I realize that people of late are scared for the future. Not in the "They’re going to kill us all!"-way that the aholes mock–and it’s like, "What the fuck are you mocking, dude? They’ve LITERALLY SAID that they want to kill you and your family. They don’t believe that anyone outside of their bubbles are real people. It’s scary shit."–but more in the "Groceries are going to be very expensive. And some things are going to be hard to get."-way.

As such, there are some "splurgy" purchases that I’m seriously looking at.

My current obsession is an ice cream maker.

If I had the money, I would get one that has a compressor so I could just add ingredients and have ice cream. The nostalgia old-timey type seem cute, but I don’t want to deal with a bunch of salt water afterward. So I’m currently looking at the kind that have the bowl you freeze, and the ice cream maker itself is basically just an automatic churning machine.

Can you use an ice cream maker to make butter? 🤔

And I know. You’re like "If you’re so poor, why are you willing to buy an ice cream maker???"

Because ice cream is delicious and everyone deserves a bit of joy in their life.

Because the cheap ice cream costs over $6 for 1.5 quarts when it’s not on sale. And there’s a good chance the price is only going to go up.

Because dairy and soy and nut milks are good for the body and I really should be ingesting more of it versus sugary drinks. And on that note, if I’m making my own ice cream, or frozen yogurt, or gelato (I guess gelato churns at a slower rate, so your ice cream machine might not do a good job making it), or sherbet, or sorbet, I am in control of what ingredients go into the machine and I can be assured of the quality of product that comes out.

Because if shit happens and the global economy goes straight into the toilet… I could be making and selling ice cream. Could you imagine being in the movie world of "The Book of Eli" and you’re the only one that can walk around with a cart of ice cream to sell?

"But if it was the end of the world, where would you get the ingredients for ice cream? How would you get electricity? How would you chill the bowl?"–Dude, you sure have a lot of questions. Good thing I have the answers: I would make Kool-Aid sorbet (Kool-Aid, sugar, water, gelatin). I would get solar panels or a generator or I’d make a windmill or I’d repurpose an old bicycle, there’s many ways to make electricity. And to freeze the bowl, I would have to look around and figure out how to get/make saltpeter (potassium nitrate) or I’d figure out a yakchal or something. And if I were a smarter person, I’d probably be able to come up with a hundred other ways to run my ice cream maker at the end of the world.

And probably in that situation, my ice cream maker would be repurposed for parts or would be used to do some other non-ice cream related task.

But for the now…

I have my mini-donut maker, and that has seen some use. I’ve put cornbread mix in it, I’ve done muffin mix, I’ve made cake mix. And while it is an easy way for a few people to eat an entire box cake worth of mini-donuts in one sitting, there are many other things I can cook in it, and they will cook fast. (Beaten eggs with tiny bits of cooked ham, bell pepper, mushroom, a dash of milk. Crab cakes or tuna cakes. Polenta?) And there’s just something about little mini-donut shaped foods that make people want to pick them up and eat them. You could probably even make biscuit chewing rings for babies or happy pets. There are many available options. The machine is worth the money.

The egg maker I bought hasn’t seen as much use as intended, mostly because eggs are so expensive. But when I tried it out, the hardboiled eggs it made were perfect, and remarkably easy to peel. It was great. I had a bit of a problem making omelets, with the first one coming out perfectly but the ones afterward giving me difficulties, but everything made was edible. No food wasted. Plus I chose the big egg maker because it can also steam other food, and I have plans for the next time I make dumplings.

I’ve got my electric composting machine that turns kitchen waste into dry granules. I mostly run it every other day, and while it does use electricity, it doesn’t use that much. And it honestly makes me compost rather than just throwing everything in the trash can because I don’t want to run outside when it’s raining. Even if I threw the compost granules into the trash can, that would still be less garbage going to the landfill than if it wasn’t run through the machine.

And I know, it’s not real compost. It’s the first step of compost. You run your household scraps through the machine, then you throw the resultant granules into your compost pile, and then you let nature do it’s own thing. But because it’s all chopped up small and mixed together, it composts faster and you can use it sooner in your garden or to build up your soil and raise the quality of your property. You don’t have to throw away all that "trash." You can bury it in a hole.

