This isn’t hyped by normal people I guess but when I was looking for a better pillow, these custom-sized memory foam pillows seemed like a crazy overhype and a grab for money by physiotherapists. $200 and a year later, still the best purchase I have made for my bed.
Also, peanut butter. I hated peanut butter growing up and never understood how people are so obsessed with it. Man did I miss out for years, that shit is so good and so versatile.
Pro tip: crush roasted unsalted peanuts and have real peanut butter. You have no idea what you’re missing. The peanut butter sold in most places is hydraulically fractured, then the peanut oil is reserved and replaced with inferior soybean. Crushed (not fractured) peanut butter does not separate, and it is breathtakingly versatile in cooking!
This is commonly available most places afaik, just 100% peanut.
Yeah but it’s fractured
(I should clarify, not only does fracturing the peanut meal force the oil out, it kind of “cooks” the proteins and transforms them, which is why it continues to separate no matter how much you stir. And then it just doesn’t taste as good. I know I sound like a peanut evangelist, but it’s a different experience when you try fresh crushed)
crush roasted peanuts
fracturing “cooks” the proteins
Sounds like a lot of effort for something that might not make any difference? Only way to find out is to try I guess, but I’m too lazy :) enjoy your superior peanut butter, I think I’m good with the industrial stuff from the supermarket 👍🏻
And if you want a sweetener, use honey.
How do you crush the peanuts? What tools do you use?
You can actually buy a peanut crushing machine! I don’t have one, and I can’t honestly see that anyone would want to go through the botheration of cleaning and maintaining but hey to each their own!
For me there’s a bulk food center that sells stuff out of bins by weight, and they provide the crushers for a minor extra charge, I believe it’s 11 cents extra per 100g
Every once in awhile I run out of peanut butter, but because I actually always have roasted unsalted peanuts, if I need to I can just bust them up or smosh them in my cast iron mortar and pestle
You can just bash some on a cutting board with a hard heavy thing… The little smashed up nuggets are amazing on different things like rice noodles, as a topping for curries, some salads
One of my favorite uses for peanut butter, and you only need like a tablespoon, is mix it in with a little bit of beef broth out of a box, mix in the peanut butter, some Thai chilies or whatever heat you like, spices to taste, and then you can parboil some potatoes and finish them in that sauce and it’s like this crazy… like dude just try it
I love peanuts so much!
Edit: I forgot to mention I was eating peanuts while typing this comment
Ha ha thanks! I love peanuts too but seems like I won’t be able to make my own peanut better anytime soon :)
I know I’m alone in this, but I loved and still love VR since htc vive
Maybe I’m missing years of video game discourse but I don’t know what you’re talking about being alone on this hill. I’ve been using VR since the Google Cardboard and as long as you temper your expectations it’s been plenty fine since even all the way back then. The experiences on the Vive and Index are a bit clunky but otherwise I have fun with them every time I use them.
I only have a Quest 2 and I still love it. I think we won’t see mass adoption until it’s slimmed down to just glasses.
I don’t think it can ever be that thin. There’s too many constraints: needs to block other light, needs to be at a comfortable focal distance, needs power and a processor, not to mention the input and audio components…
Augmented reality glasses, yeah I can see that.
There are dozens of us! Dozens!!
I really hope Bigscreen manage to bring the cost down of their small headset because an affordable and comfy one might renew interest. It’s still very much an underexplored medium!
Believing in God.
Interesting answer. It was the opposite for me. No worries though, you do you.
Religion and God are two different things. And thank you, lol. 👍
Username checks out
Which one?
🙄
that’s not very argumentative of you!
Coffee. My dad was in the navy in the 70s and you could tell by the tar he drank. Never got into it. Early 20s I got hired as a delivery boy for a coffee shop. A perk was that it came with free coffee drinks. Turns out I didn’t hate coffee, I hated the swill my father brewed. Good coffee was quite good.
The Persona series has even brought up the idea you’d praise coffee more for its mature flavor than just to wake up. In some places, they drink it at any time of day.
I drink a lot of decaf because I like the flavor. Regular coffee being caffeinated is a nice perk (pun intended) for when I need to wake up.
