Ahhhh but those devices don't have 'the ecosystem'. You know, that bloated software that locks you into apple everything by making a handful of tasks marginally more convenient for the tech layperson.
The only Apple stuff I use are phone, watch, headphones. I don’t use Google products or services and haven’t for a decade, so it’s my other good option. I don’t wanna fuck around with custom ROMs, and my last phone lasted almost six years.
Windows and Linux for computers. Unfortunately I have a game that’s extremely important to me that is impossible to run on Linux.
Even if you’re not in Apple’s ecosystem, I think iPhones are pretty great phones. Expensive yes, but they last a long time.
Yes, buy a secondhand google pixel, it's better for privacy/security etc with grapheneOS installed. But if you like apple hardware, nothing wrong with a secondhand iphone
They’re basically just a tax on the dumb. But man the slogans — all you need is a dollar and a dream, you gotta be in it to win it, etc. — sheer marketing genius.
I will buy one but that is it. It enhances the fantasy when there is a non zero chance something could happen even if ridiculously unlikely. That being said all the big, dreamworthy jackpots are no longer a dollar and much like fast food that has become to rich for my blood.
I buy one maybe a few times per year. Its also a very good gift to someone. You get a bit of excitement together and there is always that tiny chance of winning.
Others have suggested FMHY and piracy communities, but besides the normal advice of having a trustworthy enough VPN and not g••gling something like "free movie torrent" and just clicking on the first link/links, one thing I've learned is just, assuming the file is somewhere around 750Mb, I think, seeing what VirusTotal has to say about it is advised.
Also, avoiding programs like BitTorrent in favor of things like Qbittorrent or Transmission is probably a good step. Last I checked, one of the communities said that at one point BitTorrent, or one of the old torrent clients, had become a virus ridden shell of its past.
Speaking of torrent clients, binding your client to your VPN is a good idea. You definitely don't want your torrents to continue when your VPN disconnects you for any reason. Different clients may have different ways of doing it, or the setting will be in a different spot, so looking up how to do it for your client is a good idea, if you don't know how to.
Though, I think this final part is real important for your safety when visiting certain sites to find torrents: have some form of working adblock! Because no reputable business want their ads on a piracy website, you might get caught up in a situation where you might get invisible full-screen ads that will take you to porn sites or other probably virus riddled sites just by clicking, sometimes without any way to get rid of said ads. That, or you'll get lucky and the site just has normal ad placements, but they're still not something you should click on.
Adding to this, anything where I'd be paying a publisher middleman. Avoid whenever possible, pay directly if you're in a position to support the creator/s of smaller projects.
This also applies to other things, like food ordering and travel accommodation. Some places offer a significant discount if you go directly to them - both of you get a bigger cut.
English speakers (and in some cases even other language speakers) can watch pretty much anything nowadays through free streaming sites. Been binging myflixer for over a year.
Thanks to Technology Connections - Dishwasher/Laundry pods. Soap with pretty colors, and probably more soap than you need per load. I've swapped to powder and literally cannot tell a difference at all, and instead of 8 dollars for 10 loads I now am getting an entire box with like, 40 loads for $8.
And if you want something convenient for laundry they have the laundry sheets that don't release plastic into your water so that's nice.
But personally if I want a known amount each time for each load I just use a scoop.
Is liquid detergent still a bad deal? I have no qualms against using powder instead, but my family always stuck to using bulk laundry detergent liquid (I forget the unit size of the 100 load bottle exactly), and I thought that was a good deal.
I'd say it's better, but not great. Environmentally it still comes with a giant plastic jug that needs to be disposed of, and we all know how plastic recycling is. On your wallet, if you think bout it, you're not just paying for the soap, but the water and the weight/shipping of that water to get to your home from the factories.
Powder is really the same thing, but you have water at home to mix it with, that happens in your washing machine. So, naturally it is going to be cheaper.
That's good, reuse > recycle. We had nothing to do with them so were just recycling these giant jugs all the time. Now we have a big container we pour the detergent into and just scoop it out as we go. Containers are cardboard for the powder
When I swapped to powder it was because I could buy a jug of All free and clear (cheapest brand for hypoallergenic that I could find) for $12. I don’t recall how many loads it did, but I could get the powder online, which was at least the same number of loads but probably way more, same brand same fragrance free formula, for $4.75. They don’t carry the powder in most stores around me, I assume because it’s so much cheaper nobody would buy the overpriced liquid. Same with cheap dish powder; just not available.
I bought a massive box of dishwashing powder a bit over a year ago and I'm maybe halfway through it, it's like magic. Thank you technology connections!
K-Cups. They might save you a grand total of a minute over loose grounds and a disposable paper filter, but they're more costly per cup and create more waste.
At that point you're already putting in more work than a standard drop coffee maker would take! You literally put a filter in, pour grounds in and hit brew.
Optionally you can get a reusable filter and rinse it after each pot of coffee
Used coffee grounds have many more uses than the plastic k-cups. Recycling the cups is difficult and usually doesn't happen. They do make eco-friendly cups but they still contain dyes for the labels and require more energy to mass produce than simple paper filters and a bag of grounds (or beans if you grind your own).
You can fine tune your process but the most basic is a funnel (I.e. V60, chemex, kalita) with a paper filter on top with grounds on it that you just pour hot water on top and wait for it to filter down. Coffee machines do all this but they generally produce worse coffee outside of shops because no one cleans them as often as they should
Not hard to find single cup brewers for loose grounds (I own one) and they're cheaper because they don't have to work with Keurig for licensing and compatibility.
Just to illustrate for anyone reading this that brewing coffee can be very easy and quick: I use one of these to very easily brew exactly one cup of coffee every morning in about 2-3 minutes - https://kalitausa.com/products/kalita-style-102-ceramic-coffee-dripper-white (mine is in the beautiful brown color, but I linked the white one because it's much cheaper and has many more reviews)
It says 2-4 cups but I think it's really only for 1-2 cups. It takes #2 filters that you can find at any grocery store. If you want to be even more environment-friendly, you can buy reusable cloth #2 filters online.
Procedure:
Measure one cup of filtered water, transfer it to a pan or kettle, and start to boil it
Set up the cone and filter on top of the cup and put one heaping tablespoon of coffee grounds in the filter
Pour the boiling water in the filter (with a small open pan on the stove top, it takes me about 1-2 minutes to boil one cup of water)
Optionally, flavor the coffee to taste
When I first decided that I wanted to start drinking coffee I way overthought it, spending all kinds of time and energy researching all kinds of different brewing methods, grinders, etc. It's easy to get lost in the wilderness when it comes to coffee. But I ended up choosing the easiest option available and have been happy with it for years. Hot, fresh, easy, just about any variety and strength of coffee, and no added microplastics from sending boiling water through plastics.
I just wait until I am at work, it's much simpler because the coffee at work is free and I just have to press a button and wait for the cup to be full.
Agreed on all points, but especially #1. Fuck Nestle. Every time I buy a new product at the grocery store, I check to make sure they're not made by Nestle or a subsidiarity of Nestle.
Pre-built computers. I’ve just been building PCs for so long I can’t imagine buying something that meet my specifications within a reasonable budget. And it’s fun.
I have never tried building a PC myself but I have gotten into reviving old ones. I haven't bought a computer in over a decade. I just inherit people's old ones and bring them back to life with linux, maybe replace a dead PSU or something. I'm new to hardware stuff. I really wish I knew a way to get these computers into the hands of people who can't afford to buy one and don't know how to do this themselves.
I went this route. I don't need something powerful to scroll Lemmy and watch downloaded TV/movies.
Made sure it had two display port outputs for dual monitors. Added another 16GB of RAM because why not. It is way more than I need. Probably could have gotten away with used micro PC.
Yeah me neither. I found a charity that refurbished oldish desktops for students and pensioners, for around $35 USD. It was a 2017 lenovo with 8gb ddr4, decent inbuilt graphics, and it came with a monitor, screen, keyboard and mouse. I just put linuxmint on it, and it is working well for some low end games
CSB: Years ago when my kid was in after school care I fixed a couple of their busted PCs. Nothing major, just made sure the hardware was OK, reinstalled Windoz, and then installed some FOSS games on them. I had enough stuff from the work scrapheap and mine to make a third. Kids loved it. I was a very-local semi-celebrity.
Just because the hardware doesn't make the cut for heavy work doesn't mean it cannot handle the needs of others.
Yeah, my car is 18 years old, has almost 300k miles on it, and because it's desirable and not made anymore, it's still worth about half what I paid for it 14 years ago.
Want to see crazy used car prices? Look at small Toyota trucks in southern California. The prices are insane because many people want a small basic truck for work. The 22R and 22RE engines live long and if they do die it is easy to source a rebuilt engine.
Small trucks cannot be imported into the US due to the Chicken Tax. American companies will not build small trucks because they like the profits from large SUVs and trucks.
A lot of things break on cars that old, so any buyer has to be a bit stupid to pay that price…
laughs in a 30 year old van, that gained about 40% of value since I bought it 3 years ago
If it was built well, and is simple enough, it's not too much of a hassle and you can maintain a lot of it yourself. Most new cars are complicated garbage that breaks constantly straight out of the factory, and you have to take it to a mechanic to do anything because of their complexity and proprietary software. Compare that to my van, where I can read the OBD2 error codes on my phone over bluetooth with a $10 dongle, and can do most basic maintenance (oil, ATF, spark plugs, belts) with basic hand tools and a car pit.
Yeah I understand the value of that. We can see it also in consumer electronics, or any consumer product really, how its designed to break right after warranty.
Its fun to hear from these companies how they care about the environment while at the same time producing endless things that will end up in the trash in just a few years.
New monitors: Maybe my eyes suck, but my set of two 21-inch LCD monitors from 2005 is still going strong
Third-party meal delivery: I'm fine sitting down with a microwaved meal or some canned soup if I don't feel like cooking
A new car every x years: My car of choice is old and relatively cheap, so I could afford to pay in full in cash. Bonus of being spyware-free, so I'll just maintain it for as long as I can.
Stuff from Aliexpress, Temu and the like: the user experience is horrendous, customer service is nonexistent, and discount codes are pure gimmicks
The monitor my work provided me is much more recent and it touts:
Reduced blue light emissions (thought I don't know how that should be achieved without affecting color accuracy)
90 Hz refresh rate
Potentiometric brightness control to avoid PWM flicker
Some individuals are much more sensitive to the latter two, but I don't feel much of a downgrade when I come home to my crappy old monitors, hence I joke that my eyes suck.
I got a OLED monitor and it gives me more eye strain then my old monitor. I've tried software and hardware setting and it still persists. Flux, dark mode, high contrast settings, brightness settings. Tried it all, unless there is something I missed.
I use it sparingly now while playing FPS games (picture is amazing by the way, wish my eyes weren't like this)
I bought a 144hz 4K 32" monitor a few years ago, it wasn't cheap (800€) but I don't regret buying it, everything just looks better on it than it ever did on the previous monitor.
