literally every skin and hair care professional in the world: hot showers are really damaging!!!
me, stepping out of the shower into a bathroom filled floor to ceiling with steam, my skin glowing neon pink after i’ve scrubbed every inch of my body raw under boiling water: Interesting!
This is a call out.
Both are good!
Fucking finally! Some good news for us hot shower lovers!
Who showers in their underwear?
Show us the cartoon dick you cowards
Why can’t we just have a normal, informative post here why we gotta make it like this
i’ve been doing hot showers and then ending them with a minute of a cold shower for years! it really helps balance your body temperature cause you dont feel too cold when you get out and you get to experience both benefits of a hot and cold shower! i also just looked it up and they’re called contrast showers which are 100 times better than just doing simply cold or hot. it’s really therapeutic and good to do hot then cold in one shower session. so try it!
Let me just open your mind to an idea. It’s about about using chakra to walk on a vertical surface.
(And eventually dancing and cultural potential of said technique)
Since it was the first technique Kakashi taught team 7 I just brushed it off as pretty easy. Just like meh you learn the technique you got it.
But oh no the technique doesn’t end pass the “grasping” stage. Actually, once you grasp how to do it then comes the actual training.
The technique just sticks the bottom of your feet to a wall…it doesn’t hold you upright. You would have to use all your muscles in your body just to walk up and down a wall.
Imagine the abdominal and back muscles you need to walk down a wall. How you align your shoulders could throw you off balance. Your legs would need just as much conditioning as the rest of your body. Imagine the tension in your ankles holding your entire body at a very odd angle. And then you need to hold onto that tension to walk down/up. If you waver you would probably break your ankles.
That body conditioning isn’t “automatic”. You really would need to practice to build up that sort of physique.
You would need to be in peak physical condition to actually pull off some of these basic techniques. Imagine other ninja admiring the physique of ninja who have mastered this technique. Imagine the contests between ninja to see who can perform and hold the most challenging poses.
Imagine the CULTURAL potential!
Imagine those who take the technique a step further and dance. It would be incredible to see different villages having their own cultural style. Imagine the festivals. Imagine the costumes and masks (because I have a feeling ninja wouldn’t want to be the center of attention at a festival without a costume) Imagine the potential for storytelling fights and village history.
Konoha combines the technique it with a light show to mimic fire. Different lights for different clans, characters, and effects. Imagine the dancing with fiery hoops and twirling fire. Imagine actors actually spitting fire to mimic the Uchiha clan. Crackling black lights for the Aburame clan to mimic bugs. White lights with a deafening BOOM for the Hyuga clan… Acrobatics could be used in place of trees. Just IMAGINE all the music, sounds, and effects around actors dancing around the set. Their diverse clan culture shows in the costumes as well!
Kiri incorporates mist effects (which is very convenient for switching between displays) Their shows are known for the suspense. The crowd can see the outline of monsters moving around in the mist. Characters pop out from the mist and then get grabbed back in. And of course it’s bloody as hell.
Suna is very popular for their colored sands and body paint. Imagine two actors sparring on the ceiling – each shaking off an “aura” of colored sand. Imagine an actor getting sliced with a kunai and red sand flies from the wound. Brightly colored ribbons fly around them as they spin and jump. Imagine each actor covering themselves in something sticky so by the end of the show they’re a walking masterpiece of colors.
Iwa is known for their vivid rocky backdrops. Imagine the stories of finding hidden treasures within caves and exploration. These ninja often have the tallest settings and most breathtaking settings. Ninja scale up the rocks and fight along cliffs. It’s incredible to see their dexterity moving along uneven ground and jagged rocks.
Kumo is known for their incredible display of swordsmanship and weather displays for their plays. Like Iwa they have rocky backdrops but their mastery of swords sets them a part in that respect. They’re amazing at mimicking weather. Imagine the snow and ice they include to decorate their scenes. Scenes can change on the dot bringing in booming thunderstorms or rolling sticky fog. And then they use actual electricity for effects.
Amegakure sets itself a part with it’s towering structures and richly decorated “grafitti”. They’re popular for literal parkour. Characters slide out of setting windows or from sewers below. Some blend into the buildings and are only noticed when they move into action. Imagine the assassination stories they can tell. Imagine the horror of running and ninja are hidden at every possible corner.
Imagine the body conditioning needed to pull off these shows.
