Octopus Overlords

Hrdina wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 12:10 am

Kraken wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:45 pm What was that restaurant called? We also had a nice dinner at a fancy place in Skaneateles -- not for our honeymoon, but for an early anniversary. My memory of the place is that they were piping in music from a CD player, which were still new and semi-exotic. The CD kept skipping in that weird digital way that they had.

I wouldn't swear to it, but it may have been the Sherwood Inn, right there by the lakeside.

Must be. How many fancy lakeside restaurants can Skaneateles have, after all?

I remember now that I had the roast duck. Never had it before, or since. It tasted like pheasant.

Kraken wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:41 pm

Daehawk wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:14 pm Getting paid for living is nice isn't it?

My SS record shows that I have contributed about $100k over my 50+ years of work, and my employers have paid the same. For the past 15 years I've paid both the employee and employer parts myself, as all self-employed people must do. It will take me about 96 months to collect that much in benefits. Should I live that long, I'll be 74.5 years old before I come out ahead. I'll also keep working for some years after I "retire" so I'll be in the weird position of paying SS taxes while drawing SS checks. If I'm going to get paid for living, it's with my own money.

Yes, I know SS is pay-go and it's not really my money coming back; my money was spent as it was paid in, so I'll technically be mooching off the young. Please don't tell them.

Don't forget all the inflation over your working lifetime. It will almost certainly be more than 96 months to come out even in terms of buying power.

GreenGoo wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 2:21 pm

Kraken wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:41 pm

Daehawk wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:14 pm Getting paid for living is nice isn't it?

My SS record shows that I have contributed about $100k over my 50+ years of work, and my employers have paid the same. For the past 15 years I've paid both the employee and employer parts myself, as all self-employed people must do. It will take me about 96 months to collect that much in benefits. Should I live that long, I'll be 74.5 years old before I come out ahead. I'll also keep working for some years after I "retire" so I'll be in the weird position of paying SS taxes while drawing SS checks. If I'm going to get paid for living, it's with my own money.

Yes, I know SS is pay-go and it's not really my money coming back; my money was spent as it was paid in, so I'll technically be mooching off the young. Please don't tell them.

Don't forget all the inflation over your working lifetime. It will almost certainly be more than 96 months to come out even in terms of buying power.

I was going to say, add inflation, and a reasonable secure long term return of of 5% and that should be much much more than 100k

GreenGoo wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 2:21 pm

Kraken wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:41 pm

Daehawk wrote: Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:14 pm Getting paid for living is nice isn't it?

My SS record shows that I have contributed about $100k over my 50+ years of work, and my employers have paid the same. For the past 15 years I've paid both the employee and employer parts myself, as all self-employed people must do. It will take me about 96 months to collect that much in benefits. Should I live that long, I'll be 74.5 years old before I come out ahead. I'll also keep working for some years after I "retire" so I'll be in the weird position of paying SS taxes while drawing SS checks. If I'm going to get paid for living, it's with my own money.

Yes, I know SS is pay-go and it's not really my money coming back; my money was spent as it was paid in, so I'll technically be mooching off the young. Please don't tell them.

Don't forget all the inflation over your working lifetime. It will almost certainly be more than 96 months to come out even in terms of buying power.

SS has been indexed for inflation since 1975. The COLA only directly affects those who are actively collecting or who have passed the age of 62 and are eligible to collect, but your wage base is regularly adjusted to bring up the value of your earlier years. There's a good explanation here.

The basis for your Social Security benefit is a figure known as your average indexed monthly earnings, or AIME. To arrive at your AIME, the program takes the actual earnings for each year you worked and adjusts the years earlier in your career to bring them closer to what you earned after age 60. It then averages the 35 years of highest indexed earnings and divides that number by the 12 months of the year. The resulting figure is your AIME. The administration applies a specific formula, based on your first year of eligibility, to the AIME to arrive at your PIA.

Here's the bottom line: You only receive COLA adjustments if you apply for retirement benefits after age 62. Specifically, you get adjustments for any years between your first eligibility (at age 62) and your filing date. If you claim Social Security right when you turn 62, you may not get any of those adjustments.

I turned 62 in 2019 so my basic benefit has increased by 1.6, 1.3, 5.9, and 8.7% COLAs since then, on top of the routine annual adjustments to my AIME.

50 years of inflation have robbed me of the purchasing power I would've had if I had banked/invested all of my contributions, or even if I had just spent the money as it came in...but that's being partially offset by a magic formula. The longer you wait to claim, the bigger your check gets; between your full retirement age (66.5 for me) and the mandatory retirement age of 70, your benefit goes up 8% per year. That's a mighty fine guaranteed return if you think you'll live long enough to enjoy it, and a strong argument against filing at age 62 unless you really need the money and/or are in poor health.