I’m not sure where you’re from, but here in the UK almost everybody drinks instant coffee and that’s how I feel about it. It’s horrible, and the only reason people seem to think they like it is because they fill it with milk and sugar.
The US. In my dad’s time it was percolator brewed (the literal worst way to brew) or with low grade, super roasted. I drink medium roast or lighter and drip brew or pour over. Vast vast difference.
I had a very similar experience when it came to beer.
The first Marvel Avengers movie. Skipped it in theaters because it sounded too much like fans being super happy they got their team up movie. So many similar movies had been hyped up over the years, and the description was similar.
Nope, it really was that good even with a sky beam and an enemy army that all died when the central ship was destroyed. The pacing, interteam conflicts, and clever use of Loki were all done extremely well and the movie holds up.
I rewatched it a while ago and it’s fascinating how it feels like a small-scale little team-up nowadays. Back then I was amazed how they managed to make a movie with so many heroes work while giving them all their moments.
I didn’t see any of the hype for the Barbie movie (apparently they painted streets in London pink?), but I just went in and saw it. Awesome film
Also: A laser tape measure. I always heard about people ranting about them, and often thought “I get it I get it you’re a child who likes shiny things”, but I finally got one and it is one of my most prized possessions. I can now find out the distance to things like THAT.
Didn’t live up the hype: I caved in and got a mechanical keyboard. A nice one. Keychron something such. I now have a heavy clackety-clack keyboard. That’s it. The usual plastic 15 quid keyboards I get are only every so slightly less good. Don’t buy into this fad. It’s for ASMR fanatics and their heavy wallets
I agree and disagree with you. agree that it’s overhyped by fanatics of the hobby. I disagree because I got it for not dealing with rubber membrane keyboards. those truly suck dirt.
problem with getting in mkb now is the choice overload. it was a lot easier for me back 10 years ago. I’m not claiming it was better back then, objectively now is better because there’s more choice for your own needs and wants.
What do you use your keyboard/computer for and for how long if you don’t mind my asking?
I’m at my machine 12+ hours a day, coding, data analysis, grant writing, etc.
I might play some online games too
I rather like how my mechanical keyboard feels, but it’s just a Logitech. I never fell down the rabbit hole that some people do with them.
I bought a mechanical keyboard back when this whole mechanical keyboard fad was in its infancy back in the mid-2000’s. Honestly, the main reason I bought it was because I thought the key backlighting was cool. It’s a nice keyboard, but I find a decent membrane keyboard (such as what I have at work) to work just as well for a fraction of the cost.
I suppose I can’t complain about the durability though, as it’s lasted nearly 20 years now.
Not too long ago I checked out the current state of what is out there, and it’s just nuts with all the choices. Not to mention all the fanatics that seem to like to build dozens of keyboards.
Interestingly, despite all the heavy customization of things like switches and keycaps, there seems to be very little ability to customize the layout. Many of the various compact keyboards out there make some interesting design choices (IMHO) about what keys they leave off, and where they distribute the keys that they decide to still include. I wouldn’t mind taking a short at creating my own compact layout, but that doesn’t seem to be what the hobby is about.
Mechanical keyboards are like guitars, you can play the same notes on a cheap one as you can on something custom made for you for thousands. Do they sound very different? Almost always, although the guitar needs someone who can actually play well, unlike the mechanical keyboard.
However, if you really really care and you really really know what you want out of either you can tweak absolutely everything about both. You want ultra soft silent keyboard? Sure. You want the most clickty keyboard with tons of pressure? Sure. You want something thocky but still has lots of flex? Sure.
Counterpoint on the mechanical keyboard. I type heavily (as in, I hit the keys hard) and my joints are terrible. After a day typing on a shitty membrane keyboard my hands will be aching. A mech lets me find the right switch/dampener combo so that doesn’t happen
Wait, how well you like a mechanical keyboard generally mainly hinges on what kind of mechanical switches you get, and there are like over a dozen varieties of switches with very different characteristics. Did you sample a variety of at least the most popular switches and pick your favorite?
Yep, went with banana - purely for the clackety clack. I am a child
Got it, no worries, I was just curious.
