Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with convenience

How do you manage a good breakfast in the morning?

peanut_mcgillicuty — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:33:03 -0800

I've been eating bagels or instant oatmeal at my desk for almost four years, and it needs to change. First, I'm tired of eating so many meals at my desk (breakfast, lunch almost every day, AND dinner on nights that I have graduate school!). But more importantly, I want something more substantial that's better for me and will keep me full longer than empty carbohydrates. Part of the problem is that I'm afraid if I eat at home, I will be ravenous by the time lunch comes around. As it is right now, I eat at 9 a.m. and am hungry for lunch at 12, to the point of feeling faint by 12:30 or so. If I eat breakfast a full hour earlier, won't I be hungry for lunch that much earlier? Having a snack seems to defeat the purpose of eating breakfast at home.

I should say that I might not get enough protein in my diet in general--I'm just transitioning from being a vegetarian for my entire life to eating a little bit of meat (so far, only chicken and things that aren't exactly meat but aren't vegetarian either, like ramen, soups with chicken or beef stock, gelatin, etc). Suggestions for getting more protein are very welcome.

Mostly, though, I want to hear what you eat for breakfast and how (at home, at work, etc) and what you think I should eat.

Specific criteria:

1. Yogurt is 100% out in all shapes and forms. I can't even tolerate the smell of it. Same with cottage cheese.
2. I don't want to cook meat that looks like meat (so, turkey sausages would be ok, raw chicken not so much).
3. Cold cereal grosses me out--all that soggy stuff floating around in a pool of white liquid...
4. I cannot eat on my commute (packed subway). It's either at home or at work (where I do have access to a refrigerator and microwave, and for the most part, no problems with people stealing food out of the communcal fridge).
5. I'm looking for quick-fix, minimal-dishes-and-mess ideas rather than elaborate ideas. I'm going to have to start getting up earlier to eat breakfast at home; no point in making it more complicated than it needs to be.

Things I have already thought of: breakfast burritos (especially when prepared ahead in bulk, frozen and then heated in the microwave), minute oatmeal with honey and bananas, egg-and-cheese on toast/bagel/roll or egg-in-a-boat/hole/whatever you call it, etc.

What do you eat in the morning?

Publishing N00b Questions

unclejeffy — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:41:26 -0800

I've got a publication I'd like convenience stores and others to sell. How do i get them to do that, and what kind of financial arrangements are involved? Let's just say that I'm publishing a tabloid-sized publication on a subject of great interest locally, and that it sells at retail for $1. Ideally, I'd like it to be sold at convenience stores, gas stations, and the like. (It is the type of thing that, because of the subject matter and price, will likely be purchased on impulse.)

Who do I need to approach? Individual managers at each store? A district manager for the chain stores? Owners?

And what do I need to offer them to make this an enticing deal? I am willing to split the sale 50/50 because I can still make a decent profit. Is that an arrangement that is likely to appeal to them? Do I ask them to buy them from me, or do they take them on consignment?

Answers to these and all of my unasked questions are appreciated!

Help with complicated problem

CollectiveMind — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:37:17 -0800

I have a curbside mailbox and mail theft is common in Utah (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600129714,00.html). Big Credit Card Company (BCCC) sends me convenience checks that can be stolen and cashed by anybody. The post office won’t let me move my mailbox to my house. Local politicians sided with the Postmaster. A rental box or a new security mailbox are impractical. From early 2005 through late 2007, I consistently received unwanted convenience checks from a BCCC address in Virginia. Requests to that address to stop to the convenience checks were replied to from a post office box in Utah. The USPS identified that box as belonging to the company acting as BCCC's agent in Utah (The Agent), but The Agent did not identify itself as the sender. Rather, the replies were sent on behalf on BCCC, using letterhead and envelopes bearing the BCCC logotype.

But the Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code, says neither BCCC Finance or any of its forms are explicitly listed as able to conduct commercial transactions in the state.

