jesse_the_k | poll: Your Favorite Technology

jesse_the_k

These occurred to

sasha_feather and me over lunch. Feel free to add yours in comments!

Poll #23029

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 34

View Respondents

Life is better thanks to

View Answers

parchment paper
10 (29.4%)

carabiners
12 (35.3%)

rubber bands
8 (23.5%)

backpacks
22 (64.7%)

rubber husbands
9 (26.5%)

hairbrushes
8 (23.5%)

castering wheels
9 (26.5%)

checkboxes ☐ ☑ ☒
21 (61.8%)

see my comment
4 (11.8%)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

petra

I didn't vote for rubber husbands just because they have a great name, I voted for them because they're great. And they have a great name. It reminds me of a Spanish term for noise makers that have a roll-out bit, which is "matasuegras" or "mother-in-law killer". The only English term I can recall for them is "party blower," which is excellent in a whole different directions.

From:

jadelennox

fabric dyes that can be arbitrarily mixed in the laundry without turning your knickers pink, which happened at some point after my childhood but I'm not sure when.

From:

adrian_turtle

Rolling suitcases.

Freezer bags with zip closures. (Yes, there's a trademark and I'm not using it.)

Breathable rain gear. (Not using that trademark either.)

From:

seascribble

I never heard rubber husband but I love it.

From:

isis

Forget rubber husbands, I have something like this under-cabinet jar opener and it works even better.

I love: silicon baking things (sheets and pans and mixing spatulas), elastic hair ties covered in fabric, rolling suitcases, vertical storage dividers, and those plexi storage boxes with gasketed lids.

From:

runpunkrun

I have a jar popper opener...uh...it breaks the seal so the lid unscrews nicely, for when you need more oompf than a rubber husband. I've consulted Amazon, where I got it, and it's called a Jarkey. I have one in orange and it makes me very happy.

Also very important to me is my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It does the stuff I can't, and so well.

Also! Internet-wise, I recently learned that when checking boxes or aiming at radio buttons in polls and such, if the site's accessible, you can simply click on the text associated with that option and it selects the thing for you, which makes life easier.

From:

runpunkrun

Why do they kill mother-in-laws?! From the shock? The...implied lewdness? (I'm stretching here.)

From:

petra

tl;dr: Probably shock.

Fun with etymology: According to this blog post en español, they were originally named after an Ethiopian emperor and called "tongues of Melenik." He was known for being verbally harsh, not unlike the stereotypical mother-in-law.

In Portuguese the noisemakers are called "mother-in-law tongues," which used to be the term in Spanish too. Why the shift, they're not sure, but probably "because it's funny." The blogger theorizes that they kill sleeping mothers-in-law via shock.

From:

runpunkrun

I love the implication that mother-in-law tongues stretch further than other people's. It's quite evocative.

Thanks for the lesson!

From:

chanter1944

Carabiners are marvelous things - see the set of keys currently depended from one - but with my hair? Hair brushes win out. Holy wow. You've seen me; you know I'm serious. :) I wear my hair nearly to my waist, and it's thick as a mare's tail, for those unfamiliar with a Chanter in RL.

From:

bibliofile

I did think "skip parchment paper" (especially as it's all silicon-coated now) and go directly to silicon mats.

Another baking implement: the stand mixer, from a countertop KitchenAid to an industrial sized one for commercial baking. Genius.

In other capacities, my fave tech is repositionable sticky notes, which emerged in my lifetime. So useful for editing and organizing and various other things.

From:

esteefee

Mechanical pencils

From:

jesse_the_k

Today I learned!

In English, Mother in Law’s Tongue is a houseplant which rarely flowers, aka Snake Plant, or Sansevieria

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/snake-plant/flowers-of-a-sansevierias-mother-in-laws-tongue.htm

From:

jesse_the_k

Although pink knickers were better than blue t-shirts, my memorable childhood cross-dye disaster.

From:

jesse_the_k

Breathable rain gear is FANTASTIC! I vividly remember the sticky humidity I’d generate in a yellow rain slicker, although I did like rocking the Christopher Robin style.

From:

jesse_the_k

I can’t remember which friend taught me that word, but it’s unforgettable. “Sleeping policeman” ticks the same delightful box for me. In the US they’re called speed humps or speed bumps—in roads or parking lots they enforce slower travel.

