#and when theyre all mixed into one big bowl how do i know which to choose!! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

rainstormfes · 4 years ago

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Anime Expo Lite Day 1 Experience!

Program: Warner Bros. Japan Presents "Stay connected with Anime"

This whole program made me so frickin happy, SEIYUU AND JAPANESE GUESTS EVERYWHEREEEE WHILE TALKING ABT ANIME YESS (note: i typed most of this while the event was going on so pls bear with all my keyboard smashes and small comments lolol i just rly wanted to make a review for this event since i knew tons of seiyuu and anime that i love would be there and talked about. Also also i am not allowed to share any screenshots or recordings of it so just fyi 👍🏻)

It started out with talking about DanMachi 3 with guests Matsuoka Yoshitsugu (voiced Bell Cranel) , Minase Inori (voiced Hestia) , Osawa Nobuhiro (from EGG FIRM), and Matsukura Yuji (producer from J.C. Staff)

They answered many questions like how the author was inspired by the voice acting from the two guests specifically, talking about specific scenes

MINASE-SAN PERFORMED A SMALL LINE WHICH WAS SO FRICKIN CUTE

one of the producers was asked about production for DanMachi and he was like ‘brUH the volumes got thicker and thicker as they kept getting released like DANG’

They prepared a teaser image for the third season and for the big reveal Matsuoka had to tear a curtain off of a huge posterboard but the curtain got caught and made it almost fall xDD (very cute and awkward moment, Matsuoka never change pls omg youre too precious)

Matsuoka was asked if there was any difficulties when recording s3 and he just talked about how Bell went through lots of growth and that he had to think about how to properly act out just how mature Bell got, considering he’s now a leader of his group

Minase-san answered the same question. She talked about how she made sure to try and keep in mind how close all of the characters are and Hestia’s mental and social growth

Iguchi Yuka (voiced Chigusa) sent in a vid message since she sings the opening!! And it was announced that sajou no hana would be performing the ending song! Both vid messages were very nice and cute and both artists just talked about how they were looking forward to everyone’s reactions to their songs and to look forward to the anime

Airing of DanMachi 3 will begin in October woop woop!🎉🎉

OML WHEN MATSUOKA-SAN DID HIS ENDING REMARKS he pointed to the posterboard and was like ‘thIS NEW CHARACTER IS CUTE’ and said ‘whO TF IS THIS’ (pointing to new characters on the posterboard lol)

The next anime that they talked about was Shokugeki no Soma: The Fifth Plate with guests: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu (voiced Yukihira Soma) (MY GOSH HES SO AWK AND CUTE OMLLLLL he was like ‘can i speak now’ cause there was that kind of awkwardness in the first segment too 😅) and Yonetani Yoshitomo (animation director)

Yonetani-san was asked how he felt abt the anime. He talked about how he wanted to express how amazing the cooking/food was as well as wanted to excite (oh b o y 😳) the audience

Matsuoka-san was asked the same thing. He talked about how he’s been following Soma since day one and thinks a lot abt his growth in Totsuki. He talked about how he kinda thinks about his own high school days (comment from director lol that he might just cry during his final recording session which i feel, its been 5 years since the first season was aired)

THEY RECORDED AN IRL SHOKUGEKI?!??!?! OMGGGG. FUKUYAMA JUN (voiced Saiba Asahi) AND TAKAHASHI MINAMI (voiced Tadokoro Megumi) WERE THERE (yall can i just- JUN LOOKS SO MF GOOD OML).

bruh matsuoka’s mixture for a sauce for tonkatsu was frickin WACK he put strawberry jam, cream, waSABI???, KETCHUP?!?!?!, along with SOY SAUCE, there was more but that combo i put alone looks so frickin wack.

Jun’s sauce oMG HE STARTED W NUTELLA AND PEANUT BUTTER WTF OMG THIS MISCHIEVOUS MAN I CANTTT 😂😂. He put in LOTS of mayo uhm... he crushed sesame seeds and dried fish together OMLLL HE WAS LIKE SHE NEEDS HER CALCIUM W THE FISH HES SO CHAOTIC and since he ran out of time he couldnt crush the fish properly so there were just HUGE CHUNKS OF FISH IN THE BOWL. omg when he was mixing it..... ew. the takamina was like E W. the way he was selling it was pure g o l d OMG HE PUT IN MF SQUID JUST NOW I CANTTTT HE IS IRL SOMA XDDD poor takamina she was fake crying, girl saME (she’s the judge)

Takamina surprisingly enjoyed matsuoka’s sauce (she was like the ingredients somehow WORKED xD) “it feels like i had a nice meal” (GIRL HOW??? XD)

as for Jun’s sauce review: FDSAFD TAKAMINA SAID THAT THE SQUID WAS STARING AT HER I CANTTT. she described it as a theme park which is perfect. tons of flavors were trying to be the main thing. The squid leg works with tonkatsu so it was ok in the end

matsuoka’s sauce won bc the squid in jun’s was kinda unnecessary but in the end she liked both (kinda surprising lol)

ADSJFKSFJ YONETANI-SAN DID THE ‘bursting’ thing ONCE THE SHOKUGEKI VID WAS DONE, SHOWING A SHIRT W MEGUMI AND TENTACLES OMG

Matsuoka’s comments on the shokugeki: he enjoyed doing it w jun since he was very good at talking (especially when he was making the sauce). Both their sauces were “okay” lol

Yonetani-san’s comments: he talked about how he struggled to cook when he was a child but even through the small irl shokugeki they did he learned smth lolol

Matsuoka was asked which lines were more memorable for him (other than soma’s lol): he talked about how the explanations for the dishes (the monologues when theyre being made and when theyre being presented) were difficult and whenever he recorded those kinds of lines, it was kind of difficult to record since it would be hard to express a good portrayal of soma’s energy if he didn’t even know what he was talking about (so on the side he had to keep using wiki to understand what soma was even talking abt lol)

Question abt the production of the anime: Yonetani-san talked abt how there were lots of complicated words; there were lots of cuts in certain scenes made to try and portray the energy that they wanted in the anime

“If you could try any of your character’s dishes which one would you choose?” Matsuoka: he wanted to try the chicken wing dumplings and a recipe book was released before so he tried it... and it turned out BAD XDD

Someone asked abt where the producers get ideas about the ending theme sequences: Yonetani-san’s used the songs as inspiration for the backgrounds used for the ending themes, also trying to relate to the cooking and the theme of high schoolers just going through life etc

OH SCHIZ THERE WAS A SPECIAL MANGA RELEASED. A small part of it was voiced by matsuoka, jun, and takamina it was vvv cute (the full would be released on Shounen Jump at a later date)

Ending remarks: FASDFDSA THIS ACTUALLY WILL BE THE LAST SEASON OF SHOKUGEKI OMG 😭😭. OMG MATSUOKA IS SO FRICKIN CUTE AND AWKWARDDDDD he was doing a small clap at the end hes so adorable someone protect him pls :(((

The next and last anime talked about was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, where there was a behind the scenes vid made:

Ono Kensho (voiced Giorno Giorvanna) was there ofc along w two producers from David Pro (Kasama) and Warner Bros Japan (Omori Hiroyuki)

OMG FIRST THEY TALKED ABT THE STAND CRIES YESSS. DSFDSAF THEY ACTUALLY COUNTED HOW MANY MUDA’S ONOKEN HAD TO SAY that is so amazing i love the dedication. onoken mentioned how he talked to koyasu (voiced Dio Brando) abt counting the muda’s but he was like ‘ehhhh i never did that lol’. overall, everyone from all seasons tried to match the scenes but koyasu was basically the odd one out not rly needing??? to follow it lol

FDSAFDSA BRUH THERES 17 RERO RERO’S hirakawa-san practiced in the BATH the dedication is INSANE i love this

lolol onoken scrunches up his face when he says his mudas lol vvv cute (so thats a good tip for anyone wanting to say it properly)

one of the reasons they chose onoken in the first place to voice giorno was the fact that his muda’s were strong, thats frickin awesome (and he asked for a redo so that just shows great dedication, smth that staffs would want in their seiyuu)

next they talked abt the anime-only scene of giorno giving gelato to a kid. they wanted to show how kind giorno was despite eventually becoming a gang-star. its personal to kasama-san since he had actually went to italy and had experienced intense heat there and went to a gelato stand so he wanted to preserve that memory in film

they moved on to talk abt how the hitman team was first introduced in ep 10. they decided to enhance the anime by showing the many teams of passione in their own meeting places, trying to emphasize how close everyone was in their respective teams

THEY MENTIONED HOW THEY PURPOSELY PUT CHARACTERS THAT ARE LATER INTRODUCED IN THE ANIME WITHIN FRAMES JUST TO TEASE omg i love

next they talked about how the second theme for golden wind was kinda hard to make (the animation and song IS amazing which i personally appreciate). considering that they needed to kind of match up with “Fighting Gold” (the first op), it was hard to produce something for it. And they had already decided to make an alternate version of it as well, animation wise. For a while they were stuck but eventually they managed to create smth which ofc ended up as the second op for Golden Wind (and also mentioned how that also happened for Stardust Crusaders, with changing the op’s animation to showcase everyone’s stands and also the small interaction between joutarou and dio)

AHHHHHH THEY MENTIONED THE FAMOUS DIO POSE THAT GIORNO DID AHH YESSSS THANK YOU DAVID PRO FOR DOING THAT, they said that they felt that they needed to live up to fans’ expectations so considering how dedicated of a fanbase we are, they decided to put that little nod toward dio’s pose with giorno doing it too

Ending remarks: lolol kasama-san was like ‘watch jojo in these difficult times to brighten up your day’ and honestly i just might :D

Omori-san was also a guest for the live broadcast too! Plus, Kanno Yugo who’s in charge of the music for Golden Wind!!! (a frickin king providing giorno’s iconic asf theme)

OMG THE THEME LETS GO HE TALKED ABT IT: considering his experience with parts 3 and 4 for the themes, he felt he needed to try and one up himself lol; he’s grateful that his music is loved by the fandom and hopes to meets everyone’s expectations (my king you’ve done amazing work)

He talked about how making music for jojo feels like competing in the olympics (cant blame him lol its a pretty difficult job to one up yourself every time theres a new season. since he started working with jojo at stardust crusaders and considering how iconic joutarou’s and josuke’s themes are, needing to make smth as amazing as those themes mustve been tough but he def delivered in the end)

OMG KANNO-SAN PERFORMED LIVE AHHHHHH and ofc its Il vento d’oro :)) THAT WAS SO FRICKIN AMAZING OMG ugh that made me so happy

Ending remarks: both guests were very wholesome, saying to stay safe during this situation. Omori-san stayed behind to say a small message on behalf of warner bros japan, saying to continue to support them and thank you for supporting the anime :))

Overall an amazing experience 😊

I loved everything that happened. It was nice to finally see some of my fave seiyuu at an event despite what’s going on in the world right now, it definitely brightened up my day :D

#anime expo lite #matsuoka yoshitsugu #minase inori #is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?#danmachi #danmachi 3 #fukuyama jun #takahashi minami #Shokugeki no Soma #food wars #ono kensho #Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken #JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

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cruddyborderlandstheories · 5 years ago

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GEARBOX THIS IS EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED THAAAAHAHAHAANK YOUUUUU

FUCK OKAY TRAILER BREAKDOWN BECAUSE I AM LOOOOOOSING MY FUCKING MIND OVER THIS TRAILER HOOOOOLY SHIT

POSSIBLE PSOILERS??? MAYBE? GOD DDDDDAYMN WHAT A WAY TO GET BACK INTO THE THEORY SCENE LMAO

SO FIRST OF ALL I’M NOT CERTAIN THIS IS RELATED TO THE BARMAN/SECOND STARS CULT QUEST I FOUND IN THE FILES AS SOME PEOPLE SUGGESTED, BUT I WILL ADMIT IT IS SUSPICIOUSLY SPECIFIC. MAINLY ABOUT A CULT AND THE FACT WE SEE A BAR HANGING OUT IN THE TRAILER, BUT HEY, I AM NOT GOING TO MAKE ASSUMPTIONS RIGHT NOW I AM JUST GOING TO ENJOY THIS WHILE I CAN

ANd breathe in

breathe okay

okay

im okay.

i’ve watched this trailer like 15 times already oh my god it’s so good. i wasnt so hyped about the casino dlc bc, like, i already spoiled myself on it BUT THIS IS (AS FAR AS WE KNOW) UNCHARTED TERRITORY AND

IT’S TECHNICALLY A WATER PLANET

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

okay

i will stop using caps

for the most part

hhhhhhh

okay.

let’s just be calm. i got this

BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THOUGH????

oh ym goD

the fucking lighthouse sent me. i just. i went feral for a solid hour and a half. just wheezing on my test. i fell onto the floor at one point, don’t remember when. it was so fucking good, i couldn’t feel my goddamn hands

;-; its so beautiful i could stare at this all day hhhhhhh

i just

hhhhhhhhhhhh

oh ym godddd ;-;-;-;-;-;-;

it’s so fucking beautiful

i can’t

okay

we see the gun/health station under the lighthouse so it’s not really THAT big, and we can see a town in the distance. running across the ice sheets is giving me HUGE southern shelf vibes which i am in love with. this whole aesthetic is just ;w; so good

there’s a catch a ride in that town as well so we know this area is fairly big (which is confirmed in a later shot)

and oh my GOD can you imagine seeing some big ol beast lurking beneath the surface of the ice sheets hohhhh

MAN

okay sorry im still not oevr this its just so fckign good

inside the belly of the beast rotting Monster and OHHHHHHHHHHH THE IMPLICATION-s of that. of that. im calm.

we get a look at 2 new enemies and mmmmmm we get a better look at them later on so just look how fuckig beautiful thsi area is with its acid that’s probably rotting stomach acid and AAAAAAAA

first close up of the town, giving me really big uhhhh we happy few vibes? which im not complaining about

TENTACLES asdfghj

anywway more toen, bridge looks like like athenas which is DOPE im hype for more athenas-esque architecture

the TOWNss oh my god im so im love with this aesthetic god. damn.it i need this injected directly into my veins like right N O W

also the bridge is going over another pool of acid, which the tentacle is coming out of. i imagine this monster was sorta acid based, which is funny. since. frozen water planet. and it’s OOZY too. oozy boy means the eridians didn’t make this one! ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

hm who’s ready to face the unintended consequences of our actions?! NOT THE ERIDIANS WHOOO BOY (you cannot tlel me that there are mantakores on this planet and not say there was eridian fuckering going on nooOOPE)

also, side note, DIGGING the spike pit under the house on the bottom right. hope we get to explore that bad boy

ALSO

who are you mysterious figure whose cape billows in the wind? are you just part of the environment?? MAYBE

more town

first look at that BEAUITUFL red barrier which OOOOH I WANNA TOUCH SO BADLY

look at it

LOOK AT IT

NOODLE BOWL

EATS??? food place?? im not sure i can’t read, Jared, 19

see s-ar(?)ed??

