I'm Cinnia, late 20s, she/her, a fan of the health sciences and many other things, and a former quiet kid who was abducted by the theater people. This blog is a semi-queued experiment to vent my endless energy for fandoms, LGBT+ content, writing, languages, religion analysis and ExMormon content, dancing, mental health, etc. I also run the Grate Scoff food blog as well as the Incorrect Rings of Power and Incorrect Thornfruit Quotes blogs.
Friendly reminder as we head into tax season (for US Americans), that the major tax preparation companies are fully prepared to lie and mislead you into paying for their tax preparation software when you might qualify for free software through the IRS.
Don’t fall for their bullshit. Visit IRS Free File and see what services are available to you. The requirements vary depending on your household status and income, but if you make less than $79,000/year (which is nearly everyone I know), you probably qualify for something.
Classic red cup with a wooden stick. We all know it, love it, and have seen a cartoon character using it to unclog a toilet. Right?
WRONG.
The image above is actually a drain plunger, used on sinks, showers, and baths. Not on toilets.
These are a toilet plungers.
Take note of the variations. Each of them have a flange of sorts at the bottom, either connected via a cup or more accordion-like tube. These are designed to actually get down into the toilet bowl where it flushes down, giving it more space and leverage to unclog blockages. See the example below:
Notice how the flange allows it to go deeper into the toilet to provide more power to the plunge. Sink/drain plungers are far less efficient and effective at the task.
Sink plungers can also have an accordion shape to help with power in plunging, but crucially do not have or need the flange that toilet plungers do.
To recap: cup plungers are for sinks, showers, bathtubs, and other drains. Flange and accordion plungers are for toilets. Notably, accordion plungers are slightly harder to use, but are more powerful when used correctly than their flange counterparts.
So the next time you see a cartoon, video game, or stock art depicting a cup plunger being used on a toilet, you can feel the same levels of anger and emotion that I do!
The real question is why does this not have a million notes? This is information that will very likely, at some point, be incredibly useful to anyone who has indoor plumbing. Which is, you know, probably, 99.99% of this website's user base. (I'm sure there's someone out there using Tumblr who lives in a house built in 1850 which never got upgraded and they still have an outhouse rather than toilet.)
Yeah I’ve lived places without a dishwasher, it’s agony, as annoying as hauling your clothes to a laundromat can be it’s not the same. Plus the amount of shit like pots that you can’t put in a dishwasher in the modern world is much higher than the amount of clothes you can’t either put in the washing machine or get dry cleaned. Dishes always win as the worst
Hey kids! When this happens, which it does a LOT, you call your states insurance commissioner's office and file a formal complaint! Make sure you get a reference number for EVERY. SINGLE. CALL. you make, save every form of correspondence (email and mail) AND retain a copy of all your responses. If they stonewall you (That's not a covered service, we're not allowed to disclose that, etc) request a copy of your benefits, insurance is a CONTRACT and is legally binding.
Download a call recording app if you can, even if you can't share the recordings at first they can be useful for your reference and can be presented if you need to go to court.
I work with insurance companies all day everyday and have so for almost a decade. I trust them as much as I trust my dog to watch the Thanksgiving turkey. Approach each interaction with them *like* it's going to go to court.
Advice for handwashing reusable pads? I haven't handwashed anything in my life but I doubt they'd enjoy the washing machine. Can I just mash them up/together in water with detergent (after a presoak of course, I do at least know how to prevent bloodstains)?
Reusable pads can be thrown in a washing machine, but the majority of ones I've seen can't be tumble dried without ruining the water resistant finish.
Presoak in cold water with salt to lift stains out (20 mins minimum) then rinse until water runs relatively clear to avoid significant staining. After that you can throw them in the washer unless the manufacturer specifies otherwise. To hand wash, get some mild detergent and yeah, just kinda smush them together to create agitation until they look clean. Rinse well until water runs clear, then hang up to dry.
Don't use fabric softener in either hand wash or machine wash. It makes them less absorbent.
