Organic Distilled White Vinegar

... own. Chapter 13 — Distilled Spirits The test plots were... tannins, and the complex organic chemistry that gave wine its... sour, didn't turn to vinegar in the barrel the way...create the Reach's first distilled spirit. The science was ... a middling Reach white that I'd liberated from the...cuts), and the complex organic compounds that gave raw ... called spirits," I said. "Distilled wine. The essence of the ...

...rag until his knuckles went white, then emptied the bucket into... her empty frames and her vinegar wine and the east wing...crate hard enough to spark white across his vision. Both animals...hands. The chrome hummed—almost organic, a deep pulse that responded... fist, skin smooth and warm, distilled from everything the ability had... symbols behind the glass weren't organic—angular, sharp, crackling with static...

The jars on the right (starting in front of the colored tile) are opened/in the fridge; the yellow mustard was needed for a recipe but I don't otherwise use it. The swing top jar contains deli mustard--I mixed together an open jar plus containers I was given from a local kosher-style deli (they'd automatically add it to the bag though I said I didn't need it), and more came when family visitors brought deli over, so I consolidated. To the left of the garlic mustard is a jar of hot Bavarian mustard. submitted by /u/Scott_A_R to r/Mustard [link] [comments]

TLDR: £5 USB dongle plus salt, water, and white vinegar makes a disinfectant 100x stronger than bleach that is safe enough to drink, replaces £300-500 worth of products per year, and your immune system already makes it naturally. Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is what your immune system produces naturally to kill pathogens. Documented since World War I, recognised by the WHO, approved by the FDA and EPA, and significantly more effective than bleach against bacteria, viruses, and fungi including MRSA, norovirus, and C. difficile. Non-toxic, skin safe, food safe, slightly acidic rather than pH neutral, and breaks down into saline after use leaving zero harmful residue. You can make it at home for under 10p per litre. Before anything else, important clarifications: HOCl is NOT bleach. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). The compounds are related and exist in pH dependent equilibrium but they are not the same thing. HOCl is not diluted bleach. This process does NOT involve mixing vinegar and bleach. That generates toxic chlorine gas and must never be done. What we are doing is electrolysis of a saline solution acidified with vinegar. Completely different. Electrolysis does liberate small amounts of hydrogen, oxygen, and chlorine gas. This is not going to blow up or poison your house. The vast majority of chlorine reacts within the solution to form HOCl. A small amount escapes creating a mild bleach smell, less than you would get from household bleach left open to the air. Most bubbles are hydrogen, the lightest element in the universe, colourless, odourless, non-toxic, rises and disperses immediately. Always work in a ventilated area and do not inhale directly over the solution during electrolysis. What it replaces Bleach and all chlorine cleaners Antibacterial hand soap and sanitiser Surface disinfectant sprays Wound care antiseptics and pharmaceutical topical antimicrobials Mouthwash and oral rinse Produce wash Pet disinfection products Dandruff shampoo and medicated scalp treatments Antibacterial body wash Shoe deodorant and athlete's foot prevention Air fresheners and fabric odour eliminators including cooking smells and pet odours All from the same generator. Indefinitely. From salt, water, and vinegar. Personal care applications at 100-200ppm Body wash: apply to skin in the shower, leave 30-60 seconds contact time, rinse. Kills surface bacteria and fungi responsible for body odour, folliculitis, and skin infections without stripping your skin barrier. No synthetic fragrance, no parabens, no endocrine disrupting compounds. Scalp and hair treatment: apply to wet scalp before shampooing, massage in, leave 1-2 minutes. Dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis are primarily caused by Malassezia, a fungal organism colonising the scalp. HOCl is genuinely antifungal against Malassezia, addressing root cause rather than masking symptoms with zinc pyrithione or ketoconazole. Also effective against scalp folliculitis. Use as a leave-on scalp spray between washes for continuous antimicrobial maintenance. Oral rinse: dilute to 50-100ppm, swill for 30-60 seconds, spit. Kills periodontal bacteria including gram-negative anaerobes responsible for gum disease. Disrupts dental plaque biofilm more effectively than alcohol-based mouthwash because the oxidative mechanism penetrates biofilm matrix that alcohol cannot reach. Eliminates sulphur-producing bacteria causing bad breath at source. Safe to swallow at these concentrations. Wound care: apply to cleaned wounds at 100-200ppm. More potent than raw honey on pure kill rate and significantly safer than hydrogen peroxide or iodine, both of which are cytotoxic to fibroblasts, the cells that heal wounds. Used in clinical wound care products like Vashe, confirmed by nursing professionals. Face and acne treatment: kills Cutibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis without antibiotic resistance risk, irritation, or dryness of conventional acne treatments. Safe for direct application to sensitive and compromised skin at 100-200ppm. Pet care: safe if licked at use concentrations. Treats hot spots, ear infections, and skin issues without pharmaceutical intervention. Shoe care: spray inside shoes after wearing. Eliminates odour at source and breaks the athlete's foot reinfection cycle by treating shoes alongside feet. Surface and household applications at 200ppm Kitchen surfaces and food prep areas, food safe, no rinse required Bathroom disinfection Mould treatment Fabric freshening, sofas, chairs, pet beds Air freshening and odour elimination via spray Produce washing Conservative total savings: £26-47 per month on products HOCl replaces entirely. HOCl costs under 10p per litre to make at home. At 37ml daily use across all applications that is roughly £1.50 per month at most. Annual saving: £290-540 per year from one £25-40 setup cost that pays for itself within the first month. Critical laundry note: HOCl cannot simply be added to a machine wash cycle alongside detergent. Alkaline laundry detergent neutralises HOCl entirely. For laundry sanitising use HOCl as a separate soak with no other additives. How to make it USB electrolysis dongle, £5-8 from AliExpress or Amazon. These are marketed as sodium hypochlorite generators which is technically true, but ignore all packaging, instructions, and included measuring spoons. Electrolysis is electrolysis. The difference between making HOCl and bleach is entirely in your recipe and pH management, not the device. Must have MMO coated titanium electrodes, not plain titanium which accumulates oxide layers degrading performance over time, and never stainless steel which leaches harmful chromium into solution. Digital pH meter, £10-15. Strongly recommended over strips as it gives significantly more reliable readings. Calibrate with buffer solution before use. pH buffer solution, £3-5. For calibrating the meter. Free chlorine test strips, £3-5. Range 0-300ppm. Verify concentration of every single batch before use. Glass or food grade plastic measuring cup, not metal. Measuring spoons and stirring spoon. Opaque spray bottles. Light accelerates HOCl breakdown significantly. Dark HDPE or amber glass gives longest shelf life. Hairdresser-style continuous mist spray bottles work very well. Distilled or deionised water. Tap water is unpredictable as dissolved minerals play havoc with pH management. Carplan deionised water from Halfords at £1-2 for 5L is the cheapest UK source. If your local tap water is genuinely soft and high quality it is worth trying, at worst the batch fails and you remake it at negligible cost. USB power source. Phone charger or power bank. Must not exceed 1 amp. Total setup cost: £25-40 Ongoing cost per litre: under 10p The recipe per 300ml batch 300ml distilled or deionised water 1 teaspoon non-iodised kosher or sea salt, fine not rock salt, no anti-caking agents 1/4 teaspoon plain white vinegar at 5-8%. Not cider vinegar. Not vinegar with preservatives. Critical point on vinegar: white vinegar is the only suitable readily available household acid for this process. Do not substitute citric acid. HOCl reacts with citric acid and is neutralised within minutes, dropping free chlorine to zero ppm regardless of how well the electrolysis worked. This has been confirmed by direct testing. Acetic acid in white vinegar resists HOCl's oxidative power and is the correct choice. Vinegar is not strictly necessary but adding it ensures HOCl dominance by keeping pH in the correct range and produces a higher purity result. The process Step 1: measure water, add salt, stir until completely dissolved. Step 2: add vinegar and stir. Step 3: check starting pH with digital meter, target pH 4-6, aim for pH 5. Step 4: submerge electrolysis dongle head and plug into USB power source. Step 5: run 10 minutes for 200ppm or 5 minutes for 100ppm. Step 6: unplug, gently stir, remove dongle and rinse head with clean water. Step 7: allow to settle 1 minute. Step 8: check both pH and free chlorine with meter and strips. Target pH 5-6.5 and 100-200ppm free chlorine. If pH has risen above 6.5 add a small additional amount of vinegar and recheck. Step 9: decant into opaque spray bottle immediately. If readings do not match targets: pH too high: add small amount of vinegar, stir, recheck. pH too low: add small amount of water to dilute. Chlorine too low: run additional 5 minute electrolysis cycles and recheck. Chlorine zero despite correct pH: citric acid contamination or electrode issues pH and HOCl dominance HOCl is slightly acidic by nature, not pH neutral as sometimes stated. The pH determines the ratio of HOCl to hypochlorite ion across a gradual equilibrium curve, not a binary switch. pH 5: over 99% HOCl pH 6: over 90% HOCl pH 7: around 80% HOCI pH 7.5: approximately 50/50 split Above pH 7.5: hypochlorite increasingly dominates Keeping pH between 5-6.5 ensures HOCl dominance. pH 6 is a practical settled point that gives over 95% HOCl with a less strongly smelling solution than pushing to pH 5. Concentration guide 50-100ppm: oral rinse, lip application, sensitive skin 100-200ppm: body wash, scalp, wound care, acne, facial skin 200ppm: maximum recommended for skin contact 200-500ppm: surface disinfection, produce wash, shoe treatment, laundry soak Shelf life: Homemade HOCl is less stable than commercially produced HOCl. Real world shelf life in opaque containers away from light and heat is 1-2 weeks. The practical approach is making fresh weekly batches rather than stockpiling. At under 10p per litre this costs almost nothing and ensures you are always using potent solution. Always retest with chlorine strips before using a stored batch. If free chlorine reads below 50ppm make a fresh batch. *Why does nobody know about this?* You cannot patent salt water electrolysis. There is no ongoing revenue in a product people make themselves from the most abundant materials on earth. So the entire infrastructure of commercial interest, advertising, medical education funding, retail distribution, flows toward profitable alternatives rather than the free one. The shampoo industry sells you SLS-based products that strip your scalp barrier and trigger the Malassezia overgrowth that causes the dandruff they then sell you medicated shampoo to treat. The wound care industry sells you hydrogen peroxide and iodine that damage the tissue they are supposed to help heal. The disinfection industry sells you bleach that leaves toxic residue on the surfaces you eat from. HOCl does all of it better. For pennies. From salt, water, and vinegar. And has done since World War I. The knowledge is not hidden. It is just not profitable for anyone to tell you. Sources: WHO recognition of HOCl as a disinfectant, FDA and EPA approval documentation, BS EN 14476, EN 1276, EN 13697 standard testing confirming 99.999% pathogen kill rates, peer reviewed literature comparing HOCl versus sodium hypochlorite efficacy, clinical wound care research on HOCl versus hydrogen peroxide cytotoxicity, dermatological research on Malassezia and seborrheic dermatitis treatment. Credit to the chemical engineer and experienced home producer whose corrections significantly improved the accuracy of this post. Vashe wound cleanser confirmed by nursing professionals as clinical HOCl in action. The more people who know how to make this the better. submitted by /u/IavenderSyndrome to r/Biohackers [link] [comments]

I had the delight of dining on the second day after the menu change at Alinea last week. Here is a review of my experience: Act I: The Hive The entire dining room is suffused with the warm, amber glow of candlelight. In the center of the room is a long table, covered with what looks like dripping beeswax and honey. On the table rests a sculptural piece of ceramic ware resembling a beehive, with layered concentric pieces stacked on top of one another, and before it, a single black envelope sealed with golden wax. The kitchen is shrouded in darkness. All of a sudden, the lights glimmer on, and orchestral music starts to play. We are asked to break open the seals on the envelope, where we see a list of seven courses, all inspired by bees and honey. The servers, in unison, lift the top of the Hive, and the dinner begins. Spring onion cream, sweet and sour ramps, charred ramp top butter, nuggets of golden honey, amontillado sherry: One of my favorite dishes, and a fantastic start to the night. Creamy, fresh, with pops of sweetness from the honey nuggets and slightly acidic ramps. Regiis ova osetra caviar, with 2-month aged délice de bourgorgne, french chamomile honey and transparent leeks: The honey is divine—locally-produced, saccharine and floral—but to be honest, délice de bourgorgne is one of my least favorite cheeses, so I didn't like the dish on my first initial bite. The cheese is a tad too malodorous for my liking, overpowering the rest of the dish. But once I try pairing the leek (a very thin, almost translucent cracker that shatters in your mouth when you bite) with a small dollop of cheese, caviar and a swirl of honey, I’m surprised by how the flavors intermingle unexpectedly well. Preserved trumpet mushroom, jícama, toasted coconut vinaigrette, papaya confit in local honey: The preserved mushroom had an interesting pickled flavor, though the flavors of the jícama and papaya were rather light. The coconut vinaigrette had a sweet, creamy and toasted flavor, reminiscent of kaya jam (a coconut custard common in Southeast Asia) Confit abacaxi pineapple, jamón ibérico bellota, whole grain mustard oxymel, and opal basil buds: Oxymel is a medicinal syrup made of honey, vinegar and herbs, and I thought a very nice nod to the honey/bees theme. The pineapple was served as a flat, thin circle alongside a pair of silver tweezers, and we’re instructed to fold it over like a taco and consume the whole thing in one bite. Alpine sorrel leaf and frescura blooms, with honey and propolis droplets: This dish was a little awkward to eat (I had to precariously lift the sorrel leaf); flavors were rather forgettable. Shattered giant white european asparagus with roasted michigan straw cream, charred strawberry and niçoise olive compote, and caramelized honey: The straw cream is the most intriguing part of this dish; earthy, slightly sweet and almost vanilla-esque. The asparagus, however, is disappointing. It has a dry, desiccated texture that reminded me of rusk. Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh but personally, I feel dehydrating the asparagus is a waste of the beauty of such a fresh spring ingredient. It was more of a medium for the sauces, but even then, rather flavorless and added nothing to the dish. Wax mango, made from ataulfo honey mango and organic beeswax: This is a sweet dessert, a little chewy mango confection on a stick. (The mango skin is coated with wax and not edible—I asked.) I wish I could have said more about this dish, but unfortunately, we were rushed at this point from the end of the small bites to the kitchen, and I had to hastily stuff it in my mouth and wasn’t able to savor the flavor. Intermission After the first few bites, we are ushered inside the kitchen. We line up by the counter, where a curious metal contraption is placed. We are told it is an imperial shaker, a vintage hand-operated cocktail shaking machine (one of the eight in the world, apparently). The chefs demonstrate the machine and make a cocktail on the spot for the guests. My dining partner and I were doing the non-alcoholic pairing for the night, and while I found it thoughtful that they gave us a non-alcoholic mocktail made with mugicha, plum, pickled ginger and sudachi, I wished they could have asked beforehand and given us the option to try the alcoholic version that was made in the machine. Lined along the counter were a few plastic tubes and we were told to reach in, on the count of three, to a duck leg tsukune and salted plum skewered on a juniper branch. (If I’m being honest, the dish, which was dubbed “Fear Factor,” was a little gimmicky, and I didn’t see how the act of pulling something out from a tube contributed to the “fear factor” personally.) My friend thought the duck was too salty; I found it acceptable. It was a slightly smoky, flavorsome meatball on a stick, reminiscent of Japanese yakitori. Act II: The Main Act We proceed into the main dining room again, where the long communal table has been magically vanished, replaced with regular tables for each party. We are served the first of the main courses: Skatewing à la pharos siamois, fermented green peppercorn, tamarind, and bai horapa (Thai basil): This was served on a dramatically large platter, with a small morsel of skatewing brushed with tamarind sauce. The texture of the skatewing was a little dry and chewy, but this dish was one of my favorite of the night because of its bright and punchy flavor. The tamarind sauce was aggressively sour, but as someone who enjoys tamarind, it was very piquant and mouth-puckering. (I still have no idea what “pharos siamois” means—if anyone does, please enlighten me.) Barely cooked Aleutian king crab, served alongside cheddar popcorn velvet, crab shell caramel and kinome (sansho): The components of the dish sounded very exciting, but I couldn’t taste the popcorn, which was slightly overpowered by the cheesiness. Cracked maize snow, frozen butter chips and tellicherry black pepper: This dish tasted more like popcorn than the former. The snow melted when it touched your tongue, leaving behind the flavor of buttery corn, and then the spicy hints of black pepper. Sunflower sandwich with jerusalem artichoke wafers, roasted sunflower seed butter, and sunflower seed petals, and hand-harvested Hokkaido scallop with passionfruit, dijon, shaved vegetables: Both of these dishes were sadly, quite lackluster for me. Neither stood out, and didn’t really taste like much. I would have liked stronger flavors. Luckily, the next dish was much better. Softened tōgan (wax gourd), perfumed with saffron-mussel tea: Tōgan is what is typically referred to as winter melon in Asia, and the little piece was cooked to tender perfection, soft and melting with even the slightest touch of the chopsticks. The mussel tea was fragrant, aromatic, and richly flavored, like taking a sip of the briny ocean that was distilled down to its essence. The dish was simple but beautiful. Seedless concord grape, topped with house-milled lightly toasted white sesame oil: A translucent orb served in a beautiful crystal bowl; truly a work of art. We thought the grape would be more like a spherification (à la molecular gastronomy style) dish, but it was more like a gummy candy. The taste and texture reminded me of those Japanese grape gummies, with a very sweet, concentrated grape juice flavor (very saccharine and concentrated). The sesame oil was very light, almost imperceptible. Steamed Spanish turbot, with a périgord black truffle and banana mousseline, butter-braised sauerkraut, and caraway cabbage sauce: The dish was stunningly plated, but I wish it tasted as good as it looked. Both banana and black truffle are both strong, heady flavors, and together, produced a very intense, pungent (and in my opinion, unpleasant) taste that did not complement the delicacy of a white fish like turbot. Carbonized rio red grapefruit with extra virgin avocado oil and scotch bonnet chili: The grapefruit sorbet was very bitter, and this was all I could taste in this dish. The beverage that came with this was a lot better; a very unique drink made from scotch bonnet chili, but with the capsaicin (what makes chili peppers spicy) extracted. It tastes slightly floral and fruity, leaving your tongue tingling, but without any hint of spice. Roasted peanut sponge and massaman curry: A small but surprisingly tasty morsel, the sponge cake was filled with a deliciously aromatic and flavorful curry inside and dusted on top with peanut. 14-day aged white pekin duck, twizzled and poached rhubarb, szechuan peppercorns, and rhubarb rouennaise sauce made from duck liver. The duck was well-cooked, ruby pink in the center, fatty and tender, but what let the dish down were the accompaniments. The menu doesn’t seem to list it, but the dish included a parsnip vanilla “puree” with a strange texture, and a twizzled rhubarb that had the appearance and texture of licorice. It was slightly hard, sticky and I had to gnaw at it. The duck and sauce were good, but I wasn’t a fan of the other components. Bing cherry juice braised konbu, fermented cherries and périgord black truffle: This was like a little biscuit sandwich made with two cherry discs with truffle in between. I wished there was more sweetness and tartness from the cherry; an acidic or pickled element of some sort. Ribeye of Japanese wagyu beef, Italian udon noodle, flavored with smoked paprika, toasted bread purée, castelvetrano olive and artichoke emulsion: The pièce de résistance. This dish was exquisite, artfully plated like a Piet Mondrian painting. The server tells us the dish was inspired by Chef Grant Achatz’s travels in Japan and Italy, with ingredients like parmigiano reggiano in the sauce, wagyu beef, and an “Italian” udon, yet all of them work together in perfect harmony. The beef is dusted with black garlic and olive, and perfectly cooked. The toasted bread purée was deep, toasted, almost dark chocolatey; a fascinating flavor profile. Act III: Denouement We come, now, to the final act—dessert. Darkness falls and the music swells, rising to a crescendo. A line of servers march out in unison from the kitchen, sliding a piece of black acrylic onto each table—blank canvases awaiting their masterpieces. The servers swirl a trio of sauces on the surface, covering it with streaks of paint: date, chai and chocolate. A solid chunk of ice cream is shattered into smithereens. Everything is dusted with glittering, sugary snow. The ice cream and snow melt on the tongue, complementing the gingery spice of the chai, the smooth milkiness of chocolate, and the bitterness of coffee. I'm glad they kept this iconic dessert format, despite the change in the menu. The petit fours (e.g., a meringue, a fudgy chocolate short crust thing) were ok, but not particularly memorable. Top 3 dishes: Ribeye wagyu Tōgan and mussel tea Spring onion cream (the first dish) Overall thoughts (the tldr): The best way I can describe a meal at Alinea is to liken it to a musical performance—because that’s what it is, a work of art. Like a musical piece, it has its highs and lows. Not every dish hits, but when it does, it takes your breath away like a soaring aria. I truly enjoyed the theatricality and artistry of Alinea, and appreciated the depth, complexity and thought that goes behind the crafting of each and every dish. The food was good (not perfect), but the dining experience at Alinea transcends that—it’s an experience. When you dine at Alinea, it’s not just dinner and a show; the dinner itself is the show. (Oh, and I forgot to mention—the meal was looong. Not that I'm complaining. We started at 9pm and ended past midnight. Service was flawless. We left with gifts of pancake mix, jam, honey and butter. Thank you to the chefs and the staff for the incredible journey.) submitted by /u/anothercupcake to r/finedining [link] [comments]

