What are some things you do "the old fashioned way," which might come with unexpected benefits over the modern, "improved" way of doing things?
My examples have to do with tech/media, but it could be anything - old fashioned or "outdated" ways of cooking, communicating, hobbies, or mending things rather than replacing them, etc.
Owning DVDs
Earlier this year my husband and I had an irresistible urge to watch the masterpiece film that is Shrek. I hoped that one of the most popular animated movies of all time would be available at no charge to me, but of course it was not on Hulu, HBO, Netflix, or included with Prime. So that's great, I'm paying something around $50 a month for all these libraries of media, and somehow find myself paying extra whenever I want to watch something specific. Fair enough though, that's part of the deal I guess.
We decide to rent the movie on Amazon for $5. A couple years ago, I'm pretty sure renting movies like this was more around $2-3 and they've been slowly bumping it up. Okay. Everything gets more expensive. We try to start streaming the movie, and Amazon gives us this pop-up that says they've detected the hardware we're streaming it on (it's apparently a bit outdated,) so it's going to choose a specific version of the movie for us, one that didn't use some new technology related to streaming quality. That's fine in itself, but it just got me thinking about how much control these streaming companies have over all of this. My TV is at least 15 years old, works perfectly fine, and I don't see myself replacing it anytime soon. My imagination went the dramatic route, picturing a future where Amazon and its ilk will only stream to newer computers/TVs, either for a legitimate technological reason, or because they've struck a conniving secret deal with the TV manufacturers. Again, dramatic I know, but my point is just the general idea that these companies make all the decisions with streaming; we own and decide nothing.
Ultimately, I realized I could have easily found a DVD of Shrek for $1-2 at practically any used bookstore, and I would have not only saved money, I would have avoided giving my money to Daddy Bezos, and gained ownership of a fairly permanent copy of the movie. And what could be better than the ability to watch Shrek on repeat for the rest of my life?
So basically my husband and I have started a DVD collection. We have date nights at used bookstores and pick up all kinds of unexpected treasures. Childhood favorites we had forgotten about, classics we haven't seen in years, DVDs with extensive special features, some with really nicely designed packaging. For some reason, browsing the DVD shelves is like the fun version of scrolling aimlessly through endless streaming catalogs and not being able to decide what to watch. It reminds me of one of the greatest joys of growing up as a child in the 90s - getting to go to Blockbuster (or in my neighborhood, "Mr. Movies") and frolicking around with your friends/siblings, physically checking out the cases, and debating over which ones are the best (Mom is on a budget, after all.)
I have been pleasantly surprised by how novel and enjoyable it has been.
Owning Music
My second thing started when I realized I really want to spend more time away from my phone. I've also been jogging recently and have been annoyed/confused about what to do with this massive phone that I want with me for music (I try to buy small phones but they barely exist anymore.) Probably inspired by my recent "discovery" of the joys of DVDs, I decided to spend $25 on a tiny, simple mp3 player that clips onto my clothes. A music player that isn't also a social media machine which is connected to the entire world and every human being I've ever known, at any given moment. Just music.
Then I realized that I haven't owned any music (or paid any artist directly for their music,) in at least a decade. I genuinely didn't even know where to buy music at first. The last time I bought music, I was 17 years old and hadn't yet freed myself from the Apple/itunes ecosystem ("freed" myself from it, right into the Google/Pixel ecosystem, of course.) Someone suggested Bandcamp, as when you buy music on there it comes with the option to download mp3s. I've had fun discovering some new artists on the platform. And although I really like supporting artists directly, to make my collection a bit more frugal I've started picking up a couple cheap CDs when we go shopping for DVDs. I just export the music as mp3s with some free software. I'm not an audiophile, and the quality seems just fine to me. Next, I think I'll visit my parents and get some mp3s from their boomer CD collection.
All of this also prompted my husband to dig out an old hard drive of his, which we found had a massive goldmine of all the music he listened to in college (and he had/has fantastic taste in music!) Some of my favorites, plus all kinds of random bands and genres that I wouldn't necessarily think to seek out on Spotify, but they're in my lovely collection now, so why not listen? :)
(A bonus to exploring the old media was finding some ridiculous photos and memes he had saved from college. Bless him and his radical vulnerability, I couldn't believe he was willing to browse the hard drive with me while having no idea what was on it. Thankfully for him, it was mostly just good music, along with photos of sharks with large human teeth photoshopped onto them. He is so pure.)
The DVD/MP3 thing seems like a no brainer now that I've tried it, and I'm sure it will seem silly to some of you, but it simply didn't occur to me for years. Maybe something about my age - being 31 years old, the transition to streaming media happened just about exactly when I graduated from highschool and became an adult. I had no personal DVD collections to bring to my first apartment, and I certainly wasn't going to buy any - Netflix was all the rage, around $8/month, and practically no one actually paid for their own account. And having only purchased one or two physical CDs in my life, I did have a large mp3 collection from iTunes and Limewire as a teenager, but that died pretty quickly once we moved from iPods to phones for music, which happened around the same time. I think I transferred MP3s to my first one or two phones and lost them after that.
Anyway, in a world increasingly impacted by enshittification, with companies relentlessly pushing towards the breaking point of what we will tolerate when it comes to how we spend our time and money, I'm sure there are other "hidden in plain sight" realizations I'm missing out on.
Shop in person
Some things I more or less have to buy online (either because of availability or huge cost difference), but largely I prefer to take the time to shop in person whenever possible.
A few benefits:
Edit:
One other benefit is you can find stuff you might not have found otherwise. Either due to seeing something random on display unrelated to what you're looking for, or salestaff giving recommendations.
This is both a positive and a negative for me. I like going to physical stores because walking past the boring aisles reminds me that I've been meaning to buy sponges/soap/etc. for ages - the types of things that are expensive on Amazon and I just plain don't remember to buy most of the time. It's stuff I need and it's not a waste of money, rather I'm saving money by buying in person.
And on the other hand, the same physical experience leads me to pick up tons of random, fun things that I really don't need. For some reason, it's very easy for me to put all kinds of unnecessary things in my Amazon cart but then get distracted by another tab and abandon it. I'd say 80-90% of the time when I look at the cart a few days later, the impulse has passed and I choose not to buy the stuff. At the store, there is no such built-in flexibility or delay - if I feel like I want a thing at a store, I'm probably leaving with it a few minutes after I find it.
Maybe I should look up those impulse items online when I see them in physical stores, and put them in an online cart for later if I genuinely want to buy them. Wouldn't work for many independently owned stores, but it would curb my Target purchases significantly. I practically avoid that store at this point despite it being a nice place to shop, since they've really perfected the "tempting impulse item" marketing tactic more than any other store.
That’s what I have old school lists on paper for. What is not on the list won’t be bought.
It’s a self imposed rule that helps me to do household shopping very efficiently without ending up with random stuff. On the other hand, sometimes I have to go twice because I forgot to put some critical item in the list.
Yeah, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. Sometimes you end up finding some surprisingly good and useful stuff, like a wireless keyboard and touch screen gloves I grabbed at my college's bookstore.
A lot of bigger stores are deliberately designed to entice customers to encounter impulse buys though, since you usually have to walk past a lot of aisles and displays to reach whatever item you need. Smaller independent stores are "safer" in that regard since they haven't gotten the design down to corporate levels, but it's also easier to encounter stuff. Though like you said, at least you can add stuff to an online cart at stores like Target to try to curb the urge.
Absolutely!
I'm demonstrating on field courses now and it's already beginning to irritate me that some students refuse to shop for field attire (coats and shoes particularly) in-person, and instead purchase things online closer to the time. It's no good rocking up in ill-fitting boots and a coat which won't keep you warm and/or dry; that's just asking for misery.
Having worked / spent a lot of time outdoors (and also taken a couple field courses), totally agreed on boots. So important for them to fit well and get broken into.
In terms of other apparel (including coats), I'd personally argue it's really tough for people to gauge what will work for them if they've never spent much time in the elements; it can be very personal. In-person can help, but so can online reviews (imo). I honestly used to buy a lot of my outdoor work gear from thrift stores so I'd have lots of layers I didn't feel bad destroying, and could try different combos relatively cheaply. That being said, so long as it's above freezing I often don't bother trying to stay dry (but rather warm) if I'm going to be outdoors all day, so I might not be a voice of reason :)
Owning a desktop computer.
The only other people I know who still have this kind of setup are super into video games. Those that don't use it to play games either have a laptop at or at best a tablet, and by far most people simply use their phones for everything. And it makes sense, right? It's kind a big setup to have - a desk, chair, the computer, screen, keyboard, mouse, speakers, maybe more. So it's not all that surprising that it's a thing of the past for the average person
Same here. My laptop suddenly died in late 2019, and I figured that, since I never took it anywhere anyway, I may as well get a desktop and get a bit more power for the money. Now this one is getting old and I don't have the skills to ship-of-Theseus the parts, so I'm looking to getting a new desktop. But when I go to places like Best Buy, it looks like specs haven't really improved much for the same price points.
Prices for desktops are through the roof, it's not worth updating if you don't need to. This video kinda covers it well.
Keep in mind that you don't need to update your desktop constantly, especially since 1) CPU performance has plateaued and is improving by maybe 10% a year, and 2) the most recent console generation was in 2020 - about the same age as your existing desktop.
Also, FWIW, you can compare prices with pcpartpicker to avoid getting price-gouged on components by one shop in particular (make sure to select the correct country, prices aren't the same everywhere).
Mine is also from 2019 and still feels great. I don't really play triple A games though, so maybe that's why? Or do you use a 4k screen? I don't need that much horsepower anyway, my 1070 is totally fine for AoE, WoW, and the like
Shit, my 1070 plays Cyberpunk at 60fps 1080p. I'm happy with that.
