trendy

I learned about Manfred the Bunny.

I saw this lady on a front page picture and figured it was interesting.

Tiffany Fong
But I don't know Sam or what he did (or did not do vis a vis "Risk management")

What my first impressions are (no one cares,) but I wonder why the photo above was so carefully altered.
And how hot people seem to rule the internet world.

Another article laments China's moves against trendiness (I'm not too sure wtf the author wants to say yet) and he used a word I've never heard, prolly never will again, "ineluctable"

But the Atlantic and the New Yorker are bastions of the most Bombastic, so nvm, it's not for me, not being upper-crust, not in some waiting room in New York, to read nor understand.

Having an opinion that bucks a societal trend is dangerous.
Once you know what the official opinion is, best keep your mouth shut unless you've got the money and the big-ass names to back you up.

Are you a contrarian curmudgeon stick-in-the mud-luddite (but your opinion actually has value?) They'll ignore it. (at best) 

At worst, threaten shame and kill.
(...)

This just in: Comics (the ones in newspapers) used to be funny (sort of) so they called them "the funnies."
The carbon monoxide on buses was easier to tolerate with comics and some friendly lady with a paper.
NOW they're online, less funny, and Commented on!?? (WTF)?

https://www.gocomics.com/matt-bors/2021/03/24

Not so Trendy anymore (I just clicked on a front-page blurb about Heidi Klum)

Nina Garcia (*sigh*)
(Where is she now?)

This next thing defies description, but the internet says it's trendy.
(but what does it do??)
Maybe it looks a lot like it does something else?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WzO1j7n7E0

A day Later, I want to ask someone but no one is there to ask,
which "crock pot" is more trendy (and decent and good) (Minus $big-bucks and nationalistic folderol)

"Rival" got bought by "Jarden" which was assimilated by Newell.
I don't know if Newell cares about crockpots (any more than "Samsung" cares about crock pots nor Color TV's, and I've gotta brush up on decent (not pretentious) brands Lexus, Cadillac and Corsair (e.g.)

The old people buying their favorite brands are dying off, and I don't know the younger more trendy brands (Sony?)

So I'll need a all-clad stainless dutch oven with electrical capabilities
Whut? nvm
Too poor to eat.
blah.

FU and the upper-crust horse

Call it a cocotte, they'll swoon.

Get Thee BeHIND me, eveil "Best of" review sites

I don't know. These reviews are NOT encouraging:

"Ruined 2 roasts" kind of covers it for me.

I'm bringing them up because I saw them (the $39 ones) after writing an entry on dutch-ovens. Electric crock pots seem perfect, except the bugs, my bad cooking, and no food to cook (once I pay for the pot.)

WE (I) don't care what it's made of, it being an electrical thermostat-thing, and I'm not buying for looks (Nor trends), and that brings me back to my little stove.

Which one has a better thermostat (forget the paint-job, ?)

My inglorious lord+Master (my digestive system) has sent orders to never eat onions, garlic nor any other traditional spices nor concoctions (Worcestershire sauce is a capital offense)
So I make do with vinegar and beef broth.

(What? don't judge me) 

I, being wise, should shun "cast Iron" and "Stainless" therefore, and seek out something ceramic (I think) 
Or did we already decide they were too heavy?

(omg...)

The antithesis of trendy (for upper-crust judgmentals) is Martha Stewart.
I've always liked her, and would gladly be the Merlot guy.
Anyway, She says

In your FACE, judgmentals.

Well, clicking a button is much easier than trekking to the store and braving hungry women. but I've resisted "Buy Now" for this long, I can resist the sitting-on-butt shopping for a little longer.

Blackfriday.com

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Mail order sales (this is a rant) sort of beat the mad crush at the holidays (why the F** you don't shop now I'll never know)

BUT, and please excuse the pissed-offness, the bitter regret, of buying from a company filled with temps just off their pot-smoking-break, stuffing your box with some random item they picked off a shelf to fill their quota (or worse, an *empty* official-looking box.)
So shopping sucks from now til after Chinese-New-Year, whenever that is (February?) because the stuff they'll misdeliver or pack wrong, will be out of stock (due to the supply chains, the snow and a few wars.)

I mean, you wanna buy stuff? Buy f'n *today* but you won't, you'll wait until "Black friday" when there'll be lotsa weeping and teeth-gnashing (mostly mine.)

I want my pot and I don't want you smoking it while you deliver it (the pot.)

