In my house we have roller shutters and they make you see nothing.
I’ve been at places without proper shutters… tried sleep masks… and they don’t fully block light nor do they stay in place after even a single turn in bed. I ended up wrapping one of my black stockings around my head like a blind fold to actually sleep. >.<’
Bidet. Amazing for a North American, I know RoW has had them for eons. You are so clean that a couple of squares of tp to dry off and you are golden. No more endless wiping.
I long for the day when they are just normal everywhere. Easily one of the best things to come out of the pandemic and those wild toilet paper shortages.
I installed something like this next to my toilet a couple of month ago and it changed my life. Costs like 30 bucks, it takes 3 single sheets to dry my clean ass. Whiping shit left to right up and down until it stops sticking feels so barbaric now.
My wife and I finally bought a nice toilet seat style bidet (better price on third party sites) with heated water and all the bells and whistles. We both love it, she even more than me.
Buddy bought me one as a gift, i turned around and bought him and another friend one and another for us as we have 2 bathrooms. One friend hasnt installed theirs yet but the first one did. “I hate going anywhere but home now” was his response when i asked him if he installed it. My wife and i feel the same way. The first one bought for us was a tushy brand one that was like 200$. The second one and the one ive bought for people is like $35 and works better. Has hot water, and a second nozzle for those with a vagina.
With rain gear. But I live in an incredibly dry area and work from home; I’ve been commuting places I need to go exclusively via motorcycle for 2 years and I’ve been caught in the rain twice. I’ve had to Uber instead of ride once.
I don’t bother with a two piece rain suit, I just throw a bright yellow poncho on over my usual jacket and secure it around my waist. My pants are a lost cause though.
If like to add to the space heater. I’ve got solar panels, the guy installing them also has infrared panels. We got to try one out, and never looked back.
A infrared panel will warm a small space very effectively. Way better then water radiator heating (which is the norm here). It’s also instantaneous and is a radiant heat (like a wood burner).
We’ve ditched all our gas heater radiators and went with infrared. It’s cheaper and easily regulated per room.
electric water kettle (fuck gas stoves and also faster),
Are they not common where you live? I’m in my 30s and have had electric kettles my whole life. I don’t have one at the moment though - my espresso machine has instant hot water and that’s been sufficient, and much faster.
Also - if you’re in the USA and think kettles are fast, you should see kettles in countries with 240v power. People from Australia complain about how slow kettles are in the USA.
As someone with waxy ears, an ear pick with a wifi camera built in. Would get blockages, cotton buds just pushed it back, olive oil or peroxide would get air locked. The webcam ear pick was super cheap and makes it easy to scoop out any lumps of wax.
Got any recommendations? My ears have been pissing me off lately cause they’re constantly feeling blocked. Not just for the ear pick but anything in general to help with to much wax in the ear.
Not medical advice, but when I can tell it’s getting full in there, I pour 50% diluted hydrogen peroxide (just use the cap of the bottle) in my ear, let it bubble away for 5 minutes or so, then use a bulb syringe thing with warm water to flush it out til it’s clean. Be careful with pressure and temperature of the water, but it works great.
This is what I do. I got a flushing ear thing specifically with the nozzle for ears on Amazon for like 10 bucks and it’s a game changer. I gotta do it yearly.
When searching for a pick, there were many with Micro USB ports, but only a few with USB-C so chose based on that. In the app, you choose what ear your working on, but found my brain needed the opposite view.
After initially pulling out chunks of wax, sometimes I feel blocked but can see it’s my ear canal being irritated, and with it clear, can use olive oil drops or moisturiser on a cotton tip to treat the sore areas.
I use a 50/50 mix of isopropyl alcohol and white vinegar. I drip about ten drops in one ear, let it sit there while I read a book on my side. Then I catch it all with a Kleenex tissue as I rotate my head.
I bought one of these recently and somewhere between the device and the crappy app it just won’t connect all the way. Is there one made by a company that isnt just six random letters?
Same, it really does the hard work for me. All you have to do is just skim through some references, give it to gpt, read its response. If it’s good, add to the paper if its not revise the prompt.
My PC, now I can stay 24/7 at home, so now I don’t even need to leave home, I remote work, I remotely socialize, and this helps me to get out of this physical world.
