January, 2015 | The Plaid Pladd Blog

Archive for January, 2015

Bad Animes: First Blood, Part II (Section 3.b)

January 31st, 2015 by WEEDgoku420

The first guest post of the year is written by my BFF, James!! He is an expert on bad anime and gifs, so he is more than qualified to give you a run down on this subject. Exciting!!!-PLADD

I’m gonna level with you guys: I love making fun of bad animes. So much so that for January’s guest spot (BROUGHT TO YOU WITH HOURS TO SPARE), I’m going to give you a short (Disclaimer: Not actually all that short) list of some of the stupider ones I’ve seen. I’ll even put them into arbitrary groups so you can pretend this is some kind of Post-Apocalyptic YA novel wherein Sekirei is tragically miscategorized and has to JOIN THE REVOLUTION against the plutocratic Bad Anime Oligarchs with the help of broody and mysterious resident bad-boy (and possible love interest???) Darkside Blues. But can their battlefield love survive when Darkside’s incredibly poorly explained backstory COMES BACK TO HAUNT HIM? Or will Sekirei instead find herself drawn into the not-even-remotely-interested-in-her-advances arms of the rebellion’s other resident bad-boy and most dangerous soldier, MD Geist?????

Not gonna lie, I gotta go with Team Geist on this one

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: Guest Posts

Posted in Guest Posts, lists |

Servery Challenge: North Carolina Edition!

January 22nd, 2015 by pladd

It is with great confusion that I report our strangest servery challenge to date. Everything with edible?? There was no clear winner? Rob’s didn’t shave a few years off my life?? Yes, all true. Usually these cooking competitions feature one entry that is the worst thing you’ve ever had in your mouth, one that seems good by comparison, and the rest just various brands of mediocre. But this time…? Maybe it was that we each got 25 minutes to cook. Maybe it was our new and improved kitchen set up. Maybe it was Brian Reinhart. Maybe the theme, THE SPIRIT OF NORTH CAROLINA, made everyone strive for greatness.

Rob’s was definitely the most surprising. In that it tasted good

Rob
Time: ~22 minutes
Dish Name: Stick it in Your Mouth
Description: Southern-style biscuits with bacon cooked in pepper jelly with pimento cheese

For someone who grew up in Syracuse, Rob definitely understands North Carolina food. The bacon was the main issue with this one–it was chewy and hard to eat in pieces. But I’ll take it over strawberries mixed with pickle juice any day.

Brian went all out for his first servery challenge

Brian
Time: ~20 minutes
Dish Name: Sheesh-Carolina
Description: Sausage, Shallots, and Cherry Tomatoes on a stick, cooked in Cheerwine

These were actually pretty tasty! I feel like it could have done a little better highlighting the Cheerwine, the main thing that makes this dish North Carolina-related. Brian had never tried it before buying it to make this challenge, so he was trusting in North Carolina to make something great. Of course, his trust was not misplaced.

Awww yeah

Patricia
Time: ~12 minutes
Dish Name: Shakalacky
Description: A Cackalacky milkshake made with Carolina Creamery vanilla ice cream and Mapleview milk

True to my usual strategy of making something quick and easy, I went for a dish with only three, beautiful, entirely local ingredients. Cackalacky is a sweet potato-based hot sauce made in Chapel Hill, and the key to success was using just enough of it to give the milkshake a little kick.

Also, ridic plating. Very important.

You KNOW Steven went overboard. It’s pretty much a servery challenge given

Steven
Time: ~45 minutes
Dish Name: Shrimp N’ Grits
Description: Wild-caught shrimp, North Carolina grits, a roux of mushroom and ham gravy

Steven’s was legitimately what we had for dinner. Dude pretty much ignored the time limit because “I’m hungry.” Shrimp and grits is more of a South Carolina thing?? But these were delicious. But can you really still be considered if you took almost twice as long as everyone else? Time limit was 25 minutes…

Deliciousness v. time, the perennial Steven debate

Anyway, in the end we had a four-way tie with each of us getting one vote. So maybe it’s up to you to decide?? Cast your votes now!

Tagged: brian is a weather witch, North Carolina, Rob, servery challenge, Steven

Posted in Servery Challenges |

5 Reasons I am Now Closer to being an Adult (and 3 reasons I will never be one)

January 16th, 2015 by pladd

Now that we’ve moved to a nicer place, I feel like I’ve taken some important steps towards becoming a For Real Adult. For instance:

1. Adults own guest beds

No longer do overnight visitors have to sleep on the floor or the couch (unless they want to), because I am now the proud owner of a guest bed:

It may actually be more comfortable than my real bed.

2. Adults have sensible bath mats and those fuzzy things for the toilet seat. And they match

Previously I bought bath mats based on considerations like “THAT ONE IS SHAPED LIKE A MONKEY!!!!” But with this apartment, I went with things that actually had a chance of matching each other.

And got one of those fuzzy things too because it seemed like the kind of thing you do when you’re 27

3. Adults schedule their next appointment at the end of their last one

I’m mainly thinking of haircuts here. In the past, I would get haircuts whenever I was stressed or my hair started giving me headaches AND I’d scrounged together enough time and money to do so. When the receptionist asked if I would like to make my next appointment, I would go “Pfffff I don’t know what I’m doing next week, let alone in two months.” NOT ANYMORE!

