Mid twenties, I bought two items at a luggage store near the Castro in sf. One was a weekend bag for camping, or visiting another city, can hold 3 days of clothes. Another was a small bag for daily use. Lesbian here, I don’t carry purses, just bags the size of purses, way more functional.
I’m late 40s now. Traveled, wandering, homelessness, camping, backpacking, have put those bags thru hell for over 20 years. They still look brand new. The small black bag, still use daily. I’m constantly astounded by what I can fit in it. It’s like the tardis.
Best purchase? Probably my steam deck. Nobody else in my family really plays games and I always felt like my choice was either to monopolize the living room TV or retreat to my cave where my PC can be the only person that cares about me. With my steam deck I can play almost every game I care to try, and I don’t have to be a dick to my partner who just wants to chitchat and watch bake off.
Best acquisition? Absolutely 100% the weight bench I got from FB marketplace for nothing. I’d go so far as to say that it literally saved my life at the beginning of the pandoodle when we were being super serial about locking down. I had just gone from a restaurant job to an office job anyway, so I was getting used to being a bit more sedentary and all of a sudden I had nowhere to go during the day, no access to the gym by the office, and nowhere to go/nothing to do all evening. I was probably about 5 minutes from trying to peel all the skin off my body just so I could say that something happened that day when some kind soul decided to put the bench up for free. Spent another $100 on adjustable dumbbells, then just kept trolling different online spots and picking up plates, dumbbells and barbells where I could. Now I can bench my weight, but more importantly I can sit still at work for almost 3 whole hours every day and sleep is a thing I do rather than a cruel joke.
Induction stove. Its responsiveness and power are incomparable to electric or gas. I’m never going back.
Alternatively, my Steam Deck. I use it practically every day. A gaming PC that I can take anywhere has always been my dream, and it absolutely delivers.
Problem with induction is you can’t use anodized aluminum, ceramic or other nonmagnetic cookware. I usually prefer gas, but I’d do hate what fracking is doing to the world, not to mention the constant small benzene exposures aren’t good for you. But traditional electric ranges are a pain. Wish there was another option.
Gas stoves also release carcinogens and need to be very well vented. They re superior other than that, IMO. I just run my vent hood when my stovetop is in use.
Yeah, I mean if the stove is in good condition it only releases anything when it’s first turned on before it fully ignites and possibly a miniscule amount when it turns off, but yeah, it’s not a bad idea to vent during that time or if you have a stove that’s in bad condition or is dirty and not directing the gas properly so it fully burns. Same for water heaters, though, and older furnaces, though modern ones deal with it.
But either way it’s a tiny bit and on its own is not likely to cause problems. The problem is that we get exposed to so many other carcinogens that it all adds up, so any exposure that you can limit is a good thing. And of course, risk increases with age.
Recent studies have found that this information is entirely false and propaganda by the gas companies. It releases huge amounts of quite toxic stuff every second it is lit. More closely aligned with everyone in the house breathing second hand smoke from cigarettes continuously while it is being used. It has been all over the news these past few months.
Yeah I know. I have a gas leak/no2 detector because I had a leak once that the gas company was dilly dallying over. I’ve tested around my stove and it’s relatively low compared to others I read about in those studies. But if the part that splits the gas before burning is dirty it can sit on there wrong and some gas escapes before burning and several other issues can lead to gas escaping. My point was that we’ll maintained stoves are relatively ok. Those are what the gas companies do their testing on, new products, but those don’t really exist in many homes.
They make metal plates you can use over an instruction stove to use whatever cookware you have
The only one I tried was so slow and pathetic that it’s completely put me off the idea. Was it just a bad example?
US-based perhaps? The electricity there is like someone bought electricity from wish.com
A good induction hob is 5kw+
Umm stoves/ranges are wired for 50amp 240v. Being on an American grid that also supports 120v is irrelevant to this.
This was a presumably quite expensive one (the house it was in was outrageous) in the UK. Did our friend group’s Christmas dinner at one of their parents places in the country. Trying to cook dinner for 16 was a huge pain using that thing.
My kindle?
Are you asking us or telling us?
Maybe? It could be my Kindle? I don’t know? I don’t know why people end statements with question marks? For example, in this comment, none of these sentences is a question? So they shouldn’t end in a question mark? But people often write like this? It’s quite strange to me? Have a nice day?
Reusable water bottle. It’s just something I always have on me and it’s great because I’m not wasting money on plastic with liquid in it.
Honestly, the one liter smart bottle is my favorite.
Thanks for being honest with us.