So for me, the electric composter machine was a good purchase (on the part of my dad who bought it for my birthday), and I don’t regret having it. I use it ALL THE TIME.

There are some "splurges" that actually raise the quality of your life to the point that they aren’t splurges. They are useful gadgets that it is good to have in your house. So if you see one being sold used for $10 and it still looks brand new (the owners got something newer and need to get rid of the old) it might be worth your time to buy it and try it. And if you don’t like it, you sell it to someone else for $10.

Though I’m a hoarder, so if I buy an ice cream machine and it doesn’t break, it will be following me for the rest of my life. The repository of all the fruits I gather from my yard and the grocery store (strawberry ice cream, blueberry ice cream, plum ice cream, blackberry ice cream, cherry ice cream, pear ice cream, green tea ice cream, chocolate ice cream). And that doesn’t seem so bad.

In a world that has become so full of bitterness… I just want to eat a little bit of ice cream. Not too sweet. Not too tart. Mellow and creamy, and maybe secretly spiked with fiber powder or carrot juice or beet powder. The options are endless.

~Harper Kingsley

https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.

https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.

https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.

https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://kimichee.com.

https://www.youtube.com/c/HarperKingsley.

https://harperkingsley.bsky.social.
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I’ve been having Jetpack issues, and I think I’ve fixed the problem!

There are several posts that I previously tried to send by email that never went through. So… sad for those missing and presumed dead posts.

But, moving on…

Have you seen the movie "Companion"? It’s really good.

If you haven’t seen any trailers for it or read any reviews: DON’T.

Just go on MAX or wherever you can watch movies and put on "Companion" starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid. It’s a good sci-fi movie.

And whoever made the trailers should be shot because they included spoilers when they didn’t have to. At all.

Even if you’ve been spoiled, it’s still an enjoyable watch. It’s a good little movie.

~Harper Kingsley

https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.

https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.

https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.

https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://kimichee.com.

https://www.youtube.com/c/HarperKingsley.

https://harperkingsley.bsky.social.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/HarperKingsley.

(I am currently on the cusp of a hypomanic(?) episode. And I’ve smoked some weed. My mood is not stable (in a not dangerous way. Just in a "I’m getting sad about ALL THIS"-kind of way.), but I have shit I feel like i need to say.

Because the fucking silence is killing me.)

Main Components.

I hate that people can’t spread their consciousness across their whole living area.

Moving on…

I wish that electric composter machines had more options.

I like it because I know I don’t have the spoons to deal with an actual composting setup. There’s no way I’m going to want to flip a pile or don gloves to clear the leftovers out of the spinning bin. I’m just Not That Guy.

The machine is great to me because "stuff goes in, dried grounds come out "-is enough to handle the household compost situation. And I really appreciate that.

I now have a collection of dehydrated compost grounds in airtight containers.

If it were up to me, I would pick a spot, dig a hole, and start throwing the compost grounds into a pile. Add some leaves or whatever, yard waste, and a compost starter.

It should be low smell, and it would replenish the nutrients to the natural soil. Building up more dirt? I don’t know. It’s just supposed to be better for the land.

I’m doing diamond art again.

I wish diamond art photographed better.

So seriously dudes: unless you’re serious about diamond art painting, do not order the kits.

They all give so many extra drills, and if you’re buying the kit for a child or someone who will just sweep them into the garbage at any moment… maybe you shouldn’t?

That’s an inappropriate gift.

That is an unnecessary inconvenience in someone’s life. Don’t be surprised if you start receiving some bad thoughts from somebody’s in-law. (Partner, spouse, roommate… it doesn’t matter who it is. But at some point someone is going to be so damned tired of all those drills all over the place, and get out the big vacuum.

And off those drills go into the landfill.

It’s an expensive hobby in that if the drills end up in the garbage or into the rivers and lakes, it could cause an environmental disaster. (They don’t have to be big to cause a problem. Especially if the ecology is already somewhat precarious, as it currently is.) The making of them is likely not very good either.

But these kits have already been made. All those drills are ALREADY HERE. So it’s better to use up those drills and create some art rather than to find out later that the whole stock of them got dumped in some landfill.

