Random Rants 79: [Impassionating Intensifies]

[Timsup2nothin]

They put expiration dates on bottled water.

I rest my case.

 

[Kyriakos]

Finally, the penultimate part of the seminar has been sent. I am very tired now

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic?
I don't think they'll just eat the powder if it's laying on the floor, so you mix it with a food source to get them to eat it and bring it back to their nest to feed to their larvae.
It must be dangerous topically as well because some insects won't walk across a line of it. So making a perimeter could deter them from entering, but they probably won't eat it in that case, since it's not mixed with a known food source.

I wasn't being sarcastic, I was getting a lot of information that was somewhat conflicting information I was trying to make sense of.

Either way, I ended up putting down powdered borax and a solution of honey/water/borax and they're all gone now, at least for the moment. I'll have to see if they come back.

Maybe. My ants go right up the kitchen faucet and freight the water from up there back to wherever they live.

Rant: My lunchables got kinda warm and the cheese slices are sticking together. #firstworldproblems

Lunchables are the best!

Ants can come in through windows, I had them in my second-story apt exclusively from the window.

They're coming from the flooring beneath the kitchen island. They haven't been able to cross the kitchen and back up the countertop to get to the sink. They may be looking for water but I don't know.

Aren't you like, 50 years too old for Lunchables.
Fun fact - I've never had lunchables ever in my life. When I was young enough to eat them at school my mom always made me a packed lunch.

You're objectively a terrible human being. Just wow.

I rest my case.

I think the expiration dates on bottles of water is driven by the bottles themselves. If they're made with/from BPA, it leaches into the water over time.

 

[Ajidica]

You're objectively a terrible human being. Just wow.

I mean, you all know I'm evil.

 

[Synobun]

Eye infection is getting worse but my doctor's appointment is still a week away.

 

[Takhisis]

Yeah, I expect after these run out that I'll never have another one. These are providing a great example of the absurdity of expiration dates though. I'm tempted to keep one in the fridge for a couple months and then eat it just to prove the point that the date is totally arbitrary and irrelevant.

Are you going to do as that Belgian guy who cooked all his week's meals in advance and then died of food poisoning? i call dibs on your Steam wallet.

 

[Synobun]

In your haste to tarnish my good name, you forgot a critical detail: Tim loathes Steam, and the only wallet he has associated with it is his mugging wallet where he gathers all the money he takes from unwashed gamers he mugs in alleyways.

 

[Berzerker]

plastic is the devil

https://phys.org/news/2019-08-beloved-baby-dugong-mariam-dies.html

 

[Takhisis]

In your haste to tarnish my good name, you forgot a critical detail: Tim loathes Steam, and the only wallet he has associated with it is his mugging wallet where he gathers all the money he takes from unwashed gamers he mugs in alleyways.

Please don't explain the joke.

 

[Synobun]

Please don't explain the joke.

I didn't tell anyone you were an Argentinian.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Are you going to do as that Belgian guy who cooked all his week's meals in advance and then died of food poisoning? i call dibs on your Steam wallet.

Since you already got corrected by @Synsensa I do not feel the need to warn you about the potential consequences of mentioning me and Valve's abomination in the same post.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Eye infection is getting worse but my doctor's appointment is still a week away.

Go to a walk-in clinic or emergency. NOW.

 

[Arakhor]

I concur. Seek medical advice immediately.

 

[Synobun]

Yes, mom and dad.

But also: I did go to a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist what the best course of action would be, if I should get something OTC or go to urgent care or not. He asked about the symptoms, I told him, he asked me to show my eye, so I took off my sunglasses and did, and he said that anything OTC would probably just be to make myself feel better about it and wouldn't actually do anything. Then he unironically suggested I go home and have a good cry and see what that does.

Didn't sound like a winning idea since my tear duct has been constantly watering/pushing out discharge for over a week but at that point it felt like my face was being hollowed out behind my eye so I figured I'd give it a go. It did not help in the moment, although it did unleash the waterworks pretty heavily, but now that I've slept the pain/pressure is completely gone. I'll see what happens as the day progresses.

I'm mostly avoiding the nuclear option because it's the middle of the summer and I'm a sweaty agitated mess after 5-10 minutes, so travelling 40+ minutes to a walk-in/hospital, waiting for hours there, and then making the trip back sounds like a non-ideal experience. But it's of course an option I'm leaving open if it does get worse again.

 

[The_J]

These are providing a great example of the absurdity of expiration dates though. I'm tempted to keep one in the fridge for a couple months and then eat it just to prove the point that the date is totally arbitrary and irrelevant.

They put expiration dates on bottled water.