There's definitely junk on there, but if you look for high purchase volume plus good ratings you'll get plenty of high quality stuff (minus the middle-man markup).
Am wondering, how do you complete a transaction on Aliexpress? On Librewolf and Firefox, something always goes wrong for me at some point, usually a bogus security check failing or buttons mysteriously ceasing to work.
my problem is I can't even find a car to replace my old one. been trying, but when 2012-2014 is the newest model they make of what I want... hard to find for a reasonable price
I just want a small wagon
I might end up looking at newer stuff, but.. how tf am I going to avoid shitty touchscreens, spyware, LED headlights, and all that garbage?
Yup many manufactures stopped making anything other than trucks and SUVs in the US, and if that doesn't make it enough of a challenge, many buyers (especially locally to me) prefer larger vehicles so I have fewer used options to choose from (and I'm too cheap to buy a new car)
I wouldn't be surprised if the Slate Truck/SUV ends up being just marketing hype, but I'm keeping my eye on it since they promise a minimalist EV where you plug in the smarts in the form of your own smartphone. Otherwise, it's just a dumb EV, which is how I'd keep it.
I might end up looking at newer stuff, but… how tf am I going to avoid shitty touchscreens, spyware, LED headlights, and all that garbage?
And going to get harder to avoid a lot of that stuff once enough of them eventually get into the much cheaper levels of the used market. Though by then (and even currently in the higher priced used levels) most of the stuff will no longer even be supported to use (even if you for some reason did find a need to use them and be okay paying).
I got a 2015 Rogue SV that stuff like nav or whatever other stuff doesn't even have access to the apps from Nissan to set them up. And was like one or two years behind Android Auto or even Apple's stuff. So can't just have the main screen just cast my phone's maps. Really only irritates me when I need to go into settings and see stuff for features I can't use if I wanted to do so. But the backup camera and phone pairing over blutooth for calls and music works, so that is nice to have and useful daily.
I am torn on replacing the head-unit like I did with my much older cars in the past. But those were so much more easy and "normal" to replace. I mostly worry that since it is much more integrated, that beyond just not flowing with the design, that there would be more problematic issues caused with the electrics (especially after seeing how much just replacing headlights with LEDs messed up a lot of cars when they were not a standard part) and the main computer.
Had really randomly bad issues with my last car's computer towards the last four or five years that I never had with much older cars before. But is also possible that aside from my much more abusive driving while being younger, that I just hadn't had something with any computer element (just the main one as it wasn't anything built-in with lots of features.
Am I the only one that would never change a car? Like you buy one, shouldn't you keep it for 60 years? Why should anyone want to change a car? I had to change my car once because I'm Canadian so it rusted. It was awful.
Yeah, my 1st car died a rust death due to its winters in Syracuse (basically a Canadian climate). I'm 40 y/o and my 2nd car is still going strong (much to my wife's dismay)
To this day, I've never been tempted to buy a nice display, I'm right there with you. Like, I go to electronics stores for whatever and am dazzled by the bright colours on the modern ones, but not enough to need it when I'm posting on Lemmy, let alone pay an arm and a leg for it.
With the caveat that if it's small and you pickle it, I'm down.
Besides that, and I can't express this more clearly, FUCK CUCUMBER. Infects everything it touches, permeates the air, tastes like old water, smells like... Foetid moss or watery algae.
I gather the hatred some people like me carry for pukecumber has a genetic root.
I'm with you. I've tried it a bunch of times since so many people seem to like cucumbers, cucumber water, cucumber in sushi, cucumber gin, and whatever else. I don't like pickles either. I just cannot cuke.
Yeah. I moved into a city and region with enough transit for my needs but my family still lives in a place where there hasn't been a coach or trains in 30 years. There were before but not anymore. And going to other regions or cities without a car is also becoming more and more difficult, if not impossible.
Unfortunately my province and country only care about cars. I really don't want to drive but I fear that I won't have any other choice at some point in the future because my other options are actively deteriorating.
I just moved back to a city with decent enough transit and dumped my car and god I'm so much happier. I hate driving and car ownership with a fiery passion.
And people actually use that as an insult. "You're not an adult until you own a car". Which is a sad way of seeing millions of people that have been living without a car for their whole life.
And the freedom feeling depends mostly if you live in a region that is offering you ways not to be car dependent. Where I live, we have a very decent network of bike paths in the city but also going into the countryside and traversing the province. I live on the island of an archipelago and can pull my inflatable kayak with my bike trailer, explore the islands around, access nature nearby. I can also go camping and hiking and into the wilderness 200 km away by using this cycling network. I often go visit my parents and family 140-170 km away by cycling there. I could have start to drive and bought a car 25 years ago but I moved somewhere I wouldn't need one, and my bike represents freedom. I'm free from having to pay big oil to fill a tank to go anywhere. I'm free from monthly parking fees. I'm free from paying the plates and the insurance.
Over the years, what I learned about cars don't make me see them as freedom. I see them as a way to keep people perpetually paying for gas, sending billions to big oil. I see them as an endless sea and stream of pollution. They pollute the air and the sound. They are bad for mental and physical health. They take an ungodly amount of space. They kill about a million people every year. On the planet, every 30 seconds someone is killed in a car related "accident". Every year, two billion animals (yes, billions) are killed by cars.
Going to see my nephew for his birthday in the suburbs where my sister lives is comical. Twelve people invited to go park their cars around a house that only has space for the cars of the occupants. You have to find parking everywhere you go for this thing, then whine that there's no parking anywhere. Going to a funereal is also depressing, but even more so because you can see the traffic and congestion created by someone that died.
Cars are a horrible for humanity. They're like a drug that everyone tells you to try. You'll see. They're so useful. Of course you can't go back.
I can see your point but almost no people are going to prefer going shopping on a bike (or kayak).
Its nice that you live like that. Sounds very cool, but cars are there for a reason... :) People need to actually get their stuff done quickly and conveniently.
Sure, all the downsides you mentioned are there, but lets not be blind to the enormous upsides that you can literally go anywhere without effort or being exposed to the weather.
Why are you trying to convince me that cars are awesome and for adults that needs to get stuff done?
You think I go shopping using a kayak? There are literally the biggest retail stores of my country a few street corners away from where I live. There is a grocery store on the other side of the street.
And you know, people without cars have nothing to do all day. They don't work and don't do anything important. Only people with cars are busy people getting stuff done. It's impossible to get stuff done otherwise.
Not to mention that peole without cars will never feel like real adults.
I'm not an adult and I don't get stuff done because I don't have a car? I can't go shopping? WTF?
Keep your "freedom". I don't want it. There's already enough cars in the streets. You don't want me driving. Stop trying to convince people that don't want to drive. You have nothing to gain. Everyone already loves cars. I know that.
I'm glad that you love your car. You're not the only one. Now can some people actually want to live without one or are you going to force yours into my living room to tell me how useful it is, and how it makes you feel mature and important?
Yeah because it lets me take care of things for the household. Go shop for food, get stuff for renovating house, go to work and home on my own...
I used to just take the bus everywhere but I didnt get anything done. I bought food in the same small overpriced food shop near my apartment, I didnt renovate anything since it was hard to get all the materials home, and I was crowding with others every day at public transport, often waiting for late buses or freezing.
The car has been a massive life upgrade. If you are reading this as someone who lives in an apartment and are happy with that kind of life, thats great. For me it would be a nightmare.
Yeah because it lets me take care of things for the household. Go shop for food, get stuff for renovating house, go to work and home on my own...
Like an adult?
Look, I get that in your case it's an upgrade. The city you live in sounds like it has piss poor urban design which makes it difficult to think of living without a car.
I used to walk everywhere and take the train and bus and I got things done, was able to explore and find new restaurants and coffee shops etc. But then work forced me to move an urban hellscape where you can't do anything without a car and I fucking hate it. I don't like needing to have an oversized mobility scooter just to get around.
It has tons of buses and trains, but without a vehicle, I cant carry any stuff. I cant shop for a full week with 4 big bags of food and then carry that on the train or the bus.
I cant buy 10 liters of paint and carry it on the bus or train and walk home with it. In theory i could, but its a horrible experience.
I think living without a car works if you are living in a apartment in the city and you shop at the same nearby food shop every day. But you have no options.
Even buying something at Ikea would require a lot of planning. To get there with some bus, to pay for transport home, to be home when they come etc etc.
These are just examples but they add up. Life with a car is freedom.
You can't carry stuff? Are you serious? Yes you can carry four bags of food on public transport, it's not difficult.
Are you buying 10 litres of paint every day?
You absolutely do have options, I did not live in an appointment in a city and had a large variety of options.
Again, are you buying things from IKEA every day? Can you not hire a van for one day? It would be cheaper and more practical.
These just sound like excuses. You sound like the type of person to buy a truck just on the possibility that you might need to transport a fridge once in a blue moon.
Life with a car is the opposite of freedom when you are completely dependent on it to do anything.
I already had my car when I moved to this city and now I feel attached to it, so I don't want to get rid of it.
If I didn't already have it I wouldn't buy a new one now though.
It is pretty useful at times though, even if I do most things with my bike, my car has a big cargo area so I can easily transport a fridge, dishwasher, etc.
At some point if you decide you want a significantly newer or more powerful CPU or GPU (for example), there's a solid chance you'll need to replace the motherboard or the power supply. At that point, we're playing Theseus.
Then again, mine was a 10 year old budget build and my hobbies changed significantly, so you might not actually need to upgrade at all if your computing needs aren't hungry.
Yeah, replacing the motherboard is when I begin to consider building a new one and repurposing my current one. Because if I’m replacing the mobo, I’m probably going to have to replace the CPU and RAM, because the sockets will be different. And at that point, I might as well just go ahead and replace the PSU too, so the rating is up to date. Now I can rip out my old GPU and move it over, but that would leave my old build without one… And what if I wanted to use it for something that would potentially need a GPU, like a 4k Plex/Jellyfin server? My cooler can probably be repurposed, at least?
I might as well just go ahead and replace the PSU too, so the rating is up to date
A good PSU will have an 8-10 year or longer warranty so that'll should a couple of refresh cycles or more usually. Especially if you're upgrading every 3 years (I'm on a 5-10 year cycle, or more accurately a "whenever a key component dies or is truly no longer up to the task at hand" cycle)
5 speed manual transmission, roll up windows, knobs for climate and radio, the key goes in the ignition. I need to keep this car running forever because i despise most new features ìn modern cars. Soon enough the fucking steering wheel is going to be touch screen.
I feel this. My car has a super straightforward drivetrain (2003 Miata) and pretty simple electronics that I can follow and understand.
Looking under the hood of modern cars, half the time it’s so enclosed, you just see plastic and once you get past that, it’s an intertwined rats nest of complicated components.
On top of that, modern interiors are just loaded with features I don’t need. Give me driving, climate and radio controls. I don’t need anything more.
Don’t even get me started on all the assist features. I’m driving. I’ll handle the wheel, thanks.
