u/Mo_Steins_Ghost

Title says it all. But in case it doesn't: What's the thing about Rush that you will gladly and readily take apart that would be immediately recognizable (whether agreeable or not) to other Rush fans?

I've been reading a few comments that reminded me that not everyone has a sense of humor about their favorite band. I think it's healthy to be open to criticism/commentary. That doesn't mean that you abjectly hate a thing. There's plenty of space in between worship and revulsion.

"No pearl grows without a grain of irritation at its heart," said Neil during the 1994 Counterparts tour. And no love of art evolves without self-examination and scrutiny.

When I discovered "Subdivisions" growing up in a small town in the Midwest, I had no concept of whether or not this was common to other towns. Over the years I've come to find that the idea of hanging out in parking lots, and specifically, just driving up and down the main road in the town (which sounds absolutely ridiculous when described this way), was actually a pretty common way for teenagers to spend weekends because there weren't a lot of spaces designed specifically for us.

At the time, I thought it was particularly unusual that this band from Toronto wrote a song that perfectly described this fight against boredom, and that was pretty much the hook that got me onto Rush.

How many of you grew up in a place like that? A small town or a suburb with a "main drag"? If not "dragging" or "cruising" what did you call it? And when the cops shooed everyone out of there, where did y'all regroup at? Dennys? Perkins? Waffle House?

Share your stories, memories, stupid stuff you did (or didn't) get away with...

Recently I bought a countertop Air Fryer/Convection/Microwave oven. I am aware there are dedicated air fryers, but this is just a general commentary on the concept from someone who typically avoids gadgets. So this is really a commentary for people who have not yet gone this way. No surprises, probably, for anyone who hasn't.

For a little context, first, we are replacing our cabinet-mounted microwave with a vent hood. So, we needed a countertop microwave and it just happened that a model with combi features was on sale.

First I want to stress that I do have an oven. This unit is not intended to replace either our oven or our cooktop. The countertop unit is 1 cubic foot, whereas the oven we have is a 5 cubic foot unit ... still useful for roasts, large baked goods, etc.

Mostly what I'm finding useful are reheat functions. It's a smaller Whirlpool model. The functions are not particularly intuitive, the preprogrammed modes are not descriptive, and the instructions don't really tell you much about using the manual modes. But, for what we use it for—mainly reheating already cooked foods or heating up microwave-ready foods (which are essentially precooked) in a way that preserves crispness on the outside—it does the basic job so long as you understand that air frying, convection or combi modes take longer than a microwave. This may be obvious to some, but for folks my age or older, that might not be so obvious.

If what you want is solely an air fryer, there are cheaper options, but if you are upgrading an older microwave, and you can get a combi unit for $200, there's an opportunity for some added value... but it's by no means a replacement for conventional cooking.

A common theme in cooking subs is shortcuts to perfection: "How do I get my food to be like restaurant food" or "How do I know when" or "what's the hack for" or "What book/video/influencer will improve my cooking". The premise seems to be that if you follow a specific series of steps you will magically produce exactly the same result as the pros. But the missing ingredient here is none of these things. The missing ingredient is experience.

I think this mindset pervades in today's tech-driven world, from the idea that if you push buttons on a touchscreen or you write some code, it will always have an exact result. But cooking involves your senses, your fine motor skills, and this means you have to practice. It's not a formula. It's a physical skill that has to be developed through practice, with patience and time. Sometimes (read: many times) you will fail, but if you stop half way through you stay stuck. Move on, do it again, so you improve your skills across the entire process.

There is no hack for this. You have to learn your pans, your cooktop, your ingredients. You have to develop coordination and proficiency with these tools. You don't magically know the point at which a sauce is stable. Even though it might appear I know this unconsciously, it's because I've done it a thousand times and subconsciously memorized the physical cues and responses/adjustments knowing which change will produce what outcome. You learn to feel changes in viscosity, to smell changes in chemistry. You start recognizing the signals through practice.

Also, you don't need to re-learn these skills. Start learning skills by practicing instead of trying to one-off replicate recipes. Expertise is like compound interest. The more experience you develop, the easier everything seems because you will spend less time figuring out all the little details and the individual recipes will eventually just be like a broad guide for you.

Stop looking for the gadget or the step or the "hack" that "elevates" things and start practicing until you can do it with your eyes closed. And remember, "perfect" is the enemy of "good".