After more than a dozen certified letters to the BCCC address in Virginia and the The Agent address in Utah, and promises by respondents at the Utah address to stop the delivery of the checks (they did not stop), I sued The Agent and BCCC in 2007. In Utah, an entity being sued must be served through its state registered agent. Because I could find no explicit listing for BCCC Finance or any of its sub-entities in the UCC database (and therefore, not find its registered agent), and because the USPS showed both BCCC and The Agent as sharing a mailing address and correspondence, I served the entity whose registered agent was listed with the UCC, The Agent . Neither The Agent or BCCC appeared at a September 2007 hearing, and after fifteen plus thirty days, a judgment was awarded my favor.

Neither The Agent or BCCC have contested the facts of the judgment. A BCCC representative called me in January 2008 offering a settlement with no promise that the checks would not continue. I declined. In a hearing requested by BCCC on April 24, 2008, its attorney asked the court to set aside the judgment saying it had not been properly served and that it and The Agent are separate entities. The Agent did not appear at the hearing.

The court did not set aside the judgment, but instead granted a continuance to allow me the chance to show a more than circumstantial connection between BCCC and The Agent. Its central question; is The Agent an agent of BCCC in Utah, and/or, is BCCC operating through The Agent in Utah? If so, the judgment stands. If not, the judgment does not stand.

If BCCC and The Agent are separate entities, The Agent should have no effect on credit granting policies of BCCC; monthly payments to my BCCC account were made to BCCC addresses not in Utah. Yet, The Agent promised in writing on four separate occasions to stop sending me credit card account based convenience checks. Later, The Agent required personal and identical account information regarding my BCCC account four separate times before it said it could “grant” my request to stop receiving the checks. It did not.

I am looking for ways, tools and methods available to a non-attorney to establish a more than circumstantial connection between Affiliated Computer Services and BCCC as the court requests, be they websites, research techniques or reference material.

Why WaWa?

Black_Umbrella — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:48:45 -0800

Why do people like WaWa so much? How / why has WaWa accomplished such a "cool" image in the last few years? Where are they planning on going from here?

It seems they roll out new products quarterly which people always end up loving. I was lucky enough to acquire a WaWa hoodie and every time i where it out people stop me to say how awesome it is. Frequently people try to buy it off me even though its a couple years old.

Why does a convenience store have so much clout?

I hate cooking. I need to love it.

WCityMike — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 21:58:02 -0800

I hate cooking. I hate cooking. I really, really, really hate cooking. I need to learn how to love it. I mean, I even get annoyed when I have to slap something frozen on a cookie sheet, and I even very often don't make toast, for God's sake, despite liking it. (No problem with shoving a frozen meal in the microwave, however.)

All that having been said, this massive aversion is a real problem that I want to complete turn around 180 degrees — both for the cachet of it (so few guys cook) and for the simple health of it (eating self-cooked food is going to be much healthier than a near-perpetual diet of delivery, frozen meals, junk food, and fast food.

As best as I can figure this out in my head, I'm essentially asking for two categories of responses here: practical and behavioral.

On one hand, I'm looking for practical tips (both any procedural tips or "kitchen hints" you might have, as well as very-quick-prep healthy recipes) as to how to make cooking (i) extremely low-impact, timewise; (ii) fast and efficient; and (iii) actually fun and not incredibly boring — keeping in mind the level of aversion described above.

On the other hand, I'm looking for behavioral tips. (I wouldn't be surprised if this angle of the question has been asked before in other Ask Mefis with other things people detest but have to do — but I wasn't sure how to frame the search in order to dig them up.) If you hate to do something, but it's necessary that you not only overcome the hate but transmute it to enthusiasm, what steps do you take?

I find cooking an extremely annoying obstacle to doing other things that I want to do, and I find that I'm incredibly bored while I do it and that something deep within me just frames the whole thing as a immensely boring, massive waste of time. How do I change that gut emotional response? I need to start to actually like this stuff.

