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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • Burrito trucks in the Silicon Valley. The proper one’s, where the Mexican low wage workers go. I was on quite good terms with the Mexican custodian of the facility I worked at (in the heart of the valley), and he pointed me to some of the really good ones. Usually, the best bet is to find a construction zone, there’ll be a few trucks out, depending on the size. The trucks are plain white (no ads or decals or anything), no billboards etc. And they have one thing usually (with a tiny bit of variety). Burritos (choose between three meats, get patatas or not), Tamales (literally just the one kind), etc. And they were all buck cheap. IIRC the burritos were 5 bucks (that was 2010/11?), and it was an unspoken rule that you paid in exact change.

    The one burrito truck had a short stint on my workplace’s campus, together with a Mongolian buffet truck (you went in the front, got stuff from the buffet, went out the back, weighed it, done) of similar shadiness, and they were a huge hit. The workplace soon however decided that those were not good enough (some regulations whatever), and over night they banned them but got in the colorfully painted ones with the punny names (“BBQeue - you get it? Because you stand in line for so long?”). Now you’d pay 15 bucks for half a sandwich and a cup of soup.

    Hail corporate…




  • I started with a Santoku brought from a business trip to Japan, don’t think it was a special brand. It was 50 EUR (that was almost 15 years ago), but for me that’s how I got into it. Now I am lucky enough to have a friend who’s a blacksmith to get custom made knives.

    I usually recommend the Haiku Chroma series as entry level, or if you are looking for a western style chef’s knife, I’d go with a Wusthoff classic. Both are a bit more than 100 EUR, so I’d always recommend to go to a shop and get a feel for them and what works best for you. Important thing is western or Japanese style handle (shaped vs. round), and a length and weight you feel comfortable with.







  • The one we got was really expensive, but it was the only brand available in Germany that actually has those things in the market for 10+ years (so it’s a well tested product). It’s one of the premium brands for bathroom “furniture” anyway, and the bidet ones are their top of the line bowls, so I guess in the end we’re not just paying premium for the bidet. Including installation and all the other parts, I think it was something like 3 or 3.5k EUR. I don’t really have any comparison (the cheaper brand would be around 1k less), but the thing is well thought through, has tons of options, easy to clean, easy maintenance, and has some really long warranty. I still feel I splurged on it, but in the grand scheme of things when remodeling a house (roughly 150k in total), I did not really register. Don’t know if that helps in any way…


  • Remodeled the house including bathrooms, went for japanese style bidet (i.e. included in the toilet). Would not want to live without it.

    • water temperature, as well as pressure, is adjustable. I have on with different presets, so every family member gets to have their own favorite setting
    • not messy at all, has a very directed jet of water. Of course you can splash around sitting weirdly on the toilet, but that needs to be very deliberate. Mine has a function that when nobody sits on the toilet, the jet won’t start.
    • there’s options with blow dryers, but even if not, just one dab to dry off instead of wiping and wiping and wiping.
    • according to my plumber, it was one more water hose and an electric plug to connect. The device itself of course is much more expensive than a stander toilet. Just using TP now feels so terrible unhygienic. Imagine getting shit on your hand, and you have paper towels, or running water (and paper towels) to clean up. What would you choose? Maybe not really a “problem” solves, but a very, very nice luxury.