PSA for anyone with a vehicle who is new to staying at home and not going out much:
If you are allowed, start your car once a week and drive it around the block; about five minutes’ worth. Some cars and some car parts aren’t designed to be idle for weeks at a time, and - mostly your battery and your tires - can stop functioning properly. You don’t want to find out something’s gone wrong when you actually need your car! Driving it around the block lets the alternator run long enough to recharge the battery, and lets you notice any new issues that may have cropped up.
It’s also recommended to get your oil changed more often when your car has been idle.
THIS SAME SHIT HAPPENED TO ME AND THEY REFUSED TO REFUND MY MONEY OR RESEND THE PACKAGE
itsdeadtome
practical advice if that happens to you contact your credit card company (or PayPal or however you paid). Give them every info you have. I ordered from the Bonjour Jolie box that was going around on Tumblr, and they offered a scent free one on the website so I ordered it, and they sent me one with scented products (which made me allergic to the whole box) and when I complained they refunded the additional $2 charge for scent-free only and said they no longer offer scent-free, which I said I wouldn’t’ve ordered if I knew because I have allergies and they were like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ so I forwarded it to Visa and Visa cancelled the payment getting me my money back.
Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Paypal all have way more clout with vendors than you do, and they will be able to use that to punish companies taking advantage of consumers if there is a pattern of lack of care consider reporting to the Better Business Bureau or other local consumer advocacy groups.
Don’t let companies get away with this shit, if you pay for a product you have to get it or a refund, this doesn’t mean you have to be rude, but it’s your money.
with very old (and ugly) furniture, like me, you know how hard it is to make something ‘pretty’. You can’t invest or change much. That’s why I’m super excited about these self-adhesive decorative foils.
Guess what, I bought 5 rolls ($2 each). You can imagine what will the kitchen look like when I’m done with it
Anyway, I just wanted to suggest, if you want to change something, and can’t afford or live in a rented place, a self-adhesive decorative foil is a way to go. It’s plastic and has no problem with water or grease. And it’s fun to apply it! :D
I bought these in a wallpaper/paint store in Croatia, but it’s called contact paper (just learned that now, thanks) or self-adhesive foil, so you can find it like that :)
By the way! This stuff is also super cool for if you want to decorate your sketchbooks or other stuff
A friend of mine used to cut little stars and hearts out of them and put them onto her clipboard
Addition: if you leave this stuff on too long and it DOES leave a film residue, that residue comes up really easy with Goo-gone, Clorox wipes or generic competitors!
This is a big, giant list of Youtube tutorials that will teach you all the basic life skills you need to know in order to be a functional adult. There are a lot of important skills that aren’t included in this list, but this should be enough of a basic guide to get you started and prevent you from making a total mess of yourself. Happy adulting!
Household Skills:
“if you actually met 100% of the requirements they couldn’t afford you”
I really needed to hear this. I had never thought of it this way. This literally never occurred to me, I’ve just spent my whole adult life thinking I was underqualified for everything. Thinking I’m not good enough for anything because the “minimum requirements” are so high.
I need specifics. I wanna know what I can get away with. I wanna know what they really mean by “minimum.” I wanna know how much I’m actually worth.
True to the point that if someone was extremely unqualified, but because of timing we were desperate, we’d bend rules to get them hired. And the only people taking advantage of this were guys.
if you actually met 100% of the requirements they couldn’t afford you
this made so much click in my head. because this was literally it–spend half the time being unqualified for everything and just not applying. and the rest of the time being qualified and not getting hired. because ahahaha fuck you, you’re too expensive now/we’re too worried you’ll jump ship and leave us because of how qualified you are! guess we’ll just hire this shitty dude to do it !? ?
It’s way more than “if you actually met 100% of the requirements they couldn’t afford you”
The reason they couldn’t afford you is that if you meet 100% of the requirements, you’re ready for the next position up.
Career strategy 101: The most valuable employees are always learning. Every company wants employees who won’t stagnate, i.e. sit in one role doing the same thing ever year and continue getting annual raises. A company wants to hire you for one thing at one salary, and then move you up through higher positions over the years, i.e. they keep getting new benefits for the additional money they’re spending on you.