Bah.

Humbug

EDIT: At least One company I use is relying tons more on the very reliable post office, lately.
Yay, Post Office (and my mailman)

https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/10/amazon-delivery-driver-charged-in-robberies-of-usps-mail-carriers.html

YAY! (Bcuz, FTS already, geez)

It's "Stoneware", whatever that means.
It's consumer-report's little darling.

Some guy didn't like the flecks of aluminium poking through the stoneware (fucket)

No one talks about power cords, Two or three prong?
Two would be ideal. But I'm betting, three.
O well.

This site gives cooking specifics. 325F minimum (???!!) and the internal temp should be 145F when it's done (I glossed, but I think that's what they said.)

'K, I'm totally missing the whole "Slow-cook" thing, that temp would burn it up (don'tcha think?) IDK.

I agree with the second picture, except they don't list times.

*My* potroasts (stovetop) fall apart at 4 hours, and start to melt away at six hours.
(IDK)
This newfangled crockpot stuff is dangerous (for pot-roasts)

Wait, though, "Pot roast" is mostly swimming in a 212F bath, so nevermind 

(I need to read some more)

I wonder how the temp-probe is smart enough to ignore the boiling bath and concentrate only on the meat??

Hmm.

AMD's settings: new Bios, same crap

 SR-IOV is, whatever it is. Honestly, I would not know.
It appears to be primarily concerned with network cards and Interrupts.
The opaque definition would only help someone who already knows what it is.
But just now, after enabling SR-IOV my AMD card's software didn't reset, didn't erase my settings.

If this was a fluke, I'll erase this quick.
2nd reboot, no reset.

Bios Update: It reset! In other words, BIOS has something to do with it, some really random arcane setting I haven't found yet. 

Edit: I stumbled upon a setting but I don't know what it was, maybe it was just jiggling Ryzen-Master (the only thing I remember doing), and yes, we're back to no-reset, but my joy is muted because when this problem reoccurs, I won't know why.

I downloaded a github app to remove bloatware from Adrenalin, 

but it did not help.

I wonder if I'll be reading quaint and curious volumes of forgotten Lore...

(nevermore, Lenore)

Witness the Lore, Lenore (a rumor, nothing more)

https://videocardz.com/newz/windows-11-update-may-reset-amd-adrenalin-gpu-driver-settings#:~:text=The%20Adrenalin%20settings%20will%20reset%20with%20each%20system%20reboot.&text=According%20to%20some%20reports%2C%20the,every%20time%20the%20system%20reboots.

Copilot (ahem) Windows Copilot cannot be removed like some ordinary app, it either has to be hacked or (the approved way) hidden.
Now a guy wonders, if it's hidden is it acting as an agent for Microsoft?

Do you fancy Porn, Trump, Guns?
Copilot might well know, it would be a reason to make it invulnerable from the uninstaller.
But we've seen shady characters before, like "Clippit" in Microsoft Office.

They get deposed after a couple years.

But that isn't solving my "Reset" problem which may be because of some unrelated setting I could never guess at in a zillion years.

It's prolly a coincidence but in my playthrough of Baldur's Gate, the romance scene is missing again.
I'll edit this if it comes back.
All these arcane mysterioso things happening, give me a headache.

New BIOS DMAr? WTF??

My first quick google of DMAr :https://forum.level1techs.com/t/x570-warning-dmar-pro-sku-feature-can-prevent-motherboards-from-booting-until-you-change-cpus/162096

NO, it was Not "DMA"-whatever, but I'm going down a super-long list.
This will get edited eventually, or I will despair and this will get dusty; come back in a month.

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So I'm playing a boring game, and....

I finally got to the romance scene after 12 or so playthroughs...

I wonder, did the bug have a bug, did whatever was blocking it crap-out?

Player is a human-warlock-fiend, if that makes any difference.
Bye-bye cleric role.

