A bidet.
Japan has ruined toilets for me.
I can ruin toilets just fine myself, thank you.
Bidets are from Italy though.
They may have invented them but Japan perfected them.
Bidets are french, source
I was gonna ask how they got such a French name.
You better wash your ass- if you must!🎶
Or else you’ll be FUNKAYYY! 🎶
I’m too intimidated to try one despite staying in hotels round the world that usually have them. What if it goes wrong? How bad much shitty water do I and the bathroom end up covered in? How do you know if it’s clean? Doesn’t other peoples shitty water end up on the same appliance that you’re now using? Does that mean I end up with other peoples shitty water being jet streamed towards my anus? So many questions, so much doubt. Similarly for those handheld nosel things popular in the middle East and parts of Asia.
Italian here. Get a bidet, nobody died or took any infection from them. Your brain is over thinking it. Get a bidet. Thank me later. Go get a bidet.
I’m gonna use a bog roll like a caveman until the day I die
does stealing it count? because that would be a boxed copy of redhat linux from best buy in the late 90s/early 2000s. yes, i found a way to steal linux
A Kobo e-reader. I now read much more than before because of the convenience, and I also became a book pirate. It has paid itself multiple times on the money I’ve saved in physical books.
I found a picture of you.
Everywhere I go suggests Lemmy returned the pictures feature, but then I try it and it still won’t work. What’s going on here?
Not sure what issues you are having. I am using the Jerboa app on android.
Tested it again just now. It says “uploaded image is too large”. Tried it again with a picture that was one pixel by one pixel. Still I get the same warning.
It’s been like this for a month (due to Lemmy disabling the feature to combat people posting risque material). They did this by reducing the maximum image size to zero.
Your instance probably has a very low upload size limit
Edit: lemm.ee has a limit of like 100kb.
The picture I tested it with was 49kb. I just tested it again to make sure, it still doesn’t work.
I know it plays a role though, and it kinda sucks too, Lemmy told me specifically to sign up for this instance because when I was making this account, the other instances were becoming overbooked with people trying to sign up and it was causing too much server stress. And it’s not like I can just transfer everything to a new account.
Can just use an external image host in the meantime.
That will be available in the next version of lemmy IIRC.
Is it something specific about a Kobo e-reader that is amazing or would any e-reader have turned you into an avid bookworm you think?
I have a Kobo and my wife has a Kindle - I like the Kobo way better, primarily because the Kindle is trying to sell me stuff all the time.
That’s why you never connect the kindle to the internet and simply upload copies of the books into it
I prefer the Kindle because it’s so easy and cheap to buy books I don’t need to bother pirating.
It’s just as easy on Kobo and it has a price match guarantee.
Does it have the same selection as Amazon?
Most of it. 99% of the stuff they don’t share is generally stuff you don’t want to read. With that said there are a few Amazon exclusive series’ like the “Cradle” series.
It’s likely because kobo’s can be flashed with a custom OS https://inkbox.ddns.net/, which can sync with https://calibre-ebook.com/
I am using Calibre to fill my Kindle
I’ve just been downloading books from Anna’s Archive and throwing the azw3 files on my kindle.
How easy is Calibre?
Very once you figure out the few steps to do conversions. But if you are simply adding an azw3 file, it’s 2 clicks
My unmodified kobo syncs with calibre.
Have a very old nook (with light!) Got it mainly because it handles epub, but getting books from my server to it is a pain. Can kobo connect to my calibre server and grab books automatically? Or does it need plugging in to sync up?
I have a kobo as well and I I did a lot of research before selecting it. Imho it’s the best on the market for my personal needs and that definitely changed how often I use it vs an alternative. Some of the things I like about it are direct integration with the library and the ability to do audiobooks. I also like that it is only an ereader and I can’t play games or surf the web on it. I think knowing what’s gonna help you as an individual is the most important thing. If you’re more likely to take a fully fledged tablet with you somewhere because of the versatility, and would otherwise leave a plain ereader at home, then a tablet is better because if you decide to read at least you have it with you. Like a lot of tech, I think it really depends on the user.
A dog.
Have had a dog most of my life. Hard to imagine living without one. They’re better than people, fantastic companions, and the entire relationship is based on each other trying to make each other happy.
