Wrestle the pig first, every day. Whatever is your worst, most unpleasant, annoying task for the entire day, do it before you do anything else. It minimizes your stress and worrying and puts it in the rearview mirror.
There was also that one that was cut from the camping episode.
Rocko is foraging for berries and he grabs one on a bush and the bush recoils and you hear a bear growl. Then a bear jumps out from behind the bush grabbing his crotch and running away in obvious pain.
Yeah, everyone’s neurochemistry is different and should be experimented with.
I didn’t know this for so long, that I needed a few easy wins to set the pace, that I feel like I could have been way more productive throughout my 20s haha
Human memory is bias towards most recent things in a group set. If your set is a "workout" or a "workday", doing the fun stuff last will affect positively all the memory items in the same group set. This works even if you know that your memory is doing this.
We don't live in a "present now". We live in a mental image constructed from memory of recent past.
Trick is not to do unpleasant stuff first, but to do pleasant stuff last.
I always heard it as "Swallow a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day". Same meaning, and I think I like yours better.
I don't think "waking up early" counts, but it's definitely the most unpleasant and annoying task of my weekdays, followed closely by actually getting to work.
I have some paperwork to do that will likely result in $2000. It's been over a year and i cannot just sit down and do it. I stress over it every day but continue to put it off.
Excellent. I hope you did OK. I got mine done! It wasn't as bad as I thought. If you haven't finished yet, don't give up, pick up the pieces and carry on. Thanks for being my Internet buddy on this.
I'm on vacation until Wednesday so I will finish it on my flight home. Getting started really was the hardest part. Now it's just putting numbers into boxes and adding them up. By gathering info and starting on it, i find that the expected $2k gain is closer to $10k. That's some great motivation to get it done!
To stop infinite scroll on social media, quickly scroll 2-3 screen lengths down without looking at the posts. Now read the posts scrolling up. Eventually you'll reach where you started and most probably the laziness to go all the way back will prompt you to exit the app.
I hate the talk about soda. It's a flavored carbonated drink and carbonation isn't killing people. When schools banned sodas from vending machines, they replaced them with yoohoo and other drinks that had as much or more sugar than the carbonated drinks they removed.
-stepping off my soapbox-
People don't realize that ultra processed food is basically everything they eat and drink. There are very few things that aren't, and they're mostly whole food adjacent.
If it's not straight up water and plain vegetables, fruit, and grain equivalents, it's more than likely ultra processed no matter how healthy it claims to be.
So much of non-genetic cancers comes from what we ingest willingly. A large portion of it would stop if everyone ate a well rounded whole foods diet. But shit is expensive, takes time and kwh to make, and people are busy trying to enjoy life.
The problem isn’t carbonation (Bubly, Liquid Death have 0g). The problem is carbonated sugary drinks typically have more sugar than other sugary drinks, not a rule but per amount sold.
The typical soda has 38g of sugar per 12oz (can). Google states the following:
Coca-Cola is 45g.
Mountain Dew is 46g.
Redbull and Monster are 34g.
Arizona Sweet Tea is 31g.
Apple juice is 33g.
Orange juice is 28g.
Cranberry juice is 42g.
Anything over 28g is no go territory for me. Anything under is generally not an issue blood sugar wise for me. Note: I am not diabetic.
Edit: I do get the irony of someone with my username posting this. I understand what's wrong with binge drinking and me in general, I'm just not ready to fix it.
I drink pretty much only on the weekends and that’s pretty seldom.
Is one glass of wine really that bad though? Like compared to a glass of grape juice? Because of the sugars and calories and is alcohol in this percentage range (approx 14%) enough to cause damage to your liver over time?
I’m going on holiday to Greece next month, so have decided to forgo my usual weekend ales until then. Partly to be a little more comfortable in my swimming shorts, but also because £10/15 a weekend adds up to a few cold pints of Mythos by the beach.
But I was amazed at how fresh I felt last Monday morning after not having drunk any beer over the weekend.
I had better seafood in Greece than anywhere else in Europe. Fresh grilled octopus with a squeeze of lemon, fried sardines, squid salad, everything just perfect. (Note: I haven't done Nordic countries, and they might do cod/coldwater-fish/etc. better, but that's be a different style.)
Depends on the person. I’m content only have 1 at a time. I don’t have an addictive personality though. For some people this is great advice. Others, it doesn’t affect.
One time I was in Mexico with my wife while our daughter was still a baby and the lady at the front desk of the hotel where we were staying offered us a crib we could borrow. It was a kind gesture, but I was a little concerned because the crib seemed wobbly. I realized there were some screws loose but though I had a multitool on me, the holes were stripped.
So later, I was talking with a local and he's like "I can fix that." He comes over and pulls a pack of toothpicks out of his pocket. He sticks one into each hole and breaks it off so that it's not sticking out anymore. Then he drives the screw back in. I shook the crib after that and it was rock solid!
Now I always keep some toothpicks handy. Fast-forward to just this year. My daughter is now an adult living in a condo, and was complaining the screw popped out of a kitchen cabinet door when her roommate yanked on it too hard. "I can fix that."
Learn to cook the base of meals in different cultures. Like a Sofrito.
Most of the best classic dishes in the world really start with three or four ingredients and are just variations. You shouldn’t overthink it or buy rare ingredients. You’re better off picking one and mastering the basic steps. Learning to cook isn’t about learning to recreate a chef-cooked meal. It’s about learning to cook simple, cheap ingredients.
Is it even a life hack, or an essential life skill. Most us didn't formally learned, but have seen/helped our parents from an early age and one day, we ended up in a student room meaning it was time to cook
When the pandemic happened, there were people who didn’t know how to make the easiest meals. I was shocked. So, my rule on recipes is that nothing is too basic.
Hey that's a quality life changing hack right here. Food is the most important thing with sleep.
Would you have a list of those base meals maybe ?
@dephyre mentionned refried beans with rice in the thread. @DeltaTangoLima responded with bottled (canned) pasta sauce. I'd say learn how to make ratatouille and store (can) some when you can get the ingredient (green bell pepper, zucchinis, eggplan, tomatoes) at the right time of the year.
It’s usually just to take a small amount of delicious oil or fat — whatever you have on hand — and saute diced onions with diced bell pepper (or local equivalent) until the onions are slightly transparent. Keep going if you want the onions start being brown and have a sweet flavor. That brown is just the natural sugars coming out of the onion and is what “caramelizes” means. Caramel is sugar. And then add garlic and/or ginger and whatever spices you like.
If you want to, add meat. If you don’t, do not. (Often, that very oil step is done from browning meat and not wasting the fat.)
If you want soup, add a lot of liquid and whatever and cook it slowly. If you want paella, jambalaya, jollof, biryani, or equivalent — every culture has a rice dish — use the rice recipe on the bag as if it were water. (Use stock if you have any but water works fine.)
There are dishes that are different. Like fried rice and French Toast use old rice and toast respectively. Baking is a science. But anyone can make a pot of delicious with a few ingredients and it’s a 10 minute, one pot meal.
I started watching Babish & Weissman’s channels on YouTube during the pandemic. Both of them put out easy to follow videos, but they also include links to recipes in the video description, so you don’t have to write it all down.
The Basics with Babish videos are great because they show multiple dishes with a given protein.
Weissman does get a bit snooty & high priced at times. He also gets a lil too juvenile for my taste, but that’s my taste…
With his higher priced dishes, he does typically offer cost cutting options as goes through, which is nice.
I really like that both Babish & Weissman tell you why they’re using certain ingredients. That little bit of why helps me with substitutions if I ever don’t have or don’t like something used.
I just found a japanese comfort food staple: Ochazuke - green tea rice. It just needs a couple of ingredients and is super quick. I was blown away by how good and comforting it was. Its Comfort in a quick bowl. And it's super adaptable. You can basically add anything as tipping.
Not really a "hack" but I don't know why most people get into phone contracts.
Since college, I have always just bought unlocked phones with cash and then used the carrier's prepaid plans and set it to auto pay.
I pay so much less than most people I know, I get all the same service, and my phone isn't tied to a contract or carrier, so I can cancel my plan whenever I want and switch to another carrier by just buying their SIM card for ~$20.
My current phone is an unlocked Pixel 6a that I got on sale new for $300. I have unlimited talk, text, and data for $45 a month. And if I get sick of my current carrier or they bump my cost, I can just switch to anybody else for just the cost of a $20 SIM card.
I have so many friends and family members that complain about their phone bills being super high and their service sucking, but they can't cancel their contracts without paying off their huge balances plus the interest and usually cancelation fees. Plus, because their phone is tied to the contract/carrier, they can't even keep transfer the phone to the new carrier and have to get sucked into a "phone trade-in" deal and the cycle continues.
And for the folks saying that most people can't afford to save up and buy a phone outright, there are a lot of places that offer payment plans for the phone, or you can buy it on credit and pay it off that way, which would likely be less interest over time. Or you could buy unlocked used/refurbished phones for 25-50% off their normal price.
Maybe it makes sense if you get a stipend from your company, or you bundle it with a bunch of other packages like cable TV or internet, but for just a cell phone, I just don't get locking yourself into a crazy contract.
This seems like an American problem. This used to be the case in the Netherlands as well but over the years people have learned that SIM-only subscriptions are so much easier and cheaper that the majority of people now use SIM-only. In fact I know of no one around me that does it differently.
Also $45 per month is still expensive lol. I pay €12 a month. Sure, not unlimited but I never call or SMS so the 100 a month I get for that is way more than enough and I never finish the 10GB of data a month either. I can make either unlimited for really not that much more.
I believe a major factor in this was a ruling by the Hoge Raad that a "free" phone with a contract is unlawful and is actually a loan. Carriers now have to list the price for the phone and for the service separately, so it's a lot more clear what the costs of the phone are.
Also, a "free" phone is now registered as a loan with monthly recurring costs, which impacts for example the maximum mortgage you can get on a home.
Also in the Netherlands and I have recently extended this concept to my home internet. Since 25 Mbps download / 10 Mbps upload is enough for my use, I no longer have an internet subscription and I make use of $25 LycaMobile unlimited data sim cards for home internet using a sim router. The IMEI of the router can be easily modified, which is also a plus.
The IP is dynamic, but for my self-hosted services that require a static IP I make use of a WireGuard tunnel between my raspberry pi and a virtual private server. The VPS has a static IP, so my domains point at the VPS and then the VPS re-routes the packets via the wireguard tunnel. In a wire guard tunnel only the server needs a static IP, so the VPS can route packets to the client even if the client's ip is dynamic.
France is a bit similar, but a new phone company decided to cut down the costs by not providing a phone. 20 € a month formore data than you'll ever need or 50 € a month with the latest iPhone included everyone chooses the first option
I was recently comparing some phone plans and found that nowadays, you mostly just pay the actual price of the device, plus the normal subscription costs, no interest or anything.