THAT

THAT IS BEAUTIFUL

doesn’t look like a corporation shield (no corporation gunk lying around either) and we do know red glowy shit is the New Eridian Aesthetic, so im just saying.

it could be a corporation tho, mostly because uhhh later shots

hold up

that’s not uhhhhhhhhhhh

yeah it CAN’T BE lol

cursetown - something something

these red thingies are probably just rotting monster flesh but it does look very similar to the vines on nekrotefeyo

given how worried wainwright looks i imagine him and hammylocks are being coerced into the whole marriage thing in order to complete a ritual

i mean no judgement but that red background is absolutely garrish for a wedding

1. pirate ship??? please??? look at all the mist outside and the wooden bars

god PLEASE can i get a pirate ship. CNA I PLEASE GET A PIRATE SHIP

Captain scarlett wsan’t enoughhhh

2. why the fuck does she have a tail

DJ Midnight performing Saturday: The Dark Mix Deep W???? Hear The Voices (hmmm) and Let The Music Enter You

gee i wonder if this is cultist propaganda

I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU PEOPLE ARE

BUT YOUR TIMING

SUCKS

IIIII AM HERMEAUS MORAAA

no wait wrong game

BUT BRO TENTACLES COMING OUT OF THE MAGIC PORTALS???? UFCKF UEYS THIS FITS PERFECTLY INTO H2O A- i mean, damn haven’t we got enough tentacles from the destroyer?? wow gearbox... heh. hm.

SO I AM WONDERING IF MAYBE THE GREEN UNDER THE BRIDGE AND SUCH ISN’T LIKE CORROSIVE ACID BUT MAYHAPS SOME SORT OF MAGIC SLUDGE COMING OFF THE BIG OL MONSTER BOY THAT THESE CULTISTS ARE HARNESSING TO TAP INTO something. i lost steam. but i mean MAGIC PORTALS

and we all know where teleportation takes us

MANTAKORES!!! WHICH MEANS ERIDIAN INTERVENTION SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE

they seem like fire/ice boys which i absolutely adore

THIS SHOT IS SO COOL OH MY GOD

LIKE I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN IT JUST LOOKS D O P E

WHAT IS THIS??

WHAT IS THIIIS??

CAN I PLEASE HAVE YOUR JACKET

OH ALSO

I MENTIONED IT IN ANOTHER POST BUT THIS

REMINDS ME A LOT OF THIS

IM SURE THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO CORRELATION BUT I THOUGHTIT WAS FUNNY

ALSO REMEMBER THE BLACK EYES THING I HAVE A WHOLE THINGIE THING IMMA BRING BACK OT IT JUST HOLD TIGHT

THIS SHOT?? OH MY GOD? IT’S LIKE A MOVIE????????? I LOV EI LOVE IT LIV E OT

nND THE WOLFIE BOYS THATTHE ARTICLE MENTIONS

UCKING TENTACLES HFDGDHFGJKH THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL OH MY GOD

HE’ SGOT TENTACLE ARMS LIKE MOTHERFUCKING CHADAM

BRO IM

BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

AND A GUN THIS MOTHERFUCKER STILL HAS A GUN

WHAT A MAN

MORE TECHONOLOG Y THAT IM SURE PLAYS A ROLE IN THIS SOMEHOW

BEAUTIFUL

WE SLAM THIS DUDE UP AGAINST A WALL SO HARD SHE/HE/THEY (I ASSUME SHE BC WE CAN’T SEE HER FACE AS A COMMON TROPE)

BREAKS THE WINDOW WHICH LOOKS SUSPICIOUSLY LIKE A WINDOW ON SANC-III BUT IM NOT MAKING ANY ASSUMPTIONS

also red SPARKS WHICH REMIND ME OF ERIDIANS AGAIN

also her whole helmet thingie??? very Guardian-like

THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE IS GIVING ME HUGE HECTOR/KEY/PLANT/ERIDIANBULLSHITTERY VIBES THEY EVEN HAVE THE GLOWING SACS OF OOOOOOOZE

which is another point to the “green sludge is magic/connected to their powers somehow” theory. hmmm i hope we mix neon green and eridium purple. purple/green is my favorite color combo. and ugh with the lovecraftian vibes? be still my beating heart!

WINNIE SHOOTING SOMOHE

i fucking LOVE the laces on this shotgun. so fucking pretty omfg

magic circle MAGIC CIRCLE MAGIC CIRCLE

also new chest it looks like

BROO??? HOLY SHIT?????????

JABBER WOLF!! SO FUCKING COOL

THAT SKULL MOUTH IS SO FUCKING DOPE IT LOOKS LIKE TROY’S TATTOO

ohhhhhhHHHHHH THE MOON IS GREEN TOO DON’T DO THI GEARBOX IM GONNA SCREAM IF THERE’S ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE ERIDIUM

THIS SHOT OHHHH

THE BAR LOOKS FUCKING FANTASTIC OH MY GOD

shots SHOT SHOTS SHOT SHOTS HTOSHSTOHSOHTS

dND the MERFOLK TAIL ON THE FAR RIGHT I DON’T GIVE A FUUUCK WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS THAT’S MER TAIL THAT’S A TAIL FUCK U

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YSEY SEYSEYSE BIGGG

THE BARTENDER OHOH

HAVE I MENTIONED THE GIANT FUCKING MUSHROOMS BTW

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA IM GETTTING SUCH DRAGONBORN DLC VIBES I LOVE IT

SWEETFRUIT VILLAGE BTW THAT’S IMPORTANT

YOU ALLL LOOK SO FUCKING AMAZING OH MY GOD

the bartender!!!! his glasses!! AND THE VOICE MODULATOR???

the netch looking boys are called

slithercresses btw and THEY LOOK STUNNING

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

NEW RED CHESTS??? LOOK ERIDIAN TO ME

WHICH MIGHT MEAN------

ALSO THE DIMENSIONAL TRANSFER PROGRAM ON SANC-III WHERE BBY BOY MAUREICE MAKES US A PORTAL TO HELL??? WHICH GREEN OOZE WHICH IS “HECKTOPLASM” BUT MAYBE ACTUALLY N O T

THE STAR OF THE SHOW BABY GIRL GAIGE WHO’SACTUALLY OLDER THAN ME NOW FUUUUUUUUCK

YOU’RE SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL II LOVE YOUR NEW GOGGLES

H??????????????

POSSIBLE NEW PSYCHOMASK UNLESS HE’S JUST GROWING THOSE BONE HORNS IN WHICH CASE YOU GO MAN IM PROUD OF YOU

TENTACLE GUNNNNNN WHICH BETTER LPAY A PART ERIRDIANS YOU FUCKS

THIS PLACE IS WHY I THINK THIS MIGHT BE RELATED TO S O M E CORPORAITON? BUT THEN AGAIN IT MAY JSUT BE THE CULT HEADQUARTERS OR WHATEVER, THAT RED BUBBLED MANSION LOOKS P HQ

FOOD CARTS AND ALSO WHATEVERS IN THAT SWINGING BAG LOOKS LIKE BONES HELL YEAH

this this THIS THIS THIS THIS WHAT IS THIS A NEW CIRCL E OF SLAUGHTEr? ERIDIAN???

THEYRE PUMPING SOMETHING INTO/OUT OF THE CORPSE!!!!!!! ALSO

mutaTED FEET

[something] world! with a skull symbol on the side

both green btw

god YES I LOVE GREEN AND PURPLE IM SO HAPPY

SAILOF HOLE

hammylocks helping us with a fight by some bones and more wolfie boys!!!! i love these little dudes

FIRE MUTATED SLUGS AAAAAAAAA THEYRE SO COOL

ns tHEY CUR L UP INTO BALLS AND ROLL AT YOU LIKE KRAGGONS

AND I WONDER HOW THE SLUGS MUTATED IS IT POSSIBLY THE G R E E EN?

AND THEIR SHELLS LIKE SUCC UP LAVA?????????????

THESE BRAIN-Y BOYS

SO BLUE I LOVE THEM

AND MORE GREEN MIST BY THE WAY OWOWOWOWOWO

another look at a baddie with STUDS THIS TIME

A MAGIC WARLOCK TYPE BADDIE THIS TIME AND HE SUMMONS A STAFF AND ALSO I THINK THAT’S ERIDIUM CANNISTER BEHIND HIM

AND IT HAS SIMMILAR TENTACLESTO THE GUNS DO YOU THINK WE’RE FINALLY GOING TO GET ANA NSWER ASA TO WHY OUR GUNS ARE A L I V E

MORE SNAIL DUDES AND THE GREEN STUFF IN THE BACKGROUND M A N I LOVE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA SNAILS

OOOOOZE

BACK AT IT AGAIN IN MY CYCLONES

GREEN FUCKING PUDDLES

B O N E S FUCKING I HOPE THIS EXPLAINS HOW THE SKAGS ON PANDORA GOT SO FUCKIN LARGGO OUTSIDE OF JUST ‘YEAH THE SEASONS’

this

THIS

ONE

THIS LOOKS LIKE A SAURIAN THE ARMORED ONES THE BASHY ARMORED ONES THAT START WITH ‘C’

TWO THAT GUN IS KICKASS

IT’S GLOWING G R E E N AND IT HAS ***THE TENTACLE BARREL***

OHHHH IM SO READY FOR AN EXPLANATION GEARBO X PL E ASE

GIVE IT TO ME

ALSO THIS

IM EXCITED ABOUT

PROBABLY RELATED TO SWEETFRUIT VILLAGE BC THE MUSHROOMS MAYBE THEY USE IT TO MAKE BOOZE MUSHROOM BOOZE EW

WHY IS HE GRAY?????? HE’S NOT WEARING A JACKET MAYBE HES CRYO-FLAVORED

more sluggus THESE ARE GREEN FLAVORED :O

also, side note

PLEASE TLEL ME THIS WAS INTENTIONAL GEARBOX

LEMME SLAP BLANE’S ASS

YOU *GUYS* PLEASE

BUBBLE MANSION??? GREEN OOZY VILLAIN THAT GOT SLMAMED INTO A WALL??? BABY BABY GIRL

THE R E D

and she’s USING A TENTACLE GUN TOO

THAT’S GOTTA MEAN SOMETHING RIGHT

hhhhhhHHHHH

also ther’e sa fridge on the left lol

also the consoles look similar to that one shot with zane which is why i believe this is part of that bubbled-y mansion.