How do you deal with losing them? It’s as hard as losing a loved one imo
It’s very hard. I cry for days and drink a lot. It is a huge piece of life suddenly gone. But, like my last dog, I see all the things we did, so many adventures, and how many people are upset—even strangers at my climbing gym reached out because they knew him but not me; someone even drew an amazing portrait of him for me and it’s on the wall. That made me realise how awesome a life he had and how many people loved him. A truly good boy that got a hell of a life.
I know I’ll be sad, but it passes and I’ll be very happy with what I did for my dog and what they did for me. Then I’ll get another dog and they’ll get an awesome life too.
True, it’s so hard to loose them. But it’s worth it. The pain and sadness goes away and all that’s left is good memories.
It’s been years since I lost my first dog and I still think about him. Sometimes the eyes are kinda wet but it always end up with some smile on my face.
take peace in knowing that i gave him a good life, and i got to share it beginning to end. it’s nice to know i could do that for him.
I lost my first dog last week. He was a great friend.
I love my airfryer and may upgrade it to a larger one. I’ve started making my own food again instead of eating fast food every day (depression sucks).
I almost bought an air fryer, but ended up with a convection toaster oven. Does everything an air fryer does and much more. I bought the Gourmia one from Costco and would buy it again in a heartbeat.
What’s the difference between an air fryer and a convection toaster oven. Everybody’s so excited for air fryers but AFAIK, both just blow air around.
Exactly! I read some air fryer reviews and one of the reviews said the best air fryer is a convection toaster oven, so I thought, “well it’s Costco and if I hate it I can return it and get an air fryer.” I use this for so many things and almost every day. Reheating food is generally better in this than the microwave oven too.
Convection toaster ovens have been around for a long time, but for the most part have been “toaster oven plus a little fan.” Air fryers showed up with an emphasis on I’M BLOWING ALLLLL THE HOT AIR!!! I’ll make frozen mini pizzas in my air fryer and have to stab the pepperoni with toothpicks or they end up God knows where lol.
I have both, but would be willing to just have the toaster oven version if it stepped up its blowing game. Until the day comes when one of the appliances craps out on me, I’ll use both.
What does your convection toaster oven do that the air fryer doesn’t?
I can fit a baking dish in it so I can use it for many of the things I might want to bake in my oven (lasagna, casserole, small batch of cookies/muffins) but don’t want to heat the entire oven for. It fits a standard frozen pizza, I’ve occasionally baked bread or rolls in it. One of my most frequent uses would be the broiler setting where I just want to quickly brown the top or melt cheese onto something.
One of the drawbacks of my current air fryer is that the fan blows so hard I have to make sure that what I put in there is heavy and secure enough not to get blown around. My son was heating something and put a piece of cheese on it to melt. The cheese was definitely NOT where it was supposed to be when it melted.
I’ve only had non-convection toaster ovens and the one thing they did better than my air frier is toast. My air frier tends to dry out the toast by the time it’s properly browned. However I’ve never had a problem with it blowing food around.
What are some food recipes you recommend?!
Any subs you posted on or learned from that you would advise others to follow, curious.
Thank you!
Not OP, but we make roasted carrots with garlic, Italian spices, and parm cheese sprinkled on top.
Be sure to use avocado oil instead of olive.
They’re fucking delicious.
Edit: 325 for about 18-20 minutes. Just check for tenderness that you prefer.
Awesome!
Always great when we come together as a people to share recipes!
I bought a Philips device and installed the companion app (Kitchen+). It has a decent selection of recipes that you can filter by appliance and other stuff. You can add your own recipes too.
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Great!
Do you like soaking potatoes to remove starch or you go without?
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Game changer. We love ours.
We have two different Ninja air fryers. One that’s the bin/grill style and the flip version that can be used as a toaster oven as well.
They get used in one form or another almost daily.
Glasses.
Now I’m addicted.
As in lenses for your face, or drinkware?
Either way, yes.
Just any kind of glass.
Microscope slides, dildos, windows, bongs, pyrex
I went through a glasses addiction myself as well lol. I found an eye-care clinic where they would cut the lenses and have them ready within 3 hours.
I would go to garage sales, thrift stores, and swap meets to find glasses to put lenses on. They were like $60 for the lenses and I never spent more than $10 on frames.
I ended up with 3 seeing glasses and 4 sun glasses before I realized it was going to be unsustainable to get new lenses for my new prescription every year.
Addicted is a good way to put it. I suffer withdrawal symptoms like dizziness and nausea when I go more than a few waking minutes without my glasses.