GOTTA LOOK SO GOOD

4. Adults are friendly to their neighbors

Instead of just making up stories about the people I see in the parking lot and passive aggressively hating Loud Music Guy, I’ve actually taken time to be friendly to my neighbors! This involves a decorated front door:

Ta Da!

And giving them Christmas cookies!! And I got some in return!!! Yay friendship! Well, friendly acquaintanceship. I’m only 27, I’ll take it.

5. Adults own full-size ironing boards

Chilling here with his little brother

Some adult things I will probably never do

Alas, I’m not a For Real Adult yet, and if these are actual requirements, I may never be:

1. Adults use one set of bed linens at a time. Because otherwise it looks crazy

I’m not apologizing for being comfortable

True, it LOOKS crazy, but it’s way more comfortable, sleeping-wise. Why share blankets with someone you don’t have to? Marriage should be about leveling up, not never sleeping comfortably again.

2. Adults sort their laundry

TV and movies have taught me that adults sort things into “whites” and “darks” and “colors” and maybe some other arcane categories??? It didn’t really make sense to do this in college, when I never had more than one load of laundry anyway, and none of my clothes suffered any ill-effects. So I’ve never done it, and you can’t convince me it makes a difference at all.

3. Adults can talk on the phone without being weird about it

UGH WHY CAN’T YOU JUST TEXT ME LIKE A NORMAL PERSON WHAT

And leaving a voicemail, forget about it

Tagged: adulthood, lists

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

2015 Goals

January 2nd, 2015 by pladd

In what has become a yearly tradition, it’s time to list my goals for 2015! I mainly write blog posts about them to hold myself accountable. It’s way more motivation to accomplish things when you know you’ll have to explain yourself to the internet if you don’t. This year I have seven goals again, which seems a little audacious considering how well last year’s six goals went. But 2015 is going to be awesome and I can do this! But I might need your help (see below).

1. Read 1 book each month I think I’ll disagree with

I thought of this goal when I decided to check out Rush Limbaugh’s ridiculous time-traveling children’s book to laugh at one weekend. The thought occurred to me while driving home from work that what if it was good??? This seemed kind of unlikely, but there was always a chance that dude managed to restrain his intense grossness for the children. And he kind of did? In that this book was just massively boring instead of actively trying to kill me with its terribleness. Anyway, I determined to become more informed about things I think I disagree with, and at least give other people the chance I would hope they’d grant me. Plus, if they don’t manage to change my mind, at least I’ll be more informed about the things I dislike.

Like that time I read all the Twilight books

2. Finish I Detonate Around Him
Speaking of things I dislike, it’s finally time to get back to my tumblr that mocks the 50 Shades of Grey series. I’m on the third book, I can power through this bullshit.

3. Visit every restaurant on my list of restaurants to visit
Last year I checked out a book about restaurants in the triangle, and naturally made a spreadsheet of all the ones that sounded cool. But you know my spreadsheets just get ignored unless I make a big deal blog project out of them.

4. Review at least 1 thing online a month
I realized last year that I rely heavily on online reviews when deciding things like what blender to buy or where to take my car for an oil change, but I never write online reviews myself. That is going to change right now! I have to start giving back for the good of the community.

5. Plaid Pladd Blog: One guest blog post per month
This is where I need your help. I thought it might be fun to invite people who aren’t me to write blog posts, especially people who don’t have their own blog or can’t be bothered to update it regularly because that shit’s hard, man, I get it. You could write a blog post about anything! Here are just some ideas:

1) a review of some restaurant or place you love (or hate?) with pictures!
2) a book review
3) a tutorial on something you know how to do
4) explain your daily schedule in gifs
5) why something you love is awesome and/or something you hate is stupid
6) you can answer some of my spam mail if you want
7) THE ONLY LIMIT IS YOUR IMAGINATION

Hit me up if you’re into it. Or I can badger you about it when I get desperate in August. Your choice.

This guy already agreed, so you know it’s solid

6. Knit a sweater

Oh yeah, it’s back. Technically in 2013 I vowed to knit a cardigan, not a sweater, and I’m already more confident that this will get done where that one totally failed. Because it’s purple so I automatically love it more. I’m using a pattern out of this book:

The Knit Parade by Rebecca Rymsza

7. Get hella into a different Dewey Decimal Class each month

You’re no John Cotton Dana, but I’ll take it

This goal is related to #1, sort of, in that I’m worried about my narrow focus of only choosing books I think I’ll like. You miss a lot that way! Time to break out of that filter bubble and explore some new territory.

You know I’m looking forward to June when I’ll be tackling PURE SCIENCE

This month is the 000 class, which is kind of the “whatever, just add that in there since it doesn’t fit anywhere else” of the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Like, I just went to the library and checked out a book on the history of statistics and also one on IS ATLANTIS REAL? because those two things belong together.

Updates when I feel like it! It’s going to be a good year.

Tagged: 2015, 2015 goals

Posted in 2015 Goals |