JUST IMAGINE HOW GREAT DANCING WITH CHAKRA COULD BE.
something people writing post-apocalyptic fiction always seem to forget is how extremely easy basic 20th century technology is to achieve if you have a high school education (or the equivalent books from an abandoned library), a few tools (of the type that take 20 years to rust away even if left out in the elements), and the kind of metal scrap you can strip out of a trashed building.
if you want an 18th century tech level, you really need to somehow explain the total failure of humanity as a whole to rebuild their basic tech infrastructure in the decade after your apocalypse event.
i am not a scientist or an engineer, i’m just a house husband with about the level of tech know-how it takes to troubleshoot a lawn mower engine, but i could set up a series of wind turbines and storage batteries for a survivor compound with a few weeks of trial and error out of the stuff my neighbors could loot from the wreckage of the menards out on highway 3. hell, chances are the menards has a couple roof turbines in stock right now. or you could retrofit some from ceiling fans; electric motors and electric generators are the same thing, basically.
radio is garage-tinkering level tech too. so are electric/mechanical medical devices like ventilators and blood pressure cuffs. internal combustion’s trickiest engineering challenge is maintaining your seals without a good source of replacement parts, so after a few years you’re going to be experimenting with o-rings cut out of hot water bottles, but fuel is nbd. you can use alcohol. you can make bio diesel in your back yard. you can use left-over cooking oil, ffs.
what i’m saying is, we really have to stop doing the thing where after the meteor/zombies/alien invasion/whatever everyone is suddenly doing ‘little house on the prairie’ cosplay. unless every bit of metal or every bit of knowlege is somehow erased, folks are going to get set back to 1950 at the most. and you need to account somehow for stopping them from rebuilding the modern world, because that’s going to be a lot of people’s main life goal from the moment the apocalypse lets them have a minute to breathe.
nobody who remembers flush toilets will ever be content with living the medieval life, is what i’m saying. let’s stop writing the No Tech World scenario.
I think this is what I absolutely LOVE about Mira Grant’s NEWSFLESH trilogy.
Zombies? Yep. Complete with a scientific explanation for how they came about, right down to statistics on deaths and how – and WHY – the zombies spread their zombiness.
World-changing event? You betcha.
Electricity? Cars? Technology? Still around.
Yes, virtually everyone who leaves their house is carrying a gun. Yes, there are outbreaks everywhere. Yes, some towns – and whole states or regions – were declared unrecoverable.
Yes, society changed profoundly.
But day to day life goes on. People get up, go to school, go to work, have friends, all that. Hell, the story is written from the point of view of twenty-something-year-old bloggers.
““Horses are of a breed unique to Fantasyland. They are capable of galloping full-tilt all day without a rest. Sometimes they do not require food or water. They never cast shoes, go lame or put their hooves down holes, except when the Management deems it necessary, as when the forces of the Dark Lord are only half an hour behind. They never otherwise stumble. Nor do they ever make life difficult for Tourists by biting or kicking their riders or one another. They never resist being mounted or blow out so that their girths slip, or do any of the other things that make horses so chancy in this world. For instance, they never shy and seldom whinny or demand sugar at inopportune moments. But for some reason you cannot hold a conversation while riding them. If you want to say anything to another Tourist (or vice versa), both of you will have to rein to a stop and stand staring out over a valley while you talk. Apart from this inexplicable quirk, horses can be used just like bicycles, and usually are. Much research into how these exemplary animals come to exist has resulted in the following: no mare ever comes into season on the Tour and no stallion ever shows an interest in a mare; and few horses are described as geldings. It therefore seems probable that they breed by pollination. This theory seems to account for everything, since it is clear that the creatures do behave more like vegetables than mammals. Nomads appears to have a monopoly on horse-breeding. They alone possess the secret of how to pollinate them.””
—
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland – Diana Wynne Jones
Saw a discussion about horses in fantasy scenario’s elsewhere, but it got into a fascinating discussion about the evolution of horses and I didn’t want to derail it, but this was too good not to share.
this is a good guide but every fuckin time i see this post come around i see the right gif before i see the left one and i immediately think “you’re goddamn right i’ll push a straight. shove a heterosexual right over”
Something I find incredibly cool is that they’ve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldn’t figure out what they were for for the life of them.
“Wait you’re still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???”
“Well, yeah. We’ve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.”
It’s just.