Just say no to glasses kids, or you’ll end up like this guy.
I put on glasses once as a kid, now i’m glasses for life!
I got hooked in my mid 20s, and it’s like I can’t imagine how lived without them
Bidet. Amazing for a North American, I know RoW has had them for eons. You are so clean that a couple of squares of tp to dry off and you are golden. No more endless wiping.
Noise cancelling earphones.
Oh man. Just not having to listen to my dishwasher, clothes machines or vacuum cleaner run their mouths while they’re in service is live improvening.
Bicycle. No gas expenses, no tabs, no loan, free parking. I understand how it works and can mostly fix it myself for very little money. I can take quiet side streets and arrive in a much better mood, plus my fat lazy ass gets some exercise.
It also transformed my feelings about winter, which is long, gray and mostly charmless here excepting the occasional blizzard, but commuting by bike warms me and gets me fresh air and exercise. It makes it much more tolerable. I actually enjoy my commute and look forward to it.
So many people I work with insist biking is unappealing or borderline impossible while complaining almost daily about their commute. Obviously for some people and some commutes it really is impossible, but I’m not talking about those situations.
That thing that transformed winter for me was skiing and winter hiking. Now that we’re getting into shoulder season I can’t wait to hit the trails/slopes!
It used to also be so for me, but every year I realise this is becoming a dying sport reserved for the extra wealthy.
Where do you live?
I wish there was infrastructure for them where I live, I hate driving and I like cycling
You’d be very surprised at the impact one person showing uo to every town hall to complain or even just frequent letters can make. I know that can be harder than it sounds, but it is super worth it.
I’ll add on and say upgrading to an ebike (and specifically a cargo ebike) really made the difference to me. One would think that it would reduce the exercise, but for me the fact that it allows me to use it in far far more situations meant that I actually get more exercise overall. I consider the faster acceleration to be a safety feature for when the bike lanes run out, and it makes red lights, heavy loads and steep hills less of a mood killer.
Absolutely life changing once you get one and go!
In the early 2000’s, I bought a 1986 Honda XL250R. Just an old dirt bike.
The motorcyckle shop was across the road from the pawn shop I was originally going to buy a gun from, for the express purpose of taking my own life, for reasons that made sense at the time.
Since I bought that bike, I’ve made friends, learned a lot of new skills, and I met the best person in existence, who I am now married to. I passed on a final exit, and ended up with a pretty great life.
Smart vacuum cleaner. You pay once for not needing to vacuum your house anymore - best deal ever.
I had a very different experience with mine. I bought a middle range one, not the cheap one, with very good reviews at the time. I absolutely cannot trust it. It’s always getting stuck, getting lost and not able to go back to charging station, or say that it’s “finished” and leav obvious spot of dusts.
My living room is indeed a bit cluttered as it’s not that big, but there is still enough space for it to move…
My experience is very similar to this. Sometimes it can go a full week or two with no interaction, but mostly it needs a bit of prodding and helping
I’m always having trouble with mine, we still have it hooked up and we let it run when it decides it’s able, but we basically replaced it with a Sebo Felix
I have a thousand wires hidden under my couch, my rug, my chair, and anywhere else I can hide them. Chargers, home theater, other chargers, smart-ish devices, and whatever else that I don’t even want to go look at.
I’m terrified it’ll eat all my cables because that’s what my last one did.
You can just set that zone as of limits
Can I ask which one you use? I’ve heard such horror stories
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I got Xiaomi Mi vacuum cleaner 4 years ago.
I got one of those. Thing’s been a pain. Last time I let it run, it drove into the kitchen, did a small donut over a tiny spot immediately in front of the door, drove back out into the hallway, proudly announced that it had completed cleaning, started towards its charging station, made 2 attempts to park, missed both times, announced that its path was blocked, and just stopped. I absolutely do not trust that thing to be able to do anything unsupervised, at which point why even have a robot vacuum? I don’t use it very often anymore.
If it’s so smart, why does it clean for you?
I passed an Intelligence check and outsmarted it.
Looks like a great thing to have indeed. I’m a bit too worried about the personal data harvesting.
You can always just not connect it to the internet. Always an option.
Don’t you need an app to operate it ?
I operate my Xiaomi Roborock S5 entirely by the buttons on the device, no internet required.
The app can allegedly give you access to more functionality, but I don’t really need that.
