Magic and Moonlit Wings

Zucchini brownies are not a diet thing and anyone trying to sell them to you as such should not be listened to. The only recipe difference should be that there is now zucchini in the batter. Because you need to use up all of the zucchini. It is NOT a health thing it is a desperate attempt to use up all of the zucchini. From growing zucchini. Because you get So Much Zucchini when you grow it. I'm so tired of zucchini stuff getting a bad rep because diet culture picked up the many recipes of farmers trying to use up zucchini and cut all the fun stuff that hides that fact that you are eating zucchini. The difference between zucchinni brownies and normal brownies should be that zucchini brownies texture is closer to carrot cake than other brownies. Zucchini bread should be a sweet bread that you can add raisins to if you want. For fun. For flavor. Similar to bannana bread. I'm tired of baking and cooking recipes designed to use up All The Zucchini being turned into diet stuff. It's not! It should be sweet and tasty to try to hide how much zucchini gets put in so it all gets eaten because I still have 5 whole zucchini on the counter and more in the garden and it needs eaten.

Zucchini bread fucking SLAPS btw

Zucchini Bread Recipe

Blend 3 eggs, 1 C salad oil, 2 C sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla

Add 2 C grated zucchini, 1 C crushed pineapple, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 0.5 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp nutmeg, and 1 tsp cinnamon

(optional) 1 C chocolate chips (Really, you can add a cup of anything for flavour/texture: chopped nuts, raisins, blueberries, grated cheese … If you go for grated carrots, though, you might need a bit more flour)

(optional) 0.5 C cocoa powder

3 cups flour (Not optional - there's a lot of water in the zucchini and pineapple and you need to balance it out or it won't bake right)

Pour into 2 greased and floured 8x4 inch bread pans and bake for 1 hour/1.5 hours at 350°F

Or 24 muffins, 20-25 minutes at 350°F

Zucchini Bread, based on Banana Bread

Cream 0.75 C sugar with 0.25 C butter (or peanut butter)

Beat 1 egg light and add to sugar-butter mix

Beat in 0.66 C grated zucchini (You may need to double or otherwise multiply this recipe to accommodate how much zucchini you have)

In another bowl (or, just into a big measuring cup), sift 2 C flour, 0.5 tsp baking powder, and 0.5 tsp baking soda (optionally, add 1 tsp cinnamon)

Mix 0.33 wet mixture with dry mixture, followed by 1 Tbsp milk, 0.33 wet mixture, 1 Tbsp vinegar, 0.33 wet mixture, and 1 more Tbsp milk (or, total of 3 Tbsp buttermilk)

(optional) Add 1 C chocolate chips, chopped nuts, blueberries, raisins, or grated cheese

Pour batter into a greased 8x4-inch pan, or 12 muffin cups

Bake at 350°F for 1 hour or until done (For muffins, 20-30 minutes)

Some 'savoury' zucchini muffin recipes, if sweets genuinely aren't your thing:

(from Muffins: A Cookbook, by Joan Bidinosti and Marilyn Wearing)

Zucchini Whole Wheat Muffins

Mix 2 cups whole wheat flour, 0.75 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 Tbsp white sugar, and 0.25 tsp mace (for those who don't know, this is a spice) (I assume this also works with all-purpose flour and just tastes a little different)

In a separate bowl, beat together 1 egg, 0.5 C milk, and 2 Tbsp melted margarine

Blend liquid ingredients into dry ingredients, then stir in 1 C grated zucchini

Pour into 9 large muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with mix of 0.5 tsp cinnamon and 2 Tbsp sugar

Bake for 20 minutes at 400°F

Zucchini Cheese Bran Muffins

Soak 1 C all-bran cereal in 0.75 C buttermilk (or, 0.5 C milk and 0.25 C vinegar)

Stir in 0.66 C brown sugar, 0.66 C melted/softened margarine, and 1 egg

Sift in 1 C flour, 2.5 tsp baking powder, 0.5 tsp baking soda, and 0.5 tsp salt (I have found most baking works okay if you skip the salt)