A good company will offer you development opportunities, either within your role or in addition to it. So when the company interviews you, they want to see that you can learn what they need, and you want to see that they can teach you new skills. Companies know that the best applicants are interviewing them in return and that if they don’t offer development, they will lose those applicants to better jobs.
Companies structure positions this way intentionally and they assume you know it.
So not only should you apply to jobs you aren’t 100% qualified for, you can use 100% qualification as an indicator that you’re overqualified and should look for the next job up.
welp, i have exactly 48 hours to make my “gay and vaguely goth” apartment aesthetic into an “i am an adulty adult who can handle adult life” aesthetic.
me: lookit me getting shit done; i’m a shining example of adulthood
narrator: she had finished off a bag of lemon cookies for lunch only an hour before and spent the rest of the hour mentally preparing for one (1) phone call
I’m still thinking about Pharmacy Stuff atm and since ‘tis the season, I thought I’d give some of y’all a walkthru on how to determine how drunk you are based on what you drink this holiday season. (Aka if you’re a pharmacy or math-type person and can’t do this math, maybe you oughtta slow down there a bit, and drink some water. Though if you’re new to all of this and can figure out how to do the math, go you! Impress your friends at parties!):
First, figure out what you’re drinking and look at the percentage of alcohol. Let’s assume you’re having 2 standard drinks of champagne on New Year’s Eve. There’s an average of 12.2% percent alcohol in champagne and a quick google will tell you that a standard drink for champagne is 150 ml. (We’re using the metric system here, folks!)
Let’s go over what 12.2% actually means. You might be more familiar with the “proof” labeling on alcoholic beverages, which is double the actual percentage. 12.2% = 24.4 proof. But say for just one of those glasses of champagne, there’s 150 ml, and 12.2% of that means there’s roughly 18.3 ml of alcohol in just one standard glass of champagne. Two glasses = 36.6 ml of alcohol.
Now let’s think about percentages like a pharmacist. In pharmacy, we talk a lot about percent in terms of grams of something per 100 ml of solution. So to us, 12.2% actually means 12.2 g of alcohol in 100 mL of that champagne. We now know that one standard drink is 150 ml, so we can do a simple conversion, and viola! 18.3 grams of alcohol per 150 ml.
How many grams of alcohol, then, are you consuming if you drink 2 standard glasses of champagne? 36.6 grams.
Now I know you’re probably wondering why I went from ml to grams, but bear with me, since I promise it’ll all make sense in the end. Legal drunkenness in the U.S. is a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05-0.08%, or 50-80 mg/dl. We need to figure out what our blood alcohol concentration will be after drinking two glasses of champagne, assuming we don’t space them out over time and aren’t currently taking any medications that’ll interact.
There’s a formula for figuring out your blood alcohol concentration and it’s [(grams of alcohol you’ve consumed*bioavailability of 1)/(alcohol’s constant for how it distributes in your body from your bloodstream aka 0.7 L/kg*your body’s weight in kg)]. So in our example, it would be: (36.6 g * 1)/(0.7 L/kg * 60 kg as an example) = 0.87 g/L which we now convert to 87 mg/dl which is definitely above the range of 50-80 mg/dl or a BAC of 0.05-0.08%.
Congrats! You are legally drunk! (Please don’t drive!)
Hi! I love all your posts, they are really useful, but I was wondering if you could do one about washing clothes. I'm moving out in a few weeks and the only thing I know is that you are supposed to separate you clothing according to colors... which colors? I have no idea. Help
Absolutely! Doing laundry on your own can be super stressful the first few times, but after you’ve gotten use to it, the routine becomes easy.
Washing Clothes 101
1. Don’t separate. In a perfect world, you would be color sorting your clothes to perserve the crispness of their colors. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and doing laundry is expensive! I don’t know a single college student who actually separates their whites from their colors, and I would advise you to follow our example and to wash everything together. If you have any pieces of clothing that are very fragile or delicate, set them aside in a bag. Wait until this bag is full, and do a separate wash for them on a delicate cycle.
2. Detergent. Buy whatever detergent is on sale at your local dollar store. Generally speaking, liquid detergent has more washes in it than pods do.