From:

jesse_the_k

That’s an impressive tool. Someone gave me a handheld version, which didn’t have enough leverage. Turning your entire kitchen cabinet into a lever is clearly a better path.

I love learning about new storage: can you give me a picture or a brand for those “plexi storage box was with gasketed lids”?

From:

jesse_the_k

The Jarkey’s operation wasn’t immediate evident to me — YouTube to the rescue with a cute commercial. Which really needs a Yuletide fandom. I’ve been using the tab part of a bottle opener, but that can distort the roundness of the lid.

When was the last time I needed to open a bottle or punch a hole in a can? Can I be a kitchen gadget designer in my next life?

You enticed me to purchase a basic stand mixer, and I agree it’s transformative!

That access magic is keyboard focus, which turned out to make tapping on mobile easier. Curb cut effect!

This month I learned (thanks to pure luck during a mobile reply) most of the time, you don’t have to type quotes around the URL in a link . So:

<a href=https://jesse-the-k.dreamwidth.org/317682.html>this post</a>

works just as well as

<a href="https://jesse-the-k.dreamwidth.org/317682.html">this post</a>

From:

jesse_the_k

Given how tall you are, waist-length means a lot of beautiful keratinized protein.

What's your opinion on fabric-covered elastic hair ties? I never knew about them before I cut off my waist-length hair (which had the side effect of making my neck feel better, since I lost three pounds).

From:

isis

I love my stand mixer, too!

I did think "skip parchment paper" (especially as it's all silicon-coated now) and go directly to silicon mats.

I'm mostly like this, but I just read a blog post (seriouseats? thekitchn? I can't find it now) that tried multiple ways of cooking bacon and picked "in the oven on parchment paper" as the best. I cook it in the oven on foil, but now I want to try parchment paper. Also I am thinking it could be nice to cut a round for the bottom of my (silicone!) cake pan, since I often get a tiny bit of stickiness. So it's on my list now to try again.

From:

isis

Turning your entire kitchen cabinet into a lever is clearly a better path.

This is exactly why I like this tool. It works amazingly well.

I love learning about new storage

The two brands I have a lot of are ClickClack (the Basics and Pantry styles) and OXO. I prefer the former, but the latter is more widely available in the US (ClickClack is a New Zealand company). I have a bunch of the ClickClack rectangular containers that fit in a large kitchen drawer, holding flours, sugars, oats, rices, and beans - super convenient and lighter weight than the glass ones (which I still have a set of and use as well for things I buy in smaller quantities). Because of the gasketed lid the brown sugar doesn't harden, for example.

I was actually thinking about this last night, because we went out to dinner with friends after our city's "Noel Night", and my seat had a view of the kitchen area, and up on a shelf I saw all sorts of colorful ingredients stacked in OXO containers!

From:

isis

I also have thick, long hair (not actually snakes!) but hair brushes are a no-go for me. My hair is lightly curly and I like to keep the curl in, so wide-toothed combs are my go-to. (When I was younger I always brushed. When I switched to the comb, people thought I had gotten a perm - but it was just allowing my natural curl to shine!)

From:

jesse_the_k

What's your preferred style and hardness?

I still use a leadholder (aka clutch pencil) from my days as an "analog" civil engineering drafter. That tool comes with extensive supporting technology: the pointer gadget to sharpen the 2mm lead, complete with a cotton plug resembling a cigarette filter to wipe off the tiny lead fragments once it's pointed. What goes down must come off: the complementary eraser holder. My employer paid for the corded electric version—which wiki tells me was A J Dremel’s first rotary tool! I could erase a hole in my drafting paper quite readily, so I deployed a quick hand and an erasing shield.

I miss all the elegant technology and manual skills supplanted by computerized graphics. I'll admit that I eagerly embrace modern technical pens — I had to use the brass-and-steel pen points where the line thickness was set by a tiny screw. The straight lines came out of old-fashioned refillable technical pens, an endlessly fussy tool.

From:

jesse_the_k

Parchment paper absorbs some moisture while preventing caramelized pan build up, which is definitely why I use it for Turkey Jurky, and probably why it's tops for cooking bacon.

Edited (tyop) Date: 2019-12-08 12:41 am (UTC)

From:

jesse_the_k

Because of the gasketed lid the brown sugar doesn't harden, for example.

Wowza! I currently use two plastic bags and rubber bands in faint hopes of maintaining spoonable brown sugar.

Is the airtight-ness adequate for preventing mold on cheese?