Like, if they wanted to recycle the plastic drills, they would need someone to open all those bags and dump out the drills. Sometimes the wrong color is mixed in. It’s why I have a little jar of mixed drills. They were extras or ones that I dropped and retrieved later.

So yes, I realize that diamond art is an expensive hobby. It costs in both money and environmental factors IF SOMEONE DUMPED ALL THEIR DRILLS INTO THE GARBAGE.

They are super tiny pieces of plastic. Animals can accidentally eat them. They get into the ecosystem. Pollute the water and contaminate fish.

This is a hobby where if you start a project, you DEFINTELY should finish it, This isn’t a dab of dried paint or a clump of clay. These are really tiny pieces of colored plastic.

They make lovely artwork that photographs terribly.

So don’t plan on using a diamond art poster to make great pictures or videos in the background of your content. They look beautiful in person. But they sparkle too much and in such a way that it photographs terribly.

For background content, I recommend those little cardboard models. They look really cool, and it seems like a very soothing hobby. (As long as you choose projects geared toward your crafting level. Some are like 4 or 5 pieces that snap together, and others are like 3000 pieces and stickers that you have to carefully place with tweezers. If the project is too hard, you’re more likely to not finish it.)

It’s building without Lego. It’s a building hobby where if someone can’t afford to buy a kit, they could look up a model kit and design the pieces themselves and either print them out on cardstock or personally draw and cut them out of used cardboard boxes. The biggest expense would be good scissors, an exacto knife, some non-toxic paper glue, and markers or paint or crayons or whatever you decorate with.

I think dollhouses are lovely.

When I was a child, my cousin showed off her cardboard dollhouse with a little copper latch. You could open up the house and there were all the rooms inside.

I can barely remember my cousin. But I totally remember that dollhouse. I’d never seen such magic.

So yeah. I think a child would like the gift of a dollhouse, or the experience of building a dollhouse themself. It could be a group activity, A couple activity. A lone hobby.

But just being able to build something realistic out of cardboard… That’s a good upcycle.

Cardboard jewelry boxes with purchased liners. (Even if you cover and coat the entire cardboard, you still shouldn’t let your jewelry come into direct contact. Off-gassing is a thing, and who knows where the cardboard came from or whatever’s going on inside it. Plus a liner could be a nice touch because you could have a liner that can be pulled out, and if you make multiple same-sized boxes the liners could be swapped.

• Custom display racks for conventions or showing stuff off to sell. If they all fold up neatly into an easy to pack and store block, that would be even better. Either keep together and fold, or dowels that can be pulled out or put back in to reassemble the modules. (I have a fascination for the idea of modular homes. Made in a temperature-controlled factory then assembled together on site in a single afternoon.)
• A custom carrying case that opens up and has a bunch of little drawers and cabinets. (Don’t throw away that clear plastic! Cut it into little windows! Cabinetry for a child’s dollset or a partner’s amusement. An all-around A+ gift if presented to the right person.

You guys have gotta stop peeping on people and blabbing whatever you see.

What are you doing???

People are being snatched on the fucking street!

They grabbed the wrong guy and he’s in an El Salvadorian prison.

I’ve always been terrified of being snatched away. (To the point of role-playing those power fantasies. You know the ones. But it’s all been in games and stuff.

Those fucking weirdos honestly think that shit is real.

There was a whole "real personal accounts" piece where she’s talking about how …)

Nobody in real life wants to be snatched off the street. It’s inhumane.

"Well, if we let them know we were coming for them, they would run away."–Maybe you could not act like a fucking idiot. Most people are working jobs and living lives. They are not looking to have a shootout. Maybe they overstayed their visa and they have home countries they’re safe to go back to. Don’t treat everybody like violent criminals.

You just mail letters to some people. Then you arrange their safe transport home. And it’s situation done.

The idea of sending someone to a labor prison IN ANOTHER COUNTRY where you are unable to get them back again? That’s fucking terrifying.

That’s human trafficking, man.

That’s gross.

Sometimes I forget what I’m saying midway through.

It’s not a big deal. It’s a human thing. A stress-response to protect the brain.

All the scary shit happening in the world today.

Like, I remember things were tense in the 90s. Like REAL BAD. Just suddenly BOOM!

We went from Clinton to Bush, and like WHOA.

