It’s -13°/-20°C with the windchill tonight and I found a cat on someone’s balcony while I was out. I knocked on the front door to get them let back in, and there was this woman in the middle of something with her labradoodle-ass dog inside. Like, every light is on and people are home and clearly one animal is better attended to than the other. When she answered I was like, as the cat darted in, “is that your cat?” and it was but she looked at me really confused. I just said “it’s cold outside” and left. I’m still really angry about it. She’s probably going to do it again.
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TIL that Rick Bayless a TV cooking personality with a bunch of mexican fusion restaurants all over Chicago is the brother of Skip Bayless. I am familiar with Rick, love his content (and his blue corn tortilla chips) but had no idea he was related to Skip (who is more in my husbands Sphere of Knowledge) even though now that i look at them side by side they look like they could be twins.
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the new ethel cain album came out about 30 minutes ago. i thumbed through it quickly and i’m very very stoked to listen to it in the morning.
At my old job, we had the film rights to Heavy Rain, but nobody ever wrote a screenplay, so to show people what it was, we had a PS3 at the office that only played Heavy Rain
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We need to amend the insert credit best console of all time list now that we know the existence of the Heavy Rain only ps3
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is the heavy rain only ps3 an arcade cabinet?
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I t would go directly to the bottom of the list.
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i’m tired of finding so many people attractive.
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if they can bring back wooly mammoths then they can bring back the Dreamcast
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i’ve become the opposite. if i hear someone be clever or funny on a podcast and look them up and they’re too hot? i cannot support that.
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They clearly overallocated their stat sheet when rolling their character!
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i don’t know if that’s opposite. at least, i also can’t support my tounge unrolling like a carpet half a dozen times when i’m just, like, looking for weird trash at good will.
My wife has cut my hair for like, 15 years.
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So, tonight, Mrs. Gaagaagiins and I went out for supper to celebrate her birthday. Save the salutations on that–her birthday was over two weeks ago, we just only got around to going out tonight (her birthday is December 29th, and the restaurant was closed, and then it was New Years time and we didn’t want to go to a popular restaurant over the holidays, and then we realized the restaurant was closed every week on both of my weekly days off, so yeah it just took a while for us to find the time).
For the record, we shared a big dry aged ribeye, that was, like, kind of a mix between a roast and a steak. It was delicious! Beautiful meat and a wonderful sear on it, but also, the fat was rendered just perfectly, and there was a big bone that we tore the beat tasting meat off of. Came with roasted veggies (way too many mushrooms but they were good) beautiful fried potatoes and a salad I guess. I got coffee creme and she got a sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Weren’t cheap but it was a solid meal, better than we were expecting in our small-ish city. And, I guess since I’m food blogging now, I also got a nice mocktail with passionfruit, pineapple, lime, coconut water, and uuuuuh something else, at any rate it was delicious. Mrs. Gaagaagiins got some cocktails but idr what they were since they were just nasty alcohol drinks ofc.
Anyway, we also got a sharkoochie board, that came with some nice cured meats, toasted bread, some pickled vegetables, and two little cubes of deep fried head cheese (the other highlight of the night).
It also came with a ramekin of fancy mustard.
In my 35 years of life, I have never tried mustard. I was one of those picky eater children (still am one, but I was one too) so I never felt a desire to try any kind of mustard. I was also strongly turned off of mustard from working at McDonalds, I still remember washing out the mustard dispensers with very hot water sprayed at a high pressure, and getting blasted with mustard gas (well ok I guess technically a vapor is droplets of liquid suspended in steam or whatever).
So, since I was 15, and until tonight, I had had no desire whatsoever to try mustard, but, curiosity had been starting to chip away at me. I had thought, you know, what if, one day, I tried mustard? Just so I could know what it tasted like, right? I know I’ve liked some things that I knew contained mustard, like, idk, Caesar dressing, so, maybe mustard was something I would like if I tried it?
I thought, well, considering I am in a fancy restaurant, where there is thought and intention behind food and condiment pairings, I would throw caution to the wind, and, with a dollop and a dash of joie de vivre, I took a piece of toasted bread, a smear of headcheese (said by Mrs. Gaagaagiins to be an excellent way to go about this), and, for the first time in my life, some mustard.
I would like you all to imagine this scenario.
You have been captured by the government, and transported to a top secret underground facility. You have been blindfolded with a bag over your head, and, as a hand is placed on your shoulder, you hear a voice.
“You have been chosen to receive some… particularly sensitive information.”
The hand moves from your shoulder, and grips the bag, tearing it off. The room is not well lit, but, still, the sudden change in brightness causes your eyes to reflexively shut again. But, slowly, they acclimate.