I’ve found that I do like the metal smart water bottles too bad they’re ment to be disposable as I hate how fragile the caps are id love a bottle of that size so it fits in my cars cup holder but also has a cap so I don’t have to walk so carefully with it
Mine is an extension of my body. I can’t not have it with me going out. But I get thirsty a lot. Took me a while to fine one that works for me size and function wise.
it’s honestly crazy to me that this isn’t an item every person owns. the fact that some people call it a ‘reusable’ bottle, as if that isn’t the standard, is shocking.
like imagine historic humans spending time making a clay bottle or leather waterskin only to just throw it away on the ground after using it a single time. “disposable” bottles and other plastics are a crime against humanity and that’s not even an exaggeration
To make things even worse is that you can still reuse the disposable ones not as nice as metal ones but are lighter when empty and get the job of holding water until you get thirsty ultimately you can pretty easily tell who is from the country by what they consider a normal water bottle is because one person can easily just go to a store and get a new water bottle much more often than the other guy
yeah maybe true about rural/urban, but any city boy who’s ever been camping probably owns a normal reusable bottle
I’m not wasting money on plastic with liquid in it.
What are you wasting the money on now?
Liquid with plastic on it.
Ah, a boat
God I hate it when I accidentally drink a boat
My Rx 580 is by far the best thing I could’ve possibly bought when I did, 8gb vram and I bought it for less than I could sell it for now, and I bought it right before the semiconductor shortage so it was hella cheap and I still use it 6 years later.
I still want one if I can find a used one at a good price
My Sony noise cancelling headphones (XM3). I love them and use them every single day. And also my wall mounted pull-up bar.
Creative sbs 370 2.1 speakers; using it for 19 years. The sound quality is the same as day 1.
The wired remote stopped working after 15 years, so I cut it off and connected the wires.
After seeing your comment I went and checked when I got my Logitech X-540 set, not quite as long, 14 years, but also still going strong. Probably far from ideal for an audiophile, but they’ve been fantastic for my needs and can still blast out great sound when they need to. Been hooked up to whatever media centre setup is on my TV since I got them, in fact they’ve been the only consistently connected piece of tech in that system in 14 years. Literally everything else has changed multiple times.
My old Logitech Z2300 2.1 set has been going for 15 years now. They’ve since been demoted to my work office instead of home office but I still blast them when everyone else has gone home.
A road bike. I got slimmer and also found a way to just clear my head. No stress, no worries, just ride. It’s a great way to switch off.
I’ve always had mountain bikes. Most recently got a 29er. I don’t ride much these days, but feel like a road bike might get me out more.
I have an MTB too. I mainly ride it when it’s icy so it’s too dangerous for the road bike. Gravelly off road isn’t really a problem when it’s icy.
A computer that was good enough to run Windows Vista. Trust me when I say that I fell in love with it. And yeah, it was used when I got it. It served me a very long time, 11 years to be exact.
Ketamine for my TRD.
LASIK Good quality gym wear (Lululemon circa 2015) Investing in mental health via a psychiatrist
Heelys as an adult. Makes shopping hella quick and the looks I get are priceless.
I want to, but I’ve never seen any in adult sizes.
The website had some. I heard they were going under so I have no idea how their supplies are currently.
They see me rollin
My mazda mx-5 or miata depending from where you are from. Discovered lots of cool places fairly close to where i live. Sunny weekends are always a joy.
No way! I came here to say Miata haha. So much fun.
Always loved the Miatas. The latest generation in targa version is something I wish to have one day.
Proper insoles. I used to think insoles should be squishy and fluffy until I had a good set. I uses to get blisters on anything longer than 10 km but now my feet can go forever.
Are they really hard?
Yes. The sole of my boots provides the cushion I need, while the insoles make it firm and slick inside my boots and shoes. Rubbery insoles grip my sock and the sock rubs on my foot, causing the blisters. The slick insoles allow the socks to stay on my feet in the same spot so no more friction.
Good to know, thanks!
Where does one get these?
You can probably buy them in most shoe shops or places you can buy boots. I use SuperFeet brand, which I think you can buy online. Pair it with some nice socks. For my running shoes, I use some fruit of the loom polyester ankle socks. For my boots I wear some Darn Tough socks when I know it’s gonna be a shitty day, else I just wear some regular cheap socks.
I only have the one pair of darn tough socks, but they’re fantastic, might ask for more from santa this year.
I use superfeet I get from Amazon. (green is the best,IMO, but pricey)
Ahh yeh I have some of them and some carbon ones.
