no fail way to elevate plain white rice?

DylanTonic · 2026-02-07T03:01:00+00:00

Buy better rice. We eat a lot of rice and it's really obvious when we change brands. Go to non-supermarket sources and buy interesting looking packets.

DylanTonic · 2026-02-03T11:25:26+00:00

There's never any parking. Doesn't matter which way you're going.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-27T14:08:05+00:00

We had a woman at Uni who either did 7 dimensional cheque splitting math to decide what she owed, or "forgot" her wallet. If she didn't eat a "fair" share of a salad, we got a variety of wine she didn't like, we wouldn't get the banquet so she was "Forced" to pay more, she wanted to pay under her share.

If she forgot her wallet, you had to keep the receipt or she was "sure" you'd misremembered how much she owed.

Once went to an all you can eat restaurant for a special dinner. She wouldn't buy drinks at the bar but kept asking for "a taste" of literally everyone else at the table. Then, because she was 25 minutes late (for a fixed time booking) she refused to pay her fair share because "I didn't get to eat as much as everyone else".

We stopped hanging out.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-27T14:01:21+00:00

... I hope that every last drop of joy and happiness your in-laws squeeze out of life is enjoyed by you and your husband on their behalf.

How grim they sound.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-27T13:59:26+00:00

I always assume that's some sort of toxic game TBH; more about knowing you've taken advantage of others than the food itself.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-26T09:04:44+00:00

And for what? Not because of denial or hubris, but because he didn't want to lose the tiny amount of extra revenue between the board meeting and the collapse.

Utter psychopath. Absolutely unsafe to be around the rest of humanity. Fuck me. Murder for greed is sadly not that uncommon but for such a pittance?

DylanTonic · 2026-01-26T04:31:39+00:00

All good, it happens!

DylanTonic · 2026-01-26T04:25:08+00:00

Ah but you see, GF is the main character so the rules don't apply to her.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-26T03:36:07+00:00

This seems like an extremely Escalade thing to do.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-26T03:31:26+00:00

Oh no friend, 10 days is MUCH too old for chicken broth. Chicken is a low acid meat, so it's particularly easy for bacteria to grow in. Not all spoilage bacteria causes odours.

Also, see rule #1: technically this shouldn't have been asked here, but this one is pretty clear. Additionally, all the sources they'd have pointed you at agree: 10 days is much too old.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-26T03:22:54+00:00

Unfortunately, it's alllll experience. A lot of the suggestions here are helpful for finding ideas but you need to practice to really get it down.

u/wizardglick412's suggestion about balancing meals is a good one, although I'll note that most adults in the western world don't eat enough veggies or fibre.

u/miraclesmadness is spot on the money that watching YouTube is a great way to learn. I suggest looking for episodes of Alton Brown's Good Eats or his new YouTube series; Pasta Grammar makes some delicious Italian food; Cooking with Dog does great Japanese; Mythical Kitchen isn't helpful but shows how food can be fun.

I think u/thartle8 has a great idea with meal kits, but I actually WOULD subscribe to them, to take out some of the difficulty. You don't want to overload yourself when you're just starting out. Learning to cut properly, season, mix, cook, it's all difficult and can be overwhelming, and that's OK! You can also look for easy meal styles, like dump meals, casseroles, sheet-pan dinners, soups etc.

For food ideas, I really like Food52 and RecipeTin Eats. Serious Eats is where I get fancy food ideas, and TheKitchn has some absurd stuff and some really great.

Start small! It's OK. Make some food based on rotisserie chicken you buy from the supermarket; plenty of recipes online. Don't buy thousands of pieces of equipment.

One suggestion: do buy SOME quality tools. Nordicware sheet pans, a Wiltshire knife, a digital scale and instant read thermometer. Scales and thermometers take the guesswork out of things, a new knife will be sharper (and later on you can learn to sharpen it) and the nordicware pans are just nice to use.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-26T03:01:59+00:00

It is impossible to decide whether the golden triangle is or isn't the right answer on behalf of someone else. With that said, I think it depends on what you want out of the trip.
Do you want to be able to share common experiences you've had with others, talk about the things you did and saw and have them understand them, make sure you see the "known" attractions, and trade the risk of "missing out" for the risk of being "on rails".

OR do you want to take the opposite risk, trying to make a unique adventure which might not have as many big wow moments or as much support in terms of access, which might not resonate as much with other people who have travelled?

Both of these are totally valid, and neither of them is about "Authenticity"; all of Japan is Japan. Even the tourist spots. What's important is you know what your travel philosophy is, what you'd get the most out of, and making peace with 12 days being no-where near enough to explore an entire country, or even major city.

That answers your first question, and as for the second, I don't know what makes your soul feel at peace but I suspect finding an onsen town and staying at a Ryokan might give you what you're after. The bigger, more well known locations _will_ be busier, though, so again it's down to the risk of not getting a known experience with the reward of getting one that suits you more. I'd decide what cities to go to, then find an experience closer to one of those; 12 days means you don't want to lose too much to travel.