Got a Pixel 8 Pro from Odido (awful service btw, would not go with them again). The device costs me 30 euros per month, for 2 years, which comes out to 720 euros at the end. That's actually cheaper than the normal resale price of ~870 (average according to Tweakers).
Actually thinking about it now, I wonder what the catch is. That kinda seems too good to be true.
Part of the problem is that we’re advertised at constantly, so when the latest, greatest iPhone or Galaxy or Pixel comes along we feel like we need it. Because if we get the £1200 phone the resell value in two years will still be high, right? It actually makes sense.
But the only way to afford that is to borrow the money to pay for it.
I picked up an iPhone 13 mini last year, on a two year contract, for £29 a month. And that’s ok by me. By the end of my contract I’ll go SIM-only and my bill will drop to around £10 a month, which I’ll rock until Apple finally release another mini phone.
So this 13 mini will be the last phone I ever use…
Because people want the latest iPhone or Samsung and paying $ per month works better for them than $$$ upfront. The alternate finance method you speak of isn’t very well known, so it’s most simple to contract with a carrier.
Google Fi is a god-tier service for traveling abroad. When I went to South America I paid nothing extra vs my friends who had to deal with Verizon’s ridiculous travel plan fees.
If you go prepaid for a year you can get service for even cheaper. I don't need unlimited data so I buy a year of Mint Mobile's cheapest plan for about 200 dollars which gives unlimited talk and text and 5gb data for only around 15 dollars a month.
I should clarify that mint mobile also has "unlimited" and "unnecessary" plans for 30 and 40 dollars a month respectfully. (When prepaying for a year)
Quote: Unlimited plan incl. 40GB high-speed data w/10GB hotspot.
Unnecessary plan incl. 60GB high-speed data w/20GB
hotspot. Video @ 480p. Data speeds reduced after monthly
allotment. Taxes & fees extra.
But who actually does this otherwise? I have seen those kind of contracts advertised, but I never see people actually having them, apart from some 16yo who want the new iPhone by all means and this is the only way they can finance it.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something but here in Australia there's no benefit to not having a contract.
With our largest telco the contract is really just repayments on the phone. 24x monthly repayments is always the same price the phone is retailing for outright. You could cancel the sim and just keep up the phone repayments if you wanted.
Interesting. Seems like my situation is pretty specific to the US. Lots of folks from other countries that seem to have much cheaper options by default.
Keep a set of swimwear in your car. If you go to a place and forgot your swimsuit? Got the backup. Go to a hotel and find out they had a pool you didn't know about? Backup in the car. Accidentally shit yourself? Got at least something on you. Do I shit myself enough to worry about it? Not since I was a baby but now I know I got swim trunks in my car just in case.
If you need to remember something for the next time you go out, put your shoes somewhere odd. When you go to leave, you'll remember you moved them, which will remind you why you moved them.
Even just a couple inches over is enough to remind me. Or just a separation between them instead of them touching. Or turn them backwards. Though, this only works if it's relatively uncommon for you to do it. And if you live in a household that does indeed take their shoes off, some don't. But it's a surprisingly effective reminder if all that.
On the original topic, shoes last a lot longer if you don't wear the same pair day after day. The continual dampness from foot perspiration breaks down the materials much more quickly. Giving each pair of shoes a couple of days to dry out between wearings will greatly extend their lives.
This effect may not be visible to many people, but if you have a physical job, it can save you a lot of money.
If you can't find something and you've looked everywhere, get a flashlight and look again while pointing the flashlight. It has worked for me every time.
Further, if you drop something small, like a screw, set the flashlight on the floor. This will make all the small things cast long shadows and stand out way more.
I dunno, I just got some and just… got more hahaha. Even my shittiest flashlights are way brighter than any smartphone’s LEDs.
I mainly keep them everywhere so I can quickly take important cat pictures. Shining the brighter ones at the ceiling makes for perfect lighting for indoor cat pics. I don’t like using flash on animals, and my I keep my room pretty dim. But gosh dangit cats are so cute.
haha I guess their fur requires a special kind of lighting that I never thought about. I assumed funny internet cat pics were more moments of spontaneity than diligently prepared shooting sets hehe
The D4V2 you were looking for in the above post has RGB AUX LEDs and I think a button light iirc. You can set them to a bunch of colors on high or low brightness, or even have them show the battery level. On low-brightness, depending on color, they can stay on 24-7 for 2-6 YEARS before running the battery down (hell, on high, they can stay on for 1-3 months before needing a recharge). They are wonderful for finding it in the dark.
AUX lights make it one of the best nightstand lights. Anduril 2 makes it have some cool tricks too. I have mine have high red aux when unlocked so it can be used as a darklight just by unlocking it, then it auto locks after a minute of non-use and the aux goes to low and uses colors to display battery level.
Look up an ANDURIL2 video guide or the graphical control layout to see how it is all done. (Videos help a lot)
Ohhhhh the fancy RGB lights! I have them on high brightness/cycle RGB because I use the hard lock when they’re not in use. I do have like 20 18650s from when I was vaping a mech mod so I change them out frequently! It’s insane that they can last that long in low brightness! I should totally change my mode to show battery level using the colors—I just have to read the maps of how to use one button to do that for both (my D4V2 is on the old version of the firmware and my D8 is on the new!)
I also am struggling to find out how to change my D8 to only light up one side or the other—I got warm lights on one side and cool/insanely bright on them other. I’d love to switch between them but I don’t wanna bother people and even with tutorials it’s tough for me to find exactly how to do that. Also The Map… my goodness.
The DT8? The flat one? I didn't know that came in dual-channel. If it is ANDURIL2 then when it is on (single click from off) it is 3H (click-click-clickHOLD) to get into the tint ramp, which on a dual channel should slide between channel 1 and channel 2 (granular and smooth is selected in the deeper settings).
I heard that, at least in countries where we read left to right, we also look for things left to right. And if you reverse this and look from right to left that you're more likely to notice something you otherwise missed. So I do that. But I have no data to confirm if it works...
You know the pop culture reference we use for someone who has misplaced their cellphone, "have you tried calling it?"
This will sound absolutely silly, but one day a friend was looking for some trinket which wasn't a phone, and playfully I asked, "Have you tried calling it?"
They doubled down and started actually calling it, "Trinket.... trinket, where are you?"
And wouldn't you know it, within minutes they found it, and so far this has worked about 99.9% of the time.
So like using a flashlight focuses your eyes, having someone call it out loud kind of quiets the mind, too. It's wild.
I never tried calling it like a pet, but I normally say "where is this damn thing?" And then find it shortly afterwards. I'm guessing speaking the object out loud let's the object know you are looking for it. That way the object can show up and act like it was there the whole time.
I use my hands to kind of do the same thing. It's probably the behaviour they modeled Monk's "hand thing" after. It still helps even if I'm searching using my memory and spatial awareness to recall and search through something I am not currently looking at. Somehow, narrowing the scope physically with my hands helps. It's probably a muscle memory or proprioception thing.
For example, if I want to find something to eat in the fridge. I generally won't be able to think of anything by just opening the fridge and looking through it. Unless there is something super obvious like a leftover pizza box or something else impossible to miss like that. Just trying to search by looking at each shelf only increases the odds of finding something by like 5%. But when I use my hand and slowly move it down the shelves, I can somehow think more clearly about what is on each shelf than I could without using my hand. And, as I mentioned, it also works even if I am no longer looking in the fridge. I can do it with the door closed and still more clearly recall what was on each shelf.
It also helps when scanning through my whole house looking for something, with and without currently having eyes on it. Like scanning through the whole house room by room while still sitting at my computer, I do a much better job if I am pointing my hand at the place I am thinking about as I scan.
I should probably mention I am Autistic, my spatial awareness and proprioception are two areas I have seemed to benefit. But it's very easy to get confused or distracted if I have too much information at once. So that is mostly what is going on. I can't just imagine that I am pointing at something in my imagination to gain the benefit, I have to be literally, physically pointing. Although I can translocate, like not be at my house or fridge and still scan my house or fridge by pointing relatively where each thing would be if they were there.
It's not limited in scope as far as I can tell. Though it is kind of limited in resolution. The bigger the area I am scanning, the less detail I can recall about it when I am not there, or "looking through walls". But when I am there, I can go as fine grained as the search demands, just takes longer.
A Coast G20 flashlight is about $10 on Amazon, and has a very tight spotlight circle "inspection" beam. It's my go-to for searching because it makes you focus on a small area.
Just how much cheaper and longer lasting keeping thing like rice, dried beans and flour can be. It's amazing to me that no matter how empty my cupboards/fridge is I can always make fresh tortillas, refried beans, and rice in like an hour.
My wife's Italian. Replace your items with always having a bottle of sauce and a packet of pasta in the cupboard, and there's always a meal to be had no matter how empty the fridge is.
My GF is Italian too. One of the most important things I learned from her is literally this. Also, as long as you have any kind of vegetables in your house, you are always one step away from a pasta sauce.
100% For us, a passata, an onion, and some garlic is the minimum needed.
Probably helps that the FIL delivers us boxes of homemade passata all the time - we never have less than a dozen bottles on our storage shelves in the garage. But even if we were to ever run out, a couple of store-bought bottles in the pantry is our fallback option.
Amen to that. But I can’t do jar/bottled sauce so if I want easy noodles, it’s cook noodles, leave some pasta water after draining, throw in some butter at the end to make it thicc, then serve topped with olive oil/red pepper flakes/salt/pepper/parmigiano Reggiano (all things I make sure I always have in stock always)
I also keep a stack of cans of San Marzano tomatoes to make a red sauce any time I want, but that takes a couple hours instead of 20 minutes.
There are good sauces you can make from canned tomatoes in 20 minutes (depending on your prep speed).
My go tos are Putanesca & Vodka sauce, but there's a lot more you can do. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything has a simple recipe and then a big list of variants, most of which can be done in 20 minutes.
Drink water instead of soda, alcohol, other sugary drinks. Eventually you'll find yourself to be an expert water connoisseur and prefer water over pretty much all beverages.
When I was in the end of my PhD, everything except writing my thesis made me feel guilty. I ended up learning to find joy and peace in doing laundry and washing dishes. They became my guilt-free breaks — I had to do these things. FYI - I didn’t enjoy washing dishes before.
Washing dishes has become a really powerful part of my day, haha. Not only is it still a guilt-free break but it is a daily reminder to be mindful. I’ve noticed that whenever I drop and break a dish, my mind is not present. In fact, in those moments my mind might actually be drifting somewhere negative.
Maybe not so much a “hack” as a … lesson? Or something? But yeah, the whole cliche about having the right attitude and being present and mindful. I try to apply it in other parts of life, not just the dishes.
Yeah I was like wow I am so enlightened for the first part of the response and then I was like oh my god I am so seen. I. Am. The. Best. At. Doing. The. Second. Most. Important. Thing. I. Need. To. Do.