50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, we’ve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply haven’t found anything better to do the job.
i also like that this is a “ask craftspeople” thing, it reminds me of when art historians were all “the fuck” about someone’s ear “deformity” in a portrait and couldn’t work out what the symbolism was until someone who’d also worked as a piercer was like “uhm, he’s fucked up a piercing there”. interdisciplinary shit also needs to include non-academic approaches because crafts & trades people know shit ok
Spider plants are among the best natural air filters you can put in a flowerpot. They don’t just produce oxygen, they clean out other gases and toxins and whatever else is floating around the room.
Also they’re easy as fuck to grow more of because they reproduce by putting little mini plants out on stalks. Clip one off, stick it in a pot and you’re good!
Worked like a debutante’s coming out used to… (incidentally the debutante’s coming out is where we get the terminology) and so being gay or trans or what have you meant getting presented to the reigning monarch.
“Your majesty, may I present… a gay”
I would love this as a story conceit? Like, an upper class who have to engineer elaborate confections to present the younger generation of queers in the Appropriate Manner for Social Advancement.
“Have you heard about Lady Hemington’s youngest? They’ll be coming out as genderqueer!”
“Oh, poor dear Lady Hemington – so hard on the heels of the first two. She can hardly arrange a come-out until the first two have had their chance to shine…”
“And the cost of another nonbinary ball – !”
“The costume changes alone will be terribly hard to bear. But, of course, one mustn’t skimp. Not when that wretched Lucrezia Netherbottom threw such a come-out for her first.”
“Oh, I know, my dear, I know. I’m so terribly grateful that my wife was able to present our boys at Court herself – I’d simply die if the Netherbottoms had an advantage in wooing the Prince, just because Lucrezia’s quite willing to spend thousands on a French cosmetic surgeon.”
“And you’ve got that dear little daughter who’s looking quite Hard Butch, isn’t she?”
“Oh yes, we do hope it isn’t just a phase; ‘twould be such a nice change to throw a proper Lumberjane Ball…”
Yeah but also fuck the upper class in its entirity.
well that too
so @kingofherrings added some really good Discourse as replies but I can’t reply to them all and they’re REALLY IMPORTANT so sorry about hijacking everything but here are their comments:
I feel like this’d have almost as many, but different, problems and
pressures as now. Genderfluid youth vs. being told every other week that
genderfluid balls are SUCH a hassle, we really couldn’t afford one, so
they don’t come out as that. Genderfluid youth vs. pressure to have two
costume changes at their ball, even though the youth is feeling HELLA
dysphoric and would rather stick with a nice dress the whole time,
thanks.
Suspicion of bisexuals on how it increases their royal s.o. playing
field, and some youths getting pressured to be bi-er than they are.
Extreme pressure to have yourself figured out by about 16. Don’t worry,
nobody’s ever learned anything about themselves or changed when older!
/sarc
(not to dismiss younger teens knowledge of themselves in the real world,
but to say that there are some people who learn more after that time,
and having Come Out to The Crowned Heads at Great Expense as a cisgender
gay and then seeing the same Monarch around years later, them all “oh,
yes, I recall, you are Lady Mallorbody’s gay son-” when meantime the
youth in question is now really sure they’re Lady Mallorbody’s
heterosexual daughter…
Like, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE WANT THOUGH. THAT’S LITERALLY HOW THE PLOTS WORK AND THE CHARACTERS DEVELOP. THAT’S HOW YOU SET UP THE CONFLICT BETWEEN IDENTITY AND SOCIETY THAT POWERS THE YOUNG ADULT NOVEL, OR THE EXPLORATION OF A NEW WORLD THAT POWERS SF/F.
The story conceit is the pretty, flashy, Regency-Rococo frosting that you sink into because there’s a part of you that genuinely fucking enjoys the pretty dresses and serious manners and masc people in tight trousers, the part of you that maybe would fuck an elf. And there is no shame in that.
But despite what a lot of junior writers seem to believe, a story is not just the story conceit – you don’t make a book out of one pretty idea. You literally come up with something Problematic and then play with it. Harry Potter takes the conceit of a magical British boarding school with a distinct culture and specific rules, and gives you an abused outsider child who knows nothing of the culture, a child born outside of the culture, and a poor child born within the culture, and says “You’re at war. A civil war within the culture. Go. Break the rules.” What if you COULD fuck an elf but elves are slightly evil? What if magic is real (for the umpteenth time) but it costs a Price?! What if X people are among us… but they hate us?! The concept is literally one half of the setup, and the other half starts with a “but.” Narnia is real, BUT it’s at war. Gay people aren’t marginalized, BUT society is still fucked up. Utopia is here and nothing is problematic, but…?