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I had double-press issues a lot which were maddening, but I uodated the firmware and it went away
High quality audio equipment.
Yes, it’s an area filled with more snake-oil and bullshit than any other technical realm I’ve experienced, but with some knowledge (unarguably required on the part of the user) you can actually figure stuff out and get some ROCKING audio gear for pennies on the dollar.
Last year I got into electronic fix/build/mashup as a hobby, and a project I had in mind for fun was to turn a $10 Sirius Boombox that needed 8xD batteries and a wired AUX input, into a wireless BT boombox. I did it and it was fun as hellllllll. But it was not for the audio, it was for the learning. I repurposed battery cells and a charging board from a Shark handheld vacuum, and grabbed a BT board out of a scrapped shower speaker - made that work by “bolting it” onto a disposable vape battery/charger which draws from the main battery pak.
Well anyways… getting a taste of that deep, rich, penetrating audio made me realize I’d been sold THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LIE by the speaker business. That moment of looking at my Bose SoundLink and realizing I’ve been a fool for so long. The stupid Sirius boombox isn’t even that good now that I look back, but at the moment it was a HOLY SHIT moment for me. Running up to it thinking my music was distorting… but NO… it was actually musical details I’d never heard, and didn’t know existed.
Now I have a soul-destroying audio setup (for a small 1BR apartment) that I shit you not, cost me a total of $23. RXV581 Receiver, YST-SW011 Subwoofer and two Polk MXT11 Monitor tower speakers. People either discarded, sold, or donated. I got the Yamaha Receiver/Sub set because… get this… ONE of the surround sound speakers was dropped and it’s case cracked, so they threw it ALL away. The Polks were seen at thrift, first for $70 each, then reduced to $34 after a month… then one day muthafukkaaaaaaa $10 each plus tax.\
So yeah. Good audio. I had NO idea how satisfying it could be. I didn’t know what I’d been missing.
I’ve been a frugal audiophile for my entire life. I learned long ago that you can find gear with excellent specs, without spending thousands.
These days, I’m mostly into guitars, and I’ve found the same thing to be true - there is no correlation between quality and price. I’ve seen great guitars that are dirt cheap, and I’ve seen expensive guitars that are mediocre. I put together an entire home studio, with 2 electrics, an acoustic, a bass, and a keyboard, a new computer, interface, mic, etc., all for less than $1500, and it all sounds amazing.
You’ve done me proud, fellow frugal !
Same experience here with mid and high end audio collecting for both car and home.
What was that “holy crap I didn’t know what good audio was” moment for you?
50 dollar pair of Sennheiser over the ear (not cans) headphones absolutely blew my mind which lead to many a denon, electovoice, carver, klipsch, adcom, & cerwin-vega passing through my hands (i miss my “house” speakers (cobbled together and refoamed the woofers from 2 sets of 1970’s vintage D9’s and ran them with a 200 watt rms/ch electrovoice power amp as a bedroom dj for many a house party 😁🍻) not to say my current stereo cant thump, buuuuuttttt (i hear an old man in my head) “theres no replacement for displacement” way of thinking will probably lead to either a home theater sub or more car audio
Edit: and good taste in polk! I ran their 6.5 coaxials in the doors of my car with an Alpine 9855, kenwood power amp giving them around 80-100 watts and 24db/octave high and low pass filters (i cant recall the center freq of those crossovers but i think i rolled the lows off around 1500 hz and the highs around 4000-4500 hz)
Cool! 200 Watt RMS/ch yoooooooo
My 2nd experience, which happened to be headphones as well - a wired set of B&W I got for $2 because the cable frayed.
I’m on board with you there about the “displacement” idea. With engines technology can help, but with audio all the wave guides, custom boxes and tomfoolery in the world can’t get around physics. Bigger = better.
edit: re your edit. A big part of how I do … things… is to be patient and let them come into my life. Having been able to pick up so much crazy gear for pennies means I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I paid retail or even used prices. When the “bug” was first starting to bite me I decided to buy a used sub for $100 which was still a deal. I nearly cried when I saw the exact sub at thrift for $9. But hey, sold the one I bought and moved on so no issue. But yeah… I don’t have the money to buy everything I’d like but I’m becoming aware of what’s good and what’s not, and I enjoy the “saving” or “free” aspect very much. Plus I get to keep the constant upgrade cycle going and make a bit of side cash too.