Good Morning, Evening, or Afternoon my friends! I was a little hungry writing this one and I think it shows. Have yourselves an excellent day, and I hope you enjoy! First Next Previous Civilian Jane Shepherd - March 2143 - Galivus Orbit Ya know, when I really think about it, getting discharged has been about the best damn thing to happen to me since I got conscripted back in ‘38. All the weight and responsibility of rank, I could just leave it all behind. It felt like throwing off a hundred feet of industrial chain, I could breathe normally again, and it was a feeling I hadn’t even realized I was missing. And best of all, I was going home. God damn it, just thinking about it made me realize I hadn’t been home in two and a half years. I last saw that blue motherfucker in October of 2140. I looked around the bunk room and realized it felt better sleeping on a Destroyer than it did planetside. I hadn’t seen home in so long I couldn’t even remember what my apartment looked like. It just wouldn’t be real until I got back and saw it with my own eyes again. But that was the kicker! I was going home, and I was leaving orbit in early April. Another 5 months in a sardine tin and I was free. In the meantime, I took out a Black Castle cigarette fresh from the commissary. That pack still had the plastic wrap on it all the way back from Earth. I brought that little thing up to my face and gave the [No Smoking] sign above the door a smug, satisfied look of ‘you can’t tell me what to do.’ Everything was going alright. Then my door opened. I was on my feet and saluting before I even saw who it was. “Shepherd.” Said Admiral Goddamn Bradley, eying up my bedwraggled mess of a bunk, and the cigarette in my mouth. “I see you’re making yourself at home.” The man looked like a square piece of quarry rock just got up and put on a starched uniform. Might’ve looked professional too, if it weren’t for the coffee stains on his sleeve. “Yes Sir.” I said, before realizing that I didn’t need to call the old fart Sir anymore! I almost laughed about it too, before remembering that it’s best to not burn bridges. But yeah, I was free! I was living the fucking dream! “You’re being reinstated” Oh. Those words hit harder than that goddamn bullet I took planetside. I just stared straight ahead, slack-jawed and shaken while he rolled out a well prepared speech. “We just finished up our last round of interviews from the people down below. The new Governor put in a few choice words, and the Graschick Captain as well. It’s made us reassess our decision regarding your overall involvement in the massacre. You’ve been officially cleared of all charges and are being put back into service effective immediately.” My cigarette fell out of my mouth and rolled across the floor. All I could think to say was, “I’m not going home?” He looked at me with this disappointed look, like he expected better of me for whatever reason. “If you ask me, I don’t for a minute believe you deserve to wear this uniform. Not after everything that happened down below. But, you’ve got enough people vouching for you that I’m open to the idea that I’m wrong. Don’t make me regret this decision, Commander.” He held out a fresh uniform and a file with my next assignment. On top of it all was a Marine Commander’s pin, a silver-blue pair or sabres. Only I wasn’t a Commander. I tried to say something but he’d already turned away, disappearing out the door and slamming it shut for good measure. Reinstatement and a Promotion. I couldn’t think of anything worse. I collapsed onto the bed, banging the fuck out of my head on the upper bunk’s support bar. Should’ve known better than to trust the bunk. I nursed the back of my head and opened the file. Inside was the full record of my dismissal, plus a few additions. “Huh, I guess H’Rald’s a governor now.” I said, before flipping to the last page. My marching orders. I was going to one of the Graschick homeworlds. I wouldn’t see Earth again for as much as five years. Without even meaning to, my hands just balled up into fists, white knuckling the crinkling paper in my hands, and threw it away. My breathing wasn’t quite working right and my eyes went bleary. I folded up into my bunk and tried real hard to pretend it wasn’t real, that I was still going home. I was glad most of the crew was planetside, I didn’t want a single living soul to see me fall to pieces the way I did. I don’t particularly know how I ended up in the mess hall with a bottle of distilled vinegar, but I was huddled to that bottle like my life depended on it. I also couldn’t tell you how I’d gathered the strength to drink half the fucking thing either, but being criminally short of anything alcoholic on the ship, this was as close as I could get to drunk. I’d regret it in the morning about as much anyhow. “Morning Shephard.” Oh, it was that Doctor, or Colonel, or whichever it was. What was his name again?Right, Jackson! “What’cha having?” He asked, and sounded sincere too. I poured a bit in his coffee mug and he recoiled pretty bad when he got a proper whiff. Soon as his wits returned to him he asked, real politely too. “Miss, the fuck are you drinking goddamn vinegar for?” I passed over my reinstatement papers, and my orders. “Oh.” That was all he had to say. He set down his now properly fucked cup of coffee and reached over to pat me on the back. “I know it’s not what you wanted, but if you could wrangle the scaly bastards for two months straight I’m more than happy to have you watching my back.” I hadn’t felt this kinda support since I left Earth. My Dad grabbed my shoulder just like this before I left Luna and told me to make him proud. I couldn’t stand the idea of seeing him again, I didn’t have a goddamn clue what he’d think of me, if he knew what’d happened and what I’d done. My bottle hit the floor. “Shepherd?” I puked up everything I’d drank, and the awful stuff wasn’t any better going out than in, not after a half hour fermenting in stomach acid. He just patted me on the back again while I was soaking in my puddle, my throat desperately burning. “I get this’s been hard on you Shepherd, but I need to know right now if you’re gonna get your shit together or not.” I tried to give him my response, but I just puked a little more. When I could speak, I weakly said, “I’ll be fine tomorrow. I just… I really thought I was going home. Needed to get it out of my system is all.” I wiped my face clean with my sleeve and straightened up. “When do we leave?” “Next month. Admiral Bradley’s got a special project ongoing and needs one of the civilian ships to do it. If it works, we should be homeward bound come Spring of ‘45.” I coughed twice, both times feeling like I’d hacked up a straight razor. “And if it doesn’t work?” “Well from what the Graschick have told me, Revnant’s Moor has some real lovely oceans, they turn bright neon blue in the summers and go a pale pink at the height of winter. Something to do with the ocean’s plankton population exploding, then collapsing as the year progresses and the oceans get hotter.” I groaned and felt some noxious shit in my stomach try very hard to climb up my esophagus, only for me to swallow it back down. “So you’re cozying up with the Lizards now?” “What can I say? I’m a people person.” Reiver Lord Galy’Frin - May 2143 CE - Galivus Orbit To say I was gratified to see H’rald taking my side would sell the whole matter short. In short order she’d marched her way into orbit, quite unhappy as you might imagine, then proceeded to verbally batter the Admiral for his stunning lack of social grace. Though the proceedings might’ve gone down better without the pistol. The Guard outside Bradley’s office had her own armament trained throughout the proceedings, a fact H’rald only appreciated after Bradley had conceded the point, and she made her retreat. There was half a moment where, upon opening the door, she was face first against the barrel of a gun, and far more lives than only hers seemed to flash before her eyes. Bradley called his loyal hound away, and H’rald was let to pass. She stood frozen a while, however, and only moved once urged. I took my own leave of Bradley, thinking the day was more than sufficiently won, though at the cost of straining my ties with the man. But the matter would rest, and I instead focused on how drawn I’d felt to Shepherd the whole time I’d known her. The woman risked her life, and now it seemed her honor as well, to save a people who were her enemy. I could not imagine stooping to so low a level and at such great risk, and never for a race as foul as the Imperials. Her own world had burned when they came, had it not? The stories that reached us told of firestorms to swallow continents, of great flashes of light that wiped armies from the face of their precious Earth. They must have been hatefully aggrieved, for why else would they come out so far? I could not square it, and I felt a need to see Shepherd once more to know for certain why she did what she did. And judging by the voracity of Bradley’s tail tucking, I would have plenty of time to ask her. I’d spent the next week shuttling between my lead Frigate and Bradley’s Carrier, my own ship being called the Chainbreaker’s Sire, and Bradley’s SRV Charleston. I’m told it was the name of a city in his homeland. Today however, I had the pleasure of dining with humans. Since their discovery the reputation they held as masters of cookery was practically unchallenged, at least in this arm of the Galaxy. There might be some of a Lord’s staff or a peasant family of exceptional renown who had a fighting chance of matching them, but such a feat would be against a multi-millenia history of food preparation, and that was hardly fair. But such were the thoughts of mine as I sat in their commons and dined with a middle host they called a “Platoon” as we all ate together. The humans here gathered platoons in heaps of 50, with the occasional inclusion of specialists bringing it up to 60. Whatever their method of organizing, they all ate together whenever possible. Today, we feasted on thick slices of a rather sweet softbread, still steaming from the ovens. With the bread we were given a selection of jellies, though not the meat preserve so common to the Empire, it was instead a heavily sweetened preserve of fruits, most usually strawberries or apricots. I inquired about their jellies and was told that there was a third flavor made from grapes which had been common until recently. But the fruit itself had gone extinct, and most seemed quite content to blame the Empire for its loss. Though the bread was the heartier part of the meal, in flavor it was utterly constituent to the beef stew which accompanied it. Found within that stew, which is a kind of thick soup the humans prize, were great chunks of meat of a tenderness like half melted butter. There were also vegetables floating amidst the menagerie, suspended in a thick base that I could only compare to the delights of a good gravy, perfectly designed for dipping bread into. It was of a brown color, though don’t let that fool you! In smell alone it could drive a man to madness, such was its power. With one hand, I was enjoying a sweet treat of softbread topped with fruit preserve. And in the other was a spoon, topped with a chunk of meat the size of my thumb, and covered in its stewings, a thick broth flavored of beef and onions, celery and carrots, salts and peppers and spices galore! In one bite, I tasted apricot sweetness, and in the next a flavor not even Hyalrog could imagine from his throne of bones. The humans call such a feeling Heaven, named after their afterlife. A place of absolute bliss and unending plenty, or so they said. My final fate was to meet my own god in a final duel, to be gored upon his horns, and have all my questions answered in my last moment of struggle. The peace of oblivion awaited me when all was said and done. But I could enjoy a little slice of heaven for a while. Hyalrog had awaited my soul for thirty years already, he could wait a while longer. Then, as I found myself blessed with good food, I found myself just as blessed with good company. Shepherd appeared from the mass, her own plate stacked high and steaming. I waved her down to my seat and upon recognizing me, she fled to the opposite side of the commons. I remember thinking quite clearly, ‘This will not do.’ And so I rose up from my chair and sniffed her out amongst the throng, a task made enormously challenging thanks to the distracting qualities of human cuisine. Following my nose alone would’ve driven me headlong into someone’s plate, likely exceeding the humans’ impressive capacity for tolerance, and likelier still to spell my untimely and grizzly end. Thankfully, Shepherd was no challenge to find, her hair was a bright red that quite thankfully stood out from the rest. Soon as I’d saddled down beside her I said, “At Last! Tell me, I’ve been curious to know, whatever drove you to aid your enemies on the planet below?” Shepherd, with her mouth full of food, glared at me like I’d taken her family hostage and was demanding a ransom before she’d even had breakfast. She put herself to the enormous work of finishing her plate, and as soon as her mouth was unoccupied, she very sternly said. “Let me finish this then I’ll tell you.” Having been rebuffed, I set my senses to investigating the rest of the room and all the people in it. There were both men and women, which it seemed was the custom of the Humans. Unlike my people they seemed to lack much for dimorphism between the sexes. It made me realize just how low the ceilings were on the Charleston. Had I pointed my snout straight up I’d surely brush the upper plates with my nose. The commons itself, called a Mess Hall by the Humans, was an uncomfortably packed place, with only enough room to walk between three long tables provided that everyone was seated. The people sitting at those tables were quite another matter, with some being quite large and even taller than myself, and others being surprisingly small and lithe. Their uniforms differed as well, with those of the ship's crew being a dull greyish blue, and those of the Marines to which I’d become so acquainted being a small-patterned green and tan. Not even their skin or hair color was consistent, as they could range from papery to muddy in complexion, their hair often being short but just as often being styled into tightly twisted rows that lined their heads or even seemingly being quite long but tied into a tight roll and tucked well out of the way, and then of course there were those with seemingly no hair at all. The rarest of the bunch being hair of a flamboyant bright color, which I had to assume was dyed the same as the scales on my face. Though that last category was made up of those who were not wearing any recognizable uniform, which led to my next question for Shepherd. “Why aren’t they wearing uniforms? Those ones there, with the colored hair.” “They’re civilians.” She said between gulps of her coffee. “My bosses were expecting laid back infrastructure work so they brought on civilian contractors to help out with the labor. None of them were expecting the colony to be in this kinda state. But in just a few weeks, that won’t be your problem anymore. I got my orders yesterday. We’re following you home.” “And you’ll be in attendance?” She nodded, and I felt utterly revitalized. Who would’ve thought I’d grow so fond of an outsider? “You asked why I helped those people down below.” She said. “Do you really want an answer?” It was my turn to nod, but without any real weight or import she shrugged. “It was just the right thing to do.” And with that she turned back to her food, and could not be distracted no matter how hard I tried. submitted by /u/ZakkaryGreenwell to r/HFY [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/wry_phone to r/CostcoWholesale [link] [comments]