Shareholders are the worst, but I can't blame individuals for buying shares (including myself) where it's basically shooting yourself in the foot to not buy shares.
So who do you mean by shareholders? The ETF that I buy so I don't have to manually buy the whole market, or a pension fund? Funds are the only other thing I can think of that I'd describe that way.
I mean, it's recommended to. Diversification, right?
But that's besides the point. I'm just not sure what you mean by shareholders here. They really come in those two types: individuals, and funds that issue their own shares which you can then buy. If you're fine with individuals holding shares, I don't really see why you'd have a problem with the funds.
I didn't explain it very clearly, I dislike the idea of shares because it results in a board of directers that all have different and contradictory goals to do with the company so the only thing they can agree on in the end is making money regardless of the ethical consequences.
Although since it's one of the best ways to invest the money you have I don't blame individuals for buying them.
I get the stocks one totally, I try and boycott companies/countries/policies I don't like by investing my money in certain ways, but stocks generally are necessary to stop you from losing money to inflation
Making coffee like a barista is infinitely more satisfying. A combined coffee machine: grinder and pressured hot water is bound to be cheaper than a fully automated one. You can push the grains down yourself, and make the coffee as strong or weak as you like.
I use an Aergrind by Knock ($150ish). It’s been fantastic for my Flair as well as pour overs. It is a manual grinder, but I don’t have the money to not do manual.
Yeah. I have a somewhat cheap one at around $300, but if you don't wanna buy, try looking for local roasteries. They usually offer preground options. Even some coffee shops will grind it for you if you ask nicely. Their grinders are usually much fancier than whatever any enthusiast will buy anyway.
Use it within a week or so, and it's very close. Hell, I'd say even two weeks is fine; but it may depend on your method of brewing, and sensitivity of palate. You can even freeze part of the grounds to keep them fresh for longer. James Hoffmann did a nice video about it.
If you really want to grind yourself, you can get really nice hand grinders for around $150 from 1Zpresso. If you're on a tighter budget, Timemore C3 is a good cheaper optiosn, that's good enough for anything that's not espresso, or turkish coffee.
I've edited my comment with some more recommendations. Mokapots are very forgiving, so you'll be fine with preground coffee. If you get a decent hand grinder, I'll bet money that you can't tell the difference between that and any fancy grinder, Mokapots are just that forgiving.
You can get phone batteries from Aliexpress for very cheap. They are typically not too difficult to replace (as long as the back panel is not glass). Give it a go!
My phone is a Galaxy S9+ from 2018 that I bought used in 2020 for about $200. The battery life is diminished but it lasts through the day.
I will likely need to buy another refurbished phone soon though, as support for this device is getting cut from my banking app. I try to buy them at $300 or lower.
I like to get some scratchies every now and then - it's one of the major funding sources for museums and sports in the UK, so I see it as a little donation with a dopamine hit rather than an attempt at winning big!
I try to avoid the keyboard mash sellers on Amazon but for some products it’s pretty much impossible to find anything else.
Oddly enough the keyboard mash sellers can be great value depending on the item you're ordering. Basically any kind of components or anything that would realistically be purchased by another factory in China has a pretty decent chance of being good enough quality. Hand tools or individual components for making stuff for example are pretty safe bets
Hand soap. Dish soap works better and you can use it on dishes in addition to your hands.
A dining table. I eat at my desk or standing at a counter. I was pressured into buying one by family because it was apparently bizarre to them I did not have one. Got the cheapest one I could find to appease them. I have now owned it for 4 years and it has never been used once, it just takes up space.
Just wanted to add that dish soap is actually very strong and removes all the natrual oils from your skin. If you are prone to sensitive skin it's a bad habit to regularly use dish soap as it can aggrivate it. Every now and then isn't going to hurt though.
I’ve had glasses for a long time and interestingly they clean better with hand soap. Many have suggested to use dish soap but it seems to be less effective. I’d imagine most of the stains come from being in contact with skin so I’m a bit surprised.
True enough. I haven't had any problems in using it myself but I supposed you could ratio it with some water or something to make it not as intense for hands.
It's a lot cheaper than hand soap too so in doing this you could probably get a tonne of hand washes out of it for really cheap.
The primary downside to it for me is that it lasts ages and I get kind of tired of the smell.
Not in my experience. I guess it might depend on the brand or affect individuals differently, but I've been using grocery store off-brand dish soap for this for like 10 years and never had a problem.
I'm not talking about detergent/dishwashing liquid - I'm talking about liquid dish soap which I can purchase locally for about $3 to the litre and is a different thing.
Detergent/dishwashing liquid is definitely much more expensive and probably would not be great for washing hands.
Bar soap is definitely still cheaper though overall, you are correct.
Ah I seem to recall a video he did about dishwashers and why the pods are bad etc. I think he may have briefly touched on making your own detergent using bar soap and borax as well as the manufacturer recommendation to put some detergent in the bottom in addition to behind the spring loaded door.
Oh neat, I'll have to go watch the new one when I have a chance. I recall it working quite well and being absurdly cheap - I can't recall if he did a cost analysis. Maybe I'll watch the old one again and then the new one haha.
A dining table is good for when family comes over and you want to eat something together. Now I also use it to eat something with my wife, but before I rarely used it. It helped that it was a hand me down from my mother though, so I didn't have to pay anything.
Yea, in my case im not sure what the impression of me was. I am single and work full time and don't have the money or time to cook meals for 4 people let alone the dishes and stuff for that many.
Yes, that's what I mean. I don't pay for TV because I just put all of my media on a Jellyfin server as I also don't want to watch ads, let alone pay to watch ads.
And concerts. I haven't seen a concert since the 90s. I'm lucky to have grown up in the era of cheap tickets.
In the 70s, I worked in a record store that sold tickets for the local outdoor summer venue. Lawn seats were $3, and it took 45 minutes to get there. If we worked the day shift in the summer, and got off at 5, and that nights show wasn't sold out yet, we could grab a $3 ticket, and be at the show before it started.
I was also a fan of the local orchestra, who played there every week, and never fully sold out. I went to a LOT of those shows.
Hadestown is coming to town, and I'd love to see it, but the cheapest seat in the last row, off to the side, is about $70, so they can go fuck themselves. Entertainment is for the rich. I'll just pirate the show, if there's a proshot of it. Besides, I love the original concept album much better than the Broadway version anyway. Hades is far better in the original.
Honestly even at the current going rates of $50-100 a ticket going to some good concerts is still a blast and still worth it. Also usually there's going to be at least one opener and depending on the show they might have 2-3 bands performing. Personally I'm happy if I get to do 1-3 big concerts a year, and that's really not that much to budget for even at $100/ticket, and some bands are freaking incredible to see live.
Also worth poking around to see if there's any free/cheap music events near you or comparing with the cost of tickets to a music festival if you really want to be cheap/picky. There's a couple of free music events I try to go to every year at nearish cities to me and it's literally free entry and they'll have a full lineup of bands for the full weekend. I've seen Bobaflex, Powerman5000, The Haunt, Black Stone Cherry, Taproot, Red Jumpsuit Apperatus, Fastball, Fozzy etc. all at these free music festivals
I used to work for a major record company, and part of my job had me handling backstage events at many concerts by many artists of every genre, so before my "retirement" from concerts, I had seen far more shows than the average person. Easily hundreds.
It wasn't unusual for m to see three concerts a night - a classical concert in the early evening at the concert hall (over by 9), race over to the arena for a big rock show (probably miss the opener, but catch the headliner), then off to a small club for the the second jazz show after midnight (which is always the hot set). I would do that three or four times a month, with plenty of other one-show nights between.
It was a cool job, but I got pretty burned out on shows for a while. In the 21st century, I've been more into Broadway shows, which are also quickly pricing out of range.
I've been following this cool little band called High Fade, and I saw their post announcing their tour, but I was too late. Tickets were only $15, but they had been to my city 2 weeks earlier, and I missed them. It would have been my first non-Broadway show in decades. I hope they come back soon, they're awesome.
I'm feeling like live music more lately, so I'm going to follow your suggestions, and start digging. If youre at a show, and see an old chubby guy rocking out next to you, say Hi.
In context that makes a ton of sense for why you don't want to go to concerts anymore! Burnout is a bitch! But there's something beautiful about once you're past the burnout and try the thing again, where it's been long enough it's like trying it again for the first time except with the knowledge of what to expect and how to best enjoy it already there.
My local B league hockey team does discount nights with cheap seats and cheap options for beer/soft drinks and snacks. My wife and I will get tickets, have a few drinks and snacks and spend a total of maybe a little over $20. Even on full price nights it's maybe $50 for the same.
Plus there's the fights that almost always break out. Or, as the saying goes, there was a fight and a hockey game broke out.
A few people are saying "streaming services", I go further and rarely-if-ever buy entertainment media. Music, videos, games, websites.
Not even pirating most of the time, there's a whole world of good Creative Commons music, FOSS games and actual creative communities (not just parasocial fan communities) for me to be entertained for lifetimes. It's just healthier to be outside the world of profit and addiction machines. (It amazes me that people can think 'influencer' is not a creepy ominous title)
Was on a really tight budget for a time, so I know I can feed myself for a few Euros a day. Going back to fast food restaurants at all still instils some guilt in me, but there is 1 that has unbelievably good prices and I can still appreciate the convenience at times.
But fries and drinks are just a scam with how big the profit margins are, and not even hard to prepare at home if you're ordering take out or have it delivered (I also don't pay for delivery, my bike is free).
I agree for the drinks. But I can't cook fries like my local burger place does. And it's cheap, like half a dollar (USD equivalent of my home currency) for 1 box of fries.
I have tried a lot of things including pre-boiling, ice-baths, baking soda, and air-frying. In the end it just made me appreciate how good and easy restaurant fries are even more.
God restaurants have gotten so expensive, especially delivery. $15-$18 for a burger, another $4-$6 for fries, multiplied by two, plus delivery fees, taxes, and tip… easily $50+
Easily one of my favorite appliances, up there with dishwasher and washing machine. My floors are always insanely clean because that thing drives around every day.
Same. Mine vaccums, sweeps and mops. I refill the water tank once a week and replace the bag once a month. Everything is so clean.
It has eaten a few naughty things though. It are a USB cable, it dragged my laptop off a sofa, and it entangled itself in a plastic sheet that was draped over my coffee table and dragged some acrylic paints and a litre of wash water off onto itself. Made a big mess. I also changed its spoken language to Vietnamese for a laugh, then when I changed my wifi router, I had to learn how to follow instructions in Vietnamese to reconfigure it to the new SSID.
Is it sending a map of my house to the CCP? Probably. Is that useful information for them? Probably not.
yeah. We recieved one as a gift. It was ok for a while, but you had to keep the floor clear, and it was always getting stuck. Now with small kids. Forget about it.
a) Save me money, eg Amazon prime (although someone else in my family has Prime so if I need something from Amazon I just use their account)
b) Do something I can't setup myself
And especially no subscriptions which give me the licenses to digital media, without hardware, eg xbox or netlfix
NatGeo was the finest magazine on the planet for generations, then Fox got their hands on it and made it a religious rag, then sold it to some other company that managed to make it worse.