Editing this one month or so later, long after love scenes apparently resumed, I just figured that Shadowheart would warm-up to an elf more readily.
But I was way wrong.
And I found something,

IF Shadowheart mourns "Zevlor", a dead guy,

You've screwed up somewhere, time to restart.
IF Shadowheart starts in on the "Unclean," you're golden, and your only sensible response is "I'm Sorry," and fun times are promised on the beach later.

sublimated thoughts (or is it "subsumed")

There is no actual reason to go into the temple of the open hand, and in fact unless you pick the special entrance with the patio (next to the buried trunk) you'll have trouble finding what I'm talking about.
There is also no reason whatsoever to go into the dancing ax (whatever) since Jaheira and I are not on speaking terms, and she never asked me to go there.
But let's continue, as if magic voices told you to go into the temple,
find the trap door
go below and seek out secret buttons hidden behind worn faded shields on the wall.
And if you're thinking, "This is a load, no one could possibly know all that"
You'd prolly be half right, except *I* skip the zillion pissant little quests leading you there.
For example, you wouldn't actually know to go to candulhallow's tombstone store,
except you do,
so you go there,
but only after saving Cora Highberry (all other murder victims can go to hell)
Long story short (too late), After Killing some transparent-red-guy (He's important? I didn't know, no one told me.)


you meet a pretty lady with funny eyes in the temple of Bhaal.

She is played by a hammy actor who pads her part, (Reminds me of a creepy babysitter)
something about squeeezing them until they didn't scream nor whimper.
   If I could (I'm kinda lazy) I'd find the youtube video.
She has a name, and it bugs me that she is ignored by most of the internet.
She (and another character called "Lug") are two totally ignored actresses in the game.

"Lug" is the one singing a lullaby outside of the "House of Grief."
The woman in Bhaal's temple
("Night Blade Elda" I could not google her)
apparently strangled people to keep them quiet.
How many countless others exist.
The psychic prostitute with a fetish for mindflayer-monsters
(there's *one* example.)
The Lady rehearsing her speech to "EdVard" (May she call him "Edvard?")
If you were of an opinion that the mainline story is incomprehensible (find the body to get the key to murder the guys to get the amulet to open the door), these little extraneous parts are welcome diversions to the grinding tedium.
In short (otg) they don't tell you HALF what you're supposed to know,
you must google it,
memorize it, and then (ignoring all the superfluous quests)
execute it.
Two voices in the game try real hard to sound british, but (in my very humble opinion) their detroit-style accent shows through.
One is a Talking-skull in the Biggie mausoleum that is the front for Shar's Gauntlet, and the other is Shar herself (also in my opinion.)
I could just look up her voice, but I've been unable to.

A masterful actress in voicecraft may have chosen to sound that exact way, but I doubt it, they're relatively short parts, and at least "Shar" (the goddess) might have been more than one actress...I'll keep looking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YG0Fd63_70

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WHY is "Staub" so expensive?

WHO (in their reasonably right mind) would buy one???

Well, first of all, the name "cocotte", that has to be worth at least $100,

 then
It's made in France, probably by French people, probably on the Left-Bank.

OK back to the game (I still don't know WHY, (Bcuz) you could buy THREE pots and get them too dirty to use, and throw them away one by one, IDK)

Do guests arrive drooling over the color? Mine would gag seeing the roaches and the indelible grease stains on the prewar gas stove.

The disembodied voice is right, they (dutch ovens/cocottes) are just too damned heavy. this one being 12.9 pounds.
I just checked, water weighs around 8LB per gallon, so without cooking a damned thing you've already got over twenty pounds of searing hot burning hospital-stay weight.
%$#^, that's heavy, and for what?

So (reluctantly?) I'll go with multiclad (not to be confused with "all-clad(tm)"
Stainless-steel.
Beeeeeeecause, I need  want a pot I can carry over to the sink without burning the crap out of my lap.
Someone include the kung-fu-guy carrying a cast iron pot and branding his wrists....

I erased my Original Stainless choice, I'll dredge it back up.

(Link)

I found out that the teeny forks I bought at a discount store are named

"Dessert forks" and are superior to cake forks (no word on the "salad fork")

If I really want to tart-up my dining experience, I need those fancy silicone gloves and some dessert forks.

Maybe a cooking-prong-fork too. (link on the ettiquette of "prong" forks (there are tons of them, each with their own name)

It isn't my place to covet new stuff, not from dumpsters, yard-sales, dead relatives, and swap meets, but I like this fork.

it's very heavy. This maid is used to it, I'm not.
No Dutch oven for me.

Odd I thought/think that no one stares at the dish, which hasn't a place on the crowded table without the guests helpfully jostling their dishes around.
Point being, it must be heavy, like the centerpiece of a cocotte would be, but buried in the kitchen somewhere, who would know?
Someone brought up that it takes less energy. Yeah great, fine, but it would kill me so forget that.

https://themodernnonna.com/how-to-make-stainless-steel-non-stick/#:~:text=Stainless%20steel%20pans%20can%20be,it%27s%20ready%20to%20be%20used. If this link is true, stainless are already non-stick, just preheat them.

