Thanks friend, I really do appreciate it. I’m still one of the much luckier ones at the end of the day, even if I’m having no fun being one.

It has been exceptionally frustrating to become someone who gets treated with suspicion by pro-science people though. Even though my statistical insignificance puts me in the company of literally millions of others, there are many millions more who really did make bad choices that warrant some suspicion. (Edit: Actually no, I’ve changed my mind. Nobody deserves the suspicion at all.)

Yes, I’m very aware of my statistical insignificance that causes everyone to assume I did something to deserve long term consequences of covid. Between the antivaxxers who scowl at me for wearing a mask the rare times i dare be in public, the extreme pro-vaxxers who ask increasingly invasive medical questions to find a reason that I must have done this to myself, society leaving me to rot now they’ve all moved on because the vaccines solved everything, and the doctors telling me they have no strategies for me because there isn’t enough research… I promise that I haven’t forgotten that I’m the tiny and easily dismissable minority, despite my covid-triggered amnesia.

People always remind me of it when I don’t fit their narrative of the irresponsible or gullible fool who bought into the anti-science grift or flouted restrictions. Perhaps it’s because it’s more comforting to remind themselves that it’s improbable that they will also end up as one of the forgotten. At least, for now, until the ridiculously contagious and quickly mutating virus happens to not play nicely with their own latent medical issues and unknown genetic errors.

I’m sorry your friend was deceived by the propaganda that the vaccine was worse than the disease. And I’m sorry that you blame them for being deceived instead of understanding that fear causes people to make poor choices.

I got long covid after 4 timely boosters. It blows that people assume we don’t exist.

And I would prefer the manager is catching their staff’s errors before they make it to the customer instead of making me do QA, but we can both only dream of a better world.

I’m also pretty convinced this was an intentional cost-saving move, given the rest of the food. Either way, I just won’t be back a second time.

Sealed opaque bag that I didn’t personally pick up

You know, I’ve never seen grapefruit in a fruit salad where I live. This had never occurred to me before, but I am grateful for it.

Because I wanted a fruit salad and did not anticipate this level of cheaping out by the people who made it. Do you open your burger at a fast food place and count the ingredients in front of the staff to make sure the cook didn’t short you?

I assumed they would fill it with the cheapest possible fruit, which at the time I knew happened to be watermelon. If it were honeydew, I wouldn’t have bought it at all, I think. I share your dislike of honeydew

Huh, I’ve never experienced that. And I take a lot of pills. They might have really bad binders or compression at the factory where they’re making yours? But that does sound very irritating, I’m annoyed enough when I cut pills in half and it breaks into not-halves.

I have, however, cut myself on the foil a few times. And that stuff is sharp. Not sharp enough to get through the shitty seal in my first pic, but enough to really slice fingers if you’re not looking.

I would be fine with mediocre or even shitty adhesive properties here. It’s protected and pressure is maintained using a solid HDPE capped jar with perforations, which is already a tamper-evident seal. I don’t need a padlock on it either. Or even a disability-proof cap (the manufacturers prefer the name “child-proof” though). And there are multiple adhesives which don’t impart odor or flavor. Even superglue wouldn’t do it, given you need less than a tiny smear. What an odd false dichotomy you have given me.

Behold, could this be the best of both worlds? (image description: glass bottle with half-peeled seal. The separation is clean and easy and lacks flavor.)

I’ve got a couple of things that I buy which have the best ziploc seals I’ve ever seen, and I wish I could reuse the bags for other things, except they’re opaque and printed. But I have definitely met my fair share of terrible ziplocs too. Nothing like spending 10mins struggling with a shitty ziploc seal when you were just trying to put some food in the freezer.

It looks like Goo Gone has some in it, but it’s mostly petroleum based. D-limonene is a nifty (refined) by-product of citrus agriculture, it’s essentially just the oil from the peels. I use a product that’s basically half D-Limonene, half anionic and non-ionic surfactants (which is somewhat the equivalent of shampoo and sugar alcohol).

If this were a problem limited to one product or brand, I would. Unfortunately this one was a first time purchase too.

I hear you. I definitely recommend picking up a tiny bottle of it, a little goes a long way! I’m still using the same 6oz bottle I bought maybe 7 years ago!

You need d-limonene (orange peel extract) for adhesive removals. It works wonders by comparison to the things you tried, but even then I can still spend a good 10 mins on the same problem!

Comment chain with explanation

This was a supplement I was opening on my way to the bathroom, where I keep my medication. Long covid memories makes ms forget everything to open first. Long covid memory problems also make me fail to double check my posts every time for bad autocorrect.

This looks like a cheaply made seal wad to me

The seal looked to be perfectly vacuumed when I opened it, and the lid wasn’t a tight one, so I suspect you’re right. But someone else in the thread indicated that this may also be a “feature”? I’m not sure if it’s a post hoc rationalisation of shit supply purchase choice or a deliberate design decision or a manufacturing error, but it doesn’t matter. I hate it all the same.

Also, thanks for providing me with a proper specific name for these things, and the gift of your experience in all things sealed.

Ugh. I believe them already. It’s sealed for my protection. I get it. It says so nearly 100 times. I don’t check the seals for syringe marks first either, or the factory’s latest cleanroom maintenance logs. Just let me in, I already paid the extortionate entry fee.

Seriously though, I wouldn’t mind so much if they always were just paper I could poke a finger through at the end. Sometimes there’s another super stretchy thick plastic layer under that which resists everything but blades. I don’t want to keep a knife in my bathroom, but I’m getting to the point where I’ve thought about it.

Other than slight annoyance when things are hard to open, it’s better.

Sure, if you are not experiencing the symptoms of medical conditions. Especially the conditions that led you to be opening the bottle in the first place, that’s when it’s especially insulting on top of the additional pain/fatigue the situation generates.

It’s not even that I don’t like seals. I love the caps and covers on the tins and bottles and jars of food in my kitchen. I even love recyclable ziplock bags, and there are flimsy takeaway containers out there that are literally watertight. I just don’t like seals that are poorly made. There are products with usable seals out there, I know this first-hand. I’ve used them. I use them everyday.

Even then, not everything we consume has to be Fort Knox just because someone tainted a product intentionally or accidentally in the past. There are product recalls for various problems everyday and yet I’ve avoided getting ill from my groceries my entire life. I’m fine with buying my bread in a paper bag, I don’t need them to start using hermetically sealed boxes with padlocks.

And honestly, there are so many points in the production lines of most things where someone has the opportunity to stick their dick in something, that I just can’t dedicate the energy to entertaining that possibility on a daily basis. I also can no more verify that the last burger I ate was made by someone who washed their hands, any more than I can verify that the tomatoes I’m buying to make ketchup for homemade burgers weren’t grown using human faeces and picked by slaves. And I say this as someone who has some immunity issues: There are just too many vectors for various kinds of contamination than you can imagine, let alone reasonably safeguard against - you have to pick and choose to battle the most likely to occur or kill you. I do not battle the possibility of penis in my products. I just don’t have that kind of time.

We have the technology. This situation literally doesn’t need to exist for anyone ever. And yet it’s clearly common as fuck.