I got a pretty nice Yamaha bluray player that was an appropriate match to my home theatre amp.
Put a bluray in it, got a piracy warning, a few unskippable ads for other movies, an obnoxious excessively drawn out animated menu screen that stuttered like hell and was laggy to use.
Pulled the bluray back out of it, stuck it back in the DVD drawer and proceeded to download a copy of the movie to watch. Been doing that ever since.
Wanted to re-watched something I couldn't find on torrents in good quality, so I bought a cheap Blu-ray player and holy shit it was painful.
I'd forgotten how annoying all the warnings and menus were; JUST PLAY THE BLOODY SHOW!
As great as just playing the show is, I actually really like DVD/Blu-ray menus because of the little extras you get on some of them. It makes the disk feel more special compared to straight up video files on a storage device. The warnings can be a little annoying, but otherwise I don't mind as much.
Also, I'm lucky enough to have yet to find a DVD/Blu-ray that stutters or has audio glitches on the Vizio Blu-ray player I got at a thrift store, so I'm lucky.
I haven't watched the extra content in years, just don't care, Matrix was probably the last time I watched that stuff.
That's why I only buy collector's edition blurays. At least it has the extra stuff that's worth the money.
A pool. It came with the house, but damn is it expensive to maintain. I say I've never gotten full use out of it because I spend way more time and energy maintaining it, than I do using it.
I believe there was someone on Shark Tank trying to get funding for an app to let people do that. If I remember correctly he did not get funded.
I would also assume there are some legal obligations with that. Like having to have lifeguards or other safety measures a public pool is required, that a house would not have.
Plus people are gross. I'm sure this would only increase the amount of cleaning I would need to do.
Sounds like you need to invest in fixing it up. Big short term cost vs death by a thousand cuts
It's not really that it needs to be fixed up. The chemicals and supplies are outrageously overpriced. Then there always seems to be some major issue every year or two. I've lived in the house for 7 years and have had to replace the control board and the pump. I had to replace $2,500 worth of piping after Texas cut my power for 3 days during freezing temperatures. Then last summer it was so hot the ground shifted and it broke two return lines that had to be repaired through the concrete deck. And I know by next year it will be due for resurfacing.
Our house used to have a hot tub and still has the concrete pad, electrical hookup, and other equipment necessary to run the hot tub. I have never been interested in maintaining it. Can't even do naked hot tubbing because the neighbor's house looks right over the hot tub pad.
Smart man. My wife convinced me to get it swearing she would take care of it. Apparently her idea of taking care of it was to hire someone for $350 a month. And that price didn't include the chemicals.
On the other hand I did took care of a pool for a while, it was in a villa that my in laws owned.
We did a few things that helped lowering the maintenance cost and the pool was pristine.
First thing is a salt chlorinator. It keeps a constant (low) chlorine level so the pool stays clean, there is no more chlorine smell and you only need to top up salt after too much rain.
Then we were using hardware store muriatic acid to bring the pH up and baking soda to control alkalinity. We still went to the pool store to get productd for the calcium hardness and cyanuric acid.
The last thing is a bit more involved but this is what made the biggest difference on the bill is to replace the pump with a DC pump directly connected to refurbished solar panels, no batteries, no inverter. This way when there is a lot of sun the pump is running a lot, a little sun and the pump is running a little.
It's perfect since the amount of algae development is proportional to the amount of sunlight. There is almost no electronic in the system, just a extremely reliable DC pump and solar panels that can last for decades, I found that to be a great low-tech solution.
However we were in a tropical country, I have no idea if this would apply in another climate.
not much use. mostly to rarely print a few bits and pieces when i need a repair or something very specific for a project.
As someone who has been in the 3d printing space for awhile, I am amazed at how cheap and featured the entry level printers are. For ~$150 you can get a printer with auto bed leveling and a magnetic bed. At $15/lb of filament, you only need a few projects to pay for itself.
For example, I printed the housing for a USB hub for a friend which is a clone for a ridiculously expensive one that fits Lovesac couches and he paid me $50. It cost ~$2 of filament and ended up printing a few more for others. That alone paid for the cost of the printer.
