How to Perfectly Fry Potatoes Every Time

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025 ~ SA Otey

My favorite diet has been the slow carb diet, potatoes have been a staple of the cheat day. In fact, I try to have them at every meal. Crispy rounds for breakfast, waffles fries for lunch, and tater tots for dinner.

I bought a small deep fryer just for potatoes. I use only peanut oil to fry them. First I fry crank up the heat to 375 degrees and I flash fry them for 30 seconds. I pull them out and let the oil reach the maximum temperature once again. I then fry them for another 1 to 2 minutes until they start to float or look golden brown. Double frying them as described produces the coveted, “crispy on the outside, tender on the inside” cliche.

I’m probably eating so many taters because my potassium gets so low because this diet sucks it out of my body. There’s probably a more healthful way to eat taters, but I only got one day to eat them, and one life to live.

Don’t use your turn signal

October 12, 2025October 10, 2025 ~ SA Otey

Today I was making a right-hand turn and my light was green. I ignited my turn signal and an 18-wheeler made a left in front of me as I hit the brakes. He waved and thanked me as he passed in front of me and as my life passed before my eyes. What choice did I have? I could have made the choice to not use my turn signal and made my turn safely. To be honest, the turn signal is useless in our modern driving society.

If you use your signal on the interstate, it notifies the driver on the left or right to close the gap and not let you over. Don’t think, don’t blink, just go! They will pretend you ram you anyway, and then throw their hands up in disbelief of your actions.

I don’t trust anyone who uses their turn signal before they enter my subdivision. I wait until they commit to the turn before they go. One time, they started their turn changed their mind, and kept going forward. I don’t know if I want to drive anymore.

Why Investing in Gold Might Be a Bad Idea

October 11, 2025October 10, 2025 ~ SA Otey

Most conservative news outlets have someone hocking gold on just about every commercial. The pitch is that gold is going to skyrocket in the future as it has done in the past. By jumping into the gold rush you will be super wealthy and you would be insane not to do so.

So why is now the perfect time to buy gold? Well, the best reason I can guess is someone got duped into buying gold and wants to unload it to you so they can get some real money. I will never buy gold as an investment because to me it’s worthless. What am I going to do with a bunch of gold in someone else’s safe? Or why would I be crazy enough to put a bunch of gold in my house? Who robs your house of all the gold? What are we in the old west?

When the feces hits the fan, no one is going to want your gold. They will want food, water, and other commodities. I can’t pay for my kids’ college with shiny metal. I can’t walk into a dealership with a brick of gold and buy a new pickup truck. If gold was so valuable why do these cash-for-gold places rip you off for your fine jewelry? Sounds like a scam to me. I’ll stick with burying my money in the ground in only places I know about.

Fishing with Clickbait…

October 9, 2025October 8, 2025 ~ SA Otey

Cookie warnings

Everyone has to tell you they are using cookies, we all know this stop telling us, or stop using them.

Whitelisting

Now what website admins are hip to ad-blockers, everyone wants to be on the whitelist. You can either do that or subscribe to “premium” access. It’s gotten so bad with Screenrant.com that I had to stop visiting. When I put them on the whitelist I got so many javascript popups asking for a username and password to check my machine for a virus. When I took them off the whitelist they popped up a “premium” access offer and held my screen hostage for 30 seconds.

Pop-unders

Unlike pop-ups who used to throw up a new window. Popunders are those windows that dim the background and force you to read something before requiring you to take action. Some now have timers, they are also used with whitelists and…

Subscribe to our newsletter/email/discount

Usually, with some passive-aggressive statement such as “No thanks, I’d like to pay full price” or “I’d like to stay ignorant”. Sign up for any and prepare your inbox to be stuffed with garbage forever.

We value your feedback

Websites that need constant validation about how well they are doing. If you need feedback, you probably aren’t doing well.

Clickbait

Of course, everyone knows about clickbait at this point in their internet life. You know, you see an article titled “Man does this simple trick and lost 50 lbs in one day” Then when you click the bait, you see that he sawed off his own legs.

Why You Shouldn’t Hardcode Values in Software Engineering

October 8, 2025September 27, 2025 ~ SA Otey

Hardcoding values—embedding fixed data directly into your code—might seem convenient at first, but it’s a shortcut that often leads to long-term pain. Here’s why software engineers should avoid it:

1. Poor Maintainability

When values are hardcoded, changing them requires digging through the codebase. This increases the risk of missing instances or introducing bugs. Instead, using configuration files, environment variables, or constants makes updates easier and safer.

