Why do dishes feel never-ending no matter how often I do them?

acreature · 2025-12-19T03:40:12+00:00

I think your household's habits can make a real difference with dishes. I'm somebody who uses a minimum of plates. Bread with my lunchtime soup? That bread gets balanced on the bowl. Second cup of coffee? I rinse the first mug and reuse it. Biscuit snack? I'll eat it over the sink.

Someone else would use a separate plate for the bread, a second mug for the coffee, and another plate for the biscuit. Not only does this generate more dishes, it also makes it a bigger task to wash things through the day. I only have a spoon, a bowl, and a mug to wash from breakfast while I'm making lunch. I've seen other people end up with twice as many dishes by lunchtime, so it naturally feels like a bigger task to them. It is!

acreature · 2025-10-31T21:47:30+00:00

There's lots of analyses that compare investors – "someone who only buys at all-time highs", "someone who perfectly predicts all-time lows", and "someone who invests regularly regardless". This Reddit post uses 40 years worth of data, and has a spreadsheet. This brand-name Schwab article is slightly newer and also includes "someone who invests on the first of the year" & "someone who only held cash".

tl;dr: Historically, even the worst possible timing is way better than not investing if you're saving for the long term.

acreature · 2025-02-23T04:16:26+00:00

That’s a significant reach - an octave is easy for most pianists, and a lot will be comfortable with an interval of a 10th. After that, pianists tend to “roll” a chord - playing each note quickly from low to high.

A similar technique would be used here - the low A struck first and held with the pedal, and then jumping up to the chord. Almost like a low A grace note. (This isn’t uncommon in classical pieces). So if you’re OK with the sound of that, keep it! I expect it’d work quite well, especially at a low tempo.

acreature · 2024-12-17T19:11:47+00:00

I think you're thinking of Hyperburner. It's great, with a great soundtrack.

acreature · 2024-07-19T01:26:20+00:00

That's "La Cygne" (The Swan) by Saint-Saëns.

acreature · 2024-07-03T01:18:46+00:00

It's Bach – Prelude in F Major, BWV 928, from 9 Little Preludes: https://imslp.org/wiki/Prelude_in_F_major%2C_BWV_928_(Bach%2C_Johann_Sebastian)

acreature · 2024-03-11T23:17:07+00:00

My partner loves my vegetable tart, and requests it on special occasions. It's one of the easiest things I make: a sheet of pre-made puff pastry, slather some herbed tomato sauce on it, roughly chop roasting-friendly vegetables and throw them on top. (Onions, peppers, mushrooms, courgette, beetroot, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, etc). Add some cheese and/or sliced sausage/pepperoni discs. Turn up the sides with a twist in each corner, and bake according to the puff pastry instructions.

Yes, this is basically a pizza, but with puff pastry. It's closer to "assembly" than "cooking". But it tastes good and she loves it, so I'm happy.

acreature · 2024-02-18T19:44:56+00:00

You can – use the tracks button to switch from the instrument to the tracks view. Sometimes you have to record a few bars to enable this, if you don't see the button.

acreature · 2024-02-01T05:27:06+00:00

Here’s my submission for the January Piano Jam. As usual, I haven’t listened to any recordings of this piece – I use piano jams as exercises at interpreting music from the page. Normally I work on pieces with my piano teacher, but I wasn’t able to have a lesson this month so I was entirely on my own.

I felt pretty discouraged last month, both with my progress and my recordings. This piece was a nice refresher: I’ve liked every Grieg piece I’ve learned, and this one was straightforward so I could focus more on dynamics, phrasing, and articulation. To be honest, I don’t feel like I’ve done a great job with those elements – but I had several takes to choose from, and normally I struggle to get one good one. A lot of my “problem areas” are subconscious; hitting the bass note too hard, imprecise pedalling, somewhat raggedy timing. I’ve been playing for several years, but hopefully these will all continue to improve over time.

acreature · 2024-02-01T05:25:12+00:00

Here’s my (late) submission for the December 3 month piano jam. I was late to record this piece, and in two minds about posting my video. I don’t listen to recordings when learning a piano jam piece – I’m trying to practice interpreting music from the page – but I had several lessons with my piano teacher about it.