Hello TCK! For a while there, this red wall became synonymous with my posts. It's right next to my kitchen, had both of my 24 inch Piotr the Bear magnets on it, got amazing light for pictures, and it held all of my knives. But now that same red wall has been changed dramatically and it's been upgraded quite a bit (in my opinion) so I wanted to share the changes with you all. Let's just start with a quick Rule 5 for everything steel or stone in the post for those who don't care about my kitchen lol Knives currently in rotation (L-R, pic 2) Her knives (left of magnet) Takeda Hamono NAS (Aogami Super Stainless Clad) Kiritsuke 240 Yoshikane Hamono SKD Nakiri 165 Sakai Kikumori Kikuzuki Shirogami #2 Kiritsuke Petty 135 (Y. Tanaka x Morihiro Hamono) My knives (right of magnet) Baba Hamono Kagekiyo Aogami #1/Stainless Damascus Gyuto 240 (Tanaka x Nishida) Takada no Hamono Singetu Shirogami #2 Gyuto 210 (Tanaka x Takada) Sakai Kikumori Yugiri Aogami #1 Stainless Steel Clad Kiritsuke Santoku 180 (Y. Tanaka x N. Myojin) Takada no Hamono Suiboku Aogami #1 Petty 135 (Tanaka x Takada) Hitohira Masashige Kudoh Shirogami #1 Lefty Kiridashi #002 (Yoshihiro Kudo) Stones (top-bottom, pic 3): Japanese Natural Stones Maruoyama Shiro Suita Kurorenge Maruoyama Tomae Ikumurasaki Aizu Amakusa Synthetic stones Shapton Rockstar #6000 Morihei Hishiboshi #500 NSK Kogyo Oboro Knife #800 Miyagoshi Roran #220 Tadokoro #1000 Tadokoro #3000 I am not going to add more knife and stone details beyond this so if you got questions, throw em in the comments or hit me up. I'll save all that for a SOTC for both in the near-ish future. Now, for the new red wall; I figured a tour was in order. That way if anything I did helps others make their own setup better, it'll be easy to get all the details. Feel free to just ignore the rest of this if kitchen setup isn't your thing lol ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Tour of the New Red Wall ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's just go picture by picture to give a full layout of the space because I put a ton of thought into it... Pic 1 - The whole wall This kitchen wall is really set up in four sections. From left to right, it's the extra freezer, bookcase, kitchen cart with knife magnet above, and the new prep station. Above everything is a bunch of art from one of my closest friends + some tenugui. Pic 2 & 3 - Knives and stones I outlined each knife and stone above, but I will at least explain the set up a bit more here. Pic 2 is the knife magnet, which is a 24 inch Piotr the Bear, which I could not recommend more. The knife magnets they make are excellent. There were holes from the old TV mount here so we decided to throw up some pictures from Sakai in old frames we found to cover it up. Eventually, I will have a stone shelf here, but that will take time to build. The knife magnet is mounted with anchored screws. Pic 3 is the current stone storage setup, which I am actually pretty happy with. The wicker-style box doesn't look horrible sitting out, it's extremely breathable and I even put a stainless drip tray in the bottom so all the stones are getting airflow on all sides. They're currently organized with JNats at the top, splash-and-go stones in the middle and soakers at the bottom. To keep the sun from hitting them, I toss a tenugui over them; this Mt. Fuji tenugui was a gift as well making it a bit more meaningful as well as making it look less cluttered. Pic 4 - The new prep station This has been a goal of mine for a while and I am so happy with it. This stainless steel prep table is 4 feet wide, 2 feet deep and counter height. At all times, it holds two sets of yakumi tins (one I use for mine en place and one for bigger prep) as well as my new giant cherry end grain cutting board which stays out permanently (more on the cutting board here). There is a power strip on the left and room for whatever appliance I might need to put there and room for mixing bowls and deli cups on the right. I made sure to also get one with a shelf; stacking up a bunch of appliances beneath is a massive bonus. The spray bottle you see is distilled white vinegar + water + essential oils to help clean the giant board on the fly when wiping it down. This prep station always stays like this when not in use and has been a dream to have. Even in my tiny apartment, I found some space and I couldn't be happier. Pic 5 - Kitchen cart + bookcase This is really just an overview. There is the extra freezer to the far left which has been a godsend for how much cooking I do these days. The bookcase to the right of the freezer has random chaos and cookbooks. On the knife-side of the bookcase is my Takada no Hamono tenugui which kind of separates everything down the middle. It feels like a freezer/bookcase space and a knife/prep space. Pic 6 - The top of the kitchen cart has...a lot going on Let's just go left to right when talking about the top of this kitchen cart lol The far left are four cutting boards held up by a cheap amazon knife magnet. There is a cheap plastic 17x13, a black Hasegawa 17x13, and two smaller cheap plastic boards. Eventually, the big plastic board and the two smaller plastic boards will be replaced with another 17x13 Hasegawa + 1 smaller Hasegawa, but this set up + the big wood board more than gets the job done. Squeezed between the cutting boards are some Swedish dishcloths which are awesome to save on using paper towels. On the cheap amazon magnet, there are four knives -- two project knives and two sentimental knives. The project knives are unrecognizable, but were a Hatsukoro bunka 165 of some sort with a standard Aogami #2/Iron construction and a Sakai Takayuki Kamagata Usuba 120 in Shirogami #2/Iron. The sentimental knives are an old Faberware slicing knife my partner's grandmother owned and my dad's old Victorinox Grand Chef he used working as a butcher at Costco. The opposite side of the magnet holds a couple stainless bench scrapers to quickly grab. Then we hit the stone box (which was discussed at length above), my bare leather + suede strop from Carbon Knife Co., and a basket of soft rags for the knives. I am amazed it somehow doesn't look more cluttered for how much shit is crammed onto the top of this kitchen cart lol Pic 7 - The tenugui curtains These tenugui curtains (Kagekiyo an Morihei, for those curious) are simply held up by two magnets to pinch the corners. I used some command strips to set some metal plates on the underside of the wood top and the magnets can now move left and right to be opened, as you can see in the picture. The top shelf holds random sharpening stuff. The hotel pan holds truing stones and beat up rags while the red-topped plastic container holds all the random nagura/powders/etc I've accumulated. The wood container to the right of it has other sharpening stuff, handles, magazine for final strop, calipers and other random shit. Behind it all is a box of project knives I am not working on currently, my knife roll, and sink bridge. Cannot believe it all fit on one shelf. Below that is just more kitchen stuff that is less used; a junk drawer so to speak . Pic 8 - The whole kitchen; now doubled All in all, I opened up twice as much space for the kitchen and even freed up counter space and cabinet space. This is why it feels like such a massive upgrade to me. Pic 9 - The old set up Here it is for this curious. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, that is FAR more than I expected to write but hopefully it helped some people and others took my warning and skipped over the rest lol Thanks for reading, stay safe and I'll see you all soon. -Teej submitted by /u/TEEEEEEEEEEEJ23 to r/TrueChefKnives [link] [comments]

Has anyone tried this? It's a pink hot sauce. I'll report bac submitted by /u/Unhappy_Service_7552 to r/hotsauce [link] [comments]

I have very sensitive skin and Graves’ disease (autoimmune disease) so I’ve been more curious about non toxic everything. Since I’m so new, I only know a couple of swaps I’ve seen via TikTok. I use distilled white vinegar for softer clothes, changed one batch of undies to organic cotton but have no idea what those extra certifications mean. Trying to throw out my plastic underwear I’ve had for a long time. Changed my detergent to non toxic options, use blue land for my dish detergent tablets. I am super curious where else I can get organic cotton undies from? I have a pack from quince but they seem to slip / dig at the inner thigh area which is kind of annoying for me. I know for sure in the summertime I’d get a rash from that. Any other advice is appreciated too! I’m very overwhelmed and not sure what to make swaps for first or who I should be listening to. Seems to be some fear mongering with some nontoxic things I’ve been seeing online. I’m also allergic to viscose and wool. submitted by /u/Mission_Remote_6319 to r/nontoxic [link] [comments]

I'm working with small businesses to create allergen menus that we actually want. I asked for your feedback and created this set to give a small coffee shop. They're already dedicated gluten free, so that made it a bit easier. The business would be encouraged to post the first one in the cafe, the chart on and full ingredient list on their website (in a way that's mobile friendly!), as well as print them out and have them on hand. I'll offer offer suggestions on manageable ways to cater to more allergies (like getting a separate pan and just using canola oil instead of butter for dairy free /vegan swaps). If you see anything you'd swap for your allergies let me know and I'll suggest it! Let me know what you think! What do you like, what could be improved, what's still missing? Appreciate any feedback. submitted by /u/ResponsibleBanana864 to r/FoodAllergies [link] [comments]

My roommate and I just moved in together in the middle of November so it’s been almost two months. She moved in first and I started bringing my things a couple days after. She did bring up before moving in together that she is very particular about cleanliness and how things are cleaned and while my standard is not nearly as high, I fully thought I could maintain her expectations at the very least in the common areas of course. I don’t socialize often so after we first moved in, I was really focused on unpacking everything and stayed in my room for the most part. After my couch and tv got delivered late November and set up in the living room I started hanging out more in the common area like once a day for an hour or two. While I could feel tension, I really had no idea about there was any problem. She actually bought me air purifier bags, cups full of coffee beans and even moisture absorbers, but I really just thought that was just her being her since she has a high standard for cleanliness and a strong sense of smell while mine isn’t very strong, she had actually asked me to get a specific kind of air purifier (large trio plus $150 Costco) before we moved in together. It wasn’t until dec 16 that she told me about about a smell in the apartment. We talked on the couch and she told me it was a strong smell that was like the cat odor and had other scents, but I was way too embarrassed and didn’t want to know what it smelled like, but she’s gets more descriptive in her texts I’ve attached. After she told me I spent the next couple days washing all my clothes with vinegar and hot water (she didn’t want any scented or unnatural products used in the apartment or washer) I normally do my laundry while watching tv but she had asked me not to so the smell doesn’t get into the couch or rug. We have an open floor plan so it’s kitchen and living room are right next to each and the washer is next to the kitchen so the first day I sat at our counter while working from home and had brought some laundry baskets out so I could wash a whole bunch while working. I hadn’t put anything in the living room, but I guess the smell got all over the place anyway. By the time my roommate got home from work, I had moved everything into my room so I could start folding and organizing, but I could hear her spray everything down with hypochlorous acid when she got home and I felt so bad. After that, I made sure to only bring my laundry out to put it in the washer or bring it back to my room. I washed my entire closet and anything I couldn’t wash I sprayed with hypochlorous acid (her request). I also cleaned most my furniture again and I’m still in the process of cleaning my shoes and purses, but the ones that haven’t been fully cleaned have been sprayed down multiple times. I’ve also put a couple bowls of distilled white vinegar around my space since I heard it pulls smells out. I keep the air purifier on max all the time with my window open and keep my doors shut. I haven’t been going in the common areas unless absolutely necessary since I had brought my laundry out so hopefully I wasn’t bringing the smell out. I had actually gone through and cleaned a lot of my stuff before moving in since I knew cleanliness is really important to her. At this point I’ve cleaned everything I’ve brought into the apartment. I had been really stressing about this and trying to get rid of this smell and I can’t even smell it. So I spent a few days at my parents house for the holidays. They live an hour away, but with it being December and all the Christmas things happening I’ve spent a couple weekends over there this month. Well, I was there. I had my mom and sister’s smell the clothes that I brought along with my old room from before I moved to the apartment and they couldn’t smell anything bad. On my last day there she was sending me videos and tips on cleaning (I’ve watched and followed them) and also some different laundry detergents since the washes I’ve done so far hadn’t helped so I ordered them on Amazon and washed a blanket and laid it out on the dryer for her to test but she never let me know how it smelled. The only suggestion I said no too was the ozone machine bc of the risks. I have gotten more of the air purifiering baggies and moisture absorbers since they’re disposable and I got us more hypochlorous acid. I’ve also taken a bunch of different things (washed and unwashed) to work and was going to ask just one friend if they smelled, but a bunch of my coworkers were intrigued so they smelled them too. Other than one sweater that smelled like a box (it had been in storage) and my work out shoes smelling like work out shoes when they smelled the inside, nobody smelled anything bad. Since Ive cleaned literally everything at this point (haven’t double washed my clothes with the new detergent since she didn’t lmk how it smelled) I had my mom come over on Sunday and she smelled the whole place, and couldn’t find any negative odors or anything that could be causing this. My roommate didn’t believe this when I told her so even though she’s said not to bring in the complex, I came home early from work yesterday and talked to them and they had someone come out and check the unit. They also didn’t find any negative odors and I did have them check the common areas my room and bathroom and closet and they found nothing. They did say that unused HVAC systems can cause smells like the ones she’s describing so he put a cleaner in it and ran it. I took a video of the interaction and also had the apartment complex send me a summary, but I haven’t shared these yet with her. I know she’s still smelling the smell because she’s still lighting her incense constantly and I can hear her spraying hypochlorous acid regularly. She’s also been using the air sanitizer, although improperly. I haven’t felt comfortable being in the common areas for weeks now because she would just spray right after I left and it felt filled with tension so I actually haven’t seen her in about a week and a half. I’ve also included our text conversations since it started for more context. At this point I just feel so uncomfortable here and can’t imagine staying in this situation for another year. When I talked to the complex, they did give me some options, but we just moved in so they’re kind of limited. If we terminate the lease we’re responsible for the full lease amount. Once we’ve been here for six months, we can do a transfer so one of us could go to a one bedroom while the other one gets removed from the lease. Our only options before the six month period is for one of us to get removed from the lease, but since it’s a two bedroom and neither one of us can afford it on our own so whoever would stay would need to have a guarantor sign on. The thing is though is that I’m 50 minutes from my work and an hour away from my family. I moved to this location specifically because she wanted to live here. She also has family just five minutes away and work is only like 10 minutes away. So if we had to do this, then I’d really like to be the one who left. But I feel so lost and I’m not sure if I really am the problem or if leaving is the right solution. I’d really appreciate any helpful comments you can provide. (My last text to her will be in the comments I reached the upload limit) submitted by /u/PunkinRis to r/roommateproblems [link] [comments]