YES ES YES YES YES YESY SYEYSE

I WANNA RIDE THE SKY TRAM SO BAD PLEASE

I WANNA REENACT UNTIL DAWN

I HAVE A MIGHTY NEEEEEEED

ALSO NOTE THE EYES

AND THE PURPLE HOW IT LOOKS LIKE AN ERIDIUM PURPLE

ANYWAY I HA[VE TO GO EAT FOOD NOW BUT GO LOOK AT THIS LINKN

I LOOKED UP THE NAME OF THE PLANET AND MYTHOLOGY AND NOTHING CAME UP, BUT GOOGLE RECOMMENDED ME

T H I S

https://pantheon.org/articles/l/lycurgus.html

AND MAN OH MAN

“FAMOUS FOR HIS PERSECUTION OF DIONYSUS” THE GOD OF P A R T I E S LIKE IDK A WEDDING PARTY, WHICH FORCED YA MAIN MAN DIONYSUS TO <JUMP INTO THE OCEAN> WHICH COULD HAVE SOME RELATION TO THE TENTACLES

OH AND ALSO LYCURGUS WAS THEN <<<BLINDED>>> WHICH COULD PLAY A PART IN THE BLACK OOZY EYES EVERYONE HAS

DIONYSUS ALSO ENDS UP PUNISHING LYCURGUS WITH MADASS AND WE ALL KNOW HOW THAT RELATES

OKAY BYE

#borderlands #bl3 #borderlands 3 #borderlands spoilers #IM SORRY I POSTED THIS EARLY IT WAS ANA CCIDENCT

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istheresomebodywhocanimagine · 6 years ago

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Darling, I apologise for the bother but would you mind shipping me (Queen and Bo Rhap cast)? Please and thank you! Despite being a girl I dreamt of becoming Batman when I grew up but instead I got a Master's degree in Sports Journalism. I hate conflicts and try to always use diplomacy instead of arguing. I also love making jokes when feeling awkward. I value intelligence and sense of humour very much. I love daydreaming and live mainly inside my head. I hate bossy people very much. Sarcastic ^^

hellloooooo wow a MASTERS in comm/writing i respect that

i want to get my masters eventually but idk how i’ll swing it

ANYWAYS here ya are ships below the cut :*) wow theyre both kinda long SORRY

For BoRhap, I ship you with Ben Hardy!

Even though it was tempting to ship you with Joe, I think you would really get along well with Ben. Ben is definitely a bit shyer than Joe but still can hold his own even when he doesn’t necessarily need to, so I think both of you would be a great balance for each other.

Plus, Ben being a big soccer guy (sorry I’m American heh), he would love the sports journalism major a lot. Being able to talk to his girlfriend about sports? A literal wet dream.

Gwilym is a big rugby guy and an old friend of yours, so you would meet Ben through Gwilym at Gwilym’s own home. Gwilym was your go to for sports talk, and you’d made plans to watch one of the matches for the Six Nations Championship.

Ben wanted to watch too, as it was England playing Wales and he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be at playful odds with his costar.

Meeting Ben wasn’t as smooth and romantic as far as most meet-cutes went, but that’s probably what drew you to each other in the first place. You hadn’t known that Ben was coming over, and vice versa, so you were both dressed less than your best and met at an inopportune moment where Gwilym was in his garage, getting the beer out of the fridge.

“Honey, I’m home!” Ben called out as he let himself in, shutting the door behind him and wiping his feet on the mat. Putting his coat and scarf in the closet along with his shoes, he grabbed the beer he’d carried in and headed for the kitchen, eager to crack one open and get ready for the game. He’d came clad in sweatpants and a stained jersey, not exactly dressed to the nines.

“Gwilym? Your hit your head? Your voice got deeper,” you laughed, your voice coming from the kitchen, and Ben almost stopped in his tracks. Definitely not Gwilym’s voice, and for sure not a man’s voice - had he forgotten to tell him he had a date over?

When Ben came around the corner, clocking in at quite a few inches shorter than Gwilym, you actually looked over his head and jumped a bit when you were met by a curious, buff blonde instead of a lanky, tall Welsh man.

Ben was equally as surprised to see a pretty girl standing in Gwilym’s kitchen, fingers covered in cream cheese as she stood over a bowl of what looked like an Asian chili sauce and cream cheese.

“Oh,” you breathed out in confusion, holding your hands as still as you stood. You were basically in pajama shorts and an equally stained shirt that had the WRU logo on it. “You’re not Gwilym.” A mild feeling of awkwardness settled over the room as you grabbed a towel and started wiping your hands off, Ben ambling over to the counter and setting the beer down.

“No, sadly I’m not,” he replied with a light chuckle, pulling one of the beers out before turning to you and holding his hand out. “I’m Ben, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Looking down at your hands, which were still smeared with cream cheese, you laughed and nodded at him. “Don’t want to get you all messy, it’s nice to meet you, Ben. I’m Y/N.”

“Pleasure’s mine. Didn’t know that Gwil was having a date over?” he asked, looking up at he heard the door to the garage open.

You snorted at that, feeling a tiny bit more awkward as Gwilym walked in, cheering when he saw Ben and setting the beer down to give him a hug. “You’ve made it! Have you met Y/N?”

“Yes, we’ve met,” you replied for him, giving him a grin as you started to mix the sweet thai chili sauce into the cream cheese. You then directed your attention back to Ben, giving him a lighthearted grin and shaking your head. “And definitely not his date. I only use him for his kitchen.”

“Oh, shut it,” Gwilym groaned as he came over and mussed your hair, Ben chuckling at the two of you. "You’re a regular comedian, aren’t you?”

You two hit it off that night, much to Gwilym’s delight, and all of you continued to meet at Gwilym’s to watch the matches as it got closer to the championships, but Ben also started taking you out for nice meals, inviting you back to his, and generally finding any opportunity to spend time with you away from Gwil.

And eventually, he asked you out, after principal photography of BoRhap wrapped up. You were ecstatic, of course, and accepted immediately, so the two of you decided to go out for drinks to celebrate.

“Hold still, I’m trying to get a Boomerang!” Ben whined, fiddling with his phone for a second as you raised your eyebrow.

“Ben, you’re so cute. Why would I hold still for a Boomerang? It’s literally an animation.” He tried not to smile as he rolled his eyes, pretending to ignore your teasing, when his phone started to ring.

Huffing in frustration, he answered the call and put it on speakerphone since you two were sitting in a private booth that didn’t have too many people around. Scooting around so he was sitting by you, he finally answered. “What is it, Gwil?”

“Are you on your way? The game is about to start.”

“Oh shit,” Ben mumbled, rubbing the side of his neck as he looked at you, both of you mirroring each other’s guilty expressions. “Kind of forgot about the game, mate. Had other things on my mind, I’m currently out for dinner.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it then. I’ll just call Y/N and see if she’s on her way yet. Cheers!”

You let Gwilym hang up the phone as Ben pursed his lips, sitting his phone on the table before giving you a curious look. “Why did you let him hang up?”

“Wait and see,” you replied coyly, grinning and making Ben raise an eyebrow. Sure enough, your phone rang with a Facetime request a few seconds later and you answered, making sure Ben was out of the frame. “Hello, Gwilly!”

Gwilym’s face took up the screen of your phone, and he looked to be sitting on his couch, wearing his WRU shirt and some dorky looking glasses. “Hey! Where are you, I thought we were going to watch the game tonight? Ben said he’s busy.”

“I know.” You grinned, glancing over at Ben before leaning your head on his shoulder and moving the phone so you were both in the frame. Ben shot him a guilty smile, his arm wrapping around your shoulder and giving your cheek a quick pinch. “We’re both sort of preoccupied.”

“You two ditched me for a date? I’m hurt,” Gwilym lamented melodramatically, clutching at his chest and letting a hurt look take over his expression. “At least tell me there’s a TV playing the game there.”

“Gwilym, you valet your car and buy wine by the bottle here. There’s no TV playing the game, sadly,” Ben replied, accompanied by a small giggle from you. “Keep us updated.”

“You’re a fake sports fan, Y/N, I’m telling your employers!” Gwilym joked, pointing his finger at the screen and making you laugh.

“Gwil - I don’t cover Welsh rugby. And England isn’t even playing tonight,” you reminded him, and he pouted as Ben chuckled lightly, giving your arm a gentle squeeze before he started to rub it absentmindedly, just being his usual affectionate self.

“Fine, enjoy your wine,” Gwilym grumbled playfully, hanging up and leaving the two of you alone again.

When Ben moved back over to his side of the booth and gave you a warm smile, you shook your head and sent him a playfully disapproving look in return.

“You actors, you’re such drama queens.”

And for Queen, I ship you with Brian May!

Your talents as a mediator were desperately needed for Queen from the get-go, as decided by Deacon, who’d been your friend from childhood.

What he didn’t count on was you and Brian latching on to each other - but thankfully, even then you knew when Brian was right, and when he was just making a big stink out of nothing.

John had brought you into the studio early on, when he realized the duo of Freddie/Roger vs. Brian were a volatile mix - three remarkably sized egos, two that meshed so well together, sized up against a brainiac who couldn’t let things go? Yikes.

“Brian, I’m going to smack you silly if you don’t stop tuning that thing,” Freddie snapped as Roger snickered, Brian looking up from his guitar as you watched the three of them, quickly running through ways to diffuse the situation already.

Freddie and Brian were harder to break apart than Roger and Brian, but you’d quickly figured out that Brian was easier to finesse if you appealed to his intelligence, which was a quality of his that you secretly admired. And Freddie was easy to deal with - all you had to do was praise his lyricism or sound, or even just bring up a part of the song you thought could use some updating. (They’re men, they aren’t hard to distract, unfortunately)

“Do you want the guitar to sound good in the song, or do you just not give a shit about this album, Fred?” Brian snapped back with an equal amount of venom, sitting his guitar to the side. Freddie rolled his eyes, pointing a finger adorned with chipped black fingernail polish towards the booth.

“We have to get something recorded today! Instead of just dilly-dallying while you make sure your precious guitar doesn’t have a fucking bellyache.”

John looked at you desperately, knowing that if he got involved there would probably only be more conflict, so you sprang into action as nonchalantly as possible, standing up to walk over and drop something in the trash can that sat between the two men, who were now both standing about 5 feet apart from each other.

Even your presence between the two of them seemed to diffuse some of the tension already, distracting both of them from each other for a second, and you chose that moment to speak.

“Freddie, I liked that part you recorded just now. That one line, the Mother Mercury one - fantastic,” you said, turning to Freddie and smiling softly at him.

“You think so?” Freddie asked, glancing at Brian and looking sour for a moment before directing his attention to you. “That’s one of my favorite lines too. I was thinking of layering my voice there once or twice, what do you think? Thought it would give it a more melancholic, discordant sound.”

“Brilliant idea,” you agreed, nodding before looking at the booth and shrugging. “Might as well do it now, give Brian some more time.”

Looking at Brian again, Freddie narrowed his eyes before nodding and doing exactly that, going over to talk with the man at the sound board as you turned to Brian, who was sitting back down with a sigh.

“Having troubles tuning?” you asked, sitting down in the chair across from him and sending a thumbs up to Deacon, who let out a breath of relief and continued scribbling at his notebook.

“Yeah, this one’s not like Red, it’s a bit more difficult to get it right,” Brian sighed, pulling the guitar into his lap and looking over it with a pensive expression on his face. He then looked up at you, seeming almost embarrassed by how fired up he’d been a moment ago, and gave a small smile. “Sorry you had to intervene. Freddie just pushes my buttons sometimes.”

“It’s okay, Bri. Not everyone can understand what’s going on up there in that curly mop of yours.”

That got a laugh out of him, and he shook his head, accentuating the curly mess before going back to tuning, stealing little glances at you every once in a while as you pretended not to notice, keeping your eyes on Freddie, who was trying to figure out the best way not to upset the tonality.

And Brian continued to steal those glances at you as you came in, day after day, to listen to them record. They lingered more and more, distracting him more often, and he would say he was just tired when it would delay him from getting tuned, but it was almost as if he was purposely doing so in order to have you get involved in any tiff his delays caused.

When their debut record was finally finished, you were sort of bummed. It was quite fun to be around the boys night after night, especially Brian, but you knew you had to continue your work at the Daily Mail covering matches, and Brian had gigs to play.

But Brian couldn’t stay away, and when he got back from the shorter Queen tour that lasted into ‘74, he asked you out on a date, to John’s mild chagrin.

“Just promise me you won’t turn into a pseudo-intellectual bodyguard for him,” he’d begged, making you laugh at the thought. As much as you thoroughly loved Brian’s intelligence, you knew John had a point.

Brian took you to Greenwich observatory for your first date - forever the space dweeb - and you two were strolling through the museum, arm in arm, when he finally asked you to be his girlfriend.

Spoiler: you said yes!

When they were working on Queen II, you had a big story coming up, so you showed up to the studio as often as possible, but your absence was noted, particularly by Freddie (and Deacon, who was having to use up all of his scalding one-liners).

“Y/N! Are you hearing this?” Freddie asked, drawing you out of your dreamlike state. You’d zoned out about a minute ago, thinking of your deadline and what you’d need to get done tomorrow.

“No, what’s happening?” you admitted, smiling sheepishly and glancing between Freddie and Brian, who were arguing - yet again.

“Your little boyfriend here thinks that we should use three guitars at the end of this song right now.”

“Little?” Brian repeated, his face flushing as he stared at Freddie, an indignant look on his face. “Have you seen yourself, mate?”

You’d crawled up from your place on the couch, making your way over to where Brian was, and perched yourself on the armrest, pursing your lips. “Three guitars?”

“It’s too much!” Freddie sighed, throwing his hands up. “I’m all for experimenting, but it’s just going to sound like a hodge podge of guitars and I don’t think it will work.”