What an ignominious end to one of the greatest publications in the history of man, and that's no exaggeration.
If you can afford to pay for the content you consume it's generally better to pay for it, especially with regards to the porn industry which takes every scummy practice of traditional media and is 10x worse because it's not really happening in the open
any printed magazine
For some hobbies printed magazines are still the Pinnacle of media related to the hobby, so as long as the media company behind the magazine hasn't changed hands and significantly degraded quality (looking at you Kalmbach publishing!) paying for a magazine so you get something fun to look at in the mail each month/quarter/whatever can be quite enjoyable
Mostly it's to do with boycotts. Like, it's not the end of the world if you don't play a video game. I'm generally quite loose with my money if it's not on any boycott list, since I can feel good about even pointless things if my money isn't going to something evil.
I have done that in a pinch but disliked how it made my hair feel. For me, shampoo bars are a good compromise because the feel/smell nice but one bar lasts me like, a year.
Condoms. Get a surgery and have the little guy fixed. Can’t get anyone pregnant that way. Be careful who you sleep with. Make sure both people get tested before doing the deed. No need for the condom at that point.
Unless someone can provide another reason to get a condom. I’m happy to be corrected.
Make sure both people get tested before doing the deed.
Not one for spontaneity, eh? 😄
"I've had a great night, what do you say we keep this night going?"
"Sure, swab yourself here, here, and here and spit in this tube, and in a couple days, if all goes well, I will be so down for that!"
I got a vasectomy when I was already in for other surgery, but condoms were a mild annoyance with a more than acceptable tradeoff. They're ready to go whenever, it's a no-go for some if you won't use one, and it's as much for my own protection as it is for the other person. I wouldn't necessarily expect someone to take my word on it that I got it done right off the bat either.
If you're out dating, I think it's just respectful to have them available. Different people have different comfort levels, so one should come prepared to accommodate.
The latex free ones aren't a bad idea either if you need to keep some on hand. My partner has an allergy so I couldn't use regular ones. They were more expensive, but I actually thought they were better, and it was still a low price to pay, considering what I got in return. She carried her own, but after we continued going out I wasn't going to make her keep paying for them every time.
Yeah it's a great option for people who don't want children. I hear it isn't easy for childfree women though. They get refused a lot because "what if you change your mind?!"
You all should know that there's an easy way to make a condom feel much better: put a drop of lubricant (condom-safe, of course) inside the reservoir tip before putting the condom on. I've also heard that doing this makes it less likely to tear too, which makes sense.
I make my own marinara, but I used canned tomatoes and sauces for the ingredients. I'm not par boiling and peeling fucking tomatoes. I'm dumping a shitton of ingredients into the pot, mixing, and letting it simmer for an hour or so, mixing occasionally.
I started adding a can of chipotle in adobo as an alternative to a lot of other ingredients when I'm feeling a bit lazy. It's such a good flavor profile.
Holiday decorations. They are just plastic shit. Put a gun to my head, I would already know that every other weekend estate sale is going to have a whole room full of decor that is headed for a landfill. Some psychotics even buy new gimcrack every single year. They are evil, and they need to be stopped.
I’ve just been burned too many times. There are so many great turn-based games, but they have never held my attention. 4x and ttgs are exceptions, I guess, although the last 4x I played was Civ V.
I’ve tried:
Yakuza Like a Dragon
Darkest Dungeon
Pokémon Videogames
Valkyria Chronicles
If I play another turn-based game, it will be Bauldur’s Gate 3. I’ve been on the fence about purchasing it since it came out.
I've become an either gel or spray deodorant type of man anymore. If I have a stick of the more solid stuff from the local food bank, I'm not gonna be super picky or complain about that because it's free deodorant, but if I'm buying, gel or spray has become my new favorite.
I presume it's less prevalent because I usually see way more of the more solid stuff than the gel and have a harder time finding the spray, in store because I know I can easily find it online, but I'd rather get it at the store while I'm already getting other things as well.
Spray fucking sucks. Half of it stays in the air. Horrible for the environment, air quality. You will also inhale a good portion of it. Please, do not use those in shared spaces, such as gym lockers.. I have asthma and it immediately exacerbates it.
I would never use the spray stuff near others. I'm never in a situation where I spray it anywhere near people, only myself in my bedroom. Especially since my brother used to have asthma and I would never want to intentionally do something that could trigger it for others. Can relate to probably inhaling some and possibly getting a tiny bit in one eye.
It's also almost never I have the spray stuff, but if it's environmentally bad, I'll definitely have to switch to the gel.
Digital media. It's too easy to pirate. There's no reason not to other than being a good boy. The only way I could see myself going legit is if they started to make really good public digital libraries and I could download anything I wanted from a single source with a library card of some kind. The exception to this would be online games but the ones I like to play happen to be free lol.
Apple anything
You must buy $1600 iphone to support failing US economy.
Please don't look at all the alternatives that are 3 years ahead in tech and 1/3rd of the cost.
Ahhhh but those devices don't have 'the ecosystem'. You know, that bloated software that locks you into apple everything by making a handful of tasks marginally more convenient for the tech layperson.
TBH nowadays android is becoming just as guilty of the walled garden bullshit. We need mobile linux and we need it now.
Hard agree!
The only Apple stuff I use are phone, watch, headphones. I don’t use Google products or services and haven’t for a decade, so it’s my other good option. I don’t wanna fuck around with custom ROMs, and my last phone lasted almost six years.
Windows and Linux for computers. Unfortunately I have a game that’s extremely important to me that is impossible to run on Linux.
Even if you’re not in Apple’s ecosystem, I think iPhones are pretty great phones. Expensive yes, but they last a long time.
Yes, buy a secondhand google pixel, it's better for privacy/security etc with grapheneOS installed. But if you like apple hardware, nothing wrong with a secondhand iphone
Lottery tickets.
They’re basically just a tax on the dumb. But man the slogans — all you need is a dollar and a dream, you gotta be in it to win it, etc. — sheer marketing genius.
Its not about the odds. Youre temporarily renting hope in a hopeless world.
I call it the stupid tax. I pay it knowing I won't win but it would be nice to get some fuck you money.
I don't mind spending 10 a month to maybe pay off my house years early.
The lottery people aren't looking for one person to buy all the tickets.
If you are buying 10 a month and a significant amount of people think like you then they are going to make bank on that.
If you win I expect a "Fuck You" reply and a picture of a ridiculous amount of cash
At least it is a crown corporation so the money goes to the province not to a private company.
If I ever win, I will track down this comment of yours and show myself posing with an incredibly large pile of loonies($1 coins with a loon on them).
I will buy one but that is it. It enhances the fantasy when there is a non zero chance something could happen even if ridiculously unlikely. That being said all the big, dreamworthy jackpots are no longer a dollar and much like fast food that has become to rich for my blood.
I buy one maybe a few times per year. Its also a very good gift to someone. You get a bit of excitement together and there is always that tiny chance of winning.
That tax goes both ways.
There are moments where the potential payout for a ticket is greater than the value of the ticket.
In that mathematical moment, buy exactly one ticket.
Has this ever happened in recent history?
I'd say buy as many as you can within the amount of money you're ready to waste. Same as with investing, pretty much.
The expected payout is negative so no, not similar to investing. It becomes the opposite, pretty much.
I'll buy them as "gag gifts" but not for myself.
Streaming subscriptions. I swear the average nowadays seems to be like 4 per person because ppl don't know how to torrent anymore
I'll admit I was guilty of this until a few years ago, when I started learning the proper, safer ways.
Any advice? I’d love to stop paying for streaming services
I highly recommend the /c/piracy / /r/piracy wiki. Has guides, advice and links to the better public sites.
See the links on the sidebar of https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/piracy
Others have suggested FMHY and piracy communities, but besides the normal advice of having a trustworthy enough VPN and not g••gling something like "free movie torrent" and just clicking on the first link/links, one thing I've learned is just, assuming the file is somewhere around 750Mb, I think, seeing what VirusTotal has to say about it is advised.
Also, avoiding programs like BitTorrent in favor of things like Qbittorrent or Transmission is probably a good step. Last I checked, one of the communities said that at one point BitTorrent, or one of the old torrent clients, had become a virus ridden shell of its past.
Speaking of torrent clients, binding your client to your VPN is a good idea. You definitely don't want your torrents to continue when your VPN disconnects you for any reason. Different clients may have different ways of doing it, or the setting will be in a different spot, so looking up how to do it for your client is a good idea, if you don't know how to.
Though, I think this final part is real important for your safety when visiting certain sites to find torrents: have some form of working adblock! Because no reputable business want their ads on a piracy website, you might get caught up in a situation where you might get invisible full-screen ads that will take you to porn sites or other probably virus riddled sites just by clicking, sometimes without any way to get rid of said ads. That, or you'll get lucky and the site just has normal ad placements, but they're still not something you should click on.
If you're censoring because it's a horrible company name, I just say "searching".
FMHY
✨alternative✨ streaming services are moral.
Adding to this, anything where I'd be paying a publisher middleman. Avoid whenever possible, pay directly if you're in a position to support the creator/s of smaller projects.
This also applies to other things, like food ordering and travel accommodation. Some places offer a significant discount if you go directly to them - both of you get a bigger cut.
English speakers (and in some cases even other language speakers) can watch pretty much anything nowadays through free streaming sites. Been binging myflixer for over a year.
Yo ho
Thanks to Technology Connections - Dishwasher/Laundry pods. Soap with pretty colors, and probably more soap than you need per load. I've swapped to powder and literally cannot tell a difference at all, and instead of 8 dollars for 10 loads I now am getting an entire box with like, 40 loads for $8.
And if you want something convenient for laundry they have the laundry sheets that don't release plastic into your water so that's nice.
But personally if I want a known amount each time for each load I just use a scoop.
Is liquid detergent still a bad deal? I have no qualms against using powder instead, but my family always stuck to using bulk laundry detergent liquid (I forget the unit size of the 100 load bottle exactly), and I thought that was a good deal.
I'd say it's better, but not great. Environmentally it still comes with a giant plastic jug that needs to be disposed of, and we all know how plastic recycling is. On your wallet, if you think bout it, you're not just paying for the soap, but the water and the weight/shipping of that water to get to your home from the factories.
Powder is really the same thing, but you have water at home to mix it with, that happens in your washing machine. So, naturally it is going to be cheaper.
Ah that makes sense. I do reuse the jugs tho, so at least those aren't wasted.