Yes, but I thought you were calculating how much you contributed vs how much you are going to take out and equating the two.

Yes, how much ss pays out is going to increase over time, tied to inflation (probably, I don't know your SS details), but I again, I thought your calculations were $100,000 in = $100,000 out. Sounded like it, but maybe I skimmed. I could review but...maybe later

GreenGoo wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 5:40 pm Yes, but I thought you were calculating how much you contributed vs how much you are going to take out and equating the two.

Yes, how much ss pays out is going to increase over time, tied to inflation (probably, I don't know your SS details), but I again, I thought your calculations were $100,000 in = $100,000 out. Sounded like it, but maybe I skimmed. I could review but...maybe later

Yeah, basically that...except $200k in took 50 years, and $200k out will take 8. If I live past 74 I'll have got all of "my" money back.

Right now I'm getting all of your SS tax money. Thank You!

dbt1949 wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 6:44 pm Right now I'm getting all of your SS tax money. Thank You!

You're welcome. Seriously, I'm fine with other people benefiting from my tax payments. SS benefits have been crucial to many people in my life.

Kraken wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 9:48 pm

dbt1949 wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 6:44 pm Right now I'm getting all of your SS tax money. Thank You!

You're welcome. Seriously, I'm fine with other people benefiting from my tax payments. SS benefits have been crucial to many people in my life.

Exactly. I am fine paying in for those who need it because I'm not a sociopath.

gbasden wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 1:30 am

Kraken wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 9:48 pm

dbt1949 wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 6:44 pm Right now I'm getting all of your SS tax money. Thank You!

You're welcome. Seriously, I'm fine with other people benefiting from my tax payments. SS benefits have been crucial to many people in my life.

Exactly. I am fine paying in for those who need it because I'm not a sociopath.

Yes and no. I suppose I would be fine with not expecting quid pro quo if weren't sold to me as quid pro quo my entire life. At the same time, I do believe a sort of golden rule in funding government funding civil services.

Hey carnivores: How do you grill a T-bone (or any bone-in steak) so that the meat near the bone and the rest of the meat are the same degree of done-ness, more or less?

Either I can get the outside of the steak medium rare while the bone-adjacent meat is nearly raw, or I can cook that to my satisfaction at the cost of making the rest of the steak well-done.

I usually buy off-the-bone cuts to avoid the problem, but I do like a good T-bone and they're on sale today for $5.99/lb.

My teeth don't allow me to eat steaks anymore.

I gots no teeth and eat t-bones

Kraken wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 1:18 pm Hey carnivores: How do you grill a T-bone (or any bone-in steak) so that the meat near the bone and the rest of the meat are the same degree of done-ness, more or less?

Either I can get the outside of the steak medium rare while the bone-adjacent meat is nearly raw, or I can cook that to my satisfaction at the cost of making the rest of the steak well-done.

I usually buy off-the-bone cuts to avoid the problem, but I do like a good T-bone and they're on sale today for $5.99/lb.

Sous vide, the same technique used by high end restaurants. It's especially useful for otherwise tricky cuts like a T-bone, because you simply set a precise temperature and every part of your steak will be cooked perfectly all the way through to that exact temperature, with no risk of overcooking whatsoever.

Here's an example demonstrating the simplicity of using sous vide to cook a perfect T-bone steak:

Kraken wrote:Hey carnivores: How do you grill a T-bone (or any bone-in steak) so that the meat near the bone and the rest of the meat are the same degree of done-ness, more or less?

Either I can get the outside of the steak medium rare while the bone-adjacent meat is nearly raw, or I can cook that to my satisfaction at the cost of making the rest of the steak well-done.

I usually buy off-the-bone cuts to avoid the problem, but I do like a good T-bone and they're on sale today for $5.99/lb.

How are you cooking them now?

I take my steaks out of the refrigerator early so they can come close to room temperature before cooking them "hot and fast" on the grill...500 degrees for 3-4 minutes each side (actually using timer, no guessing) gets a me near-perfect medium-rare every time. I think having the steak start at a uniform temperature throughout is very important to help avoid uneven cooking, especially when part of the meat is next to a bone that stays cold longer and absorbs a lot of heat.

Back off topic for the Social Security. I registered at socialsecurity.gov last week per this thread, I think. I just got a call from "officer John" from "the Social Security Administration" from an unknown number. He couldn't confirm much but wanted me to confirm the last four of my social security number. We went back and forth about 4 four times before I figured it was scam and I hung up. Never did find out what he wanted aside from the last four of social security number. I hope it wasn't real and they would actually call from an unknown number related to me signing up on the website. I seem to be getting lots of unsolicited contact from government, such as census.gov texting me every day asking me for my important help and amber alerts at 0230 again and again and again and my congress people telling me how great they are and mayor telling me how great he is and....

