Things I did today

I expected to have rousing success. The previous issue was that I didn't knead enough. So, I worked to combine all ingredients very well and then kneaded for 10 minutes - it went from sticky to pliable and pleasant back to sticky, and I figured that was the sign that I've kneaded enough instead of adding a lot more flour, which would change the ratio of the ingredients. The first rise looked great! The dough more than doubled in the oiled bowl. The dough was easy to work with for the shaping and second rising. The second rise looked wonderful! The dough was high over the ridge of the loaf pan I put it in the oven and.... well, it cooked in there. Developed a nice crust. But it did not rise further. Not only am I at a lost, I'm also tired of eating the not-actually Hokkaido Milk Bread. I think I'll cook other things for a while, and come back to it after a few months off.

I read an article recently from Bon Appetit in light of their administrative shuffle and exposure that they don't give people of color the same authentic recipe consideration or equal screen time as their white counterparts. The article points out several recipes that were possibly not created with someone of the culture consulting. There is a difference between suggesting hard to find ingredients with similar but easier to find ingredients, but only if it's clearly stated. The author points out a Filipino dessert which is made with sweetened beans, jellied fruit, lychee, tapioca and flan, had a BA recipe give ingredients of gummy bears, berries and popcorn.   The author was dismayed - for them, it wasn't even a comparable reproduction and called into question the recipe creator's knowledge of the Filipino food culture. The author points out other recipes that BA will be auditing in the future for cultural correctness and consistency. I looked at the Vietnamese Pho

I read through the section headings for Developing SQL Databases course , and said to myself, "Oh. I've done all these things. Not with a ton of frequency, but enough that I've done both educational and professional projects with everything. Because I'm often on the data request/report writing side, I work with a DBA who has 25+ years experience, and because our developers are full stack, I rarely get involved in database design. I have both done some design and have been consulted on database design at work, but not nearly as much as I have with data requests or reporting. I'll need a little practice with indexing, as I generally let a third party tool at work determine the amount of fragmenting and if and how indexes need to be organized or rebuilt, and how, but I've at least had a little experience with everything mentioned in this course. What a surprise! Makes me feel good that I might be able to get this done in mid or late August.

I finished watching all of  Querying Data with Transact SQL . I was going to do all of the lab exercises, but they wanted $90 to allow me to access those. Back when I first picked up the Training Kit from Itzik Ben-Gan , I felt it was completely overwhelming and that feeling stuck with me throughout the years when I would think about picking up the book. I forgot that 6 years of professional experience passed. When I watched the course that does a kind of high level introduction of the same concepts, almost everything was what I do every day. I'd heard of 100% of the concepts and worked daily with 75% of the material every day. Only two or three functions I'd not used before, and I hadn't worked much with grouping sets, pivoting data (though I have done it in Excel), the APPLY operator and didn't do much with RAISERROR or THROW - but I used them in one project. While I would still need to practice before the test, I hadn't realized how much I've gained jus

I recently learned about Diverging Diamond Interchanges because I heard that Raleigh was going to get one soon. Well, we're kind of not, since COVID-19 happened. The one near my office is still in the design phase, with no idea of when it'll be out of the design phase and in the bidding phase. However, Diverging Diamond Interchanges are really interesting! You get to drive on the wrong side of the road, and avoid more crashes by doing so! Essentially, all turning traffic would never have to cross oncoming traffic, as the right turn traffic already splits off without getting near oncoming traffic, and left turn traffic crosses the side of the road along with the non-turning traffic, while all the opposite direction traffic stops, then the opposite direction traffic, along with its left turn traffic, crosses to their left. It looks like I need to go to Mebane, NC to find the one nearest me and legally drive on the left side of the road for a while!

I found this article interesting about using landscaping to deflect noise. As a person that loves quiet and very likely has misophonia, I love the idea of creating my own area that can be mostly quiet from external noises, like cars and planes. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/crazy-land-art-deflects-noise-from-amsterdams-airport-180955398/ And, the artist who drew up the plans for this Land Art Park based it on Chladni patterns , which are very cool as well - when random sand is scattered onto something like a level plate, then the plate is vibrated at a particular frequency (like by drawing a cello bow against the plate), it creates a pattern. An AskReddit thread about free resources garnered a lot of positive responses and varied links, between Khan Academy, Free File (for taxes), Internet Archive and more. Wired posted an article about Doomscrolling - something I was doing in March, but pretty well stopped in April when I realized it was taking a toll on my menta

It's father's day today, and my dad is difficult to buy for. He's the kind of guy who will either not need something, or get a thing that he wants, when he thinks of it do solve problems or bring him joy. I was speaking with my mother a few days ago about what I should get him for father's day. We didn't come up with anything until until she told me all about how he loves putting puzzles together, and I realized - duh, yes he does, and extra duh, go buy him one! I went to Amazon to find some, and bought two highly rated puzzles that mention all ages putting it together in the reviews. As I am not a puzzler at all, I referred to the art and the reviews to make my choice. Bad idea. I probably should have measured out how long 20 x 24 cm is, and how small 1,000 pieces would be. Upon receipt, one of the puzzles was very difficult. Mom texted that the pieces were about the size of chocolate chips. Not that I didn't believe them, but it made it clear when she th