That's good, reuse > recycle. We had nothing to do with them so were just recycling these giant jugs all the time. Now we have a big container we pour the detergent into and just scoop it out as we go. Containers are cardboard for the powder
When I swapped to powder it was because I could buy a jug of All free and clear (cheapest brand for hypoallergenic that I could find) for $12. I don’t recall how many loads it did, but I could get the powder online, which was at least the same number of loads but probably way more, same brand same fragrance free formula, for $4.75. They don’t carry the powder in most stores around me, I assume because it’s so much cheaper nobody would buy the overpriced liquid. Same with cheap dish powder; just not available.
I bought a massive box of dishwashing powder a bit over a year ago and I'm maybe halfway through it, it's like magic. Thank you technology connections!
K-Cups. They might save you a grand total of a minute over loose grounds and a disposable paper filter, but they're more costly per cup and create more waste.
I use the k cups and brewer with a reusable washable pod. You put little paper filters in them.
Those aren't bad but the container is too small for my liking. Keurig brewers are a pain to clean too.
At that point you're already putting in more work than a standard drop coffee maker would take! You literally put a filter in, pour grounds in and hit brew.
Optionally you can get a reusable filter and rinse it after each pot of coffee
Might be less coffee but it's not just the coffee that's the waste; it's all the extra plastic that each one of those K-cups uses.
Plastic often lasts centuries (at least) to biodegrade and even then animals try to eat the waste and then die horribly.
Used coffee grounds have many more uses than the plastic k-cups. Recycling the cups is difficult and usually doesn't happen. They do make eco-friendly cups but they still contain dyes for the labels and require more energy to mass produce than simple paper filters and a bag of grounds (or beans if you grind your own).
They're great for single people who want 1 cup before leaving for work though.
Aeropress does this for me, and way better quality. Less waste too
You can do the same with a manual coffee brewer though- just use less coffee and water
Can I leave it to pour a single measure whilst I throw on my shoes and jacket?
French presses are great for quick 1 or 2 cups
You can fine tune your process but the most basic is a funnel (I.e. V60, chemex, kalita) with a paper filter on top with grounds on it that you just pour hot water on top and wait for it to filter down. Coffee machines do all this but they generally produce worse coffee outside of shops because no one cleans them as often as they should
That's exactly what I do with my chemex yeah.
Aeropress
Not hard to find single cup brewers for loose grounds (I own one) and they're cheaper because they don't have to work with Keurig for licensing and compatibility.
Just to illustrate for anyone reading this that brewing coffee can be very easy and quick: I use one of these to very easily brew exactly one cup of coffee every morning in about 2-3 minutes - https://kalitausa.com/products/kalita-style-102-ceramic-coffee-dripper-white (mine is in the beautiful brown color, but I linked the white one because it's much cheaper and has many more reviews)
It says 2-4 cups but I think it's really only for 1-2 cups. It takes #2 filters that you can find at any grocery store. If you want to be even more environment-friendly, you can buy reusable cloth #2 filters online.
Procedure:
When I first decided that I wanted to start drinking coffee I way overthought it, spending all kinds of time and energy researching all kinds of different brewing methods, grinders, etc. It's easy to get lost in the wilderness when it comes to coffee. But I ended up choosing the easiest option available and have been happy with it for years. Hot, fresh, easy, just about any variety and strength of coffee, and no added microplastics from sending boiling water through plastics.
I just wait until I am at work, it's much simpler because the coffee at work is free and I just have to press a button and wait for the cup to be full.
Agreed on all points, but especially #1. Fuck Nestle. Every time I buy a new product at the grocery store, I check to make sure they're not made by Nestle or a subsidiarity of Nestle.
I'd also like to adhere to the feeling: Fuck Nestle. Nothing more to add.
Labubus
Pre-built computers. I’ve just been building PCs for so long I can’t imagine buying something that meet my specifications within a reasonable budget. And it’s fun.
I built my own because I wanted a gaming computer with a blu-ray drive. That was the only way. I also added a floppy drive for shits and giggles.
I have never tried building a PC myself but I have gotten into reviving old ones. I haven't bought a computer in over a decade. I just inherit people's old ones and bring them back to life with linux, maybe replace a dead PSU or something. I'm new to hardware stuff. I really wish I knew a way to get these computers into the hands of people who can't afford to buy one and don't know how to do this themselves.
Wouldn't a pre-built secondhand pc be cheaper, if your just starting out?
Pretty unlikely to find a second hand system with the highish specs I’d want.
But if you mean if someone just needed a computer, then yes used would be much cheaper given how quickly things advance.
I went this route. I don't need something powerful to scroll Lemmy and watch downloaded TV/movies.
Made sure it had two display port outputs for dual monitors. Added another 16GB of RAM because why not. It is way more than I need. Probably could have gotten away with used micro PC.
I also have a NAS and micro PC "server."
Yeah me neither. I found a charity that refurbished oldish desktops for students and pensioners, for around $35 USD. It was a 2017 lenovo with 8gb ddr4, decent inbuilt graphics, and it came with a monitor, screen, keyboard and mouse. I just put linuxmint on it, and it is working well for some low end games
CSB: Years ago when my kid was in after school care I fixed a couple of their busted PCs. Nothing major, just made sure the hardware was OK, reinstalled Windoz, and then installed some FOSS games on them. I had enough stuff from the work scrapheap and mine to make a third. Kids loved it. I was a very-local semi-celebrity.
Just because the hardware doesn't make the cut for heavy work doesn't mean it cannot handle the needs of others.
A brand new car.
Buy used, let someone else take the depreciation hit.
With how complex (and unrepairable) modern cars are, in a few years the used car prices will probably shoot up because of flailing supply.
Yeah, my car is 18 years old, has almost 300k miles on it, and because it's desirable and not made anymore, it's still worth about half what I paid for it 14 years ago.
I doubt anyone will pay half the price of a 4 year old model if its 18 years old...!
A lot of things break on cars that old, so any buyer has to be a bit stupid to pay that price...
Want to see crazy used car prices? Look at small Toyota trucks in southern California. The prices are insane because many people want a small basic truck for work. The 22R and 22RE engines live long and if they do die it is easy to source a rebuilt engine.
Yep, and nobody makes a true equivalent to the small pickup anymore. Even the Ford Maverick is bigger than 90s Tacomas, and Rangers
Small trucks cannot be imported into the US due to the Chicken Tax. American companies will not build small trucks because they like the profits from large SUVs and trucks.
Yep. There also emissions vs weight or payload of the vehicle regulations that make it even less profitable to produce small pickups here.
It all depends on what car it is. Obviously, nobody is dumb enough to pay that on an 18 year old KIA or Hyundai.
laughs in a 30 year old van, that gained about 40% of value since I bought it 3 years ago
If it was built well, and is simple enough, it's not too much of a hassle and you can maintain a lot of it yourself. Most new cars are complicated garbage that breaks constantly straight out of the factory, and you have to take it to a mechanic to do anything because of their complexity and proprietary software. Compare that to my van, where I can read the OBD2 error codes on my phone over bluetooth with a $10 dongle, and can do most basic maintenance (oil, ATF, spark plugs, belts) with basic hand tools and a car pit.
Yeah I understand the value of that. We can see it also in consumer electronics, or any consumer product really, how its designed to break right after warranty.
Its fun to hear from these companies how they care about the environment while at the same time producing endless things that will end up in the trash in just a few years.
Your eyes don't suck. You just want to abuse them for some reason. Modern display tech is way easier on your eyes.
How so? I'd expect two monitors showing the same thing at the same brightness would be physiologically identical.
The monitor my work provided me is much more recent and it touts:
Some individuals are much more sensitive to the latter two, but I don't feel much of a downgrade when I come home to my crappy old monitors, hence I joke that my eyes suck.
I got a OLED monitor and it gives me more eye strain then my old monitor. I've tried software and hardware setting and it still persists. Flux, dark mode, high contrast settings, brightness settings. Tried it all, unless there is something I missed.
I use it sparingly now while playing FPS games (picture is amazing by the way, wish my eyes weren't like this)
My eyes would bleed at the sight of my laptop's 1366x768 TN panel if I got used to anything better! Those are the "good" monitors haha.
A 144hz monitor has been the biggest upgrade to my computer since switching from an HDD to a SSD. It's that big of a difference.
Yeah, cant go back from that. I have one myself, 30 inch. Everything looks super crisp and smooth on it.
Not as dramatic of a shift, but going to 4k HDR OLED has made me so spoiled in terms of movie watching experience.
I bought a 144hz 4K 32" monitor a few years ago, it wasn't cheap (800€) but I don't regret buying it, everything just looks better on it than it ever did on the previous monitor.
I was with you up until aliexpress.
There's definitely junk on there, but if you look for high purchase volume plus good ratings you'll get plenty of high quality stuff (minus the middle-man markup).
Am wondering, how do you complete a transaction on Aliexpress? On Librewolf and Firefox, something always goes wrong for me at some point, usually a bogus security check failing or buttons mysteriously ceasing to work.
Huh... FF is my main browser and I've never had an issue. Could it be an extension issue?
my problem is I can't even find a car to replace my old one. been trying, but when 2012-2014 is the newest model they make of what I want... hard to find for a reasonable price
I just want a small wagon
I might end up looking at newer stuff, but.. how tf am I going to avoid shitty touchscreens, spyware, LED headlights, and all that garbage?
As a fan of sedans and hatchbacks...car shopping is very interesting right now
how so? like just because nobody fucking makes them anymore?
Yup many manufactures stopped making anything other than trucks and SUVs in the US, and if that doesn't make it enough of a challenge, many buyers (especially locally to me) prefer larger vehicles so I have fewer used options to choose from (and I'm too cheap to buy a new car)
I wouldn't be surprised if the Slate Truck/SUV ends up being just marketing hype, but I'm keeping my eye on it since they promise a minimalist EV where you plug in the smarts in the form of your own smartphone. Otherwise, it's just a dumb EV, which is how I'd keep it.
I am ready to be disappointed by it, but I'm not ignoring it. hope they can achieve it
And going to get harder to avoid a lot of that stuff once enough of them eventually get into the much cheaper levels of the used market. Though by then (and even currently in the higher priced used levels) most of the stuff will no longer even be supported to use (even if you for some reason did find a need to use them and be okay paying).
I got a 2015 Rogue SV that stuff like nav or whatever other stuff doesn't even have access to the apps from Nissan to set them up. And was like one or two years behind Android Auto or even Apple's stuff. So can't just have the main screen just cast my phone's maps. Really only irritates me when I need to go into settings and see stuff for features I can't use if I wanted to do so. But the backup camera and phone pairing over blutooth for calls and music works, so that is nice to have and useful daily.
I am torn on replacing the head-unit like I did with my much older cars in the past. But those were so much more easy and "normal" to replace. I mostly worry that since it is much more integrated, that beyond just not flowing with the design, that there would be more problematic issues caused with the electrics (especially after seeing how much just replacing headlights with LEDs messed up a lot of cars when they were not a standard part) and the main computer.