My limited understanding of it is that once you go above 60hz or 1080p, you start to have problems and really need the newer expensive hardware to properly run things. So even though my experience could be better, it seems like I would kind of be doing myself a disservice by upgrading? I just live in willful ignorance and denial anyway, because I'm on a budget and want my current system to last for a lot longer yet - so I don't want to actually know what 4k or 144hz is like as I will then start to want it 🙈
I have my living room PC hooked up to a 4K screen and made the decision to limit it to 1080p because I honestly didn't really care about the increased res. I have a 120hz phone and I can tell when the throttling kicks in and it slows to 60hz - which feels absolutely terrible - but then I go back to playing games on my 60hz monitor and everything feels fine.
A few years ago I realized that I always shopped online and most of it was big companies. Not just Amazon or Walmart, but chain stores as big as Target or smaller like Zumiez. At the same time I went on Etsy to buy a hand crafted Ocarina and almost everything I saw was some mass produced product being marketed by a bunch of different sellers as unique. I couldn't really find many hand-made products. I like having unique stuff, I see the value in buying local, and I liked the idea of supporting someone I could meet.
So, as part of a bigger shift in my wife and I's overall perspective on life, after we had cancelled Amazon, I started seeking out people in my state or surrounding states that were making something by hand and selling it. I found clothing companies, shoe companies, body care, all sorts of stuff. I try and buy from them now, I want their businesses to sustain them, I enjoy knowing someone had an idea for my favorite t-shirt and they went into their garage or shop and designed it with pride and effort.
This new lifestyle is more expensive in many ways, I was only able to do it when my wife and I reached the point that we could just decide to spend more on a pair of pants instead of seeking the cheapest option available. So I understand it's not something everyone can do, because of the cost or convenience Amazon offers, so I don't have judgement for them. But I want to live in a more personal world, so I'm trying to nurture that.
This is such an awful problem. I remember when Etsy truly only had handmade or vintage items. I used to browse all the beautiful, unique stuff for hours, but I was too young to afford to buy much. Now I have plenty of funds to support artists, and Etsy is nearly unusable. It's a shame.
I go to maker's markets which are pretty common where I live, but of course the selection is small. It's really fun though.
There was a point when Etsy became just another Amazon/eBay. Both of which are mostly full of AliExpress resellers.
Yes. And it's happening to many retail chains, everything is an aggregator.
The worst one for me is Target. Target is a really decent store that has mastered the balance between cost and quality, with one strong aspect being their "sub-brands." Buying towels at Target is a comfortable experience for me because they have a bathroom supplies brand for college students or people on a tight budget, another brand for people with a bit more flexibility but still don't need anything luxurious, and a third brand for people who want the nicest towels under the Target umbrella. It's the same for sheets, pillows, silverware, dishes, etc. Historically, when I shopped at Target it was easy to receive exactly the value I expect. Plus, it scales with my life - Target had exactly what I needed when I was a teenager, a young adult, and now in my thirties. For everything in my house! And my wardrobe. (Now I'm just on a tangent about how much I love Target, but you get the idea.)
To my point - the online experience of Target now practically throws away all of this excellent branding, clarity, and consumer trust that has been built over decades, because when you search for an item, it now shows you products from completely random, mysterious third parties. I would expect them to be dirt cheap dropshipping style items, but strangely they're usually quite expensive, making them easy to mistake for a trustworthy item from one of the higher quality Target brands. In the past, if I found a $70 bathrobe on Targets website, I could trust that it's decent quality - specifically, a higher quality than their $30 bathrobes. I could trust that forking up the extra $40 would result in a higher quality item. Now, they still show all the Target options, but they'll throw in a $70 bathrobe that is sold by one of those weird companies you see on Amazon, that very well may be worse quality than a $30 Target bathrobe. Last time I checked, there wasn't a filter for "only show me items sold by Target," which is just so ridiculous. Why the hell would I be trying to buy something on Target's website besides wanting to buy something from Target? If I wanted to be shown a unmanageably large, chaotic selection of items with utterly mysterious quality levels, I would be searching for that item on Amazon.
It sucks that is happening to Target. I'm assuming that's in the USA, though afaik they also have stores in other countries.
In my country, I end up being kinda glad that some of the big name stores do that online, specifically because there are things I just cannot buy locally. These third party "marketplace" integrations let me buy things I would otherwise have to go to Amazon or AliExpress for. Both of which I prefer avoiding.
I recently also discovered that Target is going down the third party seller hole. It sucks.
Fortunately, I think you can avoid some of it by searching for things "sold by Target." But even there, I think there are some suspicious items for sale on their website.
And in common, Amazon and Etsy both have garbage search functionality, where you can't filter out sponsored/promoted items, find sellers by name, sort by rating properly, and so on. Any time saved from in-person shopping is instead spent scanning through a thousand results to find the handful that are what you're actually seeking. It's a terrible customer experience, but I expect all those hours count as "engagement", and "engagement" = more sales, somehow.
I shop locally for whatever I can, but it's a relatively remote small community (albeit with a great arts and handcrafts market). Sometimes it's just not feasible to wait until I can drive several hours to get to a place that has the items otherwise available online.
Paper Notebooks
Digital notes are fine for more ephemeral things, meeting minutes, etc. But whenever I've learned something interesting, made a small discovery, or come up with a clever idea and I really want to crystalize it, then I'll write it down in a paper notebook. There's just something nice about handwriting notes and sketching diagrams when I want to offload something from my brain.
SatNavs
For GPS navigation in my car, I still use a dedicated Garmin device rather than an just app on my phone. Besides having all the little touches that come from being built for that one purpose, I really appreciate that all it needs is power and the GPS signal.
I once went to a wedding in a beautiful rural area. So rural that there was no cell signal to speak of. I still remember some of the other guests asking me, as I was getting ready to leave the reception, if I minded if they followed me back to the highway. Their phone had no reception.
That, plus have done some drives through some beautiful but distant areas in the back-country of the western U.S. have been enough to convince me to stick with the Garmin. I might be able to make an offline maps mode work on my phone, but I know the Garmin will do it natively.
Books
Much like your DVDs and music collection, I really like having my own collection of paper books. There's just something comforting to me about having them around and knowing that I can look up some favorite passage in a fiction book, or double-check some facts in a non-fiction book whenever I feel like. And that I can loan my books out, or give them away, or photocopy pages from them.
I'm a spatially and visually-oriented person, so I tend to remember things like a particular passage being in the upper-left hand page about 1/5th of the way through the book, right after the page with the coffee-spot.
I also appreciate that I have many books in my collection that are far older than me. Some of them came from my parents and grandparents. Some of my most prized books were new to me when I was a child or teen, and seeing them on my shelves is a nice reminder of simpler days. It's fun to read to my kids out of the very same copy that I had back when I was their age (or that my parents read to me from). I try to take good care of my books, so I'm sure that I'll be passing many of my books onto them.
Plug-in Headphones
They just work.
I also went back to wired! I was so sick of losing tiny Bluetooth earbuds, even though I had already settled for buying dirt cheap ones (since I know I lose them too much.) I liked some Bose Bluetooth earbuds that were wireless but just connected to each other with a cord so I didn't lose them, but they were really expensive and they just broke all the time anyway. The extra aspect of Bluetooth seems like just another thing that can malfunction, in an item that is already very vulnerable to wear and tear. (My mechanic dad taught me to appreciate the hand crank windows in my old '92 Honda because "it's cheap and easy to replace a simple plastic crank, not so much when you have buttons or computers to deal with." That idea seems to apply here.)
What prompted me was actually buying the MP3 player that I mentioned in my post. I decided to go all the way vintage (ha) and got one without Bluetooth. Bought some nice $25 wired earbuds, they work and sound great. I can't use them with my Pixel phone since it doesn't have a port for it, which is fine for now, but it might very well dictate the next phone I buy. I think I'm pretty much sold on the wired earbuds thing.
I have a Pixel and use one of those dongles to plug in my headphones.
I initially balked at not having an audio jack on a phone (and I still do), but there's no escaping it. Luckily the dongle works really well. I got one that allows for simultaneous charging and it's in some ways a DAC so the headphones work better too.
Something in my personality makes me more likely to be stubborn and refuse to buy a phone that doesn't have an audio jack, even if my options are limited.
I actually ended up with this issue accidentally, as my last Pixel phone had an audio jack and I simply assumed my Pixel 6a would come with one as well. I was pissed off when I realized, because this is such an infuriating design choice, but I decided to keep the phone because I wasn't using wired earbuds at the time anyway.
In general I am very irritated by not being able to buy a phone that is right for me. My Pixel is 6.1" and that is just insanely large to me. I have a TV, I'm not looking to carry one in my pocket. I looked for smaller options, but it seemed that there were very few smaller options anyway, so I just stuck with it since I've liked my pixels in the past. But anyway, then the phone gets even bigger than that because I need a popsocket to even hold the damn thing. All this and we don't have room for an audio jack? /rant
The tip about using a dongle sounds pretty functional though, and I hadn't thought of it, thank you. I'd certainly lose such a small item, but maybe if I simply leave it attached to the earbuds I'd be fine.
I would definitely recommend the Asus Zenfone line for a "smaller" phone (still bigger than phones from yester-year) with a headphone jack that doesn't skimp out on the other hardware. The software is also only lightly skinned so it is similar to pixel software and the last 2 generations of phones have had multi-day battery life. Only downside is Asus doesn't have the best track record of long term software/security updates and it's a little pricier than the base pixel.
Super thankful for this recommendation! The process of comparing phones to buy is overwhelming for me, that's the main reason I just stuck with Pixels for my past three phones, since they're familiar to me. I'm thinking of de-googling my life a bit, so I will definitely check it out.
