Maëlys McArdle

Category: Life

Every other post.

  • Prepping for Poverty

    Prepping for Poverty

    The Pay Cut

    2025 opened with a 30% pay cut.

    I had just reached a point where I was financially comfortable. Not own-a-home rich, but wealthy enough I could save for retirement, not think about grocery bills, take vacations and buy toys.

    Then investors got spooked, and every tech company started to do mass lay-offs. Half-a-million tech workers in North America lost their jobs. By the end of 2024, my workplace had already done two rounds of cuts.

    I expected a third, and so I found a new job. Sure enough, a month later, there was another “reduction in force”. My old manager and teammates were let go. By that point, over half the people at my previous employer had been terminated.

    (more…)
  • Fracturing news sources is hurting (and saving) us

    Fracturing news sources is hurting (and saving) us

    Yesterday in the United-States, Robert Kennedy Jr (the conspiracy theorist Trump put in charge of the Centre of Disease Control) and Dr. Oz (the TV personality at the center of a pyramid scheme Trump put in charge of Medicaid and Medicare) made the following joint statement:

    Men are men. Men can never become women. Women are women. Women can never become men. … It takes organized efforts to deny these fundamental truths. Sadly, we’ve seen such efforts succeed from time to time. The denial of fundamental truths can destroy nations from within. At the root of the evils we face, such as the blurring of the lines between sexes and radical social agendas is a hatred for nature as God designed it and for life as it was meant to be lived. This ideology does not just deny biology, it declares war against it.

    Allowing trans people to exist is to “destroy nations from within”, “at the root of evils”, and a “hatred for nature”. What followed were directives to weaponize the state to prevent trans kids from receiving health care. The administration also made moves to block the sale of binders for trans people of all ages.

    This is on top of a slew of other measures with equally inciteful wording aimed at eliminating trans people from society.

    The descriptions of trans people by this administration echo the words of the Vatican.
    (more…)
  • Ice cream

    Ice cream

    This recipe makes approximately a liter of ice cream.

    • 1 Can (354ml) evaporated milk
    • 1½ Cup powdered sugar
    • 1 Tsp vanilla (optional)

    Chill the can of evaporated milk along with the mixing bowl in the fridge overnight.

    Pour ingredients in bowl and whip with a hand mixer until thick and foamy, then place the bowl and its contents in the freezer for an hour. Follow this by another round of whipping, then place the bowl again in the freezer until the mixture sets (3 hours).

    This recipe was taken from this video.

    Thoughts

    This recipe nails the texture. I found with vanilla it has more the consistency of soft serve; without like ice cream proper. Both taste great.

  • Time to treat habit-forming tech like cigarettes

    Time to treat habit-forming tech like cigarettes

    We live in an era where computing power has gotten so cheap that every person has a feed tailored for them in the apps they use. The feeds are no longer just “what’s new” but “what specific content will keep this one user glued to the screen.”

    This is paired with everything converging to apps is creating more opportunities than ever to induce addiction.

    (more…)
  • Baguettes

    Baguettes

    From 2012-2016 I picked up baking as a hobby. At first it was a screen-free way to relax during my second go at university, and I had fun improvising. I may have picked up the bug again: here’s a recipe for French baguettes, taken from this video.

    Baguettes

    Makes 3-4 baguettes.

    • 950g flour
    • 2 tsp salt
    • ¾ tsp yeast
    • 730 ml water

    Add salt and mix it, to prevent yeast from making contact. Add yeast. Add water. Mix with the handle of a wooden spoon. Mix until the dough forms into a ball and sticking to the spoon handle and make sure there’s no unmixed flour sticking to the bottom of the bowl. Cover and leave to rise for 8-10 hours at room temp. Longer in cold climates.

    Sprinkle flour on a surface. Use dough scraper to pull dough off of bowl onto the surface, making sure not to push it as it would lose some of the air inside. With the dough on the surface, sprinkle more flour on top of the ball. Make sure dough is not sticking to surface by scraping the dough scraper underneath, pushing flour under. Form into an elongated shape. Cut in 3 or 4 sections.

    Take each piece, dip in the flour of the surface, and put on a lined baking grill. Take care not to press the dough. Can scour with knife at 45º, cutting in long diagonals.

    Put in oven at 480ºF/250ºC for 25 min on bottom rack. Let rest a few minutes.

    Thoughts

    This recipe produces the crisp exterior, soft interior, and large air bubbles of a proper baguette. The taste is yeast-y; substituting fresh yeast improves the flavour a bit but it’s no sourdough. Still the best bread recipe I’ve tried to date.