Eggs Woodhouse, the official recipe from the book; 'How To Archer' Eggs Woodhouse Happiness, thy name is Eggs Woodhouse! Each bite is a symphony of flavor: the fresh eggs and creamy sauces the percussion, the delightful Pata Negra ham the brass, both content to give the strings and woodwinds, the Périgord truffle and Beluga caviar, their respective solos. And the maestro who created this magnificent triumph, and who brings it to the stage each morning—accompanied by a pitcher of Bloody Marys, wheat toast with lemon curd, and a slice of melon—is none other than my loyal valet, Woodhouse. By a cruel twist of fate, however, Woodhouse doesn’t even know I’ve named the dish after him. I just say “Make me eggs.” 1 cup creamed spinach (see recipe below) ½ cup béchamel (see recipe below) ½ cup hollandaise (see recipe below) 2 poached eggs (see recipe below) 2 artichoke bottoms (Blanc d’Oran or Camus de Bretagne) 2 ounces Pata Negra ham 1 small Périgord truffle To Garnish Pinch of paprika (Édes csemege or Csípös Csemege, Pikáns) 1 teaspoon Beluga caviar Pinch of Kashmiri saffron Creamed Spinach 1 cup farm-fresh organic spinach ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper ¼ teaspoon sea salt (preferably sel de mer haïtien) Cook the spinach, drain well, chop finely. Season with pepper and salt. Keep warm, while stirring constantly over a low flame until you add it to the béchamel (see recipe below). Béchamel 1 tablespoon butter (beurre d’Ardenne or Mantequilla de Soria) 1 tablespoon organic wheat flour 1/3 cup organic whole milk 1 bay leaf 4 dashes hot sauce ½ teaspoon sea salt (preferably sel de mer haïtien) In heavy saucepan over low heat, melt—but do not brown—the butter. Gradually add flour, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. When all the flour is blended in, gradually pour in the milk, again stirring constantly. Add the bay leaf and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat, add hot sauce and salt, and continue stirring constantly. Combine the spinach and béchamel sauce and keep warm, over a low flame, stirring constantly. Hollandaise 1 organic, grain-fed, free-range white-egg yolk ¾ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice ¼ cup clarified butter (beurre d’Ardenne or mantequilla de Soria) Sea salt (preferably sel de mer haïtien), to taste In a separate copper-bottomed sauté pan, bring 3 cups distilled water to a simmer. Combine the egg yolk and 1 tablespoon cold distilled water in a nonreactive bowl. Whisk until delicately foamy, then whisk in a few drops of the freshly squeezed lemon juice. Set the bowl over—not on—the simmering water, until the egg begins to emulsify. Remove from heat and add clarified butter, just a few drops at a time, while gently whisking constantly. As the sauce thickens, begin to add the butter (only very slightly) more quickly until the rest is added. Gently whisk in remaining lemon juice, seasoning to taste. Poached Eggs 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar 2 organic, grain-fed, free-range brown eggs In a separate copper-bottomed sauté pan, bring 2 inches distilled water and 1 tablespoon vinegar to a shimmer. Gently break each egg into an individual ramekin. Gently slide each egg from its individual ramekin into the shimmering water-vinegar bath and cook, occasionally spooning some of the bath over each egg, for 2 to 2½ minutes. Remove the eggs from the bath with a fine-mesh spoon. Assembling the Dish In a separate copper-bottomed sauté pan, warm the artichoke bottoms and set aside. In a separate copper-bottomed sauté pan, warm slices of the Pata Negra ham and set aside. In a separate copper-bottomed sauté pan, gently warm the Périgord truffle and set aside. Chiffonade the Pata Negra ham. Slice the truffle—exceedingly thinly, and only ever on the bias—using a double-edged razor blade (Gillette or Wilkinson). Place the warm creamed spinach on a warmed plate, forming a sort of bed on which the other ingredients will make love. Place the warmed artichoke bottoms on the spinach bed and place a poached egg on each artichoke bottom. Over the eggs and artichokes, sprinkle the Pata Negra ham chiffonade and the thinly sliced Périgord truffle. Ladle the warm Hollandaise sauce over the dish. Garnish with the paprika, Beluga caviar, and Kashmiri saffron. (Serves 1.) Note: I don’t know—and I’m not sure I want to know!—the nutritional information for Eggs Woodhouse, but if properly prepared using the specified ingredients, each serving should cost around $130. That’s the only recipe: like I said, I normally eat out. Archer, Sterling. How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written (pp. 126-128). HarperCollins. If you're not in a reading mood, you could always just watch Alton Brown try and make it... AND put up with Archer... at the same time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-43eVhQ5AU submitted by /u/namepuntocome to r/ArcherFX [link] [comments]

I was washing my fruit in a bowl in my sink with a bit of distilled white vinegar and water to sanitize before putting them back in the fridge, when I found this on one of my strawberries. Are these bug eggs? Parasites? The strawberries are from North Carolina and not organic. Only of them looks like this, but I’m worried to eat them now. submitted by /u/NoblePsalm to r/fruit [link] [comments]

CHILI OIL PART 2 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Thank you everyone who contributed to my last post looking for critique/feedback! Quick recap: Family friend was using an AI generated logo and I convinced her to let me design her something. My original luchadora design came across more dominatrix than Mexican Wrestler so that's what I've been working on. Edits include: Switching winking eye Added flame design to mask Added stitches around ear Enhanced Chili ponytail Shortened/straightened chili pepper Removed star from pony, replaced with chili stem Other small refinements HOW WE FEELING??? submitted by /u/Comfortable_Mousse_9 to r/logodesign [link] [comments]

I've seen a lot of mayo posts on here recently and thought I'd offer my recipe for homemade mayo. INGREDIENTS 1 Egg 4 tsp vinegar (I use distilled white but don't be afraid to get creative with lemon juice, red wine vinegar, etc.) 0.5 tsp Dijon 1 tsp salt (more or less to taste) ≈ 1.5 cups of FRUITY olive oil (Kirkland Spanish EVOO works for me, some olive oil will be bitter if you over mix it) INSTRUCTIONS -Crack you egg into a food processor and add the salt, mustard and vinegar. Give it 5 one-second pulses to mix Slowly add in the oil (no more than 1/4 a cup at a time) alternating between adding the oil and several one-second pulses with the food processor. Have a spatula to scrape the mix stuck to the sides into the blades (not while it's running) repeat alternating between adding the oil and pusling the mixture until you reach you desired consistency Then scrape out with a spatula and enjoy! The food production conglomerates care more about making a buck then selling fresh healthy food so sometimes we gotta do it ourselves. So try it out. Play around with this recipe and make it your own way if you want submitted by /u/haterofmercator to r/StopEatingSeedOils [link] [comments]