Resting your hands on your knees, you thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “Why don’t we send Brian in there and see what he wants to do with the three guitar layers> Can’t hurt to listen, you don’t have to record either.”

Freddie scowled for a moment as he mulled over the idea, finally assenting. “Fine. But we’re not recording unless we all like it.”

“Thank you, Freddie,” Brian sighed, shaking his head before getting up from his chair, heading towards the booth. You followed him to the door, and he stopped in the doorway, turning around to face you as Freddie slumped down on the couch, taking a break.

Brian looked tired, but he still gave you a small smile as he pulled the guitar strap over his shoulder, leaning down to kiss your forehead gently. “Thank you for talking to Fred. You’re a lifesaver.”

Grinning, you reached up to fix the strap of his guitar, which had flipped itself over, and Brian watched as you did so, his eyes finally tearing away from your hand to look back at you. “You owe me, big guy.”

That made him groan and roll his eyes playfully before he gave you another quick kiss on the forehead, heading into the booth.

“Yeah, yeah. I know, lovie.”

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whatsjungkooking · 8 years ago

Note

1-92💪🏻

1. Would you have sex with the last person you text messaged?

- nooooooooooooooooooooooooo

2. You talked to an ex today, correct?

- incorrect

3. Have you taken someones virginity?

- nope

4. Is trust a big issue for you?

- not a big issue but people tend to mess about nowadays

5. Did you hang out with the person you like recently?

- yes my bf

6. What are you excited for?

- hopefully passing my driving test

7. What happened tonight?

- my mum and i went to mcdonalds through the drive thru and i got a chicken legend we nEVER go to mcdonalds but my mum didnt want to cook for tea so we went there

8. Do you think it’s disgusting when girls get really wasted?

- no its their decision i just wouldnt do it myself

9. Is confidence cute?

- in some situations yes

10. What is the last beverage you had?

- water

11. How many people of the opposite sex do you fully trust?

- like 4

12. Do you own a pair of skinny jeans?

- all of my jeans are skinny, its to that point now where i feel really weird if my jeans/trousers arent skinny

13. What are you gonna do Saturday night?

- going bowling and for a meal for a friends birthday

14. What are you going to spend money on next?

- bowling and the meal HAHA

15. Are you going out with the last person you kissed?

- yes

16. Do you think you’ll change in the next 3 months?

- probably not to be honest

17. Who do you feel most comfortable talking to about anything?

- jess and lauren

18. The last time you felt broken?

- in February

19. Have you had sex today?

- no

20. Are you starting to realize anything?

- ive realised im biting the inside of my cheeks

21. Are you in a good mood?

- at the moment yes

22. Would you ever want to swim with sharks?

- no thank yooouuu

23. Are your eyes the same color as your dad’s?

- yes but a bit darker

24. What do you want right this second?

- water and lipbalm

25. What would you say if the person you love/like kissed another girl/boy?

- b y e

26. Is your current hair color your natural hair color?

- the majority yes

27. Would you be able to date someone who doesn’t make you laugh?

- no way that is like number 1

28. What was the last thing that made you laugh?

- a video on fb i laughed so much my hip popped

29. Do you really, truly miss someone right now?

- yasss

30. Does everyone deserve a second chance?

- it depends what theyve done

31. Honestly, do you hate the last boy you were talking to?

- definitely not

32. Does the person you have feelings for right now, know you do?

- yes

33. Are you one of those people who never drinks soda?

- nah i loooooove it

34. Listening to?

- body talk by red velvet

35. Do you ever write in pencil anymore?

- tbh not in a while, theres always pens lying about never really pencils

36. Do you know where the last person you kissed is?

- at his house

37. Do you believe in love at first sight?

- i do not, no

38. Who did you last call?

- sainsburys, that was last week, i dont call very often

39. Who was the last person you danced with?

- my dad

40. Why did you kiss the last person you kissed?

- bc i was saying goodbye

41. When was the last time you ate a cupcake?

- a few weeks ago??

42. Did you hug/kiss one of your parents today?

- i think i hugged both

43. Ever embarrass yourself in front of a crush?

- quite a few times

44. Do you tan in the nude?

- even if i did the sun would still only catch my hands and id only tan my hands

45. If you could, would you take back your last kiss?

- no waaaaaay

46. Did you talk to someone until you fell asleep last night?

- i dont think so

47. Who was the last person to call you?

- my mum

48. Do you sing in the shower?

- when im the only one in the house i do yes

49. Do you dance in the car?

- i move my shoulders about HAHA

50. Ever used a bow and arrow?

- at school at some point

51. Last time you got a portrait taken by a photographer?

- school photo

52. Do you think musicals are cheesy?

- it depends which one bc for example wicked, thats a musical and thats not cheesy but some musicals are purposely meant to be cheesy

53. Is Christmas stressful?

- not for me but probably for my mum

54. Ever eat a pierogi?

- da heck is tHAT

55. Favorite type of fruit pie?

- im not really a fan of fruit pies

56. Occupations you wanted to be when you were a kid?

- manager of asda or an author

57. Do you believe in ghosts?

- yes

58. Ever have a Deja-vu feeling?

- quite a few times

59. Take a vitamin daily?

- i used to have tablets but theyre very easy to forget about...

60. Wear slippers?

- all the time giiirrrrrl

61. Wear a bath robe?

- a dressing gown? only when im cold

62. What do you wear to bed?

- pyjamas

63. First concert?

- the saturdays

64. Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart?

- none we dont have any of those here

65. Nike or Adidas?

- oooooo thats tough, maybe nike just edges in front bc ive bought more items that are nike

66. Cheetos Or Fritos?

- wotsits

67. Peanuts or Sunflower seeds?

- peanuts

68. Favorite Taylor Swift song?

- love story

69. Ever take dance lessons?

- i have not no

70. Is there a profession you picture your future spouse doing?

- he do what he gunna do

71. Can you curl your tongue?

- yes

72. Ever won a spelling bee?

- we dont have spelling bees so i have not

73. Have you ever cried because you were so happy?

- mainly of laughter

74. What is your favorite book?

- shatter me, probably bc i keep mentioning it its the first one that comes to mind

75. Do you study better with or without music?

- without, i need complete silence

76. Regularly burn incense?

- nope

77. Ever been in love?

- yes

78. Who would you like to see in concert?

- bts, gfriend, snsd, little mix maybe, ellie goulding maybe

79. What was the last concert you saw?

- the saturdays

80. Hot tea or cold tea?

- neither

81. Tea or coffee?

- neither

82. Favorite type of cookie?

- chocolate chip

83. Can you swim well?

- im okay HAHA i struggled when i was younger

84. Can you hold your breath without holding your nose?

- i can yes

85. Are you patient?

- i would say so, especially recently bc apps have been crashing on my ipad lately and i havent gone mad yet

86. DJ or band, at a wedding?

- maybe DJ

87. Ever won a contest?

- quite a few, the first one i won was a harry potter competition in a really girly magazine and i went for it bc i thought no girl would go for it and i won, i have a flipping quidditch helmet and a huge bag

88. Ever have plastic surgery?

- nope

89. Which are better black or green olives?

- nONE THEY ARE GROSS

90. Opinions on sex before marriage?

- why not

91. Best room for a fireplace?

- living room

92. Do you want to get married?

- yes please

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dangkinronpa · 8 years ago

Text

headcanons for chisa who was close to himiko and kotoko because of her motherly instincts

heres ur headcanons chisa! i hope u like them, and if u want something changed just let me know and ill do it! - mod kiibo - when chisa first saw himiko and kotoko, she honestly thought that they were around the same age. she took care of both of them for months before she actually found out that himiko was much older than kotoko was. she was really embarrassed, but she decided that it didnt really matter in the end - chisa actually found out that himiko was older than kotoko on himikos birthday. chisa asked her how old she was that day, expecting her to say she was about 11 years old, and was absolutely floored when himiko told her she was actually about the same age as her students. to chisa, that was actually revolutionary - since kotoko loves anything adorable, she often tries to get into chisas accessories and try them on just to see how they look on her. kotoko also loves calling chisa and himiko super cute, too, but himiko refuses to try on chisas clothes because it takes too much effort out of her - himiko does like it, however, when chisa decides to give her a piggy back ride. shes very thankful, because she normally doesnt have the energy to go to those places on her own. chisa... highly doubts that, but shell let it slide anyway, because himiko looks so much like a helpless little child - chisa really loves gathering the other two up to do cute things like bake. himiko is in charge of mixing up everything in a mixing bowl and saying shes making a potion, chisa puts everything in the oven, and kotoko puts on frosting and decorates everything. they all agree that what they bake usually ends up being pretty yummy - other than just treating the two with sweets and such, though, chisa tries to seem like a real mother to the both of them, and often checks on them to make sure theyre doing alright. she also helps them with any homework they have and cheers them on whenever they have some big event to attend - every once in a while, chisa urges himiko to put on magic shows for her and kotoko. himiko complains about how she doesnt have enough mp at first... but then gets tired of complaining and decides to put on the show. theyre little parlor tricks for the most part, but chisa and kotoko are impressed at how good she is at those parlor tricks - since kotokos favorite food is chestnuts, one day chisa decides to buy her a big bag of chestnuts. she figures that they should be good, even if they arent peeled like kotoko says she likes them. when she gives the bag to kotoko, she learns that kotokos least favorite food is also chestnuts - chisa is absolutely fine letting the other two play with her hair, even if she isnt sure how much shes going to like the results when theyre done. kotoko tends to put chisas hair in twintails similar to her own, and himiko tends to just braid a few strands and calls it a day. chisa tells them she loves what theyve done anyway - chisa finds himiko and kotoko to be absolutely adorable, and really wants them to see her as a motherly figure who they can come to whenever theyre having any problems. she just wants to take care of them and keep them safe from anything which may want to harm them

#chisa yukizome kin #yukizome chisa kin #dangan ronpa kin #dr3 kin #dangan ronpa #dr3 #dangan ronpa 3 #himiko yumeno #kotoko utsugi #headcanons

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themoneybuff-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Questions About Car Seats, Leftovers, Medical Insurance, Budget Brands, and More!

