Goodbye Spice Rack

After the completion of this blog post, I will be saying goodbye to an old culinary companion: my college spice rack

 

When I was in college, a friend of mine asked for some help carrying things out of her sister's house who was moving. As is always the case, people accumulate way more than they realize, and the act of needing to lug everything to a new location brings to light how much a person doesn't need. So she was in the process of reprioritizing her needs, and one of the things she decided to cut loose was her spice rack.

When she offered it to me, a buddy of mine who was also helping, burst out laughing. From his perspect, apparently my eyes lit up and I fell to my knees, laying my hands at the sides of the rack. I was mesmerized by it.

I don't remember it quite being like that, but I can believe it. As I gazed at those bottles, a whole new world of spice was opening up to me.

For context, by the time I got to college, despite having done Katimavik and having had food prep responsibilities during my rounds as House Manager, I still didn't have many life skills. Back then, my most reliable skill was bread baking, likely because baking generally comes with more guidance than cooking does. I would also always have someone helping me, even if they were similarly inexperienced.

During my college stint, I wasn't beholden to a schedule, |I was relieved of the pressure of providing for a household, and had to balance health and finances with the school workload. It wasn't a conducive environment to best utilize my culinary skills.

But I was trying. I had reverse-engineered the college cafeteria stirfries, eventually swapped out the noodles for rice when I found that was cheaper, and eventually started cracking eggs into it, making it a sort of fried rice. My newfound ability to make large batches of relatively healthy, cheap, and not-disgusting homemade food established me as the house chef among my similarly-inexperienced roommates. I could make fried rice and homemade bread, I was king.

But I still had no access point to the mysterious world of spices. When I laid eyes on this spice rack, a whole new reality opened up before me.

The two spices that were most unfamiliar to me at the time were tarragon and coriander. I would go out of my way to find both of these, because even though I didn't know how to use them and I had a limited budget, the investment was worth it to complete my collection.

We would do stupid things with spices. One of the most easiest and most affordable foods as students was frozen prierogies. You could get them for $2 per kilogram. This was amazing at the time, and if you can believe it, during the present-day crazy grocery inflation, those prices remain true at the time of this posting!

Anyway, we would fry up some prierogies and mindlessly experiment by throwing spices on them. We would have spice competitions with prierogies as the canvas.

When I moved the first time, the entire rack made it to the new location intact. But as someone who was helping us carried it to the new kitchen counter, one of the bottles fell out. I was upstairs and heard a crash. When I asked what broke, the person simply said "spice". Jokingly, I said "It better not be tarragon" because that was the one I felt most useless as well as costly. It was tarragon.

In the second move, corriander was lost. Somehow, the two spices I found most unfamiliar were the ones that didn't make it all the way.

Despite the fact that they were my least utilized, I still complained incessantly about it. I think this isn't even my first blog post about it. My family would make fun of me, but when I showed them the jars with their personalized, engraved leaves, they understood. My grandparents tried to offer advice on rebottling, but it proved impossible. As a consolation, they gave me some of their spice bottles, which I still have and have no plans of losing.

I would move only once more. Initially the tradition of losing a piece of the rack per move would not be repeated. However, it now appears that this move will be the end of it in its entirety.

You see, I have become far more versed in the world of spice than I had been when I first met my spice rack. It was becoming apparent that my new needs exceeded the limits of what it could offer. Even coriander was not a stranger to me, although I could only ever find like, one recipe for tarragon and I think I only made it once.

I would default to scrounging through shelves of bagged spices more often than I could turn to the support of my rack. Through lifestyle changes, being responsible for regular cooking for my then-girlfriend now wife, and my increasing proficiency due in part to my food blog, I had evolved and had witness to this development. My increasing need for a more efficient system was reported to my now-mother-in-law, and one Christmas I was gifted with a more extensive rack.

