehend "undercooking" vegetables the way they typically are in a stir-fry, and she was averse to heat settings higher than "medium" (unless boiling water).

It was a step up from those La Choy kit-in-a-can chow mein things though.
 
JNA said:
How many of you own & cook with a wok?
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Got it recently, love it. Looking forward to doing some more WOK-ing this WOK-end. :) I can't believe I thought that, typed it, and am not deleting it. Is this what my middle-age will be? Filled with woks and/or really bad jokes about them? What's next? I start calling kids I don't know "Ace" and "Slick" and bothering the shop-worker while I get my tires balanced? Make it stop!
 
I feel so out of the loop. I just discovered this, and apparently it's been a thing for years.



Wait for it. The goodness starts at 0:08.
 
ursus said:
Got it recently, love it. Looking forward to doing some more WOK-ing this WOK-end. :) I can't believe I thought that, typed it, and am not deleting it. Is this what my middle-age will be? Filled with woks and/or really bad jokes about them? What's next? I start calling kids I don't know "Ace" and "Slick" and bothering the shop-worker while I get my tires balanced? Make it stop!
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I wish I could find a clip from Mr. Mom. Those noodles pop up fast.
 
Wannaplan? said:
I guess I was thinking about a community of adult wage-earners, like colleagues at work or church or maybe family, and it’s the here and now (sort of like that “finish that matters” you mention), and they start talking about classist things, which, for me, can be off-putting, because, first, they clearly haven’t “read the room” to understand who’s listening in, and second, they are oblivious to the classist signifiers they are chatting about. That’s the struggle I carry inside day-to-day. I try not to look down my nose at the elitist group that has somehow accepted me, but hey, that’s why I made the post - the struggle is real.

(If it’s the finish that matters, then why do so many people at the finish line seem so mendaciously oblivious and uncaring to the world around them? Who wants to end up at that finish line?)
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Ah, I get it, and yea I see it here. The community I live in and the church that I go to has a lot of people like that. Since we are new, they haven't accepted me, but I hear their comments.
 
AI has allowed me to have multi faceted discussions about defecation and feces and a future of cyborgs defecating pre measured cylindrical feces.
 
Dan said:
I wonder how a startup solo practice can ever compete.
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Probably quite well. There kicker, though, is the continuous hustle to chase RFPs and have the fortitude to accept a high level of rejection in the face of dwindling hopes of scoring a win or two here and there just to keep the lights on. I don’t know what happened to Cardinal, but he seems like he would have been a good resource to wax nostalgic about the early days of getting his operation off the ground.
 
Is there a never ever ending vacation planning thread? A place where you can ask questions about different places, what people have done there, things that are over rated, hidden gems, family friendly etc.
 
donk said:
Is there a never ever ending vacation planning thread? A place where you can ask questions about different places, what people have done there, things that are over rated, hidden gems, family friendly etc.
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We have a yearly thread but not a Neverending one.

Edit: I stand corrected. There is a Neverending one but it is from 2011 and has posts mostly by former Cyburbians.
 
ursus said:
Got it recently, love it. Looking forward to doing some more WOK-ing this WOK-end. :) I can't believe I thought that, typed it, and am not deleting it. Is this what my middle-age will be? Filled with woks and/or really bad jokes about them? What's next? I start calling kids I don't know "Ace" and "Slick" and bothering the shop-worker while I get my tires balanced? Make it stop!
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You working hard, or hardly working? Boy, don't Mondays suck? By the way, you need to put a little more air in your tires. I noticed your passenger side front tire was a little low. That way you get both better traction and improved gas mileage.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Do you like your wok? We cool a lot of stir-fry but just use a frying pan. A wok could really up my game.
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I like it well enough. Our's isn't anything particularly special, but we definitely get some use out of it. I think the thinner material and steeper sides, help it heat up faster than a frying pan and handle higher heat. It also forces me to constantly stir things around and move them around the pan which I always feel like helps so that whatever is in the pan doesn't just sit in whatever sauce or oil and get soggy. We've had ours for a while and I will say that when I first started using it, I was a little apprehensive about keeping the heat on high while cooking with it but that does make a big difference - cook things fast and hot and constantly moving! It is a little bit of a learning curve compared to using a frying pan that heats a lot more evenly and you might leave things untouched for a while to sear them.

I've also learned that you can use a wok as a makeshift deep-fryer for small batches of things. Your oil heats up really fast and the high sides help make sure it doesn't splatter all over like it would in a frying pan. I've used it for shrimp and small pieces of chicken but you don't want to put too much in all at once or else things have a tendency to fry themselves into one giant lump, no matter how much shaking of the wok or how light the batter is.
 
Every once in a while I screw something up when submitting my monthly expenses (mileage, parking, meals...) and I end up with a paper check instead of direct deposit. Last night I got a check in the mail from my employer for about $300 for October and November. Even though it's just reimbursing money I already spent out of my own pocket, it still feels like I got a little bonus in the mail! :rofl:

It never feels that way if it's just directly deposited into my credit union without me physically touching it.
 
Also... we had beef & broccoli for dinner last night. Maybe I should have fired up some Wok with Yan while I was working in the kitchen. Who else remembers this guy? I think they used to show this on our local PBS in Detroit and I remember loving this guy as a kid.