Whats inside? Here are the questions answered in todays reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Early or late retirement contributions? 2. Purchases for infrequent use 3. Used car seats? 4. Excessive leftovers 5. Friends want me to spend 6. Value of one bag living 7. Buying a house on $35K 8. How to avoid drive-thrus 9. Medical insurance difficulties 10. Budget brands? 11. Starting career advice 12. Thoughts on taekwondo One of the most enjoyable parts of writing this mailbag column is the wide variety of comments and questions I get from readers. I usually try to keep the stuff I choose for the mailbag at least somewhat within the realm of personal finance, maybe slipping in one or two questions or comments a week that arent related to the topic, but I get quite a lot of great stuff from readers that covers completely different topics that I just cant reasonably fit into the mailbag. For example, just in the last week or two, Ive received the following notes from readers: A reader wrote in to talk about the joys of playing Magic: the Gathering with her son and how they were building Commander decks together. A reader wrote in to encourage me to pick up some of the writings of the philosopher Byung-Chul Han, particularly his essays Psychopolitics and The Scent of Time (which Im currently reading). A reader has been trying to get me to debate him concerning a number of hot button political issues. A reader has been writing to me consistently for weeks asking for step-by-step help in getting a batch of homemade kombucha to work. A reader invited me to his dynasty fantasy football league. Thats just over the last several days. Honestly, I love this kind of thing, because it represents human connection. Theres a sharing of ideas and interests and a sharing of concern behind all of it that goes way past merely writing about financial issues, and it means a lot to me, even if its not fodder for the mailbag. Speaking of the mailbag, here are this weeks questions. Q1: Early or late retirement contributions? Is it better to contribute to a Roth IRA early in the year or as late as possible? I have money set aside for my 2019 Roth contribution but I dont know if I should do it now or wait. Brian Unless theres some specific reason thats unique to your situation that points to waiting, you should put those savings in there as soon as possible. The longer the money is invested, the more time you have for compound interest to work in your favor. Having said that, investment markets are unpredictable. Theres always a chance that right after you put your money in, the markets dip. Remember that this could happen no matter when you put your money in there. You could put your money in now and immediately see a dip, or you could wait until next February to put it in and immediately see a dip. The difference is that, on average, its much more likely that the investment youre putting your money into will go up in value over that period. If you wait, its very likely that youre going to miss out on growth. Put your retirement money away in retirement accounts as soon as you can. Dont sit around holding them, because youre usually doing nothing more than missing out on growth if you do that. Q2: Purchases for infrequent use Im considering purchasing a pair of bowling shoes. I only bowl once or twice a year, but it seems like its a wise investment since I could get a pair of perfectly good bowling shoes for around $25 instead of paying $3 or so each time to rent them. How do you view rarely used purchases like this that, while adding to the stuff you own, will eventually pay for themselves? Adam My philosophy on purchases like these is similar to yours. I try to look at the total cost of ownership of the item over an extended but still reasonable period of time, like five years, and I figure out which is going to cost less. I also consider how frequently Ill actually use the item, and it basically has to be annually at the very least and preferably much more frequent than that. That type of thinking requires full honesty to be valuable. So, in your situation, is it cheaper to rent shoes for $3 a pop twice a year for five years or buy a pair of shoes for $25 once? Well, the cost for rental over that period is $30, so Id probably swing toward buying a pair, assuming that Im bowling twice a year. If you assume that its actually going to be much less than twice a year, youre going to be better off renting. I usually use a five year measure for calculations like this, because I figure its pretty hard to predict accurately what my life will be like beyond that time threshold and its also probably a reasonable guess as to the wear and tear that an item can take. Usually, with a five year calculation, its obvious whether its a good move or not. Again, in this situation, those bowling shoes arent going to be worn out after ten wears, so its likely you will be able to continue wearing them at that point or theyll have some minor secondhand value. This pushes the pendulum even more toward buying them. Q3: Used car seats? I am expecting in November. My husband and I are starting to pick up baby items from FB Marketplace and Craigslist. Whenever a carseat is listed on Marketplace someone always comments that you shouldnt buy used carseats because theyre not safe. How are used carseats not safe? Amy A carseat is one of the few baby options I wouldnt buy used. The reason is simple: a big part of whats protecting that baby when theyre in the carseat is plastic, and you dont know how that plastic has been treated. Theres some chance that the plastic has become brittle and could easily crack or break in a severe impact, just when you need it the most. This can happen, for example, if a carseat has been left in the sun too much over the course of years. Its not an issue of negligence its an issue of you not knowing the history of that carseat. It may have had years of sunlight exposure, rendering the protection that it offers your child much weaker. Most baby items are fine to buy used clothes and baby monitors and things like that. Those arent things that will cause calamity if they fail and its usually obvious if theyre doing their job or not. A car seat, though, is something you should invest in. 99.9% of the time, it wont matter, but 0.1% of the time, it matters more than anything else and youll never, ever want to skimp on that situation. Q4: Excessive leftovers On any given night we will have 2-7 people at our house for dinner. By default we cook for 7 but that means that many nights we have a ton of leftovers. We eat leftovers for lunch every day but they still get tossed a lot. We cant give them to the food pantry either. Ideas? Andy My first suggestion would be to simply have a leftover buffet night for dinner twice a week or so. On, say, Wednesdays and Saturdays, just pull out all leftovers, put them on the table, and let people assemble their own plates of leftovers and heat them up (or heat up the hot items before putting them on the buffet). That way, the leftovers get consumed directly and you have a free dinner. Another suggestion is to frequently make meals and side dishes that are easy to remix into another meal if you have a low turnout. For example, if you make a bunch of spaghetti, you can save it for two nights and then mix in a few additional spices, put it in a greased 9 by 13 pan, put a couple cups of mozzarella and provolone shredded cheese on top, and bake it for 30-45 minutes, covered for the first half, to make a nice spaghetti bake. We also often have plain vegetables as a side dish and save the leftovers to make quick soups later on, for example. A final suggestion is that on nights where you have a low turnout, simply prep leftover plates for the next night and have the same thing for dinner again, or prepare a different dinner the next night for just the two who ate the night before. I dont think you need to feel obligated to have a fresh meal on the table for whoever happens to show up each night. Q5: Friends want me to spend Im 23 and got a nice job out of college paying $45K per year. Several of my friends from college are in the same area and have jobs as well so its fun to hang out with them, but it feels like they want to blow their income as fast as possible. They go out drinking and to clubs constantly, upgrade their phones all the time, ride around in Ubers when they have cars, and throw money at stupid stuff. I want to get rid of my student loan debt and start saving for a house and Im already contributing to retirement so I can get out of this as young as possible. Its not like Im avoiding fun but theres a ton of stuff to do that doesnt cost $50 or $100 for an evening. When I suggest anything else other than clubs or an expensive restaurant, I get ignored. Do you have any suggestions? Amy Find new friends? I mean, that sounds fairly cold, but it sounds like your values are diverging from the values that your friends hold, or perhaps they were always divergent and the income just exposed it. While I dont mind being acquaintances with people with drastically different lifestyles than my own, I have found its far more pleasant and easier to have close friends who have similar values and lifestyles to my own. That way, Im not pushed to overspend constantly just to spend time with my friends. I have been in situations where it felt like I had to pay some kind of admission fee (in the form of going out when I didnt want to) just to hang out with a friend and if I wasnt willing to do that, that person wouldnt hang out with me. That just isnt worth it. Id suggest digging into activities that you feel internally interested in doing. Find groups in your community that match up well with that by using things like Meetup and there youll find people who are also interested in what you happen to be internally interested in. Get involved in those groups. Youll find its not too hard to build friendships that way. Q6: Value of one bag living I found your post on one bag living to be interesting but not practical. Its not like more than maybe 0.001% of your readers will actually ever do it. What is the practical value of such an article? Ollie The practical value of it is that it really shows you how few items you actually need to have a happy and comfortable life, and when you realize that, you begin to realize how much extra unnecessary stuff you have and how much that stuff is costing you, both in terms of the stuff itself and the space youre paying for to store all of that stuff. Lets say, for example, that you decided to try it for a month. You packed a big duffel bag full of stuff and aimed to live solely out of that bag for that month. During the month, almost everything you use comes out of that bag other than maybe a few kitchen items, you really dont use anything else in your home. At the end of the month, youre left asking yourself what the point of all of that other stuff is. Why have any of it if youre able to have a great life without touching it? Why have shelves full of books and DVDs you never touch? Why have a television if you have a good life not watching it? This is likely to lead you to start downsizing your possessions, recouping some money along the way, and its also likely to lead you to question almost all of your physical purchases. If you keep going in that direction, youll find that you likely have excessive living space and can easily be satisfied with a smaller home or apartment, and if you downsize that, then youre on the way to some serious financial improvement in your life, as youre losing far less money to utilities, insurance, property taxes, and so on. Q7: Buying a house on $35K I am a single woman with a four year old child from a previous marriage; the father is not involved and avoids paying child support. We live in a small apartment in [a large city with a moderate cost of living]. I make $35K per year. My mom lives about five miles away and takes care of my son when Im working and hes not in preschool as she has a pension thats enough for her to live on because my father died in the workplace. I would like to be able to afford a small house for us and get out of this apartment building before hes too old because theres kind of a rough culture of teenage boys here. I would like to be in a house in four years. I have no debts and am saving about $200 a month for emergencies. Carrie First of all, Id contact a lawyer and do what you can to get child support. The cost of supporting your child should not be borne solely by you and hes legally obligated to provide financial help here even if hes uninvolved. Second of all, $200 a month in savings thats also used as an emergency fund isnt adequate to get to where you want to go in four years. I looked into your area and a small starter home is going to run you in the $300K range now and will probably be closer to $350K by the time you want to buy. 20% of $350K is $70K. If youre saving $200 a month, youll get to about $10K in four years if there are no emergencies. To get to $70K in four years, you need to be saving around $1,500 a month and have no emergencies that tap that money. Considering that youre making about $3,000 a month before taxes, thats an extremely difficult proposition. Thus, to make it to your target, youre going to have to do some radical things. The first thing I would do is sit down with your mother and discuss the option of cohabitation for a few years, with you splitting up the housing costs. If she could move into your apartment or you two could move into her dwelling and its a tenable situation for a few years, youll both save a mint. If youre paying $1,000 a month in rent and it suddenly drops to $500 a month, theres $500 a month toward savings, and probably more than that because youll have lower utility bills and you can more easily share food costs. You may find that after you buy that starter home, it may make sense to have your mother continue to live with you to keep costs manageable going forward, at least for a while. If you can swing something like that, use a lot of smart frugal tactics like sticking with store brand items when shopping, get on that child support issue, and keep working at your career to move toward a better salary, you can make this work. Without those kinds of big changes, this probably isnt a realistic goal. Q8: How to avoid drive-thrus How do you stop relying on the convenience of drive-thrus? I understand that its way cheaper to make meals at home but when I can just go to a drive-thru and get a quick meal and have it eaten before I even get home or eat it right when I walk in the door and theres no cleanup because I just toss the wrappers, its hard to convince myself to make a big mess making a meal at home. Leon There are a few good strategies for solving this problem that work well for different people. I suggest trying one for at least 30 days, see if it clicks with you or merely causes frustration, and either stick with it if it works or move on to another if it doesnt. First, try simply packing a meal for yourself at home before you leave in a small cooler. Make something simple that you like a sandwich and some baby carrots and a drink or whatever. Pack the individual items in reusable containers and put them in something insulated with an ice pack to keep it cool. Take that meal with you when you go out and save it at your desk or in a work fridge until youre ready to leave, then eat that on the way home. You can do the meal prep the night before while watching a television show and if you use reusable containers, cleanup is really just a matter of popping stuff in the dishwasher and wiping off the table (which youd need to do anyway). If you want, you can designate Fridays as eat out days and keep it as a treat for yourself for getting through the week. Another thing I strongly suggest is to simply get better at cooking at home. Cooking seems very difficult at first and even easy things like scrambled eggs feel like a giant mess and a big time and energy investment, but once you get more practiced, it stops feeling so challenging. Start by making really simple meals that you like grilled cheese sandwiches or scrambled eggs or spaghetti. Another strategy is to cook things in advance, make individual meals out of them in reusable containers, and keep them in the fridge. For example, you could make a huge batch of spaghetti one night and pack three or four individual meals of spaghetti with a breadstick in resealable containers in the fridge. Then, you can take them to work with you and youll also know that one is just waiting for you when you get home. Yet another strategy is to use a slow cooker. Start a simple dump meal before you leave (a dump meal means you just dump several ingredients in there and turn it on low) and youll have a hot home-cooked meal waiting for you when you get home. Slow cookers are great for stews, chili, soups, and simple casseroles; it can also make a mean pot roast. The goal of all of these things is to either put something in your hands directly so that youre not tempted to stop or have something at home waiting for you so youre not tempted to stop. Q9: Medical insurance difficulties I am covered by [a major medical insurer] through my workplace. A few months ago, I had a procedure done that my doctors office informed me would be fully covered by my insurance. They filed this with the insurance and the insurance company came back saying that the procedure wasnt medically necessary and wouldnt cover it, so my doctor is now billing me for it at the tune of $30K. I dont even know where to start. Should I contact a lawyer? Petra Without seeing the bills and documentation, I cant give you full advice on what to do. However, my first step would be to document every single detail that you can recall about this entire process, including dates and what you were told by both your doctors office and insurance. If you have any supporting documents, such as receipts and printed information about the procedure or about the costs, thats all valuable here. Then, I would go through the process of appealing this claim with your insurer, providing a copy of all of that documentation. An appeal should definitely be your first action. If you find that your appeal is denied, you should then discuss the matter with your doctor and attempt to get their bill reduced. If youre still finding that youre paying an excessive amount, then I would take all of this documentation to a lawyer and get legal help. It very much sounds like you were given inaccurate guidance from a doctors office and a lawyer can usually help here. Q10: Budget brands? Are there any budget brands you trust for making high quality stuff? Meaning brands that are cheap in price but the quality of their stuff is good? Darren The store brands at most department stores and grocery store chains fit that bill. For the vast majority of product types, the store brand is as good as most of the name brand options. They might not beat some of the really high end premium versions of those products, but the store brand is usually as good as 80% of similar items on the shelf. For things like charging cables and basic electronics like computer mice or keyboards, Ive found that Amazons generic brand, Amazon Basics, is really good for the price. For many different kinds of smaller electronic items, like external batteries for charging devices on the go or headphones or things of that nature, I strongly trust Anker. If theres an Anker option for a small electronic device, youre probably getting great bang for the buck with it. Those are the ones that immediately come to mind as brands that I strongly trust that consistently provide good bang for the buck across a wide variety of products. Q11: Starting career advice My oldest son is about to graduate from college with a degree in electrical engineering. I am collecting career advice from some people I respect to pass along to him. What advice would you give to a fresh college graduate in a technical field today? Robert First of all, treat the first decade of your career as an opportunity to build skills and relationships above chasing salary. A killer resume ten years from now will be worth a lot more than earning an extra $5K or $10K right out of the gate. If one job pays a little more but feels like a dead end, while the other job pays a little less but feels like its overflowing with opportunities and ways to build relationships, take the latter job in the first decade of your career. Second, if your workplace offers a 401(k) plan, take advantage of it immediately and contribute as much as you can stand. You will never regret this. Just do this and then start off with smaller take-home checks theyll still be a lot more than what you had in college. Pay yourself first. Third, no matter how tough a situation is, dont burn bridges, even if it would feel good. If youre moving on from a position, do it as gently as possible and be as positive and flexible as you can on your way out. Finally, eat healthy, get some exercise, get plenty of sleep, and dont work too many hours. If you dont do those things, youll be far less productive during your work time, the quality of work you produce will be lower, and youll have a harder time picking up new skills. If your workplace is obsessed with 80 hour workweeks, carve out as much of that 80 hours toward self care and rest that you can reasonably get away with. Q12: Thoughts on taekwondo I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on taekwondo from the perspective of both a parent of a student and as a participant with an eye toward cost. Is it worth it? Do your kids get value out of it? How about yourself? Brenda I attend a local taekwondo school with the rest of my family. It was an activity that my two oldest children wanted to try and the family plan isnt much more expensive than just the two of them participating, so when our family schedule lined up and our youngest was old enough, we all joined. In effect, our third family member was half price and the rest of us are effectively going for free, and the price has actually gone down as some family members have reached black belt rank (and those who havent are at a belt rank approaching black). First of all, if youre new to martial arts of any kind, its something you should shop around for. Any city of any size likely has a few martial arts schools; a larger city likely has some dedicated taekwondo schools with branches in various locations. Different schools offer different prices and different philosophies. Taekwondo is a martial art thats focused on fast, high kicking. That means that it really works hard on agility and balance. Theres also an emphasis on forms, which are sequences of kicks and other movements that are memorized and done from memory, which challenges a persons memory while physically exerting themselves. Our familys interest in martial arts lies much more in the realm of self improvement, character building, self defense, and fitness rather than training to fight. There are definitely martial arts schools that are very focused on simply training to fight, preparing people for things like mixed martial arts. Theres nothing wrong with that, but its not what Sarah or I were looking for in a school. We wanted a school where the merit wasnt in whether you defeat someone in a fight, but whether youre working hard and genuinely improving yourself so that youre better at the techniques, better in all around fitness, and better in character than you were the day before. Again, I have nothing against a school focused on fight-focused training, but its just not what Im looking for or what I would direct my children toward until theyre old enough to make those kinds of choices for themselves. Perhaps someday theyll take what theyve learned and move in that direction, and Im fine with that. When my oldest son and daughter began expressing a genuine interest in taekwondo, we shopped around for local schools that offered dedicated youth programs and were focused on a self-improvement type of martial art philosophy, and we found one that we liked that had classes near us, and over time, we all joined up. I think it has genuinely helped our children improve their ability to focus, their ability to overcome challenges, their character, and most definitely their ability to defend themselves and get out of a threatening situation. As a parent, Im thrilled with the impact taekwondo has had on them. As for myself, I joined because I agree in a deep philosophical way with the goals and direction of the school, as well as the fact that I was looking for a fitness program for myself and an opportunity to mutually encourage my family to be more fit. This hits all of those marks and with family rates, its pretty inexpensive. If you divide our session fees by five, theres absolutely no way any of us could be in a sport or a fitness program at these rates. If someone is interested in taekwondo or martial arts in general, Id start by figuring out why you want to do it. What are you hoping to get out of it, or what do you want your child to get out of it? Self-discipline? Fitness? Self-defense? Character? What are the one or two things you want most for yourself or for your child that you hope martial arts can provide? Start from there and shop around at a lot of schools in your area. Theyll all have different philosophies and centers of focus some of them will line up well with your own goals and philosophies, while others will go in a different direction (not wrong or bad, just different). Find some that match what you want, price compare them, and give one a try for a session and see if its right for you. Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. Ill attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours. https://www.thesimpledollar.com/questions-about-car-seats-leftovers-medical-insurance-budget-brands-and-more/

