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which_chickI got a new phone on Monday. My old phone (a durable and much-beloved Kyocera Duraforce Pro I got in February 2018) was getting old and having trouble speaking to the charger, etc. It wasn't broken, didn't have a busted screen, all the stuff on it worked, but it was old.
The New Phone is a Samsung Galaxy S22 (plain, not + or Ultra) and unlike the Kyocera, I'm doing this one with the Verizon "add like thirty bucks a month to the ordinary bill" payment plan. I bought the Kyocera outright but with inflation running as fast as it is AND with the fact that I keep phones forever and do not lose or break them... I figure paying over time is a winner. (They do not charge any interest. The "buy outright" price is literally the "pay over time" price x the number of months.)
They tried to sell me a $55 a month unlimited data plan. I declined. I pay $35 a month plus $20 for each line I have, comes with unlimited talk/text and 2Gb of data (with monthly rollover). I have not run over the data any months at all since 2018. I'm pretty good at not using the data.
I realize that an "unlimited" data plan would be, well, unlimited but I've met me. Unlimited data on the phone is not healthy for me. It is not good for me to have that. There are three phones on the account (two of which do not use data, like, ever), so we pay $95 per month (not including taxes and stuff) for the phones. If I changed to the $55/line/month thing, I'd be paying $165 a month (plus taxes and stuff)... forever. It's $800 a year difference for something we do not want or need. AND there is no going back. If we change to that plan and then don't like it, we can't have this plan back because it has been discontinued.
The Verizon store was also "You could bundle your work internet with your phones and save" but they do not offer decent internet at my office location OR at my home location. Like, there is no sale here, Verizon store. We are already optimized for cheapest cell service for what we want/need.
What I do with my phone:
--make and receive phone calls
--send and read texts (sometimes with speech-to-text which if you don't have data turned on you have to DOWNLOAD a pack for that so that it works "offline", wtf, why does this not come pre-done?
Because nobody is ever offline anymore except for you, ya Luddite.)
--flashlight
--read books with Kindle or various library apps
--take pictures and short videos
--play wordfeud (scrabble)
--play small casual games that do not require an internet connection or, in point of fact, are NICER with data/wifi turned the fuck off because then they cannot ad you to death.
--make small notes to remember things for later
What I do NOT do with my phone
--internet
--streaming video
--streaming audio
--podcasts and audiobooks
--banking, bill paying, sending money
--location services, navigation, mapping
--email
--control my entirely-not-smart home
--surveil home or other humans (children/spouse)
--engage a digital assistant of any type (Bixby, Google)
--voice commands
I don't quite have "flip phone" needs but I definitely cell phone like it's 2005 or something. Oh well.
I spent a bunch of time turning off things on the phone once I got it home. I have ordered it a proper case and holster, which should be here by the end of the week. I can learn to enjoy this phone. It is OK and it's only a wee bit bigger than my OldPhone, less than 1/4 inch in each direction. I can live with that.
On to the squash. Mom sent three reasonable-size gooseneck squash (about 7 lbs each, they're kind of large squash) home with Brother-the-Elder. I was supposed to "share" these with people except my world is not bursting at the seams with people who want a seven pound squash of dubious utility if they don't make The Squash Pie of My People. (It's "pumpkin" pie except does not involve pumpkins which are watery and gross. Gooseneck squash are better and tastier but still not really good just "baked". (Following BlueHelloApronFresh exposure to delicatas, I now feel delicata and butternut are the best baked squash followed closely by acorn.) Also our pie is more custardy than most people's "pumpkin" pies and contains ONLY 1x cinnamon and 1/4x nutmeg, both to taste, on the spice front. No ginger, no allspice.) I also do not make the squash pie of my people much these days because while I love pastry crust and make a super good one, I don't need to be eating it. These days I make Squash Custard, which is the filling part of the pie, baked in a glass dish. It is delightfully yummy and I love it.