Trust me, I completely understand. I just ended up caving because I had to cut on so much else just to get a jack that I went for it anyway. I did immediately buy the dongle which arrived at the same time as my phone.
My headphones have a detachable cable, but the dongle remains firmly seated on one end. It's not necessarily big, but it's large enough that you don't just lose it so that's a plus. I bought the ESR USB C-headphoneadapter, 2-in-1 3,5 mm jack if you need a recommendation. It allows for simultaneous charging as an added bonus and it's only 20-30 bucks.
It's funny. I have the Pixel 4a, which still came with a headphone jack but I got wireless earbuds because I kept getting tangled in the cord of my other ones and generally not having a good time specifically because of the cord. However, I do still keep them in my backpack as backup. The wireless ones have run out of battery before so it was nice to have an alternative!
I love wireless earphones for things like podcasts or during a run. They're incredibly convenient.
But for any type of music I can't help but feel like I'm missing out if I'm not using my headphones.
So I get what you're saying but it's the exact opposite for me. Headphones first, wireless second.
Agreed on paper notebooks and plug-in headphones.
I'll sort-of, inconsistently go one further on the GPS thing, though: While day-to-day I do use my cell-phone (with Maps pre-downloaded for the area; I haven't had issues using GPS without cell-service this way), I feel just that much more comfortable when I have a physical map of the area tucked away in the glove box.
E-notes are really nice for this, with handwriting and sketching. Pity they're currently all locked into proprietary ecosystems and tend to start at $300.
On the SatNav, I tend to disagree. Although I do wish a dedicated device or better way to use a smart phone existed.
Two parts here
The thing with smartphones for maps/nav is that you have to download things offline. Google maps does this ok, but you probably need to remember to get the area you're going to in advance. OpenStreetMaps based apps (organic maps or osmand) on the other hand work offline by default and will download the region before you can use it. So if you use it to navigate to an area with no cell reception (assuming you started with cell reception) you'll always be able to navigate back.
The other thing is that software on phones beats dedicated devices for both car and back country navigation for everything I've tried. Interface (more on this to follow), hardware, responsiveness.
The trouble is that outside of perfect conditions, touchscreens are terrible for outdoor (wet, and/or with gloves) and in a vehicle (bumpy, unstable for reliable touch input).
I wish there was a device that had the level of software and connectivity of a smart phone with the option for physical buttons that are on dedicated devices.
I keep a garmin in my trunk for when my cars built in nav doesn’t have service. I actually really like the garmin, it does a great job showing what line you need to be in with 3D visualizations, something I’ve never seen on a phone (my wife’s car nav does something similar, but the rest of the nav is terrible).
Paper notebooks are great because you can draw and doodle in them, and some notes definitely benefit from having a visual aid.
Huge proponent of plug-in headphones, especially over-the-ear. Almost all devices with headphone support have a headphone jack, so you just need to plug it in and it works. No need to fiddle with Bluetooth settings, which can be a massive pain to navigate on some devices. Downside is that more and more phones are removing it as an option besides iPhones.
There are a number of phone apps that work offline (for example Organic Maps and OsmAnd. All you need is a GPS signal like a natsav.
Map source is OpenStreetMap which is good is many places, in some places perhaps worse than garmin but I've found often surprisingly good coverage in rural areas, also in terms of hiking and cycling trails.
Still think having a satnav makes sense, and also a physical map!
Reminds me of this episode of a podcast called Cautionary Tales: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/you-have-reached-your-destination/id1484511465?i=1000460865439
Absolutely this. I adore a good notebook and pen.
I use the Oxford pads and I've got ... more fountain pens than I care to admit in a variety of inks. Rocking up to a board room with folks on laptops and you break those badboys out? You've got attention.
Plus, there's something uniquely fulfilling about writing and drawing physically. Lucid and Word are great for diagramming and notes, but there's just nothing quite so satisfying and memoriable as the physical sensation of writing.
I adore it.
Driving a stick shift car. Aside from the whole "being one with the car" feeling that car enthusiasts will tell you about, it's made me a safer driver. I'm more attentive, leave a bigger gap between me and the car in front, and I break earlier and softer so that I don't have to shift as much in heavy traffic
I'd take it further and just say driving older cars in general. Last year my 2016 VW Jetta hit the end of its maintenance plan and immediately started acting up. No warning lights or error msg, it just lost all power in the middle of an intersection and almost got me killed. Dealer couldn't tell me what was wrong, but they were sure it'd cost at least $4000 to fix and that's a good chunk of its resale value.
Luckily my wife had her mom's old 2001 Toyota just sitting around. Cost a little to clean and fix up but it's a delight to drive now. Its tiny, light on fuel and there's no Bluetooth to distract me. But the best part is that it's so low tech that anyone can service or fix it.
I will say that there are some major drawbacks too. Like I'd stand no chance against any of the oversized SUVs or 4x4 pickups, so I'd never have my kid in the back. It's also exhausting to take on longer drives and the lack of AC is really bad in the summer. But the worst part is that you develop an urge to buy and fix every old car you see.
Still it's the best option for me and I'll probably hold onto it for a few more years.
Manuals can also help on rough terrain. I live in a rural area with a lot of dirt roads and gravel roads, which are often in poor repair, and my driveway is really just a dirt path going uphill through pasture grass. In winter, a seasonal spring opens up on the driveway and flows down the two tire tracks.
I learned to drive on an automatic in the city, but I had to learn how to drive a manual when I moved here. It's just what people use around here because it gives you a lot of fine control in difficult conditions.
It took a while for driving a manual to actually become fun rather than stressful, but now I love it. I preferentially drive on hilly, unpaved back roads because they are such a pleasure. I am in no way a car enthusiast, but it's genuinely a great driving experience.
I got my first manual car a little over a month ago and for the first week or so I was definitely regretting my decision. Now I can't imagine going back to an automatic, they're so boring! And if you enjoy driving then you're a car enthusiast in my books :)
Driving a manual was the way I learned to deal with inclement weather and slippery roads before anti-lock brakes were a common feature. Slowing down with the clutch instead of braking meant far less risk of skidding. And at the time, manuals were so much more fuel efficient than automatics that I could regularly get 45 - 50 mpg from my 1990 Honda Civic while driving like a maniac.
Counterpoint, which goes against the spirit of the conversation, sorry about that...
My car comes with driver assist. I tell it to follow the car in front of me. When I am in control, I hate letting other drivers get in front of me, so tail gate. With driver assist, I have a set following distance that lets others sneak in front of me, and logically on the freeway, I remind myself it doesn't really matter, even when it feels like it does.
You bring up a fair point! Modern manuals actually do come with driver assists like adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, auto emergency braking, etc. I can set the cruise control with a follow distance on my car, but if the car in front slows down too much then I would have to downshift
Interesting, as I adore manual and recently found out about this assisting stuff (aside from rentals screeching at me for "drifting" or whatnot). I know we're humans, but I also feel that if we're driving, we ought to be paying attention. Granted, I actually love to drive (huge fan of the fahrvergnügen, though not of European cars/VWs) and I do a lot for my work, and I know not everyone loves it. So I do appreciate the "pay attention for your distracted self" options, but I find myself getting more upset at folks who set that "leave 4 car lengths ahead" when we're in stop and go traffic... that's the only way I can presume they justify why they're on their phones... >_<
They also keep me from getting speeding tickets, particularly in school zones (which, I guess is also safer driving).
For example, in a 20mph school zone, I put my car in third (it's a six-speed, and geared kind of funny), and idle / barely put my foot on the gas. If I really wanted to make sure I didn't go over 20, I could keep it in second and keep my foot on the gas, but keeping it in third means I can accelerate without shifting once I get out of the school zone.
Is it feasible for someone who has only ever driven an automatic to learn to drive stick by themselves? A car is too expensive to try it out and return if I can't get the hang of it.
My partner and I both taught ourselves manual. He was also learning to drive at the same time (while I already had my driver's license and had experience driving automatic).
We spent most of our practice time just starting the car. We had it parked on a slight uphill incline, and we took turns starting it until we could do it reliably without stalling. Then we ventured out onto a quiet road, where we practiced switching between gears while driving at low speed. After that, we practiced the proper way to do hill starts (using the parking brake) on steep hills. And then we were ready to drive for real and just get a lot of practice hours in.
There are a few things that helped us:
One, reading up on how the gear system actually works. Before you have the muscle memory to do gear shifts, it's easy to screw it up, so we found it helpful to understand the process (press the pedal to disengage the gear, shift the stick to swap to a different gear, release the pedal to engage the new gear) so we didn't get it out of order.
Two, you want to avoid slipping the gear (also called riding the gear) as much as you possibly can — you want your foot either pushing the clutch pedal all the way down or your foot should be completely off the pedal — because it puts a lot of wear and tear on the clutch. However, it really helped me to understand that some slippage is necessary while I change gears. When I realized that the clutch is intended to be a consumable part and I don't need to press the pedal down as fast as humanly possible to minimize damage to it, my driving improved a great deal. I still only put my foot all the way down or take it all the way off the pedal, but the transition between those two states can be a tad leisurely.
Three, understand that learning to drive a manual is like learning to drive a bike. It feels like an impossible skill when you start, but over time you learn to the subtle sensations that tell you what you need to do. It will be hard and frustrating before you reach this point, but you will get there; it will almost sneak up on you and you won't entirely understand what you're doing differently.
Four, some manuals are easier to drive than others. Some are very forgiving and will give you a lot of warning before you stall, while others are very finicky and will stall with any excuse. If you're really struggling with one car, maybe try practicing with another. However, once you have learned how to drive the easier car, I do recommend returning to the difficult car later because it will really fine tune your skills.
Five, don't feel bad about stalling sometimes. I've heard people say that if you don't stall occasionally, you aren't driving correctly.