Ok................. It's time for my Annual Pre-Burning Man Rant and Predictions. 26 Years of attending the Burning Man Festival. I have witnessed this event grow from the Trashy Late-90's-Distopian Artist-Collective Anti-Captialist Psy-Trance-Infused Festival for losers it was in 1997, into the Dark years of the Ultra-Exclusive JetSet-Celebrity UpperClass-Plug-and-Play Ticket-Scarcity-Mind-Set-Nightmare of 2019, To the Inspiring Radical-Self-Reliant Grass-Roots Community-Based-Freedom-of-Self-Expression BORGless-Utopia Of Renegade Burn 2021, To the Empire-Ending Purification-by-Biblical-Flood Miracle of 2023! Burning Man is Not Cool anymore… and I think that is pretty fucking cool. This year is going to be Less Spectacle and More Festival. Burning man is Healing, Things are changing, And I'm Still Ranting. Real Vibes Only! PREDICTIONS: THE WEATHER: Prepare for Heat, Fear the Wind, and Pray For Snow! Last year the Angels of the Eternal Burning Man Spirit showered down upon us a Glorious Gift of Rain! Hallelujah!! And our People Rejoiced! For it cleansed away the Thick layers of Dooshbag, Influencer, Richfuck, and Plug and Play that had been accumulating on our Burning Man for the past 10 years. Now we emerge Born-again. Washed free from the Sins of our Past. I believe the Lord will refrain from granting a gift such as Rain again and provide us a year of normal hot weather. Fear the Wind: Unlike the Heat, Dust, Rain Or Snow, the Wind must be Feared! For Thoweth who does not Fear the Wind, Thine EZ-Up and Camp Kitchen shall Perish. As Said in the Survival Guide” Make use of thy's Nine Inch Nails and Rebar, Drive thine Stakes deep into the earth and fasten rope unto which winds may have no strength. { Preparations 2:15 } Pray For Snow: From the Teachings of Burning Man, We all know that the Festival is at its Best when the Weather is at it's worst. Pray for the Coming of the Snow! THE MAN: I'm not mad about it. And that really pisses me off. It's clearly more Interactive, More accessible, and well thought out than last year's ECO-Pandering Save-the-Bees Guilt-Trip-by-Design Scrap-metal-Garbage. This year's Man Build and theming is less Pretentious and More outward looking. The accessibility of the design serves as a metaphor to the accessibility of tickets and a wider range of attendees. The Elevated viewpoints allow for us to look at the Man at an Equal level… as opposed to last year's looming virtue-signaling untouchable giant. Sure these new Man designs will be using less wood than past years, and I'm OK with that …as long as they continue to compensate by blowing up a SHIT-TON of Propane Tanks instead. I think it's Awesome that the man is being powered by Solar! My only problem is WHAT THE FUCK TOOK SO LONG? The BORG should have invested in solar years ago instead of putting millions of dollars into FLY-RANCH (AKA The Vanityland Oasis for BORG Members). Solar Power is a No-Brainer. Too bad it took an outside donor to step in and fix the problem. The BORG could have invested in this years ago.. THE THEME: Oh great! How Fucking Original. That's exactly what the world needed, another Alice in Wonderland theme. Brilliant! It's not like Nocturnal Wonderland, Beyond Wonderland, Tomorrowland, Winter Wonderland, and Wonderland Miami have done this before. I'm sure Nobody will notice that it's the theme to every single Rave Party that took place from the years 1992 until 2009. Next year's theme is just going to be BURNING MAN the Matrix Edition. Ohh wait, it's the same story as Alice in Wonderland. Wow Mind Blown! If we're just going to keep doing overplayed movie tropes, may I suggest next year just be a romantic comedy? Featuring Ben Stiller as the Burning Man and Sarah Jessica Parker as Paris Hilton. And Things really heat up at Burning Man in this feel good comedy of the summer! Join us on a Robot-Heart-Filled Romp on the Wild Side, as they team up with Sherpa Zack Snyder. All three friends are on a mission to find love in the world's wildest city: Black Rock City! Followed by…Look who's going to Burning Man Part 2, only in theaters this summer. Fair enough tho, EDC, Nocturnal Wonderland, and EDC Miami have been ripping off Burning Man's style and "borrowing" from the culture for years now. They have done so by purchasing Large Scale Art from previous Burning Man events and showcasing them as primary features at a huge commercial raves. EDC also hires Art Cars of Burning Man as sub-contracted Stages. I'm not surprised that the BORG decided to flip the script and choose an Alice in Wonderland in order to cash in on the So-Cal TikTok Candy-Rave Under-25 Demographic in an attempt to boost ticket sales , knowing that all the Coachella Feel-Good-Festival-Of-The-Summer-Vibes ticket sale demographic would be dried up after last year's rain. THE MUSIC: Burning Man is a real Who's Who of Who is Not. It's a big list of Who Was Famous, Who Is Almost Famous and Who You've Never Fucking Heard Of. Basically you can expect to hear only 4 Types of Music out there this year: Business Techno: Business Techno continues to Monopolize the Soundtrack of Burning Man. It only first appeared on the Burning Man Music Market Index in 2022 and has outperformed all electronic music market shares in the past 8 fiscal quarters, far exceeding the expected minimum returns to shareholders. What is Business Techno? Business Techno is the sound of Insider Trading on foreign stock markets to fund off-shore tax-haven real estate scams that funnel profits into long-term backing of 401(k)s, and Roth IRA accounts. This is not your Dad's Euro-Discotech Trash from the 90's. Business Techno is serious business …and business is booming. Don't be fooled by Imposter brands such as Melodic Techno or Acid Techno. This is Business Techno. It invests in Minimum Emotion in order to Maximize Profit. It's Corporate and Cold. And It's the Next Big Thing to hit Burning Man. I, for one, welcome our new Business Techno Overlords, and hope they use their powers for good. Deep House: The Deep Playa-Deep House-Shallow-Personality-Robot Heart-Mayan Warrior scene is dying . It's Suffering from Influencer Fatigue and lack of RichFuck Retention, due to chronic DooshBag Propagation. It will only be a fraction of the Influential Force it was in 2019. Instagram is now a bygone Trend of last Decade and nobody on TikTok even knows of Burning Man's existence. Trending Youtube Videos about Burning Man are now mostly Van-Life-Vlogers instead of Mayan Warrior's Deep-Tropical-Yawn-House DJs. Last year we saw Esplanade camps with larger dance floors, and an overall higher amount of Interactivity in the city. Without the Mayan Warrior, it was clear that the Deep Playa-Deep House trend set us back 10 years culturally. It was a symptom of the Plug and Play camps and the ultra exclusive Richfucks, not the cause. Tech-House: The only people who listen to Tech-House are Tech-House DJs. Tech-House is the sound of empty dancefloors and Non Player Characters. When a Tech-House DJ plays and No one is there to hear it, Did they even make a sound? Bass Music: Bass Music is the soundtrack of white dudes with dreads huffing nitrous oxide. It's the sound of a bygone era of 2010 when West Coast Weed Grower Money funded Giant Geodesic domes filled with Dreddy Bettys and Wonked-out Wooks Grooving to Glitched-Out music. It was like catching Lighting in a Bottle. Over the years it has held a few strongholds, surviving off the last remaining scraps of the cannabiz funding. The Bass Music camps are now where the Lower Socio-Economic Class congregate, surviving off of Dabs and Micro-doses ,still recovering from the legalization of weed in California. THE ART: We can expect 1 or 2 Mind-Blowing Large Scale Masterpieces. The rest will be small scale filler pieces that meet the minimal funding requirements and deliver maximum social media engagement. So, It turns out, getting funding from the BORG's Atrium is much less of a gift and more like a Burden . The ownership, use of Images, and Credit to the Artists complicate in a way that only a bureaucratic entity such as the BORG could create. Funding is insufficient, and copyright issues are extremely complicated. Prepare for emails from the BORG: "Sorry We can't give you more funding for your contribution to our festival. Please understand that our funds are tied up writing grants to help gentrify midwestern cities with modern art deco sculptures placed in traffic round-abouts. Your contribution helps Burning Man Project make the world a better place… but that better Place just happens to be Somewhere else. Also, We own all of the Image rights to the Sculpture you are bringing, so don't get all bitchy when the New York Times gives Burning Man Project the Credit for your art." It's not a great deal for the artist and the BORG is having a Harder and Harder time finding new artists to exploit. VIRGINS: This is going to be the best generation of new Burners since the 90s. These are the people that saw headlines from every major media outlets reporting of a desert festival turned state of emergency, where participants were forced to piss in jugs and resorted to eating LSD to ward off the hunger in order to survive…And said FUCK YEAH I want in on that shitshow! Last minute Lucys and Late-to-the-party Larrys will make up the rest of the Virgin population.They don't know what to expect and that raises my expectations. Fuck Ya! This year, with an increase in open camping and access to cheap tickets, we will have many new people who have always wanted to go but could not access the event previously. Returning virgins: There is a shitload of Old school Burners who had been forced out by camp dues and ticket accessibility that will be returning to a Different Burning Man than years ago. And, I for one, look forward to Meeting some New Old Friends. CATCHPHRASES: FUND MY BURN is this year's snarktastic favorite. STAY AT HOME has been trending online and FUCK YER BURN is Back and more meaningful than ever after last years Apocalyptic-Clusterfuck-Fest. FUCK THAT BURN, FUCK THEIR BURN, and FUCK OUR BURN are still Popular and perfectly acceptable to use this year. TRENDS: The Fucksticks-on-Electric-Bike Epidemic that has plagued the event for the past few years will decline to a manageable level this year. Between the rain of last year, and broader realizations of the impact that the environment has on battery life, people are waking up to how the corrosive nature of playa dust renders a $3,000 bike unusable after one week in the desert. Food Camps have been a new and welcome inclusion to the Culture. The only disappointing part is watching Burners become entitled to service or Sparkle-Moochers depending on Meal Camps in place of Top Ramen and Self-Reliance. Unfortunately due to high demand, the Food Camps will often have LONG LINES. So I end up just going back to Camp to SNORT a LONG LINE, instead of standing in one. Canceled Workshops: 84% of all workshops at Burning Man get canceled. It's too bad. Maybe you could fixed your trainwreck of a life if only Benjamin and Kathleen would have shown up for the Self-Betterment and Personal Achievement Goal Setting Workshop instead of doing ketamine inside of their RV. It's probably best that you don't take career advice from someone who can't even meet their own goals of doing a Goal-Oriented Workshop. Why Are so many workshops canceled? It's because every Theme Camp must include meaningless workshops to meet the BORG’s strict interactivity requirements, and camps use fake workshops to try to hide the fact that they're actually a DJ camp seeking better placement in districts less likely to receive noise complaints. Yoga: I'm still doing drugs and making bad choices at 8:00am, but if you feel guilty because you took some Molly last night and need to go to a group yoga meditation to make you feel better about yourself, go ahead. But just know that there's not enough downward dog in the world that's gonna take away fact that you made out with a kinda creepy polyamorous couple last night while super high on ecstasy. And now Deep Breath................ Breathe in Positivity............................Breathe out Shame from last night's awkwardly short-lived over-the-pants hand job and sharp-nailed fingerbang. Complaint-Based System is Working: The BORG has Backpedaled on sound restrictions, increasing the sound decibel allowance and removing the Inward-Facing Speaker Requirements that it tried to impose last year. The Flood of Complaints received about Camps Complaining About Noise far outweighed the Snitching and Bitching Minority that did complain about Noise. Complaining about Music is a way to get your theme camp demoted and moved to the suburbs. Getting Noise Complaints is a great way to get better placement closer to the Esplanade. The process is working! Burning Man is healing. Keep Filing Complaints about Camps Who File Complaints. Old Naked Dudes on Bikes: Old Naked Dudes on Bikes have long been used as a barometer by scientists to measure the health of the cultural ecosystem of Burning Man. In the old days of Burning Man, the Herds of Old Naked Dudes on Bikes would produce dust clouds that could be seen from miles way, scaring off flocks of ShirtCockers as they move to a safe distance. Assholes with Megaphones survived by shaming the few that drifted away from the Herd. The Hairy Naked Weirdos would forage for food and ground scores in wake of the Old Nake Dude on Bikes Mass Migration. Every year the numbers have dwindled. The massive herd of Grey-Bearded Dong-Slappers, and Balding Nut-Jigglers that Naturally Removed Spectators and DooshBags from the environment could not keep up the increase in invasive species such as Celebrities and Hashtaggers. This has had negative effects on the entire cultural ecosystem of Burning Man. 2023 went without a single sighting of an Old Naked Dude on Bike and we fear they might be Extinct. Hope for the future of the species. (Notes from the Field) It was Sunday Morning 10:35 am. I had been observing a flock of ShirtCockers for I knew it was Mating Season and I wanted to find a nest, when I saw the most peculiar of sights. One of Males that I had noticed crawl off from the flock the day prior, who I had assumed sick or perhaps had been hit with a pants cannon, for they did not join the rest of the ShirtCockers upon the usual morning bar crawl. I observed that the Shirtcocker had shed its shirt after hibernating in a chrysalis Coleman tent throughout the rain. What emerged was a beautiful Silver-Beard Dong-Knocker. Although this Observation may potentially be groundbreaking in understanding the Life and Reproduction Cycles Of Old Naked Dudes On Bikes, the relationship between ShirtCockers, Rain, and Old Naked Dudes on Bikes needs further study and is yet to be fully understood. Real Vibes Only: The Good Vibes Only Mentality makes for a culture of TOXIC POSITIVITY resulting in poor communication, Denial of emotional honesty, and excuses unacceptable behavior. The Real Vibes Only Mentality makes for a culture of sincerity, acceptance and community building. It gives kindness and positivity from a place of honesty rather than cultural obligation. THEME CAMPS AND OPEN CAMPING: Look, most of y’all just wanted a place to camp and got forced into the bureaucratic nightmare of forming a theme camp and joining the interactivity rat race in order to secure camping reservations. The BORG knew months ago about the radical decrease in returning theme camps and next to zero applications for new ones. The dramatic increase of Open Camping is not by design, but by necessity. Burning Man is Healing itself. The lack of ticket demand has loosened the BO’RGs tight grip on interactivity standards. Look, I'm not a expert in currency trading, but I have done a lot of cocaine with Crypto-Bros, and if those long nights of listening to some Random Dude give me Terrible Financial Advice while I grind my teeth waiting for my turn to talk about myself have taught me anything, it's that Value is based on Scarcity. It was the BORG’S Scarcity-based mentality that forced people to join expensive theme camps and discouraged Open Camping in order to keep a tight leash on vision and detail. If the Renegade Burn of 2021 taught us anything, it's that it's OK to just let Burners be Burners. Dale from Kentucky came at the last minute, decided to set up a folding table, a cooler full of beer, a plastic bottle of whiskey and a Jar of pickles. Dale invested zero money into his hand painted sign that reads "Dale’s Free Beer and Pickleback Shack." Dale's contribution has just as much value as a 300 member Speakeasy that serves Artisan Vinegar-infused Cucumbers served with Hand-Crafted Distilled Whiskey, and has camp dues of $1200 dollars each yet still needs to throw fundraiser parties. Dale did the same thing at a fraction of the price. Less is more because less actually has higher value. More Open Camping makes Burning Man radically more inclusive. Look, joining a camp is not for everyone. Some people want to be truly radically self-reliant. Dale from Kentucky isn't a social Burner and shouldn't have to join a yoga workshop camp to secure a camping space. For the past 10 years the BORG has been fueling this scarcity-based economics mentality by forcing Burners to join theme camps to maximize interactivity, while producing scarcity of space that is not regulated and curated by the BORG and Placement. CULTURE: Has Burning Man jumped the Snark? Slowly over the years, the BORG has shifted focus to the Super-Serious-Uber-Wealthy-Investor-Class while relying on the Sunrise-Selfie-Good-Vibes-Only crowd to pay the bills, and Burning Man Culture slowly lost the sense of snark that it once had. The festival had become overpopulated by the type of person who takes themselves too seriously to touch balls, let alone tickle any balls bounced into their court. The BORG has made efforts to smooth over any Edgy-ness that may scare away Grant-Writing Investors or Hashtagging Influencers. Well, those people are gone now. And watching how Burner Culture responded to the BORG's desperate request to release the DJ line ups has made it clear that we are still in Snark-infested Waters. After hearing the call to action from the BORG, Theme camps both big and small understood the assignment: Save the Burning Man Project by going all in on a last-ditch effort of Investing everything into biggest names in electronic music to make this year the BEST COACHELLA EVER! This is a list of just a few of the Headlining Acts that have been released online and posted across the internet: Dipslow, Major-Looser, MonoKink, Paul Chokenfold, Haris Pillton, Taylor Shwifty, Desert Droolers, Cirxumcision, Claud's Gone Broke, sTripper, Pretty Tights, Random Scab, Swiss House Mafia, Asshead Pauli, Charlottes De Web, Meff Pills, Dimetri Reno, Carl's Cock, The Bitch Mob, Armin Van Bunghole, Lil-Noz (tank), Rabies in the Moon. RE-Tox Unit, Crystal Methhead, Assnecter ( cum back tour ), and the best one released was The Mayan Warrior Presents…. "Insurance & Fraud B2B set featuring a Special Live Vocal performance by Lawyers" Thank You to everyone who contributed to this year's amazing line up, We collectively have saved Burning Man from self-destruction. Larry Harry is not dead. He lives in a secret lair under Fly-Ranch (AKA Burner Bohemian Grove), where he continues to quote Aleister Crowley and Plot the Demise of the Burning Man Festival. With every dollar diverted to vanity projects, he grows stronger, and the BORG becomes more Powerful.. The man that was once our hero has now become a shadowy dark figure, controlling the Burning Man project from behind the scenes. GateKeeping and Survival : It's time that we Normalize living off of 6 gallons of water, 5 noodle-cups, 3 bags of Beef Jerky, a 24 pack-of Gatorade and 9 Dirty Pressed Pills of XTC for the week. Don't let these Gatekeeping Comfort-Focused-Doomsday-Prepper Burner types scare you away from having an amazing time. You can fucking do it with a Hot tent and a Craigslist ride. No Bike? Whatever! Fucking walk then. Don't expect the Playa to provide, Just expect you'll probably survive. You'll be fine. The whole over-preparation thing is outta control. Most of y’all mother fuckers completely overthink this shit. Did you really need to spend 5 hours of your life Researching if Ice Chests are more effective if elevated slightly off the ground, or if it is better to just set the Ice Chest directly on the Ground? Answer.... It's most Efficient to Not Give a Fuck. Stop Overthinking This Shit. For the rest of you that can be Comfortable being Uncomfortable, you will be perfectly comfortable at Burning Man. Just fucking get the Ticket and come out here. Maybe it's time to pass the torch to the Regional Burns? I have been thinking a lot about this and have done some extensive personal research after receiving criticism of my view of Regional Burns and their importance to the future of our community. And after attending multiple Regional Events across the United States in the past year, I can say with certainty ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT! Regional Events are overrated. Regionals are a Chuck E. Cheese compared to Disneyland. They are two similarly-themed experiences that are drastically different. Regional Burns are tiny festivals for people that don't go to other festivals besides Burning Man. If you live on the West Coast, don't even bother. Just go to other small or mid-sized festivals you might actually have fun at, rather than camping with 12 random dudes wearing Tutus building a campfire and calling it a Regional Burn. You gotta go all the way to Texas and east before the Regional Burns are even a Shasta-Cola close to the real thing. Not who we should be passing a torch to. The BORG's hyper focus on cultural expansion via Regionals has been a failure. Should we still do them? Hell Yes. Is it the Future? Fuck no. How to use a Megaphone: Megaphoning is an art best served loud. If you are simply using a megaphone to advertise whatever mediocre bullshit your camp is offering, you are doing this wrong. This is not a county fair and the carnival barking through megaphones has got to stop! I know your bar has shitty drinks. You don't need to use a megaphone to advertise. Free Drinks? Yeah no shit Ranger Rick, it's fucking Burning Man. The drinks are free and taste terrible. It's the only reason I leave my camp. We don't need your high interactivity to appease the BORG mindset vibes. First rule or being an Asshole with a Megaphone is: Don't be a Dick. You can always be an asshole, But never be a Dick. You are an Asshole, That's why you have a megaphone. If you are a Dick, just stick to being a Tech-house DJ and don't even attempt to be an Asshole with a Megaphone. If one Asshole with a Megaphone encounters another in the wild, they must, by the laws of nature, engage in a Megaphone Battle, until one is dominated and must move on to different territories of harassment . Rules of engagement: First the asshole with the larger Megaphone must point out the fact that they indeed have a larger Megaphone and can be louder. At this point in time, the Asshole with a smaller Megaphone must try to out-wit, out-snark or SICK BURN their size disadvantage. Or they can decide to join forces, and gang up on other Assholes with Megaphones together in what we call A Mega-Asshole-Super-Pack. THE RANT: The past Ten Years of Burning Man have been really fucked up. Previous to 2014 the BORG had always done a decent job of dealing with rapid changes, while sticking to its core principles. The BORG did what it had to do to protect our community from Spectators, Moochers, Merchants, Weekend Warriors, Perverts with Video Cameras, Trash-Holes, Media Outlets, Law Enforcement Agencies, and Capitalist Advertising. Where did it all go wrong? I In the Fall of 2013 The BORG Broke into TWO Factions. The Theme Camps had gained too much political power in the past decade working with Burning Man LLC and the "Art Festival Only" part of the BORG was losing internal funding and influence inside the organization. So in what can only be described as a Hostile Corporate Takeover with a Communist China Ethos, Burning Man LLC was dismantled and defunded and demoted. BURNING MAN PROJECT took total control of the Organization and and forever changed the BORG and the Burning Man Festival as we knew it. The results have been traumatic. In over the past 10 years ,we have been Betrayed by the BORG, Scammed by Plug and Play camps, Misrepresented by Hashtaggers, Robbed by Richfucks. Shamed by Environmentalists, Overly Influenced by Influencers, Screwed Over by the Media, Invaded by Tech-Bros, Fucked by Celebrities, Fooled by Capitalist Ted-Talks, Gaslighted by the Burning Man Project and Sold Out by our very own Community!!!!! For every Sherpa-Providing-Richfuck-Catering-Plug-and-Play Camp there were multiple long-time Burners who knew this was ethically wrong BUT took the money and sold us out anyways. Fuck their Burn! The Burning Man Project no longer sought to Protect the Participants, but Instead enacted policies to exploit the festival and focus outward expansion under a manifest destiny tech savior mentality of making the world a better place. Instead of investing in making the actual event better, the Burning Man Project invested millions into FLY RANCH ( AKA The Potential-Investor-Oasis ) By 2015 the BORG had completely turned it's back on Burning Man and let the Plug-and-Plays and Jet-Airplane Class wreak havoc on our community. The Burning Man Project did not care. They wanted Burning Man to become more exclusive, more expensive, more ticket scarce, with more pressure on the theme camps to squeeze every bit of production value they could provide. It's been a Bullshit RatRace to the Bottom, and this year’s Ticket abundance marks a huge change in the power dynamics of the BORG, the Theme Camps, and The Burning Man Project. Burning Man is Healing. It's a New Day and a New Dawn upon us. And it is up to us, The Participants, to guide the way our Culture moves forward. Our years of abuse are now over. All of those toxic relationships have ended. Burning Man can Focus on Just being Burning Man. My Name is Zapper Jones. I'm Camped at "Camp Fuck Your Camp Camp!" Located at 12 & FuckYourCamp. and Remember................. Never Burn Out. Only Burn In. submitted by /u/zapperwippersnapper to r/BurningMan [link] [comments]

I have not seen any that I know of (east coast U.S.). I've been trying to help a friend with spicy sauces (beyond chili oil) because he does love spice, but doesn't enjoy the sourness of anything vinegar-based or even homemade sauces that include lemon/lime instead. EDIT: Thank you all so much for your knowledge, corrections, and recommendations! I want to now include what I've learned and a semi-organized list below (and as correct as humanly possible, but feel free to continue with corrections). I now believe what I really meant to ask was: What kind of hot stuff can come in sauce form and preferably has the least amount of sourness/acidity to its taste? Most if not all (generally western) hot sauces are going to have that sour taste either because of vinegars*, citrus/citric acid, or bacteria from fermentation (lactic acid produced by lactobacillus bacteria or naturally produced acetic acid*). Some form of acid is needed to be shelf stable (low enough pH), but some can have a less sour/vinegary taste than others. * Vinegar is watered down acetic acid (diluted down to 5%) Chili Oils/Crisps: General chili oil with no bits in it--just a hot, punchy oil to cook food in or mix in later/drizzle on top of food Don Emilio salsa macha chili de arbol sauce Laoganma chili crisp Mad Dog 357 ECO 1 Million Scoville Ultra Pure Pepper Extract in oil (such as canola)--can create your own heat levels Blair's 2AM (capsaicin resin in oil to be added to other things like honey or another sauce base) Chili Pastes/Seasonings/ Relishes / Fermented Things: Harissa red chili paste (often garlicky, smokey, kick of citrus) Bomba (Calabrian chili paste) Sambal nasi goreng ( used in Indonesian fried rice) or Ibu Sambal Bajak Chili Relish Korean Gochujang (red pepper soybean paste--fermented and has a sweetness to it) or Doubanjiang (more salt, less sweet, more earthy flavor) Shatta (fermented paste that seems to be used more as a dip) Salsa: Chile Morito Salsa (Quick and easy home-made recipe: https://www.holajalapeno.com/salsa-morita/#mv-creation-125-jtr) Mustard-Chili Sauce: Baron Bajan style hot sauce (apparently good flavor that is neither intense on vinegar nor mustard) Liquor-Based: Make a tincture/extract from a 50/50 ratio of good alcohol to pepper flakes or powder in a small dropper bottle Swamp Dragon brand has different alcohol hot sauces (marketed to not have the "acrid acid bite of conventional hot sauces") (I tried to list the following hot sauces from most subtle to least subtle, but have not tried any of them--just went by comments and ingredient lists/flavor explanations) Subtly Sour/Acidic Hot Sauces: El Yucateco XXX hot sauce (has acetic acid, but no vinegary taste) Tapatio hot sauce (acetic acid is 6th on the list) Blazin Asian hot sauce (has rice wine vinegar, which is more subtle) Trader Joe’s habanero (has vinegar, but is subtle compared to other brands) Torchy's Diablo sauce (tomato-focused with white wine vinegar 3rd on the list) Secret AARDVARK Habanero Hot Sauce (like a thin, hot salsa. Has white wine vinegar, but is disguised by the mustard and tomato) Underwood Ranches Dragon Sriracha Hot Sauce (acetic acid is 5th on the list, contains sulfites) ABC Extra Hot Chili Sauce (has acetic acid and vinegar, but near bottom of list) Art's Pepper Co. Mango-Papaya hot sauce (marketed to be 100% vinegar-free, but heavy on citrus & citric acid) Bachan's Hella Hot Japanese BBQ Sauce (has vinegar in the pepper purees and some rice wine vinegar) MasterFoods Hot Chili Sauce (acetic acid is 3rd on the list, but the flavor profile looks both simple and interesting) Sunfire Hot Sauce: Smokey Avocado Cucumber Yellowbirds Classic Habanero Hot Sauce (has carrot along with distilled vinegar 3rd on the list and citrus) Mary Sharpe’s hot sauces (has carrot and a lot of other ingredients that may hide acidity?) Any of the following Dry/Powdered Peppers/Spice Seasonings: Togarashi, Szechuan, Ancho, Kashmiri, Jalapeño, Peri Peri seasoning submitted by /u/Nala_IsWhatNalaDoes to r/spicy [link] [comments]