Had really randomly bad issues with my last car's computer towards the last four or five years that I never had with much older cars before. But is also possible that aside from my much more abusive driving while being younger, that I just hadn't had something with any computer element (just the main one as it wasn't anything built-in with lots of features.
ewwww LED headlights
Am I the only one that would never change a car? Like you buy one, shouldn't you keep it for 60 years? Why should anyone want to change a car? I had to change my car once because I'm Canadian so it rusted. It was awful.
Yeah, my 1st car died a rust death due to its winters in Syracuse (basically a Canadian climate). I'm 40 y/o and my 2nd car is still going strong (much to my wife's dismay)
This guy frugals.
To this day, I've never been tempted to buy a nice display, I'm right there with you. Like, I go to electronics stores for whatever and am dazzled by the bright colours on the modern ones, but not enough to need it when I'm posting on Lemmy, let alone pay an arm and a leg for it.
Cucumber, because fuck cucumber.
With the caveat that if it's small and you pickle it, I'm down.
Besides that, and I can't express this more clearly, FUCK CUCUMBER. Infects everything it touches, permeates the air, tastes like old water, smells like... Foetid moss or watery algae.
I gather the hatred some people like me carry for pukecumber has a genetic root.
This guy does not cucumber
This does not spark cucumber
Good answer.
Sorry but you are a big fan of cucumber.
As someone who loves both pickles and cucumbers, I couldn't disagree more.
If I'm craving one and someone hands me the other, I'll be upset.
Right‽ I love both, but don't you ever fucking give me one when I asked for the other. I'll cut a bitch.
I'm a big fan of vinegar. You could pickle all kinds of awful foodstuffs and I'll eat them.
I'm with you. I've tried it a bunch of times since so many people seem to like cucumbers, cucumber water, cucumber in sushi, cucumber gin, and whatever else. I don't like pickles either. I just cannot cuke.
A car. Gas/petrol for a car. A parking spot for a car. Car insurance. A driver's license. Winter tires for cars. Anything car related.
It's so ridiculous to pay for a mobile living room that needs to be parked everywhere people go with it.
Sadly, many cities are designed around cars where owning one has become more or less a necessity.
Yeah. I moved into a city and region with enough transit for my needs but my family still lives in a place where there hasn't been a coach or trains in 30 years. There were before but not anymore. And going to other regions or cities without a car is also becoming more and more difficult, if not impossible.
Unfortunately my province and country only care about cars. I really don't want to drive but I fear that I won't have any other choice at some point in the future because my other options are actively deteriorating.
I just moved back to a city with decent enough transit and dumped my car and god I'm so much happier. I hate driving and car ownership with a fiery passion.
For me the car meant i felt like a grown up with tons of freedom. I can go anywhere, see anything.
I used to feel like you until i got one. But now, no way im ever living without one again. Its a life upgrade you cant go back from.
And people actually use that as an insult. "You're not an adult until you own a car". Which is a sad way of seeing millions of people that have been living without a car for their whole life.
And the freedom feeling depends mostly if you live in a region that is offering you ways not to be car dependent. Where I live, we have a very decent network of bike paths in the city but also going into the countryside and traversing the province. I live on the island of an archipelago and can pull my inflatable kayak with my bike trailer, explore the islands around, access nature nearby. I can also go camping and hiking and into the wilderness 200 km away by using this cycling network. I often go visit my parents and family 140-170 km away by cycling there. I could have start to drive and bought a car 25 years ago but I moved somewhere I wouldn't need one, and my bike represents freedom. I'm free from having to pay big oil to fill a tank to go anywhere. I'm free from monthly parking fees. I'm free from paying the plates and the insurance.
Over the years, what I learned about cars don't make me see them as freedom. I see them as a way to keep people perpetually paying for gas, sending billions to big oil. I see them as an endless sea and stream of pollution. They pollute the air and the sound. They are bad for mental and physical health. They take an ungodly amount of space. They kill about a million people every year. On the planet, every 30 seconds someone is killed in a car related "accident". Every year, two billion animals (yes, billions) are killed by cars.
Going to see my nephew for his birthday in the suburbs where my sister lives is comical. Twelve people invited to go park their cars around a house that only has space for the cars of the occupants. You have to find parking everywhere you go for this thing, then whine that there's no parking anywhere. Going to a funereal is also depressing, but even more so because you can see the traffic and congestion created by someone that died.
Cars are a horrible for humanity. They're like a drug that everyone tells you to try. You'll see. They're so useful. Of course you can't go back.
I can see your point but almost no people are going to prefer going shopping on a bike (or kayak).
Its nice that you live like that. Sounds very cool, but cars are there for a reason... :) People need to actually get their stuff done quickly and conveniently.
Sure, all the downsides you mentioned are there, but lets not be blind to the enormous upsides that you can literally go anywhere without effort or being exposed to the weather.
Why are you trying to convince me that cars are awesome and for adults that needs to get stuff done?
You think I go shopping using a kayak? There are literally the biggest retail stores of my country a few street corners away from where I live. There is a grocery store on the other side of the street.
And you know, people without cars have nothing to do all day. They don't work and don't do anything important. Only people with cars are busy people getting stuff done. It's impossible to get stuff done otherwise.
Not to mention that peole without cars will never feel like real adults.
I'm not an adult and I don't get stuff done because I don't have a car? I can't go shopping? WTF?
Keep your "freedom". I don't want it. There's already enough cars in the streets. You don't want me driving. Stop trying to convince people that don't want to drive. You have nothing to gain. Everyone already loves cars. I know that.
I'm glad that you love your car. You're not the only one. Now can some people actually want to live without one or are you going to force yours into my living room to tell me how useful it is, and how it makes you feel mature and important?
Lol. :)
Ok mate, have a good day...
So I guess never by a car so you can live without one.
You need a car to feel grown up?
Moving to a car centric city has been significant downgrade for me. I'd much rather walk or cycle than be stuck using a car.
Yeah because it lets me take care of things for the household. Go shop for food, get stuff for renovating house, go to work and home on my own...
I used to just take the bus everywhere but I didnt get anything done. I bought food in the same small overpriced food shop near my apartment, I didnt renovate anything since it was hard to get all the materials home, and I was crowding with others every day at public transport, often waiting for late buses or freezing.
The car has been a massive life upgrade. If you are reading this as someone who lives in an apartment and are happy with that kind of life, thats great. For me it would be a nightmare.
Like an adult?
Look, I get that in your case it's an upgrade. The city you live in sounds like it has piss poor urban design which makes it difficult to think of living without a car.
I used to walk everywhere and take the train and bus and I got things done, was able to explore and find new restaurants and coffee shops etc. But then work forced me to move an urban hellscape where you can't do anything without a car and I fucking hate it. I don't like needing to have an oversized mobility scooter just to get around.
It has tons of buses and trains, but without a vehicle, I cant carry any stuff. I cant shop for a full week with 4 big bags of food and then carry that on the train or the bus.
I cant buy 10 liters of paint and carry it on the bus or train and walk home with it. In theory i could, but its a horrible experience.
I think living without a car works if you are living in a apartment in the city and you shop at the same nearby food shop every day. But you have no options.
Even buying something at Ikea would require a lot of planning. To get there with some bus, to pay for transport home, to be home when they come etc etc.
These are just examples but they add up. Life with a car is freedom.
Okay you're examples are bullshit.
You can't carry stuff? Are you serious? Yes you can carry four bags of food on public transport, it's not difficult.
Are you buying 10 litres of paint every day?
You absolutely do have options, I did not live in an appointment in a city and had a large variety of options.
Again, are you buying things from IKEA every day? Can you not hire a van for one day? It would be cheaper and more practical.
These just sound like excuses. You sound like the type of person to buy a truck just on the possibility that you might need to transport a fridge once in a blue moon.
Life with a car is the opposite of freedom when you are completely dependent on it to do anything.
Its not excuses. I dont have anything to excuse myself for. For driving a car? Thats funny. :)
I just wanted to give you the reasons most people choose to drive a car.
I already had my car when I moved to this city and now I feel attached to it, so I don't want to get rid of it. If I didn't already have it I wouldn't buy a new one now though.
It is pretty useful at times though, even if I do most things with my bike, my car has a big cargo area so I can easily transport a fridge, dishwasher, etc.
After building my first pc I will never buy a pre built again. I might never buy a pc again (pc of thesius!)
At some point if you decide you want a significantly newer or more powerful CPU or GPU (for example), there's a solid chance you'll need to replace the motherboard or the power supply. At that point, we're playing Theseus.
Then again, mine was a 10 year old budget build and my hobbies changed significantly, so you might not actually need to upgrade at all if your computing needs aren't hungry.
Yeah, replacing the motherboard is when I begin to consider building a new one and repurposing my current one. Because if I’m replacing the mobo, I’m probably going to have to replace the CPU and RAM, because the sockets will be different. And at that point, I might as well just go ahead and replace the PSU too, so the rating is up to date. Now I can rip out my old GPU and move it over, but that would leave my old build without one… And what if I wanted to use it for something that would potentially need a GPU, like a 4k Plex/Jellyfin server? My cooler can probably be repurposed, at least?
A good PSU will have an 8-10 year or longer warranty so that'll should a couple of refresh cycles or more usually. Especially if you're upgrading every 3 years (I'm on a 5-10 year cycle, or more accurately a "whenever a key component dies or is truly no longer up to the task at hand" cycle)
you're only saying that because you have the one computer
wait until you start running your own servers and whatnot. used prebuilts with some expansion room are the most cost effective
for my gaming pc, though? fuck no. just keep changing parts out as required
Oh yeah I forgot about that, I've already bought several computers by that metric.
I built my PC in 2003. I upgraded it 3 times. I still use the same case.
I don’t know if I could do a new car.
5 speed manual transmission, roll up windows, knobs for climate and radio, the key goes in the ignition. I need to keep this car running forever because i despise most new features ìn modern cars. Soon enough the fucking steering wheel is going to be touch screen.
Hook up an Xbox/PlayStation controller using Bluetooth XD
VR head set, a ton of cameras, and animated third person view. Unlock new skins the more miles you put on the car.
I feel this. My car has a super straightforward drivetrain (2003 Miata) and pretty simple electronics that I can follow and understand.
Looking under the hood of modern cars, half the time it’s so enclosed, you just see plastic and once you get past that, it’s an intertwined rats nest of complicated components.
On top of that, modern interiors are just loaded with features I don’t need. Give me driving, climate and radio controls. I don’t need anything more.
Don’t even get me started on all the assist features. I’m driving. I’ll handle the wheel, thanks.
I would never buy the subscriptions that most people buy (YouTube Premium, Netflix or similar). It's just too easy to pirate.
Only Fans cause that shit is free dude
Anything advertised on Instagram or Facebook by "influencers" like some cable tv tele-marathon my grandma would fall for.
Stocks and shares in any sort of oil and gas company, Google, Meta, Amazon, etc.
Shareholders are the worst, but I can't blame individuals for buying shares (including myself) where it's basically shooting yourself in the foot to not buy shares.
So who do you mean by shareholders? The ETF that I buy so I don't have to manually buy the whole market, or a pension fund? Funds are the only other thing I can think of that I'd describe that way.