I would like to say some other item, but I don’t leave my PC.
I’m also someone who sits at their desk around 12 hours a day but I do think it’s important to get outside at least once in a while. Does it not feel weird to be staring at the same thing 24/7? I need a change of scenery here and there.
I have a good setup, standing desk, machines to do workout (but I don’t do any…) and a big garden to walk alone if I need to (I only go to garden mainly when I make calls with mobile).
Workout is important for anti-depression and for healthy reasons, you are right. I’m just lazy.
A wok. It sounds insane that a simple and small carbon steel wok would reduce the time needed to cook and clean in my kitchen. It even makes my meal costs cheaper. Just make fried rice or udon noodle dishes or just cook what we get from everyplate in it and it’s the best way to cook on the stove.
Before, I picked up my phone at every ping or vibrate.
When I wear the watch, all phone notifications are automatically muted and the watch is set to only notify a few apps (Whatsapp, phone calls, calendar). No emails, no kik, no games nothing.
If you’re on Android, long-press the notification and select “silent”. The notification will still be there, but it won’t vibrate or light up the flashing indicator (if your phone has one). Smart watches are still useful, though.
Makes sense. From your earlier post it sounded like there were only two levels needed: “deal with right now” and “deal with at end of day,” in which case “silence” works as a poor-man’s snooze for me because I don’t pick up my phone and deal with them unless it vibrates or I’m at home going through the backlog. But now that you’re talking about four different priority tiers, having them be device-specific sounds like a good plan. Best I can do without a separate tier from smartwatch/KDE Connect/ChromeOS is notify, snooze, and silent - 3 tiers. Pretty sure there are a few apps offering custom ringtones or vibration patterns per app or per notification keyword for further granularity on the phone itself, but for those who already wear a smartwatch (like me) having the separate device do that heavy lifting is a great way to go.
Besides the other answers, it trivializes them while making you put forth the tiniest effort towards one you might care about while you can discard the rest. The trick with phones isn’t in picking it up to look, but rather on putting it back down.
With a smart watch (I’ve owned a few over the years) my phone has been on silent for years. No more dings, beeps, or rings especially in meetings or with other people. I set it to vibrate only for text and calls. Game changer. I wish those in sales would use them more.
Let me start out by saying that I am by no means an authority on the matter.
First was some generic brand 7" chef’s knife. I think I paid around $40 for it. It did alright for a while, but what I noticed about it was that the ergonomics and fit/finish were (just slightly) lacking. Unrefined edges made it a bit uncomfortable to use.
My next knife was from Zwilling. It’s another standard 7" chef’s knife with the hollow cutouts on the blade. This one was much better quality wise, the fit and finish and balance are all there.
The next one after that is a 5" Chef’s knife (with hollow cutouts) from Wüsthof. This is my current everyday knife, and I like the size of this one much better. I got this one because I really needed something more compact, and it’s been great for mostly everything I use it for right now.
The next knife I want to get is a Nakiri style. Wusthof is sold out of their more affordable line, and the Zwilling one doesn’t have the hollow cuttouts on the blade. The Zwilling brand doesn’t look quite as good as the Wusthof, in my opinion, but it may still function great.
The last thing I’d like to mention is a knife sharpener. When I got my Zwilling, they also threw in this little keychain Wusthof sharpener, and as long as I give my knife a few swipes every couple of times I use it, they stay pretty sharp. Definitely don’t overlook this detail, because even a lower quality knife will benefit greatly from a consistent sharpening routine like that.
Good luck, and I hope that helps. Let me know what you end up going with if you do decide!
There are two main sharpening angles. 20 degrees is typical american knife. Some overseas chef knived get into 15 degree edges. Lower yhe degree, the sharper the edge, but the quicker itll dull against bone or stone or use overall. Pay attention to the angle when you buy a sharpener. You can get basic pull through sharpener for cheap, good for starter as the sharpener is set at the angle, just make sure the sharpener angle matches the knife angle, and if it comes with course/fine or whatever, only ever use the fine. The course sharpeners are for when you ding or dent the blade edge and they remove a lot of metal.