2. Reduced Flexibility

Hardcoded values limit your ability to adapt to different environments (e.g., dev, QA, prod). For example, a hardcoded database connection string or API key means you can’t easily switch contexts without modifying the code itself.

3. Testing Challenges

Unit tests and integration tests often require different inputs. Hardcoded values make it harder to inject test data, leading to brittle or less meaningful tests.

4. Security Risks

Embedding sensitive information like passwords or tokens directly in code can expose them to version control systems or unauthorized access. Externalizing secrets to secure vaults or environment variables is a safer approach.

5. Violates DRY Principle

Hardcoding often leads to duplication. If the same value is used in multiple places, and it changes, you’ll need to update it everywhere—violating the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” principle.

In summary, hardcoding values might save time today, but it costs you tomorrow in maintainability, flexibility, and security. Embrace configuration, constants, and dependency injection to build robust, scalable software.

7 Critical Job Search Red Flags: How to Spot Warning Signs in Your Job Hunt

October 7, 2025October 10, 2025 ~ SA Otey

The first thing is to look at the interview process

That’s a big chunk of time for #4, must be doing some free work for them

Poor or Vague Job Description: A job posting that lacks clear responsibilities, qualifications, or details about the role can be a red flag. It may indicate that the company hasn’t thought through the position or is hiding crucial information.
High Turnover: Frequent job openings for the same position within a company can suggest instability or dissatisfaction among employees. Check websites like LinkedIn or Glassdoor for insights into employee turnover.
Unprofessional Interview Process: When a hiring manager asks you about your previous company and talks trash about one of your co-workers is a big sign you are entering a dysfunctional team. Disorganized or unprofessional interview process, such as last-minute cancellations, rude interviewers, or unclear communication, can be indicative of a poorly managed company.
Lack of Growth Opportunities: Promises of bringing you in at a lower level with the change of promotion in six months is a sign of a carrot and stick mentality. If a company cannot provide a clear path for career advancement or development opportunities, it may not be the best long-term fit for your career goals.
Negative Online Reviews: Be aware that companies will pay for good reviews on places like Glassdoor or Indeed. They can also provide insights into the company’s work culture, management issues, or other problems. Be cautious if you consistently see negative feedback.
Overemphasis on Long Hours: When someone emails you over the weekend on how your coding assessment is going, then believe that you will be expected to work weekends. Job postings or interviews that excessively stress long working hours, a lack of work-life balance, or an “always-on” mentality might indicate an unhealthy workplace culture.
Salary and Benefits Below Market: Be wary if the company offers compensation and benefits significantly below industry standards for your role and experience. It could be a sign of undervaluing employees.

Remember that red flags can vary depending on your personal preferences and career priorities. It’s essential to trust your instincts and thoroughly research potential employers to ensure a good fit for your professional and personal well-being. Additionally, consider reaching out to current or former employees of the company for insights before accepting an offer.

Why I Stopped Watching the News (And You Should Too)

October 6, 2025October 3, 2025 ~ SA Otey

When was the last time you watched the news and said, I’m glad I watched that?

I can’t remember, because the news industry knows human psychology: bad news sells, good news doesn’t.

The Negativity Machine

Here’s a question that changed my perspective entirely: Why does it seem that there’s never any good news?

The answer reveals everything wrong with modern media consumption. News outlets have built their entire business model around exploiting what psychologists call “negativity bias” – our brain’s evolutionary tendency to pay more attention to threats than positive information. It once helped us survive in dangerous environments. Now it’s being weaponized to capture our attention.

“If it bleeds, it leads” isn’t just a catchy newsroom phrase – it’s the fundamental algorithm that determines what information reaches your brain every single day. A school shooting will dominate headlines for weeks, while the millions of students who safely attended school that same day won’t merit a single mention.

The Hidden Cost of Staying “Informed”

I used to take pride in being well-informed. I checked news apps throughout the day, scrolled through headlines during coffee breaks, and fell asleep to the soft glow of breaking news alerts. I thought this made me a more engaged citizen.

Instead, it was slowly poisoning my worldview.

The Mental Health Tax Constant exposure to curated catastrophe creates a persistent low-level anxiety. Your brain, designed to respond to immediate threats, doesn’t distinguish between a news story about violence happening thousands of miles away and actual danger in your environment. The result? Chronic stress about situations you have zero control over.