For anyone who is thinking about it, now is a great time to enter the hobby.
Which cad software do you use? I've been jumping from blender, openscad, and freecad
Depending on the complexity of the part either Fusion 360, Tinkercad, or even just 3d Builder. I usually can find something close already existing and just modify that.
Disclaimer - for people who aren't from the developing countries. 150$ is not cheap by any means.
First edition, first run of the three Lord of the Rings books.
I canβt bring myself to open them up and mess with the pages.
I have one, but itβs not the same as the original.
I have posted pictures of the books for people who want to see the original maps included in the books.
Probably 500+ bottles of expensive wine, more possibly even. Some of it was free, but most not, and it's all crammed into a 2 bedroom apartment turning to vinegar because it's improperly stored. Sometimes life circumstances mean you can't drink much anymore. So it's pretty much a waste and hugely embarrassing.
Never tie your finances to that of a crazy liar.
Never tie your finances to that of a crazy liar.
I'm invested and would like to read the rest of the story..
In a nutshell I married a person who has destroyed me financially a few times over, and I cannot leave because I don't have the money. He's sort of like a narcissist (like in that vein, not fully but definitely very mentally disturbed), and he decided to get into wine and buy massive quantities simply to make me angry and ruin my life out of spite, after he destroyed my mental health. We had storage space for it at the previous house but got evicted by a landlord who took it back for his family member, and now I live crammed into a two bedroom apartment with 78 boxes of wine that I seldom if ever drink. He ensures he gets everything he wants in life, even when I was down to owning 3 pairs of pants.
It's incredibly sad and depressing and I can do virtually nothing about it but drag myself between both jobs, spending zero dollars save for my survey money, while he sits on the couch watching hockey 3 hours a night. I have no support and no way out but praying I somehow find time and a plan to make my own business and make enough money to dig out and find somewhere to hide from him.
If you have a red flag in a relationship, run. Not worth it.
I'm so sorry. Can you not sell some of the wine? Would he notice if it was a smaller collection? Just a reminder that financial abuse is abuse, control is abuse, there are shelters for people who are being abused which will get you out of that environment.
He notices if I so much as eat a bowl of cereal he thinks is his alone. Or forget to bring home the knife I took to work to eat lunch with. Or anything. You've never met someone so territorial. Once I left my bottle of work hand lotion on the kitchen table after a 16 hour shift and he threw it up the stairs and it burst everywhere, and when I had a screaming fit told me it was my fault for being inconsiderate.
Not kidding. And I can't leave because I'd never let my dogs get hurt and they sure don't let you take them to shelters. He'd haunt me to the ends of the earth anyway.
There are 100% shelters that let you take pets, there's also organisations that foster pets for people escaping abuse.
The statement about haunting you to the end of the earth is a giant red flag. You need to get away. He's dangerous.
This is abuse, leave. Take the dogs for a walk, go to a friend's house and call a lawyer or the cops or a womens' agency. Yes everything will be shit for awhile, get a restraining order and file for legal relief from the debt, you may even be able to sue him for relief of the debt, and if he used your credit without your ok, that is fraud and also illegal.
I know you feel you don't have the mental strength to leave but if you can survive staying, you definitely do have the strength.
My gf had been in sort of a similar situation. You need to get out. At all costs. Even if you have to leave the dogs.
He will just do whatever he needs to do to keep you desperate and on his leash. So no matter what you do, he won't met you save money, he won't give you a chance to get away ever.
The controlling behavior servers to keep you there at his disposal.
He is not going to change. You will have too. So get of your ass and leave. It's the only chance you have for a real life again. If you don't, you basically submit and accept that this will be your life forever.
I know that things may seem hopeless, but the situation you are in is affecting the way you think. You can get away, you can have a normal life but you have to decide that it is over and commit to getting away.
I literally have no money and mountains of debt thanks to him. Rent in my city is 2K which I absolutely cannot afford by myself. I don't know what you think makes me able to do any of this, I really cannot.
Well, it's only going to get worse. Go to a shelter. There are resources to help with debt, sometimes government programs.
