Hi, friends! How did your weekend go? I hope it was enjoyable. Unless you’re dealing with power outages and spoiled food, in which case I hope the coming week is waaaaaay better than your weekend.
Tonight’s topic is about whether you are a *fuck it, throw it away* or a *wait maybe I can fix that/use that* kind of person. I suspect most of us are a mix of both, and it depends on what sorts of things are fucked up.
So yesterday I was talking about my pot roast and ugghghgh when I went to have some for lunch today it was dry as fuck. I don’t understand, I made it the way I always do. Every indication when I took it out of the pot was that it tender, including my lil taster snack. I need to try to salvage it. I might make a constarch slurry with some chicken stock, chop up the roast into bitesize piences, and simmer it in the gravy for a little bit later. I don’t know.
Normally with food I try to salvage a screw up, same with plants. But a lot of other scenarios I’m like throw it away and try again.
It depends on the item with me, as you suspect. Electronics? Fuck it. Throw it out. I took one TV to a shop to get fixed once, and it was okay, but they’re so cheap now it’s not worth it to repair any of that.
Anything with carpentry or plumbing, I’ll fix. Some electrical. But the line gets drawn there.
I should say recycle it. I always take electronics to recycling points, y’all.
I’d give myself an 80/20 save it/fuck it ratio overall.
One of the things I try to ask myself is if you get it fixed, will it stay fixed?
My main camera I figured the answer was yes, and it has been fine. The money I spent was less than what I would have spent for a replacement, so it was worth it.
On the other hand, my previous phone was no longer getting Android or security updates, and the whole thing was bogging down. I had every reason to think it was going to get worse and worse regardless, and it was just time to move on.
I have to believe that pot roast is salvageable. Slice it thin, make a good sauce or gravy, and just barely heat it up. You can also always put mozzarella on it.
It boils down to a few answers to a few questions.
I’ve learned some tricks…for example, I invest in a good 1/4 inch sheet of rounded edge glass for on top of desks and some end tables. Saves on wear and tear, and they last a long time.
Also whether or not you enjoy fixing it. With the Robert Frost poem Mending Wall you get the sense he likes the process of repairing the boundary wall with his neighbor even though he thinks the whole process is kind of stupid.
I think taking a chunk of dry pot roast and making something decent out it would be an interesting challenge.
My bedroom set was originally bought by my grandparents back in the 1970s and the glass tops have done so much to keep them looking good.
At least I think it was the 1970s. I know my grandma refinished them in the 70s. And stylistically they’re not 1960s.
Speaking of salvage jobs…
https://jezebel.com/twitter-is-reportedly-begging-dozens-of-laid-off-employ-1849749976
Emo fucks the bird again.
One place I worked the top management tried to implement a stack ranking system where X% of people in every department got fired every year.
Except what happened in a lot of departments is that a lot of people had irreplaceable mission critical knowledge and if the process was followed, the entire business would be shut down. So much for stack ranking!
You know that right now at least a thousand people at Twitter saw the writing on the wall and locked down their systems with 128 character passwords that will take eight years to hack. And as soon as they got fired they flew off to Ibiza and left a note saying they’d happily come back for $10 million.
It could be anyone from people running the entire payroll system to someone controlling access to the executive parking garage. And now they’re telling Musk “Did my note say $10 million? I meant $100 million. Sorry for the confusion.”
There’s an old Internet meme about Phyllis, the admin in accounting. You can fire every single vice president and C suite and there is absolutely no loss in productivity. But when Phyllis takes a sick day or vacation, the entire company grinds to a halt until she’s back.
I’ve worked in a lot of places, and I’ve come to believe that there are a lot of Phyllises out there. I suspect most companies have more than one, but they are there. I’ve even been the Phyllis. (Have I mentioned lately that my formerly $10 million division at my company is making less than a tenth of that since they fired me?)
There are low-paid but incredibly essential employees whose jobs no one understands and there’s nobody to train anyone else. And frequently they get caught in these stupid layoff crossfires because management doesn’t take the time to research how important they actually are.
I usually at least try to fix stuff before tossing it. Clothes, especially, I re-purpose into something else… I stuffed Grandbaby’s crocheted teddy bear with the sleeves of an old sweater, I’ve made worn out jeans into a rug, used old towels as the lining for a baby quilt… or just mend it as best I can. I fix furniture and appliances, too. Keep stuff going as long as possible, right?
My son fixes phones, tablets, computers, TV’s, etc. He’s replaced screens and batteries, LEDs, RAM, and lots of other thingamabobs.
I was heavily influenced by my thrifty Depression/WWII-era grandparents… Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!
This thread reminds me of a show I watched on Netflix about a barn where they fix up old sentimental stuff. It was incredible. Can’t think of the name right now and I am apparently to lazy to Google it.