So, without the ability to get rid of these squashes by pawning them off on others, I processed them myself and froze a lot of squash-custard-ready packets of squash puree. In the old days, we used to chunk and peel and boil and puree the squash. Now I bigger-chunk, bake, peel, and puree the squash. It makes for a nicer, drier puree with caramel notes. (I also do this for butternut squash soup recipes these days. Peeling raw winter squash is for rubes. Bake,then remove skin. It's WAY easier.) But this does mean I will be having a winter full of delicious squash custards. (Eh. Gets me to eat milk and eggs, so not a total loss.) Also, there is not really a limit to how many squash custards I can eat -- it is not a flavor that wears out its welcome.
Oh, and in our mostly-not-quite-so-much-covid era, I went to my friend's Halloween Party in Philly (a 3hr+ drive for me, one way). A mutual friend of ours brought orange Halloween KitKats to the party. They were "Pumpkin Pie Flavored". Mutual friend, usually fairly sane, assured partygoers that aforesaid KitKats were quite tasty. I do like a KitKat, so... despite giving these KitKats the side eye and totally against my better judgment (I do not consume any "pumpkin pie" or "pumpkin spice" flavored anythings of any sort aside from the Not-pumpkin custard pie of my people), I tried one.
Reader, they were not quite tasty. They were the opposite of quite tasty. Ew. Imagine what it might be like to eat a can of Pumpkin Spice Axe Body Spray (if they made such a thing which I sincerely hope they do not make). Then make it overprocessed and plastic-y such as you might experience with white chocolate (bad at the best of times) that has somehow managed to become orange. The flavor/aroma adheres to one's tongue and persists for quite a while after the initial tasting event to remind one of why one's better judgment exists in the first place.
Just don't. They are horrific.
The New Phone is a Samsung Galaxy S22 (plain, not + or Ultra) and unlike the Kyocera, I'm doing this one with the Verizon "add like thirty bucks a month to the ordinary bill" payment plan. I bought the Kyocera outright but with inflation running as fast as it is AND with the fact that I keep phones forever and do not lose or break them... I figure paying over time is a winner. (They do not charge any interest. The "buy outright" price is literally the "pay over time" price x the number of months.)
They tried to sell me a $55 a month unlimited data plan. I declined. I pay $35 a month plus $20 for each line I have, comes with unlimited talk/text and 2Gb of data (with monthly rollover). I have not run over the data any months at all since 2018. I'm pretty good at not using the data.
I realize that an "unlimited" data plan would be, well, unlimited but I've met me. Unlimited data on the phone is not healthy for me. It is not good for me to have that. There are three phones on the account (two of which do not use data, like, ever), so we pay $95 per month (not including taxes and stuff) for the phones. If I changed to the $55/line/month thing, I'd be paying $165 a month (plus taxes and stuff)... forever. It's $800 a year difference for something we do not want or need. AND there is no going back. If we change to that plan and then don't like it, we can't have this plan back because it has been discontinued.
The Verizon store was also "You could bundle your work internet with your phones and save" but they do not offer decent internet at my office location OR at my home location. Like, there is no sale here, Verizon store. We are already optimized for cheapest cell service for what we want/need.
What I do with my phone:
--make and receive phone calls
--send and read texts (sometimes with speech-to-text which if you don't have data turned on you have to DOWNLOAD a pack for that so that it works "offline", wtf, why does this not come pre-done?
Because nobody is ever offline anymore except for you, ya Luddite.)
--flashlight
--read books with Kindle or various library apps
--take pictures and short videos
--play wordfeud (scrabble)
--play small casual games that do not require an internet connection or, in point of fact, are NICER with data/wifi turned the fuck off because then they cannot ad you to death.
--make small notes to remember things for later
What I do NOT do with my phone
--internet
--streaming video
--streaming audio
--podcasts and audiobooks
--banking, bill paying, sending money
--location services, navigation, mapping
--control my entirely-not-smart home
--surveil home or other humans (children/spouse)
--engage a digital assistant of any type (Bixby, Google)
--voice commands
I don't quite have "flip phone" needs but I definitely cell phone like it's 2005 or something. Oh well.