You start with the conceit because it sounds SLY and FUNNY and full of POTENTIAL. You have a funky, fresh, unusual little starting point with a cute aesthetic that will make a catchy cover. Everybody’s ready for it, they want to see what you do. NOW YOU TEAR IT APART. THAT’S HOW YOU WRITE STORIES. Now you add in the protagonist who doesn’t fit into the society. Now you add in the people from other classes and what they’re doing. Now you note the seeds of the revolution. (If Regency, the American revolution? Shoehorn in some Hamilton flavor if you want, some rough-edged androgynous American revolutionaries who sweep the hero off his perfect sugar-colored high heels, eyyyy.) Now you get to the cake under the frosting.
ALL OF THOSE THINGS YOU’RE POINTING OUT ARE THE STARTING POINTS FOR THE STORY! YES! EXACTLY!
“Oh but fuck the upper classes though” – UM, EXACTLY? THAT’S A BOOK. GO.
“But Elodie set up a thing where genderfluid youths might cost their parents more” – I KNOW RIGHT? SOCIAL COMPLEXITY!
“But they’re all too young” – WELCOME TO THE FUCKED-UP WORLD OF YA! USE THIS TO EXAMINE HOW CHILDREN ARE “TOO YOUNG” TO LABEL THEMSELVES NOW – also, surely a come-out would happen in the the Vintage Queer sense, in which your party would be organized when you are ready to announce your identity, rather than when your parents can afford to put you on the marriage market? Or would it? Why are we assuming they’re teenagers? Do they need to be? Could a grizzled handsome war veteran come out for the first time after a shocking encounter? Would you like to take my money now, or later?
Look, here’s a bunch of blurbs I wrote using “In a society, BUT.” It took 10 minutes.
“In a world where young gay people have fancy parties to enter society,
one young personis questioning everything it means to be gay…”
“Like any other young trans boy of the aristocracy, Silver’s family can’t wait to throw his first Coming Out Ball. Clever, wild and funny, Silver’s a sure bet to win the affections of the Prince of Flame and Shadow. But Silver has a secret that his family just don’t understand: he’s straight…”
“When a strange masked person with a Virginian twang steals Prince Harry’s crystal slipper at the Big Gay Ball, the Prince embarks on a quest to find them…”
“Clarissa Montclare is a wry-humored, hard-up heiress of a crumbling Yorkshire estate, who can’t really be bothered with London glitter or the big gay marriage market. But Clarissa’s pretty young wife never got to make that choice for herself, and desperately wants to seek her dreams in the big city… while Clarissa’s rugged, idealistic Scottish husband wants them all to overthrow capitalism. Clarissa just wants to work out a new method of fertilization, because somebody has to care about soil fertility. Can she keep her family together? This novel explores the conflict of capitalism vs. aesthetic, power vs. equality, necessary revolution vs. safe peace, and has long pondering monologues where Clarissa strides across the atmospheric misty moors with her spaniel, pondering her conflicting feelings on motherhood. Also, entire paragraphs about the use of manure.”
“In a society in which Big Gay Balls are just an excuse for Porn Without Plot (because boys in lacy Regency knickers), a romance between opposites turns out to be surprisingly sweet and genuine…”
“There are parallel universes, one that’s a standard Pride and Prejudice heteronormative regency AU, one that’s the Coming Out Ball Regency AU. A young gay person from the heteronormative AU switches places with a young grey-ace person from the Gay Ball AU, and they explore each other’s societies. But what seems amazing and perfect to the former outsiders is slowly revealed to be problematic and creepy, and the two young people have to unite again to destroy the parasitic third universe preying on them all…”
COMING-OUT BALLS ARE A CONCEPT. LADY MALLORBODY’S HETEROSEXUAL TRANS DAUGHTER IS A BOOK.