Thanks, guys.

Making Posting to a Blog Incredibly Easy ... How to?

WCityMike — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:36:45 -0800

How to go about accomplishing certain things regarding posting to a blog, but in a certain way ... would like Mefites' advice. I was surfing one day, and came across this in someone's blog entry.

I cannot find a good unobtrusive and reliable way to post to my blog. For short blurbs, I want to be able to do it from anywhere, but using my cellphone is too inconvenient (I abandoned my PDA a few years ago). I could use Google Docs, but (1) it doesn't work with Safari and (2) I wasn't able to make it post to my MovableType-based blog. I also want to be able to "reply" to other people's blog posts on my own blog, but trackbacks seem to have disappeared from all but a few blogs. Third, I had been working on a few longer articles and I realized that (1) I don't want to mix meaningless musings with longer better thought out pieces on the same blog and (2) I don't know how to tell if the article is finished, so I keep revising it over and over and over.

I thought the iteration of these problems was rather insightful, and, furthermore, I realized these problems were ones I ran into upon my own blog (aside from the "(2)" in the third question). Yet I really can't think of effective ways to address these problems. Any of your thoughts on these issues and possible solutions would be appreciated.

(No self-link, but my blog is WordPress, if that matters, and if you need the URL, click on my name below; the address is in my profile.)

I suppose I could live out of gigantic Tupperware containers, but...

Xere — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:54:21 -0800

Due to my life as a secret agent, I constantly move house. Futon, possessions, toiletries, books, clothes, my entire life. Living out of boxes sucks, and moving loose unboxed items just sucks. Are there any fancy systems, boxes, thingamajigs that can help? My relatives live out of the country, so there's no option of storing bits and pieces of my entire life at a relative's place. Renting a storage unit is out of the question, as I use all my stuff and I don't have THAT much anyway.

How much stuff do I have? The futon's the largest item, the laptop's the most expensive. Unassemble that and add everything else, and it all fits in the back of an SUV. Just one bedroom.

I don't quite fancy living out of boxes, or constantly having flattened boxes in my possession. I suppose living out of gigantic Tupperware containers is an option, but are there any other, more elegant, options?

Stuff to help a one-armed man?

smackfu — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:01:29 -0800

What should I buy to make life with a broken arm more bearable? For instance, I always thought that electric can openers were stupid and for lazy people, but they seem like a fabulous invention right now.

Breakfast of Working Champions HOWTO

ajp — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:49:27 -0800

Good recipes for food to make in a batch at the weekend then take into work? Currently I stroll into work clutching a thermos full of freshly-brewed coffee, and a Tupperware box with a sandwich inside. Sometimes an apple and a banana find their way into my bag too. Not too shabby, but not great. Any suggestions on how to liven up those desk-bound lunches? Soup is an obvious candidate; anything else?

Conditions:

1. Preference given to vegetarian ideas (although other people reading this won't be veggie, so I suppose meaty ideas should be here too).

2. Ease of preparation, longevity and transportation of the end product are important. I can easily prepare and freeze batches of soup in freezer-bags, for example, and carry into work in a Tupperware beaker.

3. Cost - minimal. The idea is to cut out the ridiculous cost of lunching in London.

4. There are minimal facilities at work i.e. just a microwave and cutlery.

Also, I sometimes prepare a fresh smoothie in the mornings, just by bunging some apples, grapes, bananas, milk, yoghurt and rolled oats into a blender. This is great, but sometimes I don't have the precious 5 minutes this takes. Any ideas on storage of this for consumption later? It "turns" pretty quickly (i.e. within the hour). How long could it be stored, if it could be preserved?

Is it possible to throw together a decent meal from a convenience store?

arha — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 01:13:27 -0800

It's late, you're starving and the only store open within striking distance is a 7-11. Is it possible to throw together a decent and fairly healthy meal exclusively from your local convenience store?