Yeah. Honestly the worst that's really gonna happen when you're brand new (like first day) is burning out the clutch. Which is pain but is very fixable. If you have a choice, I would suggest learning on an older truck. The longer clutch throw and better low end torque tend to be more forgiving. I used to drive a 2001 GMC 2500 for work. Jeep Wranglers also seem to be one of the last vehicles commonly sold with sticks.
Absolutely. I spent about 15 minutes “learning” in my buddy’s old Jeep before buying a manual FRS and driving it home (stalling at every traffic light). After an evening in an empty parking lot practicing, both for manual in general and the car’s specific feel and sweet spots, I was ready to drive around town. Stopping and starting uphill… that took a while to get, so plan your routes!
One thing that helped was to watch some videos on of how a transmission works when shifting (like, moving exploded diagram type stuff). Seeing how the parts interacted, how the synchronizer works, etc. really improved my intuition, like learning the why behind a new culinary recipe’s steps and techniques.
Aside from my Smart Phone, no "Smart" devices in my house. Sure, it's neat that lights can automatically turn on when you enter a room or that I could control my house fan from my phone, but you know what? It's really a minor convenience, at best, so that someone can harvest my data and so that I can deal with the pain in the ass of not having a proper, physical switch when that thing is on the fritz.
I'm in IT, I like Tech, but I don't need shit spying on me all the time and I find it actually more inconvenient to have to futz with my phone to do a thing when I can just walk over and manually do it or even ask my wife or my kids to do it while they're up. Not to mention, if I ever sell my home, the next person can easily work all my upgrades, because everything has a physical switch and isn't tied to some bullshit proprietary app that may or may not work in a couple of years.
As for the other stuff, I'm still a digital person, but I don't like others being able to control what I can and can't do with things. I still have DVDs and CDs, but I don't use them anymore; instead, I have a server with a big hard disk that is shared on my network, so from anywhere in the house I can download or access my music, movies, files, etc. I also have a VPN setup, so I can dial in to my home network and still access that share from anywhere. When I want to watch a movie, I simply acquire it however and then can access it wherever, whenever I like.
I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of the neo-luddites were the tech people who (could) build all that fancy smart technology. :) (Vaguely relevant XKCD)
I work in cybersec and love the things.
I also was recently in a meeting with the CISO of a major US bank and he said his house is full of 'em.
I would imagine it's more of a bell curve - people who are tech illiterate have no problem with them, people who know enough about tech to be suspicious are terrified of them, and people who work in cybersecurity know you can use WireShark to see what little data they actually send home (and also know that our personal data is only valuable in a dataset, and is worthless individually)
Privacy is really only a tertiary concern for me, honestly. I don't love the idea that my device is listening to me all the time, but ultimately, I use an Android phone and run Windows on all my PC's at home, so that ought to tell you how truly concerned about privacy I am.
It's more to the point that it's too much to futz with in my limited time and it limits access for others, as well as creates technology problems for me to solve in my household, which I do not want to engage with. For instance, I had a house fan installed several years ago and they offered me a Smart Switch; I took them up on it, assuming it would be accessible through my phone, as well as via a switch on the wall. Turns out, it was controlled purely through my phone, which was a no-go and I had them switch it out for a regular old switch.
If it's a smart switch, again I have to mess with it through my phone, no one else can simply turn it on when they feel the need, they need another app, of which I already have dozens for various stupid shit. It ends-up being technological clutter, as well as having the inconvenience that anyone else living at my house who isn't tied into a smart phone (such as my young children or a visitor) cannot turn on my house fan when they walk up to the location of the switch.
To top this off, it ends-up being more tech debt: More stuff I need to think about as far as technology goes with my house and what if the app stops being updated? Say I switch phones and the newest version of my operating system doesn't work with it? Do I need to now go hunt around on the internet for someone that has the same issue and maybe developed a work around? What if my network is down for one reason or another, but I need to do this thing that's tied into my network? Or even, something as simple as this: I'm passing by the switch, it's warm in the house and I realized I could turn on the fan, hit the switch and be done with it, instead of unlocking my phone, finding the app, waiting for it to load, waiting for it up update, then maybe being able to turn it on, assuming something else isn't now grabbing my attention on this screen.
Generally, I don't want to have to think about my technology, I just want to get on with it. I can figure it out, I can work with it, I'm technically minded and have figured out many complex technological issues in the past, as well as in my regular life. But I don't want to have to think about it when all I want to do is relax at home, watch some TV, play a game, cook dinner and on and on. A switch is simple, it works and if it ever develops a problem (unlikely) it can be fairly easily replaced with a trip to the hardware store and ten minutes of my time.
I recognize that this is maybe a little bit of hyperbole, but this issue becomes absurd when you start filling your life with all these smart devices that all require configuration and maintenance, which is often on top of the regular maintenance they already require (such as a refrigerator needing to be defrosted or a lint trap cleaned). I just have no room for extra work in my life right now and would rather sidestep the issue entirely.
They aren't. The way smart assistants work is they're constantly hearing the environment, but only begin to listen when they hear the "wake phrase" (Hey Google, Alexa, etc.). You can use packet sniffing software to verify this for yourself.
This is no longer true for the majority of smart devices. Every smart device in my home can be operated manually, with simply an option to be controlled remotely. The only exception is colored lights - which can be turned on/off manually but need the app to adjust the color.
Totally valid. However, my home is at a point where everything just works and I don't have to think about it. The lights come on an hour before sundown and shut off at midnight as I'm going to bed (This is especially useful when traveling!). It's really nice to never even think about turning lights on/off anymore. Similarly, as the weather gets cooler my thermostat will automatically raise the internal temp during the day and lower it at night - no more having to remember to do so manually every day.
I am with you here. I have my fair share of tech devices at home, but I have little interest in all the various smart devices that keep popping up. No need to worry about firmware updates on my normal lightbulbs or Aeropress coffee maker. Not everything needs bluetooth or wifi goddammit!
Maybe it's because I live in a small place, but I find that just flicking a switch, pulling a cord, etc., is way more convenient than getting out my phone, unlocking it, and hunting down the app I need. Thus I have never felt any desire to use a smart device to do trivial things in my home.
That being said, I do use a robovac because it means my place gets vacuumed daily basis (necessary because I have two high-shedding dogs). I still have a regular vacuum, because it's more effective and more versatile, but the robovac picks up a lot of lighter stuff before it gets ground in and makes the real vacuum more effective (a la "a stitch in time saves nine").
A little robot vacuum would be lovely at my house for similar reasons; my kids tend to get crumbs and random stuff all over the house. However, those very same children would be its bane, so I haven't ever bothered with one.
Would using the robot vac on one room at a time work? It honestly doesn't take that long.
Im kinda with you here. The only smart devices i can ever see myself using are ones that only talk to my home aerer, so things like zigbee lights piping to home assistant. Nothing IOT leaves my local network, as enforced by a seperate VLAN.
What do you use for your offline music library/streaming
Nothing special.
I don't generally listen to music via my computer, but when I do, I play it off Bandcamp. Otherwise, I have a big folder on my phone that I curate from my server and play everything via Blackplayer EX to my Bluetooth speaker or my car. Blackplayer is highly customizable and fast, so I quite like it.
Handwashing dishes.
It’s inconvenient compared to a dishwasher, true, but it’s a contemplative thing that’s easy to do. It honestly doesn’t take that much time either.
It’s also a shockingly uncommon skill. I suspect the main reason why people don’t do it is because they never learned the right way to do it. Most people these days do it in running water, but you need to fill the sink with hot water and only use running water to quickly rinse the dishes after you have washed them. The water softens up any crud so it wipes off easily. It’s popular rhetoric that dishwashers use less water than handwashing, and that can absolutely be true, but it’s not as much of a difference as people seem to imagine - if you’re doing it the right way.
Ive spent a larger chunk of my life living without a dishwasher than with (though, tbh, I'd really appreciate having one again).
Personally, I hate filling the sink with water to soak. Instead, i fill each dish with water + stack them. I find it does a great job at soaking without using as much water, and without having to rummage around in dirty sink water to find all the utensils. Just sharing my 2 cents for all the other dishwater haters out there :)
Well really what you should be doing is rinsing off the plate/bowl immediately after use so it doesn't get to that point where it's crusted on, but yeah. If there is something that's stuck on, give it a good ole soak.
I always rinse off my dishes. But nobody else in my house does. :(
I usually would as well, but our new LG dishwasher literally has “do not rinse dishes before loading dishwasher” written on it.
I really dont see how a functional dishwasher would need that warning though. It just... lessens the work of it, and reduces how often any filters might need changing.
I just can't fathom any way it would be detrimental to have a less dirty plate.
I heard that putting mostly clean dishes in the dishwasher means that the water is clean, so the sensors tell the dishwasher to stop cleaning before it's really had the chance to fully clean or disinfect the dishes. Whereas leaving them dirty means the dishwasher has a chance to fully do the job (i.e. scrub longer for those that aren't as clean, heat longer to disinfect, etc.) I don't know if it's true, but that's what I heard.
I would expect they also need a shorter cycle if the plates are cleaner on entry though - partially solving that issue. Perhaps lazy calibration, or more of an advisory to prevent particular outliers (like some dried-on parts that take a long time to come off, with the majority of the plates already mostly clean.)
That said, I only have experience with dishwashers with fixed cycles, rather than fancy sensors.
That to me sounds like a 'smart' machine that is counterproductive. I want a fail safe wash cycle that will reliably get everything clean, even that one plate that is in worse condition/dirtier/greasier than the others. I don't want sensitive sensors, I want a predictable wash cycle that I can become familiar with.
I’ve heard that the bits of food left on dishes allow the dishwashing soap to “stick” more and thus clean the dishes better overall. A rinsed plate has a more slick surface and the soap just slides off. Not sure how true this is since I never did any investigating.