Add 0.75 C grated cheese and 1 C grated zucchini

Stir until moistened

Fill 12 large muffin cups and sprinkle tops with 0.25 C grated cheese (alternatively, you can just mix the whole cup of cheese into the batter)

Bake for 20 minutes at 425°F

Serving suggestion: cut in half and fill with ham, lettuce, and sharp mayonnaise

[Non-zucchini version: 1 C chopped raw broccoli, or 0.5 C drained & chopped pickles; because this won't have all the water that zucchini does, increase buttermilk to 1 C (0.66 C milk and 0.33 vinegar)]

Life Hack: You can swap grated zucchini into many muffin/bread/brownie recipes that call for mashed banana or applesauce.

[tweet from Meg]

"Healthy zucchini brownies" Did you know that our lives are short & beautiful & someday they will find your bones & no one will be able to tell, from your skeleton, what sweetness you stole from yourself?

[/end tweet]

Happy birthday to AO3 🎂🎉

When I opened tumblr this morning:

I dunno man. I found out today that a subway sandwich is $14 now. A shitty subway footlong sandwich that isn't actually 12 inches long and is occasionally made with expired ingredients and was never a great option to start with. I ate those in high school because I was broke and at the mall a lot.

There are poke bowls in my city from a local place for $16. Super fresh fish and veg, warm rice, more than I can eat in one sitting, for the price of a sandwich and a drink at america's most mid-tier sandwich shop.

Someone in another post said (paraphrased) you used to be able to get something mediocre for cheap, but now the mediocre things cost as much as the nice things so why would you?

This is me when I realized I could get a proper bowl of curry from the fancy indian food place for basically the same price as a fuckin McDonald's hamburger meal these days

I heard an ad the other day for a "fantastic deal! Four dollar four inch subway snack sandwich!" And like. I'm sure that would seem like a much better deal I'd I wasn't one of the ones who grew up with obnoxious "five dollar foot long subway sandwich" ads.

A dollar an inch of sandwich. When it used to be 2.4 inches. 240% markup is GOOD? Fucking bite me

Yeah with fast food having delusions of grandeur these days it's really made me appreciate the non-chain food places in my area. The other day I went to the local Hawaiian BBQ place and discovered that they have teriyaki chicken AND Beef BBQ musubi for 3.99. and they come in pairs. PAIRS.

I KNOW.

So I immediately bought an order of each and had 4 delicious musubi and a drink for less than a combo at Burger King.

So yeah, show em we don't need their shit sandwiches.

There's some hilarious irony in that by creating an ad campaign so incredibly catchy and memorable that it entered public consciousness (the dream of any marketing team), Subway ensured everyone of a certain age range would view them as the poster child of fast-food price gouging.

My brothers were talking about this at the last family gathering, how a burger, drink, and fries at McDonalds used to be like $5 and now it's like $15.

Nearly every time I see the price of something nowadays I feel like an old person going, "In my day movie tickets cost a nickel."

Well if you stupid, selfish baby boomers hadn’t created a world to fucked up to bring a life into then this would never happened.

Climate Change is a thing. People not being able to own a house until 50 is a thing.

Just saying.

Also, you would have hated the theoretical grandkids, anyway.

['Tony Hightower may have' tweeted]

I know everyone thinks Hemingway has the ultimate Six Word Story, but may I present:

[embedded photo of a paved two-lane road, with trees and telephone poles along one side, and grass and sidewalks on the other. In the foreground is a diamond-shaped road sign reading, "Warning: Low Flying Owls". Below and in front of it is a cardboard sign written in sharpie or similar, reading "Lost Chihuahua" in outlined letters, followed by a phone number. Based on the sky colours, it is either late sunrise or early sunset. Though the visual setting gives useful context, the Six Word Story is simply the signs' text together -

"Warning: Low Flying Owls. Lost Chihuahua."

