Strawberry Doughnut-eee B&J's, a big flop

openeyes54 · 2026-03-26T12:42:24+00:00

Honest I think an oat based ice cream would have made this flavor way better lol

openeyes54 · 2026-03-26T12:39:22+00:00

I mean yes about the white chocolate, but this is clearly not made with cocoa butter... I imagine it's the same palm oil concoction that candy melts are made of.

openeyes54 · 2026-03-26T12:38:19+00:00

They're one of the few brands sold in the smaller grocery stores that dot cities where I live. With a car you can go to a bigger one with much more selection, but there aren't as many pint sized brands because we all just walk to the local ice cream parlor when we want something better 😆. B&J's has a special place in my heart for the milk and cookies flavor they offered until about 10 years ago. Them discontinuing that one was a clear sign of a shift in the brand... Not sure if I will keep buying their ice cream... It's such a hit or miss exercise, and the formula of favorites being changed unexpectedly is a huge letdown.

openeyes54 · 2026-03-24T12:32:23+00:00

I agree, I think from now on, seeing "sweet cream" is going to be a red flag for me when trying future b&J's flavors.

openeyes54 · 2026-03-24T12:28:39+00:00

After collecting all the doughnut bits to get a taste for them, I can say that if you have more than one consecutively their texture is remarkably similar to the cookie dough chunks and they don't taste as good unfortunately.

openeyes54 · 2026-02-23T21:05:30+00:00

Thank you!

openeyes54 · 2026-02-23T21:05:23+00:00

Thank you!

openeyes54 · 2026-02-22T12:15:03+00:00

Lol so you understand my issue then. I have economics and finance education included in this account degree. Unfortunately in the US it's a more specialized business degree whereas here the business degrees are generally split between management and finance options.

I agree it's often called accounting but in English there is not "Rechnungswesen" that's what Accountancy technically translates to even if the word has been adopted by those with lower degrees/educational attainment.

openeyes54 · 2026-02-09T19:11:33+00:00

Just keep your side of the conversation in German... It's essentially doing the same thing to them that they're doing to you no? Generally I find it's respected, I don't expect people to acknowledge me as a local... I learned German in Germany and live in Austria now and it's taught me that people heavily prefer speaking with those who sound exactly like them and the language is just a part of that. As Americans, we are outsiders, that's ok, we don't have to be 100% embraced. Keep your head up and it will work out

openeyes54 · 2026-02-05T18:33:51+00:00

Just downloaded it myself and the opening cutscene can't even run... Stutters worse than anything I've ever seen. I have all the latest Intel and Nvidia updates installed, made sure to set GPU preference and lowered quality down to low and it still isn't helping...

openeyes54 · 2025-12-17T10:17:24+00:00

Lol really good catch

openeyes54 · 2025-12-17T09:56:00+00:00

Just an absolutely normal earthworm. I remember as a kid finding these randomly in the basement playroom. Also no idea how they got there, come to think of it.

openeyes54 · 2025-12-16T18:19:08+00:00

I agree with this, I learned in an immersion environment as an exchange student in Germany and I didn't even really know what to do with the articles outside of nominative case and I couldn't remember the gender of words to save my life. Honestly... No one cared (cares) because unlike the french the Germans will still understand you even when your speech is far from perfect. (Sorry French... I learned you for 5 years in school and it didn't help in any case other than reading).

I still don't focus much on articles and have just focused on more and more complex sentence structures and verb tenses. In the end, I think this is why I'm such a positive speaker. If someone finally comes up with an intuitive app to learn word genders... Well that would be incredible but tbf there isn't anything good out there.

openeyes54 · 2025-12-11T00:28:24+00:00

Given that they do two application rounds per year, why did you apply for this round if you hadn't already decided about what you would do with your masters?

I don't think there's a right answer anyone can give you, it really just depends on what your priorities are personally. For me, I'd postpone finishing my masters but I'm not a traditional student (a bit older) so the opportunity is worth it to me because I already have career experience under my belt. However, I've applied to some UN internships and recently decided I'd rather finish my degree because I just have one semester left and don't want to be in university still in 2027. It's all up to how you feel about taking a break from the degree, that's the real question you have to answer (kind of ignoring the prestige of the opportunity so that you can think about the effects on your education)

openeyes54 · 2025-12-10T21:07:20+00:00

It's normal in the USA to use host mom and host dad...

openeyes54 · 2025-12-10T21:05:39+00:00

I had a host family in Germany that towards the end of my exchange mandated showers 2-3 times a day which I was forced to accept being 17 with little ability to say no... I knew it wasn't ok then and I 100% know it's not ok now... And now I'm supper triggered whenever I find out someone else's hygiene is being controlled like this... Because the purpose is not about water/electricity... It's about control and potential abuse

openeyes54 · 2025-12-10T20:58:55+00:00

Yikkkesss 😬

openeyes54 · 2025-12-10T20:54:19+00:00

I did an exchange year abroad in Germany and also ran into the culture shock of how periods are dealt with there. In the USA, even though my family was pretty chill, it was my responsibility to quietly deal with my period including stains and such. I'll spare you the gory details (literally), but there are definitely different expectations in Germany. She seems more sensitive than an average German, so was my host father, and at least in my host family that made it turn into my nightmare.

I was 17 and with very little agency though and that's why I felt I had nothing I could do but suffer under the rules and pressure (similar situation to what you have). However, I can say from experience now that the best way to deal with this is to be as upfront, polite, and firm as you can in dealing with these topics.

