Emchap's Shit From the Internet 2/15/17 🍠
Guys, you know why they don't normally have people start a new job while also doing an old job? Because it sucksssss, is why.
Shit to read
I've gotten really into UnREAL and this article about the first black Bachelorette as a metaphor for structural racism without malice is really good.
Did you know TGI Friday's was one of the first singles bars in the US? This history of how that came to be, and how women started drinking in public, is fascinating. It also kiiiiind of makes me wish I moved in a social scene where Friday cocktail parties were more of a Thing? Who wants to come bring attractive single men to my house and drink? It'll be fun.
Moving on: announcing the sunset date for All Men - I love every single thing about this piece. Every one.
This article on whether you have to find and follow your calling ties back to one of my favorite things: when I worked at MailChimp, their slogan was "love what you do," rather than "do what you love." The idea was that no one's passion in life should be sending bulk email, but like if that's what you're doing you can do it well and in a way that makes people happy to use your thing or work on it, and that rings so much truer to me (as a cog in a tech company machine) than the idea of being forced to pursue my true calling. My true calling is like drinking gin while telling funny stories and that shit is difficult to monetize.
Shit to eat
This is the sort of week where I wanted to roll around in carbs until I couldn't feel anymore. Which, like, I did. But I also made tomato soup.
Dice up an onion. Use the big cleaver knife, because it has been a Day.
Melt a knob of butter in a big pot. Dutch oven if you have it.
Toss the onion in and stir the butter and onions up together.
Cover and cook over low heat for 5 minutes.
Peel three cloves of garlic and toss them in there too. (Did you know you can peel garlic by pressing the flat of a knife down on it? Skin pops right off. It's great.)
Cook for two minutes.
Pour in a 28oz can of tomatoes. I like the kind that come pre-seasoned with basil, because I am not fancy.
Add 3 cups of stock or 3 cups of water and two bullion cubes. (I have never made stock. See above.) If you want to make this cream of tomato soup later, add a little less.
Bring to a boil and then cut down to a simmer for 10 minutes or so. Stir it up.
Toss as much of it as you can fit without getting hot soup on yourself into a food processor or a blender or whatever. Make it smooth. Toss it back in with the bit you didn't blend.
Stir in a half cup to a cup of cream or milk or both, if you want. Maybe some basil leaves.
Add some salt and pepper; it will probably need it.
Soup!
Shit to listen to
I am obsessed with this riff on "You're So Vain" and its exploration of a particularly ain't-shit dude.
Shit to buy
It turns out doing two jobs cuts down on idle at-work internet shopping, but I ordered these pajamas this week, in navy.
And a mattress.
And a bedframe. (Sidebar, the entire bedframe comes in one box and it is the heaviest thing in the entire goddamn world and it fit into my friend's Jetta and she is a champion for allowing that entire process to have happened.)
These sheets are amazing. I bought two new sets for the new bed. I am so excited.