He’s a bitch. He’s a lover. He’s a child. He’s a zombie. He’s a sinner. He’s a saint.

I dry them in a food dehydrator or in the oven. There’s no way I could leave them out, exposed like this in my part of the world.

My first thought as well: Those would be covered in flies, ants, and/or other bugs if I tried it around here (which is not Mexico). It makes me wonder if this photo is taken some place that doesn’t really have much in the way of bugs, as hard as that is to imagine, or if they go to great lengths to kill all the pests in the area to prevent them from taking over the tomato yield.

I would truthfully and happily go back in time and tell people not to waste with the fucked up bullshit technology of the past. I mean Angular 1, what the hell was that? Twitter integration? Fuck you 2010. Zend Framework? You should be hanged. HANGED.

HTML CSS XML JSON SQL CRAYONS

Okay, it’s starting to add up.

I feel this in my soul. If I were independently wealthy or had a sizeable amount of passive income, I probably would give up the corporate life and just do something like farming.

But in reality, most of the farmers in my area either have to make do with very little or they end up having to work a full time job to supplement the farm income, build a retirement fund, and to have decent health insurance. Kind of takes the joy out of it if I know I’m either going to have to compromise further on healthcare & retirement, or if I’m going to have to continue working another job either way.

Except that’s exactly how nose canceling ear phones work.

Mine work like this: “Got your nose. Neener neener neener.”

Yeah, of course. I buy one towards the end of every November. It’s a Thanksgiving tradition.

Fish don’t stink underwater the fish don’t stink.

Just thought I’d mention that there are species of fish and other animal groups that are all female or close enough to it that their populations do not rely on males to propagate. For example, Amazon mollies. I couldn’t tell you if any species of betta are capable of parthenogensis, but as a general statement “If you would have only females, the entire fish species dies out” isn’t universally true.

Although it’s possible that female bettas want strong males, I’m certainly not a female betta and don’t want to get too far into the territory of anthropomorhpism and there are certainly other possible motivations and processes going on than simply wanting “strong males”.

But really, all this seems to be veering oddly away from the original topic and my first comment, so I’m just going to leave it at that.

It’s mostly only the males that don’t get along with each other. Given enough space, females can be peacefully kept together in sorority tanks. Similarly, a trio or harem (i.e. one male with multiple females) is typically safe as well and the fish get along just fine, given a large enough tank and appropriate stocking.

Also, most reputable breeders and sources of information will tell you that 5 gallons / 19 liters is the minimum suggested tank size for a happy and healthy fish in optimal conditions. While they can certainly survive in much smaller bodies of water, it’s not ideal and in some cases it’s actually harmful.

Some of it depends on your circumstances, honestly. What’s applicable and works for me, may not be applicable and work for you in your situation.

One thing that really helps me in my situation is a product called Mosquito Bits. It’s a microbial product that you add to anything that might contain standing, stagnant water. It kills mosquito larvae and is quite effective at it. I place this in the saucers of outdoor plants, in equipment that tends to collect water after rain, and even sprinkle it in plants that tend to collect water (ex: bromeliads).

I’ve also read and heard that using aromatic wood mulch, like cedar, around the outdoor living areas can help somewhat.

The biggest disappointment in terms of products that don’t seem to be terrible effective was a Dynatrap. I had acquaintances raving about it, saw some people on other sites like the R-word saying good things about it, so even though they are expensive and require yearly bulb replacements, I gave it a try. It really did not make a dent in the mosquito population, and worse, it traps so many other kinds of insects including beneficial insects that I consider it to be a failure. I’ve opened up the trap to empty it, and there just aren’t many mosquitos in there, just lots of moths, flies, beetles, etc.

In 2024, I feel like we should have the power to create images that aren’t fuzzy, overcompressed, and hard to see messes, yet here we are.

I don’t think I’ve seen that brand in stores in my area, but if I do, I’ll give it a try.

The Tabasco is a dumbed down version of sriracha. So don’t go in expecting it to be a perfect reproduction of the Huy Fong brand or you will be disappointed. It’s more garlicy, a bit sweeter, and not as hot. But at least it hasn’t been out of stock for a year+.

A couple of months ago, I broke down and opened my last bottle of the Huy Fong I had in stock. The best by date was January 2024 and I had no intention of selling it, so figured I’d enjoy one last round of the sauce.

In the past year and change, I’ve tried all the sauces that my local grocers carry in-store. I have settled on the Tobasco version. It’s different from Huy Fong brand and takes some getting used to the differences, but pretty much all the stores in my area carry it, the price is reasonable, and it has its own merits.

I’ve tried some of the more niche brands, but they tend to cost more and are harder to find or impossible to find in-store and honestly I’m just tired of looking and trying new ones all the time when it’s so hit or miss.

The worst sriracha I’ve tried (so far) is the Chickfila sriracha. It’s basically Asian inspired ginger flavored sugar syrup with no real redeeming quality in the context of sriracha sauce. If Huy Fong is your jam, this is pretty much the furthest thing away from that which you could possibly imagine.

Probably because the study itself, which is linked in the article that’s merely summarizing it, discusses tea and a variety of other lifestyle choices / habits that they investigated.

You should probably spend a bit more time avoiding xylitol then, if that’s your reasoning. Sorbitol isn’t toxic to dogs for the most part. Xylitol on the other hand is.

I prefer to believe that I’m uniquely nutritious and irresistibly sweet. And I probably acquired some kind of special powers from my cicada bite that enable me to make anything I touch suck.

For some reason, I was thinking it was a few years more recent than 2011 the last time the Southern Brood emerged in my area. I have a memory of going for a hike in a wooded park, and there were so many of these cicadas that their individual calls just blended together into an almost ethereal low hum. Just didn’t realize it was that long ago.

Since childhood, I’ve always thought cicadas were really cool critters. Their calls are the quintessential soundtrack of summer days for me.

I don’t formally track things, but I do pay attention to when I first start noticing cicada calls each year. I had noticed that they have seemed to emerge later and later the past 4 or 5 years. In 2023, the first time I noticed any calls at all was near the end of June. Normally I start hearing them around the last week of May to the first week of June.

I also did not see as many cicada molts last year as normal, so I was thinking that it was a smaller emergence than typical. I wonder if it’s related to the upcoming 13-year brood getting ready to emerge?

Final note: I went most of my life without knowing that cicadas can “bite”. I mean, technically they can’t bite because their mouth parts are needle-like, but I found out that they will sometimes jab a human.

One year I had a Disney princess moment where a cicada landed on my finger while I was outside working in the yard. I just left it to do its thing, because again I think they’re cool and never had issues handling them before. Several minutes went by, and then I felt a poke in the general area of the cicada – and then realized it must have mistaken me for a tree and it was trying to feed. I could see it lifting up a bit and making repeated attempts to stab its mouth into my finger. I guess I was the most poplar Disney princess that cicada had encountered that day. Fortunately it wasn’t painful, but one of the jabs did break the skin and there was a small amount of blood.

Heck, what keeps them [cows] from drinking the milk of their mother long term?

The mother, usually. But then eventually it comes down to a matter of logistics.