Sorry I don't get what you mean. Of course you don't have to invest into the hole market when you buy a share.
I mean, it's recommended to. Diversification, right?
But that's besides the point. I'm just not sure what you mean by shareholders here. They really come in those two types: individuals, and funds that issue their own shares which you can then buy. If you're fine with individuals holding shares, I don't really see why you'd have a problem with the funds.
I didn't explain it very clearly, I dislike the idea of shares because it results in a board of directers that all have different and contradictory goals to do with the company so the only thing they can agree on in the end is making money regardless of the ethical consequences.
Although since it's one of the best ways to invest the money you have I don't blame individuals for buying them.
Ah, I see. Never mind.
I get the stocks one totally, I try and boycott companies/countries/policies I don't like by investing my money in certain ways, but stocks generally are necessary to stop you from losing money to inflation
Would you be okay with providing more details? I'm just invested in VGRO and XBAL, so not very ethical. Your thing sounds worth looking into.
np thanks!
Index and Mutual funds. Fidelity is largely free when it comes to investing in managed accounts. Vanguard if you're fancy and can afford the fees.
Fully automated coffee machines. I love coffee but these things suck, coffee tastes weak and they often break. They even mold inside.
Making coffee like a barista is infinitely more satisfying. A combined coffee machine: grinder and pressured hot water is bound to be cheaper than a fully automated one. You can push the grains down yourself, and make the coffee as strong or weak as you like.
The best pourover kits in existence cost like $25 USD max too. There's no reason to not learn how to do it right.
You will still need a good grinder for your beans and those things are expensive. Assuming you don't want plastic bits in your grind.
I use an Aergrind by Knock ($150ish). It’s been fantastic for my Flair as well as pour overs. It is a manual grinder, but I don’t have the money to not do manual.
True. I have a decent hand-one for $50, but they can get pretty expensive.
Yeah. I have a somewhat cheap one at around $300, but if you don't wanna buy, try looking for local roasteries. They usually offer preground options. Even some coffee shops will grind it for you if you ask nicely. Their grinders are usually much fancier than whatever any enthusiast will buy anyway.
I have that option, but... supposedly... preground coffee is just not the same.
Use it within a week or so, and it's very close. Hell, I'd say even two weeks is fine; but it may depend on your method of brewing, and sensitivity of palate. You can even freeze part of the grounds to keep them fresh for longer. James Hoffmann did a nice video about it.
If you really want to grind yourself, you can get really nice hand grinders for around $150 from 1Zpresso. If you're on a tighter budget, Timemore C3 is a good cheaper optiosn, that's good enough for anything that's not espresso, or turkish coffee.
Nice. Might try the freezing part. I've just been using a moka pot, nothing fancy.
I've edited my comment with some more recommendations. Mokapots are very forgiving, so you'll be fine with preground coffee. If you get a decent hand grinder, I'll bet money that you can't tell the difference between that and any fancy grinder, Mokapots are just that forgiving.
I have one that just sits on top of my coffee cup.
Love my aeropress.
The pour over press is the best coffee flavor I've ever had. And so inconvenient.
Nestle and Goya products
Lottery tickets
New phones
Anything from Temu or Shein
I try to avoid the keyboard mash sellers on Amazon but for some products it's pretty much impossible to find anything else.
Do you buy used phones? How do you deal with the battery? Used phones generally have old batteries, no?
I just buy a cheap/budget (mid?) phone, 200 EUR max, every 5 years or so..
You can get phone batteries from Aliexpress for very cheap. They are typically not too difficult to replace (as long as the back panel is not glass). Give it a go!
My phone is a Galaxy S9+ from 2018 that I bought used in 2020 for about $200. The battery life is diminished but it lasts through the day.
I will likely need to buy another refurbished phone soon though, as support for this device is getting cut from my banking app. I try to buy them at $300 or lower.
I like to get some scratchies every now and then - it's one of the major funding sources for museums and sports in the UK, so I see it as a little donation with a dopamine hit rather than an attempt at winning big!
Oddly enough the keyboard mash sellers can be great value depending on the item you're ordering. Basically any kind of components or anything that would realistically be purchased by another factory in China has a pretty decent chance of being good enough quality. Hand tools or individual components for making stuff for example are pretty safe bets
Television. It's like paying to see ads.
Hand soap. Dish soap works better and you can use it on dishes in addition to your hands.
A dining table. I eat at my desk or standing at a counter. I was pressured into buying one by family because it was apparently bizarre to them I did not have one. Got the cheapest one I could find to appease them. I have now owned it for 4 years and it has never been used once, it just takes up space.
Just wanted to add that dish soap is actually very strong and removes all the natrual oils from your skin. If you are prone to sensitive skin it's a bad habit to regularly use dish soap as it can aggrivate it. Every now and then isn't going to hurt though.
I’ve had glasses for a long time and interestingly they clean better with hand soap. Many have suggested to use dish soap but it seems to be less effective. I’d imagine most of the stains come from being in contact with skin so I’m a bit surprised.
True enough. I haven't had any problems in using it myself but I supposed you could ratio it with some water or something to make it not as intense for hands.
It's a lot cheaper than hand soap too so in doing this you could probably get a tonne of hand washes out of it for really cheap.
The primary downside to it for me is that it lasts ages and I get kind of tired of the smell.
I couldn't live without a dining table. Where else would I keep car parts when they come out of the dishwasher?
I was always told it would fuck up your hands. Does it?
It makes mine dry as fuck, but you can always moisturize with lotion after
I'd rather buy handsoap for a few cents than moisturize my hands every time.
Not in my experience. I guess it might depend on the brand or affect individuals differently, but I've been using grocery store off-brand dish soap for this for like 10 years and never had a problem.
Soap and detergent are different things. A bar of soap is way cheaper than dishwashing liquid.
Yes but I think there is a miscommunication here.
I'm not talking about detergent/dishwashing liquid - I'm talking about liquid dish soap which I can purchase locally for about $3 to the litre and is a different thing.
Detergent/dishwashing liquid is definitely much more expensive and probably would not be great for washing hands.
Bar soap is definitely still cheaper though overall, you are correct.
Not enough people watching Technology Connections in this comment chain...
Shame
Ah I seem to recall a video he did about dishwashers and why the pods are bad etc. I think he may have briefly touched on making your own detergent using bar soap and borax as well as the manufacturer recommendation to put some detergent in the bottom in addition to behind the spring loaded door.
He has a new video now with his new formula that's part of ecogeek. Once I'm in the position to have a dishwasher again, I'm be going that route.
Oh neat, I'll have to go watch the new one when I have a chance. I recall it working quite well and being absurdly cheap - I can't recall if he did a cost analysis. Maybe I'll watch the old one again and then the new one haha.
+. And the only couple of local channels I'd even consider watching can be viewed online for free anyway.
A dining table is good for when family comes over and you want to eat something together. Now I also use it to eat something with my wife, but before I rarely used it. It helped that it was a hand me down from my mother though, so I didn't have to pay anything.
Yea, in my case im not sure what the impression of me was. I am single and work full time and don't have the money or time to cook meals for 4 people let alone the dishes and stuff for that many.
Not if you have a media player... I dont watch anything with ads.
Yes, that's what I mean. I don't pay for TV because I just put all of my media on a Jellyfin server as I also don't want to watch ads, let alone pay to watch ads.
Expensive phones
Dryer sheets
Also not sure how to search within a thread on piefed app...
Buy dryer balls, they are reusable and last for as long as you don't lose them.
We got a four pack that became a 3 pack after the first day until my wife found the fourth one in the hood of a hoodie she hadn't worn in a while.
But why? Why is having static-y clothes a problem.
People like their clothes to feel good when they wear em. I know, it's weird.
I dont get it. Why would they feel bad normally?
Disposable electronics.
Alcohol, tobacco
I don't know if never.
But I don't want a smartwatch.
I've never carried a watch in general and I don't see the appeal of it when I carry a smartphone all day anyway.
Season passes for games.
Tickets to sports events. Yawn.
And concerts. I haven't seen a concert since the 90s. I'm lucky to have grown up in the era of cheap tickets.
In the 70s, I worked in a record store that sold tickets for the local outdoor summer venue. Lawn seats were $3, and it took 45 minutes to get there. If we worked the day shift in the summer, and got off at 5, and that nights show wasn't sold out yet, we could grab a $3 ticket, and be at the show before it started.
I was also a fan of the local orchestra, who played there every week, and never fully sold out. I went to a LOT of those shows.
Hadestown is coming to town, and I'd love to see it, but the cheapest seat in the last row, off to the side, is about $70, so they can go fuck themselves. Entertainment is for the rich. I'll just pirate the show, if there's a proshot of it. Besides, I love the original concept album much better than the Broadway version anyway. Hades is far better in the original.
Honestly even at the current going rates of $50-100 a ticket going to some good concerts is still a blast and still worth it. Also usually there's going to be at least one opener and depending on the show they might have 2-3 bands performing. Personally I'm happy if I get to do 1-3 big concerts a year, and that's really not that much to budget for even at $100/ticket, and some bands are freaking incredible to see live.
Also worth poking around to see if there's any free/cheap music events near you or comparing with the cost of tickets to a music festival if you really want to be cheap/picky. There's a couple of free music events I try to go to every year at nearish cities to me and it's literally free entry and they'll have a full lineup of bands for the full weekend. I've seen Bobaflex, Powerman5000, The Haunt, Black Stone Cherry, Taproot, Red Jumpsuit Apperatus, Fastball, Fozzy etc. all at these free music festivals
I used to work for a major record company, and part of my job had me handling backstage events at many concerts by many artists of every genre, so before my "retirement" from concerts, I had seen far more shows than the average person. Easily hundreds.
It wasn't unusual for m to see three concerts a night - a classical concert in the early evening at the concert hall (over by 9), race over to the arena for a big rock show (probably miss the opener, but catch the headliner), then off to a small club for the the second jazz show after midnight (which is always the hot set). I would do that three or four times a month, with plenty of other one-show nights between.
It was a cool job, but I got pretty burned out on shows for a while. In the 21st century, I've been more into Broadway shows, which are also quickly pricing out of range.
I've been following this cool little band called High Fade, and I saw their post announcing their tour, but I was too late. Tickets were only $15, but they had been to my city 2 weeks earlier, and I missed them. It would have been my first non-Broadway show in decades. I hope they come back soon, they're awesome.
I'm feeling like live music more lately, so I'm going to follow your suggestions, and start digging. If youre at a show, and see an old chubby guy rocking out next to you, say Hi.
In context that makes a ton of sense for why you don't want to go to concerts anymore! Burnout is a bitch! But there's something beautiful about once you're past the burnout and try the thing again, where it's been long enough it's like trying it again for the first time except with the knowledge of what to expect and how to best enjoy it already there.