/end image]

[/end tweet]

I've added a few copies of this print to my shop. Be quick if you want one: www.tomgauld.com/shop

Inspired by @lacnunga 's adorable dragon embroidery

The baby so far 🐉 still got a few bits to add but Im quite happy with it so far

s/o to this skeleton babe from 1936

This is a really poignant illustration of the seductive nature of glorifying war but that is a LOOK and she is SERVING it

I've seen Death depicted as a card dealer or other sort of gambler, a guy in a suit, a farmer, a robed apparition, and any other number of things, but this? This has to be the best Death I've seen yet. An old seductress saying "hey kid, don't you wanna die in a trench for a government that doesn't give a fuck about you, just like your dear old dad?" This goes hard as fuck.

When its your birthday month you should be able to do whatever you want and spend as much money as you want throughout the month and it doesn't count since your birthday is on that month so it's okay

hi everybody please reblog this and tell me your go-to coffee order right now and if you don't like coffee feel free to include your go-to tea order instead

*breathes deep breath* *slams reblog button*

why is this the funniest thing I've seen all day?

The discovery of the statue of Antinous in Delphi, Greece in 1894

Really obsessed with this one like how old cameras worked making everyone blurry against the statue and just makes you realize how long the statue has been right. There.

Me: oh yeah, if you think school photography is hard now, try imagining doing this with film.

The new girl: what's film?

Me: ... film. Like... film that goes in a film camera.

New girl: what's that mean?

Me: ... before cameras were digital.

New girl: how did you do it before digital?

Me:... with film? I haven't had enough coffee for this conversation

New girl: I need you to show me how to format the usb.

Me: format?

New girl: yeah what do I do?

Me: you... put the usb in. Then you make a new folder on it and rename it with (name, date, location)

New girl: but how do I do that?

Me: ... they dont... teach you this anymore, do they?

The lack of computer skills is becoming a problem. Like there was a period of time where the older workers in office jobs had to be brought up to speed on computers, but now a lot of the newer workers have the issue too.

There's a lot of assumed technical literacy because we had a whole generation brought up on desktop computers, but now it's one that was brought up on phones, tablets, and chromebooks. Phones are easier to use, but that means the users have never had to work around the daily problems presented by most desktop environments.

But our systems are still set up assuming the kids are "digital natives" who just already know this stuff. So no one teaches them. So a new employee walks into the office... and they just don't.

30-something here. And this is frightening for a few reasons.

Much of the back-end architecture will soon be more difficult to maintain, as those with the expertise retire or when the one guy volunteering to update a niche corner of some minute software function that holds up 1/4 of the computer world dies.

While products are made to be “easier to use” now, which has made them more accessible, they aren’t made to last, contributing to tech pollution / e-waste. Many consumers don’t know how to upgrade or repair their own tech…if they are upgradeable.

Which brings me to my next point.

I bought a new low end laptop recently. Not chrome book, but actual Windows PC laptop. I haven’t had a personal computer for a while and with a lot of expectation to “return to the office” because COVID’s over, right? *heavy eye roll*, I wanted something cheap and portable. I found a deal because a lot of low end laptops are being discounted because school children aren’t remote now. I was actually looking for refurbished but found what I wanted cheaper new, sadly.

Finding one that I knew would run the software I needed or that wouldn’t be bogged down just with Windows? A challenge. You’ve got to know what RAM, HDD vs eMMC vs SSD, cores, age of processors, and all those specs mean.

Finding one that wasn’t Windows in “S mode,” a bullshit mode that locks you into the Windows app / store for ALL software (where they take a cut of each purchase)? Even more challenging.

When I booted it up…I imagine most people just click yes through things because why not, just want to get right to it, right?

The amount of privileges I had to decline because of targeted data collection, for ad preferences and other nefarious reasons; the number of easy-to-miss “no thanks” options to decline enrollment in bloatware; the number of things that wanted me to launch the free trial, where they could automatically enroll me into a monthly PAID subscription and could report failure to add a credit card to pay for it to credit agencies (!); many of these presented as the “recommended” or default option… ASTOUNDING.

And then I still had to go into system settings and turn off additional data tracking that they didn’t even present during set-up, along with bloatware bullshit programs they wanted to always run at start-up. Because I knew where to go and find that stuff. Don’t even get me starting on fucking Cortana.