From six spices to 24. Even at its hayday of eight spices, the old rack simply cannot compete. Also, the new one is from McCormick, a popular brand with glass bottles at every grocery. So if one breaks it can easily be replaced, and if there is a more desired spice, it can be swapped out. The versatility is immeasurably better.

And with limited kitchen space in our basement apartment, I was eventually confronted with the fact that the old rack is just too bulky for its utility. I'll miss the engraved leaves, the unique, irreplaceable nature of it, and the memories that it evokes of my rooky days as a home cook. But sentimentality alone does not justify its continued existed on our now-crowded kitchen counter.

So farewell, old spice rack. You guided me to the world of spice, inspired me to experiment and research. You fulfilled your purpose in bringing me to this point, and I won't soon forget you. 

Watcher Entertainment

Before I begin today's topic, I want to briefly mention that Lee-Anne is safe at home after 19 days in the hospital. I won't go into it much more, as I don't intend for this to be the type of thing where I share every intimate detail on the blog. But since I let you all know what was happening, I thought I should at least mention that we got to the other side of it safely.

Anyway, let's get into today's discussion.

Probably my biggest guilty pleasure is Youtube. I don't do much in the way of social media, I've always been hesitant to engage with new technologies. I didn't have a cell phone until I went to college at the age of 22. When I got one it was a flip phone, archaic even then. The only platform I use for communication is Facebook, which got big while I was a teenager and is now known as the platform for old people. I scroll Reddit, but haven't posted anything there for years. I've got an Instagram I barely use. I briefly had an account on Twitter, which I believe has now been deleted for inactivity, and I don't use any of the doppelganger platforms like Threads. I've done two stints with Snapchat on request of others, but the app is now deleted. I've never been on Ticktock. I don't do Twitch, Discord, Tumblr or anything like that. My preferred way of communicating online is Blogger. 

The only predominant video platform I use is Youtube. While still successful, even it's developing a reputation as being for old people. This is due to the fact that it promotes long-form media instead of skits, and because it uses horizontal display. This makes it better for laptops and desktops, as opposed to Ticktock's vertical display, which is better for smart phones.

But Youtube has been keeping relevant. It has short-form vertical display options called Shorts, and its algorhythms have become sophisticated enough to curate individualized pages that maximize engagement.

I'm a big critic of algorhythms. I don't think they have the best interests of their consumers in mind, and I think that a big part of the polarization we're seeing in society today is due to being immersed with content designed specifically for ourselves. It's been proven, for example, that Youtube doesn't just push stuff that it thinks you'll enjoy. It also does it for things that you will hate. This is because people are perverse and will give attention to things that shock and horrify. This often leads to suggestions of people that you will resonate with, as well as poor representations of people on the other side of the issues you care about. This reinforces personal bias and leads to the opinion that everyone that disagrees with you is crazy.

This isn't a new phenomenon. When I was a kid, my mom told me that "the news" should be called "bad news" because it wasn't an accurate representation of the experience of life. It just covers the worst elements of it. 

What is new is the level of sophistication that media companies have in their ability to target people. Back in the day, we had a term called "click bait". This was when an article or video would present itself as something it wasn't, because even though they knew it wouldn't satisfy the consumer, it would cause them to click on it, which was the metric for which companies determined success. Nowadays, that isn't even necessary. With autoplay, the "click" is determined by how long you look at it, and this impacts what the algorhythm will offer you. It's "observe bait".

As bad as that is, there are reasons that I often prefer Youtube over traditional media. For example, despite being much larger in scale than it used to be, the people developing content are still relatively small and feel more down to Earth.

The other day, I asked myself, "If the algorhythm were to disappear, which channels would I still watch?" I pondered that, and decided on a handful of channels that I might visit if I needed a quick dopamine hit, but ultimately wouldn't follow or bother to keep up with. I found there were only two channels that I look forward to and keep their upload schedule in mind.