When I signed up the website specifically said that I would get a letter (I know, right!) from them. I wouldn't trust anything else.

And then I get a text the may CC just denied a charge at "servicetestes.org" I guess it's identity attack day.

Damn it! I knew I should have gone to neuticles.com first.

I really do need to figure out why my natural inclination when presented with buttons on a touch screen at self check out terminal is to "push the right most one without thought".

Last week I ended up giving 5 bucks to a charity during self check out because of this. When I realized what I had done, my options were:

1) Look like a total asshole and ask the attendant to wipe the 5 dollars off my charge

2) Let it go and realize I'm an idiot

3) Jam my hand up the money chute and try to extract 5 dollars the hard way


Note: If anyone wants to use number 3 as their signature, please leave my name off it.

p.s. I did go with option 2....as I do with most things in my life.

Does make you wonder what the site is, doesn't it?

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LordMortis wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 3:43 pm Does make you wonder what the site is, doesn't it?

disarm wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 1:51 pm

Kraken wrote:Hey carnivores: How do you grill a T-bone (or any bone-in steak) so that the meat near the bone and the rest of the meat are the same degree of done-ness, more or less?

Either I can get the outside of the steak medium rare while the bone-adjacent meat is nearly raw, or I can cook that to my satisfaction at the cost of making the rest of the steak well-done.

I usually buy off-the-bone cuts to avoid the problem, but I do like a good T-bone and they're on sale today for $5.99/lb.

How are you cooking them now?

I take my steaks out of the refrigerator early so they can come close to room temperature before cooking them "hot and fast" on the grill...500 degrees for 3-4 minutes each side (actually using timer, no guessing) gets a me near-perfect medium-rare every time. I think having the steak start at a uniform temperature throughout is very important to help avoid uneven cooking, especially when part of the meat is next to a bone that stays cold longer and absorbs a lot of heat.

That's exactly what I do. The meat at the bone will be undercooked...which is better than overcooking everything else; I just awaken my inner caveman to gnaw the raw red part.

Some of the Youtube videos I've seen all swear by reverse searing method but since I don't grill myself, I can't tell you whether or not it's really so much better.

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 1:41 pm

Kraken wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 1:18 pm Hey carnivores: How do you grill a T-bone (or any bone-in steak) so that the meat near the bone and the rest of the meat are the same degree of done-ness, more or less?

Either I can get the outside of the steak medium rare while the bone-adjacent meat is nearly raw, or I can cook that to my satisfaction at the cost of making the rest of the steak well-done.

I usually buy off-the-bone cuts to avoid the problem, but I do like a good T-bone and they're on sale today for $5.99/lb.

Sous vide, the same technique used by high end restaurants. It's especially useful for otherwise tricky cuts like a T-bone, because you simply set a precise temperature and every part of your steak will be cooked perfectly all the way through to that exact temperature, with no risk of overcooking whatsoever.

I would consider buying one of those setups if I had a big kitchen with lots of electrical outlets, but alas.

Gilraen's reverse-sear method is more feasible, but I don't want to use my oven when it's 80+ degrees out. My kitchen isn't air conditioned.

You only need one outlet for the immersion heater, and a large enough container for the water bath.

It looked to me like vacuum sealing was important, too. I don't think a ziplock bag would cut it.

I love the tap-to-pay terminals checking out and I always try to use my watch because it’s so quick and I’m not trying to get my credit card out of my wallet or using the phone.

What I don’t like is the guilt I have trying to quickly figure out a tip for a simple order of a $5 iced coffee. With people behind me and the barista watching me, I see the first option $1 (good service), then $2 (great service)… etc. I didn’t even get my coffee yet which ended up being meh. How about another terminal at the end to leave a tip after services are rendered?

I don’t know, maybe I’m just a cranky old man trying to keep up with technology but damn what a love/hate relationship with these checkout terminals.

I love Aldi. While the cashier is scanning my items, I’m already paying for the order. In and out of there really quick. Oh, we have one of our Aldi’s switch to self-checkout. Not sure how I feel about that yet, haven’t tested the process.

gilraen wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 5:27 pm Some of the Youtube videos I've seen all swear by reverse searing method but since I don't grill myself, I can't tell you whether or not it's really so much better.

It is much better. U reverse sear m t-bone steak every time. Yum Good.

Kraken wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:54 pm It looked to me like vacuum sealing was important, too. I don't think a ziplock bag would cut it.

You can make do with a ziplock bag if you don't have a vacuum sealer. The main thing is to avoid air bubbles in the bag and keep the water out of it.



I do have a vacuum sealer now, but I started out with just an immersion heater and ziplock freezer bags.

Kraken wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:54 pm It looked to me like vacuum sealing was important, too. I don't think a ziplock bag would cut it.