Please look up "are brown eggs better."

The sales sites say yes, the USDA says "no."

I just read a line about chickens requiring more feed and more energy to produce a brown egg.
I read another line about taste, as in, they're not confirming or denying that Brown eggs taste better.

It's a paradigm to raise money, eggs 2.0 are worthy, all others are obsolete (and you should feel bad buying them)

So, eggs from the south of France (or maybe Italy) fried in Olive oil must be the creme de la creme.
But your patrons (people eating them) wouldn't know if they're eating a brown egg or not.

But I'm looking (still) for a superior quote
Brown eggs fried in Olive oil and sprinkled with Sea Salt, from Peasants in (uh) 

It's on Youtube so it must be true.

Well, anyway.....a quick trip to the CVS (*my* CVS) will get you a reeeeally expensive (overpackaged) dozen Brown eggs, Cuz everyone knows (it's on the picture of the carton) that eggs raised lovingly by children (on estates in the south of France) are better.

No scam! *magic*

Really odd that they wanna stick you on a guilt-trip for buying ordinary yogurt...
Women shoppers who presumably have been shopping for years, *study* yogurt, they don't grab the first one.

But actually I like the thicker stuff because it makes for good mayonnaise my stomach likes (unless it's asleep, then nevermind.)
And yes, I bought into the whole Greek-ethos.
I seriously don't know.
Brown eggs with greek yogurt and EVOO and sea salt (lol)

If I said "Gwyneth Paltrow" is grating, would you snub me for a slack-jawed neanderthal?
She epitomizes pretension in the dark recesses of my lower-mind (apologies in advance).
Her refrigerator, in public, anyway:

Alleged Link

transitory thought: photograph enlargements.

 A movie from the late-seventies hinged on a guy with a photographer-hobby, enlarging a photograph to incredibly-huge, and in doing so, showed details the original photograph could not see.

Cop shows do it a lot, instantly enhancing photos to read license plates, and discern reflections in mirrors.

How much is this magic program that brings out details?

https://www.quora.com/Is-photo-or-video-enhancement-possible-like-in-crime-shows

Unfortunately people contradict each other, and the examples are poor.

Real life photos as opposed to redrawn anime.

So, OK, back to my subject: I won't be reading any license plates soon but can I sharpen up the woman in the photo? In my mind's eye she's very young and worried, but she could also be an older professional (She's pointing her blurry phone at her target-newsmaker.)

Easy to blurry-up photos
(They could have just cropped it better; nvm)

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Transitory blog-entries that are not worthy to grace your sensibilities:

President JORDAN? (Lyman)

If a Mccarthy could become Speaker, why not President Jordan?

While we're at it, where is Rep. J Birch?

The link below is much too obscure and bombastic, but a much shorter version is in my head (sort of) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sUwVwntrcM

said it first, said it much better (no one heard of this guy or what he wrote,

but it's blogworthy)

I lost my collectible Sweatshirts from Trump-Tower (the giftees died)

Mother Jones

(ble? series) PCR7 incomprehensibles, Part XVi

 

Why windows disparages and is dismissive of a desktop PC:

It uses lots of energy, ready for anything (AKA no "modern-standby")

This (rather "woke") technology ensures your little PC can shut down at a moment's notice, and re-awaken.

To reduce the dismissiveness, I would need to shut down my display, and go to sleep once in a while.

My power-plan: Turn off the PC when not in use.

ERP to assuage any pangs of guilt, please the wife, etc

Now go away, ugly little man, you are not worthy 

PS:

 USB selective suspend (aka my mouse and maybe a flash drive) is disabled because, when it's enabled, stuff would break.
Countless recommendation sites tell you to disable selective suspend.

You can't be PCr7 unless you own a laptop, that's my conclusion.

PPSS

Having a Desktop PC completely snore (no fans) would eventually destroy the Power supply, if (for example) a USB printer and a USB-Powered scanner were hooked up, because the teeny parts powering to the best of their ability (2, 2.5 amps?) would slowly burn up.

I like heatsinks too, but people put too much faith in them.