even if you get along great with your family you will get along even better with them after moving out
generic is almost always just as good as name brand. But there are some things you never buy generic, including: peanut butter, ketchup, liquid NyQuil, Chips-Ahoy chewy chocolate chip cookies
just imagine the person on the other end of the phone hates talking on the phone as much as you do. Even a receptionist. I worked as one and I hate talking on the phone
at least once in your life you will go to Wal-mart to buy something under $20 like an ironing board or something and your debit card will get rejected. No one will judge. Everyone at some point in their lives has had $2.98 in their bank account.
thrift stores
everyone else is too busy panicking about everyone else noticing every tiny thing that could possibly be wrong about them to notice any tiny thing that could possibly be wrong about you
you will screw up. a lot. you live and you learn. and when you start to think too hard about that embarrassing thing that happened and how you wish you could change it, just tell yourself that what’s done is done. There’s no changing it, so just forget it and move on. It’s the only way to stay sane.
do the dishes before the sink grows its own ecosystem
you can’t put Dawn dishsoap in the dishwasher.
if you are the only one in the aisle at the grocery store, and you need to get from one end to the other without even looking at anything in that aisle, then you should totally cart-surf down the aisle. Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. Hold on to the little things. They make all the difference.
never try to make cake from scratch at 3am. You end up with a topographical map of Middle Earth.
15% tip.
the best way to get money for food is to tell your grandparents about how you basically live on microwaved mac and cheese. Their horror may result in twenty bucks and orders to go out and get yourself “a real dinner”.
sometimes life sucks, and knowing that it might get better doesn’t always make it suck any less, but you’ll never get to the non-sucky days without enduring the suckiness.
no seriously, NEVER put Dawn in your dishwasher
Do not buy generic brand spaghetti sauce either.
Always check the type of light bulb that goes in lamps. A 60w is not interchangeable with a 40w.
Dollar store batteries work just as well as store brand.
Reward yourself from time to time when you do things that you needed to get done. It’s a good way to remind yourself to do them. Going out to pay a bill? Get Starbucks or something you don’t get often. Rewards don’t have to be huge, they can be small things like that.
Rice, pasta, flour, sugar, cheese, eggs, milk, a pack of chicken, a pack of frozen veggies and a well stocked spice cabinet go a long way food-wise. Splurge and get the biggest container of rice you can. You don’t have to go back and buy it again anytime soon and it makes a TON of meals in the meantime.
Rice can be cooked on the stove. You don’t need a fancy rice cooker. Two parts water to every one part rice (two cups water for one cup of rice for example). Get your water boiling, add rice, put a plate or lid on it, put it on low for 20 minutes. It should be done.
Keep a calendar on your pc of bill due dates. If your bills are set up at inconvenient times, like all of the services started on the first or something, then call up the company and find out if you can get your billing date switched to something more manageable. A lot of places do try to work with you.
There is no shame in calling a company and asking for an extension on a bill. Let them know what you can pay, pay that amount, and they arrange when the rest of the payment is required. This can stop you from having services shut off man. It shows responsibility on your part.
Take time to eat, even when you don’t feel like eating. Your body needs energy to live.
Wash or rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. It prevents gross caked on junk.
“The Works” is an excellent cheap toilet cleaner.
MAGIC. FUCKING. ERASERS. THEY WORK ON EVERYTHING JUST DON’T SCRUB HARD. I took the ring out of our bathtub with one. Also generic ones work just as well.
Keep some bleach around but if you use it for cleaning? Dillute it. There’s rarely ever a case where you need to pout straight bleach on anything. A cap full or two in a bucket of water works just fine.
DO NOT MIX CLEANERS. Chemical reactions are can be very dangerous. Here’s a good list. (Note that vinegar and baking soda can actually be a good combo for removing smells from things but it’s not very good at actually -cleaning-.)
If you drink? Don’t take meds at the same time it’s just not good.
Make sure you check the dosages on your pill bottles. No one wants to accidentally overdose on cough syrup or ibuprofen.
If you have a uterus make sure you have a heating pad and ibuprofen on hand for the pain. Hot baths also generally help and Ginger Tea is excellent for any nausea.
Buy a first aid kit. It’s worth it in the long run.
You can often do your taxes online at places like TurboTax.
Petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline) is good for chapped lips and you can get a decent sized tube or tub of it (generic brand version) for cheaper/same price as Chapstick.
KEEP TRIPLE ANTIBIOTIC OINTMENT IN YOUR HOUSE FOR CUTS AND SCRAPES AND SORES.