I absolutely love my Dreame L10 Pro.
I also installed Valetudo Cloud on it to self host.
First place, aSmartwatch.
I all but stopped checking every fcking notification, my life has become peacefull and tranquil.
Second place, my 4yo daughter. Achieved the exact opposite.
A house. My mortgage is cheaper than rent, and now I get to actually address annoyances with my living conditions.
It’s almost 100 years old, and a bit of an fixer upper, but the important stuff is solid. Last summer I invested in proper drainage around the foundation so that I can start making the basement livable. This year I invested in a proper bathroom. Next year it’s a new kitchen. And if time allows I’ll start rebuilding the basement mainly for one extra bed room and an office.
God I wish my mortgage was cheaper than rent lol.
Hold onto it long enough and it will be eventually. Home ownership is the only real cheat code we have against inflation.
Oh yea 💯
It’s just gonna take a while. My PITI is 3350/month.
Depends on market. In Vancouver existing rentals are controlled until you move, the house sells, or you are reno-evicted. This involves evicting the tenant to “fix up the suite” and then renting it out at a much higher rate.
There is also the move to evict for a " family member" to move in but often this is abused to get low paying tenants out.
New mortgages are much more than existing rent here. As much as renters go through credit checks, I think landlords should too as you don’t want to rent a place where they can’t afford the interest rate increases. Often they cheap out on repairs and usually sees the place being sold or one of the above abuses of the evictions to get a higher paying tenant in.
The market is really tight in places like Vancouver and Toronto. The interest rate hikes will eventually catch up to most renters as properties are moved/sold.
This is a good one. I finally teamed up with family to invest in a house last year. I’ve found a lot of issues that I’ve since fixed, especially with the electrical. There’s still a lot to fix, but I’m elated that I can actually take action to fix stuff.
While renting, my hands were severely tied. The only benefit with renting was that if anything was literally broken, it would be fixed by the landlord, free to me. “Fixed” is subjective, usually done as cheaply as possible, which is often making things less convenient.
Now I can have things fixed correctly, making things more convenient overall for me and my family.
Long term, we’re planning on renovating and adding another kitchen and bathroom, possibly another entrance and I’m considering splitting the HVAC for one portion of the place and almost splitting it into two independent homes that are conjoined.
Same, cut my monthly housing cost by almost $1000 two years ago. So many good things have happened as a result as well, because it was a move between regions and opened up alternative employment options not previously available. As a result I also doubled my income.
My mortgage is cheaper than Rest
That doesn’t make any sense. Unless the market at your country is completly broken, that simply does not happen.
Often rent covers the owner’s mortgage plus their benefit, so yes, it’s easy for your mortgage to be cheaper than rent.
Mortgage cheaper than rent here - just outside of Washington DC. (Only true when comparing like for like living spaces, same bedrooms, square feet, etc)
Synology NAS (basically a hard drive always connected to the home network and internet) - has been amazing for auto-backing-up photos from the family phones and for running Plex run my own personal streaming service for the whole family around the world. Has been great for file transfer too. I can easily move files between my phone, PC, Steam Deck, etc and all the USB memory sticks I had have been sitting in a drawer ever since.
Exercise compression thermals - wear these is super comfortable and really warm. I wear them constantly at home and can have the heating off almost all winter (UK). Saves tons of energy and money.
Electric blanket - another great low energy purchase for relaxing under when watching TV or warming up the bed before sleeping. Gets super hot while hardly using any energy at all.
Split unit air con installation - this was expensive and I thought it would be unnecessary in the UK, but it seems to be used more and more every summer as we get more heatwaves and summers are becoming unbearable.
Safety razors - I have really thick facial hair and the multi-blade razors from big name brands would dull really quickly and cause tons of shaving rash. These razors are sharper, last longer, are recyclable and much better for my skin.
Liquid ink refillable rollerball pens - I tried fountain pens after seeing the online communities that are crazy about them, and really didn’t like them. I found rollerball pens I like that take fountain pen ink and have been super happy with them. I write a lot at work and this has gotten rid of the plastic waste of throwing away used disposable ballpoint refills every couple of weeks.
Hitbox controller - I’ve been playing Street Fighter 6 since release and I made a leverless controller box myself and I’ve loved using it to play SF6. Managed to make it for one third the price of what these things sell for and completely customised it.
A dishwasher… For a family, it saves a huge amount of time and water.