Edit: Looking him up on Wikipedia just now, he's Canadian so it was probably on CBC, which we got from London or Windsor, and not on PBS
 
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JNA said:
How many of you own & cook with a wok?
Click to expand...

I love my wok! I use it for "ethnic" dishes, but admit that there are other (professionals) who do it better.

Hubby likes the results of what I cook in the wok, but hates trying to fit it in the dishwasher.
 
Love the wok. We have a small and large one. I use it all the time for fried rice or stir fry veggies. The wife uses it to fry things like french fries. It just does it all.
 
Salmissra said:
I love my wok! I use it for "ethnic" dishes, but admit that there are other (professionals) who do it better.

Hubby likes the results of what I cook in the wok, but hates trying to fit it in the dishwasher.
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You shouldn't have to put it in the dishwasher. Scrub off loose bits with a brush and wipe it out, like you would a cast iron skillet.
 
JNA said:
I'll take mine toasted with a smear of cream cheese, some lox, & thin sliced red onion.
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This is the way! And it's gotta be on a salt or egg bagel.

Early in the pandemic, some enterprising high school student near us started a bagel delivery service for Sunday and Wednesday mornings and we took advantage frequently. They also branched out and started delivering other baked goods from a local kosher bakery that has the best challah bread and a really good babka. We were getting fresh bagels and breads dropped off on our front porch at least once a week.

It's been 5 years now and the don't deliver on Wednesdays anymore during the school year and only offer stuff from the kosher bakery once in a great while but they still do bagels every Sunday and we get them once every few weeks. They've also switched who they get their lox from and it's gotten a lot more expensive so I don't bother with having the lox delivered anymore... if I know I'm going to get bagels, I just go to the grocery store and get a lot more lox for the same price. My kids love lox so we go through it pretty quickly.

My only complaint with the bagel delivery folks is that the shop they get the bagels from used to have an awesome dark pumpernickel bagel but changed out their recipe a few years ago to a marbled pumpernickel instead. :down:

We also have a really good bagel shop a couple blocks from our house. In the summer if my oldest needs an activity and happens to be awake before the ungodly hour of like 10:00 AM, I give her some money and let her walk up there to get herself a breakfast sandwich and walk back with some bagels for the rest of us.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Also... we had beef & broccoli for dinner last night. Maybe I should have fired up some Wok with Yan while I was working in the kitchen. Who else remembers this guy? I think they used to show this on our local PBS in Detroit and I remember loving this guy as a kid.


Edit: Looking him up on Wikipedia just now, he's Canadian so it was probably on CBC, which we got from London or Windsor, and not on PBS
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PBS was Chef Martin Yan, his show is Yan Can Cook. It has been on since 1982. One of my favorite shows when I was a kid along with the Frugal Gourmet. These 2 are largely responsible for my love of cooking, especially stir frying.

 
Dan said:
With my nephews here in Buffalo, and my (ex-)nephews in Ithaca, I took on the role of being "the racist uncle they never had". When I see them, at least once I have to say something like "A wise man once told me never to trust an Argentinian with your horse. I haven't seen anything that proves him wrong." or "You really don't want a family of Walloons moving in next door. I've heard stories."
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Shifty Prussians will take you for a nickel if you're not watching.
 
estromberg said:
PBS was Chef Martin Yan, his show is Yan Can Cook. It has been on since 1982. One of my favorite shows when I was a kid along with the Frugal Gourmet. These 2 are largely responsible for my love of cooking, especially stir frying.

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I believe WSU is referring to Canadian chef, Stephan Yan, not Martin Yan.

Wok with Yan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Every once in a while I screw something up when submitting my monthly expenses (mileage, parking, meals...) and I end up with a paper check instead of direct deposit. Last night I got a check in the mail from my employer for about $300 for October and November. Even though it's just reimbursing money I already spent out of my own pocket, it still feels like I got a little bonus in the mail! :rofl:

It never feels that way if it's just directly deposited into my credit union without me physically touching it.
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The same logic that people have with tax refunds. It's not free money--it's getting your own money back. :) But yes, still a psychological thing.

What I do is when I am at Safeway, I wait until everything is rung up before I put my phone number in, then watch the price shrink. Makes no difference out the door, but it's fun.

Jim
 
Planning Commission night. I wore a blue shirt and yellow tie...because I was nominally an adult in the 1990s, so this is how I dress. :)
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Also... we had beef & broccoli for dinner last night. Maybe I should have fired up some Wok with Yan while I was working in the kitchen. Who else remembers this guy? I think they used to show this on our local PBS in Detroit and I remember loving this guy as a kid.


Edit: Looking him up on Wikipedia just now, he's Canadian so it was probably on CBC, which we got from London or Windsor, and not on PBS
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He was on PBS as well. I used to watch him all the time. I also watched Yan Can Cook. The two Yans are not related.
 
Maister said:
I believe WSU is referring to Canadian chef, Stephan Yan, not Martin Yan.

Wok with Yan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

estromberg said:
Yes, I know. I was pointing out that Martin is the Yan from PBS, whereas Stephen was on CBC, not PBS.
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dandy_warhol said:
He was on PBS as well. I used to watch him all the time. I also watched Yan Can Cook. The two Yans are not related.
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According to Wikipedia, Martin Yan was a student of Stephen Yan's!

Also, before this I had never heard of Martin Yan or seen his show but those clips @estromberg posted has me wanting to go out and buy some more flank steak and get cooking!
 
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