This is a great way to think. Some people are so frustrated with waiting in line at the bank or market. For me, it's just another unintended break where I get to relax.
everything except ... made me feel guilty
learning to find joy
guilty free breaks
How‽ This is perhaps the single most impactful problem I've in my life. I just don't know how to beat this. I don't end up doing anything else because I could be doing my thesis. But I also don't do my thesis. Could you talk a bit more about how you got out of this line of thinking? Between this and ADHD I feel like I'm going suicidal. I haven't had a vacation/gap/break ever where I've felt free and happy to enjoy.
Honestly, I still haven't fully solved the problem. I wish I could give you a great answer.
Sometimes I have no struggles working and taking breaks, other times I fall into this same trap you've just described. I think it amounts to a lot of different factors — some weird paradoxical mix of procrastination, fear, insecurity, passion, displeasure, and overconfidence.
I've learned, though, to accept certain tasks as completely necessary in life (like doing the dishes) so that I am able to do them guilt free. At least I can do that. I feel you though. In a general sense, I still struggle with the problem.
I think part of it amounts to making a decision and sticking to it rather than being on the fence. Maybe that's discipline? E.g., "this morning I will go on a run, make a nice breakfast, wash the dishes, get started on laundry, read or play music for a bit, and then finally I will sit down to work." Then, when actually executing the first part of the plan, just ignore the ever living fuck out of any feeling of guilt. But, again, I am still putting that into practice.
Yeah, I think it does boil down to accepting the situation and just doing it. Or forcing the self to do it after rounds of negotiations and arguments. One problem that I see with this- at least for myself- is that it leads to me doing just the bare minimum and then subsequently getting mad. I don't really know, I'm also trying to figure things out for myself. Maybe medication is the answer
Safety razors - I've got thick growth and I was spending more and more on expensive multi-blade razors trying to find a decent shave without the blade going dull after 3 uses. The answer was to have less, better quality blades rather than the expensive trash in the market. A safety razor multipack costs a pittance and has lasted me over a year. Each blade is 2 sided and can be flipped. And when you're done with it, it can be recycled with no plastic waste. There's literally no down side if you wet shave.
Electric screwdriver - it doesn't matter how much DIY you do or how rarely you make IKEA furniture, you still need an electric screwdriver.
Brain hacks - your brain and body are predictable physical objects that are programmed a certain way. If you take the time to learn how they work, you can use that to your advantage. e.g. If you know that procrastination isn't a time management problem, but rather an emotional regulation problem about the task that's due; then you can start addressing the cause. Or if you want to build a new habit, you can combine it with something you like, to make you look forward to it (e.g. pick a TV show you really want to watch and only allow yourself to watch it while you're on the treadmill). Or realise that discipline and motivation are finite resources in the day. There's too much info to cover here, but I learn about these things from podacsts mostly:
"Good enough" tech - You will save a lot of money if you define your use case for tech and then buy a product that is good enough to do the job (and preferably secondhand). I'm currently writing this out on a laptop I bought last week for £150 from eBay, brand new condition Dell, Intel 8th gen i7, 16GB RAM and half TB NVME drive. My gym TV is a £30 IPS Dell monitor with a Fire TV stick.
Facebook Marketplace - make a dummy account for a facebook marketplace. I have bought tons of "like new" things in brand new condition (e.g. a whole home weights gym setup) for a fraction of brand new price. Also if there's anything I want to get rid of, then I just post it for sale. I have had a completely worn out, cosmetically destroyed desk that I posted online for £1. Someone came and collected it the same day. It saved me a trip to the junkyard by having someone come collect it and saved the waste by going to someone who will use it. 2nd pro tip: never post anything for free. Scumbag entitled people monitor facebook for free deals and you will have a bad time. Post things for £1 and you'll get serious people who will be grateful.
Accept what you can't change - your life will be much better if you stop spending energy pushing against things you can't influence. Traffic cop walking away after giving you a ticket? Accept the hit and walk away. You took a risk not paying for parking, it didn't work out. Go home and tell your spouse about it; then move on with your life.
Not exactly life hacks, but shortcuts that can help computer users:
holding CTRL and pressing the arrow keys will move the text cursor whole words, instead of 1 character at a time. Also works with Delete and Backspace
CTRL + Home will move the cursor to the start of the file, CTRL + End to the end of the file or textbox.
Windows 10 users can use the Xbox bar to record their screens. By default, the shortcut is Windows button + Alt + R
For anyone that uses the sink to wash dishes, have a net/grid to cover the hole. Once it's full, just pick it up and dump the contents in your food trash.
You can use any type of soap to create barriers that ants will avoid. If you plug a hole with some soap (try a piece of soap bar that's wet/soft), the ants won't reopen it.
People wonder why I’m an optimist. I’m not really. What I do is expect people to disappoint me. After all, none of us are perfect. When they don’t I’m surprised. When they do, I’m not mad, as just met my expectations.
I find people who don’t like other people expect them to not disappoint them and when they do they get angry and upset. It’s really just a mindset change.
You can often get a Pre Purchase Inspection (PPI) for about $200 from a mechanic that will tell you everything in depth about the health of a car before you actually buy it.
Way too many people out here purchasing cars and then bringing it to a mechanic only to realize they've been ripped off or bought an expensive repair bill.
You should do it with any used car you have a strong intention to buy whether it is a private sale or from a lot.
Usually lots will want to negotiate the price first because any used car will have some wear and tear.
But the point is that you'll know for sure it there's any critical issues with the vehicle. If it's a lemon, you can say no and walk away. Don't think of it as losing $200, think of it as saving several thousand on a broken car.
If you have a goal to find something (eg. buy a car), write your goal down, including details like make and model. You'll start to see adverts, special deals and cars of the model you want parked with for sale signs. There's nothing mystical about this - you're surrounded by things like that, but the specific act of writing it seems to tell your unconscious mind to bring it to your attention when you pass them.
I hit the Compose key and then =/ gives ≠, but I don't seem to be able to enter ≈. For that and more obscure characters I'd open Emacs and run insert-char.
It's just compose ~ ~ (tilde tilde). The compose key sequences are often the most logical thing you can think of. Emacs C-x 8 is good but you have to try and guess the unicode name of the character.
It's the interrobang. It literally means "?!" Like WTF?! But in one symbol. It mattered when "cost per letter" or typesetting spacing mattered. I still like it and use it often enough. As for chess, honestly, yeah, it could be used for that.
Start reading the nutritional facts on food packages. In the beginning it will make little sense. But as time goes by, you start understanding it a bit more and to notice patterns.
Eventually you start doing wiser choices. I've learned pretty quickly that the "healthy options" (e.g. low sugar cookies) are as bad for you than the regular ones.
Set up automatic bank transfers to chop your income into % parts: 5% play money, 20% savings, bills etc. do what works for you. Get rid of unnecessary subscriptions.
For water stuck in your ear after shower or swimming, what works for me is tilting your head to the side that is plugged and bending/unbending your knees (making your body bounce) until the water comes out.
An easy way to wear out cloths is to wash them too often. Some rules I follow:
If it's smelly or visibly dirty, ignore all other rules and wash
Rotate jeans and hang to air out. Cotton will naturally drop smells this way. Wash approx every 4 wears
Sweaters/Jumpers can be worn many times if a shirt is underneath. Hang and rotate to air out
If socks are merino wool, use nikwash and wear until they no longer smell like the wash (or get dirty). Lay out to air out. Any other material, wear only once
Dress shirts, if not wrinkled, 3 times, hang to air (only if you wear t-shirts underneath)
Wash t-shirts and underwear every time unless your backpacking. Basically, anything not wool that comes into constant contact with sweaty bits
Agree with all this except jeans. Store them in the freezer and wash them even less than you’d like to. They’re barely cool when you put them on…
unless it’s a July 17 heatwave and you wore them in 7000% humidity before tossing the salty, sweat-drenched denim into the freezer, in which case they’re like cold tortilla chips. Just wash them if you were swimming down the sidewalk in mid-summer muck.
Anyway. Makes them last at least a couple years longer.
Merino wool is a very different material then "classic" wool. Backpackers like it because it wicks sweat and it's naturally antimicrobial so the smells dissipate over night. It's also not itchy due to the finer weave.
My favorite is Darn Tough socks. They're merino wool, warm when they need to be and cool when not, and if you get them on sale (only way to buy them) they're worth the price. Lifetime warranty, so if you get holes, you get new ones. Last socks you'll ever buy.
I've started doing this when I noticed the space savings. First, I've done it with underwear, then with my undershirts. Now, only those shirts I need to be ironed (and immaculately folded) don't get rolled.
Because T-shirts are somewhat irregularly shaped when folded. If you stack them with the same orientation, one side is higher than the other. You can alternate the way you lay them but that's also easier with rolls.
Rolls allow you to take advantage of the efficiency of the honeycomb shape, as well.
Depends on whether you're folding them in neat squares or hanging them from hangers. The rolls are useful for putting them in luggage, they can be compressed better that way
I do squares and if packing a suitcase, lay out dress shirts alternating, trousers alternating, put t-shirts/underwear in the middle (folded) and roll the trousers and then dress shirts around them. Keeps the wrinkles down.
This will sound stupid. But if you press your thumb onto the center of your hand, and then close the others fingers around and press, you'll suppress your gag reflex.
This saved me when I had to take some medicine as big pills. Without this trick they often got stuck in my throat, and it could take me minutes to properly swallow. With the trick? No problems anymore.
Create a tentative schedule working backwards from that date. Include dates for completing main tasks.
Give extra time in the schedule for minor setbacks between tasks.
Give extra time in the schedule for a potential major setback overall.
For example, let's say the goal is to paint a house:
I can say I want it painted in 2 months, so I set it for the date of 9/17/24.
I figure I can paint a room every other day, so since the house has 5 rooms total, I think I can start painting 10 days before on 9/07/24. However, I need to consider that finding and purchasing paint and equipment will take time too. I think about it and consider that paint shopping can take me 2 days since I want to try out several stores, so the newer date is 9/05/24.
Now, I add some room for minor setbacks between each task. Rather than assuming I will paint every other day, I add two days in between. That means starting on 8/30/24. This allows me to take my time with rooms, skip a day if I feel tired, or adjust if I the rooms take longer to paint than I had anticipated for whatever reason. I also increase the time allotted for acquiring materials because so many things can happen: traffic, tired, unhappy with selection, need time to test samples and ask people, etc. Rather than only include 2 days for this, I include a whole week so I can see the paint samples on the walls and see which ones feel the best. We are not starting on 8/23/24.
Lastly, maybe something major could happen, such as getting sick, the store runs out of paint stock, my car breaks down, or I change my mind on one of the paint colors after seeing it up on the wall. I might even realize that I completely overlooked tasks, such as rearranging furniture, painting over errors/accidents, and clean up. I would then add a cushion of 2 weeks to the schedule to allow for that should it happen. So the actual start date is 8/9/24. This is much sooner than if we had gone with the original start date of 9/07/24, almost an entire month!
With this style of planning, I can take my sweet time, enjoy the process, and not get stressed out if something unexpected comes up. If I finish early, then I have extra time to work on details or enjoy the rest.