If you stay you're just digging the hole deeper. Every day you stay you are making it harder for yourself to leave. I know it is difficult.
You're in a very very shitty situation. But out of all the choices you have available to you, staying is worst one you could possibly pick.
Do you have any friends or family that you can ask for help?
In the end it is your choice to stay or go. But make sure it is an actual choice and not just submitting because you don't see a way out.
If you go to a shelter or the cops they might be able to at least explain to you what options you have. Perhaps there are numbers you could call for domestic abuse victims?
It is very important that you take action or things will only get worse. And I cannot imagine you want to struggle the rest of your life while he keeps draining you of all your money.
i believe you can do this if you choose and when you're ready. i won't lie - it's not easy, but you may decide if is easier than staying. the dv hotline can direct you to local services, including housing. be careful if you begin to explore your options; he may escalate.
(800) 799-7233. if you can safely search, they also have text and chat contact online.
Get a restraining order on him and make him leave. You keep the apartment and the dogs. Don't let him back into your life. Alternatively, run, and go to a woman's shelter.
Won't happen. They'd never restrain him. It's too subtle. Nobody considers someone psychologically peeling you apart because you adjust the climate controls in the car by one level for 40 minutes straight abuse. At least not legally.
I am really sorry to hear about your predicament. Idk about Canada, but in the USA there's an organization called The Family Law Facilitators, and they will help people who don't have any money in your situation. At the very least they can provide you with options and let you know what's available to you, legally and otherwise. I strongly suggest you try to find a similar organization in Canada and reach out for some help.
I don't think that is true. Verbal abuse and threats are considered abuse, that's assault. Imprisonment is certainly considered abuse. And yes 26 years is a long time but 27 is longer.
It's your life, obviously. You have to make your own decisions. But do consider the possibility that the reason he's trained you to think it's impossible to leave is because it isn't.
Some of that can sell at auction, I work on a house where the lady inherited about $300,000 of wine.
So he's physically threatening your life. Get a restraining order, and then he has to move out and can't come near you, or he goes to jail. Get a firearm.
Do they have restraining orders there? They're created for exactly your situation, where someone is being controlled or harassed by an abuser, but they have nowhere to go. They will make him leave.
Never tie your finances to that of a crazy liar.
Okay, we're definitely going to need more details on this one.
Speaking on my wife's behalf, an epipen. We're both content with not having needed to use it.
I have a college degree I have never used. It wasn't cheap even tho much of it was paid with grants.
Sell it and buy a steam deck. I'm over 40. The deck made me like gaming again. So many fun games and immediately being able to sleep the system while in a game and then waking it back up to be right where I left off is a huge benefit to me.
My house. There has never been a point in time where there was not at least one room unusable due to ongoing renovation.
Bought a fixer-upper and my wife is a lot more aggressive about starting projects than she is about finishing them.
They might have bought a "project house" and went the DIY route. Especially big country house, etc. In France I knew folks that bought a super cheap "small" castle, and have been constantly renovating for years and years. For example when up keeping the windows, by the time they get to the last one they can already start over with the first one again.
Same. I bought a fixer upper and haven't moved in yet due to the very messy renovations I'm doing slowly on evenings and weekends after my full-time job. I'm almost to the point I can move in though.
Bought a brand new truck for my in-laws. Only brand new vehicle I've ever bought in my life. I get to drive it for a month every couple of years.
My Les Paul. I go in fits and spurts with learning to play the guitar, and haven't gotten around to figuring out the effects of all combinations of the volume & control knobs.
Just play it, my dude. I bought a fancy PRS because it fit my hands right, and it had a ding on the neck so the guy didnβt want it.
I straight up suck at guitar and can only play shitty 90βs alt and some pentatonic stuff, but itβs still fun.
If you want to get better at just making stuff up on the guitar, learn the pentatonic scale, pick four to six notes, and just jam with those notes. I like (2) 4-6, (3) 4-6, and (4) 4-6. You can bounce around between those and sound pretty cool.
This is helpful, thanks! I've been using Justin Guitar to learn, and have only learned one pentatonic so far, but I'm interested to learn others. Cheers!