We’ve had a few leaders that have really screwed things up for the country.

Paralax

I feel like there should be a lot more money going to education.

Not just in schools–free to all the children WITH two meals provided–but also to public education.

Take out some YouTube ads, motherfuckers.

What the hell are you doing? Put some money toward some GOOD and not to ball-licking political ads. Wake the fuck up.

I’m tired of rich people being able to put out brain warping messaging ads, but all the non-profits and GOOD PEOPLE aren’t putting out free education ads.

Show people how to maintain their appliances. In an eco-friendly way. (I have seen some TERRIBLE fads that have done awful damage to the planet. It makes me sad panda face.) Like, used toothbrushes are a good save.

Keep those bad boys for getting at the grout. To clean birdfeeders–we have hummingbirds year round here. They’re lovely in the snow. A used sanitized toothbrush is a great tool for cleaning and sanitizing a feeder, or helping to clean containers to be recycled.

I don’t have a garbage disposal, so that makes life hard. When I’m rinsing cans for recycling, sometimes there’s gunk that takes a little more time to clean off. A used toothbrush comes in handy.

And there’s so many people that just throw their used toothbrushes away.

There should be sponsored ads that give that info. Real things people should or might want to know. Everyday things.

There are some people that have never seen a cow in real life.

They’ve driven by them in fields or off in the distance, but they have never had the full COW experience.

They have never seen a cowpat much less having to deal with a dog that immediately rolled on said cowpat.

There are some things you simply cannot form a believable idea on if you have no frame of reference for what you’re talking about.

Seriously: There are dudes that were homeschooled and received their (shame shame) sex education (shame shame) from an awkward conversation with their horribly repressed father. Or from their sexually perverted uncle. (Seriously, a kink is not something to be ashamed about but to be considered as to its source, while a sexual pervert is someone that lacks the self-control or self-awareness to police their own language and treat someone young with compassion rather than overwhelming them with too much porn-think.

Why are you detailing every detail of a sexual experience you had or wish you could have to a teenager? That is a minor! You’re being weird as fuck, and that’s the nicest way to look at the situation.

Other than all the grossness, you are giving someone bad sex education.) And bad sex education is a serious problem in the world today.

• There was that story of that kid (he was early-early 20s) thinking that women lactate when they’re having a good sexual experience. So his partner was asking for advice because he kept getting upset with her because she didn’t lactate when they were having sex. So he didn’t believe she was into it, and it was causing him to self-doubt spiral.
• That congressman(?) that believed women could simply choose not to be pregnant. So even if they were assaulted, them getting pregnant was because they wanted to be pregnant. Otherwise there’s some kind of bodily control ability where she can choose not to conceive. Which shows there’s dudes making laws for ALL OF US that they don’t even understand because they don’t have an awareness of basic body anatomy.
• All those times someone gets pregnant because they didn’t realize that even without penetration, contact with swimmers can have consequences.

So just thinking of the bad sex educations a lot of people have… It makes me concerned about what else they know.

Do they know how to…

• compost their food scraps?
• protect their cat from essential oils and the many other things that are harmful to cats? (Lilies to cats are like grapes and chocolate to dogs, but with no way to halt a reaction or save their life. Cats are remarkably delicate creatures.)
• change a tire.
• make paper?
• make cheese?
• fry an egg?
• carve a radish rose?
• properly plunge a toilet?
• make a pizza?
• dance?

There’s so many things people don’t know but would like to know. And a short video that gives all the pertinent information and/or opens a mind to doing further research is a good thing.

I remember watching "Mister Roger’s Neighborhood" as a child. I most enjoyed the segments where different things were explained. I remember the one about book publishing and the one about how the crayons are made. And I remember he went to the grocery store, and I think that taught me how to buy groceries. Or how to act in the store, unlike movies and TV which normalized the bratty kid messing up the shelves.

People would like to see educational videos. Just because they teach someone something doesn’t mean they can’t be entertaining.

Edutainment is a viable market space.

~Harper Kingsley

https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.

https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.

https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.

https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://kimichee.com.

https://www.youtube.com/c/HarperKingsley.

https://harperkingsley.bsky.social.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/HarperKingsley.

So… the WSJ told people to stock up on cash.