Whenever you are loading the washing machine, or hanging the laundry to dry/loading the dryer, don't put the socks straight away. If you get one sock, set it aside, and wait to have the other sock before putting them wherever they need to go. This way you drastically reduce the amount of odd socks/ socks with no pair.
If you find a single sock when you're at the dryer, look for it in the washing or on the floor; you know it has to be there because you make the habit of always loading the pair. If you have a single sock at the washer, don't wash it; wait until you find the other one, keep it in your basket.
If you are cramped for storage space for cleaning supplies, you can buy and hang a shoe cubby on the back of a closet door and use it to store all sorts of things.
There’s different types, such as ones that are actual racks and others that are pockets like this:
The pockets tear so easily,do not expect them to last more than a few months if you are placing anything heavier than a pair of slippers or flip-flops in them.
If you have a toilet that, when flushed, turns your shower into lava, adjust the toilet filler valve so it's barely open and you'll have much less of a problem.
I cut in half, and lay the half down flat. Then I cut off just the very end from each side which makes it easier to lift the peel off. Then slice. Usually works, but occasionally there’s difficulty. Isn’t that life?
Using a chef's knife, cut around core and twist to separate halves. The core will remain stuck on one side.
Holding the side with the core in your off-hand, (gently) chop the knife into the core and twist to remove it from the avocado half. Reaching around the back side of the blade, pinch the core off with your fingers.
Scoop the avocado flesh from the skins using a large spoon, then slice/dice/mash as desired.
That's how I learned to do it (in a tex-mex chain restaurant), anyway. I think maybe we were supposed to use one of those cut-proof gloves for step #2, but nobody bothered.
Step 2 should be: Put the side with the seed DOWN skin-side down, and lightly whack the long sharp edge of the knife into the seed without risking your hand. If you're afraid of the avocado escaping, hold one end, but don't put your whole palm directly in the line of cut. A lot of people wind up in the ER because avocado seeds are slippery and may send the blade askew, or just because they missed. Twist to pop out the seed, and whack the handle on the edge of your trashcan to dislodge it into the trash.
I worked in the ED for a decade and this is very true. Avocado injuries might be the most common non allergic good injury. I do mine like this guy says. Usually 3 or 4 a day. I only use butter knives to cut them and the wacking the seed still works. I then take the knife and make either slices or grids in the fruit while it is in the peel and use a spoon to scoop out the pre cut flesh
Of course, you could just use a spoon to remove the pit. Or I saw another variant where you push it out from the "back" of the side its stuck in once cut in half, no tool needed beyond the initial halving
Read the lines before that -- or at least read the "also" to notice stabbing is a secondary injury.
Mostly: just put the avocado down! ERs feel the need to warn about how common an accident this is, so why tempt fate?
People lose their grip on the avocado and accidentally slice their palms or fingers, doctors have warned. When this happens, there’s a high likelihood of people accidentally severing their nerves or tendons. However, people also tend to stab themselves in the hand as they attempt to use the knife tip to remove the avocado pit.
From the Sun:
Wolfe recommended holding an avocado down on a cutting board and slicing into it with the dominant hand, cutting around the fruit at the equator, then rolling it halfway over and cutting again, according to CBS New York.
But then again, I grew up eating ripe, if not nearly overripe avocados, the kind whose flesh would turn into mush if you try to grab them. So, yeah, I would just slice the avocado in half (going around the pit), remove the pit, and then scoop out the flesh.
Best thing in brought home from my time in SEA are these very basic asian metal spoons.
They are quite thin and have a sharper edge then normal spoons which makes them perfect for scooping out avocados, mangos, the seeds of pumpkins and all kind of melons or vegetables for filling (like the core of a zucchini or cucumber).
I really wouldn't want to miss them, they are so versatile.
A ghetto bidet: 3D print it, or take a small softdrink bottle, make a hole in it's neck using a hot needle or corkscrew. Fill it with water, hold it upside down and squirt your butthole clean with it. Use a little toiletpaper or cloth to dab it dry. Can't live without it anymore.
I had my last phone so long(about 5-6 years I think) that I was forced to get a new one because it was no longer supported.
I know they have to have a cut off somewhere, but around 5 years doesn't seem like that long for a device. Maybe I'm just getting old, or planned obsolescence or something.
But yes, having that phone for a longtime prevented ewaste and saved me quite a bit of money. Be nice to your phone and it'll go longer than the company supports it.
Do a bunch of things at once, not in parallel, but in series.
It makes sure I'm staying in the mood of being productive and keeps myself motivated, as I can keep focusing on the tasks. Of course, still take breaks if you need it.
I worked at a factory that produced food with onion as one of the main ingredients. The best trick was to breathe with the mouth. Breathing with my nose would always make my eyes cry.
Rinse your dishes after eating. This Kris6 the food shmutz from turning into a crust you'll have to scour off and won't wash off completely in the dishwasher.
If you want to open a padlock and don't have the key, you can almost certainly break it open with 2 big wrenches.
I only had 1 opportunity to try that yet, when removing a 20 year old lock some stupid kid left on my stuff and then forgot where I put the key, but man did it feel empowering.
You can practice this trick at any romantic bridge. Do you really think whoever etched their initials on the lock is still together and would notice? Please
Got some domed glass pot lids but the one you need broke? Simply invert the handle on the next size up and you get a universal lid that fits any pan!
Condensation pools in the middle instead of dripping over the sides.
When given the option, read the instructions, and save for future reference. (A URL / bookmark doesn't count as saving unless you control the hostname (including DNS).)
I always read these and go "fuck yeah I could stand to feel like a new bloke as well" and then I remember I don't drink and thus can't quit it either. Fuck the baseline.
Getting a Shavette. The prospect of it being sharper than a straight razor makes you think that you will slice your face off, but in my experience at worst I had a nick or 2. The blades are dirt cheap and perform better than multi bladed razors.
Not really a life hack but: folding bicycles are so, so convenient for everyday use (fits in every elevator, fits under your desk at work, fits in public transportation even when it's crowded, etc)
I really don't know how they are not a lot more common; you only need a mountain bike if you actually ride on mountain trails often enough. Even non-folding city bicycles are way more comfortable for everyday usage (higher handlebar position and cushiony saddle <3)
Changing how we vote can do away with the spoiler effect, making third parties viable.
Then democrats wouldn't have to yell at people online who don't feel represented by the Democratic party. I wonder what they would do with all that free time?
Wrestle the pig first, every day. Whatever is your worst, most unpleasant, annoying task for the entire day, do it before you do anything else. It minimizes your stress and worrying and puts it in the rearview mirror.
For a second I thought you were talking about masturbation.
Well yeah crank your hog first of course
SPEAK UP BROTHER, I CANT HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF MY CRANKED HOG
AROOOOOO
ABSOLUTELYCRANKINMYMF'INHOG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXtn0as91SM
Spank the monkey
Filbert and Heffer playing "Spank the Monkey"
Oh bay bee, oh bay bee, oh bay bee.
Rocko?
Mrs. Bighead?
simultaneous phone slam
There was also that one that was cut from the camping episode.
Rocko is foraging for berries and he grabs one on a bush and the bush recoils and you hear a bear growl. Then a bear jumps out from behind the bush grabbing his crotch and running away in obvious pain.
Flog the dolphin
Mildly to firmly squeeze your penis while moving your hand back and forward
Choke the chicken.
Bash the bishop
Ok, I wrestled a cop and pinned him. What’s step 2? Please respond before his backup arrives.
I think you're supposed to tickle his balls now.
Alternatively, if you’re neurodivergent you may have a better time doing the easiest tasks first to build momentum and motivation.
Yeah, everyone’s neurochemistry is different and should be experimented with.
I didn’t know this for so long, that I needed a few easy wins to set the pace, that I feel like I could have been way more productive throughout my 20s haha
My former mentor said: 80% of the deliverable is the 20% of the scope you really don't want to do
Human memory is bias towards most recent things in a group set. If your set is a "workout" or a "workday", doing the fun stuff last will affect positively all the memory items in the same group set. This works even if you know that your memory is doing this.
We don't live in a "present now". We live in a mental image constructed from memory of recent past.
Trick is not to do unpleasant stuff first, but to do pleasant stuff last.
I feel like saying "I have to do this before anything else" might very well end with me doing nothing
I always heard it as "Swallow a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day". Same meaning, and I think I like yours better.
I don't think "waking up early" counts, but it's definitely the most unpleasant and annoying task of my weekdays, followed closely by actually getting to work.
I have some paperwork to do that will likely result in $2000. It's been over a year and i cannot just sit down and do it. I stress over it every day but continue to put it off.
Today. Let's both finish our paperwork today. The sense of freedom and achievement will be good.
Ok. I have a 2 hour car ride this afternoon. I will get everything ready this morning and do it in the car. Thanks! Good luck!
Excellent. I hope you did OK. I got mine done! It wasn't as bad as I thought. If you haven't finished yet, don't give up, pick up the pieces and carry on. Thanks for being my Internet buddy on this.
Congratulations! I didn't finish, but did get a good start on it. Thanks for the encouragement!
Well done. Starting is the hardest part. Are you going to do a bit more today?
I'm on vacation until Wednesday so I will finish it on my flight home. Getting started really was the hardest part. Now it's just putting numbers into boxes and adding them up. By gathering info and starting on it, i find that the expected $2k gain is closer to $10k. That's some great motivation to get it done!
I know this as 'eat your frogs'.
But where will I find a pig?
They’re easy to spot. They’re typically wearing cute little uniforms & driving fun little cars with lights on top.
Best advice ever.
To stop infinite scroll on social media, quickly scroll 2-3 screen lengths down without looking at the posts. Now read the posts scrolling up. Eventually you'll reach where you started and most probably the laziness to go all the way back will prompt you to exit the app.
Or soda. Or sugary drinks in general.
I hate the talk about soda. It's a flavored carbonated drink and carbonation isn't killing people. When schools banned sodas from vending machines, they replaced them with yoohoo and other drinks that had as much or more sugar than the carbonated drinks they removed. -stepping off my soapbox-
Fruit juice is notorious for this.
'but its fruit juice! Its 100% natural!'
Most still have added sugars on top of the fact that most of the fruit has been squeezed out only leaving... Sugars.
Even on their own, the natural fruit sugars aren't enough to make drinking fruit juice "healthy" when all the fiber has been squeezed out.
But the one two punch of sugars is just as bad as any other sugary drink.
Same with cans of Arizona or Snapple or anything else. It's all terrible.
People don't realize that ultra processed food is basically everything they eat and drink. There are very few things that aren't, and they're mostly whole food adjacent.
If it's not straight up water and plain vegetables, fruit, and grain equivalents, it's more than likely ultra processed no matter how healthy it claims to be.
So much of non-genetic cancers comes from what we ingest willingly. A large portion of it would stop if everyone ate a well rounded whole foods diet. But shit is expensive, takes time and kwh to make, and people are busy trying to enjoy life.