Gonna go for some controversial ones.
AI (generative), around chatgpt 2 i was hearing a ton of hype and I thought no way this ever gets good enough to be useful. Now today I can say yeah its there, in my opinion its the best way to search for answers. Google got popular because people could search with human style in puts like “how long do I cook rice for” but now we have AI that eliminates the step of skimming through the results.
Crypto. The hype was that it would replace currency and while it hasnt done that it does actually provide a replacement for fiat currency. I can send a transaction to an internet friend and maintain all my privacy with no 3rd party being involved its great. Its stable enough to hold and its even been trending up over time. Pretty cool stuff, Monero is my preferred currency but I do use bitcoin for a ton of stuff.
It told me to put my hot tub temperature to 58C.
You, and your precious chatgpt are idiots.
You have to exercise some common sense and not just believe everything you read on the internet. I’m sorry that you burned yourself.
Testing that just now it recommends 37-40. So like I said, they’re improving rapidly and they will be the best way to search for information.
Your clown college phoned and said you’re out - too silly
Again, im sorry that you burned yourself after uncritically following instructions from a chatbot. Just like with search engines you cannot take the results as gospel.
Sometimes I use chatgpt for questions when I don’t want to sift through garbage but I detest doing this. This only points out that search engines have got so shit they have to use other shit to get me decent results.
For crypto, mostly it’s cryptobros tryna make a quick buck with only some people using Monero on the dark web. I do hope one day we can use Monero to purchase things though.
Yes there are cryptobros speculating on the currency but it doesnt change much IMO. You dont have to wait to buy things with crypto its already there in a lot of places.
Enlighten me with these “a lot of places” where I can use Monero
Not just monero but crypto. Any darkweb market place, most privacy services, a ton of small online sellers accept it as payment for goods. You can buy cards, houses coffees with crypto now. Its not wide spread enough to not have a bank account but you can make a decent amount of payments with it these days especially online.
in my opinion its the best way to search for answers.
I’m seriously concerned for when someone comes in contact with you and asks for your source when you’re discussing something
I can send a transaction to an internet friend and maintain all my privacy with no 3rd party being involved
unless you run your own self-hosted blockchain then a third party is always involved, that’s kind of the entire point of blockchains
I’m seriously concerned for when someone comes in contact with you and asks for your source when you’re discussing something
How often does someone ask for a source? I dont know any redditors IRL. At the moment AI is great for quickly finding the answers to common questions. In a few years it will likely be a realiable source for almost all questions.
Also AI does list sources now. So if I ask then it can find the answer and link where that answer came from. If I really needed to double check its work.
For blockchain stuff I shouldnt have said involved I should have said control. A 3rd party is involved in the transactions but no 3rd party controls it.
When I moved to Wisconsin back in 2006, House on the Rock was one of the first things I heard about from my neighbors to go see. My wife and I looked at the website and said “we’ll go see it someday.” Well, that day was about a month ago as back then we started having kids and getting used to living in a new place. However, over the past 19 years I’ve had people tell me that “you’ve got to go see it.”
Now… I understand.
Is that place a monument to a man’s ascent to brilliance?
Or his decent into madness.
There was stuff in that museum that I took DAYS to process and I still really am unable to understand what it was I was looking at. It took my family and I FOUR hours to walk through it. It could have been a LOT longer if we actually stopped to study more than what we did.
I’m 55 years old and I’ve seen and done a lot things in my life… None of it prepared me for the sheer onslaught that is House on the Rock. Walking out of it I told my wife that I rather chaffed at the entrance fee when I paid it… Now, I’m not sure if they charged enough.
If you’re ever anywhere close to South Central Wisconsin… Take a day and go see it.
It doesn’t just live up to the hype… It so far exceeds it that trying to explain the place will never do it justice.
I just did a search on this place to pull up some pictures. It looks crazy (in a good way).
Wow. I have never wanted to take my husband someplace, with no explanation beforehand, more.