The Time Thief: Calculate how much time you spend consuming news each day. For most people, it’s between 1 and 3 hours when you include social media news feeds, news apps, and background news consumption. That’s potentially 1,000+ hours per year focused on information that rarely improves your actual decision-making or life outcomes.

The Illusion of Understanding Breaking news culture creates the illusion of being informed while actually making you less knowledgeable. Context gets sacrificed for speed. Nuance disappears in favor of dramatic headlines. Stories get updated or corrected later, but first impressions stick. You end up with strong opinions about complex situations you actually understand very little about.

What You’re Really Missing

When I stopped my daily news consumption, something unexpected happened: I didn’t become less informed about things that mattered. Instead, I gained something more valuable – perspective.

The news industry feeds you the worst 0.01% of human experience and calls it “reality.” But actual reality looks very different:

Medical breakthroughs happen regularly
Crime rates in most places continue long-term declines
People help strangers every single day
Communities solve problems collaboratively
Technology continues improving lives in countless small ways
Most human interactions are neutral to positive
Progress on global challenges like poverty and disease continues steadily

None of this makes headlines because gradual improvement isn’t dramatic. But it’s statistically more representative of human experience than the crisis-of-the-day that dominates your news feed.

The Liberation of Stepping Away

This doesn’t mean becoming completely uninformed or ignoring serious issues. It means being intentional about information consumption instead of letting media companies hack your attention for profit.

What I do instead:

Read weekly news summaries instead of daily updates
Focus on local news where I might actually take action
Choose one trusted source rather than consuming from multiple feeds
Seek out solution-oriented journalism that covers how problems are being addressed
Pay attention to long-term trends rather than daily fluctuations

The unexpected benefits:

Significantly reduced anxiety about world events
More mental energy for things I can actually influence
Better focus and productivity throughout the day
More optimistic (and realistic) view of human nature
Deeper engagement with my immediate community

Your Attention Is Your Life

Every minute you spend consuming news is a minute you’re not spending on relationships, creativity, learning skills, or engaging with your immediate environment – the places where you actually have agency and influence.

The media industry has convinced you that staying constantly updated on global crises makes you a more informed citizen. In reality, it often makes you a more anxious, distracted, and pessimistic person without meaningfully improving your ability to contribute to solutions.

Your worldview is too important to let it be shaped by algorithms designed to capture attention rather than inform understanding.

The Challenge

Try this experiment: go one week without consuming news. Notice how you feel. Notice what you do with that reclaimed time and mental energy. Notice whether you’re actually less capable of making good decisions about things that matter in your life.

My prediction? You’ll discover that most news consumption is a habit masquerading as a necessity. And breaking that habit might be one of the most liberating things you do this year.

The world isn’t falling apart. You’re just consuming a distorted sample of reality designed to keep you scrolling.

It’s time to stop.

Why You Shouldn’t Be a Hornblower in Traffic

October 6, 2025October 6, 2025 ~ SA Otey

Are you the type of person who honks at the person in front of you at the stoplight? I had an uncle who would lay on the horn as soon as it turned green. I’m sure the other drivers appreciated the notification to move forward.

One day, I was waiting at a very long light, which is now the new normal in my town. I saw there was a larger queue on the other side of the three-way intersection. No one on my side was letting anyone from that side get to the next queue. I noticed at least 20 cars in my queue without one of the others going anywhere. I wanted to ease their suffering, so I let one enter in front of me. I didn’t have to let them go, but I know how frustrating traffic can be. So the guy behind me lays on his horn.

As we approached the stoplight, I waited till I was first in line in the far right lane. It was a right turn on the red freebie, but I waited. As I waited the guy behind me, again, was relentless with the horn blowing. There was a huge stack of cars about to enter the intersection from my left. As this person was about to blow a horn gasket, I gunned it at the last second, leaving him to wait until the next light cycle. I know it wasn’t the safest thing to do, but I was so worth it.

Lesson learned? Traffic sucks; let one person in front of you in jams by either waving them over or leaving some space. Don’t be a hornblower.

The Truth Behind Red Dye 40 and Food Preservation

October 5, 2025October 3, 2025 ~ SA Otey

Food companies are always bragging about having no preservatives or artificial ingredients in their products. However, food waste is at an all-time high. Why, do you think this is happening? It’s because all the preservatives are gone to make it last longer. Plus, people are still dying. If we add more preservatives to our food then we can live longer as the artificial ingredients will preserve our internal organs.