Conventional Cereal? Terrible. https://www.livestrong.com/article/13774827-is-eating-cereal-every-day-bad/
Certain processed fiber gives you liver cancer Ffs lol.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/diets-high-in-processed-fiber-may-increase-risk-of-liver-cancer-in-some-people
The problem isn’t carbonation (Bubly, Liquid Death have 0g). The problem is carbonated sugary drinks typically have more sugar than other sugary drinks, not a rule but per amount sold.
The typical soda has 38g of sugar per 12oz (can). Google states the following: Coca-Cola is 45g. Mountain Dew is 46g. Redbull and Monster are 34g. Arizona Sweet Tea is 31g. Apple juice is 33g. Orange juice is 28g. Cranberry juice is 42g.
Anything over 28g is no go territory for me. Anything under is generally not an issue blood sugar wise for me. Note: I am not diabetic.
I feel like there's a subtlety here. Ocassional Glass of wine with dinner versus binge drinking.
Of course the problem is that the first drink makes then next one more attractive and degrades impulse control... so YMMV.
One is too many and a thousand is never enough.
Edit: I do get the irony of someone with my username posting this. I understand what's wrong with binge drinking and me in general, I'm just not ready to fix it.
You and I are in the same place.
Well, I’m not in Texas, but I’m with you otherwise.
I’ll fix it sometime. Hopefully soon.
We're gonna be alright, buddy.
Thank ya. We definitely are. My problem is, drinkin’ makes everything SO MUCH FUN. If it just wasn’t so damn fun, it wouldn’t be an issue
Wow. This thread got pretty real, pretty quick. I feel you though (you too, Texas).
You're gonna be alright, too.
I was entirely satisfied enjoying that irony.
This, is why I don't drink.
Having a glass of wine every day is not healthy.
Agreed, my intent was occasional. I shall go and put that word in.
I drink pretty much only on the weekends and that’s pretty seldom.
Is one glass of wine really that bad though? Like compared to a glass of grape juice? Because of the sugars and calories and is alcohol in this percentage range (approx 14%) enough to cause damage to your liver over time?
Again I’m talking about one glass
Any amount of alcohol is per definition unhealthy. The "health benefits" of red wine can easily be attained through other foods or drinks.
I’m going on holiday to Greece next month, so have decided to forgo my usual weekend ales until then. Partly to be a little more comfortable in my swimming shorts, but also because £10/15 a weekend adds up to a few cold pints of Mythos by the beach.
But I was amazed at how fresh I felt last Monday morning after not having drunk any beer over the weekend.
I had better seafood in Greece than anywhere else in Europe. Fresh grilled octopus with a squeeze of lemon, fried sardines, squid salad, everything just perfect. (Note: I haven't done Nordic countries, and they might do cod/coldwater-fish/etc. better, but that's be a different style.)
Depends on the person. I’m content only have 1 at a time. I don’t have an addictive personality though. For some people this is great advice. Others, it doesn’t affect.
Yep. For me it made the week so much easier..wake up fresher, work out easier, handle job tasks smoother.
Friday night have fun. Wednesday? Nah. Tea please.
One time I was in Mexico with my wife while our daughter was still a baby and the lady at the front desk of the hotel where we were staying offered us a crib we could borrow. It was a kind gesture, but I was a little concerned because the crib seemed wobbly. I realized there were some screws loose but though I had a multitool on me, the holes were stripped.
So later, I was talking with a local and he's like "I can fix that." He comes over and pulls a pack of toothpicks out of his pocket. He sticks one into each hole and breaks it off so that it's not sticking out anymore. Then he drives the screw back in. I shook the crib after that and it was rock solid!
Now I always keep some toothpicks handy. Fast-forward to just this year. My daughter is now an adult living in a condo, and was complaining the screw popped out of a kitchen cabinet door when her roommate yanked on it too hard. "I can fix that."
Learn to cook the base of meals in different cultures. Like a Sofrito.
Most of the best classic dishes in the world really start with three or four ingredients and are just variations. You shouldn’t overthink it or buy rare ingredients. You’re better off picking one and mastering the basic steps. Learning to cook isn’t about learning to recreate a chef-cooked meal. It’s about learning to cook simple, cheap ingredients.
Is it even a life hack, or an essential life skill. Most us didn't formally learned, but have seen/helped our parents from an early age and one day, we ended up in a student room meaning it was time to cook
When the pandemic happened, there were people who didn’t know how to make the easiest meals. I was shocked. So, my rule on recipes is that nothing is too basic.
Hey that's a quality life changing hack right here. Food is the most important thing with sleep.
Would you have a list of those base meals maybe ?
@dephyre mentionned refried beans with rice in the thread. @DeltaTangoLima responded with bottled (canned) pasta sauce. I'd say learn how to make ratatouille and store (can) some when you can get the ingredient (green bell pepper, zucchinis, eggplan, tomatoes) at the right time of the year.
It’s usually just to take a small amount of delicious oil or fat — whatever you have on hand — and saute diced onions with diced bell pepper (or local equivalent) until the onions are slightly transparent. Keep going if you want the onions start being brown and have a sweet flavor. That brown is just the natural sugars coming out of the onion and is what “caramelizes” means. Caramel is sugar. And then add garlic and/or ginger and whatever spices you like.
If you want to, add meat. If you don’t, do not. (Often, that very oil step is done from browning meat and not wasting the fat.)
If you want soup, add a lot of liquid and whatever and cook it slowly. If you want paella, jambalaya, jollof, biryani, or equivalent — every culture has a rice dish — use the rice recipe on the bag as if it were water. (Use stock if you have any but water works fine.)
There are dishes that are different. Like fried rice and French Toast use old rice and toast respectively. Baking is a science. But anyone can make a pot of delicious with a few ingredients and it’s a 10 minute, one pot meal.
This is the way.
You start frying an onion and then figure out what you're making for dinner.
There's a book that you should pickup..
Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat
It really covers everything you'll need to be able to cook anything. They even made a 4 part series about it on Netflix.
I really like this. Do you have any resources I can check out that cover this?
A good example is The Curry Guy. Dan somebody?
Make a huge batch of base curry sauce, and then with a few more ingredients you can make dozens of Indian and Bangladeshi dishes
He's got loads of recipes on his site, but his book is really useful in a kitchen
I started watching Babish & Weissman’s channels on YouTube during the pandemic. Both of them put out easy to follow videos, but they also include links to recipes in the video description, so you don’t have to write it all down.
The Basics with Babish videos are great because they show multiple dishes with a given protein.
I watch them both a ton, good stuff. Weissman can be a little snooty tho. K Keni Lopez-Alt is amazing 😍
Weissman does get a bit snooty & high priced at times. He also gets a lil too juvenile for my taste, but that’s my taste…
With his higher priced dishes, he does typically offer cost cutting options as goes through, which is nice.
I really like that both Babish & Weissman tell you why they’re using certain ingredients. That little bit of why helps me with substitutions if I ever don’t have or don’t like something used.
For sure, like some of his stuff is really good
I just found a japanese comfort food staple: Ochazuke - green tea rice. It just needs a couple of ingredients and is super quick. I was blown away by how good and comforting it was. Its Comfort in a quick bowl. And it's super adaptable. You can basically add anything as tipping.
This is the blogpost that inspired me https://rasamalaysia.com/green-tea-rice/
Not really a "hack" but I don't know why most people get into phone contracts.
Since college, I have always just bought unlocked phones with cash and then used the carrier's prepaid plans and set it to auto pay.
I pay so much less than most people I know, I get all the same service, and my phone isn't tied to a contract or carrier, so I can cancel my plan whenever I want and switch to another carrier by just buying their SIM card for ~$20.
My current phone is an unlocked Pixel 6a that I got on sale new for $300. I have unlimited talk, text, and data for $45 a month. And if I get sick of my current carrier or they bump my cost, I can just switch to anybody else for just the cost of a $20 SIM card.
I have so many friends and family members that complain about their phone bills being super high and their service sucking, but they can't cancel their contracts without paying off their huge balances plus the interest and usually cancelation fees. Plus, because their phone is tied to the contract/carrier, they can't even keep transfer the phone to the new carrier and have to get sucked into a "phone trade-in" deal and the cycle continues.
And for the folks saying that most people can't afford to save up and buy a phone outright, there are a lot of places that offer payment plans for the phone, or you can buy it on credit and pay it off that way, which would likely be less interest over time. Or you could buy unlocked used/refurbished phones for 25-50% off their normal price.
Maybe it makes sense if you get a stipend from your company, or you bundle it with a bunch of other packages like cable TV or internet, but for just a cell phone, I just don't get locking yourself into a crazy contract.
This seems like an American problem. This used to be the case in the Netherlands as well but over the years people have learned that SIM-only subscriptions are so much easier and cheaper that the majority of people now use SIM-only. In fact I know of no one around me that does it differently.
Also $45 per month is still expensive lol. I pay €12 a month. Sure, not unlimited but I never call or SMS so the 100 a month I get for that is way more than enough and I never finish the 10GB of data a month either. I can make either unlimited for really not that much more.
I believe a major factor in this was a ruling by the Hoge Raad that a "free" phone with a contract is unlawful and is actually a loan. Carriers now have to list the price for the phone and for the service separately, so it's a lot more clear what the costs of the phone are.
Also, a "free" phone is now registered as a loan with monthly recurring costs, which impacts for example the maximum mortgage you can get on a home.
Also in the Netherlands and I have recently extended this concept to my home internet. Since 25 Mbps download / 10 Mbps upload is enough for my use, I no longer have an internet subscription and I make use of $25 LycaMobile unlimited data sim cards for home internet using a sim router. The IMEI of the router can be easily modified, which is also a plus.
Do you have a static or dynamic IP though? For some applications one would want a static one iirc
The IP is dynamic, but for my self-hosted services that require a static IP I make use of a WireGuard tunnel between my raspberry pi and a virtual private server. The VPS has a static IP, so my domains point at the VPS and then the VPS re-routes the packets via the wireguard tunnel. In a wire guard tunnel only the server needs a static IP, so the VPS can route packets to the client even if the client's ip is dynamic.
If your're at the point where you need a static IP, then 25mb down is probably not going to cut it for you anyway.
France is a bit similar, but a new phone company decided to cut down the costs by not providing a phone. 20 € a month formore data than you'll ever need or 50 € a month with the latest iPhone included everyone chooses the first option
Have you checked price comparison sites recently? In germany you can get 10GB for 5€ now
Nice, over here $45 a month is pretty cheap, at least in my circles. Most people I know are paying close to double that.
I was recently comparing some phone plans and found that nowadays, you mostly just pay the actual price of the device, plus the normal subscription costs, no interest or anything.
Got a Pixel 8 Pro from Odido (awful service btw, would not go with them again). The device costs me 30 euros per month, for 2 years, which comes out to 720 euros at the end. That's actually cheaper than the normal resale price of ~870 (average according to Tweakers).