~~Medications~~
Over the counter medications (stuff you can buy right off the shelf no prescription needed) have a name brand and a generic name. ALWAYS buy generic if it’s available it is literally the same thing and way cheaper usually.
Some names to remember when you’re looking for meds!
Acetaminophen = Tylenol
Used to treat pain and reduce fever. Do not take with Ibuprofen.
Ibuprofen = Advil, Midol, Motrin
Used for pain and fever, is an anti-inflammtory. Is good for period cramps because it is an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug).
Naproxen = Aleve, Naprosyn
Treats fever, pain, arthritis pain, gout, period cramps, tendinitis, headache, backache, and toothache. Is also an NSAID.
Acetaminophen + Asprin + Caffeine = Excedrin
Usually marketed as “Migraine Relief” as a generic.
Asprin = Bayer
Use for pain, fever, arthritis, and inflammation. Makes you bleed easily so should not be used for periods. Might reduce risk of heart attacks.
Triple Antibiotic Ointment = Neosporin
Used on cuts, sores, and scrapes to reduce risk of infection and promote healing.
Also a general mutli-vitamin isn’t a bad idea and if you don’t get a lot of fruits or milk/sunshine in your diet you might want to get vitamins C and D specifically for daily use.
if you do accidentally lapse and put dawn in your dishwasher, run it empty and put hair conditioner where the detergent goes. that’ll clean it out (tip given to me by dorm custodian when roommate did the thing).
if you live off ramen, add stuff to it! add veggies you like, don’t use the whole flavor packet to cut down on sodium and msg or don’t use it at all and add your own spices.
if you’re making something with potatoes in it (beans, stew) potatoes are done when you can easily stab a fork through them.
you can microwave a hotdog as long as you put it in a microwave safe container of water. microwaves work by making water molecules vibrate. also, when reheating rice leftovers, add a small amount of water, like maybe a spoonfull, so it doesn’t get hard and crunchy.
the rice cooking advice above is for long grain rice. if you’re making short or medium grain rice, a 1:1 ratio (one cup water for one cup rice) is better, so the rice doesn’t come out too mushy.
buy a few cans of chicken. wholesale club stores like sam’s, costco, or bj’s tend to carry multipacks for a good price. they’re incredibly useful for when you forget to defrost meat.
buy meat on sale and put it in the freezer. buy vegetables on sale, and put them in the freezer. frozen veggies are often as flavorful and good as fresh ones, keep longer, and often come in microwaveable bags or with microwave directions.
soak ink stains in milk to help get them out or at least lighten them.
soak blood stains in water as soon as possible, with a bit of detergent or stain remover. scrub at them. use cold water, heat binds proteins to fabric. tbh, there’s no real need to change the washer from cold-cold setting unless the thing you’re washing says to wash in warm water.
acetone, found in most nail polish removers, dissolves super glue.
YOU’RE ALL DOING GOD’S WORK BLESS YOU
Takes pictures, have prints made and put them in photo albums. Be IN the pictures, have someone take pictures of you and your friends. Get over not looking perfect in thw picture. Someday that friend might be gone and those pictures might be all you’ll have, you will want to be in them. I made that mistake with my best friend, i always felt weird asking for a picture together… he died of cancer January of 2014 and now i have no pictures of us together. Its my only regret in life.
This is really helpful, thank you all!
I’m the newest of new adults but I’m gonna throw these little tips in there. IF YOU HAVE AN OLD CAR:
-coolant or water if your car overheats (coolant is preferable cause it won’t hurt the engine in the long run but hey i know money is tight)
-flashlight in case you break down at night and need to check under the hood and your phone is dead
-SPARE TIRE.
-jumper cables.you will at some point leave your lights on. you just will.
AAA or any other road side service is never a bad investment i swear. (try to mooch it off your parents as long as you can though)
Know how to change a tire. You’re going to need to do it at some point in time and you can’t always rely on someone else to do it for you.
Don’t be afraid to go to your local food bank. They are there for a reason.
Don’t be ashamed to ask for help period. Life is hard, everyone needs help occasionally.
You can put a LOWER wattage bulb in a lamp that says it’s for a higher one, but don’t put a HIGHER wattage bulb in. Also, watts refer to the amount of electricity used. LUMENS refers to the amount of light put out, and can vary quite a bit between brands, even though the wattage is the same. Look for the one with the highest lumens unless you actually want a slightly dimmer bulb in a certain location.