I'd love to hear the feedback of a chemical engineer that works on cleaning products about this claim. I've heard it before, but I'm never sure if I should believe that. There's a lot of outdated info on cleaning products (and straight up bad info) that gets circulated online.
(By the way, I'm not saying I disagree with this, and I realize you too are not claiming it as fact, just that I have no idea myself and am curious. I have become skeptical of any cleaning related info I discover online unless it's based in chemistry, just because of how much utter crap I've found. If I hear one more person say that vinegar is a natural disinfectant, I might have to punch my computer...) EDIT: About vinegar, yes, it can kill some pathogens, but it gets touted in such a way that people spray their countertops with vinegar, or put a bit in their washing machine, and think they are doing a world of good! No! Also, it can seriously screw with the internals of your washing machine and dishwasher. EDIT2: Don't believe what I say either, I could be full of crap!
Vinegar in your washing machine does basically zero to kill bacteria, but because it’s acidic, it can help break up minor clogs in the drain pipe, and/or break down mineral residue if you have somewhat hard water. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to put it with your clothes, unless you want your clothes to also smell like vinegar…
But it’s certainly not going to cause damage to your washing machine’s insides, they already have to deal with the detergent and sometimes even bleach that people will add to a load of whites, for example.
I'm not sure I agree with this. Bleach is alkaline as are washing detergents. Acid can screw with rubber, and the acidity of vinegar can degrade rubber seals / gaskets in devices such as washing machines (As far as I am aware). I'm not saying this will happen if you just use it now and again, but I could surely see overuse causing this issue.
Again, I am just a lone voice on the internet, so please don't take my word for it. I wish there was a more reliable source to look this up (sure there is, I just don't know how to best search for the answer.) Again, I wish we had a resident chemical engineer who could chime in. Last thing I want to do is spread false information. I'm making my claim about vinegar cautiously, and am open to the possibility that i'm full of shit.
You don't have to fill the sink. I just plug the sink, put a bit of detergent in and start cleaning small and not-very-dirty stuff like cutlery and glasses. But the time I've rinsed them, there's enough water for a plate. I can soak the crustier plates while I'm doing the cleaner ones. If there's a really crusty pan, putting in a drop(!) of detergent and some water should losen that up in ten minutes.
You also don't necessarily need to use hot water. In the summer, the coldest water that comes out of my tap is still plenty warm. Cold water is less agressive to your skin, and I imagine cold water can also train your hands to be more resistant to getting cold in the winter, but I've naturally warm hands so I don't have anything to back that up.
The hot water is supposed to be to kill bacteria, but honestly I wonder if it actually is an old wives tale. I figure that if it's actually hot enough it would be too hot to handle.
Yeah, I really doubt many bacteria die at 40-45°C. Also, most of them will get washed away by the detergent anyway, and the few who remain don't have much to go for themselves on dry pottery and stainless steel.
Hot water does make it easier to clean crusty and fatty dishes, but it also takes a lot of energy to heat water.
My vague memories from high school biology suggests that 40-45°C is probably right for killing bacteria, actually! I remember that was the point where proteins start to lose their structure, and that’s why core body temperature is so close to that — mammals are typically as hot as you can safely maintain, which is why a fever of just one or two degrees can be fatal if it’s sustained.
Take this with a grain of salt though, I’m really stretching my memory here and it’s been more than a decade since I was learning this stuff.
I'd do some more research regarding 40-45C range for killing bacteria. Whenever I have looked into using water to kill pathogens, I have rarely seen anything below 60C mentioned as useful. I'm also not claiming this is correct, just saying, I wouldn't count my health/security on the 40-45C idea, and would do some more research into it if it's relevant to you. Note that contact time is also important - just leaving something in the appropriate temperature and immediately taking it out is not going to do the job (as far as I'm aware). That's why traditional guidelines for disinfecting water are boiling (100C/212F @ sea level) for 1-5 minutes (depending on altitude). I had to look into this at some point, due to a flood.
The heat also speeds up chemical interactions, like soap molecules binding to the oils, and the hot water and soap breaking down the residues on the dishes.
As a (probably kinda crappy) analogy, consider how quickly you can make a coffee with a pour over style using hot water, versus how long it takes to make the same amount of coffee as a cold drip style — I think the comparison is something like three minutes versus three hours, so 60x faster?
You have to cook chicken to 165 to kill bacteria. The water will never be that hot with your hands in it.
Chemical sanitizers will often specifically use cold water. Conversely, hot water does help break up stuck on food, anecdotally, so you've often got a hot soak/nearly ice cold sanitize setup going on...
Ah, the life of a dishwasher. I miss it, my hands don't though.
That's a good point I should have considered, but I'll just also point out that water literally can't get that hot -- unless you're at some pretty extreme pressures -- as it would be vapour well before then.
I believe that they were using Fahrenheit, in which 212 degrees is the boiling point. It's well past scalding, though.
Oh, interesting! That’s a good point! Thanks, I always forget about Fahrenheit (just as I’m sure native Fahrenheit users forget Celsius)
Boiling water absolutely kills bacteria, among other pathogens. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2829912/
However, I would not feel comfortable unless water reached temps of 65C+ (149F)
Not certain if NY department of health would be a proper source to site (the article below does site sources), but if so:
https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/boilwater/response_information_public_health_professional.htm
That said, there are thermophiles that can survive at high temperatures. Doubt that would be relevant to the random person washing dishes, though.
True it depends on the dishwasher and the handwashing method, but a good dishwasher can get a full load done while using overall less than 10 litres of water. I think a dishwasher beats a person in most scenarios, but also it gets more benefit from larger loads. If you live alone, I can totally believe that handwashing is comparable, but as soon as you’re cleaning dishes from a whole family’s worth of meals, I can see dishwashers gaining a huge efficiency that handwashing just can’t beat.
I know so many people that do this and it drives me utterly insane. It's such a waste of water and of the gas to heat the water. Just fill the goddamn sink and get your hands in there!
We make jam and yogurt and pickles and sauerkraut and a no knead sourdough bread. It saves money and is tasty and nutritious.
Cooking and baking from scratch is the best. Add canning and pickling and you become a food god. It's so satifying to eat the food you make yourself. Plus, you can share the love.
We tried making our own bread many years ago. The flavor wasn't bad, but the thing that always killed me was what taught me where the phrase "The best thing since sliced bread" came from. Slicing bread for sandwiches absolutely sucks. We even bought a guide thing to help get the bread slices to the right size. It didn't work.
I’ve had good results with a very sharp, long serrated bread knife, starting slow until it gets a little groove in the crust, and letting the life do all the work with only a little pressure. No more squished or misshapen pieces. Best thickness for sandwiches for me depends on how hard the crust is and how sturdy and tight the crumb is.
Paying one-off bills with a check. Seriously, if I can't setup auto pay, you are getting a check. I can write, stamp and seal the envelope in less time than it takes to to open a new tab, type in some weird long url, type in the reference number, type in the amount, type in the cc info. I also get a special level of glee when it's for some low amount like $1.37 knowing it'll cost them more to process the check than what I'm paying.
It is also quite possible to be saving money this way. Too many places still have convenience fees if you pay online. Like, MFer, it's more convenient for YOU to get your money instantaneously without having to pay someone to manually process it. you should be giving me a discount!
In the UK we have a system called DirectDebit which is a national (and regulated) standard that most companies that charge recurring bills offer. Basically it’s an agreement for them to directly take the agreed amount from your bank account on the agreed day of the month.
You don’t have to use this, but most companies give a discount for using it as it’s easier for them, and you.
I just wrote a check for a bill today and wondered how often this happens. Glad to know there are more of us out there!
"browsing the DVD shelves is like the fun version of scrolling aimlessly through endless streaming catalogs and not being able to decide what to watch."
Never thought of it like this before, but you're right! Way back when, we used to spend entire days hitting up every Hastings in the city, split up to our preferred areas (books, music, or movies) and then hunt each other down every 10 min all "omg look what I found!" God, I knew I missed that, but didn't realize just how much. B&N isn't the same, and it's the only "one stop media shop" left where I am. How sad.
Estate sales can be good for finding vinyl records, cds, dvds, books etc.
Yard sales too! And they tend to run even cheaper in my experience.
Reading on physical media. I use this term since I also include dedicated e-ink readers--the important part is that appearance of physicality. Whether it be physical pages or a device solely built for the purpose of reading books, it's a game-changer for the ability to focus and actually drink in the content. It may be more convienent to have a Kindle app on your phone, but if I had to guess I'd say the Venn Diagram of Kindle app users and people who read more than half a page before swapping out to a different app, breaking concentration has got to only have a few pixels of crossover.
EDIT: I'll also second the OP's recommendation for DVDs/Blu-Rays. It's not often that I pay for media if you catch my drift, but there's scarce few torrents that include special features. You're lucky if commentary tracks are offered most times, but the physical copy has it all. You can even rip the contents once you own it, just in case the disc itself becomes scratched.
Oh this is a fantastic tip!
The only downside I've found with DVDs so far is obviously the space that they take up. If I ever grow tired of the clutter or move to a smaller home, I'll definitely do this. Probably will do it for some of my favorites regardless, for longevity like you mentioned.
What happens with the clunky yet charming DVD menus? I'd imagine those don't transfer when you rip it, and instead you get individual video files of each special feature?
Transcode to AV1 or h.265/HEVC. DVDs are very old at this point and we have made major leaps in video encoding technology. Technically you lose a bit of detail with every pass of transcoding, but the space savings will make it worthwhile IMHO. It's been a while since I did this last, but IIRC files were something like a quarter of the size.