3. Making detergent. I’ve read some interesting arguments on Tumblr about how making your own detergent is more worthwhile than purchasing product. I actually found a post that broke down the pricing of everything. Based off of how much time/money they spent to put everything together and how many loads they got out of it, my fancy smancy 3-in-1 Tide Pods were 3x as cost effective. I would avoid making your own detergent, unless you know what you’re doing and really want to.
4. Cold vs Hot wash. Cold washes get stains out better and are more eco-friendly than hot washes. Period the end.
5. Do I need fabric softener? Fabric softener is not necessary at all! Its main purpose is supposedly to perserve the softness of your clothing’s fabric during its time in the washing/drying machines. And maybe it does, but not in a very noticeable way. What it does do is smell strongly, a smell that I happen to really enjoy, but not everyone does. That said, fabric softener is super inexpensive, and a bottle of it will last you a year because you only use a small amount per wash. So if you like the smell of it, absolutely- go for it!
6. Do I need dryer sheets? Once again, no you do not! Dryer sheets help keep your clothing from sticking together and getting staticky, which is something you will notice occasionally as you start doing laundry. That said, they are very similar to fabric softener in the way that they mostly act as a scenting agent. Unlike softener, they aren’t super inexpensive, but are supposedly reusable.
7. Card vs. Coins. Both of these are payment methods for washing machines. Some laundromats have both, most only offer one method. I personally prefer the card because it means that I don’t have to walk around with pockets full of quarters. But some laundromats will charge a small fee for the card and a larger fee if you loose it and need a new one.
Identifying Washing Machine Types
Unfortunately, there isn’t really a “once size fits all” method for operating washing machines. There are so many different brands of washing machines, all of them varying in age and efficiency. The best I can do is to break the machines into two different categories (pictured above).
The washing machine on the left is a newer model, the sort of machine that you will find in most laundromats. These machines are generally larger capacity, and are fully automatic.
On the right, we have the older model. These machines require more legwork and caution then their counterparts because they can overflow easily.
The Method (Washing)
How to Wash Clothes Using an Older Model
1. If you have liquid detergent, start by pouring it into the bottom of the washer. Generally one cap is enough for one full washer. If you’re using pods, see step 4.
2. Pile smaller items towards the bottom of the washer to avoid clogging the machine. If you have to place larger items like blankets on the bottom, make sure that they are situated loosely.
3. Be careful not to overload the machine! These machines are finicky and do not like to be overworked. Load clothes up to the top of the plastic tube that juts out from the center of the machine.
4. If you are using pods, now is the time to add them. Two detergent pods per normal laundry load.
Please note that the following two steps are interchangeable. It does not matter if you set the cycle first, or wait until adding your money before setting the cycle.
5. Set the machine to whatever type of cycle you have decided to use. For everyday clothes and blankets, use a normal, cold wash. Heavier washes will cost more money and take longer. Your average wash should only take a half hour.
6. Add your coins or use your payment card to start the machine.
7. If you want to add softener, you will need to wait until the “add softener” light turns on. This is about midway through your wash. You’ll pour the softener directly into the machine. You’ll notice how the machine stops running when you open the lid. It’s crazy what technology can do nowadays!
8. Wait until the washing machine finishes its cycle, otherwise the bottom will be filled with water and your clothes will be drenched.
9. Start moving your laundry into dryers.
How to Wash Clothes Using an Newer Model
1. Fill the machine with clothes, taking extra care to ensure that they aren’t packed tightly.
2. Locate and open the soap compartment located on either the side or top of the washer. Pour your detergent in the one marked “detergent”. If you are using pods, see step 5.
3. Add any softener you may wish to use into the compartment marked “fabric softener”.
4. Remember to close alls compartment, or else you might get hit with some water.
5. If you are using laundry pods, add them directly to the machine, dispersing them throughout the clothes. Two pods per normal laundry load.
Please note that the following two steps are interchangeable. It does not matter if you set the cycle first, or wait until adding your money before setting the cycle.
6. Set the machine to whatever type of cycle you have decided to use. For everyday clothes and blankets, use a normal, cold wash. Heavier washes will cost more money and take longer. Your average wash should only take a half hour.