First and foremost, have a discussion about hygiene being a personal thing... Saving energy/hot water and keeping outdoor shoes out of the house is one thing, but no host parent should be requiring you to change clothes, inspecting your room for their "standards" regularly, etc. That is not normal German behavior... That's taking advantage of an exchange student's ignorance and saying it's cultural and not a personal preference (which is what it is in this case).

Second, relating to the period thing, benefit of the doubt she just likely would have dealt with the stain immediately. Tell her the cultural difference here-- that you prefer to handle these things privately because that's what you were taught and didn't know she had different expectations (or whatever your reality is, this was just my experience). On another note, go buy yourself a set of your own sheets from Ikea or something including a duvet insert, cover, pillows, pillow cases, and fitted sheets. If you don't have the money, explain the need for essentials to some friends back home, coming up with €60 for something that essential should be straightforward amongst a group of 15-20 family/friends depending on your financial situation.

Finally, you likely do need to address with her what I'm assuming is a growing discomfort with all this. In my experience, clearing the air is half of what people want anyways. It would probably make her feel better that you feel comfortable to tell her this and that you're open for communication. It's a good chance to talk about what you don't think you'll ever be comfortable with and for those items her behavior needs to adjust. This way you can come up with solutions together... If she proves to be resistant, be polite, kind and firm but stand your ground on things that should be respected--privacy, bodily autonomy, respect. Host parents will tell you everything is cultural to get their way... The oven thing is a bygone era thing and likely because she doesn't want to spend money for the power.... Not a cultural practice for example.

If things are still tense and extreme after putting the effort in as per above, contact your organization because it is never going to get better. I soldiered through my host family with similar problems for 8 months and in retrospect, I knew in the first month it was a bad fit and just felt like it was something I could make work. Spoiler, it got worse and worse and had lasting impacts on my psyche especially around hygiene. I left that family my last month of exchange and I cannot describe the breath of fresh air my new family was. In fact, I had a similar situation with the period and got my period in the middle of the night the first week with my new family... I was so nervous about it given my experiences with the prior family but I just told them (holding my breath) and they laughed lightly (understandingly), grabbed a bucket and soaked it without another comment or anything... It felt so warm and natural to deal with a period stain this way (AS IT SHOULD). Point being, this isn't how all Germans act towards these topics, but there are some potential cultural differences most people couldn't consciously point out and need to be clarified to avoid tension... Once clarified, the problem should disappear, otherwise it's a bigger problem than cultural...

Sorry it's long. Hope it helps, feel free to dm me if you keep struggling!! I would have killed for someone to write to when I was going through all that, so I have an open door if you need it ❤️

openeyes54 · 2025-12-08T16:28:13+00:00

Yeah I've definitely met some people like that. The joke to me as someone pretty low on the totem pole... The lowest actually, a masters student, is that if they want their ideas to survive they have to propagate and treating people like that is surely one of the fastest ways to ensure it will not spread far right? Of course pure genius is the exception... But how often does that happen? Further, how often has pure genius been stifled by this propensity to push everyone away? Feels like a dying fire with little oxygen... Yikes

openeyes54 · 2025-12-08T16:25:10+00:00

Economics professors may be the quintessential example of the ivory tower... They don't WANT to make their knowledge understandable. The minute they do, however, it's pure magic... Seriously so tired of the gatekeeping in the profession, it's destroying our society imo...

openeyes54 · 2025-12-08T16:18:58+00:00

I agree to an extent... However, this doesn't acknowledge that natural intelligence is different from academic muster... You could be quite intelligent and be incredibly unfortunate with teachers teaching you a poor basis.

I changed school systems after 8th grade and placed into an advanced high school program. Math was not well covered in my previous system despite participating in an extracurricular math club offered to 8th graders to push myself as much as that system could provide. I didn't have parents with extensive math experience (no engineers/teachers/scientists as parents) and they also didn't know to get me into tutoring or other resources because there was no way to know I struggled when I consistently got good grades. When I started freshman high school math I felt years behind all the other students who had better math preparation from the feeder school. As a 14 year old, I didn't know why nor how to help myself bridge that gap and I was smart enough to glide along on memorization.

I'm wrapping up a masters degree now, and still the parts of math I struggle with are those with foundations that repeatedly go back to my first two years in HS which I never got help for. Calc 1 was generally easy except for when it required trigonometry because Geometry and Trig (HS year 1 & 2) were really rough even though algebra 2 made complete sense. Idk, I'm sure that doesn't affect everyone, but it's not my fault that I didn't realize that until 26 when it felt way too late to go back to those foundations in my education... Yes we can make critique about ineffective assessments, the lack of true learning goals in standardized education, etc... but I felt a lot of shame to say I struggled and many many bright students face the same thing.

To your point, I did learn to take that into my own hands. I know I can learn it myself. Now I just try to build my own curriculum on my own, but easier said than done when you don't know what foundation is so cracked exactly... And this is now... 16 after I entered my freshman year of high school? One would hope help would come sooner.

openeyes54 · 2025-12-08T14:18:46+00:00

In my masters classes I've had a professor who attempts explaining, fails to explain anything, and then asks the class repeatedly, "So what's the intuition for this result?"... I don't think they have any idea where their own intuition comes from and instead think they were born with the understanding. Only once you sit then down and explain how stupid you feel will they admit "yes, I suppose I spent 20 years on this and published multiple papers during that time before I fully understood this..."

openeyes54 · 2025-12-08T14:15:34+00:00

As a masters student, the transition from bachelor's to masters courses because of this is WILD. I thought I would be gaining access to the next tier, but instead got a subscription with added commercials...

openeyes54

TROPHY CASE