It’s so cool to see this pop up here–i went there with my wife several years ago and we were absolutely stunned by it’s magnificence and sheer scale. I plan on going back someday and spending an entire day there knowing what we’re in store for. I had been given a recommendation to check it out by a local who ran a log cabin lodge that was about 1/2 hour or so from the House. That place really blew me away, glad to know other folks are out there appreciating it too!
That carousel was insane, not to mention the amount of animated instruments and nickelodeons scattered about… The living quarters were so cool, if a little impractical. You could have the coolest parties ever in that place…
- Game of Thrones, final season notwithstanding
- South Park. I was around when it first came out, and I avoided it for about a decade because everyone I knew who loved it was an annoying cunt.
- The Uncharted games, particularly #4
- Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt + DLCs
Things I was right to avoid and sorely wish I had continued avoiding:
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jesus fuck.
I was the same with South Park. So it’s just kids that swear a lot? No thanks.
Years later I caught an episode and was impressed. Then I went back and the first season is also good.
I’m trying to remind myself that there’s really no reason for me to be mean to you just for liking south park more than LOTR, so uhh… have a nice day
Air-fryer
bone-conducting headphones
PSX
Firefly
Inis
Innovation
So, I tried wearing earplugs with my Shokz. Disappointingly, the sound became very, very muffled. I don’t think that it’s true bone conduction, because if it was, then earplugs shouldn’t have had a significant impact on the sound. They’re still nice, just… Not as cool.
Firefly is solidly decent. It’s not great, it’s not terrible. It had real potential, and then got cancelled after 12 (?) episodes. Babylon 5 was arguably a better show overall, but I can see why Firefly still has a solid fandom 20 years later.
Interesting test. I just tried mine with my high fidelity ear plugs and it actually made it clearer when my music is at a lower volume. of course these aren’t meant to block out all sounds though.
With regular earplugs, its a little muffled, but I’m honestly quite impressed by how good it still sounds.
For sound reproduction, I prefer my wired Shure SE-315 with sound-isolating ear tips. But Shokz ar much more comfortable for all-day wear.
+1 on the air fryer.
+1 on Kaylee Frye
She lives up to the hype for sure.
bone-conducting headphones
Very curious to try. I bought some surprisingly cheap ones to see if it would be worth spending more on them, but the ones I received said nothing about bone conduction so the ad was a flat out lie.
Air-fryer
Yes
Firefly
Yes
If you turn them up to high volume, they distort, buzz, and tickle on your skin. So only quiet to mid volume. The sound quality is medium-high(I’m no audiophile). Being able to listen to media and be aware of surroundings is excellent. Previously achievable with in-earbuds, only by doing the one earpiece dangle. Sweat/water resistant. 8hr playtime. Pretty wild.
I forget that I’m wearing mine half the time, ppl think they are hearing aids…
And the convenience of having them just around your neck otherwise
Bought a pair for my kid too. Nice to be able to talk to him even if he listens to music
You know they make gobs of different “open ear” earbuds. It’s what I use most of the time. No bone conduction needed. The speaker is just positioned close to your ear hole. They also make glasses with em built in that way.
I did not know about open ear earbuds, thanks for the option.
Do they have audio spill for people around you?
Part of my use-case for bone conducting models, is playing music or podcasts with no spill, while others are sleeping or chatting closeby in the car/house.
There’s some amount of spill over from the kind built into glasses, but almost none on the kind that hook over and rest in your ear. They also make a kind that sort of clips onto your ear, but I haven’t tried that style.
Good to know. The clip ones looked straight out of a 90s tech movie.
I will say they are also excellent for high noise environments, but only with in-ear hearing protection in.
but the ones I received said nothing about bone conduction so the ad was a flat out lie
I did the same thing, it wasn’t a lie but the effect did not work properly because they did not fit properly. Not sure if more expensive ones have some better system for contact/positioning, but I don’t want the cost especially as I want to keep it wired.
I had the same bait and switch, but it’s how I learned I really like open ear headphones vs the actual bone conduction ones I bought after.
bone-conducting headphones
Do you have a specific recommendation? I’m interested in trying one
Not OP but I got Shokz OpenMove years ago, specifically because they use USB type-C to charge. . I use them daily at work and love them. Sound is good enough for me. I can hear music and stuff still going on at work. It’s like sounds being pumped into your brain with your ears still working.
