Day: July 21, 2018

Simple Chinese food: Lao Gan Ma Chilli Pasta

Very easy plan for tonight, other than cutting up the vegetables. I was looking up another somewhat similar recipe we’d tried before (and that was very good). But, the simpler seasoning approach with this one looked worth a try.

Just very easy “ground meat, probably whatever veggies you want, plus yummy sauce from the jar” noodles. This one using spaghetti, before any substitutions 😅

A little reward after making myself go out shopping: fudge penguin time!

Though, that expression is almost enough to put me off. The bird does not look pleased, and who could really blame it? 😅

Looking pretty frosty right after coming out of the freezer, but they turned out tasty. The texture isn’t bad, either. I may actually try making the next batch a little less sweet and rich. I also haven’t been eating many sweet things for years now, so that probably is just me.

I did pick up some more molds today: unicorn heads, to mix it up a little. Guess we’ll soon see what kind of offputting expression they might have.

slashmarks:

anyway I don’t think the story of the 2016 election is that America wanted Trump.

I think the story of the US election is that a supreme court decision allowed states with a history of totalitarianism to arbitrarily change voting law in ways that made it disproportionately difficult for people likely to vote Democrat to vote while a foreign country was running an intelligence campaign to discourage voting on the left and, real time, prod right wing voters in important districts to vote during the election in a race with massive question marks about the security of voting infrastructure, with a widely unpopular Democratic presidential candidate–

And Trump still lost. By roughly three million votes.

That’s six times the loss George W Bush had when he won the electoral college without winning the popular vote in 2000.

Hilary Clinton won the popular vote by a larger margin than Jimmy Carter or Richard Nixon or John Kennedy; she just won it in the wrong places.

Trump is now president because the electoral college assigns more weight to rural states, which are also states with more discriminatory voter laws and more disenfranchisement and therefore states in which it is harder to vote for people likely to vote Democrat.

And all of that is what I mean when I say the biggest problem with the American system is gerrymandering.

Time for another episode of “I Don’t Want To Go To The Store (But We Really Need Some Fresh Food)” 🙄

At least, if I go ahead before it gets much later in the afternoon? Even on a Saturday, I’m hoping there might be fewer assholes hanging around the tables outside the pub next door there than there would be in the evening. Hard to tell, though. Mad dogs and Englishmen…

Backup fan obtained!

The similar model in the bedroom decided to start making worrying bearing noises. So, especially with this ongoing heatwave? I figured I should probably go ahead and get another one in case it does conk out.

I can’t sleep without at least a fan in even slightly warm weather, much less with the bedroom staying over 80F again. That’s enough of a sweatbox with a decently working fan, with this island humidity.

These move a surprising amount of air for something that size, and this one was only around £12. No reason not to go ahead and get a backup.

Though, I may set this one up for the kitchen in the meantime. Been using the fan setting on the space heater, which is way better than no air movement when you’re trying to work in there. Not as good a breeze as with a fan intended for the purpose, though.

Disconcerted again, just realizing that this is the first time in at least a few years that I’ve heard a grasshopper out back. (As in, one lone grasshopper AFAICT.)

It’s been longer than that since I heard any crickets, and I think I’ve only seen two of them here in over 14 years. No exaggeration.

Almost a shame the flying bugs are nowhere near that scarce with no screens, but yeah. Having to wonder how the inner burbs here would react if screaming cicadas suddenly appeared everywhere 😊