The first one is NFKRZ, which is hosted by a displaced Russian immigrant who escaped his home country at the dawning of the war with Ukraine. This is a small-scale production that mostly consists of him talking to a camera. He does his own editing and other than his girlfriend occasionally filming when they're outside, he doesn't have any real help. I don't have any special passion for Russian politics or culture, but this is just an introspective and humble guy navigating a complicated life journey.

The other channel that I specifically go out of my way for is Watcher Entertainment, and while it's taken me a bit to get here, it's this one that I want to talk about. I usually don't bother talking about drama in popular media, but as I've just established, it's one of my two favourite channels, so I feel a certain investment.

Unlike NFKRZ, Watcher is larger in scale, more polished, with dedicated series', and more similar overall to traditional television. It's a company started by three personalities that got their start on Buzzfeed: Ryan Bergara, Shane Medej, and Steven Lim.

If you don't know Buzzfeed, they're probably the most notorious example of a media company that used clickbait tactics. On their Youtube channel, they hired a massive number of creatives that all competed to establish themselves. Eventually, most of the more successful ones felt they could stand on their own feet and set out on their own. This included the three founders of Watcher.

While on Buzzfeed, Ryan and Shane were known for their Unsolved series. This involved the two of them going to locations known to be haunted and trying to collect evidence of ghosts. If you've seen most ghost hunting shows, you'll understand that they are usually obviously faked. However, the thing that distinguished this particular show was that Shane was a skeptic. He didn't believe in ghosts and nothing throughout the series run would sway him. Also, the content and evidence was far more understated and subtle, giving enough to titilate the believers while allowing enough room for skeptics to maintain their disbelief.

This means that many episodes would be them poking around a dusty abandoned building, only catching a few bumps in the night that would leave even the believers unimpressed. During these shoots, the two guys would goof around with each other, as they put it "Substituting giggles for ghouls".

Fans that sided with Shane identified themselves as "Shaniacs" and those on Ryan's end were called "Boogaras". People that didn't identify one way or the other were invited to refer to themselves as "Shitfish". They tried to reel that one back a few times but the phrase stuck, with many people proud to call themselves Shitfish.

I'm a Boogara by the way. Originally that was the norm, but as Shane's presence continued to distinguish the series, it eventually kind of became the ghost show for skeptics.

Ryan offered the series a sense of grandeur, while Shane offered a sense of legitimacy with his scroutiny. Because the show was as understated as it was, when they did come across something legitimately spooky, it felt much more impactful. This was because they'd developed a sense of trust that other ghost shows just didn't have.

Kind of a wholesome aspect of the series was that, even though they avidly disagreed with each other and did a lot of mutual teasing, they still obviously respected and liked each other. It felt like they were modeling how people can disagree while still being friends

They also had a True Crime series that they backed away from due to the sensitive nature of some of the cases.

Steven's Buzzfeed series was called Worth It, which he co-hosted with a man named Andrew. In it, they would try three meals at drastically different price points and at the end decide what they thought was the most worth it at its given price. So generally there would be a fast casual place, a sit down restaurant, and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It wasn't really a food critic show though, in that they never gave a bad review. Each location was vetted and they never went anywhere if there was a chance they wouldn't like it. It was just a feel good show about appreciating food and vicariously experiencing lifestyles that you wouldn't normally have access to, whether that be because of location or finances.

So these three guys split away from Buzzfeed and start their own channel, Watcher Entertainment. They all started as CEOs, but after Ryan and Shane's projects proved more successful, they took the helm as the lead entertainment while Steven adopted the position of sole CEO and did more behind the scenes work.

Steven's comparable lack of success was unsurprising to me. Probably more important than the premise of their respective series' was the dynamic they had with their co-hosts, and while Ryan and Shane had each other, Steven didn't have Andrew.

