Sleep was not good Thursday night and I struggled Friday morning. Taco Bell breakfast helped, not to mention the Diet Pepsi with extra ice I should really stop purchasing in the drive-through since I have it in the fridge at home. It’s sooooo good from the fountain at Taco Bell for some reason.
I had a phone call with a development officer who has a couple of things for me to look at early next week. I’m on vacation for a piece of the early week but I told her to text me when she send me stuff. I’m not going anywhere; I just prefer not to be in front of my computer all day, so I’ll give her stuff my attention with no problem.
I worked on another news story for the website, this one going live right away. With news releases, you sometimes have to wait until a certain date before you go public with info. I’m glad it’s not my job to keep track of this stuff. Someone just tells me to get this ready on the web but not to publish until next Friday or whenever.
During my break I had to make a few phone calls. A couple of Thursdays ago, a member of the KS grounds crew backed his van into my car, damaging my bumper and breaking my tail light. I called my insurance company right away, who called KS’s insurance. They got back to me the next day but honestly, I wasn’t ready to deal with the situation of having to take my car to a body shop and getting an estimate, then later driving it to drop it off and walk back home because I don’t feel safe on public transportation.
So I’ve been dodging the representative’s calls and finally called back Friday. I apologized for my lack of response and asked her not to be insulted. She handled it fine and gave me some instructions and options. I’ll deal with it next week. This is one of the things I’ve been neglecting in my avoidance behavior lately and I’m glad I finally at least got the thing rolling.
I also had to call the supplier of my Darth Vader accessories. When I made my order by phone a few weeks ago, I didn’t have my flex card handy, so I asked them to use whatever card they had on file. They had an old card on file, the one I lost. My payment didn’t go through. Anyway I called back, had them delete old cards, and save my new card, and it was all taken care of quickly and mostly painlessly. Still hate making phone calls, but in this case I hated to put them in the position of having to call me back when I’m the one who screwed up.
Oh yeah I called my mom and dad too, for a little while. They’re doing well after their second shots.
After work I did a few quick chores and ordered takeout from Zippy’s. They have this new boneless fried chicken with gravy that looks good on everyone else’s IGs, so I had to check it out. While I waited, I went to Tea Time Taiwan for what I think is only my fourth or fifth boba since the lockdown began. That used to be a week’s worth of boba for me, once upon a time. Anyway that spot has this roasted oolong tea that’s really good.
I watched The Apple to its conclusion while I ate. Did some writing, listened to music, spun a few podcasts, and basically just goofed off until I finally collapsed into bed around four in the morning.
Sharon and I texted about work stuff during my work day, then it led to other conversations about other stuff through the day. She thought the photo I shared on IG of the cioppino looked really good (I’m getting a lot of offline feedback on that photo) so we talked about some places we’ve gotten takeout recently.
Crush Girl and I traded a few texts about the coming weekend.
Okay, this is what I learned about tofu when I picked up tofu from the tofu factory last week Saturday. One question I’ve had for some time: the weight difference between the firm tofu and soft tofu is one ounce. But the firm tofu comes in much larger packaging and the tofu itself seems much bigger what’s up with that?
The guy pointed out that firm tofu is processed a little more, then cut into individual portions, then packaged in the plastic carton we’re all super familiar with, with water. Soft tofu is basically soy milk when it’s poured into the plastic carton. It sets in the carton, and it’s not packaged with water, and it’s not cut from large blocks the way firm tofu is. Dang! Of course I knew this but I never paid attention to it. Soft tofu has to be handled delicately, and yeah: you basically have to invert the carton over a bowl in order to get the tofu out. So it doesn’t need as much packaging as the firm tofu.
My other question: how long after the shelf date is it really good for? I said I had two cartons in my fridge that were a week past the date. The guy said if it’s the firm tofu, you pretty much have until the date on the package. It was funny: he asked me if the tofu was “theirs.” I said of course! He said yeah, theirs does not last longer than the date. He said soft tofu, you can probably go up to a week longer, but you’d be pushing it.
Good stuff to know! And I think Aloha Tofu has a customer for life in me. It’s usually pricier than the mainland brands in the same refrigerated display case, but shoot. It’s made right in Kalihi and look at how nice they are, answering my stupid questions in the middle of their busy Saturday. Plus it’s less expensive than those mainland brands if you pick it up at the factory.
The only notable new metal release this weekend is MÓ•re by Harakiri for the Sky, a post-black-metal band I got into a few years ago. It’s pretty! This is one aspect of black metal I think people don’t write enough about. Yes, it’s dark and desolate and despairing, but there’s this anguished beauty about it, like the wintry landscapes of the lands from which most of these bands come. Harakiri for the Sky comes from Austria, but I’m talking more about those Scandinavian countries where black metal really thrives.
You look at photos of these places and the scenery is scary in how empty and cold it looks, but who doesn’t think it’s also beautiful? This is what a lot of black metal is like. Goth metal gets more credit for it because it usually has very pretty female lead vocals, while black metal has these anguished, raspy shrieks and screams, but they come from a lot of the same places. I’m reminded of a lot of portions of Lamentations and Job.
Anyway I think it’s interesting I was drawn in by these post-black-metal bands years before black metal itself started to appeal.
EDIT: I just looked at three reviews and there seems to be agreement on a few things. First, the album is too long! All three mention the length and expound on the issues with long albums. Second, it’s pretty! They also mention two bands I’ve never gotten into: Alcest and Deafheaven. Ugh. I might have to give Deafheaven another chance based just on the comparisons. Their Sunbather album was huge — super popular with people who don’t otherwise care for metal, which might be why I didn’t care for it.
I know it’s a long shot, but if you’re curious just listen to this. It gets really pretty around the 3:25 mark, but it’s pretty all the way through, really.
If you need someone to connect with, smash the comments and I’ll send you some contact info. Don’t pandemic untethered!