#simple askgame

[lsdoiphin]

15, 16 !

15. What’s a piece of advice you find yourself giving a lot?

You are not guaranteed a prize for sticking with a bad situation or winning a fight! Sometimes you are just older and tireder at the end! There are times where the most productive thing you can do is cut your losses and bail!

16. What’s a piece of advice you would give to yourself five years ago?

YOU ARE GOING TO GRADUATE JUST IN TIME FOR EVERY RELATED FIELD TO BE DEVALUED!! YOU MISSED THE TRAIN FOR COMPSCI TO BE RELIABLE AND LUCRATIVE!!

[lsdoiphin]

for the ask meme: 5, 8, and 11!

5. What’s your drink of choice? (Coffee/tea order, alcohol of choice, pop, etc)

Water. I'm a waterhead. A big water aficionado. Anyone who has known me for a long time or shared a living space with me knows that "have you been drinking enough water?" is my first question when someone feels crummy for reasons that can't be explained. This is a genetic flaw that was passed on to me from my father.

To be fair, it is the problem, or part of it, a good 70% of the time. It's so easy to just be living with minor chronic dehydration and not notice.

I like a milky/creamy coffee but I'm not picky since I'm usually drinking it for the caffeine. I used to really like soda but my sugar tolerance dropped in my mid 20s so I don't really enjoy it straight anymore except for a few ultra specific pairings. And I like a humble moscow mule.

8. favorite month of the year and why?

I used to be a big fan of summer months but then I moved to an area where the summer humidity is like walking around in hot bath water and 5 minutes outside nets you a minimum of 3 - 5 mosquito bites. So, I feel like I can't say "July" anymore. But then again, Art Fight is still July...

11. what kind of music is stuck in your head a lot lately?

I'm one of those poor suckers who VERY easily gets small, persistent looping fragments of music/noise stuck in my head, but I'm going to pretend I'm not because "the first 8 notes of the Croc: Legend of the Gobbos title screen music, repeating forever without escalation" doesn't feel like a very intellectual answer. So instead I'm going to say I've been enjoying a lot of Sofia Isella lately. Out In The Garden and Josephine have EARNED the fragmented replays in my head.

[lsdoiphin]

7!

7. what’s your favorite way to travel? Is there a mode of travel you haven’t done that you want to experience?

It really depends! For example, I really enjoy the road trip, but I like it specifically as leisure travel. I wouldn't choose travel by car if the people, timeframe, destination, and vibes weren't all aligned. You can't really compare a summer drive along the coast with friends to like, a winter drive through the mountains. And, while I'm not sure anyone loves traveling by plane and the trials of the airport in a post 9/11, post-pandemic world, I'm fine with plane travel and it doesn't stress me out the way it stresses out other people.

I'd love to travel somewhere by train, though. Man I wish North America had a useful rail system.

[lsdoiphin]

These weren't on the ask list, but what is your favorite cuisine? Do you like spicy food or nah, do you tend more towards baking or cooking? I cannot bake and don't like sweets but I'm always impressed by people who can and I'm always curious to find new recipes to try since I'm really into cooking lately. Thanks!

OH, what a fun question!!

I have pretty varied tastes but my favorite cuisine to cook at home is probably Mexican food! (Or, arguably "Tex-Mex" because I'm living in Canada these days & can't get "authentic Mex" ingredients very easily.) It's hard to do "wrong," very adjustable to taste/whims, and the leftovers tend to reheat well. I could eat homemade pico de gallo and salsa verde with a spoon by themselves, and they're so easy to make. Tacos al pastor? Absolutely incredible (though I do cheat - I don't have a roasting spit, haha). Mexican street corn? Delicious. I wish I could get cotija cheese up here.

Personally, I like spicy food as an adventure, but I prefer a self-administered spicy condiment or a mild-spiced dish for a meal because I don't like the heat eclipsing the flavors. Like, I love me some pickled jalapenos, but some of the Carribean recipes I've tried use an amount of scotch bonnet peppers I cannot survive. Spice tolerance is so individual. And, independent of that, gastrointestinal spice tolerance. Oof.

As for whether I prefer cooking or baking, I'm the primary cook of the household, do most of the cooking, and I greatly enjoy both! I'd say I have more fun with baking though, just because I don't do it every day. Like sure, whipping eggs or creaming sugar isn't less work than chopping veggies, but I only have to do it when I want to. And so, it feels more like play. Plus, I like that you don't have to "babysit" baked goods in the oven as much as you have to watch stuff on the stove.

Of course, another reason baking feels easier to me is because I'm completely indifferent to how it looks in the end. I'm after taste and texture only. I experience 0% stress over making an ugly cake with poorly applied frosting. IT'S ALL GOING TO THE SAME PLACE IN THE END!

[lsdoiphin]

15 and 3? B)

15. What’s a piece of advice you find yourself giving a lot?

Flip the canvas! Be open to tasteful use of copypasting/mirror tool/textures and brushes/photo and 3D reference/etc! A meat thermometer will change your life! Learn how it's made even if you're content buying the canned version! You WILL look fine with short hair!! Body hair is only dirty if you don't clean it!!!

3. what are you looking forward to right now?

In the short term? Whipping up the mascarpone frosting for my tiramisu flavored cake. God I wish mascarpone didn't cost a million dollars per tub! Then I could make a real tiramisu!!