Sponge is flat hand, like paper is currently. Fire is palm up, all fingers pointing up, wiggling, water is palm down, all fingers pointing down, wiggling. And you're right, that's an awesome variant.
That sounds pretty good, actually. Another I really like is ramen, cooked and drained, and homemade pimento cheese and fresh tomatoes. OMG, so good. Ramen is also excellent with poached eggs and sausage with cheese. It's an all purpose carb.
Y'know, I genuinely thought I was gonna be the weirdest one here, but now I'm not so sure. There's at least competition.
My two favorite foods:
"Tuna" casserole that is refrigerator cold. Tuna in quotes because I rarely ever actually add the tuna. It's just egg noodles, cheese, cream of mushroom soup, normally with broccoli or peas in it.
Ramen Noodle Garbage Bowl: ramen noodles, drained, with cheese, mustard, curry, smoked paprika, blackened kielbasa/smoked sausage, and diced fresh tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes. Often has other random ingredients. Add just enough boiling water to get everything to mix well.
It's not being jaded. It's a reality. The employers base interest is creating wealth for the company, the employees base interest is generating income for themselves. These two conditions are fundamentally at odds. That's why we speak about "negotiations" when it comes to wages. We are attempting to balance the two sides. The employer wants the employee to perform the most amount of labor for the smallest possible compensation, the employee wants the largest compensation for the least amount of labor.
I'm not suggesting all employers are bad people, or that there aren't people who are employers who are friends with their employees. I am saying the employer, in their role as employer, is not a friend to the employee. Their interests do not align, and if they did, either you have a masochistic boot licking employee, or an employer who is going to fail and take their business down with them.
My mom ran a successful business for 25 years, was good friends with her employees outside of work, but in her role as the employer occasionally had to do things that went against her nature, by the simple fact that her business needed to survive more than her friendship did.
I ran a successful business for 5 years before illness took it from, and likewise, in my role as employer, I could not make the decisions I wished I could have. Had I known about worker's cooperatives at the time, I likely would have transitioned it to that to save the company when we were no longer able to do the work in the same way. C'est la vie.
This isn't about being jaded, it's about understanding how our economic system works at it's core. A small, but significantly powerful group on one side, a large but mostly powerless group on the other. Each has their own interest, and the balancing act is figuring out how to get the most out of the other.
Employers are not your friends. Employers are people who want you to do as much as possible for as little as possible. Regardless of one's political views, employers are not friends. It is an uneasy alliance at best and an outright war at the best of times. Wanna be friends? Help me unionize this workplace, bro.
My brother had a 3 year gap, and when he applied for his current job (civil service job, even) and they asked about the gap, his response was "I signed an NDA about that, I can tell you in 2052," and just refused to speak further on it. Complete bullshit, but even a job with the US federal government just let it go.
I kind of want this framed on my wall. It's perfect.