New shows that they saw have success: 

• Puppet History, a gameshow-inspired series based on history. Spearheaded by Shane, co-hosted by Ryan. Spiritual successor of Shane's short-lived solo project Ruining History
• Ghost Files, a spiritual successor to Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural, in which Ryan and Shane explore allegedly haunted locations in search of evidence of ghosts
• Mystery Files, a spiritual successor to Buzzfeed Unsolved: True Crime, where they dialed back the aspect of crime in favour of generally mysterious phenomenon
• Dish Granted, the only show Steven managed to get a little traction, where he tries to make the best and most expensive version of a dish requested by a guest in under 24 hours
• Top 5 Beatdown, where Ryan, Shane, and a guest list their top 5 choices of a given topic.
•  Are You Scared, in which Ryan reads spooky stories to try and get the better of his stoic friend Shane. 
• Too Many Spirits, where Ryan and Shane get drunk and read scary stories sent in by fans.
• Survival Mode, where Ryan and Shane play horror video games

They also have a couple of podcasts of moderate success and a number of discontinued series'.

My personal favourite was Social Distancing D&D. It happened during the pandemic, and was just the three of them and one of their behind the scenes employees playing Dungeons and Dragons over Zoom during the pandemic.

Over the course of four years, they managed to climb to three million subscribers, which is pretty successful. Recently, they announced that something big was coming, and set a timer for when they would go public with it.  Very much framed as something to get excited about.

So the timer runs down and a video titled "Goodbye Youtube" is released. It starts off with a reflection from each of them about their respective careers, played over soft piano music. Eventually, they anounce their next move as a company.

They're moving all their content onto an independent streaming platform. Members to be charged $5.99 a month, or $59.99 a year.

This is insane. They expect a monthly subscription for access to content that had previously been free. To reiterate, they are in my top two channels that I enjoy. I can afford $6 a month, and I never even considered subscribing.

I'm not alone, the fanbase has been united in disdain and confusion over the decision. Their dislike to like ratio on the announcement is about 80/20. As of this posting 70,000 people have unsubscribed. All the reaction Youtubers are covering the story.

The reason they cite for their decision is that as they are, they are beholden to advertisers. They would like to move somewhere they can cater only to fans. They say that they want to increase production value, that it's always been their goal to be a TV show, and that TV isn't suited for Youtube.

They did announce the spiritual successor of the Worth It series, called Travel Season. It is to air on their streaming service, complete with former co-host Andrew and cameraman Adam. They said that they will continue to release trailers and season premiers on their Youtube channel, but that all other content will be held exclusively on the streaming service.

It appears that there is a disparity between what they want to do and what their fans want from them. Almost all of their most successful shows have been based around Ryan and Shane hanging out and chatting. Their main draw is the parasocial relationship they offer, not their production value.

A parasocial relationship is when fans feel more closely connected to a public figure than they actually are. This isn't a new phenomenon. Way back when the show Cheers was airing, people tuned in to watch people interact in the place "where everyone knows your name".

There is a term called a "Third Place". It means somewhere that you go to relax that isn't home or work. Because of everything being monetized and the rise of home entertainment among other factors, these places are becoming more and more scarce. People tuned in to watch Cheers to feel like they were a part of that Third Place.

This is the case for Ryan and Shane, and of Steven and Andrew. We live in what is known as a "loneliness epidemic" which is impacting men especially hard. I'm not exempt. When I watched two guys with similar values banter, it was like I was vicariously experiencing part of the friendship. Remember when I said that part of the appeal of Youtube over traditional media was the low scale? That worked for them. Saying they need higher production to give the fans what they want is crazy.

As far as finances go, it's been pointed out that they've been fumbling pretty hard. They have 25 staff, which is apparently way higher than they need, they moved to an office in LA, and in general they've been spending exhorbitant amounts on set designs and other things that no one asked for or wanted. 

Despite that, their financial situation should be sound. You see, this isn't the first time they've put their content behind a paywall. They have something called a Patreon, which hosts exclusive content for paid membership. They have been relatively successful with this while still releasing free videos to Youtube. Now, the people that are already paying between $5-$25 for a Patreon subscription are only getting a 40% discount on the streaming platform. They also have a successful merch store and live shows in addition to their numerous ads and sponsors. It can be easy to forget how big these channels can be behind the scenes.