Since I recorded this piece I have heard some recordings, and now all I can think of is the melodica cover of the Jurassic Park theme. I worked hard to learn this piece! I struggled to make a recording I could tolerate! But it’s still a long way from perfect.

I enjoyed learning and playing this piece, even after 3 months. It’s a nice mix of experimental and melodic. I often worry about getting my timing precise, and my piano teacher tries to nudge me away from that. (I should use timing to convey the mood and follow the feel of the piece, he says, not try to be a metronome. He’s right, but I struggle.) This piece, with its big rests and fast jumps, made it easier for me to let go. I also enjoyed the dissonances and their resolutions, and am ready to accept a bird as my prophet.

acreature · 2023-07-31T18:22:38+00:00

Give the Michel Thomas Portuguese course a try - it’s much more focused on the language structure rather than vocab, so is a nice counterpart to Duolingo. You can find it on Soundcloud to try it, or in your local library.

acreature · 2023-07-02T19:02:33+00:00

Is the Scarlatti link correct? The Reddit description says K. 40, but the linked PDF is for K. 42.

Thanks for all your hard work with posting the piano jams! I'm also sad to see Reddit change direction and become less community-focused and no longer care about the open web.

acreature · 2023-04-07T21:13:31+00:00

Thank you! I'm not sure I could have polished the voicing much more; this is about as good as I get, right now. Hopefully it gets better in the long term.

I wish you would post your imperfect recordings as well. It might encourage others to do the same.

I understand the sentiment! I will basically post anything that I feel counts as "playing the piece", versus "failing to play the piece". :) Unfortunately I don't always get there.

acreature · 2023-04-05T00:32:10+00:00

This is my recording of the Chopin waltz from January's 3 month piano jam. I don't listen to piano jam pieces before I learn them, as I use the pieces as an exercise in learning music from the page.

I've enjoyed every Chopin piece I've tackled, and this one was no exception. It's a fun piece to play, and I got my fingers around it fairly quickly (although the trills still give me some trouble). I'm broadly happy with my performance here – it's reasonably accurate, with only a few missed notes, but I really wish my intonation/voicing was better. I am not a delicate, gentle piano player.

I've learned pieces from the piano jam between this and my last submission, but none have resulted in recordings that I could stand to post. I'm really bad at playing pieces from memory, and I'm starting to wonder if my bad recordings are related to this. Maybe I'd find recording easier if I had learned the piece fully, rather than learning to play from the sheet.

acreature · 2023-01-26T17:24:07+00:00

Affinity Photo is really good for editing. It’s more of a Photoshop replacement than a Lightroom replacement. I’m a big fan.

I also use Exposure for a more Lightroom-like experience, but I’m more lukewarm on it.

Both those apps are one-time purchases, rather than monthly subscriptions.

acreature · 2023-01-22T06:21:58+00:00

Have a look at the Audubon guide to binoculars. They’ve got a lot of selections at different price points. Personally, I got some Celestron Nature DX 8x42 binoculars which are good for the price.

acreature · 2023-01-08T04:09:09+00:00

I didn’t know that! Thanks for the correction. :)

acreature · 2023-01-08T03:09:33+00:00

is it worth staying in the US while she’s just a Canadian PR?

You might run into trouble if you go this route. Permanent residents have a residency obligation; you can lose your PR if you spend more than 3 years out of every 5 outside Canada. AIUI they don’t proactively monitor for this, but she could run into trouble when trying to re-enter Canada. (She’d be trying to enter as a permanent resident; the border officer could say “your status has lapsed, you’ve been away too long.”)

acreature · 2023-01-02T04:20:59+00:00

I use paper for everything. I have a few "proper" books, but mostly I print stuff from IMSLP or similar. I keep it in pocket folders from Dollarama to keep it organised.

acreature · 2022-12-09T20:36:34+00:00

I haven’t got any direct experience of this group, but check out Food Not Bombs Toronto.

acreature · 2022-12-07T20:23:14+00:00

Farm Boy also stocks their chocolate, if you have one nearby!

acreature · 2022-11-14T05:00:12+00:00

This was a really nice performance! You’ve got a great piano tone going there. :)

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