u/real_awan

Salmon and veggies. Pretty much every day.

I know how to cook I just hate making cooking a whole event, so I used to order almost everything. Then I realized how ridiculous my delivery spending was.

Got an air fryer, started making this, and somehow it stuck. Healthy, filling, tastes good, and way cheaper than ordering every meal.

Best part? I’m still not tired of it.

Anyone else have a meal they could eat every day?

The first thing that caught my attention was the enormous headdress — but the longer you look, the more details start appearing.

The ear ornaments, jewelry, layered garments, decorated belt, feather work, and even the figure’s posture were not simply artistic decoration. In Classic Maya society, elite regalia could communicate rank, political authority, lineage, ritual importance, and connections to gods or ancestors.

Then there are the symbols carved beside the figure: Maya hieroglyphs.

Maya writing was a sophisticated system capable of recording names, titles, dates, dynasties, ceremonies, warfare, and other historical events. That means a monument like this could function as much more than a sculpture — it could be a portrait, historical record, religious statement, and display of political power at the same time.

What I find especially impressive is the craftsmanship. The figure was carved in low relief into limestone, with the surrounding stone removed to leave the image slightly raised. Look closely at the tiny lines in the headdress, clothing, jewelry, and glyphs. Every detail had to be worked directly into the stone.

And what we see today probably isn’t even the full visual experience. Many Maya stone monuments were originally painted, so this may once have been dramatically more colorful than the bare limestone surviving today.

Imagine being the sculptor working on this, knowing that one mistake could permanently ruin part of the image.

And now, centuries later, people can still study the clothing, read parts of the writing, identify historical figures and reconstruct pieces of Maya history from the marks left in the stone.
That’s probably my favorite thing about archaeology: sometimes a piece of stone isn’t just an object — it’s someone trying to make sure their story survives.

Zoom in before scrolling past it. The amount of detail is ridiculous.

Photo: Original photograph taken by me.

I bought two 10 oz silver bars a while back because I wanted some physical silver as a long-term investment.
Paid $1,830.80 for the bars + $162.48 tax = $1,993.28 total.
So my total cost basis is basically $99.66/oz.
At current silver prices I’m down roughly 35%, and obviously the actual amount I’d get selling to a dealer would probably be even lower because of the spread.
I definitely underestimated how much premiums, taxes, and the buy/sell spread matter with physical silver.
I don’t need the money right now, so part of me wants to just throw the bars in a safe and forget about them for 5 – 10+ years rather than sell at a loss.
For the longtime stackers here: what would you do in my situation? Hold, average down, or cut the loss and move on?