was going to say, the invasion of Mexico (like 1848 or so) was naked greed and caused some countries to doubt the U.S. was serious about its supposed founding ideals, lol

Unsolicited advice, but you have to escape your - to make it not create a bulleted list.

Lemmy uses markdown for its formatting, and this means - is has special meaning, it is syntax used to create bulleted lists with.

For example,

- Isaac Asimov will look like:

• Isaac Asimov

If you want it to look like

- Isaac Asimov

you have to escape the - character with a \:

\- Isaac Asimov

The \ basically says “ignore the special syntax meaning of - as starting a bulleted list, and instead treat it as a literal -”.

leaded gasoline was fun, huh?

EDIT:

Someone else suggested it first, oops. Still, the video I linked is a fun deep-dive. I had no idea leaded gasoline is still used in small airplanes.

yeah, my mind went to food - cook or bake something special 😄

No idea, tbh - I think you have a good question, I don’t recognize OP’s conception of hell either.

presumably OP is Muslim?

The problem of hell is a version of the problem of evil.

It might be worth reading this: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evil/

If it’s too technical, you might try the Wikipedia article, here are a few excerpts:

The logical argument from evil is as follows:

P1. If an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient god exists, then evil does not.

P2. There is evil in the world.

C1. Therefore, an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient god does not exist.

…

If God lacks any one of these qualities – omniscience, omnipotence, or omnibenevolence – then the logical problem of evil can be resolved. Process theology and open theism are modern positions that limit God’s omnipotence or omniscience (as defined in traditional theology) based on free will in others.

…

A version [of the evidential problem of evil] by William L. Rowe:

1. There exist instances of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.
2. An omniscient, wholly good being would prevent the occurrence of any intense suffering it could, unless it could not do so without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.
3. (Therefore) There does not exist an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good being.

Another by Paul Draper:

1. Gratuitous evils exist.
2. The hypothesis of indifference, i.e., that if there are supernatural beings they are indifferent to gratuitous evils, is a better explanation for (1) than theism.
3. Therefore, evidence prefers that no god, as commonly understood by theists, exists.

It should also be mentioned that most lay people’s concept of hell is radically different than the hell as described in various scriptures. I would be wary of any singular depiction of hell even within a religion, as scripture often has contradicting things to say about hell (with multiple plausible interpretations), and contemporary beliefs about hell are more informed by popular culture than scripture anyway.

Again, I direct to Wikipedia for the different depictions of hell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell

Yep, I got your point! I was agreeing with it, then adding my own thoughts about what I think is a complementary technique of stocking up on staples.

ah, my bad - sometimes I’m a bit socially clueless 😅 I thought there was a misunderstanding.

Since OP didn’t mention living in poverty but was asking for cheap and healthy meal planning tips, I shared my thoughts on that.

another good point - frugality is separate from poverty, I guess in some ways that even tracks my experiences with poverty - I am able to be more frugal out of poverty than in. Reminds me of that James Baldwin quote, “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”

In my experience, when you approach it like this, it’s a great way to live more frugally by taking advantage of bulk discounts and sales. So personally, I disagree with the idea that stocking up is a bad thing.

That makes sense! My own experiences with stocking up has been more fear-based than based on any actual calculus of what I use and at what rate, so I end up buying a huge bag of rice that goes unused for years, and I’m always just eating really old rice, lol.

So, yeah - stocking up in an unplanned and spontaneous way is a completely different approach than planning your food consumption and buying with bulk discounts at the right times.

Aside from reasons of frugality, it’s nice to know you have a good amount of calories in your house in the case of, for example, a global pandemic. I know that’s not the topic here, but just pointing out that there are other good reasons to store food.

This is a big concern I have had in the past, and a big reason for my stocking up as well. I went through periods of food insecurity in the past, so I would stockpile food almost as an emotional security blanket. It’s been a hard thing for me to finally let go, but I have been slowly working my way towards a more reasonable approach to my pantry.

Thanks for your good ideas and tolerance as I stumble through our interactions - I appreciate your patience ❤️

yes, feels like the pic is only meant to situate, like “I’m here in this situation”

Oh, I usually think stocking up is a bad idea - it leads to meals that are less nutritious and tasty, and it’s easy to waste food that way.