Those dollar store batteries? Fine if they’re alkaline. “Heavy-duty” batteries, however, won’t last nearly as long.
You can microwave a hot dog and bun simply by wrapping them in a toweling for a minute, less if you don’t want them scalding hot.
Reblogging to save lives.
Two adulting (kitchen-related) tips from me!
1. Buy a roll of parchment paper from the cooking shit aisle. A big roll will last you for-fucking-ever. Pretty much any time you’re using a baking pan you can line it with that stuff and save yourself A: food sticking to the pan and B: it’s a quick rinse and it’s clean.
2. Bread can get fucking expensive, so make your own. A bigass bag of flour and a bag of active dry yeast (store it in the friiiiidge!!!) works out a FUCK of a lot cheaper than buying bread at the store, and you can do so much more with it. Bread, pizza, rolls, cinnibuns, homemade pizza pockets. It seems intimidating but it’s stupid easy.
Seriously. It’s stupid simple to make, and most of the “3 hours” to make it is sitting around surfing the internet or doing whatever the fuck you want while the dough rises. If you have an afternoon free once a week to sit and play video games or surf the net, you have the time to make your own bread on the cheap. Here’s my simple-as-fuck recipe:
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (You can buy a bag of this stuff CHEAP in bulk stores, the little packets are hella stupid priced) 1 cup warm water (think a hot bath) 1 ½ teaspoons sugar 2 tablespoons oil (any kind works for the most part) 2 ¼ cups flour 1 teaspoon salt
1. Stir the yeast, water, sugar, and oil up in a bowl. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. It will foam up VERY high, this is the yeast getting happy! If it doesn’t get all foamy, the water may have been too hot or not hot enough. Remember, Yeast is alive! Treat it like a nice girlfriend!
2. Mix your flour, salt, and the yeast concoction up in a bowl.
3. Knead that shit for about 5 minutes. It will start sticky as heck, but will come together into a nice dough. If it’s still super sticky, toss in a bit more flour. Here’s how to knead it:
4. Put your dough in a covered, lightly oiled bowl and leave it someplace warmish for an hour. At that point it will have roughly doubled in size, give it a gentle punch to release the gasses that have built up inside. Cover it again and let it sit for a bit longer.
Boom. You have bread dough. Here are some baking times and uses for ya:
Optional egg-wash: Just crack an egg into a bowl, add a pinch of salt, and mix the bejeebus out of it with a fork. Brush (or if you’re like me, goop it on with said fork) that shit thinly on bread before baking for a nice crust.
Pizza: Stretch it on a pan, stab the fucker all over with a fork, add toppings, bake 425*F 15-20 minutes.
Bread Sticks: Make snake-shapes, let rest on pan 10-ish minutes, bake 400*F 10-20 minutes.
Dinner rolls: Make ball-sized (yes those balls) balls. Place on greased pan, let rest 10-20 minutes to rise. Egg-wash and bake 375*F 25 minutes.
Bread: Lightly score (cut) the top, let sit for 20-ish minutes on/in whatever you’re using to bake it, egg-wash, bake at 375*F for 20-ish minutes. It’s done when it sounds hollow if you knock on the bottom.
You bet your ass you can deep-fry this shit for cheapie yeast doughnuts. Roll that shit in sugar or dip it in whatever, it’s fucking tasty.
Bagels: YES. YOU. CAN. Form bagel-shapes out of the dough and boil them in salty water for about 2 minutes. Egg-wash them and bake them at 400*F for 10 minutes.
Cinnamon Rolls: Roll that shit out into a rectangle. Brush it with a mix of butter, cinnamon, sugar, and a pinch of salt (no exact amounts here, do it to your taste). Roll it up into a log, and cut it into discs. Let them sit 20 minutes in a pan and then bake at 375*F 15-17 minutes.
You can add whatever you want to the dough for some variety, just if it’s dried spices remember you really only need 1-ish tablespoons. I personally like making bread with about 1 tablespoon of dill in the dough. Roll it out flat, sprinkle it with cheddar, roll it into a log, squeeze the ends shut, and bake it like a regular loaf of bread. Cheesy dill bread OMNOMNOM.
*ahem* That got a bit long. But yeah. Bread’s expensive, yo. Save your wallet.
(Also it’s ridiculous amounts of therapeutic to bake, for me anyway)
Being able to bake your own bread is pretty awesome, if you got the time for it.
wupacing 