Related (I think): link 

Also PPSS:

The 3dmark program doesn't like it when you enable all the safety-checks in BIOS and the power-management utilities in windows.
One might wonder if a system can still hold its head up in polite 3dmark society^*, or be condemned to be slower than a Laptop?

TBA (I'll try to paste the slowed-down, enfeebled, hobbled result)

Damn-near every benchmark available everywhere shows your past results easily,
but not 3dmark, it compares you to drooling overclocking zombies (living in very cold rooms)

But 3dmark DOES record the results, sticking them somewhere on the hard drive, using up space like skeletons in a closet, not telling you they exist or where.
(they exist, I've seen them)

...O...Anyway, this result is a lot better than "real bad", maybe it's a tuesday or something.
^{*"Polite society," The post-sunset crowd, walking their dual-custody charges past the abandoned bank after dark, or squeeeeezing in to buy yogurt at the supermarket.
I'm more the "6AM" strata but I forget my place sometimes and do a quick dash into their milieu}

ERP might mess up ERP (see below)

So dual paradigms that are very different but mesh (sort of)

I can't talk like a business salesperson...They want you to BUY STUFF every few years, so they throw out a few acronyms and then conclude you're not worthy ($10000, please)

Front-page-bottom news (or maybe it's an ad)

https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/10/google-hosted-malvertising-leads-to-fake-keepass-site-that-looks-genuine/

If only hackers used their brains for goodness...

I'm convinced it's a real bad idea to store passwords on a browser, a worse idea to sync them across the internet.
If a person can convince whoever that they are really you, they gain access to all of your sync'd passwords.

Well, the remark from way out there is only because it was a headline on some page.

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If I kill a bug on my keyboard, 

right away Microsoft pops up with some arcane feature I've never heard of.
I could probably spend all day looking for the shortcut, or just kill another bug.
Anyway... Boring foods I have to eat...My stomach must be studying to be a monk or the dalai Lama , because every year the food it objects to gets bigger, and the food it tolerates, smaller.
The most boring foods do not interest me (cucumber/zucchini squash) and I would much rather have Broccoli or cauliflower, or both, but the internet blanches, 
"NO! nononono."
Also they hate beans.

I'd buy tapioca (recommended) but since I cannot drink milk....and the non-dairy substitutes have soy....

OMG.

I'm sick of avocados, overpriced BS things, unless I'm standing there. They beckon, 
"only two for $5." or is it, TWO for only $5"

OKOK, 2 for $6

I'd like bananas but they get old quick, attract even More bugs.

OK what's left?

Potatoes.

Fried ones would set off the alarm...but yeah, I've a hankering for very browned potatoes.

I used to love hash browns...I still do, but they're expensive and I'm nearly broke.

I bought (don't sue me) "Gummies" which is prolly trademarked, so I didn't know they were gummies.

 I was hoping for little cakes or nut-clusters.

They're a lot more like some snooty brand of chewy candy.

This pisses me off just a little, enough to put an entry here.
Are they nutritious enough to satisfy hunger? Are they candy with a different paradigm?? (They were super vague about what they actually were.)

"Welch's Fruit snacks" (not gummies, not candy)

My little bag of super-expensive walnuts taste like Nothing, I swear,

This is an impossibility, even popcorn has a flavor, so am I ill/dying?

Or is this the new style, flavorless walnuts to go with the flavorless avocados.

I'll toast Them!! In tons of grease My stomach will have a shit-fit over.

A different Brand.
Flavorless walnuts are Real!
The truth is out there!
("PASTEURIZED" badly, hmm)

Different brand, different nut:

'K, uh, I'll know what to buy next time ("diamond"), not because of the unrelated (snooty) ad above, but because Diamond walnuts always tasted good to me. 

THIS bag is like clumps of sand in my mouth.

THIS bag is "Happy belly" Brand, and it sucks.

My writing is terrible today. 

Does pasteurization destroy flavor? Some say "yes."

Do expensive brands taste better? Sometimes.

(or maybe there's some new free-range law I was unaware of)

Actually yes, there is.
Only it's very couched in obfuscating language.

It costs more now than before to "handle" walnuts, whatever that means.

Biggie brokers with gigantic warehouses and trucks, get a bigger cut.

(I think.)

It is no longer necessary to certify walnuts,

(nuts need not be certifiable)

https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/moa/984-california-walnuts#:~:text=The%20rule%20eliminates%20mandatory%20inspection,changes%20recommended%20by%20the%20Board.