Good enough for commercial kitchens == good enough for me. I've been rocking the same set of Rubbermaid containers for 25 years. Glass is easier to clean but too heavy.

From:

jesse_the_k

The

gluten_free peeps claim that silicon mats don't work as well for GF bakery. Someday I'll do the science.

STICKY NOTES are the *best*! My favorite version are the wall pads, which are perfect for idea-generation in small groups without the annoyance of easels.

From:

runpunkrun

HUH, re: URLs. I know it won't work if you only get ONE quotation mark in there, but I've never forgotten both. And thanks for the link. I like having confirmation of these things. :D

The JarKey is so nice and big and friendly. It feels good in the hand and it doesn't deform the lids at all, and you barely need to apply any pressure to get them to pop. I learned about them on Tumblr, so I can't say Tumblr never did anything for me.

From:

jesse_the_k

That's the rousing endorsement that made billions for Verizon: so I can't say Tumblr never did anything for me

From:

seascribble

omg, that's so good! I love it. Where's sleeping policeman from?

From:

jesse_the_k

I encountered sleeping policeman on a UK police procedural, so I assume it's British

From:

esteefee

wow, the brass-and-steel ones sound cool. my dad had a whole set of rOtrings I tried to steal endlessly and he would come storming into my room to retrieve.

when I had cash of my own I ended up at the Japanese stationery import store and fell i love with the variety! so many beautiful mechanical pencils so precisely manufactured in aircraft aluminum. Eventually I settled on the Zebra .5mm and Clairefontaine graph notepads for my lab notes and Pilot ceramic EF point (it's an import, no longer available) for my ink notes.

but my favorite pencil of all was my BadBadtz Maru pencil, believe it or not. It had such a generous eraser for a Japanese pencil (usually they were so tiny) and the leads came in this cute little cardboard tube. I'm a sucker for cute with my sleek function.

a variety of mechanical pencils and lead containers lying on a page of graph paper. One of the pencils is silver and has a cute Sanrio character stamped on it.

From:

jesse_the_k

Given that Japanese has three writing systems, it makes sense that it's got the very best office supplies. The eraser end on the BadBadtz Maru is as thick as the erasers in current rectractable erasers. Very gratifying! Does it also have a child-appropriate chunky lead?

....and I'm back from a very happy rabbit hole at the Badtz Maru merch site. Why don't they sell these adorable sneakers in my size????

The brass-and-steel nibs were great when they worked, which was almost never. They don't hold ink the way a standard nib does, so it must be filled with an eyedropper. That got old *really* quickly when I was drawing 1/4" radii on the spidersweb of "yard piping" connecting all the buildings of a sewage treatment plant.

From:

jesse_the_k

The zebra design is such a classic -- I don't think it's changed since it was introduced.

Another future poll: longest-lived loved technolgy. Sturmey-Archer 3-speed bike hub is essentially unchanged in 100 years.

From:

esteefee

I'm not familiar with that bike hub name but I wouldn't be surprised if I had a bike with it at some point. RN I ride a big ol' cruiser (Specialized Roll Elite in metallic green). It has 3x7 21 Shimano gears which ain't bad for a cruiser, and the tires are so fat it bounces right over railway tracks. I fill the basket with supplies and roll it right into the elevator/my apartment.

Edited Date: 2019-12-13 01:05 pm (UTC)

From:

jesse_the_k

Oh, what a lovely bike! Given your local terrain, it’s Totally Correct you can end your errands in an elevator instead of hoisting your steed up the stairs.

The “planetary gear” internal hub is great for city riding: Sturmey-Archer invented it in 1902. Street crud doesn’t affect the gears at all, and riders can shift at a standstill as well as moving. MyGuy’s Raleigh hybrid has an 8-speed Shimano Nexus internal hub (but he doesn’t use toe clips/cleats former mechanic sniff).

Yes, I was a bike mechanic in an earlier life. (My first geeky fandom!) I got a step-through Raleigh DL1 Tourist on employee discount. (Almost immediately a railroad track grabbed my front wheel, with unhappy results.) The DL1 was designed for city riding. The tires could be wider, but the 28” wheels elevated me into drivers’ sight lines. The laid back frame angles make for excellent visibility and shock absorption, and the bar brakes have no cable to stretch.

Forgive me if this is a redundant rec, but Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s novel Working Parts is a sweet Lesbian romance about bike mechanics and literacy.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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