Hi all, I am using 0.5g (1.89L) of Strauss whole milk (the kind that has a layer of cream at the top, this stuff is amazing). I followed Serious Eat's recipe to a T, twice. It calls for 2tbs + 2tsp of vinegar, however I had to use at least 4tbps of vinegar to get sufficient coagulation (and it didn't taste overly vinegary :)). Unless I did bad thermometer readings, my temperature was consistently near 180f. It came out a little thick in consistency, like egg. Apparently a low temperature leads to low yield but soft, so I don't think my temperature was too low given that it wasn't that soft.. Does anyone know what is going on, where I went wrong, or who I may have upset in this or a previous life? I am Ricotta-Crazy right now - two days ago was my first time making it, I made it again last night, and I might make more tonight. I. LOVE. IT. I want to try making a sweetened creamy version for cannolis. Mmmmmm. Thanks :) submitted by /u/hanzuna to r/AskCulinary [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/sardonicbroccoli to r/1200isplenty [link] [comments]

So to follow up on this post, a few people asked me about Death Guard culture and I promised I'd follow up with a post today. Ta-dah, here's the post. Keep in mind this is very much my personal view (backed up with excerpts) on the DG since they're written... inconsistently to say the least. So, what are the Death Guard beyond stinky Chaos Astartes? Warning: Long as Fuck ​ Cultural Influences So it's pretty clear that most Legions take some healthy inspiration from real conflicts and civilizations. The Ultramarines are transparently Roman, the Thousand Sons are a vague hodgepodge of Egyptian and other Levantine/Middle Eastern cultures. The Death Guard don't really have one transparent source to draw upon however. It's clear that they at least draw some influence from the hellscape that was World War 1 with their grindingly slow frontal marches, their candid disregard of the Geneva Convention, their usage of inhumane weapons like phosphex, gas, poisons and more. Their focus on sheer endurance and resilience. They represent the death of warrior culture and honour, replacing it with the almost Darwinian mantra of "win by any means necessary". Though I think it would be dangerous to tie them to any one particular culture and instead they represent a conglomeration of nations and the horror which that war invokes. Aside from that, they're an ever so pleasant mix of Grimdark barbarian fantasy and Chempunk. Most Death Guard names sound like they're pulled directly from a "DnD Barbarian name generator". Packed to the brim with guttural sounds and consonants. Either that or they're called shit like "Phlegm Lord the Smelly" but I tend to ignore the latter. Examples: Vorx, Kledo, Garstag, Gremus, Malig, Huron-Fal, Thagus Daravek. ​ Homeworld: Barbarus As we so often see, the making or breaking of a legion is often found on their homeworld. It defines their culture, their specialization and often their future. Curze's was doomed to regress, the Lion's was caused to splinter, Lorgar's was destined for corruption. Nowhere is this more prevalent than on the shrouded world of Barbarus. The people of Barbarus were enslaved for millennia by their mutant Overlords. It's hard for me to convey just how beaten down these people were so I'd really recommend reading this excerpt I posted previously to get an idea of just how absolutely fucked it was. It's the planetary embodiment of inevitability. It was never about the struggle to survive on Barbarus, it was the sheer hopelessness that seeped into every inch of that miasma soaked hellhole. Every aspect of the planet was purposefully designed to instil constant reminders of one's powerlessness and inevitable painful death. One expected to die in a horrible way and to be proven otherwise was a macabre surprise. You survived another day but for what? Another day of sucking in poison-filled air. Of farming out a meagre existence on dead soil. Of hoping the Mountain Lords don't take your eyes and skin for their newest twisted experiment. Of futile hope that the monsters that lurk in the mist aren't hungry tonight. Mortarion found the most oppressed, hopeless, wretched humans in the galaxy and gave them hope. He gave them purpose. He trained them. Taught them how to make weapons and how to fight like an army. He taught them not to fear. He gave them hope. But above all else, he inspired fanatical loyalty in the population of Barbarus, even before they ascended to become Astartes. After that, so many wonders. There are walls, made not of mouldering mud bricks but of stone hewn from the mountain’s heart. There are blades polished to a keen edge. There are plates of hardened leather, stitched together and caulked, that form a shell tough enough to turn the blunt knives of the Pale armies. In strongholds that rear up from the storm-lashed shoulders of the high peaks, masks are fashioned that siphon the worst of the poison from the air. The smiths – men and women from the valleys, now housed in these fortresses – work incessantly, stopping only for sleep and sustenance, dragged from weary indolence and imbued with an almost fanatical enthusiasm. Vorx recovers fast. He is taken up, fed and given lodgings with other boys. They train him, hardening his muscles and turning his wiry frame into a steel-trap instrument. Most of those in the gathering armies are young. They all look much the same – hollow cheeks, concave stomachs, blackened lips and eyelids – but they get stronger the longer they stay here. One day, being taught how to use the long harvester’s scythe in combat, he asks for the name of the newcomer, the one they are already calling the Deathlord in honour of his prowess in battle. ‘Mortarion,’ said his instructor, Flaunn, a thick-legged woman from a deep coomb on the far side of the high ranges. ‘Never let him hear you say it – it was given to him by one he hates.’ ‘Why not choose another?’ ‘You do not choose a name,’ she says, cuffing him. ‘It chooses you. Now prepare, or I’ll cut you at the elbows.’ So Vorx did not change his own name to mark his passage into a new life, even though it was given to him by a slaved and cowed people, and it followed him out into the stars. All those who passed the trial of the Legion after him kept their marks of subjugation as a reminder, and as a warning. But that time is to come. For now, he is learning, soaking up knowledge and distilling it into something he can use. He picks things up fast. At first he did so to crowd out the thoughts of home from his mind, but that instinct is soon replaced by learning for its own sake. He finds that his memory is superb, and he catalogues the armouries, the inventories, the types of armour and the number of troops in every division of the Deathlord’s burgeoning army. Mortarion himself knows things that cannot have been learned on this world, Vorx suspects. He uses terms such as ‘cohort’ and ‘maniple’ that sound strange on their lips. Vorx learns that the world has a name, Barbarus, though he does not discover where it came from and surmises that Mortarion has called it this as a result of something like contempt. Of course, the intellectual leap involved in naming a world anything other than ‘earth’ or ‘world’ implies that there are other such places of a similar scale. There is no evidence for this, and Mortarion has not proposed any such hypothesis. But it makes the gathered people think. It makes them imagine a time when the courses of all the valleys might be known, and then charted, and then conquered. It makes them think of a time when the whole of their reality might be consolidated, locked down under the banner of the Deathlord, and where the mists will no longer harbour nightmares. It makes them think that, one day, the shadow of the Old Night will be lifted forever. It makes them think that a new age of unity might dawn for them all. ... Vorx looks up briefly to see Mortarion, at the forefront as always, laying about him with his blade, hurling the scrawny Pale aside with every mighty blow. He sees him standing taller by an arm’s length than the greatest of them, indomitable and unbreakable. The mountain peaks rear up on all sides, but none of them looks as solid as he does. Vorx does not yet know what manner of being Mortarion is. He will not discover it for many years. It does not matter. In that one glimpse he sees all that he needs to know – that the Deathlord is one of them. He has been poisoned by this world, bled by it, and still stands tall. Alone of all of them, he could rise higher into the thick acid clouds of the uttermost heights, but he remains down here, gradually giving them the means to go with him, one day. This is a choice for him, one he did not have to make. The people of the valleys had no choices, had forgotten how to even consider an alternative, but under him they are learning again. Vorx knows then that he will follow Mortarion unto death itself. He will fight for this master wherever and whenever he is commanded to, and this shall be his only and lasting purpose. Unification, Chris Wraight This is why the Death Guard will trudge through blistering bolter fire unflinchingly. It's why they'll take any method of victory available to them. They have experienced the utter terror and helplessness on poisonous Barbarus and they will never return to that state. They endured that, they rose above it. They have seen the very worst the galaxy has to offer and they came out stronger. It's why despite the Heresy, the corruption of Nurgle and 10,000 years of war, they still remain united under Mortarion's rule. He saved them from that planet and that debt can never be repaid. ​ Mortarion freed them from that. This is what Dragan and the other latecomers will never properly understand. Vorx is not a blind fanatic, and understands that the primarch has weaknesses, but he will never forget that first act of liberty. Unless you had tried to scratch a gasping living on the stinking white soils of that hell world, unless you had actually witnessed what the mountain lords could do with impunity to the cowering mortals and unless you had seen what the Deathlord had done to free them, you could not truly comprehend. That was why the Death Guard had never fractured, for all the sniping efforts of that semi-feral Typhus and the many other rogue warlords and pirate-kings. The originators of the Legion are still grateful. They will never forget. And Vorx is one of them. Lords of Silence, Chris Wraight Though it must be noted that Vorx is a fanatic among fanatics. The reality for most of the legion is likely a more tempered version of the above. ​ Combat Only the Death Guard could manage to pull off what the Death Guard do. You didn't send the DG to tactically secure a world while ensuring productivity remains optimal like the Ultramarines. You don't even send them when you need a world cowed into submission like with the World Eaters or Night Lords. You send the Death Guard when you need an enemy eradicated. They did not build empires or garrison worlds, they only destroyed what was before them in a slow, determined, unstoppable tide. Like a malignant tumour spreading across the galaxy, ruining all in its wake. In the midst of the Great Crusade's (relative) idealism, you had Mortarion and his boys unapologetically acting like it was the middle of the Long Night. They did not care for morality. They did not care about problems. They did not care about methods. Once they had their target they would march straight over it. They advanced inexorably through the most inhospitable and toxic terrain, wearing battle-damaged Power Armour, waving no flags or standards, calling out no war cries. Regardless of what you did, it wouldn't stop them. You could sear their flesh and rend their armour but they'd just keep coming. All while artillery pounds your cities, gas floods your trenches, poison destroys your seas and phosphex burns your civilization. And then they're upon you with the artistry of a butcher. There's no honour duels or valiant last stands, just a slow grind back into the dirt as they finish their work with point-blank bolter work and hacking chops of their scythes and gladii. More often than not, your spirit would break before the Death Guard had even reached you. The slow realisation that there's nothing you can do to put these monsters down. That hope is futile. That your life is forfeit..... if you're lucky. They would liberate the galaxy and nothing would get in their way. And that was before Nurgle got to them. They're borderline unkillable after the fact. Now for a few excerpts before, during and after the Heresy to show their combat method and how it evolved. ​ Great Crusade ​ Istvaan 3 - even after getting Virus bombed, shelled and attacked by the rest of their legion, the loyalist DG still hold out ​ Siege of Terra The advances had certainly slowed across the entire battlefield. Ganzorig was now inside the perimeter, the signals told him, but only after paying a ruinous price to reduce the outer defences. Qin Fai was struggling, trying to maintain momentum against the defensive concentrations strung across the southern ramparts. The intended linkup of forces had yet to happen, fracturing the assault and leaving vulnerable points all along the line they had always known that breaking the hard external shell of the space port would be the easiest part of the exercise - the ordu's expertise lay in such shock-attack moves, and Perturabo had done a typically thorough job of smashing up the fixed defensive architecture. Now they were into the defence in depth, the endless series of energy-soaking firefights to clear out chamber after chamber. Even the Amber spearpoint, blessed with some of the greatest warriors of the ordu, found the going tough, the Death Guard could soak up tremendous punishment before turning around and doling it right back. Their reactions may have been slowed, their souls withered, but they were still fearsomely intelligent, staggeringly committed, wading through volumes of incoming fire that should have blasted them into flying clouds of ceramite flecks. A formation of Terran Armoured Malcador's roared past him then, throwing up waves of sludge as they rushed the lines. Their battle cannons boomed in sequence, obliterating a high screen of ironwork behind which a battalion of Death Guard was dug in hard. Enemy armour responded, hurling back chem-shells and phosphex mortars. When those exploded, the already seamy atmosphere became choking and translucent, a swimming soup of poisons that gnawed at every armour-seal and tox-filter. White Scars infantry charged up in the wake of the tanks, firing bolt pistols one-handed, staying close to prevent the Traitor Marines from closing on the vehicles. Lascannon fire lashed out from high up in the galleries, drilling into the corpulent flanks of plague-ridden enemy tank hulls. A squadron of jetbikes screamed along after the volleys, their underslung bolters spitting. It was still too slow. The far end of the chamber was eight hundred metres off, lost in tox-clouds, with stubborn defensive redoubts all the way along it. At this rate, it might take days of slaughter just to reach the far enclosure. ... ​ He couldn't protect them all. However hard he fought at their head, however much he tried to shield them from this enemy, his warriors died. The newbloods would throw themselves at the Plague Marines, their bladework immaculate and their fervour exemplary, but they would still come up short. You could punch their hides with bolt-shells, you could sever their sinews with tulwar-strikes, you could pepper them with frag-charges and mortar-blasts, and still they would come back at you, again, again, their impassive green lenses glowing in the deathly gloom, never complaining, never shouting battle cries or denunciation, just existing, as impossible to eradicate as despair itself. The best weapon was speed, and now that momentum was falling away, leaving them open to the grind of attrition. Fury could only achieve so much against an enemy like this. They were never roused to anger, never provoked into rashness. Feints never drew them on, diversions never deceived them. The only tactic left seemed to be an equal and opposite willingness to suffer, to take them on on their own terms, to stare into those seamy, rheum-addled eyes and hold your ground right until the pale lights had been extinguished and the next one beckoned. The Siege of Terra 6: Warhawk, Chris Wraight - The White Scars take on their rivals for the first time since the corruption took hold. M42 - straight out of a horror movie ​ "Gifts" To carry on with the corruption from the previous few excerpts, the Death Guard have a somewhat paradoxical relationship with their God. Many have become devout over the centuries. Mutations are gifts to be looked upon as a sign of favour yet they still sap away at the soul and the body. They degrade but this is to be welcomed, not spurned. So what actually constitutes as a gift and how are they viewed? Excerpts en masse covering 4 people seem to cover most of the viewpoints: ​ Vorx: Gigachad Death Guard zealot from old Barbarus. Genuinely the most interesting Astartes in the universe. He welcomes the changes even if he acknowledges they do have downsides. ​ He is beginning to remember now. He is beginning to piece things together again. Is he slower now than he once was? The Little Lord (Nurgling) starts to lick the blood from his cracked ceramite. Of course he’s slower. Everything is slowing down, congested, like running through water. That’s the Gift, of course. That’s one of the great objectives. Vorx turns on his heel, patting the Little Lord absently. ... He (Vorx) works his way down a long spiral stair, wheezing as he goes. His lungs are half full of fluid, and he cannot help but think it a poor Gift. Then again, he has thought other Gifts were poor in the past, only to discover their genius much later. ‘Forgive,’ he says, speaking softly to the Little Lord at his elbow. The tiny daemon giggles, then farts liquidly into the crook of his armour. That counts as forgiveness, probably. ... Vorx no longer sees information flowing across the interior of his helm as he did in the distant past, because his visor substrate is now a part of his face. So his visual field is a complex thing – a psychological layering of true vision, machine overlay and dream projections, spiked with electrical impulses from what was once a tactical broadcast implant. He cannot close his eyes, which are lubricated by a steady trickle of moisture from capillary glands. When he sleeps, it is merely a haze of torpor marching with vivid, eyes-open dreams. These are the ways we exemplify the lessons, he thinks. These are the ways we shape the old faith. ​ Dragan: The main counterpoint to Vorx. He's a new blood originally from the Imperial Talons before he was corrupted in absolutely mind bending circumstances. He's full of piss and vinegar. He's slowly accumulating Gifts and mutation but they've yet to wear him down to complacency. He strives for change and he wants to cleave to the path of Abaddon and Typhus. Vorx admires Dragan's attitude and skill, seeking to nourish it. All while realising that Dragan will eventually betray him and sink into decay with time. ​ They face one another for a moment. Vorx is the larger, his bulk engorged like millennial layers of ocean silt, added to every year, but old now, worn into defiance by many, many lifetimes in old service. Dragan is leaner and his body is marked by fewer Gifts, but he is famished for the conflict that will earn them. 'We are separated from the fleet,’ Dragan tries, cleaving to his line. ‘It will have dispersed by now,’ says Vorx. He moves closer to Dragan. ‘There are no choices, champion. It looks that way now, but believe me, there are none. We are being shown an empty sky. That is a temptation. You see the chance for glory, to follow the mortal warlord, to carve a name for yourself. Resist it. Resist the Despoiler’s call. We have our orders. We make for Ultramar.’ ... Others, like Dragan, are turncoats and renegades, refugees from distant Imperial Chapters and warbands. Somehow, though, over time, they all adopt the taciturn habits of Mortarion’s own. They stop issuing war cries. They slow down. They let their armour grow thicker, their organs merge, their skin creeps upwards into the filigree of their equipment interfaces. Joining the Death Guard is like sinking into a deep, cold ocean – the substance of it seeps inside, sooner or later, down into every crack and orifice, and you lose the things that once made you what you were. At least, that is his destiny. For Dragan, the process is not yet complete. He still has his skin. He still has three lungs. He can remove his helm, if he wishes, and his tongue is not yet the length of a man’s arm. He can feel the rot within, chewing at his bones, making the old tattoos on his chest itch, but it has not yet become endemic. He considers Vorx, whose mind has become soft, and he looks at Slert, or even Naum, and a part of him still shudders and wishes to put off those things a little longer. ... You hate what you were, he understands. There is no greater zealot than the convert, he knows. And yet he has no true faith, not like Vorx or Philemon, just a desire to exert strength, to use the Gifts he has been given, to become greater. It is not about the faith, for Dragan. It is about vengeance for a life he cannot remember. It is about dominance over a species he has cut all ties with. It is about pride, amid a Legion that barely understands the notion. He wonders, sometimes, if he picked the right set of traitors. ​ Garstag, a Death Guard terminator. Probably the most "Death Guard" out of everyone mentioned. A viewpoint from an "average Joe" of the legion. Views the gifts as practical. Views morality as optional. He's just there to get the job done. Perhaps he even takes pride in them. ​ But they are fighting a losing battle. The very environment is raised against them – glowing tentacles burst from the foaming water, grasping at their legs and arms. There are Little Lords in the rafters, and they throw themselves at the warriors with snickering abandon, chewing down on power cables and armour joints. Every time a fighter has to shake one off, it gives time for Garstag’s brothers to close in and finish the task. Terminator plate gives them a huge advantage, and this is no standard Tactical Dreadnought armour – like everything else, it has been changed, expanded, thickened and mutated. Brannad has a curl of sucker-encrusted hooks for a right arm, writhing like a nest of serpents. Artarion has a fanged mouth snapping over the barrel of his heavy bolter, which is linked to his body by permanent strands of glistening mucus. Garstag himself has the greatest of the Gifts – a chainsword of living talons, crackling with corposant and dripping with ever-renewing toxins. ... And now we see what happens when the Gifts go too far. Naum is a Dreadnaught who is ravaged with gifts beyond the point of sanity. ​ Vorx had even considered sending a party to seek out Naum, though he is glad now that he didn’t. Naum would not have understood the situation at all. Naum is a tortured soul, for all the Gifts he has been given, and that is a great pity. ... He hears a sound – a faint hurr-hurr, sunk down, hissed through such clogged oxygen arteries that respiration must surely be an impressive achievement. Dragan halts, taut as a hamstring, looking into the wall of darkness. ‘Unsleeping,’ he calls out, and the word echoes from the columns and the vaults around him. For a long moment, punctuated only by the heavy drum of his heartbeats, nothing. Then, far off, at the end of this great hall, something moves. It is bigger – far bigger – than it ought to be, even for one of its cursed kind. Solace is a fecund place, stuffed with rotting meats and nutrient-rich fluids, its airways viscous with the changing harmonics of the daemonic. All things grow here, sucking in the fungoid and the decaying, slowly becoming just another tumour on the face of this withered ship-corpse. The thing moves, shifting one massive leg, and Dragan sees the expanse of dark-grey flesh spilling over the joints and cables. There is more of it than there was, the last time. Every time it grows a little more. A pair of tiny eyes blink. Those eyes are the worst thing, sunk within a harrowed face, almost entirely lost behind a nest of rusted cabling. They are red, wholly bloodshot, with matte-black irises. They do not focus well. They seem almost independent of one another, as if the mind controlling them has begun to lose the last grips of control. ... Naum blinks again. Lines of dry brown staining run down his chin, and there is a stray human finger there, dangling from his collar on a last thread of sinew. ‘Am I asleep?’ Naum asks. ‘You know the answer to that,’ says Dragan patiently. This wretch ought to be asleep. All of his kind ought to be chained down, locked away, dosed with soporifics and dream suppressants, only roused when their prodigious killing power is required. Others of his order do as they are supposed to, staving off complete madness through the blissful imposition of tranquillisation and only having to contend with the horror of living for those few brief hours of bloodletting. But Naum does not sleep. Something went wrong with him, and now he cannot. He has been awake for a long time – for more than nine thousand years, so they say. Given that, the fact that he can speak at all is something of a miracle. One sent from the god, no doubt. ‘Eat… you?’ Naum says, licking bony lips with a black tongue. Dragan can see that he has been weeping a lot. ‘Make planetfall here, Naum,’ Dragan says calmly. ‘The casket is waiting. Then you can eat all you like.’ For a moment, Naum does not respond. He does not understand. His colossal body, with its growths and its metal struts and its swollen armour plates, shifts uneasily. Dragan wonders what on earth he must be experiencing. Existence on this ship is already like a dream, or a nightmare – for Naum, the boundary between states has long since ceased to exist. All that remains is a fog of pain, of sensations he no longer has names for. There is endurance, that is known. Some feats within this Legion make the mind turn, some expressions of that old capacity for resilience, but for this – this – there are no words. Not that Dragan knows, anyway. What is left in there to endure? What remnant of an old willpower still burns away, refusing the siren embrace of complete insanity? Condensation runs down Naum’s outer shell. In the dark, he flexes power claws bigger than Dragan’s whole body. Ancient bone shards click, rotting flay-skirts rustle. The eyes blink, once, twice, squeezing tears down wrinkled, ash-dry flesh. Then the black gums are exposed – something like a smile, or the dream image of one, semi-remembered and blurred by the fog of being. ‘Show me,’ he says. ​ Numerology and Obsessions The Death Guard hatred of Witchcraft was well known but they've always had a streak of the occult about them. Perhaps seeded into them by Nurgle, perhaps a twist of fate. I doubt it's a coincidence that 7, Nurgle's sacred number is a lynchpin in their studies. Since Barburus the Death Guard have had an obsession with numbers. Crop rotations that were vital to survival. The only way to ensure a meagre yield of food on their poisonous homeworld. Then the Great Crusade arrived and the obsession deepened. Both from Mortarion's orders and the neccessity of good book-keeping considering their intensely attritional style of warfare. Even from the early stages of the Heresy, gifted Death Guard could catch glimpses of the future through the patterns. They're essentially Data Analysts on warp-infused steroids. Mortarion knew that Horus was a sacrificial pawn before all others. After the Death Guard's fall, seeing into the future using Numerology became the norm, as did other obsessions. ​ ‘That is what the calculations tell me. Vorx wants to know what to do next.’ ‘He could try. Making his own decisions.’ Philemon laughs. ‘These are but guides.’ The crow hops weakly from one claw to the other. ‘Even before we sent. You the Destroyer Hive, you cleaved to this occult. You counted and. You computed. That was never part. Of what was intended for you. Now it has become. Manic. Stop it.’ Philemon puts the parchment away. ‘Too late. You changed us alright, but you never get exactly what you want.’ A Death Guard Tallyman speaks to an entrapped daemon. As the millennia pass and the corruption deepens, each Death Guard tends to become more morose. More prone to obsession. Less driven and more prone to indulgence. Vorx for example, has the wonderful hobby of recording the name of everyone he has ever killed. All he wants to do is chill in his Plague Mansion with his beastman butler and ponder the mysteries of the universe. Eventually when Vorx dies, that book will inscribe his own name in it on the final page and become a powerful chaos artefact. ​ For the first time in a long while, Vorx is satisfied. Occasionally he thinks of another life for himself, one confined to Hope’s Revenant, where he remains closeted with the books of numerology and the gardens, free to contemplate the Truth and explore its mysteries. He has never given in to it, but believes that the entire Legion shares this morose tendency. The greatest of them (Mortarion), after all, has been indulging it for ten thousand years. ... ​ Vorx glances at one, the vellum rustling as the quill wobbles across its surface. Tophar. Mandravaxon. Járnhamar. None of those words mean anything to him. They may do in the future, or they may not – it does not pay to listen too closely to the outputs of bound instrumental daemons. He pushes his way towards a pulpit at the far end of the chamber. A single book lies open on its inclined surface, untroubled by the attentions of vermin. Its hide is as white as bone, and its pages as thick as a finger. It is impossibly huge, that book – if looked at from certain angles it seems to go on forever, sinking deep into the library’s mouldy floor, although from most aspects it is no thicker than the rest of them. He reaches for a metal quill standing in a dusty sleeve and dips it into a well of viscous ink. He holds it over the blank parchment and collects himself. Then he begins to write. Slowly, carefully, he traces out tiny letters in immaculate Standard Gothic, of a grammar and idiom commensurate with the early Crusade. The first thing he writes is a name – Brother-Sergeant Caias Meldonia, Squad Taxis, Fourth Company, the Emperor’s Blades. He pauses, remembering the face. Location: Attamar, outer reach spinward, system marker 45-56-3. A faint smile crinkles across his sore-clustered lips. The action had been prosecuted well. We were on the outward march from Kletan. He fills in more details, always in the same manner, not lapsing into Barbaran or Mourtaig, the debased vernacular of the Plague Planet, or even current-era Gothic. This record was started at the very commencement of his career in the Death Guard and has been continued in the same vein ever since. When he finishes the entry, he carefully adds the date approximation according to both the Terran system and Chronolattice, a scheme of his own devising that maps events to a more fluid set of points underpinned by warp dynamics. It is more accurate, at least from a number of important points of view, although it has peculiarities of its own – whereas the Imperial system becomes more inaccurate the further one is from Terra and the further in time one is from the nominal baseline event, Chronolattice works forward to the end of the universe, a constant Vorx names T, for thanatos, and becomes more reliable the closer the apocalypse comes. He takes time to cross-reference the entry with previous ones. He adds the relevant numbers to several interlinked grids, drawing the numerals with exactitude. Once done, he tallies certain esoteric relationships and determines if significant patterns have emerged, then logs them in a third set of ledgers. Then he repeats the process with Ammunition Loader Silv Klood, resident of Attamar orbital station IV. Less is known about that death, for the stature of the victim was minuscule, but he records all that he has been able to determine, for completeness is a virtue. He has many hours of work ahead. The raiding season has been long, and he has much blood on his hands from it. He labours methodically, giving each entry just as much care as the first ones. The first biographies were written ten thousand years ago. This chronicle, this record of deaths served at his hand, stretches back to the dawn of the Imperial Age. For all Vorx knows, it may be the most complete history of any kind still intact. Inquisitors would sacrifice entire systems to retrieve it, if they only knew of its existence. More than one petty daemon has been spun into instantiation purely as a result of symmetries picked out on the pages. Others of the Neverborn have come to Hope’s Revenant and tried to consume the book, believing its contents might elevate them within their crowded and jostling pantheon, but the library is carefully guarded with ether traps and honey pits, and Vorx has designed many subtler defences to confound them. The book has no title. Or, to be more precise, the book’s title is also its contents. The final entry will be his own. Such psychic accumulation of killing generates a final artefact – when Vorx dies, the last page will complete itself, capping the immense and winding account of a soul’s extension beyond all mortal tolerance. On that day, the tome will close, turned as if by unseen hands. The symbols will arrange and sift, the numbers will slot into new positions, and its fusion of occult symbology will reach apotheosis. It will be the final legacy of uncountable lives, stored and cross-referenced, counted and totalled, a product of magnificent uselessness. This is Vorx’s great act of spite towards impermanence. He is smiling as he writes it, and the passage of time slows, dilates, warms up. ​ Culture The Death Guard culture at its core is a paradox of concepts that are balanced on a knife's edge. Devotion and self-loathing. Joy and despair. Humour and reverence. Endurance yet weakness. Acceptance and denial. Change and stagnation. Passion and apathy. Despite the common "happy Nurglite" stereotype, the Death Guard really don't tend to match that mantra, leaving it more for the daemons. The majority of them are dour doomsday cultists who view hope as the galaxy's most pervasive and evil lie. The Death Guard were once Mortarion's unyielding legion. A symbol of grim hope in a galaxy of monsters. They sought human liberation from the predations of the warp at all costs. But then they were betrayed. They became puppets of the literal God of despair. Those who could endure all were tortured for an eternity in a deathless, timeless hell until they eventually broke. Until their father took a Faustian bargain to end their torment and embrace all that they once despised. Victims of their own philosophy, they would always struggle with the fact that they were too weak. They once fought to be a symbol of hope and the liberators of humanity from the warp. Then they became the heralds of stagnation and decay. They tell themselves, desperately, that hope is the enemy and it's a mercy to quench it. It's a benevolence to corrupt the galaxy as resistance is a painful, if admirable futility. How does one deal with that change? Poorly, is the answer. Some just accept it. It can't be undone. They move forward like they always have. Some are devoted to their new cause and life like Vorx. Evangelists who embrace their new cause and God wholeheartedly. There's others who care little for the old culture of Barbarus or Mortarion, cleaving to the path of Typhus and Abaddon. Then there's the sadists within the ranks who view their new sorcerous powers with glee. Who revel in causing pain and suffering across the galaxy. Yet all of these factions and everything in-between still remain united under Mortarion's rule from the Plague Planet. They are still his Unbroken Blades. His Death Guard. submitted by /u/mobby123 to r/40kLore [link] [comments]