Actually thinking about it now, I wonder what the catch is. That kinda seems too good to be true.
Bonus points in that android phones won't have their bootloader encrypted by a cellular service provider.
Absolutely right!
It feels like the nineties/2000 just called :-D
I pay 10€/m for "unlimited" 5G (186GB/month IIRC).
Nice! Maybe Europe has it better, (wouldn't be the first time lol.)
Hey, don't be shy ;-)
Part of the problem is that we’re advertised at constantly, so when the latest, greatest iPhone or Galaxy or Pixel comes along we feel like we need it. Because if we get the £1200 phone the resell value in two years will still be high, right? It actually makes sense.
But the only way to afford that is to borrow the money to pay for it.
I picked up an iPhone 13 mini last year, on a two year contract, for £29 a month. And that’s ok by me. By the end of my contract I’ll go SIM-only and my bill will drop to around £10 a month, which I’ll rock until Apple finally release another mini phone.
So this 13 mini will be the last phone I ever use…
I agree except who is charging you $20 for a sim?
Verizon, might have been a little less, but reasonable to me, I keep my phones for a long time, and I got a really good deal on it.
Interesting, seems like Europe has some really cheap options, much cheaper than the US.
Because people want the latest iPhone or Samsung and paying $ per month works better for them than $$$ upfront. The alternate finance method you speak of isn’t very well known, so it’s most simple to contract with a carrier.
I don't know if I'm grandfathered in or what but I have Google Fi (I know I know I suck) and have 3 lines unlimited everything for $80/month
Solid.
Google Fi is a god-tier service for traveling abroad. When I went to South America I paid nothing extra vs my friends who had to deal with Verizon’s ridiculous travel plan fees.
If you go prepaid for a year you can get service for even cheaper. I don't need unlimited data so I buy a year of Mint Mobile's cheapest plan for about 200 dollars which gives unlimited talk and text and 5gb data for only around 15 dollars a month.
Right on. I do need unlimited, as my job requires me to be on the road a fair bit and accessing lots of data.
But that's a good idea, I'll see if my carrier offers that option.
I should clarify that mint mobile also has "unlimited" and "unnecessary" plans for 30 and 40 dollars a month respectfully. (When prepaying for a year)
Quote: Unlimited plan incl. 40GB high-speed data w/10GB hotspot. Unnecessary plan incl. 60GB high-speed data w/20GB hotspot. Video @ 480p. Data speeds reduced after monthly allotment. Taxes & fees extra.
But who actually does this otherwise? I have seen those kind of contracts advertised, but I never see people actually having them, apart from some 16yo who want the new iPhone by all means and this is the only way they can finance it.
Almost everybody I know has something like this, growing up as a teenager it was the same too.
Wtf where your from? Is this some murica dumbness I'm to European to understand? Is it common in Europe and I just know smart people?
But yes, hyped teenager is the only group I've actually seen falling for that when I was at school
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something but here in Australia there's no benefit to not having a contract.
With our largest telco the contract is really just repayments on the phone. 24x monthly repayments is always the same price the phone is retailing for outright. You could cancel the sim and just keep up the phone repayments if you wanted.
Interesting. Seems like my situation is pretty specific to the US. Lots of folks from other countries that seem to have much cheaper options by default.
Keep a set of swimwear in your car. If you go to a place and forgot your swimsuit? Got the backup. Go to a hotel and find out they had a pool you didn't know about? Backup in the car. Accidentally shit yourself? Got at least something on you. Do I shit myself enough to worry about it? Not since I was a baby but now I know I got swim trunks in my car just in case.
If you need to remember something for the next time you go out, put your shoes somewhere odd. When you go to leave, you'll remember you moved them, which will remind you why you moved them.
Or you won't be able to find your shoes, panic because you're running late, and forget about the thing you needed because of said panic.
That’s why you always leave a note.
If the note is with your shoes, does that make it a footnote?
Bah! Go to the Agony Booth,2 min!
Oh my god, that guys arm came off!
Even just a couple inches over is enough to remind me. Or just a separation between them instead of them touching. Or turn them backwards. Though, this only works if it's relatively uncommon for you to do it. And if you live in a household that does indeed take their shoes off, some don't. But it's a surprisingly effective reminder if all that.
I'll usually put a reminder or most often the thing itself in the shoes.
This works even with abstractions.
Attaching an unrelated concept to another will help remember it.
I do it all the time by telling someone that I need to remember something... And clarify that I don't need a reminder, I just needed to tell someone.
If I need to remember to bring something with me when I go out I’ll put my keys on top of it.
Great, now I've forgotten my keys!
(I don't need them until I get to work.)
On the original topic, shoes last a lot longer if you don't wear the same pair day after day. The continual dampness from foot perspiration breaks down the materials much more quickly. Giving each pair of shoes a couple of days to dry out between wearings will greatly extend their lives.
This effect may not be visible to many people, but if you have a physical job, it can save you a lot of money.
I do this with my phone on my nightstand. If I need to remember something I put it out of reach
Wait... Y'all regularly leave your shoes in a normal place?
If you can't find something and you've looked everywhere, get a flashlight and look again while pointing the flashlight. It has worked for me every time.
Further, if you drop something small, like a screw, set the flashlight on the floor. This will make all the small things cast long shadows and stand out way more.
A magnet also works for some items.
Same, I found my flashlight that way
I laughed at this because I have around ten flashlights and have absolutely used a smaller flashlight to find my Emisar D4V2 or my beloved DT8
why 10 though? Why not just, say, your smartphone?
I dunno, I just got some and just… got more hahaha. Even my shittiest flashlights are way brighter than any smartphone’s LEDs.
I mainly keep them everywhere so I can quickly take important cat pictures. Shining the brighter ones at the ceiling makes for perfect lighting for indoor cat pics. I don’t like using flash on animals, and my I keep my room pretty dim. But gosh dangit cats are so cute.
haha I guess their fur requires a special kind of lighting that I never thought about. I assumed funny internet cat pics were more moments of spontaneity than diligently prepared shooting sets hehe
I have about 6k photos on my phone and 80% of them are my cats being silly or adorable.
you have a serious problem and I love it
Turn those aux lights on, fam. They hardly use much more power than natural battery internal resistance, and you can't lose it lol
Aux lights? I’m unaware of those!
But my D8 can burn things!
Wait, really‽
The D4V2 you were looking for in the above post has RGB AUX LEDs and I think a button light iirc. You can set them to a bunch of colors on high or low brightness, or even have them show the battery level. On low-brightness, depending on color, they can stay on 24-7 for 2-6 YEARS before running the battery down (hell, on high, they can stay on for 1-3 months before needing a recharge). They are wonderful for finding it in the dark.
AUX lights make it one of the best nightstand lights. Anduril 2 makes it have some cool tricks too. I have mine have high red aux when unlocked so it can be used as a darklight just by unlocking it, then it auto locks after a minute of non-use and the aux goes to low and uses colors to display battery level.
Look up an ANDURIL2 video guide or the graphical control layout to see how it is all done. (Videos help a lot)
Ohhhhh the fancy RGB lights! I have them on high brightness/cycle RGB because I use the hard lock when they’re not in use. I do have like 20 18650s from when I was vaping a mech mod so I change them out frequently! It’s insane that they can last that long in low brightness! I should totally change my mode to show battery level using the colors—I just have to read the maps of how to use one button to do that for both (my D4V2 is on the old version of the firmware and my D8 is on the new!)
I also am struggling to find out how to change my D8 to only light up one side or the other—I got warm lights on one side and cool/insanely bright on them other. I’d love to switch between them but I don’t wanna bother people and even with tutorials it’s tough for me to find exactly how to do that. Also The Map… my goodness.
The DT8? The flat one? I didn't know that came in dual-channel. If it is ANDURIL2 then when it is on (single click from off) it is 3H (click-click-clickHOLD) to get into the tint ramp, which on a dual channel should slide between channel 1 and channel 2 (granular and smooth is selected in the deeper settings).
I heard that, at least in countries where we read left to right, we also look for things left to right. And if you reverse this and look from right to left that you're more likely to notice something you otherwise missed. So I do that. But I have no data to confirm if it works...
I've heard from someone in the military that they teach you to scan from right to left and bottom to top if you have to stand watch/guard.
It probably stops your brain from going on autopilot.
You know the pop culture reference we use for someone who has misplaced their cellphone, "have you tried calling it?"
This will sound absolutely silly, but one day a friend was looking for some trinket which wasn't a phone, and playfully I asked, "Have you tried calling it?"
They doubled down and started actually calling it, "Trinket.... trinket, where are you?"
And wouldn't you know it, within minutes they found it, and so far this has worked about 99.9% of the time.
So like using a flashlight focuses your eyes, having someone call it out loud kind of quiets the mind, too. It's wild.
My mom prays to St. Anthony. #justcatholicthings
Tony Tony look around. Help me find what can't be found. Something like that?
Close! Don't forget to thank the saint when you find the item. ;)
Tony Tony look around, something’s lost and can’t be found. Please help me find [item].
That’s what we used to say. I don’t think Tony liked me very much tho.
It works, if only because it calms the mind and helps to regain perspective. #justanxiouscatholic
I never tried calling it like a pet, but I normally say "where is this damn thing?" And then find it shortly afterwards. I'm guessing speaking the object out loud let's the object know you are looking for it. That way the object can show up and act like it was there the whole time.
I use my hands to kind of do the same thing. It's probably the behaviour they modeled Monk's "hand thing" after. It still helps even if I'm searching using my memory and spatial awareness to recall and search through something I am not currently looking at. Somehow, narrowing the scope physically with my hands helps. It's probably a muscle memory or proprioception thing.
For example, if I want to find something to eat in the fridge. I generally won't be able to think of anything by just opening the fridge and looking through it. Unless there is something super obvious like a leftover pizza box or something else impossible to miss like that. Just trying to search by looking at each shelf only increases the odds of finding something by like 5%. But when I use my hand and slowly move it down the shelves, I can somehow think more clearly about what is on each shelf than I could without using my hand. And, as I mentioned, it also works even if I am no longer looking in the fridge. I can do it with the door closed and still more clearly recall what was on each shelf.
It also helps when scanning through my whole house looking for something, with and without currently having eyes on it. Like scanning through the whole house room by room while still sitting at my computer, I do a much better job if I am pointing my hand at the place I am thinking about as I scan.
I should probably mention I am Autistic, my spatial awareness and proprioception are two areas I have seemed to benefit. But it's very easy to get confused or distracted if I have too much information at once. So that is mostly what is going on. I can't just imagine that I am pointing at something in my imagination to gain the benefit, I have to be literally, physically pointing. Although I can translocate, like not be at my house or fridge and still scan my house or fridge by pointing relatively where each thing would be if they were there.
It's not limited in scope as far as I can tell. Though it is kind of limited in resolution. The bigger the area I am scanning, the less detail I can recall about it when I am not there, or "looking through walls". But when I am there, I can go as fine grained as the search demands, just takes longer.