They said they set the membership fee at $6 because they wanted "Anyone and everyone to be able to afford it". First off, that is verifiably untrue. We are in a global recession and many people are living paycheque to paycheque. Some people are unhoused, but in our modern society where everyone has a cell phone and most have access to public WiFi, they'd have been able to access the free content but likely not the stuff behind a paywall.

But even for people that can afford it, why would they pay a monthly subscription fee for access to one Youtube channel? In our present climate, most people are paying multiple subscription fees already. They've placed themselves in direct competition with Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime etc.

But do you know what those places have that Watcher doesn't? A catalogue of classic films and shows spanning across decades, as well as original, exclusive content made by their platform. Watcher has four years of content, made by one team, with new releases once or twice a week.

I've seen other Youtubers show what the new Watcher streaming platform looks like, and it looks good. Like, weirdly good. It looks comparable to Netflix.

But the fact that it looks that good begins to feel a little creepy. Like, if you went onto Netflix and every show was done by the same three people, that would be weird right? If you clicked on your TV and it was the same three people on every channel that would just be... weird.

And how do they expect to grow the fan base? Usually, you attract attention to yourself on recomendation of a friend, or because an algorhythm suggested it, or because you saw it in a catalogue in proximity to other things you're interested in. No one is going to accidentally find them behind a paywall. I guess they're relying on word of mouth from the small fraction of people willing to pay for it, and otherwise just through trailers and season premiers on Youtube? I don't think it's doable.

They should have tried to just get a show on Netflix or some alternate streaming service with an established catalogue. And if they couldn't swing that, that should have informed them of their chances of making it as an independent streaming service.

Most of the backlash has been directed at Steven. I find this unsurprising, since he's the CEO so he'll be perceived as the one with the most decision making power. Also, Ryan and Shane's positions as faces of the organization have them primed to be sympathetic.

I can understand using Travel Season as bait to pull in an audience. All of the previous legacy shows proved wildly succesful when given their spiritual sequals on Watcher, and Worth It was like 50% of their legacy on Buzzfeed. As I mentioned before, the missing component was Andrew, but now they've got him, so it seems natural.

But it's been pointed out that it's a little offputting to ask for money from their audience, and then use that same money on intentionally overpriced meals. It was more palatable when Steven was just a guy who was sent to fancy restaurants by a faceless media corporation, getting his mind blown by food that he wouldn't normally be able to afford. But now he's the CEO of his own company and he's taking money from the poor to feed himself. It's a different vibe, you know?

Anyway, wow, I talked a while. Believe it or not I could keep going. We'll see if they wind up backtracking or if they push forward. I think all they can do is damage control at this point, but after they slandered their ads and sponsors, I don't know if that revenue stream will be as viable. I'm sure they've lost a good chunk of subscribers permanently already. Totally boneheaded move on their behalf

Total Solar Eclipse 2024

Yesterday we experienced a total solar eclipse. Apparently we get a couple every year, but they're usually situated over the poles, or they land largely on the ocean. This one spanned over a huge portion of North America, covering parts of Mexico, the US, and Canada. This included Kitchener, the city that I reside.

The word "total" got attached to this particular eclipse to emphasize its magnitude. Technically this word is a bit overdramatic, in that there were people traveling to see it. If it were actually total, it would have covered the globe. In fact, even we didn't experience a "total solar eclipse". Our time "at totality" covered about 90% of the sun. The closest place geographically to get the full version was Niagara Falls.

One of the more eerie aspects of this phenomenon is that it's only possible because the moon and sun are positioned the exact space necessary from Earth that they appear to be the same size. The difference in scale between the Earth, moon, and sun, and respective distance they are from each other is literally astronomical. This fact seems functionless, and the specificity of this aesthetic choice feels like a creative decision. It evokes a feeling of divine intentionality. 