Latest Updates on 9 Oct 2023: Hair shedding: shedding 10-20 hairs per day! back to my pre-sebderm level. Hair thickness: GUYS my hair has grown back!!! back to my pre-sebderm hair thickness now!!! Personally, having a moderate amount of healthy carbs in my diet improves my hair shedding. I shed so much hair when I was on a low carb diet. My detailed hair growth routine is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SebDerm/comments/173ktba/how_i_have_successfully_grown_my_hair_back/ Scalp conditions: healthy white scalp, no itchiness, no flakes Shampoo routine: shampooing every other day, using Vichy Dercos Anti-dandruff Shampoo for Oily Hair every 7-10 days, Bioderma Node A Soothing Shampoo for the rest of the week. Diet and Lifestyle: Mediterranean diet; go to bed before 12; 7-8 hours of sleep everyday; Stress management: don't give a shit about things that used to bother me, overall better mood Hi there, I've benefitted a lot from this community, so I'd like to make some contributions. I was losing an average of 200-300 hairs everyday at the onset of my sebderm. After two months, I'm now only shedding about 90 hairs daily, which is within the normal range. I know that clinically speaking there is no cure to sebderm and it may come back later, but I'm just happy that it's at least under control now. So I want to share this as my SOS protocol. As for long-term maintenance, I'm still learning so much about it from this community. Background: - suffered from dry dandruff (large and white flakes) for more than 12 years but never experienced any hair loss - Because of COVID, I developed a bad habit of only shampooing 1-2 times a week (I have an oily scalp and straight hair). On non-wash days, I used a lot of hair products to keep my scalp feeling clean, e.g. scalp serum and dry shampoo. I only found out later that they contained denatured alcohol, which can destroy our skin barrier. - In late Aug, I experienced increased hair shedding of a daily average of 200-300 strands when I usually only shed a maximum of 30-60 strands a day. At the worst point, I was losing 500 hairs when I was shampooing one day. And I almost passed out. - My scalp was tingling, burning, and sore. - I went to a dermatologist in early Sept. He diagnosed me with severe sebderm and folliculitis on my scalp. He said I needed to get my sebderm under control before he could treat my hair loss - My before and after pics (warning: my sebderm was really bad on my scalp): https://imgur.com/a/jmhG46i ​ Sebderm and hair loss: - I was very anxious and depressed about my hair loss because I've always had thick and healthy hair. People always give me compliments on how my hair looks. The point is that I was feeling so much pain mentally. - I consulted other dermatologists. Some said sebderm could cause telogen effluvium because my condition was so severe that it shocked my hair. Some said even though sebderm could cause increased hair shedding, mine was too serious to be caused by sebderm alone. There might be other causes. - But from Dr. Donovan's blog, there is a study that revealed that the more seborrheic dermaitits a person has, the more shedding (telogen effluvium) a person will experience. This tells us that individuals with severe seborrheic dermatitis are likely to have a severe telogen effluvium. - I still went to my family doctor and a naturopath to get blood tests done just to be sure what we're dealing with here. Everything was normal, so I focused on getting my sebderm under control. ​ How I got the situation under control: - My dermatologist prescribed me with clobetasol solution and ciclopirox 1.5% shampoo. - At first, I was reluctant to use steroid. However, the longer my scalp stays inflamed, the more possible damage will be caused to my hair follicles, so I followed my derm's instructions and applied clobetasol to the affected areas daily for 21 days. My scalp was less red but I was still shedding 150-200 hairs a day. - Using the ciclopirox 1.5% shampoo (every other day for 8 weeks, as instructed by my dermatologist) was not very helpful. After much research, I came up with my own protocol that has really helped me get my sebderm under control. - What I found is key is that the protocol needs to consist of three components: 1) destroy the biofilm, 2) kill malassezia, and 3) rebuild skin barrier. For each component, there are numerous ingredients/products available. - You can do all three components on a particular day or scatter them around throughout the week, depending on whatever suits your schedule and skin needs. Experiment and observe what suits your skin the best. - An example of a three-component routine on a given shampoo day: 5% xylitol solution on the affected areas to be left on for at least an hour --> wash it off with an antifungal shampoo --> apply a malassezia-safe moisturizer - An example of a three-component routine in a particular week (this is what I'm doing now): biofilm shampoo on day 1 and day 3 of the week followed by ciclopirox shampoo on day 5 and day 7. Each time after shampooing, apply a malassezia-safe moisturizer - Some ingredients for 1) destroying the biofilm: xylitol, ACV, and selenium sulfide, MCT oil without lauric acid - Some ingredients for 2) killing malassezia: ciclopirox, ketoconazole, coal tar, zinc pyrithione, and MCT oil without lauric acid - Some ingredients for 3) rebuilding skin barrier: panthenol (vitamin B5), niacinamide (vitamin B3), glycerin, and aloe vera - Salicylic acid is not anti fungal per se, but it's great at removing the scales, regulating sebum production, and calming down inflammation. ​ My detailed protocol: - I shampoo four times a week: Selsun Blue 2.5% Selenium Sulfide --> Selsun Blue 2.5% Selenium Sulfide OR T/Sal --> Ciclopirox 1.5% Shampoo --> T/Sal (I only use Selsun Blue twice a week for 2 weeks when things are bad because it is very strong) - This protocol is for short-term ONLY, e.g. 2-6 weeks! To get things under control first. - (updated on 4 Jan 2022) As my sebderm is getting much better, I have switched to this gentler protocol, which again incorporates all the essential components, for long-term maintenance. I'm rotating three different shampoos: Neutrogena T/Sal, DermaKB Scalp Detoxifier (biofilm disrupter), and Philip Kingsley Shampoo for Flaky Shampoo (contains an antifungal Piroctone Olamine). To hydrate my scalp, I've been using a DIY niacinamide and panthenol spray. - Selenium Sulfide 2.5% is a game changer for me!! The dandruff/biofilm was finally coming off after 1-2 uses. Antifungals cannot get to the malassezia to do their job if the biofilm is present. - After shampooing, I apply a DIY 3% panthenol aloe vera gel to my scalp. I'm now using this DIY 2% glycerin, 2% panthenol, and 4% niacinamide in water spray. - Avoid ANY ingredient that may feed malassezia (I use a website called Sezia. Simple Skincare Science is also a very good source). - Even though I don't suffer sebderm on any other area, I switch all of my skincare products to seb-derm safe products because my skincare may transfer to my pillow. - I use a silk pillow case to reduce the friction (I can't afford to lose even one more hair). - I change my pillow case every 2-3 days and wash my pillow every week. ​ Product recommendations: - What is weird is that a lot of the products that are supposed to be formulated for people with sebderm are not sebderm friendly. They contain ingredients that feed malassezia. There is a useful website called Sezia that I use to check whether a product is safe (not affiliated). This is also the reason I need to DIY the panthenol and aloe scalp treatment. - Products that I like: Selsun Blue 2.5% Selenium Sulfide Shampoo, Neutrogena T/Sal, Philip Kingsley Shampoo for Flaky Scalp, dermaKB Biofilm Scalp Detoxifier, Philosophy B5 powder, the Ordinary 100% niacinamide powder, - Products that made my situation worse: Head and Shoulders Royal Oils Scalp Elixir, Inkey List Salicylic Acid Scalp Treatment, Head and Shoulders Clinical Strength 1% Selenium Sulfide - I will be experimenting with a DIY niacinamide and panthenol toner (for rebuilding skin barrier and calming inflammation) and 5% xylitol solution (for destroying the biofilm) and will keep this community updated of my results. After much trial and error, I settle on this DIY scalp toner (2% glycerin, 2% panthenol, and 4% niacinamide in distilled water, which I think is really helpful for calming my scalp. - Neutrogena T/Sal shampoo may be too harsh for people with a dry/sensitive scalp, but my oily scalp loves it!!! It helps get rid of the oily buildup and flakes on my scalp while also regulating my sebum production. My scalp is definitely less oily. And malassezia loves an oily scalp because they also feed on our natural sebum. ​ Diet and supplements (Please see here for a detailed wholistic approach to tacking sebderm: https://www.reddit.com/r/SebDerm/comments/rggsrj/a_novelwholistic_evidenceinspired_approach_to/): - Daily: Vitamin D3+K2, cod liver oil, reishi, homemade kefir, nutritional yeast, MCT oil - 2-3 times a week: zinc, magnesium glycinate, and collagen powder - What I would recommend for almost everyone: vitamin D3+K2, magnesium, and fish oil. - Around 60-70% of people in North America are deficient in vitamin D. There are also studies that point to an association between vitamin D deficiency and inflammatory skin conditions such as sebderm. Although this does not mean a causal relationship, taking vitamin D3 overall can help regulate our hormones and immune system. Magnesium and vitamin K2 should be supplemented with vitamin D3. This combo also help me better deal with stress, which is also a trigger of sebderm. - Fish oil supplement helps the body repair the skin barrier. It is also highly anti-inflammatory. But remember to choose a reliable brand. Many of the fish oil supplements on the market are contaminated. Brands I love that are also third-party tested: Nordic Naturals, Natural Factors Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil, and InnovixLab. - Probiotics that I've tried and quite like: Garden of Life Dr Formulated, Seed, and Visbiome (not affiliated in any sense; purchased all products with my own money) - Garlic powder supplement and oregano oil capsules daily for 1 week for killing the bad bacteria in my gut - Homemade bone broth for repairing my gut - Gluten-free - No refined carbs at all - No sugar - No dairy except kefir - Lots of greens with some meat each meal - Berries everyday (there is a study that revealed a correlation between low fruit intake and sebderm in women). Plus, berries are anti-inflammatory - Avoid using vegetable oil in cooking. Opt for more heat-stable oils that are also low in omega-6s, e.g. extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, ghee, and butter. - To sum up, the key is to incorporate as much anti-inflammatory food as possible. Some further examples are turmeric and ginger. - What I usually eat: https://imgur.com/a/nr1JKne ​ Summary of helpful resources/research: - Simple Skincare Science website - Sezia Website - Dandruff Deconstructed Website - Dr. Donovan's blog (He has recently published quite a number of articles on sebderm) - Ceramide insufficiency in sebderm patients ( https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(07)01771-9/fulltext#relatedArticles01771-9/fulltext#relatedArticles)) (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12115025/) - Niacinamide increases ceramide production (http://fagron.lookhere-dev.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Atopic-Dermatitis_Nicotinamide-Tanno-O-2000-BJD.pdf) - Caprylic and Polygalacturonic Acid Combinations for Eradication of Microbial Organisms Embedded in Biofilm (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01999/full) - Topical nicotinamide [i.e. niacinamide] for seborrheic dermatitis: an open randomized study (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/55117499.pdf) - Skin moisturizing effects of panthenol-based formulations (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21982351/) Finally, I want to say that there is still hope. Don't give up. I will pray for everyone in this community to regain their health soon! Edit: I will continue to edit this and add on to it based on my ongoing research and trial and error. And also to add the things that I forgot to mentionEdit: Added some before and after pics and meal idea pics. Feel free to message me if you have any questions Edit on 19 Jan 2022: Now my scalp is free from dandruff with very mild redness, itch is very neglectable like only very mild itch every 5-6 days, and I'm shedding an average of 70 strands of hair daily, which is within the normal range of 50-100 hairs daily as advised by most dermatologists. This is my latest weekly routine (I shampoo four times a week): Neutrogena T/Sal Shampoo --> Philip Kingsley Shampoo for Flaky Scalp (start with as little shampoo as possible because it lathers very well; too much lather can be irritating to the scalp) --> Phillip Adam Apple Cider Vinegar Shampoo (Fragrance Free) --> Ciclopirox 1.5% Shampoo (available by prescription only; alternatives are ketoconazole shampoo and selenium sulfide). Each time after shampooing, I apply the DIY hydrating scalp spray containing 2% panthenol, 2% glycerin, and 4% niacinamide. No longer using the toner as the shampoos I'm using now are very hydrating and gentle. Edit on 23 Jan 2022: I've just stumbled across some substitutes for this DIY spray from a brand called COSRX. Although they are not hair products, the ingredient lists seem pretty good. This toner (https://www.cosrx.com/collections/toner-mist/products/centella-water-alcohol-free-toner) contains panthenol and sodium hyaluronate, which are both good hydrating ingredients. This one (https://www.cosrx.com/collections/toner-mist/products/bha-blackhead-power-liquid) contains salicylic acid, niacinamide, and panthenol. I'm probably going to try these out soon as I sometimes don't have the time to make the DIY spray. BIG DISCLAIMER: These are not products formulated for the scalp. Use at your own discretion. Updates on 15 Mar 2022: I'm now using a routine targeted at healing my skin barrier because my scalp is now flake-free but mildly red. Shampooing every other day: ciclopirox shampoo once a week and Bioderma Node A Soothing Shampoo (if you have a really oily scalp, Briogeo Be Gentle Be Kind Matcha Shampoo may be a better alternative) for the rest of the week. Each time after shampooing, I apply some diluted niacinamide serum from The Ordinary because the original 10% may be too irritating. The study that suggested niacinamide as a potential treatment for sebderm used a concentration of 4%. I also added some panthenol powder to the mixture (at a concentration of about 1.5%), which is completely optional. I'm now shedding about 50 hairs daily. The new HA hydrating serum by The Ordinary did not work for me. I tested it on my hairline, then the sebderm migrated to my hairline while my scalp, luckily, is still clear. Updates on 12 May 2022: Shampooing every 2-3 days because my scalp is less oily and less itchy. Not using any topical hydrating product because I think my skin has healed so much. Now I'm using ciclopirox shampoo (by prescription only) once a week, and Bioderma Node A Shampoo for the rest of the days Updates on 7 July 2022: Shampooing every other day; Vichy Dercos Anti-dandruff Shampoo for Oily Hair once a week and Vichy Dercos Anti-dandruff Shampoo for sensitive scalp for the rest of the week; taking anti-inflammatory herbs prescribed by a licensed Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner (TCM); shedding 40-50 hairs daily; scalp pretty healthy; incorporated more carbs in my diet because realized a low-carb diet makes me shed more hair Updates on 28 Aug 2022: Shampooing every other day; Vichy Dercos Anti-dandruff Shampoo for Oily Hair every 10 days and Bioderma Node A Soothing Shampoo for the rest of the week; been taking the herbs for almost 2 months now. Noticed my scalp is less oily, zero itch now, no flakes, and redness almost gone. There are some days where I'm shedding only 20-30 hairs daily, which is my pre-sebderm level. But I DON'T recommend visiting a TCM practitioner in western countries. Most of them have no idea what they're doing, and the herbs, if not prescribed properly, can cause damage to the liver and kidney. They are also not well-regulated under the law. My diet is lots of cooked vegetables, some berries, some carbs, and some meat. My TCM doctor told me to avoid seafood (except some fish) and beef. submitted by /u/haley_is_taken to r/SebDerm [link] [comments]