Strictly speaking, if you have a decent sous-vide immersion circulator, you can get by without using a vacuum sealer at all. Because you can instead rely upon the water displacement method using a Ziploc freezer bag as shown below. But any bags thinner than freezer bags are not safe for cooking sous-vide:



Sealing food this way does not create a true vacuum seal, so it's less suited for long term freezer storage and ought not be relied upon for foods that require a longer cook than a couple of hours. But it's plenty sufficient while first starting out with a sous-vide cooker.

Also, if you have a tiny kitchen, there are perfectly functional vacuum sealers such as this, which have a minuscule footprint:

telcta wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:59 pm I love the tap-to-pay terminals checking out and I always try to use my watch because it’s so quick and I’m not trying to get my credit card out of my wallet or using the phone.

What I don’t like is the guilt I have trying to quickly figure out a tip for a simple order of a $5 iced coffee. With people behind me and the barista watching me, I see the first option $1 (good service), then $2 (great service)… etc. I didn’t even get my coffee yet which ended up being meh. How about another terminal at the end to leave a tip after services are rendered?

I don’t know, maybe I’m just a cranky old man trying to keep up with technology but damn what a love/hate relationship with these checkout terminals.

I love Aldi. While the cashier is scanning my items, I’m already paying for the order. In and out of there really quick. Oh, we have one of our Aldi’s switch to self-checkout. Not sure how I feel about that yet, haven’t tested the process.

Funny enough, we were recently watching a game show which had a question about who to tip. The last part of the question was about whether you tip a coffee shop barista with a tip jar. The answer was no, it is not necessary to tip a counter attendant. My wife has this response when we go to a Five Guys and their POS machines ask for a tip amount. She explains that servers who wait tables don't have to be paid minimum wage so they deserve the tip while those behind a counter working a cash register are supposed to be paid minimum wage. YMMV.

Self-checkout is great, Publix is adding those. But they will also keep the tradition casher checkouts as well.

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 7:44 pm

I can certainly empathise with the New Jersey kitchen horrors you've doubtless borne witness to.

But the best cure for what ails you, would undoubtedly be one of these, cooked sous-vide, then pan-seared and basted to exquisite perfection:



Well, unless you're a vegan. But in that case, may God have mercy on your misbegotten soul.

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:12 pm Well, unless you're a vegan. But in that case, may God have mercy on your misbegotten soul.

I've had amazingly delicious sous-vide steak prepared by a chef, yes.

Similar to home canning/jarring, I always get a bit nervous when people tell me they're experimenting with the process and they've "watched some videos". It's not rocket science (and likely safer than making your own mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce), but I'd urge anyone thinking about exploring the technique to get educated.

I might get one of those sous vide tubs for my new kitchen. If/when I get a new kitchen. We're going to start looking at houses next week. The housing market being what it is, I don't think we'll find one very soon. But we're pre-approved for a mortgage so it could happen quickly if the right house at the right price suddenly appears.

Because Wife is vegetarian I don't cook many steaks, and I usually buy boneless, so it's not something I'd use often. But I will deck out my new kitchen with all kinds of optional gadgets, such as an air fryer and maybe even a pressure cooker. With the prospect of moving house for the first time in 34 years looming, I'm currently focused on getting rid of things.

Instant Pots have a sous vide setting along with the pressure cooker feature.

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:20 pm

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:12 pm Well, unless you're a vegan. But in that case, may God have mercy on your misbegotten soul.

I've had amazingly delicious sous-vide steak prepared by a chef, yes.

Similar to home canning/jarring, I always get a bit nervous when people tell me they're experimenting with the process and they've "watched some videos". It's not rocket science (and likely safer than making your own mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce), but I'd urge anyone thinking about exploring the technique to get educated.

Indeed, this is a valid point. Hence my caveats about using only thicker, freezer-type Ziploc bags for sous-vide cooking, and to avoid using them for extended sous-vide cook times. I tend to primarily rely upon premium vacuum seal rolls specifically designed and intended for sous-vide cooking available from Costco. But occasionally still use a Ziploc freezer bag with the water displacement method if/when short on time.

I don't know how this got into my feed:

Kraken wrote: Thu Jul 06, 2023 9:05 pm Because Wife is vegetarian I don't cook many steaks, and I usually buy boneless, so it's not something I'd use often.

One of my favorite things to cook low temperature, i.e. sous vide, is carrots.

I bring them to 160F and hold for 20 minutes and then bring them up to 183F and hold for 20 more minutes. The lower temp rest allows the starch to convert to sugar and the higher temp finishes breaking down the cellulose to "cook" them.

These are the sweetest carrots you will ever taste and they need NOTHING added to them. No butter, no salt, no honey...