The eclipse was treated very seriously by our local schoolboard. Initially, it was announced that schools would be open, but less than a week before the event, someone got cold feet and canceled the day.

I kind of get it. It happened at the most inconvenient time for us too. Our members typically leave between 3:00 and 3:30. The eclipse was supposed to start at about 2:45 and reach totality at about 3:15. So the perfect time to guarantee that all our members would be outside.

This is a problem because staring into an eclipse is dangerous. My initial understanding of this was that, it's not because the eclipse sends more damaging rays, it's just more tempting to look at based on novelty. Also, we're so used to avoiding the sun based on the pain of its brightness that without that sensation, people lower their guard. 

This was kind of true, but there is an additional element. When we look at the sun, our eyes contract as a natural protective instinct. During an eclipse, our eyes don't recognize the danger so they don't use this defense mechanism, thus making them more vulnerable to damage. So if there's even a little bit of direct eye contact with the sun, it will cause more damage than usual.

Our members have a variety of capacity when it comes to heeding advice about safety. Knowing that there would likely be a large number of them outside during the event, my boss made the precautionary move of ordering eclipse glasses.

My understanding of these was that they were an additional layer of protection, but that it was advisable to not stare directly at the sun. I was at a community centre earlier in the day it happened, and people were annoying me, saying they bought special glasses to look at the eclipse.

They turned out to be right though. The glasses expressly state that they are meant for sungazing during an eclipse, which it claimed could be safely done for up to three minutes. My coworkers were stating their intention of doing so, but I said that I would abstain from this behaviour. I have a legally blind wife and don't want to lose my status as the sighted partner. My optometrist, who is also my Father-in-Law, gave me 20/20 vision at my last appointment and I don't want to lose that.

Potentially the eclipse could be a great business opportunity for him.

Anyway, I tried the glasses on. It was just a big black bar over my eyes. I guess they're just super heavy duty sunglasses. I stared directly into a lightbulb and saw a little illumination.

All day leading up to the eclipse, it had been really cloudy. Miraculously, just before it happened, the sky opened up to give us full exposure.

Despite staying open, most of our members had opted to stay home, or go home early. We only had a few very sensible people with good survival instincts, which was a relief.

As everyone went out to sungaze, I initially held back. But when I saw strong positive reactions, I buckled and decided to take a peak through the eclipse glasses.

It was amazing! As the moon passed over, it turned into a perfect crescent sun! It was a flat shape without any glow. It really goes to show how bright the sun actually is, if I could barely see a lightbulb inches from my face with the glasses on, but I could see clearly a glowing orange fingernail during the eclipse.

I took some photos. I took some regular ones, and some with the camera lens pointed through the glasses. They don't look anything like what I saw with my eyes though.

Me, forgetting that my camera was in selfie mode

Direct shot of the eclipse

Through the eclipse glasses

Somehow, someone got a good shot of the crescent sun. Maybe my camera is just bad.

There were sun gazers coming out from surrounding houses and buildings. I'm not confident that everyone showed enough restraint to limit themselves to three minutes of exposure.

I thought it would get way darker than it did. I thought it would be like night during the daytime. Only at near totality did it drop to a dusky vibe. It got dark enough to trigger automatic lights. And it got colder! I didn't even think of that!

Overall, it was way more awesome than I thought it would be, but I didn't think I'd have the courage to engage with it. I only stole glances through the eclipse glasses though. Nowhere near the allowable three minutes.

I read a book called Staring at the Sun. It's about mortality. The metaphor is that death is something that is around us constantly and informs the way we live, but to look directly at it is painful. This is similar to how the sun illuminates the Earth, and we're aware of it but fear looking at it directly. The author makes it explicitly clear that while staring at death and acknowledging it is healthy if painful, he would never recommend staring at the literal sun.

Well, with eclipse glasses we can stare at the literal sun too.