When I meant buy what is discounted I didn’t mean buy more than you are going to use, I was talking more about not planning to make Thai curry and then paying extra $$ for bell peppers out of season, instead see what is discounted at the store - maybe turnips or rutabagas, and then make your meal plan based on that - e.g. pasties, baked winter vegetables, or a soup instead.

The point I was trying to make is that pre-determining the ingredients you need to buy will end up costing you money rather than making the meals based on what is currently discounted and cheap.

Regarding back-stock: you have good tips about extending the life of rice or beans, storing in mason jars also help reduce the likelihood of pests getting into the food. Oxygen absorbers are a good idea, too. However, if you are poor it can be a lot to buy mason jars - so saving glass like used pasta jars, or seeing if there are any free or cheap jars through Freecycle, Craigslist, etc. might be an option.

Though I will say dry beans don’t last as long as I originally thought, and whenever I stocked up on dry beans I found they were really hard to get soft when I eventually used them, even after cooking for more than 24 hours and soaking the night before. Old beans just stay hard. It’s better to treat beans as something you buy fresh, something that lasts months rather than years.

Similar issue with brown rice, or anything that isn’t super refined (e.g. whole wheat flour) - you want to buy those in small amounts and use them quickly, they are more likely to spoil in a short period and lose nutritional value and flavor.

Refined foods like white rice are easier to store for a long time, and I keep my all purpose flour in the freezer so I can have more on hand than just what I’m using - that works pretty well.

You can also buy whole wheat berries, then make flour from scratch, but when you’re poor it’s hard to have time for all that.

Canned foods are more expensive than buying dry stuff, though it is a way to always have some extra beans on hand that won’t go bad as quickly as dry beans, so if you have the extra cash it’s not a bad idea to buy some canned food, if you really will use it. Just don’t buy a lot - one or two cans and rotate them as you use them.

EDIT: to be honest, when I was poor I didn’t have the energy to cook or optimize my grocery habits. Mostly I ate whatever food waste was in the kitchen I was working at, and some days that meant I mostly ate a bunch of white rice and nothing else. My diet was fucked up and it wasn’t healthy, but it meant I rarely spent money on food. Being poor also meant I spent the money I would have spent on food mostly on beer so I could relax in the evening. I mostly cooked on weekends when I wasn’t working, and I mostly bought whatever sounded good like steak, but from places like Walmart. Poverty unfortunately makes it hard to optimize your life, as you rarely have the time or energy, let alone the will power or mental health, to be efficient.

Getting out of poverty ironically gave me more energy and leisure time to spend on cooking at home and so on. It also meant being able to escape living in ghetto apartments and moving into suburbs where I could grow food in a lawn, e.g. I didn’t have to buy garlic for an entire year just based on what I grew in one season - that’s something I could never do living in apartments.

All this to say, if you’re poor just survive and find a way out, don’t beat yourself up for being inefficient if you just can’t be.

For frugality you might try shopping based on what is discounted at the store, rather than based on a pre-made menu. Go with what you can buy for cheap and creatively put together meals from what you can source for free (e.g. work with your local food not bombs or dumpster diving folks) or for cheap (what is discounted with coupons, clearance items, defective food, etc.).

Menus can still be a good idea, for example having a set list of items to buy helps me avoid over-buying or buying foods I don’t need.

I’ve noticed /r/sillygirlclub showing up in more popular subs like /r/whenthe, so maybe there is just more activity right now.

in the original comic I guess it’s the bluebird’s first winter

the artist confirmed their original intent was something like a younger bird learning from an older bird: https://old.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/71jfbn/what_oc/dnb7hr0/

however, I personally always read it in a more dark interpretation that not only had the blue bird not experienced winter before, but that they were not meant to know what winter is because they were meant die with the coming of winter, and I interpret the bird’s look in the last panel as one of betrayal and sadness for what winter means for them (i.e. death)

most people I think just interpret the blue bird as being out of the loop and they find it humorous because it responds to everything with “What?”

gaaaaay

for some reason the “y- you wouldn’t” expression made me think of this bird comic, and I had to revise it (excuse my lack of skill and handwriting):

or just the bottom panel:

(Note: the original comic is by False Knees)

yes.

<waves hands mystically>

this is the least Pythagorean meme

/u/shave_your_eyebrows is such a cursed name, giving me early '00s salad fingers vibes 😱

<shudders>

Who is this artist!? I feel like I should know at this point, they are one of the top trans artists I see…