Welcome to r/Kombucha! If you're wondering what's growing on your kombucha and if it's normal, you've come to the right place. Please review this information before posting a picture of your batch to the subreddit. TL;DR: Dry + fuzzy on the surface of the liquid/pellicle/SCOBY is most likely mold: mold pics https://imgur.com/a/SzhysHi Geometric growths or wrinkly patterns on the surface of the liquid/pellicle/SCOBY could be kahm yeast: kahm pics https://imgur.com/a/XlnO7Ox Anything else and anything under the liquid level is most likely normal: normal pics https://imgur.com/a/HJaENDv If you're not sure, wait a few more days: mold or kahm will get more obvious as they grow, normal will stay about the same or form into new pellicle/SCOBY If the kombucha is already bottled for carbonation (commonly called second ferment or 2F), mold/kahm is very unlikely due to the high acidity and lack of oxygen access. Always use at least 2 cups of starter per gallon (125ml/L) when making kombucha to acidify the batch: high acidity (pH < 4.6) protects the kombucha from mold and kahm. Read our getting started guide for brewing tips: https://www.reddit.com/r/kombucha/wiki/how_to_start Terminology: in this guide, "pellicle/SCOBY" refers to the rubbery blob that forms at the surface of a batch of kombucha. SCOBY stands for "symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast", and those bacteria + yeast are found both in the liquid kombucha and in the solid rubbery blob. The rubbery blob's more accurate scientific name is "pellicle": it's a biofilm/mat of bacterial cellulose secreted by and connected to the bacteria forming it (some yeast also live in the pellicle). Culturally, however, the term "SCOBY" widely refers to the pellicle so this guide uses both terms. Read more about pellicles here: https://fermentaholics.com/whats-that-white-waxy-layer-growing-on-my-kombucha-brew/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12073 (scroll to "Tea fungus (fungal biomass) and its applications" section) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0740002013001846 Diagnostic Quiz 1 ) Is the growth/odd thing on the top surface (exposed to air) of the liquid kombucha or existing pellicle/SCOBY? Yes - go to 2 No - go to 8 2 ) Is the kombucha already bottled for carbonation (commonly called second ferment or 2F)? Yes - likely pellicle/SCOBY growth (it can happen in 2F!) or a yeast cluster. Mold/kahm are extremely rare in 2F due to the high acidity (pH

White distilled vinegar and apple cider vinegar (i think) contain acetic acid, which is supposed to disrupt the biofilm created by Malasezzia yeast. I have not come across any reputable sources that strongly recommend diluted vinegar as a treatment, however. No peer reviewed studies I've come across mentions vinegar directly. The Fungal Acne Bible on Simpleskincarescience.com, which is not written by a scientist or doctor, but mentions or references every possible remedy for FA, does not even mention it. I've only come across Seborrheic Dermatitis posts, like this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/SebDerm/comments/90whpn/how_to_beat_seb_derm_with_cited_evidence/ From a skin safety perspective, I came across this article from the National Excema Organization, which tentatively states "Since ACV is a mild acid, some people with eczema theorize that applying [diluted] ACV topically may help restore their skin’s natural pH level. There could be some truth to that." https://nationaleczema.org/get-facts-acv/ I'm wondering if anyone on this board has successfully treated their FA with diluted ACV or white vinegar and water solutions. If so, what was your regimen, and what else have you/are you using in conjunction with it? Any solid research, that directly references vinegar as a treatment to manage Malasezzia are welcome ( In perusing skin-safe solutions I came across a general skin health (not fa centered) article in Real Simple magazine that suggests a 1:32 ratio as a toner to be rinsed off-- that is, 1 part Apple cider vinegar to 32 parts water wiped on, then rinsed off, starting with 2ish days per week : https://www.realsimple.com/beauty-fashion/skincare/apple-cider-vinegar-for-skin ) submitted by /u/Cawfle to r/Fungalacne [link] [comments]