Inis
Innovation
A man of culture.
Glad to see Innovation getting so much love after being on SUSD. It’s really a great game.
I’ve also enjoyed exploring Mottainai after everything in the rules finally clicked.
Honestly, the bent-spears-on-minis is the only issue across the two games. (c:
I love my Shockz #ad
Pretty much the only headset I’ve been using on the go for the last 3-4 years
Same, I got mine about 6 months ago and they are a huge game changer. Bought them originally to use while riding my escooter so I could still hear traffic, etc. I ride in about an hour each way to work. They’re incredible I can even still hear birds, but can hear my music totally clearly.
Bonus is that I can wear them at work all the time now and still hear when people are trying to get my attention, and I’m not constantly removing them and losing them like I would with my earbuds.
I also love the sound quality, which you’d expect would be awful, but it just sounds like there’s music playing in the room you’re in. Sometimes I forget that the music is just in my ears. Cannot recommend enough honestly.
High quality kitchen knives. I’m partial to hand-forged Japanese carbon steel. So sharp. Maintains an edge. Easy to sharpen. Being beautiful is just an added bonus.
Dexter Russell carbon steel knives. Some of the patterns are 200 years old. Cheap compared to the high end stuff but they’re easy to keep screaming sharp and work great.
Stainless knives are good for pocket knives that are exposed to sweat, work knives that are in corrosive environments, serrated steak knives that go in the dishwasher. Anything else, pretty much, carbon is king.
Or on the cheaper side, ceramic knives. I’ve got one a decade old now and it still has its original edge, though it did lose a chip.
Edit: Just make sure it’s actually ceramic and not one of those scam normal cheap knife with white coating/paint.
Induction range top. Quick on, fine degree of control, quick off, little heat radiation. Better than gas. Only adaptation was flat bottom wok which
makes the working world go roundis not quite the same experience.Keeping it clean with minimal effort compared to a gas range was unexpectedly my favorite part
I find it even easier than a glass top electric (what the induction replaced) I think it is because only the area directly below the pan is heated, spills are easier to wipe up and don’t get baked on.
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Yea I got a separate plug-in induction wok because I just couldn’t get the flat bottom one to work well.
Absolutely this. An induction range was a game changer in terms of cooking and has paid for itself many times over. I lucked out and found a high end used one for $400 many years ago. When camping I use a portable one, and while not as good as a full range, it is still much better than any propane cooktop I’ve used.
Final Fantasy XIV story.
Ugh it’s an MMO. I’m going to guess anyone who’s slogged through that much content will praise the story.
I don’t necessarily think everyone would find it worth it getting through the less enjoyable content, especially if you’re not taking breaks, but getting up to the two star expansions, Shadowbringers and Endwalker, yes, those expansion endings have been some of my favorite memories in the entire RPG space. The music alone forms such perfectly defined leitmotifs for its best moments. I still wouldn’t blame anyone for walling it off in their mind given the time and financial commitment, but after years of hype, it did match it.
What’s a little sad is I’ve tried the demos for XV and XVI and just still feel thoroughly uninspired by them.
Ff16 was one of the worst games I’ve ever played. I put way too many hours into thinking it would get better and it just got worse
Oh nooooo. I don’t want to believe that :(
Pop sockets.
I saw so many people use them and hated the sight of them. They look weird and make your phone fit awkwardly in your pocket and you can just lean your phone against something heavy if you want to watch a video or whatever.
But I decided to try it and it is single-handedly the thing that allows me to use my Android phone pretty much one-handed. With gesture controls and the ability to shrink the keyboard to one side for one-hand typing, I’m able to use my 6" phone with one hand 90% of the time.
Just get bigger hands, then it’ll still fit in your pocket just fine.
/s …
Pop sockets >>>> every other method of holding your phone (they lꝏk awkward for me)
Needs stronger adhesive tho , bcus mine some times peels off . One time had to superglue one to my case , which I hope don’t havta ever do again !
I always buy cheap ones because they keep coming off