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jimdsmith34 · 7 years ago

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40 Genius Recipes With Three Ingredients or Less That ANYONE Can Make

How many times have you looked at a recipe and thought it looked great only to discover that the list of ingredients was a mile long and would cause even an Iron Chef to roll their eyes and stick a frozen pizza in the oven? Exactly.

Cooking doesnt have to be complicated and it can be delicious with only three ingredients or less. Now, were not talking about peanut butter and jelly or a bowl of cereal with milk although theres nothing wrong with those but rather more innovative creations like Nutella cake, jalapeno poppers, pulled pork, and ice cream.

Youll wonder, Why didnt I think of that?

One Ingredient Banana Soft Serve

Via: The Kitchn

The recipe that has been sweeping the Internet for the past couple of years is so simple its not even a recipe.

Its actually frozen bananas thrown in the food processor until they reach the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Seriously.

Its really that good, and the possibilities for modifications are endless peanut butter, cookies, other fruit, and so many other things.

Youre welcome.

Shells and White Cheddar

Via: She Makes and Bakes

Forget the blue box. Make thisstovetop version in which you slowly cook the pasta right in the milk, so it gets super creamy. Then just stir in cheese and the sauce makes itself.

Salted Caramel Truffle and Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pie

Via: Chelseas Messy Apron

This looks complicated, but it really only requires a graham cracker crust, a tub of chocolate and caramel ice cream, and toppings. You. Are. Welcome.

Three Ingredient Tomato Soup

Via: Enjoy Tribute

Soup with just tomatoes, onions or peppers, and olive oil. It doesnt get any simpler than that.

Peanut Butter Waffle Sandwiches

Via: Crazy for Crust

If you have a waffle maker, Pillsbury biscuit dough, and peanut butter (and optional syrup or honey)youre ready to make this mealthat can be frozen for easy treats later.

Slow Cooker Cocktail Meatballs

Via: Mom on a Timeout

Whether youre gearing up for a big game, a potluck, or just a quick dinner, all you need are meatballs, grape jelly, and chili sauce.

Two Ingredient Flourless Nutella Cake

Via: Kirbie’s Cravings

Do you have Nutella? Of course you do. Do you have eggs? Lets hope so, because after 25 minutes of baking you have a decadent dessertand happiness.

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Via: The Comfort of Cooking

Just three ingredients and 30 minutes give you tender sweet potatoes stuffed with shredded BBQ chicken and an easy weeknight meal.

Two Ingredient Pizza Dough

Via: The Slow Roasted Italian

Its not delivery, its Greek yogurt and flour coming together to make everything from pizza dough to variations such as garlic bread and calzones.

Oreo Bark

Via: Bakers Royale

Need a quick treat to bring somewhere? Try this two ingredient, sweet and simple dessert filled with Oreo goodness thats ready in 20 minutes and probably devoured in 20 seconds.

Two Ingredient Cheese Crisps

Via: Celebrations at Home

These cheese crisps are little bites of heaven. They makegreat snacks for the kids,appetizerswith a glass of wine, or an accompaniment with a salad.

Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Via: Barefeet In the Kitchen

This recipe is a classic with just eggs, peanut butter, and sugar, which means youre just minutes away from satisfying your craving for a delicious treat.

Coca-Cola Chicken

Via: When East Meets West

Boil the chicken, replace the water with Coca-Cola and add in soy sauce to create a meal thats literally done in minutes.

Two Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Via: Oh Lady Cakes

The only thing standing between you and thisdecadent treat is chocolate, your milk of choice, and whatever toppings you want to go nuts with including, well, nuts.

Two Ingredient Healthy Pancakes

Via: Top With Cinnamon

While there are a few modifications and pinches of things here and there, thisrecipe basically consists of two things eggs and bananas. Thats it. Im not kidding. Get your pancake on.

Super Easy Mozzarella Sticks

Via: Mommy Savers

Why are they super easy? Because they only require egg roll wrappers, string cheese and an egg. Of course you have to have sauce for dipping, but were not counting that.

No Churn Coconut Ice Cream

Via: Dessert Now, Dinner Later

If your tastes lean more towards coconut than banana, as mentioned above, this ice cream recipes comes together with two ingredients and no ice cream maker required.

Sinfully Easy Chocolate Croissants

Via: Inspired Taste

No, theyre not real croissants, but cheating is totally recommended when all you need is puff pastry, chocolate chips, and one egg to make these treats.

Roasted Fennel, Red Onion, and Orange Salad

Via: Food52

Yes, you have to roast the three ingredients, but its a salad that dresses itself.

Three Ingredient Flourless Peanut Butter Cake

Via: Kirbie Cravings

Eggs, peanut butter, and sugar are all you need to make a cake thats both light and dense, sweet and delicious.

Pretzel Coated Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders

Via: Cooking With Cakes

Juicy, moist chicken tenders, a crunchy crispy crust, and the sweet taste of honey mustard all done with three ingredients.

Kiss Pies

Via: Picky Palate

Hershey Kisses + refrigerated pie crust + 1 egg white = perfect little pies filled with your Hershey Kiss flavor of choice.

Perfect Tomato Sauce

Via: Food52

Once called the most famous tomato sauce on the Internet, this recipe from Marcella Hazan’sEssentials of Classic Italian Cooking requires only tomatoes (canned or fresh)butter and onion. Bon apptit!

Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cups

Via: Leeves and Berries

Chocolate chips? Check. Peanut butter? Check. Sea salt? Check.

Betterthan those store-bought treats you spend money on? Check and checkmate.

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

Via: Betty Crocker

This technically calls for chives and cream cheese as two separate ingredients, but you can get chive-flavored cream cheese, so yes, there are still just three ingredients and they make a perfect appetizer.

Frozen Mint Chocolate Chip Pie

Via: Thirty Homemade Days

Whoever said money cant buy happiness didnt know you can buy an Oreo pie crust, a tub of ice cream and Cool Whip to create this.

The best part? Any flavor of ice cream will work.

Two Ingredient Biscuits

Via: The Kitchn

If you thought a biscuit recipe had to include Bisquick, youre wrong. This one requires only flour, buttermilk, and optional sugar and butter.

No Bake Salted Caramel Slice

Via: Big Man’s World

Crispbread crackers, caramel sauce, and chocolate sauce are all that you need for this twist on a childhood favorite.

New England Baked Haddock

Via: Bowl of Delicious

If cooking fish intimidates you, this is a great place to start cooking it. Why? All you need is the fish, bread crumbs, and butter.

Two Ingredient Nutella Brownies

Via: Diethood

The tasteand texture are similar to a fudgy brownie and require only two ingredientsNutella and eggs.

Cookies and Cream Icebox Cake

Via: Food52

While any cookies could be used and combined with just whipped cream, the classicuses chocolate wafers.

Three Ingredient Pulled Pork

Via: Tablespoon

The only things standing in your way of moist, flavorful pulled porkthat can be prepared in minutes and cooked in a slow cooker are pork, root beer, and BBQ sauce.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Via: Gimme Some Oven

A decadent, gluten-free flourless chocolate cake recipewith no added sugar necessary. Plus, it just looks super fancy.

Tostones with Spicy Coleslaw and Avocado

Via: Mommyhood’s Diary

Basically,tostonesare fried plantains, pounded flat and then fried again to create a delicious plantain slices.

And guess what? You can top them with whatever you like, such as spicy coleslaw and avocado.

Two Ingredient Maple Souffle

Via: Sugar Laws

It sounds weird to pair eggs with maple syrup, but eggs insoufflsare essentially an invisible ingredient they give structure and density to something that otherwise tastes like flavored air. So in this creation, maple flavor for the win!

Three Ingredient Chili

Via: I Heart Naptime

Mix the meat, beans, and tomatoes together in large pot, bring it to a boil, and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Then you can top it with whatever you want, but the base is only three ingredients.

Iced Coffee Milkshakes

Via: The Nerd’s Wife

Forget those expensive blended drinks from the coffee shop. All you need for a quick pick-me-up is iced flavored coffee, chocolate chips, ice, and whipped cream to top.

Individual Parmesan Hash Brown Cups

Via: The Yummy Life

Crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, and made in muffin tins, these easily come together with shredded potatoes, parmesan, and scallions.

Three Ingredient Hazelnut Cookies

Via: Easy As Apple Pie

Also called Ugly But Good cookies because they dont look too attractive but vanish off the serving plate in minutes, they only require three things hazelnuts, sugar, and egg white.

Cheddar Broccoli Egg Muffins

Via: Fit Mama, Real Food

Cheddar broccoli soup is delicious. Broccoli topped with cheddar cheese sauce is genius. These egg muffins? Right up there with those, but so much easier.

See? As easy as 1, 2…and sometimes 3.

source http://allofbeer.com/40-genius-recipes-with-three-ingredients-or-less-that-anyone-can-make/ from All of Beer http://allofbeer.blogspot.com/2018/02/40-genius-recipes-with-three.html

0 notes

allofbeercom · 7 years ago

Text

40 Genius Recipes With Three Ingredients or Less That ANYONE Can Make

Youll wonder, Why didnt I think of that?

One Ingredient Banana Soft Serve

Via: The Kitchn

The recipe that has been sweeping the Internet for the past couple of years is so simple its not even a recipe.

Its actually frozen bananas thrown in the food processor until they reach the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Seriously.

Its really that good, and the possibilities for modifications are endless peanut butter, cookies, other fruit, and so many other things.

Youre welcome.

Shells and White Cheddar

Via: She Makes and Bakes

Forget the blue box. Make thisstovetop version in which you slowly cook the pasta right in the milk, so it gets super creamy. Then just stir in cheese and the sauce makes itself.

Salted Caramel Truffle and Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pie

Via: Chelseas Messy Apron

This looks complicated, but it really only requires a graham cracker crust, a tub of chocolate and caramel ice cream, and toppings. You. Are. Welcome.

Three Ingredient Tomato Soup

Via: Enjoy Tribute

Soup with just tomatoes, onions or peppers, and olive oil. It doesnt get any simpler than that.