7. Add your coins or use your payment card to start the machine.
8. This type of laundry machine has a security lock that activates after you have started the wash cycle. Nobody, not even you, will be able to access what is inside this washer until after it completes its cycle. Feel free to leave the laundromat and get some chores done in the meantime!
9. You will hear a distinct “click” after the washing machine has finished working. Start moving your wash into dryers!
The Method (Drying)
Unlike washers, all drying machines are essentially the same. They will all be oriented like the newer washer model.
1. Clean on the lint traps in the dryer before you even begin loading your clothing in. Find the lint trap and slide it open, use your hands to scrape the lint off the screen. Put this lint in the nearest receptacle.
2. Place the lint trap back in- the dryer will not run until it is fully secured.
3. Start loading clothes! It’s impossible to gage how powerful or efficient a dryer is until you try it. I recommend dividing your clothes between two dryers and running them for 30-45 minutes. If you want a more involved but faster method, divide your clothes between as many dryers as possible, and run them for the shortest amount of time.
4. Add your dryer sheets. The rule of thumb is two sheets per normal sized load.
5. Some machines have a one-size fits all cycle, which could be anywhere from 30-50 minutes. Other machines (most public machines) have a pricing system. My local laundromat has 15 minutes for 25¢, so I’ll put in a 75¢ for 45 minutes.
6. Select the cycle you would like to use on your machine. I aways recommend the hottest cycle to save money.
7. The first few times you do a load of laundry, you’ll have to keep checking your clothes for doneness. Dryers do not lock, so you can open them at any time to check your clothes. So can the creepy guy in the laundromat- so it’s best to keep an eye on them.
8. After your clothes are done, load them back into your laundry bin.
9. Remember to discard any dryer sheets, little shriveled up pieces of paper, etc from the inside of the dryer. I also like to be polite and to clean the lint trap for the next person.
Smash that mf reblog button if you stoically ignore all labelled washing instructions and everything your mama ever told you about laundry and just send those bastards hurgling around in an overfilled tub to meet either death or glory
Something I learned from a costume designer: if an item can be washed multiple ways the designer is only legally obligated to put one of the ways on the tag, but if there’s only one way to wash that item they have to put Only on the instructions
If the tag says “Dry Clean” it’s safe to machine wash but the designer thinks it looks better if you get it dry cleaned
But if it says “Dry Clean Only” you will destroy it if you wash it any other way
ppl are so annoying “you can’t paint ur bedroom pink you’re an adult” i did not spend my entire life waiting to grow up and control my life to paint my bedroom beige
when I first bought my house, I announced my decision to paint my bedroom purple. I had wanted a purple bedroom for thirty damn years, you fucking bet I was gonna have one now. My friends decided, for some reason, that I meant what one of them referred to as “14 year old girl purple” (through what’s wrong with the colors a 14 year old girl chooses, I don’t know, even if they’re not what I want as an adult). They didn’t believe me until they saw the color on the actual wall, even thought they helped me pick out paints. My mother, meanwhile, decided to get worried that if I painted my bedroom a “dark purple”, it would be “depressing”. As if, with an entire house to live in, I would spend all my time in the bedroom, which I wanted to be dark because I would be sleeping in there. In the damn dark.
I had like one, maybe two friends who were all like FUCK YEAH YOU PAINT IT WHATEVER COLOR YOU WANT, PURPLE BEDROOMS ARE AWESOME.
But when they actualy saw the finished bedroom, every single one of them was like, “Oh yeah, that’s really pretty.” (Well, the ones who supported me from the beginning were more like WOOHOO.)
And the moral of the story is: Fuck ‘em, please yourself. Either they’ll come around, or you can safely ignore every question of taste they opine about for the rest of time.
This applies to other adulting activities, too. When I was a kid, I decided that I wanted to have a wedding cake made of doughnuts. When I got older, I figured that I would be “mature” about it and get a traditional cake, which the older adults approved of. Now that I’m 25 and facing the possibility of actual marriage in the near future, I’m just like “marriage is a social construct but it comes with tax & insurance benefits, so just give me that goddamn doughnut cake.” If they don’t like it then they don’t have to come to my wedding.
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