There is, as often, a mis-understanding there.
The expiration date does not tell you when a product goes bad.
The expiration date tells you until when the company guarantees you that the product is as intended.
2 other factors go in there,:
a) For non-freshly made things (e.g. in a bakery) you are required to put on an expiration date, and you need to test it. Means for bottled water, they'll test for 1 year (or whatever) that it doesn't go bad, and put that on. It might be good for a lot longer, but why bother testing?
b) microbiological safety is the most important thing which factors in there, but not the only one. While a dry salami or spices are unlikely to go bad in a microbiological sense, the company also needs to guarantee for taste, smell and texture. I prefer to not eat a 10 years old salami or drink 10 years old bottled water. Might be microbiologically fine, but taste or smell...uh... probably not.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yes, mom and dad.

We wouldn't have said it if we didn't genuinely care. And since I've had two eye surgeries this year and am still having issues (next appointment isn't until November), I know the importance of getting eye issues looked at ASAP. On top of everything else you deal with in your life, you don't need to add even partial blindness.

On the topic of bottled water: We have frequent water shutoffs in the building I live in. Sometimes they're for maintenance. Often someone's dishwasher is leaking or some other thing needs fixing that means nobody gets water. Sometimes it's a major emergency. I don't always get advance notice. Therefore I keep bottled water around for a variety of purposes. Mostly to drink, and whatever goes stale-dated is used for cleaning purposes when I don't have tap water.

I have to carry water with me everywhere I go, since I never know if I'll have to take medication in an emergency. So this "ban water bottles" thing is really annoying. Taps and fountains aren't always available, and in the spring our tap water tastes horrible anyway.

 

[Synobun]

I'm surprised the apartment building doesn't have individual valves for every floor/suite. Needing to shut everything off for all water-related work sounds terribly inconvenient.

About the eye problems, yeah, that's been bothering me. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my vision. I could be reasonably okay with no hearing, no smell, hell, even no taste, but no sight would be tough to deal with.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'm surprised the apartment building doesn't have individual valves for every floor/suite. Needing to shut everything off for all water-related work sounds terribly inconvenient.

Yeah, I've had to cancel housekeeping appointments and home care visits because of it. The building is old and needs a major overhaul. Unfortunately, I have nowhere else to go that's as accessible as this place and allows cats.

About the eye problems, yeah, that's been bothering me. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my vision. I could be reasonably okay with no hearing, no smell, hell, even no taste, but no sight would be tough to deal with.

People take it for granted much more than they realize. There are all kinds of situations where someone shoves a paper or their phone in my face and expects me to read it. They're flabbergasted when I tell them I can't (I occasionally have to ask someone to read my mail to me). If they want me to read something it either has to be very large (as an example, my NaNoWriMo stories are typed in Times New Roman, size 24 on a black background) or online so I can magnify it as much as needed. Thank goodness for Pixel Art games, since most of my favorite computer games are difficult now (can't magnify anything).

I'm currently looking for a good magnifier so I can read the expiry dates on the stuff in my fridge and pantry. Some of the writing used is practically microscopic, or doesn't have a good enough contrast with the background color.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

There is, as often, a mis-understanding there.
The expiration date does not tell you when a product goes bad.
The expiration date tells you until when the company guarantees you that the product is as intended.
2 other factors go in there,:
a) For non-freshly made things (e.g. in a bakery) you are required to put on an expiration date, and you need to test it. Means for bottled water, they'll test for 1 year (or whatever) that it doesn't go bad, and put that on. It might be good for a lot longer, but why bother testing?
b) microbiological safety is the most important thing which factors in there, but not the only one. While a dry salami or spices are unlikely to go bad in a microbiological sense, the company also needs to guarantee for taste, smell and texture. I prefer to not eat a 10 years old salami or drink 10 years old bottled water. Might be microbiologically fine, but taste or smell...uh... probably not.

That may be true where you are, and sounds great. However, this summary from the United States Food and Drug Administration tells us that in the US there are no such requirements:

"With the exception of infant formula, the laws that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) administers do not preclude the sale of food that is past the expiration date indicated on the label. FDA does not require food firms to place "expired by", "use by" or "best before" dates on food products. This information is entirely at the discretion of the manufacturer."

If I want the retailer to take my product off the shelf and buy more from me even if they haven't sold out, I can just stick a date on it and that date can be chosen totally at random. That's the law.

 

[Takhisis]

Since you already got corrected by @Synsensa I do not feel the need to warn you about the potential consequences of mentioning me and Valve's abomination in the same post.

Could we make things up over a bowl of asbestos-free breakfast cereal?