Rock on and enjoy yourself! 🤘
My local B league hockey team does discount nights with cheap seats and cheap options for beer/soft drinks and snacks. My wife and I will get tickets, have a few drinks and snacks and spend a total of maybe a little over $20. Even on full price nights it's maybe $50 for the same.
Plus there's the fights that almost always break out. Or, as the saying goes, there was a fight and a hockey game broke out.
Anything apple
Apples are my favourite snack!
A few people are saying "streaming services", I go further and rarely-if-ever buy entertainment media. Music, videos, games, websites.
Not even pirating most of the time, there's a whole world of good Creative Commons music, FOSS games and actual creative communities (not just parasocial fan communities) for me to be entertained for lifetimes. It's just healthier to be outside the world of profit and addiction machines. (It amazes me that people can think 'influencer' is not a creepy ominous title)
Now that you point it out, it definitely is.
Restaurant fries and drinks.
Was on a really tight budget for a time, so I know I can feed myself for a few Euros a day. Going back to fast food restaurants at all still instils some guilt in me, but there is 1 that has unbelievably good prices and I can still appreciate the convenience at times.
But fries and drinks are just a scam with how big the profit margins are, and not even hard to prepare at home if you're ordering take out or have it delivered (I also don't pay for delivery, my bike is free).
I agree for the drinks. But I can't cook fries like my local burger place does. And it's cheap, like half a dollar (USD equivalent of my home currency) for 1 box of fries.
Have you tried brushing the tatos with oil before baking them?
I have tried a lot of things including pre-boiling, ice-baths, baking soda, and air-frying. In the end it just made me appreciate how good and easy restaurant fries are even more.
God restaurants have gotten so expensive, especially delivery. $15-$18 for a burger, another $4-$6 for fries, multiplied by two, plus delivery fees, taxes, and tip… easily $50+
Yeah and I just don't like fries that much anyway. If I get fast-food, I'm getting two value menu burgers, not one regular full meal.
By the same token, you can save a lot not ordering rice at places where that's the carb on the side, and making your own instead.
Anything that runs anything by Google
Expensive clothes or new clothes
I just wear no clothes like god intended.
Robot vacuum cleaner
Easily one of my favorite appliances, up there with dishwasher and washing machine. My floors are always insanely clean because that thing drives around every day.
Same. Mine vaccums, sweeps and mops. I refill the water tank once a week and replace the bag once a month. Everything is so clean.
It has eaten a few naughty things though. It are a USB cable, it dragged my laptop off a sofa, and it entangled itself in a plastic sheet that was draped over my coffee table and dragged some acrylic paints and a litre of wash water off onto itself. Made a big mess. I also changed its spoken language to Vietnamese for a laugh, then when I changed my wifi router, I had to learn how to follow instructions in Vietnamese to reconfigure it to the new SSID.
Is it sending a map of my house to the CCP? Probably. Is that useful information for them? Probably not.
What is this magic machine, and how much? Also, does it come with stupid firmware that can shut it down permanently?
Mine is the Roborock Q Revo. I paid about $1000 AUD for it. A regular decent bagless vac costs about $400.
Aren't you afraid it will mess up the piano?
Honestly one of the surprisingly good things I've gotten.
That said, I have one of the dumb ones. It doesn't map my house and upload it to the cloud.
The shit smearers.
The smart ones know how to avoid the shit now. I'm not testing that out tho lol.
You got a lot of shit just laying around on your floor?
LOL. I complained so much to support about removing dog shit from a vacuum they sent me another to shut up.
It is a very cheap model that randomly wanders around.
You can find these old / used / open box pretty cheap now.
I got a 2+ year old model that originally sold for like $1500 USD, for ~200.
yeah. We recieved one as a gift. It was ok for a while, but you had to keep the floor clear, and it was always getting stuck. Now with small kids. Forget about it.
Any paid subscription which doesn't either
a) Save me money, eg Amazon prime (although someone else in my family has Prime so if I need something from Amazon I just use their account) b) Do something I can't setup myself
And especially no subscriptions which give me the licenses to digital media, without hardware, eg xbox or netlfix
I agree. Amazon is probably the worst big tech company.
Especially when AWS goes down.
I've only bought printed local zines/papers as a form of donation to alternative media, the same material is published by them online for free anyway.
The maps are better in the print copy of National Geographic
NatGeo was the finest magazine on the planet for generations, then Fox got their hands on it and made it a religious rag, then sold it to some other company that managed to make it worse.
What an ignominious end to one of the greatest publications in the history of man, and that's no exaggeration.
If you can afford to pay for the content you consume it's generally better to pay for it, especially with regards to the porn industry which takes every scummy practice of traditional media and is 10x worse because it's not really happening in the open
For some hobbies printed magazines are still the Pinnacle of media related to the hobby, so as long as the media company behind the magazine hasn't changed hands and significantly degraded quality (looking at you Kalmbach publishing!) paying for a magazine so you get something fun to look at in the mail each month/quarter/whatever can be quite enjoyable
Mostly it's to do with boycotts. Like, it's not the end of the world if you don't play a video game. I'm generally quite loose with my money if it's not on any boycott list, since I can feel good about even pointless things if my money isn't going to something evil.
Onions. Can't stand 'em.
😢
Cook em?
I hate fresh onions, but grilled / sauteed / caramelized onions are fantastic!
Nope! I hate all forms of onion except powdered. I can occasionally stand them if they chopped very small.
It's a texture thing mostly.
sad ogre noises
Hair product. I use a bar of Irish Spring for everything.
I have done that in a pinch but disliked how it made my hair feel. For me, shampoo bars are a good compromise because the feel/smell nice but one bar lasts me like, a year.
Car. I hope I never have to buy a car. They suck.
Condoms. Get a surgery and have the little guy fixed. Can’t get anyone pregnant that way. Be careful who you sleep with. Make sure both people get tested before doing the deed. No need for the condom at that point.
Unless someone can provide another reason to get a condom. I’m happy to be corrected.
Not one for spontaneity, eh? 😄
"I've had a great night, what do you say we keep this night going?"
"Sure, swab yourself here, here, and here and spit in this tube, and in a couple days, if all goes well, I will be so down for that!"
I got a vasectomy when I was already in for other surgery, but condoms were a mild annoyance with a more than acceptable tradeoff. They're ready to go whenever, it's a no-go for some if you won't use one, and it's as much for my own protection as it is for the other person. I wouldn't necessarily expect someone to take my word on it that I got it done right off the bat either.
If you're out dating, I think it's just respectful to have them available. Different people have different comfort levels, so one should come prepared to accommodate.
The latex free ones aren't a bad idea either if you need to keep some on hand. My partner has an allergy so I couldn't use regular ones. They were more expensive, but I actually thought they were better, and it was still a low price to pay, considering what I got in return. She carried her own, but after we continued going out I wasn't going to make her keep paying for them every time.
If you are done having children or don't want any. Vasectomies aren't always reversible.
That is always good advice to give. I do appreciate you saying it. I have no interest in having kids though.
Yeah it's a great option for people who don't want children. I hear it isn't easy for childfree women though. They get refused a lot because "what if you change your mind?!"
Don't you have to wait 30+ days between tests to do the deed and avoid STDs?
They have pills now that will keep you "ready" for 30+ days
STDs.
Unplanned sex, new relationships, sometimes partners cheat.
You all should know that there's an easy way to make a condom feel much better: put a drop of lubricant (condom-safe, of course) inside the reservoir tip before putting the condom on. I've also heard that doing this makes it less likely to tear too, which makes sense.
Jarred tomato sauce. It’s one of the easiest things to make and every jarred sauce I have ever had tasted like shit
I buy the cheap store brand stuff and flavor at home. Spices, fresh garlic, a little sauteed onion.
I make my own marinara, but I used canned tomatoes and sauces for the ingredients. I'm not par boiling and peeling fucking tomatoes. I'm dumping a shitton of ingredients into the pot, mixing, and letting it simmer for an hour or so, mixing occasionally.
That's a lot of stuff but very to what I end up adding to the generic garlic/basil sauce I usually buy.
Definitely going to try adding Tapatio, cinnamon, and more paprika.
I started adding a can of chipotle in adobo as an alternative to a lot of other ingredients when I'm feeling a bit lazy. It's such a good flavor profile.
Smart home devices. IOT devices. Subscriptions to things I paid for at purchase (car stuff like upgraded performance or heated seats)
Holiday decorations. They are just plastic shit. Put a gun to my head, I would already know that every other weekend estate sale is going to have a whole room full of decor that is headed for a landfill. Some psychotics even buy new gimcrack every single year. They are evil, and they need to be stopped.
Funko Pops
Ebooks
Turn-based games
Why not turn based games?
I’ve just been burned too many times. There are so many great turn-based games, but they have never held my attention. 4x and ttgs are exceptions, I guess, although the last 4x I played was Civ V.
I’ve tried:
Yakuza Like a Dragon
Darkest Dungeon
Pokémon Videogames
Valkyria Chronicles
If I play another turn-based game, it will be Bauldur’s Gate 3. I’ve been on the fence about purchasing it since it came out.
BG3 is real time with turn based combat right?
I guess it would have been better to say turn based combat is what I dislike
I don't like real time because then I panic. Turn based is my kind of combat!
Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, Hulu, Netflix, Xbox, PlayStation, Disney+, HBO, Tesla vehicles, dating apps,
Ethanol, caffeine, mushroom, and cauliflower
At the same time?
Is this a recipe?
Why cauliflower???
When people are over my house I usually offer them an "adult beverage" but now I'm totally replacing that with "ethanol"
I could go the rest of my life without eating out of a can. Unthinkable sentence in college
Sports paraphernalia or memorabilia.
Onions. I fucking hate them like I hate MAGAs.
I've become an either gel or spray deodorant type of man anymore. If I have a stick of the more solid stuff from the local food bank, I'm not gonna be super picky or complain about that because it's free deodorant, but if I'm buying, gel or spray has become my new favorite.
I presume it's less prevalent because I usually see way more of the more solid stuff than the gel and have a harder time finding the spray, in store because I know I can easily find it online, but I'd rather get it at the store while I'm already getting other things as well.
Spray fucking sucks. Half of it stays in the air. Horrible for the environment, air quality. You will also inhale a good portion of it. Please, do not use those in shared spaces, such as gym lockers.. I have asthma and it immediately exacerbates it.
I would never use the spray stuff near others. I'm never in a situation where I spray it anywhere near people, only myself in my bedroom. Especially since my brother used to have asthma and I would never want to intentionally do something that could trigger it for others. Can relate to probably inhaling some and possibly getting a tiny bit in one eye.
It's also almost never I have the spray stuff, but if it's environmentally bad, I'll definitely have to switch to the gel.
Most people go to the supermarket and buy cruelty, torture, violence, atrocity, and slavery.
Digital media. It's too easy to pirate. There's no reason not to other than being a good boy. The only way I could see myself going legit is if they started to make really good public digital libraries and I could download anything I wanted from a single source with a library card of some kind. The exception to this would be online games but the ones I like to play happen to be free lol.
Wage slaves
Meat.