AV1 is the new hotness and is completely open, while h.265/HEVC is a slightly older patent-encumbered format. That being said, encoding AV1 video is painfully slow unless you have hardware accelleration (and you almost certainly don't), so HEVC might be more appealing. If you have a mac the hardware encoder is so much faster that you might want to use it if you have a large library. On my M1 Macbook Air, AV1 encoding a 1080i video went at about 0.8FPS while hardware encoding HEVC was something like 800 FPS.
Most people recommend handbrake for this task, but I'm not a big fan of it. There are lots of options to choose from so I actually think it's easier and clearer to use ffmpeg on the CLI directly. I just use MakeMKV to get it to a file first.
Well, that and they are vulnerable physical objects prone to wear and tear. My childhood was full of movies we couldn't watch anymore because the DVD was too scratched up, and one old TV show my dad liked someone stepped on the DVD case and only the first disc survived.
I'm the oldest of four growing up in the DVD age so the "this DVD got too scratched to watch" period probably extended later into my life than most lol. I never knew you couls resurface them!
there's two ways to do it, broadly speaking:
ripping the DVD to an exact image (.iso file), which you can then burn to a DVD-R and playback in a DVD player (there may be some issues with copy protection and DVD-Rs, I haven't done this myself so can't say either way, but in theory it should work). in theory you can also mount the .iso as a virtual disk and access the menus that way through DVD player software, but again I haven't done that personally.
ripping the DVD, then extracting the video segments and encoding them (typically to .mp4 or .mkv files)
with the former, the menus would be preserved, in the latter they aren't (though in some cases, if there's a video playing in the background of a menu or something, that video may be one of the segments you can extract and encode).
the main benefit of the latter is that it's much easier to stream the encoded video to other computers (using Plex or Jellyfin, for example).
it's also possible to do both, if you have the storage space, and preserve both the .iso as well as the encoded videos.
I keep a physical grocery list so we can all write on it throughout the week till it’s time to shop. Maybe this is normal, but I feel like a stubborn Luddite every time my partner tries to show me ways to do it on my phone. I simply enjoy being able to strike through with a pen as I go along in the store!
Nothing Luddite about it. We've got a magnetic dry-erase sheet and magnetic marker stuck to the side of the refrigerator so that we can write down items as they run short.
Spices, oil, etc., are used ad hoc while cooking, and you don't always think to check for them. It's easier to keep the kitchen stocked if you note that you're near to using the last.
No need to handle a phone to open a Google Keep checklist with wet or greasy hands. Or walk away to find the phone, get distracted, and then forget what we meant to write down.
Having that 'fridge list keeps us posted on when we need a shopping trip, lets us be more intentional about making the final grocery list (which is usually based around the recipes we feel like cooking that week), and means that we don't come home without replenishing the right supplies.
No more starting a recipe, tasting it, thinking it needs oregano, then getting peeved because there's no oregano to be found.
I have real issues with my parents because they barely remember to add stuff to the Keep list we have for groceries. At the same time, they never used to remember to bring the paper one on the fridge either.
I somehow need an erasable list, that can be written on in the kitchen, while being synchronizable to multiple phones. ... I think I just discovered the weirdly specific use-case for the smart fridge with a stylus 😂
I write the list on the fridge door with dry-erase markers, and then I photograph the list with my phone before I go shopping. Maybe something like that would work for you?
It wouldn't because I'm not the one going shopping, my parents are, and they would never remember. If they remembered to take a photo then the paper list would work as well.
Heck they often don't even look at the goddamn Keep list even if I keep it updated. :/ Unfortunately, some things do require people to make a little bit of effort 😑
Is there any chance that you could tag along for some of the shopping trips to get what you need? My family was basically the same way (I pretty much come from a family of ADHD sufferers), so I made an effort to accompany them on shopping trips whenever I had the spare time. Once I had my driver's license, I could also do some of the shopping on my own.
When I ran out of something I needed because they forgot to get it for me, I was sad, but I tried not to blame them for it. It was really my own fault for not taking the time to go shopping.
Even today, my partner and I share the chore of shopping. It spreads out the work (we both hate shopping), and also ensures we both get the things we want.
When I do go shopping with them I'm the one checking the lost and updating it. No worries there! I usually do mention it verbally if it's something I really need and would like to buy it asap. Shopping trips are also not a planned thing. Sometimes they are just out and will hop into the supermarket.
I'd be fine using a shopping list just for my stuff, but we have a family wide shopping list because my parents complained about forgetting stuff and spending too much money, as well as often forgetting if something was needed still. They agreed with me that it was needed and our current system has had many tweaks, too!
Well, since the process can't be automated it really needs them to put in the barest minimum of efforts which it feels like to me they're not willing to. :(
Lists! Lists for everything! Groceries, to dos, bills to pay. I love making lists because they are so useful. I will say I have my camping lists in a doc on my computer so I can print them off when we are planning. I still wind up adding things anyhow.
I do this too but ended up taking pictures of the list on my phone as using the pen / paper while in a crowded store became a pain. Still much better than using an app.
This is a brilliant idea that has honestly never occurred to me despite having issues with this, going to have to implement this. Thank you.
Shopping at farmer's markets and farmstands, rather than grocery stores, for fresh produce and some pantry staples, eggs, dairy, and meat.
I get to see where and how the food is farmed, talk with the people who produce it, and eat locally and seasonally. I have a good idea of what organic vs. conventional agriculture implies.
I love that I'm not consuming any packaging other than what I bring with me.
I feel like I'm paying fair prices, with the money going directly to the workers and producers.
I'm a better cook and healthier eater for learning to work with what's local and seasonal. I used to hate beets, turnips, and parsnips, until I learned that the wizened months-old refuse from the chain grocery stores barely approached the fresh (or even properly stored) flavors.
I feel more connected to my community, its land, and the seasons of life.
I can get amazing tasting varieties of garlic that only come from small farmsteads, because they don't have the paperwhite uniformity of imported Chinese garlic. I can get mushrooms that were harvested from outdoor log farms, picked the day they're sold. There are local cheesemakers, herb and spice farmers, tea growers, and craft bakers. There's honey from local bees that aren't trucked everywhere and fed sugar water. There's even a farmer who'll sell me four eggs at a time so we're never eating them more than a week old (at the rate we consume eggs).
Of course this takes more time, effort, and sometimes money, than going to a grocery store and filling a cart with packages. It's a lifestyle we intentionally sought out, especially after living in a place (South Florida) that paved, overused, and polluted away much of its capacity to feed itself.
Just a heads up that farmer’s markets often have bulk resellers. If you’re getting produce that is out of season for the area that you’re in, it was purchased bulk and it’s the same stuff you’d get from your local grocery stores often with a higher markup.
What’s always the giveaway for me is those tasteless strawberries the size of small apples.
This is especially true of farmer's markets in larger cities.
I'm reasonably confident in the vendors at the markets where I am, since they only operate in season, and the farms are all located within a 50-mile radius. But caveat emptor.
(almost) No SEPA mandate
I don't know if it's a thing in the US, but in Europe it's common to give a mandate to a company to allow them to get the money you owe them directly from your bank account. Stuff like energy, internet bills, etc. I try to avoid them as much as possible. Some are not possible (loans, internet) but I don't like the idea of someone taking money directly from my account.
Organizing files in my online drive
I hear more and more that recent generations just dump their files in GDrive/Dropbox/whatever and use the search box to find their documents. On my drive everything is neatly organized and I can find stuff faster than the search box most of the time.
I actually switched back from sepa mandates to regular e-bills, because my gas company would regularly bill me twice and then apply it towards the next bill instead of returning the money. (I wish I could say I dropped the company too, but they have a contract for the entire building.)
I think the equivalent in the US is ACH / Bank Transfer / “reverse direct deposit.” You see it with reoccurring utilities like Internet, electric etc. there’s usually a discount, or they apply a charge for credit/debit. They do this to avoid credit card transaction fees which are around 2-3% of the purchase.
Using a chronological RSS feed reader instead of content pushed by the big platforms. I get to choose my news sources and I'm confident that I'm seeing all I want to and skipping what I don't, instead of relying on some black-box algorithm to determine my news and content diet (while stuffing it full of engagement bait and ads).
I've considered this as a method to reduce the small amount of time I still spend on reddit, setting up RSS feeds for a few niche subreddits. I really like the idea of using it for news, as well.
Which app do you use for this?
Same here! I use Feedly Pro+, which ably replaced Google Reader way back when. It connects to the Mr. Reader app on iPad (sadly delisted from the app store) and Reeder on iPhone. Note that Feedly does have some issues updating Reddit feeds (a combination of longstanding rate-limiting problems plus the recent API fuckery); I get around that by routing their feeds through AWS so it bypasses the limiter. I'm pissed enough that I also have a browser extension that redirects all links to the Wayback Machine version to cut down on traffic sent their way.
The quality of the Reddit feeds I follow (/r/all plus select subreddits) has declined noticeably though; /r/all especially is lousy with reposts, engagement bait, and deleted posts. I'm thinking of replacing them all with a multireddit feed of my favorite subs to cut down on the noise, although I'm sure it won't be long until Reddit kills off RSS as well.
We grind our coffee beans manually with a crank grinder (Hario Skerton). We grind the next morning's before going to bed. It's no great deal, it's just oddly satisfying. I also like that all the pieces of the grinder are replaceable, I know how it works, and it's predictable (180 turns for both cups). Also I like to smell the ground coffee afterwards.
I'm not even sure this fully counts as old-fashioned -- most coffee enthusiasts advocate starting with a good hand-grinder if you're looking for a low-budget setup because it's way cheaper to get a hand-grinder of sufficient quality than it is to find a good enough electric grinder (which can often be more expensive than an espresso machine).
Interesting! I guess I consider it 'old fashioned' just because a) it doesn't involve electricity and b) we used to buy it pre-ground. Modernity feels like electricity and buying things pre-prepared (even where there's no really good reason for them). It's good to know that hand-grinding is a preferred method, anyway! Those electric grinders make horrid noises, too.