If you get into knives and want more, then i would move to a proper sharpening stone with a wedge or jog to hold the angle for you. Thisll let you get a feel for what angle to hold the knife at. After a while you can freehand without the wedge or jig.
Dont go too high dollar on your first knife, an 800$ japanese knife is incredible but the difference is not apparent to you from a 40$ knife, hence victorinox as the starter knife (15 degree on most of those). Everyones hands are different so what works for one person doesnt fit everyone. Typically a chefs knife will do what most people want, 8" to 10" to start out. Dont overthink it or worry about it
Synology NAS (basically a hard drive always connected to the home network and internet) - has been amazing for auto-backing-up photos from the family phones and for running Plex run my own personal streaming service for the whole family around the world. Has been great for file transfer too. I can easily move files between my phone, PC, Steam Deck, etc and all the USB memory sticks I had have been sitting in a drawer ever since.
Exercise compression thermals - wear these is super comfortable and really warm. I wear them constantly at home and can have the heating off almost all winter (UK). Saves tons of energy and money.
Electric blanket - another great low energy purchase for relaxing under when watching TV or warming up the bed before sleeping. Gets super hot while hardly using any energy at all.
Split unit air con installation - this was expensive and I thought it would be unnecessary in the UK, but it seems to be used more and more every summer as we get more heatwaves and summers are becoming unbearable.
Safety razors - I have really thick facial hair and the multi-blade razors from big name brands would dull really quickly and cause tons of shaving rash. These razors are sharper, last longer, are recyclable and much better for my skin.
Liquid ink refillable rollerball pens - I tried fountain pens after seeing the online communities that are crazy about them, and really didn’t like them. I found rollerball pens I like that take fountain pen ink and have been super happy with them. I write a lot at work and this has gotten rid of the plastic waste of throwing away used disposable ballpoint refills every couple of weeks.
Hitbox controller - I’ve been playing Street Fighter 6 since release and I made a leverless controller box myself and I’ve loved using it to play SF6. Managed to make it for one third the price of what these things sell for and completely customised it.
My DIY controller made from scratch. It has a built in USB c hub so when I use it with the Steam Deck I can connect the charger cable to the controller. If someone is playing locally with me their controller just plugs into the side of mine and works with the Steam Deck. Made the footprint as small as I could. It’s 21 x 15.3 x 3.6 cm Seimitsu buttons. Raspberry pi controller. 5 additional side buttons for navigation and shortcuts
2 years ago I bought an electric mattress pad. My wife gave me a hard time about it at first, didn’t think we’d ever use it.
But wow. Nothing better than climbing into a preheated bed on a cold night. I always set it to high about 20 minutes before we actually go to bed, then turn it down to the lowest setting. When it’s cold out, every single time we get into bed, we both let out a sigh of comfort. Can’t recommend it enough.
Congrats fellow hitbox user. Btw the Norelco one blade works better on my thick facial hair than a straight Razer does with less hassle and they are pretty cheap to try out. I’m still debating that split ac for the upstairs office…
Nothing ever burns and cleaning even when frying something with cheese in there is just a scoop of hot water and ten seconds with the soft side of a kitchen sponge.
Check out Darto pans! They’re very affordable. A step just above that price-wise is DeBuyer. I have two pans now and absolutely adore them. Switched over from cast iron because my iron levels were super high. And I still have my stainless pans and adore them, for different reasons.
These last maybe a year even if you use gentle low heat. But that depends how often you cook. I only use my nonstick for pancakes (very rarely) but everything else is stainless steel, just heat it up then add oil after, food goes on when the oil is shimmering and flows easily (not viscous)
What’s amazing is the misinformation spread by marketing departments over the years making people think they need these elaborate pans. I have a decent set of cookware I’ve acquired over the years but ultimately I use my twelve year old 10" carbon steel pan 99% of the time (I cook almost every meal every day so I use it a lot). It’s unfortunate that basic home cooking skills aren’t something that’s handed down over the generations. I mean, feeding yourself should be pretty high on the list of things to learn before you leave home.
What they never tell you in cookbooks is how to manage heat and mentally calculate how much and for how long to apply to an ingredient. It’s difficult to put into print but, suffice to say, once you “learn this one simple trick”, cooking with any cookware is trivial.