Emchap's Shit from the Internet 03/23/22 🍠
I am back from my two weeks off from work and this newsletter, having spent them out and about. (Mostly about; it was primarily a staycation.) I was able to knock several Portland items off my list (visiting the art museum for an exhibit on Mexican modernism, shopping at a Japanese bookstore downtown that child me would have lost her mind at and at which adult me purchased pens, finally trying the fondue place near me). I took Amtrak for the first time in more than two years, down to Eugene for a night. I went to the gym and the doctor and cooked hardly anything. I had several house tasks plan and accomplished one of them (hanging my TV on a mount) and no others.
It was all very nice, and then I went back to work on Monday and am back to being a sleepy zombie version of myself. It’s not even that work has been hard—I’m giving it my mediumest—but by the end of the day I am wiped out.
(And of course some of that is not work’s fault—after my Eugene trip my cat has developed a fun and funky new desire to sleep directly on my neck, which is not, you know, my personal preference.)
The time off was nice, and I’m very fortunate to have been able to take it, but woof. Hopefully I get to a more stable-feeling energy level soon. There are only so many hours in a day and I’d like to spend slightly fewer of them napping.
Shit to read
More athletes should decide “nah I’m good” at the top of their game, IMO.
Loved this story about a trans woman from the 40s who got the courts to recognize her gender and seems to have been very happily married to a trans dude she met at a party.
I loved loved loved this piece on the attention economy and the ways in which it poisons us, specifically around whether engaging with global political events online in the name of “raising awareness” is good for us.
Jake Johnson seems like a nice dude.
This piece on a dude who wrote software to teach kids how to sing their torah portions and then died, causing the software to be lost, made me weep!
I feel like structuring our media ecosystem so that the only people who can be journalists now have brains so rotten as to be soup is perhaps not beneficial for us, on the whole.
This piece about a normal woman who went to a Michelin star restaurant was just very wholesome, I thought.
Deep dive journalism on yogurt drama.
Shit to eat
Buy some of the fancy ramen that Whole Fools sells in little pucks.
Boil water, and when it reaches heat, cut it off, and let the puck sit in it for 4 minutes. (Or whatever your ramen says to do.)
Drain noodles, set aside, and put another cup of water on to boil.
Add minced ginger, soy sauce, better than bouillon paste, and some chili crisp. Or whatever! It’s your soup!
Toss in whatever salad greens you bought this week in an attempt to be an adult.
Got some frozen veg? Great, in it goes.
Toss the noodles back in, and add an egg.
Let it poach, and take a moment to feel like a Real Chef when you cover the egg with spooned-over boiling broth to help it cook on top.
Dump into a bowl.
Top with everything bagel seasoning.
Enjoy.
Shit to listen to
I am really enjoying the Behind the Bastards Kissinger series. What a terrible, terrible man.
Shit to buy
These knock-offs of the Birkenstock Eva sandals. Planning to live in them this summer.
Bought this summer dress so that I can be a beautiful princess goblin this summer. (Curious to see if it’s actually tight in the chest or if, as one reviewer guessed, people just weren’t letting the back tie out appropriately.)