At first you’re not sure what is in front of you, but, it only takes second to realize what you are being shown is much more than “particularly sensitive information.”
Standing before you is a Little Grey Man. Its bulbous, pupil less, pure black eyes, its humanoid-yet-utterly non-human muscles and stature, its two little holes for a nose, its wise, yet perplexing expression. It’s all just as it is in pop culture, and, more than anything, what you’re struck with is that the being before you is absolutely real. This is not something that can be faked.
“⟒ ⟒⟒⟒ ⟟ ⟒⟟⟟⟒ ⏃ ⍜ ⟒⊑ ⟒⊑⟒ ⊑⟒ ⟟⍜⟟⟒ ⟟⍜⟟⟒. ⍙⏃⍜⟒⍀⟟⟒⟟,” it says to you. “⟟⟟⟒⏃⟒⟟ ⟟⟟⟒⏃⟒⟟!”
“Now now, slow down, there’s no way that they’re going to understand you, ⏚⎍⎅⎅⊬,” says The Alien’s Government Handler. “We have successfully suppressed all knowledge of your language and culture here on Earth.”
“⍜⍜ ⟒⟒ ⍜⍜ ⏃⊑ ⏃⊑ ⏁⟟⋏☌ ⏁⏃⋏☌ ⍙⏃⌰⌰⏃⍙⏃⌰⌰⏃ ⏚⟟⋏☌ ⏚⏃⋏☌” the being says in response.
“Put the blindfold back on,” says the Handler, and someone else behind you does.
There is a momentary fumbling sensation on your hand, and, suddenly, you feel cold metal. You reflexively shrink and yank your hand away.
“No no no, don’t worry, this won’t hurt you,” the Handler laughs. “We just want your honest opinion on something.” The same hand, gentler this time, places the metal object in your hand. It’s thin, and light, and… oh. It’s just a spoon.
“We want you to taste this.” Okay, it got weird agai-“we promise that there is nothing dangerous about it. It’s alien food. It is perfectly digestible and even nutritious for human consumption. We just want your honest first impressions.” The hand returns to your shoulder, this time, slightly firmer.
You’re too dazed to know what to do–all you can think of is that you can hear the Little Gray Man breathing. It breathes… well, you know, it’s not breathing too fast, or too slow. It’s breathing, well, more or less like a human. This comforts you, and, maybe it’s the effectiveness of the government’s pseudo-psychological-torture tactic here, but, you can’t think of any reason to not try the alien food. I mean, the being doesn’t seem hostile either…
Without thinking any further, deliberately without thinking that is, you bring the spoon up, and place it into your mouth.
That’s what mustard tastes like. And it’s fucking disgusting.
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Oh, uhh…sorry
/s
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It might be too late or ultimately futile, but I finally submitted everything I needed to update my name and gender on my passport (the final document apart from birth certificate that I needed to change). I know I should’ve done this a month ago. It’s been on my to-do list, but I hit some kind of mental / emotional block and couldn’t bring myself to get it started. : /
I am not sure what to expect after the new president king is sworn in. I have 2-3 weeks before I get the new one — What’s the likelihood I can squeak in before some federal mandate?
Also, surprisingly, my passport photo turned out great, so now I’m just hoping I can get it for a decent looking gov id.
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No idea how a federal mandate might change things but if you submitted everything you needed to and get denied for a bullshit reason, there is a passport office in LA you can go in person and they might be able to help you there and expedite things. The fact that you have it postmarked before any potential executive actions is good, and I mean, just keep notes of everything. If there is an executive action, idk maybe hook up with a legal advocacy org… we’d support you in safety_lite vs. the united states!
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Thanks tradegood, I know the future in this regard is essentially just a shrug, which can feel precarious and stifling even in itself, but this was really comforting. <3
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I come from a parallel dimension where mustard rules, and eating aged ribeye off the bone and head cheese are revolting.
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I’ve in the same situation here but for far longer… I updated my birth certificate 2.5 years (over here birth certificate goes first) but I haven’t done anything to follow through. There are plenty of factors that go into my mental/emotional block but the main one is my fear of screwing something up with my US visa and with the coming administration stuff might be even more finicky. I care so much about my visa cause I depend on it to see so many friends and I have a wonderful community on the other side of the border and I’m extremely scared of losing that.
My parents and my therapist insist me on getting this done for my safety cause uhh getting stopped by a cop and showing a driver’s licence that doesn’t match my current self to a very transphobic police is not a good idea… and I know they are right but losing community over bureaucracy scares me more.
On the funny side technically I’m 2 different people for the mexican government so that’s fun.
Feel ya and hope your new passport turns soon<3
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