I spent a bunch of time turning off things on the phone once I got it home. I have ordered it a proper case and holster, which should be here by the end of the week. I can learn to enjoy this phone. It is OK and it's only a wee bit bigger than my OldPhone, less than 1/4 inch in each direction. I can live with that.
On to the squash. Mom sent three reasonable-size gooseneck squash (about 7 lbs each, they're kind of large squash) home with Brother-the-Elder. I was supposed to "share" these with people except my world is not bursting at the seams with people who want a seven pound squash of dubious utility if they don't make The Squash Pie of My People. (It's "pumpkin" pie except does not involve pumpkins which are watery and gross. Gooseneck squash are better and tastier but still not really good just "baked". (Following BlueHelloApronFresh exposure to delicatas, I now feel delicata and butternut are the best baked squash followed closely by acorn.) Also our pie is more custardy than most people's "pumpkin" pies and contains ONLY 1x cinnamon and 1/4x nutmeg, both to taste, on the spice front. No ginger, no allspice.) I also do not make the squash pie of my people much these days because while I love pastry crust and make a super good one, I don't need to be eating it. These days I make Squash Custard, which is the filling part of the pie, baked in a glass dish. It is delightfully yummy and I love it.
So, without the ability to get rid of these squashes by pawning them off on others, I processed them myself and froze a lot of squash-custard-ready packets of squash puree. In the old days, we used to chunk and peel and boil and puree the squash. Now I bigger-chunk, bake, peel, and puree the squash. It makes for a nicer, drier puree with caramel notes. (I also do this for butternut squash soup recipes these days. Peeling raw winter squash is for rubes. Bake,then remove skin. It's WAY easier.) But this does mean I will be having a winter full of delicious squash custards. (Eh. Gets me to eat milk and eggs, so not a total loss.) Also, there is not really a limit to how many squash custards I can eat -- it is not a flavor that wears out its welcome.
Oh, and in our mostly-not-quite-so-much-covid era, I went to my friend's Halloween Party in Philly (a 3hr+ drive for me, one way). A mutual friend of ours brought orange Halloween KitKats to the party. They were "Pumpkin Pie Flavored". Mutual friend, usually fairly sane, assured partygoers that aforesaid KitKats were quite tasty. I do like a KitKat, so... despite giving these KitKats the side eye and totally against my better judgment (I do not consume any "pumpkin pie" or "pumpkin spice" flavored anythings of any sort aside from the Not-pumpkin custard pie of my people), I tried one.
Reader, they were not quite tasty. They were the opposite of quite tasty. Ew. Imagine what it might be like to eat a can of Pumpkin Spice Axe Body Spray (if they made such a thing which I sincerely hope they do not make). Then make it overprocessed and plastic-y such as you might experience with white chocolate (bad at the best of times) that has somehow managed to become orange. The flavor/aroma adheres to one's tongue and persists for quite a while after the initial tasting event to remind one of why one's better judgment exists in the first place.
Just don't. They are horrific.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-05 11:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-05 05:24 pm (UTC)I have on occasion made my own... peanut brittle (a winter holiday gift) and caramels (for spring holiday and one year I did my own assorted chocolates (from scratch). Every single time I have made my own candy-adjacent items, they are better. A lot better.
We do have some local, small-batch candy makers who focus more on a delightful product than on a cheaply-made and mass-produced product but, obviously, their product is more expensive and they run sort of a boutique arrangement.
All of that notwithstanding, "pumpkin spice" flavored things that PROBABLY SHOULD NOT BE PUMPKIN SPICE FLAVORED are... a fall occurrence in these parts. I have long suspected that all "pumpkin spice" things are, uniformly, horrible. The dreadful orange KitKats did nothing to disabuse me of that notion. :)
no subject
Date: 2022-11-19 10:24 am (UTC)Home-made treats are almost always so much better than mass-produced. Of course artisanal treats are even better, but as you say, that's a different thing altogether. I'm impressed with the assorted chocolates. Did you go through the bother of tempering the chocolate? That has always seemed an insurmountable effort to me.