A Coast G20 flashlight is about $10 on Amazon, and has a very tight spotlight circle "inspection" beam. It's my go-to for searching because it makes you focus on a small area.
Just how much cheaper and longer lasting keeping thing like rice, dried beans and flour can be. It's amazing to me that no matter how empty my cupboards/fridge is I can always make fresh tortillas, refried beans, and rice in like an hour.
My wife's Italian. Replace your items with always having a bottle of sauce and a packet of pasta in the cupboard, and there's always a meal to be had no matter how empty the fridge is.
My GF is Italian too. One of the most important things I learned from her is literally this. Also, as long as you have any kind of vegetables in your house, you are always one step away from a pasta sauce.
100% For us, a passata, an onion, and some garlic is the minimum needed.
Probably helps that the FIL delivers us boxes of homemade passata all the time - we never have less than a dozen bottles on our storage shelves in the garage. But even if we were to ever run out, a couple of store-bought bottles in the pantry is our fallback option.
Amen to that. But I can’t do jar/bottled sauce so if I want easy noodles, it’s cook noodles, leave some pasta water after draining, throw in some butter at the end to make it thicc, then serve topped with olive oil/red pepper flakes/salt/pepper/parmigiano Reggiano (all things I make sure I always have in stock always)
I also keep a stack of cans of San Marzano tomatoes to make a red sauce any time I want, but that takes a couple hours instead of 20 minutes.
There are good sauces you can make from canned tomatoes in 20 minutes (depending on your prep speed).
My go tos are Putanesca & Vodka sauce, but there's a lot more you can do. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything has a simple recipe and then a big list of variants, most of which can be done in 20 minutes.
Noted, thank you! I have a specific sauce I like to make, and I like it best simmered for a couple hours in a Dutch oven hahaha
Most of the sauce we use is home made. My FIL makes it every year and always gives us boxes of it. Way better than shop bought sauce.
Yes. And you can get all kinds of crap canned. The only thing I've found you can't really replace is crunchy greens.
I'm not surprised people don't know after decades of cold supply chain, but it's a thing.
Drink water instead of soda, alcohol, other sugary drinks. Eventually you'll find yourself to be an expert water connoisseur and prefer water over pretty much all beverages.
When I was in the end of my PhD, everything except writing my thesis made me feel guilty. I ended up learning to find joy and peace in doing laundry and washing dishes. They became my guilt-free breaks — I had to do these things. FYI - I didn’t enjoy washing dishes before.
Washing dishes has become a really powerful part of my day, haha. Not only is it still a guilt-free break but it is a daily reminder to be mindful. I’ve noticed that whenever I drop and break a dish, my mind is not present. In fact, in those moments my mind might actually be drifting somewhere negative.
Maybe not so much a “hack” as a … lesson? Or something? But yeah, the whole cliche about having the right attitude and being present and mindful. I try to apply it in other parts of life, not just the dishes.
You have discovered the subtle art of procrasticleaning
Yeah I was like wow I am so enlightened for the first part of the response and then I was like oh my god I am so seen. I. Am. The. Best. At. Doing. The. Second. Most. Important. Thing. I. Need. To. Do.
Tidying up makes the world go round.
This is a great way to think. Some people are so frustrated with waiting in line at the bank or market. For me, it's just another unintended break where I get to relax.
How‽ This is perhaps the single most impactful problem I've in my life. I just don't know how to beat this. I don't end up doing anything else because I could be doing my thesis. But I also don't do my thesis. Could you talk a bit more about how you got out of this line of thinking? Between this and ADHD I feel like I'm going suicidal. I haven't had a vacation/gap/break ever where I've felt free and happy to enjoy.
Honestly, I still haven't fully solved the problem. I wish I could give you a great answer.
Sometimes I have no struggles working and taking breaks, other times I fall into this same trap you've just described. I think it amounts to a lot of different factors — some weird paradoxical mix of procrastination, fear, insecurity, passion, displeasure, and overconfidence.
I've learned, though, to accept certain tasks as completely necessary in life (like doing the dishes) so that I am able to do them guilt free. At least I can do that. I feel you though. In a general sense, I still struggle with the problem.
I think part of it amounts to making a decision and sticking to it rather than being on the fence. Maybe that's discipline? E.g., "this morning I will go on a run, make a nice breakfast, wash the dishes, get started on laundry, read or play music for a bit, and then finally I will sit down to work." Then, when actually executing the first part of the plan, just ignore the ever living fuck out of any feeling of guilt. But, again, I am still putting that into practice.
Good luck to you and me.
Thanks for the reply :)
Yeah, I think it does boil down to accepting the situation and just doing it. Or forcing the self to do it after rounds of negotiations and arguments. One problem that I see with this- at least for myself- is that it leads to me doing just the bare minimum and then subsequently getting mad. I don't really know, I'm also trying to figure things out for myself. Maybe medication is the answer
I call that productive procrastination.
You can just pinch the end of a banana to start peeling it. The effort required is far less than trying to overcome the ripping force of the stem.
https://www.drlauriesantos.com/happiness-lab-podcast
https://www.schwab.com/learn/choiceology
https://youarenotsosmart.com/podcast/
https://hiddenbrain.org/
Not exactly life hacks, but shortcuts that can help computer users:
For anyone that uses the sink to wash dishes, have a net/grid to cover the hole. Once it's full, just pick it up and dump the contents in your food trash.
You can use any type of soap to create barriers that ants will avoid. If you plug a hole with some soap (try a piece of soap bar that's wet/soft), the ants won't reopen it.
People wonder why I’m an optimist. I’m not really. What I do is expect people to disappoint me. After all, none of us are perfect. When they don’t I’m surprised. When they do, I’m not mad, as just met my expectations.
I find people who don’t like other people expect them to not disappoint them and when they do they get angry and upset. It’s really just a mindset change.
To live a hate free life, don’t spend time hating things and people.
Hate is not a feeling it’s an action. Just stop, and then you’re not a source of hate any more.
You can often get a Pre Purchase Inspection (PPI) for about $200 from a mechanic that will tell you everything in depth about the health of a car before you actually buy it.
Way too many people out here purchasing cars and then bringing it to a mechanic only to realize they've been ripped off or bought an expensive repair bill.
You should do it with any used car you have a strong intention to buy whether it is a private sale or from a lot.
Usually lots will want to negotiate the price first because any used car will have some wear and tear.
But the point is that you'll know for sure it there's any critical issues with the vehicle. If it's a lemon, you can say no and walk away. Don't think of it as losing $200, think of it as saving several thousand on a broken car.
Buying lots of identical pairs of socks massively reduces the amount of time you need to find matching pairs after drying them.
You can rename files in Windows using the
F2key. This works for a lot of Microsoft products including editing a cell without overwriting it in Excel.If you have a goal to find something (eg. buy a car), write your goal down, including details like make and model. You'll start to see adverts, special deals and cars of the model you want parked with for sale signs. There's nothing mystical about this - you're surrounded by things like that, but the specific act of writing it seems to tell your unconscious mind to bring it to your attention when you pass them.
Using "≈" and "≠" sign on internet text.
These are literally long press options on the "=" key.
A physical keyboard has entered the chat
======================
Tried long pressing the "=" key. My keyboard is now egalitarian.
Compose key gang
What about on desktop?
I hit the Compose key and then
=/gives≠, but I don't seem to be able to enter≈. For that and more obscure characters I'd open Emacs and runinsert-char.It's just compose ~ ~ (tilde tilde). The compose key sequences are often the most logical thing you can think of. Emacs C-x 8 is good but you have to try and guess the unicode name of the character.
Gee, how did I ever live without knowing that? Are you a mathematician?
Using mathematical symbols ≠ mathematician
‽ is also important
Is it‽
there is no more perfect symbol than the interrobang
Traditional chess literature has "!? = questionable move". Is this the same thing?
It's the interrobang. It literally means "?!" Like WTF?! But in one symbol. It mattered when "cost per letter" or typesetting spacing mattered. I still like it and use it often enough. As for chess, honestly, yeah, it could be used for that.
≠≈∞
Wait what O.o
!=
Start reading the nutritional facts on food packages. In the beginning it will make little sense. But as time goes by, you start understanding it a bit more and to notice patterns.
Eventually you start doing wiser choices. I've learned pretty quickly that the "healthy options" (e.g. low sugar cookies) are as bad for you than the regular ones.
Set up automatic bank transfers to chop your income into % parts: 5% play money, 20% savings, bills etc. do what works for you. Get rid of unnecessary subscriptions.
I scrape CVV number of my credit card and save it on my smartphone because if I lost my credit card nobody will be able to shop on line
For water stuck in your ear after shower or swimming, what works for me is tilting your head to the side that is plugged and bending/unbending your knees (making your body bounce) until the water comes out.
T-shirts take up much less space if you roll them. So do most other clothes, but it's a huge gain with the T-shirts.
Yes! The ranger roll.. https://www.artofmanliness.com/skills/how-to/how-to-pack-a-bag-using-the-ranger-roll/
Plus then it's easier to tell what's been worn!
Wait, you're putting worn shirts back with the unworn?
An easy way to wear out cloths is to wash them too often. Some rules I follow:
Agree with all this except jeans. Store them in the freezer and wash them even less than you’d like to. They’re barely cool when you put them on…
unless it’s a July 17 heatwave and you wore them in 7000% humidity before tossing the salty, sweat-drenched denim into the freezer, in which case they’re like cold tortilla chips. Just wash them if you were swimming down the sidewalk in mid-summer muck.
Anyway. Makes them last at least a couple years longer.
freezer space is way to precious for that. I would have to buy a jeans freezer.
This Lars Midwestern United Stateses!
This is originally he. Voilà moi. It was I.
That's more-or-less how I do except I don't wear wool.
Merino wool is a very different material then "classic" wool. Backpackers like it because it wicks sweat and it's naturally antimicrobial so the smells dissipate over night. It's also not itchy due to the finer weave.
My favorite is Darn Tough socks. They're merino wool, warm when they need to be and cool when not, and if you get them on sale (only way to buy them) they're worth the price. Lifetime warranty, so if you get holes, you get new ones. Last socks you'll ever buy.
When I'm traveling and only have one bag? Yep!
Absolutely! I wear shirts until they’re smelly or I spill on me.
Jeans are good for weeks, but I only wear them as outside pants. Most days I’m just wearing PJs cuz I’m in my house.
I've started doing this when I noticed the space savings. First, I've done it with underwear, then with my undershirts. Now, only those shirts I need to be ironed (and immaculately folded) don't get rolled.
How is this actually true? It's the same amount of material? Is it about "same space, less wrinkle"?
Because T-shirts are somewhat irregularly shaped when folded. If you stack them with the same orientation, one side is higher than the other. You can alternate the way you lay them but that's also easier with rolls.
Rolls allow you to take advantage of the efficiency of the honeycomb shape, as well.