Peanut Butter Waffle Sandwiches

Via: Crazy for Crust

If you have a waffle maker, Pillsbury biscuit dough, and peanut butter (and optional syrup or honey)youre ready to make this mealthat can be frozen for easy treats later.

Slow Cooker Cocktail Meatballs

Via: Mom on a Timeout

Whether youre gearing up for a big game, a potluck, or just a quick dinner, all you need are meatballs, grape jelly, and chili sauce.

Two Ingredient Flourless Nutella Cake

Via: Kirbie’s Cravings

Do you have Nutella? Of course you do. Do you have eggs? Lets hope so, because after 25 minutes of baking you have a decadent dessertand happiness.

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Via: The Comfort of Cooking

Just three ingredients and 30 minutes give you tender sweet potatoes stuffed with shredded BBQ chicken and an easy weeknight meal.

Two Ingredient Pizza Dough

Via: The Slow Roasted Italian

Its not delivery, its Greek yogurt and flour coming together to make everything from pizza dough to variations such as garlic bread and calzones.

Oreo Bark

Via: Bakers Royale

Need a quick treat to bring somewhere? Try this two ingredient, sweet and simple dessert filled with Oreo goodness thats ready in 20 minutes and probably devoured in 20 seconds.

Two Ingredient Cheese Crisps

Via: Celebrations at Home

These cheese crisps are little bites of heaven. They makegreat snacks for the kids,appetizerswith a glass of wine, or an accompaniment with a salad.

Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Via: Barefeet In the Kitchen

This recipe is a classic with just eggs, peanut butter, and sugar, which means youre just minutes away from satisfying your craving for a delicious treat.

Coca-Cola Chicken

Via: When East Meets West

Boil the chicken, replace the water with Coca-Cola and add in soy sauce to create a meal thats literally done in minutes.

Two Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Via: Oh Lady Cakes

The only thing standing between you and thisdecadent treat is chocolate, your milk of choice, and whatever toppings you want to go nuts with including, well, nuts.

Two Ingredient Healthy Pancakes

Via: Top With Cinnamon

While there are a few modifications and pinches of things here and there, thisrecipe basically consists of two things eggs and bananas. Thats it. Im not kidding. Get your pancake on.

Super Easy Mozzarella Sticks

Via: Mommy Savers

Why are they super easy? Because they only require egg roll wrappers, string cheese and an egg. Of course you have to have sauce for dipping, but were not counting that.

No Churn Coconut Ice Cream

Via: Dessert Now, Dinner Later

If your tastes lean more towards coconut than banana, as mentioned above, this ice cream recipes comes together with two ingredients and no ice cream maker required.

Sinfully Easy Chocolate Croissants

Via: Inspired Taste

No, theyre not real croissants, but cheating is totally recommended when all you need is puff pastry, chocolate chips, and one egg to make these treats.

Roasted Fennel, Red Onion, and Orange Salad

Via: Food52

Yes, you have to roast the three ingredients, but its a salad that dresses itself.

Three Ingredient Flourless Peanut Butter Cake

Via: Kirbie Cravings

Eggs, peanut butter, and sugar are all you need to make a cake thats both light and dense, sweet and delicious.

Pretzel Coated Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders

Via: Cooking With Cakes

Juicy, moist chicken tenders, a crunchy crispy crust, and the sweet taste of honey mustard all done with three ingredients.

Kiss Pies

Via: Picky Palate

Hershey Kisses + refrigerated pie crust + 1 egg white = perfect little pies filled with your Hershey Kiss flavor of choice.

Perfect Tomato Sauce

Via: Food52

Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cups

Via: Leeves and Berries

Chocolate chips? Check. Peanut butter? Check. Sea salt? Check.

Betterthan those store-bought treats you spend money on? Check and checkmate.

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

Via: Betty Crocker

Frozen Mint Chocolate Chip Pie

Via: Thirty Homemade Days

Whoever said money cant buy happiness didnt know you can buy an Oreo pie crust, a tub of ice cream and Cool Whip to create this.

The best part? Any flavor of ice cream will work.

Two Ingredient Biscuits

Via: The Kitchn

If you thought a biscuit recipe had to include Bisquick, youre wrong. This one requires only flour, buttermilk, and optional sugar and butter.

No Bake Salted Caramel Slice

Via: Big Man’s World

Crispbread crackers, caramel sauce, and chocolate sauce are all that you need for this twist on a childhood favorite.

New England Baked Haddock

Via: Bowl of Delicious

If cooking fish intimidates you, this is a great place to start cooking it. Why? All you need is the fish, bread crumbs, and butter.

Two Ingredient Nutella Brownies

Via: Diethood

The tasteand texture are similar to a fudgy brownie and require only two ingredientsNutella and eggs.

Cookies and Cream Icebox Cake

Via: Food52

While any cookies could be used and combined with just whipped cream, the classicuses chocolate wafers.

Three Ingredient Pulled Pork

Via: Tablespoon

The only things standing in your way of moist, flavorful pulled porkthat can be prepared in minutes and cooked in a slow cooker are pork, root beer, and BBQ sauce.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Via: Gimme Some Oven

A decadent, gluten-free flourless chocolate cake recipewith no added sugar necessary. Plus, it just looks super fancy.

Tostones with Spicy Coleslaw and Avocado

Via: Mommyhood’s Diary

Basically,tostonesare fried plantains, pounded flat and then fried again to create a delicious plantain slices.

And guess what? You can top them with whatever you like, such as spicy coleslaw and avocado.

Two Ingredient Maple Souffle

Via: Sugar Laws

Three Ingredient Chili

Via: I Heart Naptime

Mix the meat, beans, and tomatoes together in large pot, bring it to a boil, and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Then you can top it with whatever you want, but the base is only three ingredients.

Iced Coffee Milkshakes

Via: The Nerd’s Wife

Forget those expensive blended drinks from the coffee shop. All you need for a quick pick-me-up is iced flavored coffee, chocolate chips, ice, and whipped cream to top.

Individual Parmesan Hash Brown Cups

Via: The Yummy Life

Crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, and made in muffin tins, these easily come together with shredded potatoes, parmesan, and scallions.

Three Ingredient Hazelnut Cookies

Via: Easy As Apple Pie

Also called Ugly But Good cookies because they dont look too attractive but vanish off the serving plate in minutes, they only require three things hazelnuts, sugar, and egg white.

Cheddar Broccoli Egg Muffins

Via: Fit Mama, Real Food

Cheddar broccoli soup is delicious. Broccoli topped with cheddar cheese sauce is genius. These egg muffins? Right up there with those, but so much easier.

See? As easy as 1, 2…and sometimes 3.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/40-genius-recipes-with-three-ingredients-or-less-that-anyone-can-make/

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themoneybuff-blog · 6 years ago

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Questions About Checking Accounts, Nintendo Switch, iPods, TSP, and More!