It was on sale, and prior to that I had a shitty acoustic which was zero fun to play, so I wanted something nicer that would last me a long time.
I would 100% recommend taking lessons. I waited 25 years to start lessons and wish I'd done it much sooner. It's amazing how much you can improve in 6 months. And even professional touring musicians in really big bands still take lessons. It's only theoretically possible to self teach yourself, but practically very hard, especially if you have no musical background. If nothing else it gives you a motivation to practice whatever you've been set the previous 1 or 2 weeks.
I agree, but I'm retired, so to save money I'm learning via Justin Guitar, which is actually pretty awesome :)
Back in December I spent $550 on a refurbrished home theater projector. After actually thinking things through, I realized that in my current living situation, the whole idea isn't going to work. I went back to watching movies on my TV and sometimes even my monitor.
I still haven't taken the projector out of the plastic wrapping, and I've been contemplating re-selling it on eBay so I can at least get my money back...but I highly doubt that will happen.
I bought some kit for running TTRPGs just before COVID hit: wet erase markers, Chessex mat, extra dice bags, DM screen, and some cheap minis. Then when COVID hit I adopted a Virtual tabletop (Foundry). Over the course of the pandemic, my gaming group evolved to include people from all over the province, and so now there's not really any hope of playing an in-person session. Not to mention I switched to playing PF2E, which is really hard to run in-person because of how much crunchier it is. So now I have this stuff and don't really know when I will get to use it.
Years ago when I worked in audio production I would sometimes just sit in my studio to listen to music on my monitors. They're technically not supposed to sound "better" but they certainly tend to sound more detailed. If you're too busy to mix, you could at least do that. (Plus you'll get a better frame of reference for the monitors/room.)
Yeah I think the idea is they sound more "accurate" as "better" is a subjective term. I do this too, I love them.
Yup! But in my experience that accuracy made them sound better. I've been out of the game for over a decade, but sometimes I dream of buying a decent set just for this sort of passive listening.
I just got a pair a Kali IN8 monitors last Friday. I play music, and have enough equipment to record, and want to, but I have spent hours just listening to music through them. The fidelity is insane, so if I only ever use them for listening to already produced music, they will still have been worth the money.
I suppose the anti cat gate. Got it because new kitten wasn't getting along with adult cat. Kitten continued to not get along despite doing everything and asking the vet for more advice.
Kitten is with my mother and her cats and he gets along with both of them.
The anti cat gate stands there, expensively.
I've just built a $1200 PC and I'm pretty sure I don't really use the fraction of its power.
At least that means you'll be able to use it for a long time. Also, it won't ever overheat so it's not very likely to break down.
yeah, that was the main goal, a PC for another at least 10 years, I don't do too much gaming on PC anyway, so that's not a push to upgrade more recently than this.
My Dell Inspiron 7520 served really well, but had to upgrade sooner or later.
I know the feeling. I payed for a new computer with specs higher than needed for any new release game at full settings, and yet the main game I have played on it so far was built for Windows 3 and is best played in a web browser.
Akai EWI Solo
My partner insisted on getting me one of these as a gift because I like playing music. It's cool for sure, and I enjoyed the little bit I've played on it, but there's just no time. So it's left to gather dust now.
I paid around US$700-800 for a nice Neumann mic that I'd researched pretty well, but like a dumbass didn't realise that it required power, meaning I couldn't just hook in to my amp like your basic Shure.
So later on as a solution, I got myself a Focusrite powered amp-interface that has a bonus of being able to route guitar and mic input in to USB. Spent hours trying to get everything working and kept running in to problems. IIRC the USB signal was barely received by my computer, and the only way the amp received a signal is if the computer was powering the thing, which shouldn't have been a requirement as it already had power.
I just went back to my Shure while that fancy stuff gathers dust. Similar thing with my Ableton.
Not OP, but EWI is Electronic Wind Instrument. Itβs basically a fancy MIDI controller/synthesizer in a clarinet-like format.
I bought an $800 half stack guitar amplifier in 2009 and rarely play with the volume above 1, let alone play shows with it. But it looks neat.