Oh yeah you have to get to the pretty high end for electric grinders to sound less annoying, and even then they're still loud (albeit a less bad type of loud). Anything is better than buying coffee pre-ground as far as the coffee nerds are concerned. Grinding it fresh is probably the biggest improvement to coffee's taste you can make.
Blasphemer! Grinding the beans the night before? May you always have two warm sides to your pillow.
In all seriousness, you are starting the oxidation process early by increasing the surface area of the beans. I would never fault you for making coffee the way you prefer, but have you tried grinding just before you brew? The taste difference may be enough to notice (less bitter). Hard agree on the hand grinding.
I didn’t know that! Thank you for the information. So pre-ground coffee is just sitting there getting more and more bitter for months? I usually grind my second coffee of the day right before but it’s a little hard to compare - the second coffee hits different anyway. I will try grinding it one morning…
French Press coffee. It is delicious.
For DVDs.... You should checkout the local second hand/ used/ goodwill place. I found brand new DVDs, unopened, selling for a buck. They even had a brand new copy of one thing I was specifically looking for. (It was a 50% off sale, normally they sell for $2)
Sadly, the best place to get DVD's, Netflix's DVD.com, is now no longer shipping them. They had the widest selection of everything. I am sad.
I'm gonna be a little cheeky and say math. I understand the concepts of common core math, but I'm gonna keep mathing in the old ways. I also don't need to be learning a new way of doing math at almost 40. This way has been fine this whole time.
IIRC “new math” isn’t actually a part of the common core standard, it just recommends teaching more than one way of doing things. The point is to have more options so you can do whatever method you find easier. So there’s no need for you to do new math if you are already proficient in whatever method you are already using.
Also it's not some crazy new way; it's just the simple way to do math that you probably already use for mental math. If I ask you what 32-18 is, are you (ignoring that you might just automatically know what it is without any conscious though) going to line them up in your head and do the math vertically, or are you going to know that 18 is 2 away from 20 which is 10 away from 30 which is 2 away from 32 so it's 2+10+2=14?
This is how my brain goes:
32-18 =
32-2-16= (make the left side an even ten)
30-16 =
30-10-6= (again, keeping left side at an even ten)
20-6=
14
My brain does numbers well but "this number is this far away from that number" notsomuch, that's why I usually try to get to round numbers and then start working from there.
And splitting it to smaller bits lets me confirm to myself that I did the previous bit correctly and I can go back more easily.
On paper, common core was supposed to expose kids to different ways of solving problems. So they would cover your way but also
32-18=
(32+2)-(18+2)= (to make the right side an even 20)
34-20=
14
as well as other ways. On paper, it was to expose kids to other means of solving problems so that if way 1 didn't work, maybe way 2 would make sense or possibly way 3 or 4.
As always, the problem was implementation. Since schools can only seem to measure by testing, they'll test each way they have taught (your example AND my example). That means it is entirely possible be marked wrong even if you got the rigth answer because it was the "wrong" way (for that particular test). I was incredibly active in my kids schooling when this was foisted on them. The teachers were incredibly frustrated since the tests were graded by computer and they had very little ability to override the grades. The whole thing was a convoluted mess that only enriched Pearsons at literally everyone else's expense.
Oh that sucks so much. The whole point of showing your work in math is so a TEACHER can see if you've learned and applied concepts correctly, not to grade the specific method!
Math is one way I keep my brain "online" enough during long drives to stave off road-hypnosis.
Mile marker 282? At 77mph, I'll get through this state in (mental math noises, carry the 4, etc.) ...about 3 hours and 40 minutes.
Mile marker 281...
I heat our 4 bedroom house with waste hardwood that I've cut up.
I found an incredibly efficient catalytic woodstove (Blaze King 'Princess') on the local ads and there is something very satisfying about putting in a few pieces of hardwood and having "free" heat for over 12 hours. If its not too cold it'll run 20 hours. It's amazingly satisfying lighting a fire on a cold day and having that dry heat warming your body within minutes without the sound (or expense) of the furnace turning on. It's just very satisfying as well as making us self sufficient as there is at least a year's worth of wood piled outside our house. It's one of the few investments we truly love about our place.
Safety Razors (either the double or single edge razors) over the modern shaving razors (this includes the disposables and the cartridge razors). The razors are dirt cheap (think pennies), when compared to cartridge electric, and even the "cheap" disposables. The only thing that is expensive is getting a handle for yourself, but even then, those last for years. And the best part is that your shave is going to be better, compared to the others. The biggest downside is the learning curve, when shaving with one, but as you get more comfortable shaving with one, you will question why you did not make the switch years ago. And the threat of cutting open your shaving area is also very real, when first starting out. And as long you get soaps that are not artisan style soaps, it won't be expensive to keep shaving this way.
100% agree. I bought a Dovo handle 15 years ago for $30 or so and have used it almost every day. Blades are usually in the range of $10 for 50 of them - which would last me the better part of a year.
Also, the shave is just better and takes me less time...albeit you have to be a bit more careful because the risk of nicking yourself is real.
Handmade bread.
When I want bread, I make it by hand, 100% of time. Usefulness:
It tastes far better than what you can purchase in a store (and I make a shit loaf of bread)
It's incredibly cheap. Most basic loaf: water, flour, yeast, tiny pinch of salt (is the salt even necessary? I honestly don't know.)
I don't need to leave home to get bread. I do have to leave home to get flour and yeast, but it takes a long time to go through a big bag.
It's not difficult either. I can't imagine buying a store made bread. And given how crap and simple my bread is, I imagine it only gets better from there. The difficulty comes in winter as it's too cold for the loaf to rise, so generally I don't eat bread in winter, so that is a downfall.
Salt aids gluten development so the bread can rise higher. Bread without enough salt will be flatter. (Mind you, bread with too much salt will also be flatter because it inhibits the yeast.)
Wow, never would have guessed that salt helped the bread rise! I'd assumed it was purely for flavor. Good to know; I will try leaving it out of the dough that I don't care about rising (like dough for dumplings).
Second.
Also, yes you def need salt.. otherwise its blaaand
And how cold is your kitchen? I recommend sticking it in the oven with light on or with a bowl of hot water to keep a warm environment for proofing
hey thanks, I'd always wondered what purpose the salt served! In winter, my kitchen is too cold, maybe 60F / 15C. Yes, I have tried the trick of putting it in the oven to let it rise, and then I just turned the oven on slightly. My fear is always that it's too hot. Also gas is so expensive so I hate letting it run for an extended period. Because of this I kept turning on and off and on and off endlessly which made it a hassle.
I have tried the bowl of hot water trick, but never got that to work. I will try it again. How many hours do you have to leave it with the bowl of hot water for it to rise?
Oh yes thats on the cold side..
My kitchen gets 18C at its worst. So bread is slow to rise, but it can be sped up if i leave it in my oven with just the light on -- which is enough heat to keep it reasonably warm. But seems like you don't have that option.
What i recommend actually is to have your dough ingredients at a warmer temperature-- in particular use warm water (90-110 F or 30-40C). So that the dough temp is at 28C ish. It'll help it rise. Then try the hot water bowl trick to keep it at a higher temp longer (with a larger volume of water i guess if it hasn't veen working well for you previously haha).
Interesting idea about the light - never would have thought it could generate enough heat to keep things warm. Yes, good idea, I will use much hotter water when I make the dough, and then I'll put a bowl of hot water in there. Can't hurt to try, worst I'm out is a small bit of dough and water (ah and yeast but I have enough.)
Any thoughts how long it usually takes to rise when you do it like this? I'm assuming it takes a few hours for you?
Maybe in your cold kitchen, it will be less effective.. but give it a try.
Time is hard to pin point, because its so temperature dependent. But my dough rises in 2hrs, way longer if its sourdough. Even at 15C it should rise albeit it just might take like 6hrs...
Hey thanks. Even if it varies depending on the temp, it's very useful to know your experience with this. I'll experiment this winter. If anything, it's a good practice in patience..
"Bread is easy but not simple" tips:
If you're interested in somewhat older movies you might try VHS tapes.
At our local reuse center
https://ithacareuse.org/
you can get a VHS deck for about $12 and they sell tapes for $0.50 cents, they still had VHS releases of movies up until 2005 or so. The video quality of DVD is better but VHS is not as bad you probably remember and with VHS HiFi (which is probably in any deck that is still working) the sound quality is excellent and my home theater receiver does a good job decoding Dolby Pro Logic ii on most movies to provide surround sound.
I'm not picky about quality at all, in fact I think I would find some VHS-type flaws to be charming/nostalgic. Thanks!
Take a yellow cab from the airport instead of rideshare
It's a flat rate and typically not a long wait at the taxi stand at most airports. Trying to find your lone car amid the sea of other people trying to do the same thing sounds like a nightmare and I've only ever done it when traveling internationally when I'm worried language barrier might be a factor.
Are the taxi stands usually a flat rate? I remember last time I was in Paris, a taxi driver tried stopping me from getting an uber to my airBnb, and I told him if he could tell me the rate I'll take it, but he refused to tell me. I definitely felt a bit bad, but there's no reason for me to have taken a taxi when I didn't know the route, he could drive me in circles for all I know.
At my home airport I don't even think I know where the taxi stands are, I don't think I've seen them since like... high school
I use the cab stands from my home airport. The meters are honest and as @secretagentman said, it's easier to just get into a cab at a line up. But I hear you about being in a strange city and not knowing the route.
I walk to the grocery store: less wear and tear on the car, and I'm more thoughtful about what I buy. I'll go more often, but get just what I need. I also found that there is always a sale, and even things I would have bought at Costco or amazon are cheaper when on sale a my local store.
Blu-Ray DVDs of visually stunning films.