Technology has gotten bad. Even 10 years ago, it was a couple simple agreements not to pirate, using software at your own risk, etc. and that was it.

Now? Waiving rights, arbitration, hidden terms that could leave you owing money if you don’t uninstall it, data collection to link accounts and literally track every move / your exact location / your usage, attempts to personalize ads through your specific searches, inability to block cookies unless you download a Google app!?, four pop ups for every website, as the default?

It is scary how much tech that was designed to increase productivity and make life easier has become yet another way for corporations to track us, sell to us, and sell their data on us, even potentially incriminating us.

Oh, and heaven forbid you know what you’re doing and try to upgrade or repair your equipment yourself. Warranty voiding? Should be illegal, may be illegal in some areas, but they still tell you it’ll void your warranty. Good luck finding the parts. Using non-OEM parts will void the warranty too…by design.

I did not survive Windows Vista era to deal with this bullshit.

I did not survive

Windows Vista era to

deal with this bullshit.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

Anyone have any resources for technology literacy for beginners?

Yes! @aquadraco20

General basic safety

How to avoid ransomware, malware, hacks, and how to maintain good data privacy.

https://www.getsafeonline.org/

^ this has intermediate information (as well as beginner info) that I think people who grew up on the internet benefit most from (so it won't tell you what a phone is, or how to press the power button to turn on a computer). I recommend all sections the personal section under the top drop down (except the one aimed at children).

https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/internetsafety/

Same deal as above, with quizzes and additional topics.

https://www.digitalliteracyassessment.org/

^ this one is mostly video and audio which some people might helpful

HTML

https://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

W3schools is a well known free resource for coding. I recommend HTML because it gives basic website building capabilities, so you can create a neocities website for example or even edit your Tumblr theme. You can also learn CSS (used with HTML to make prettier websites) and Python (used to make programs).

Touch typing

Touch typing is using the home row on keyboards. It allows people to type faster than pressing individual keys one at a time, like on a smart phone.

https://www.typingclub.com/

This site has lessons, and honestly looks much nicer than the program I learned to use touch typing with.

https://www.how-to-type.com/touch-typing-lessons/how-to-type-home-keys/

This site has lessons and practice tests and speed tests to measure progress. In middle school I was taking a practice test about three times a week and a speed test once a week for about fifteen minutes each time, if that helps.

---

These three areas are the main things people were taught in computer literacy courses.

I also recommend checking your local library or other educational resources (like local colleges, your current college/highschool/middle school etc, the college you graduated from). These can have in person instructors which can be super helpful. Feel free to send me any questions and stuff, if I don't already know I'll try to find out and share where I found it!

Helpful things I've done with my windows computer to make it safer/more efficient:

I hope this helps :D

For those who don't know what film is:

Paper treated with special chemicals goes inside a camera. The lens of the camera opens, exposing the paper - film - to light, and the chemicals cause the film to darken and change colour based on the light that comes in, making a light-inverted (or colour-inverted) image of whatever the camera is facing. This is called a 'negative'.

The film negatives can be used to create larger, properly lit/coloured copies of the image, as photographs. (Basically negatives of the negatives?) I don't know much about old-school darkroom photo development but I know it involves more specially treated papers and chemical baths, and you have to do it in the dark (hence the name) with special red light to see what you're doing, so the film doesn't end up overexposed.

'Overexposure' is when film absorbs too much light, causing the image chemically imprinted into it to be extremely dark, and the photographs developed from it to be light and blurry. This is why it was a bad idea to open up old film cameras outside of a darkroom.

A video film camera works by taking a bunch of photos in quick succession, multiple photos per second. Even if there is an attached microphone, audio recording is separate from video recording, and the two are synchronized as part of the editing process.

You have been visited by the twocumber. May you receive twofold luck in the coming days

You have been visited by the pairrot. May you receive a pair of lucks in the near future

You have been visited by the twinana. May you receive twice as many luck in the days ahead

#Please little bird