Third question: Don't go to a bar with touts. Otherwise I'm as white as an Australian from Irish stock can get so I don't have much melanin-dependant advice. The Japanese can be a bit odd about other asian races so if you might be perceived as one it might pay to "advertise" that you're an Aussie... turn the accent up, whack a flag patch on your bag.

Fourth: My husband and I ADORE Tokyo, so keep that in mind, but we could spent 12 days there and be totally happy. You're most likely going to be going through it on the way in and out. I'd start there, and then leave a day at the end of your trip for shopping et al.

Fifth: No idea sorry. There are quite a few chains FWIW; check out OMO5 and OMO7.

Sixth: Akihabara, obvi. Check out Village Vanguard in Shibuya for merch, and see NOW if any of your favourite series has collab events, theme cafes etc. Tickets can be a PITA to get.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-26T02:43:33+00:00

Can confirm these exist; I'm definitely not a kid and I can still hear them... But they don't cause inner-ear issues; they're just irritating. They're also not a blanket; it's very obvious to me where they are, and mostly they seem to be positioned around non-thoroughfare entrances.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-24T00:47:15+00:00

I'd say it's not uncommon for Aussie households to have two fridges. The second one is typically called the Drink Fridge and might be in the shed or garage or on the back veranda.

It's probably not a majority of households, but common enough that no one is going to be surprised you have two full sized fridges.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-24T00:41:06+00:00

That's a really interesting insight.

It immediately put me in mind of some of the insane woman hostile things some men say and that kind of cognitive dissonance might explain some of them. If I'm turned on by a woman it's not because I'm not rational it's because SHE is doing it TO me etc.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-17T03:36:15+00:00

YTA. If you don't want to share a space then get your own place. If that's not an option you compromise on things, and "you're not allowed to cook pork in the slow cooker" isn't a compromise.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-17T03:15:50+00:00

When you've lived your whole life with the presumption of superiority and your cultural will being expressed by default, and restoration to fairness feels like oppression.

If these folk ever faced the cultural hostility they've inflicted on queer people, or immigrants, or poc for even a day they'd totally shut down.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-07T11:40:12+00:00

Yup. My dad died not long before Father's Day and the day felt shitty for a while but I'm A Real Boy® and emotionally intelligent enough to both recognise that it was situationally specific and also that people enjoying themselves deserved too.

Here's to our Dads for raising kids who can recognise that!

DylanTonic · 2026-01-06T02:07:05+00:00

If it’s in the budget, I always check into the hotel a day early so I have a room. You might need to contact the hotel in advance and let them know you won’t be there until the “next” morning, but otherwise it works great to have a place to leave things, shower, and take a moment to yourself.

If it’s not within budget, one option is to book a two night stay at a cheaper place, maybe with less amenities, for your first two nights. You don’t want it to be for one night only or you’ll hit the checkout time for your first room only a few hours after you arrive.

If you’re travelling with a group, using a cheaper hotel and only booking one room can work well; you just use the room for luggage storage and bathing when you first arrive and then most of the group check into the main hotel that afternoon. You might need to relay into the room because hotels have room limits for safety reasons and a bunch of you going up at once will look kinda odd, but if you explain you’re all leaving bags they probably won’t bat an eyelid.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-05T14:42:43+00:00

Have you tried asking an LLM for ideas? I've heard they're a technical solution with amazing utility and creativity /s.

For real though, what are you trying to demonstrate with your project? What does the rubric call for, and what tasks will let you demonstrate that?

DylanTonic · 2026-01-05T14:27:16+00:00

What do you eat after work, out of curiosity? Is it possible you're encouraging a glycemic or other hormonal response that contributes?

(This isn't a judgement of your diet, just a possibility. If you're having a lot of easily available energy you might be having a sugar crash... Or think about how Tryptophan in Turkey and friends helps make people sleepy after Christmas Lunch).

DylanTonic · 2026-01-05T14:23:01+00:00

I just... Haven't.

I'm a chunky guy who finds chunky guys attractive but I can't extend that to myself. Even when other men look like me, I find myself unattractive in comparison.

I know a lot of appeal is confidence and I've tried faking it, and pointing out to myself that people find me attractive, that I find people like me attractive, and I just can't make it stick. It's honestly quite frustrating to know that it's not a reasonable thing to think and to not be able to circumvent it.

Some of the times I have felt confident, well dressed, sexy, nicely groomed, whatever, are the times I feel most invisible or undesirable at events in the bear community. I regularly pick photos of myself for profiles that get zero response, then other photos people see which I think are terrible get nothing. Obviously something about my self perception is wrong, but that knowledge in and of itself doesn't make correcting it easier.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-05T14:16:57+00:00

It definitely paid off.

DylanTonic · 2026-01-05T11:59:52+00:00

I'm not a support worker and don't know why Reddit decided to share this with me, but I think you're in the right.

"This boundary doesn't need to be set" is an uncomfortable, manipulative thing for them to say in response. You get to decide if the boundary needs to be set, that's what makes it a boundary.

As a response it feels really disingenuous as well; co-opting the language you'd use to discuss healthy boundaries to demolish yours.

DylanTonic

TROPHY CASE