We got a 4k TV and then I realised all of my content is streamed and we basically never watch 4k, having a blue ray of a few awesome films feels like having new eyes. Like you know how great screen quality of TVs are when they are in the store on display.
I buy cheap used discs, things like The Dark Knight, and Hurt Locker look awesome.
The first Blu-ray I ever bought was the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven because I read it looked amazing, and it really is. I've still got the disc, so I can see it again whenever I want!
Using a handkerchief
I grew up thinking paper tissues were the only way, but as an adult, I decided to try a handkerchief. Besides the obvious benefit of not having to buy a bunch of paper only to throw it away, I found that even stiffer fabric like linen is much easier on my face than paper. If I have a cold or am struggling with allergies, using paper tissues to handle that would absolutely shred my face. The handkerchief is always comfortable, even on days of heavy use.
So where do you buy a handkerchief? Like what are the different qualities that should be looked into? Do you have multiple for when sick and have the thick mucus grossness?
I ask because my initial reaction is handkerchiefs are old and gross, but after thinking about it I could be convinced it has some merit. I just don't really know enough.
I used to just buy big cheap packs of handkerchiefs from wherever. I would keep a bunch of them around for times when I was sick. I recently discovered these Vala Alta handkerchiefs. They're a lot more expensive, but they're linen which dries much faster than cotton. I've gone from dozens of handkerchiefs down to 10 of these. They aren't quite as soft as cotton, but they're still way easier on your nose than paper and they get softer every time you wash them. The fast drying is a game changer, so it's worth a slightly rougher material. I got the "Natural Flax" color which doesn't show nearly as much as my white cotton ones did.
I don't know if I use them right, but this works for me. I just use one until it seems gross. Then, I throw it in the wash and move on to the next one. If I'm more… productive than normal, I'll just carry around a few of them and cycle through until they need washing. 🤷♂️
It's neat because, instead of carrying around those little packs of tissues, I carry around this one tiny square of fabric and I'm ready for anything. Not only that, but the experience is better than tissues too, and I never have to worry about running out. They last for years before I need to replace them.
Air drying clothes --
Takes more time, but gentler on clothes, helps with wrinkles sometimes. Lower energy use too
Also in team air dry. I didn't even think of it as old fashioned, just environmentalist and frugal because clothes last longer.
Second this. Honestly I have never owned a dryer so I'm not even sure what the dryer experience is like. Aside from winter when it's very cold, I have never had any problems with air drying clothes. I imagine though if you have a big family, this could become a big hassle. In winter sometimes it takes 2-3 days for the clothes to dry, which is a complication, but that make sure I never get behind on laundry because I know I need to do it.
I also imagine this saves money on the electric or gas bill
It looks like I'll be repeating what a lot of others have said. It seems every year I slowly slide back into "old fashioned" ways of doing things.
Media
I buy CDs, DVDs, and BluRay all the time. It's crazy how cheap a lot of them have become because most people don't bother. I would prefer to own my media for all the same reasons many others have mentioned. I've also come to appreciate the quality physical media can provide (the music you pull off a CD can be in a lossless format if you do it correctly, for instance). I think the one difference for me is that I also have a large media server (i.e. a desktop with some hard drives) that I store them on for easier access. Sometimes I still download my music, but I purchase it via something like Bandcamp so I know I actually own it.
I've also moved to buying my own books. I can't assume that my books in specific digital formats pumped full of DRM nonsense will always be available (just like movies bought from streaming services). I'll still do eBooks sometimes, but I only go for those in epub format these days. Otherwise, I try to support my local bookstore. I get to own my media and I get to support a local business. I spend enough time on tablets and phones as it is.
Minor Note: YouTube
If you're serious about owning your own media, I'd recommend everyone take a look at youtubeDL. It's an open source project that allows you to download YouTube videos. There's no guarantee the videos you enjoy will remain available forever.
Watches
I like to be able to tell what time it is. I grew used to wearing a watch over the years, and I like being able to set my phone down for a while but still know the time. I started getting into smart watches at one point, only to realize I was wasting hundreds of dollars every year or two on the "new model" that...really didn't do anything for me. I purchased a Casio G-Shock and never looked back. It's solar-powered, it's reliable, and it's (probably) long-lasting.
Notebooks, Paper, and My Everbook
People spend way too much time obsessing over productivity and note-taking applications. I'm not really sure how they get anything done. I've also had to transfer my notes from one proprietary program to another, and it's often a headache at best. I've found that just going back to the basics - being able to grab a pen and jot down my notes/thoughts on a whim is just plain easier than fiddling with an app of some kind. Then I stumbled across the "Everbook", which is really just a way to organize notes. Once I discovered that, I largely abandoned digital note-taking. Sure, I still do it for more technical notes or for notes I may need to share with others, but otherwise I stick to the tried-and-true pen and paper. The best part is, it's really hard to hack a physical notebook without my knowing.
Wired Headphones
Wireless headphones are extremely expensive and their batteries eventually die, forcing you to replace them. Years ago, I realized you can just buy a small bluetooth DAC that fits in your pocket. Then you just plugin your wired headphones. Now you can use whatever you want, connect to the device wirelessly, and only worry about a single device dying on you one day (that is, the DAC). I'm sure I may look strange to some walking around with old-school koss on-ear headphones, but they only cost me $15 and my music sounds better thanks to the DAC.
I like the idea of restarting nuclear testing. And atmospheric nuclear testing at that. I don't really care about the bomb development specifically. I don't want us to frequently test multiple weapons a year with the goal of improving their design. Rather, I think we could really use a reminder once in awhile just how terrifying these things are. Maybe once every twenty years, we set off a hydrogen bomb in the desert. Hell, let people come and watch. Record it from every angle in 4k. Maybe even let people who have gone through the process of legal medical euthanasia for terminal health conditions get a seat at ground zero, if they're so inclined. Don't set it off under a mountain, I want people to be able to see the mushroom cloud in the atmosphere.
I think past generations had a much more visceral understanding of what nuclear war actually meant. I'm a Millennial myself, and for my and every generation after, nukes are a very abstract thing. It's well enough to look at figures on a page or screen, or a diagram on nukemap, but it's not something you can feel in your bones. The dangers of nuclear weapons are as real as they've ever been, even more so with the better delivery vehicles we have now and the larger numbers of nuclear powers. The Sword of Damocles still hangs over our head, but it's been so long since it's fallen, that we've forgotten how sharp it is.
Is there a location for these tests you can think of that doesn't have people living downwind? A large number of people got cancer in the aftermath of the tests I'm aware of.
Might also why it got banned internationally in the first place.
I agree with your goal here, but I'd argue that art is actually a better way to remind people of the horror of nuclear war. Witnessing or watching a recording of a real nuclear explosion would certainly be shocking and even scary, but to some it would simply look impressive or even "cool." It lacks a depiction of the actual human suffering that would occur.
The best example I can think of is the British film Threads. I watched it recently and it shook me to my core. It introduces a few characters in a small town in the UK, living their normal, quiet lives, until a nuclear bomb is dropped on their city. The film goes on to depict the aftermath with a focus on realism, and explains the impact after a month, a year, a decade, etc. It's nothing like the Chernobyl series, which, while an excellent piece of media, focuses more on a narrative story and the immediate aftermath. The living characters in Threads don't get stories, only endless pain and suffering. I would not recommend it to many people, but I do recommend it to you based on your comment, if you haven't seen it yet.
The novel Alas Babylon shows dated social interactions, but it is still a pretty good depiction of what small town life might look like after a limited nuclear war. I will never forget the description of the aftermath of someone collecting and hoarding irradiated watches and jewelry that they had looted or purchased.
The film the Day After traumatized my generation of teenagers.
War Games is another good one from that era
Oh, I've seen Threads. And yes, it is quite sobering.
We've still got long-lived radionuclides in the food chain and environment from the first round of above-ground tests, so "no thank you" to this idea.
But your point is well taken - we've been pretending that everything is hunky-dory because the U.S. and Russia were abiding by agreements to reduce (not eliminate) their hellweapons. It was never true, though, that we ceased risking the elimination of nearly all life on Earth.
Funny you mention DVDs and owning music. I still live the old way in this. I still buy new Bku rays (or DVD if the movie isn't in Blu ray) and music CDs. I like to own them, not justoay to be able to consume. Actually I hate the concept of subscribing to things like Netflix because of your example with Shrek. Nobody can give me the library I would like to watch/listen to, so I'm not paying anyone.
On top of that I run Jellyfin (home media server) where I ripped all of my physical library - DVDs, Blu rays and CDs. So actually I am streaming my movies and music. I run OpenVPN server which means I can consume all those media anywhere in the world streamed from my very own computer. Yes, I don't have thousands of movies to watch, but I have the movies I actually WANT to watch. Yes, it costs me more to do it that way, but I own all the movies and I will own them for the rest of my life at no additional cost. And my kids can own them after that.
To add my own thing - we, as a society, became too much humanistic in some cases. There are crimes that should still be punishable by death. I would be so extremistic that I would execute the person in question publicly to set example to others who may have thought about doing the sae thing. Think child rapes, mass murders, torture... Such person would need to be undoubtedly convicted of the crime, o course.
I'm sorry if I sound to extreme for some people. It's just that I read about lot of such things where the criminal goes into the jail for some inbelievably short term, sometimes even less than 10 years for major crimes whereas the "damage" they done is "irrepairable".
Sorry, not native english speaker, some words may not be the right ones, I hope the message got through though.
And we do not have death penalty where I live, obviously.
I am reeling from the tonal shift in your comment! Ah yes, old fashioned things, like DVDs, and the death penalty. I mean, you're not wrong! :)
Your English is good, there are no apologies necessary - though it makes sense why you would want to mention it when you're writing about a sensitive topic like the death penalty.