Ahhh stacking the rolls vertically is something I hadn't considered
Depends on whether you're folding them in neat squares or hanging them from hangers. The rolls are useful for putting them in luggage, they can be compressed better that way
I do squares and if packing a suitcase, lay out dress shirts alternating, trousers alternating, put t-shirts/underwear in the middle (folded) and roll the trousers and then dress shirts around them. Keeps the wrinkles down.
Given the opportunity move somewhere where your rent to pay ratio is better.
I'd make more living in a big city. I have much more leftover every month by living in a small town far away from everything.
Put $20-50 behind your phone in the phone case.
If you ever forget / lose your wallet, you'll have a little cash.
This will sound stupid. But if you press your thumb onto the center of your hand, and then close the others fingers around and press, you'll suppress your gag reflex.
This saved me when I had to take some medicine as big pills. Without this trick they often got stuck in my throat, and it could take me minutes to properly swallow. With the trick? No problems anymore.
Using a rubber band around the lid of a jar to open it effortlessly.
When working on long-term goals:
For example, let's say the goal is to paint a house:
I can say I want it painted in 2 months, so I set it for the date of 9/17/24.
I figure I can paint a room every other day, so since the house has 5 rooms total, I think I can start painting 10 days before on 9/07/24. However, I need to consider that finding and purchasing paint and equipment will take time too. I think about it and consider that paint shopping can take me 2 days since I want to try out several stores, so the newer date is 9/05/24.
Now, I add some room for minor setbacks between each task. Rather than assuming I will paint every other day, I add two days in between. That means starting on 8/30/24. This allows me to take my time with rooms, skip a day if I feel tired, or adjust if I the rooms take longer to paint than I had anticipated for whatever reason. I also increase the time allotted for acquiring materials because so many things can happen: traffic, tired, unhappy with selection, need time to test samples and ask people, etc. Rather than only include 2 days for this, I include a whole week so I can see the paint samples on the walls and see which ones feel the best. We are not starting on 8/23/24.
Lastly, maybe something major could happen, such as getting sick, the store runs out of paint stock, my car breaks down, or I change my mind on one of the paint colors after seeing it up on the wall. I might even realize that I completely overlooked tasks, such as rearranging furniture, painting over errors/accidents, and clean up. I would then add a cushion of 2 weeks to the schedule to allow for that should it happen. So the actual start date is 8/9/24. This is much sooner than if we had gone with the original start date of 9/07/24, almost an entire month!
With this style of planning, I can take my sweet time, enjoy the process, and not get stressed out if something unexpected comes up. If I finish early, then I have extra time to work on details or enjoy the rest.
Whenever you are loading the washing machine, or hanging the laundry to dry/loading the dryer, don't put the socks straight away. If you get one sock, set it aside, and wait to have the other sock before putting them wherever they need to go. This way you drastically reduce the amount of odd socks/ socks with no pair.
If you find a single sock when you're at the dryer, look for it in the washing or on the floor; you know it has to be there because you make the habit of always loading the pair. If you have a single sock at the washer, don't wash it; wait until you find the other one, keep it in your basket.
Reading the Communist Manifesto.
If you are cramped for storage space for cleaning supplies, you can buy and hang a shoe cubby on the back of a closet door and use it to store all sorts of things.
There’s different types, such as ones that are actual racks and others that are pockets like this:
The pockets tear so easily,do not expect them to last more than a few months if you are placing anything heavier than a pair of slippers or flip-flops in them.
I have a hanging on pole inside closet type that has socks, underwear and winter gloves/scarves/hats
We use one like you have pictured essentially as a medicine cabinet.
More tip: Make sure the hooks will fit over the door when it closes.
I just discovered the best hack, I changed the app layout on my home screen (android) to 5x5 what a game changer.
Duct tape your heart to someone else's heart, double heart, so EASY. DOCTORS HATE!!!
If you have a toilet that, when flushed, turns your shower into lava, adjust the toilet filler valve so it's barely open and you'll have much less of a problem.
Responding to every accusation with "Nuh uh!"
Switching off your phone. It changes everything.
People who try and peel whole avocados amaze me.
I think in general there's a lot of fruit hacks that folks aren't familiar with - it pays to search the web for "How to peel X".
Does one peel an avocado? I've always used a knife to cut to the core all the way around and pull it apart, then scoop out the flesh.
I cut in half, and lay the half down flat. Then I cut off just the very end from each side which makes it easier to lift the peel off. Then slice. Usually works, but occasionally there’s difficulty. Isn’t that life?
That's how I learned to do it (in a tex-mex chain restaurant), anyway. I think maybe we were supposed to use one of those cut-proof gloves for step #2, but nobody bothered.
Step 2 should be: Put the side with the seed DOWN skin-side down, and lightly whack the long sharp edge of the knife into the seed without risking your hand. If you're afraid of the avocado escaping, hold one end, but don't put your whole palm directly in the line of cut. A lot of people wind up in the ER because avocado seeds are slippery and may send the blade askew, or just because they missed. Twist to pop out the seed, and whack the handle on the edge of your trashcan to dislodge it into the trash.
I worked in the ED for a decade and this is very true. Avocado injuries might be the most common non allergic good injury. I do mine like this guy says. Usually 3 or 4 a day. I only use butter knives to cut them and the wacking the seed still works. I then take the knife and make either slices or grids in the fruit while it is in the peel and use a spoon to scoop out the pre cut flesh
So many injuries doing that:
¯\_(ツ)_/
They're not doing it right. You don't stab the pit with the point of the blade, it's more like a chop.
https://youtu.be/eGd6GfHG77I
Of course, you could just use a spoon to remove the pit. Or I saw another variant where you push it out from the "back" of the side its stuck in once cut in half, no tool needed beyond the initial halving
Read the lines before that -- or at least read the "also" to notice stabbing is a secondary injury.
Mostly: just put the avocado down! ERs feel the need to warn about how common an accident this is, so why tempt fate?
From the Sun:
Cut in half, remove core, scoop with a spoon.
Wait, what? Peel avocados? Just why?
But then again, I grew up eating ripe, if not nearly overripe avocados, the kind whose flesh would turn into mush if you try to grab them. So, yeah, I would just slice the avocado in half (going around the pit), remove the pit, and then scoop out the flesh.
Yeah, I learned how to peel pomegranates from a ten-second video.
Cut in half, use knife to pull out core, score the flesh into little cubes, scoop out.
Best thing in brought home from my time in SEA are these very basic asian metal spoons.
They are quite thin and have a sharper edge then normal spoons which makes them perfect for scooping out avocados, mangos, the seeds of pumpkins and all kind of melons or vegetables for filling (like the core of a zucchini or cucumber).
I really wouldn't want to miss them, they are so versatile.
My process:
A pressure cooker
A ghetto bidet:
3D print it, or take a small softdrink bottle, make a hole in it's neck using a hot needle or corkscrew. Fill it with water, hold it upside down and squirt your butthole clean with it. Use a little toiletpaper or cloth to dab it dry. Can't live without it anymore.
Look at what you're doing and using spacial reasoning.
So many days, I think I was the only person at my work who played with 3d puzzles or Legos growing up.
I had my last phone so long(about 5-6 years I think) that I was forced to get a new one because it was no longer supported.
I know they have to have a cut off somewhere, but around 5 years doesn't seem like that long for a device. Maybe I'm just getting old, or planned obsolescence or something.
But yes, having that phone for a longtime prevented ewaste and saved me quite a bit of money. Be nice to your phone and it'll go longer than the company supports it.
Do a bunch of things at once, not in parallel, but in series.
It makes sure I'm staying in the mood of being productive and keeps myself motivated, as I can keep focusing on the tasks. Of course, still take breaks if you need it.
When cutting onions, set the cutting board on the stove and turn on the extractor fan. No more tears!
I worked at a factory that produced food with onion as one of the main ingredients. The best trick was to breathe with the mouth. Breathing with my nose would always make my eyes cry.
Will try this
Is it weird I kind of like the tears?
Chill the onion before cutting will helps too, either put it in the fridge or put it in a tub of ice water.
So does rinsing the onion slices. I slice a ring off, rinse the ring, & then chop.
Hold a teaspoon in your mouth while you do it (upside down so you don't poke yourself in the eye or whatever works best). Nullifies it instantly.
Wearing those little eyeball-sized swim goggles works too.
Wearing those silly cartoon eyeball glasses doesn't work but other people probably won't notice you're crying
Rinse your dishes after eating. This Kris6 the food shmutz from turning into a crust you'll have to scour off and won't wash off completely in the dishwasher.
Gratitude makes you live longer, feel better, and it's free.
If you want to open a padlock and don't have the key, you can almost certainly break it open with 2 big wrenches.
I only had 1 opportunity to try that yet, when removing a 20 year old lock some stupid kid left on my stuff and then forgot where I put the key, but man did it feel empowering.
You can practice this trick at any romantic bridge. Do you really think whoever etched their initials on the lock is still together and would notice? PleaseGot some domed glass pot lids but the one you need broke? Simply invert the handle on the next size up and you get a universal lid that fits any pan! Condensation pools in the middle instead of dripping over the sides.
When given the option, read the instructions, and save for future reference. (A URL / bookmark doesn't count as saving unless you control the hostname (including DNS).)
I always read these and go "fuck yeah I could stand to feel like a new bloke as well" and then I remember I don't drink and thus can't quit it either. Fuck the baseline.
You wanna try some crack? You could sprinkle a little on your cereal & then work really hard to kick the habit.
Don't Buy Stuff
Getting a Shavette. The prospect of it being sharper than a straight razor makes you think that you will slice your face off, but in my experience at worst I had a nick or 2. The blades are dirt cheap and perform better than multi bladed razors.
A nice bonus is you have no plastic waste.
Improve the cold tolerance and immunity by going to sauna during cold days.
Embrace the cold and don't overheat yourself by wearing too many layers.
When go cycling or running don't wear to many clothes, so you won't overheat yourself. You should feel slight cold and the exercise will heat you.
People usually catch flu due to low immunity or overheating and switching between environments of high temperature difference.
Explain
Fast charging is all about heat management so keeping it cool will allow it to charge faster.
Nobody who bike commutes is fat.
Not really a life hack but: folding bicycles are so, so convenient for everyday use (fits in every elevator, fits under your desk at work, fits in public transportation even when it's crowded, etc)
I really don't know how they are not a lot more common; you only need a mountain bike if you actually ride on mountain trails often enough. Even non-folding city bicycles are way more comfortable for everyday usage (higher handlebar position and cushiony saddle <3)
L-theanine, an over the counter supplement, destroys the negative effects of overcaffeination totally.
You can cut up a sponge to have a set of reusable pads for removing nail polish.
Take a pill with your head turned to the side toward your shoulder and it will go down much more easily.
Spit in your toilet paper
Damn nevermind I'll keep my tips to myself and your girl
Changing how we vote can do away with the spoiler effect, making third parties viable.
Then democrats wouldn't have to yell at people online who don't feel represented by the Democratic party. I wonder what they would do with all that free time?