Whats inside? Here are the questions answered in todays reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Great advice for job seekers 2. Old hometown checking account 3. Making your own seasoning mixes 4. Inexpensive Nintendo Switch games 5. Partner has extreme debt 6. TSP contribution questions 7. Uses for old iPod? 8. Job search not that simple 9. Value of authenticating sports cards 10. Financial independence and career plans 11. Advice for selling books 12. True hourly discretionary income question I wanted to offer a little update on my switch to a standing desk for professional purposes. About two weeks ago, I moved my main workstation to a standing desk. The purpose for doing this was to significantly reduce the amount of time I spend sitting in a given day, because sitting for your job all the time has some negative long term health consequences. I did recognize that doing this fully cold turkey is a bad idea, and so I planned from the start to do it in stages. My plan was and still is to use the desk until I felt noticeable discomfort, then switch to a laptop in a chair for a while, then maybe alternate back later in the day. My goal was to simply raise my average time at the standing desk a little each week as I strengthen different muscle groups. After a couple of weeks of doing this, Ive found that the big impact has been on my lower back, with a smaller impact on my feet. Im able to work for about four to five hours a day at the standing desk, with other work time spent sitting in a comfortable chair with a laptop. What generally happens is that my lower back starts to get sore, not in a something is broken way but in a this is a muscle thats getting taxed due to exertion and needs a break way. Ill sit down for a while and itll feel much better. However, its constantly experiencing a low-grade soreness, the kind of soreness that happens when you exercise a muscle group. Theres nothing wrong here if I felt something wrong, I would stop using the standing desk for a while. However, it can be a little uncomfortable. Ive had some very minor foot discomfort, mostly on my heels, but nothing significant and it honestly seems to be fading over the last few days. Its hard to tell yet whether or not the standing desk is improving my health in any notable way. I certainly dont think its been bad, but I havent noticed a big health improvement. I do exercise most days, so thats definitely a positive factor, but its hard to extract the benefits of standing with the other benefits of exercise. I think its very likely that there have been some minor benefits, and I likely would have noticed more if I didnt already exercise. Its all about feeling healthy for as long as possible. On with the questions. Q1: Great advice for job seekers I wanted to share some advice from my own experience as an interviewer [in a large corporate HR department]. The big thing is that you shouldnt be hard on yourself if you interview for a job and dont get it. Often, there is already a candidate that is pre-selected and the interview process is a mere formality. Someone thought you were a good candidate and brought you in, but you didnt actually have a real chance at the job no matter how you interviewed. In fact, you should treat all interviews like that. Dont get stressed about them, because theres a good chance that theres already an anointed candidate. I would say that 75-80% of the time, we already have our minds made up regarding which candidate to hire before the interview process begins and interviews virtually never change our minds. Sometimes we will interview someone great and put them on a list of people to call in the future but almost without fail those people already have a job when we call them back. So please dont be hard on yourself if you dont succeed at an interview! And dont get overly stressed about it because theres a good chance that theres already an anointed candidate anyway. Just go in there and answer the questions and learn about the company and let the chips fall where they may. Alison This is great advice, and in line with some of my own hiring experiences in the past. I have been on all sides of this coin at various points. I have been the anointed candidate in a hiring process. I have also been one of the other candidates in a hiring process (where I knew someone else was anointed for an absolute fact). Ive also been involved with several hirings, some of which had strongly preferred candidates and some of which did not. The thing is, you never really know which kind of situation it is when youre interviewing. It may be a more open position where you actually have a good chance, or it may be a situation where you are one of the other candidates in an open process engineered to bring in the vastly preferred candidate with minimal questions. I think the mantra of dont worry about it is the right one here. Just go in there, answer the questions, ask some questions about the company, and move on and keep looking for the next interview or opportunity. If youre the right candidate, theyll call. Often, you wont be, and it wont be due to a fault of your own. Q2: Old hometown checking account I have left a checking account open at my old hometown bank for the last 20 years. It pays a very small interest rate 0.05%. I have a balance of about $1,200 in there. I have always looked at it as a last ditch emergency fund. If anything seriously goes wrong, Ill go there and use that money. But its just sitting there. Isnt there something better I could be doing with it? Dana I dont think theres anything wrong with having a last ditch emergency fund in a bank thats not easy to access. That idea is fine by me. However, its probably just going to sit there for a long time, so you might want to consider doing something with it that earns a better return. The next time youre in your hometown, stop by that bank and see what other options they have. Simply explain that this is an emergency fund for you and you want it in a place where it earns a little more, doesnt lose value, and could be withdrawn in an emergency but isnt likely to be withdrawn. Its very likely that theyll suggest a certificate of deposit, which is akin to a savings account except that it earns a bit higher interest rate and theres a small penalty for withdrawing it early. It wont take very long at all for the CD to earn more than the penalty for early withdrawal and then, after that, its onwards and upwards. Make sure that the bank allows you to automatically roll over the CD when it matures. Right now, with interest rates a bit higher than they were but still fairly low, Id choose a medium term CD, something in the range of one to two years. That will give you a higher interest rate than a short term CD but wont lock you in to these relatively low historical rates forever. Set it to automatically roll over, then forget about it until that last ditch emergency occurs. Q3: Making your own seasoning mixes Have you ever written an article about making your own seasoning mixes instead of buying mixes at the store? You can buy the component spices and mix them yourself and save a lot of money if you use seasonings a lot. I make an Italian seasoning and a chili seasoning and a toast seasoning myself. Margaret Toast seasoning? Youre going to have to send me that one. I have a bagel seasoning mix that I like to use on buttered toast sometimes I wonder if theyre similar. Although Ive mentioned seasoning mixes before and noted how its cheaper to make your own, I dont think Ive ever written a listing of the various spice mixes we have and how we store them. I store most of my spice mixes in large baby food jars that we still have from when our children were babies. I usually make them by mixing other spices by the teaspoon into a bowl and then stirring them thoroughly so theyre mixed, then I fill up the jar with the spice mix. I use masking tape for labeling. Using a mix is a learning experience. Over time, you start figuring out how much to put in stuff. Our chili mix, for example, usually takes a tablespoon and a half per batch, and a batch fills up our slow cooker about halfway. I could write a full post about this if theres interest, including some of my recipes. Just send me a message on Facebook if youd like to see that. Q4: Inexpensive Nintendo Switch games My husband and I bought our son a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. It is his first video game console and he had been asking for it all year so it was really fun to see him open it. Both sets of grandparents got him a game for it so he has had two games to play. His birthday is coming up soon and we asked him what he wanted and of course he wanted a Switch game. We asked him for a list of the ones he wanted and it has 15 or so games on it. The problem is that they are all $50 or more. Why are Switch games so expensive? Our full birthday gift budget for him is $50. Can you help? Anna This is a consistent challenge with Nintendos consoles, and it has been since the 1980s. Nintendo makes very high quality exclusive titles for their consoles those are usually the ones that wind up filling wish lists for console owners but they rarely go down in price until later in the consoles production cycle and the Switch is a pretty young system. Trust me your son isnt being greedy here. Hes probably listing most of the best games for the console, but they all happen to be expensive ones. I would guess that in a year or two, Nintendo will have a line of some of their top titles from a few years prior as Platinum titles for a much lower price point around $20 but were not there yet. So what can you do now? My recommendation is to visit a video game store that sells used games, like Gamestop, and see what they have available for the Switch thats used. Switch games, as you know, come on small cartridges, so its very easy to test a game to make sure it works you can ask them to test it before you buy. Getting a game used in the original packaging will still cost 50% to 75% of the sticker price and the selection may be a bit limited, but this is probably a fairly safe bet for getting one of the games he wants within your price point. A used Switch game is just as good as a new one in terms of someone focused on actually playing the games, so Id look there. Another approach would be to give him a gift card to the Nintendo eShop. There are a lot of very good downloadable titles for the Switch, and you use those gift cards to buy those downloadable titles. While this wouldnt give him any of the games he specifically wants, it would enable him to get a couple of games at least, and there are some very good games for $9.99 or less on the eShop. Q5: Partner has extreme debt I recently discovered that my bride-to-be (June) has about $140K in student loan debt. She had said that she had some student loans in the past but I did not have any idea how much. I am very uncomfortable with being saddled with that much debt. This has caused a great deal of conflict between us over the last few months and I found this out during the holidays. I am not sure what to do. Daniel The biggest factor Id look at is her day to day behavior right now. Is she a frugal person? Does she watch her nickels and dimes? Is she committed not in words but in actions to getting that debt paid off? Is she making extra payments on that debt? If you see that, then I wouldnt fret about it. On the other hand, if she seems to think that such a big debt isnt a big deal, she spends money frivolously all the time, and she isnt making much progress on that debt I would think very, very carefully about this relationship, because thats a value mismatch thats going to chafe for years and years. Beyond that, I would also consider what kind of field that her degree is in. Was the degree she earned in a field with a high income potential, or was it something that will never earn a substantial income? Also, Id look at other factors, like whether or not parental support was promised and then denied. If shes aiming for a high paying career, such as medicine or law or some types of engineering, I wouldnt worry too much about it. If she took out that much debt for a career path that has a very low likelihood of earning a high salary, I would be really concerned. I would also be concerned with that level of debt if there was also significant financial support from her parents where did all of that money go? The challenge with marriage is that you are financially tied to each other in a very deep way and her choices regarding the debt she took out for her education are indicative of the decision making process she will likely employ going forward except now youll be financially liable for them. Having that much debt unless you are both high income earners will significantly affect your life decisions for a very long time, likely for the rest of your life. It will delay your ability to have children that you can support financially, for starters. It will alter both of your career choices and possibilities. It will delay your ability to have a home of your own. I guess, in this situation, what I would really look for are signs of financial maturity beyond that of the student loans. Is she focused on repaying that debt with or without you? Is she making the most of her degree? Does she spend frivolously? I cant answer for you whether this woman is worth it to you. She may be perfect for you in every other way, in which case youll be happier with her. However, having that much student loan debt, and given the alarm bells it sets off in your head, is a sign of likely incompatibility over financial issues, and thats not a recipe for a great marriage. As always, conversation is key, as is paying attention to her actions. What kind of steps is she taking (not just talking about, but taking) in her life knowing that huge debt is sitting there? If youre struggling to answer that and this debt makes you this uncomfortable, this may not be the best situation for you. Q6: TSP contribution questions I am 36 years old, single, no children, no plans to ever marry. I just got a government job that I hope to keep for the rest of my life. Knowing that I am receiving FERS and Social Security already in retirement, how much should I contribute to my TSP to be able to have a comfortable retirement?Want to retire at 65 and have about the same amount of disposable income when I retire. Janine For those unfamiliar, FERS is the pension plan for US federal government employees. TSP is an optional 401(k)-like plan for additional retirement savings. Based on this, FERS should provide about 33% of your final salary when you retire. Social Security, depending on your income level, will provide somewhere around 30% of your income. That means you need to make up about 37% of your income from TSP. If you contribute 5% of your salary to TSP, the federal government matches another 4%. Above that, theres no matching. Given all of that information, I ran some back of the envelope calculations and conclude that given your age and your aim to retire at age 65 with your full salary intact from your various retirement sources and that you want to be able to draw from TSP for the rest of your life, you should contribute 15% of your salary to TSP. This should enable you to withdraw enough from TSP each year to make up your salary shortfall when you retire at age 65 and the TSP balance should last for the rest of your life. Youll want to invest TSP fairly aggressively the target retirement options should work. While I cant guarantee that 15% will get you there, I can certainly say that it is extremely likely that it will either get you there or get you very close to your goal. Q7: Uses for old iPod? Found an old iPod in a desk drawer along with charging cable. Is there any use for this or should I just junk it? I powered it up and it turns on just fine. Adam I dont own an original iPod (I had one way back in the day but I sold it off circa 2007-2008), but a friend of mine keeps one in her car and listens to music with it every day using a cassette tape adapter. You could do the same thing with an auxiliary cable if your car has an AUX port. Just load it up with mp3s of a bunch of music and/or podcasts that you like, keep it in your car, and listen to it during commutes. If you have a charger that hooks into the cigarette lighting receptacle in your car, then you can plug into that and keep it permanently charged. My friend has hundreds of albums that she loved in her teens and twenties. If you like alternative or indie rock from about 1990 to about 2007, theres a good chance youll find a ton to love on her iPod. Just fill yours up to the brim with stuff you like and youll always have something to listen to. You can fill it up with the full archives of a podcast and listen to the entire run of a podcast, too. Old iPods are great for these kinds of things. In other words, use it for what it was intended for. Load it up with audio. Q8: Job search not that simple While I appreciate your regular encouragement to go find a new job if your current one is sapping you, its not always that simple. I have been working as a legacy systems programmer for the same company for 16 years. Most of my day is maintaining old code, migrating it to new machines, and dealing with corporate [nonsense]. I literally hate going into work each day. There arent any available jobs nearby that match my skill set. Trust me, Ive looked. I cant move because my daughter has particular health care needs and needs to be near a top notch medical facility. That also means I need good insurance. I cant just go into work and say, Well, time to find a new job today! Thats just a pipe dream. Terry All right, so what jobs are available in your area that are close to your skill set? Youre obviously in a metro area of some kind. I guarantee there are programming jobs in that area. Whats actually available? What things are most similar to your skillset? Once you know that, start honing your skillset at work so that you can make that leap. Learn how to write tools that will help you with the legacy coding you already do. Start trying to port your legacy code over to a new language for modern systems during your downtime. Use this as an opportunity to learn new languages and paradigms. Get involved with any and all local software development groups. Try to go to their face to face meetings and get heavily involved in any online spaces they have, being as helpful as you possibly can there. Build up some good relationships in your field, then just casually ask about positions that match your refurbished skill set. Also, keep your resume honed on LinkedIn so you can be discovered by people who might be looking for folks in your area. Dont aim for hopelessness. Aim for a light at the end of the tunnel. You can do this at any job. I had a job where I was literally shoveling dirt for hours and hours during the middle of the night by myself and yet I found ways to aim that toward my next step. Q9: Value of authenticating sports cards I have a bunch of sports cards mostly baseball and basketball from the 1960s. I have looked at selling some of them individually but when I look online almost all sales are authenticated cards in a special holder. I looked into this and it looks like you send your cards to an authentication service and pay them a fee and they put them in a special plastic holder with a tag that says its authentic and gives it a grade for its condition. Is this worth it for selling trading cards? Are there ways to sell cards without this kind of service? Marvin You basically described the sports card authentication world pretty well. It exists because there was rampant fraud in older sports cards and other trading cards for a while, so some reputable dealers popped up and started offering authentication and grading services so that people would know exactly what they were buying. Its become the de facto standard for any sports cards of significant value. Basically, if the card is older than about 1975 or so, the player has any name recognition at all, and the card is in reasonably good shape, youre going to make more money selling it after authentication than before, even including the cost of authentication. If its a no-name player or its beat up, youre not going to make a whole lot for it anyway, as people will just want those to help complete sets and they wont sell for more than pennies. What Id do is look for Hall of Fame caliber player cards from your collection (or, as a friend of mine said, Hall of Famers plus Pete Rose) and get those authenticated to sell individually. The rest, Id just divide out by set and sell in bulk. (I have an almost complete 1965 Topps set missing just a few commons that Ive worked on for literally decades, so Im fairly familiar with all of this.) Q10: Financial independence and career plans So how much financial independence would a person need to be able to have full career independence where you still want to have a career but you just feel empowered to make whatever choice seems exciting to you without really worrying about salary but still assuming youre earning a decent salary to live on? I make about $80K and think I can live well on about $40K so my savings rate is about 30% after taxes. How many years would I have to do this before money exits the equation as a career consideration? Barney I think the real question youre asking is how much do I need to save so that retirement is fully covered? This calculator is probably my preferred one. Youll want to play around with different settings to see how long youll need to save to hit your goals. The further you are from retirement, the lower your total savings goal will be. Also, if you assume Social Security benefits will come to you at rates similar to whats available today, the lower your total savings goal will be. You may even be at your target in several years. However, Id still recommend that you save for retirement after you hit your goal number if youre earning a good salary. This allows you to walk away even earlier if you just get tired of the rat race before a typical retirement age. Q11: Advice for selling books I have a collection of hardback books I want to sell. What is the best way to get maximum value for them? Tracy First of all, it depends a lot on what books youre exactly trying to sell. Are they novels? Cookbooks? Old Dungeons and Dragons books? Encyclopedias? Youll want to go to eBay and try to get a sense as to what theyre actually worth. You will probably get the maximum value from them by selling them individually. However, that is exponentially more work for only a fairly modest rate of return. You might be able to sell a lot of ten books for $20 or sell them each individually for $3, for example. Is that extra effort in packaging and shipping and tracking and communication for nine additional packages worth the $10 to you? Another note: if youre selling books, USPS Media Mail is your friend. Its a highly discounted shipping rate that applies to sending books through the mail, and it comes with a tracking number. (Its cheap because its slow and USPS knows a book can sit in a warehouse for a day with zero problems.) You should always use this when shipping books and magazines. Q12: True hourly discretionary income question I understand how this perspective helps to highlight the high cost of non-necessary spending now in terms of lost leisure in the future. But I think it overstates the cost of non-necessities in terms of hours worked. In your example where your annual net wage is $34,000 and your annual work hours is 2,740 (so you net $12.41 per hour worked) and your necessities cost $24,600/year, you should account for 1,982 work hours (= $24,600/$12.41 per hour) as covering necessities, leaving 2,740 1982 = 758 hours for non-necessities. In each of those 758 hours, you net $12.41/hour, and that is the cost of your necessities in terms of hour worked. So a $50 board game costs you $50/$12.41 per hour = 4 hours, not 10.5 hours. The key is to see that you still actually net $12.41/hour, regardless of whether those earnings go to necessities or non-necessities. One way to see this is to realize that the approach in the post can lead to unrealistic implications for the hours of work required to purchase non-necessities. For example, suppose in your example above, necessities are only $10,000 year, and non-necessary spending is then $34,000 $10,000 = $24,000. If your hourly wage for non-necessities is really $4.96/hour like the post says, then it would take $24,000/$4.96 per hour = 4,838 hours to earn that $24,000. But you earned the $34,000 with only 2,740 hours, so something is wrong. Max Max is referring to this article from last week, Using Your True Hourly Discretionary Income to Make Smarter Purchases. Youre just looking at the same issue in a different way. Rather than looking at each hour as being subdivided between essential expenses and non-essential expenses, youre doing the same thing with the total hours over a year. In that example, then, 1,741 of the hours you work essentially earn you nothing in terms of spending money, because all of it goes to essentials. So, frugality in essence just means that youre migrating some of the hours you work from your pool of hours spent on essential expenses to the hours you work for spending money. My angle was different. I divided the income from each hour into essential expenses and spending money. The essential expenses gobble up $7.45 of the $12.41 you earn each hour, while your spending money makes up only $4.96 of the $12.41 you earn each hour. So, then, you judge whether an expense is worth it using just the $4.96, since its the only portion you can actually freely spend. In this case, frugality moves a little bit of money from the $7.45 essential expenses per hour pile to the $4.96 spending money per hour pile. Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. Ill attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours. https://www.thesimpledollar.com/questions-about-checking-accounts-nintendo-switch-ipods-tsp-and-more/

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