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What possession(s) do you have that continue to delight you every time?
I was talking to the other guitarist in one of my bands about the hedonic treadmill the other day. And he said to me that despite owning his swanky Range Rover for over 4 years, every time he gets in it he feels like a kid and is excited by it.
I think continued delight in the things that we already have is a really important attitude to take in life, and so I wondered what things my fellow Tilderen (yes, I'm refusing to budge on the nomenclature until I see at least one other person use it) have which they still feel the magic of owning, even after a long time.
Good knives, for cooking. Its wonderful every time.
I have a Mahlkoenig coffee grinder that has a warranty for the next 30 years, its the most precise grinder I’ve ever seen and my coffee is amazing every day.
My double walled henkels mugs are delightful to sip on. They also look very nice.
Having a dishwasher is a game changer, I didn’t have one growing up, so having one as an adult is amazing,
I have a pc I build myself and every time I play on it Im amazed at how much free fun it gives me.
Mainly those are things im super grateful for.
Good knives for cooking... I have a 25 year old Shun Classic chef's knife. The knife sheath is literally labeled, "My Preciousss...". [I was a pro cook for 7 years, and the knife was the target of envy and a theft attempt.]
It fits my hand as if it was made to order, rarely (once a year) requires sharpening, and it makes kitchen tasks a joy. There are fancier, more expensive knives, and knives with newer technology or dedicated ergonomics, but I've never found one that pleases me so well. Aside from the utility, it's beautiful as sculpture, a wonder of refined form and function. Spouse got me a petty knife from the same line for my birthday this year, and I "sqeee"-ed like a fangirl.
Note for shoppers - when I got this knife, it was sold as "Pro" series. There are more recent complaints on Amazon that the Classic blade chips easily. I've never had this problem. Maybe manufacturing changes, maybe counterfeits.
I no longer buy quality consumer brands on Amazon.
I've received counterfeit scissors, knives, mixer attachments, socks....
Hmm, this is a good question.
I have a Zojirushi rice cooker (nslgc05, but the model isn't really important) that makes perfect grains no matter what type we're talking about. It's well-manufactured, it has a lot of little QOL features, and it sings a happy song when it's done. I baby every part of it when I clean it so it will live forever.
I have a lovely ceramic coffee mug that is made by a potter that I'm pretty sure has retired and isn't making any more pieces.
People have already talked about chef's knives, and I do have kitchen knives that I treasure, but undeniably my most-used knife is my pocketknife, a Spyderco Delica 3. It's a robust, well-made and light knife that takes care of any task I need it to.
Oh man! The Japanaese manufactured Zojirushi rice cooker are the only real option for cooking good rice lol. I feel like most people who grew up in an Eastern Asian household are familiar with the design and the little elephant logo. So it was special when I was finally able to buy my own years ago.
Zojirushi is definitely the gold standard, but I do want to point out that there are other perfectly good rice cookers out there, especially if you just want to cook rice and aren't that interested in the advanced features. I wanted a Zojirushi for years but put off buying one due to sticker shock, then I finally bought a $70 Korean rice cooker and it works perfectly.
I think everyone with enough counter space should consider having a rice cooker, and the commitment/barrier for entry doesn't need to be super high!
Zojirushi stuff is top-notch. I have a simple vacuum-insulated carafe for hot water (inside is glass, which is nice) from them and it's built like a tank and keeps liquids hot/cold for a long period of time. Perfect for a slow, periodic tea session
I've always wanted the rice cooker but haven't justified it to myself yet. I do love rice, and am often buying pre-made microwave rice dishes and whatnot. I really should jump on it at some point and start doing my own since it would probably be a lot cheaper in the long run.
Yeah, I have one of their carafes that I used to bring to the office, when I was full time onsite - my favorite trick was popping in a few bags of chamomile mint tea the night before work and popping it open twelve hours later when I wanted the tea. By noon the next day it would have lost just enough heat to be drinkable.
Honestly I use the packet rice a lot too. It's very good these days, and quite convenient. For the rice-quinoa blends in particular it saves a lot of pain dealing with the differing cook times on those grains. It is substantially cheaper to do your own, and a rice cooker helps a lot with that by removing most of the effort for the prep - you just leave it on the counter and it does its own thing.
I've had a Zojirushi rice cooker for ~15 years now and have used it multiple times a week over that period. I just got a second one because it has a veggie steamer, but my original still works fine. I love that the rice is cooked perfectly every time, no matter the humidity or type of rice. I even add some aji-mirin sometimes as well and the rice cooker just cooks.
I've never tried the cake/pancake option, but I should really do that sometime because that's a cool feature. Definitely one of my favorite-ever purchases.
I tried a cake in my non-Zojirushi rice cooker without all the different smart settings once, and it came out okay! Not much difference in effort or result from making the same cake mix in an oven, but a good option if you don't have access to an oven or just want to try something out. I wonder how much a dedicated cake setting affects it....
Can you elaborate on the pancake option? I have a Zojirushi rice cooker and if I’ve missed the ability to make pancakes with it, I’m going to make up for that lost time really fast.
So I don't want to overhype the pancake thing, but from what I've heard you make some pancake batter, pour it into the rice cooker, and use the "quick cook" option if your Zojirushi has one (old Reddit thread). Should be done in 15 minutes.
It will not look like a traditional thin pancake at all. Some people's hopes may be dashed by this. And I don't know if it comes out super fluffy or not, but from the pictures I've seen the pancakes are thiccbois but still taste like pancakes. That's a win in my book. I'm going to try this eventually with some Kodiak pancake mix and see what happens.
I think I've also heard of people using the cake setting with pancake batter (or perhaps Japanese Soufflé Pancakes). That might take substantially longer, or I might've misunderstood what people were doing. I haven't used cake mix with the cake setting either, so I need to try that as well sometime. But it seems like the MiCom (Micro-computer) in these rice cookers can do anything.
Thanks. I will definitely be experimenting with this. I have a thing with pancakes and a new way to do pancakes is always interesting. I’ve also had my eyes on Japanese soufflés for some time too. I’m getting hungry just writing this reply.
My partner tried the pancake thing a few times, and it always splooged out the vent holes and made a huge mess. Tasted fine, IIRC, and it's possible we did something wrong (too much batter/some ingredient? Maybe we should've accounted for being at a higher elevation? No idea). Not trying to discourage your experiments, just adding a data point.
I have the same model, which is perfect for one or two people. My only regret is not getting one sooner. I'm a good home cook, and have no problem with stovetop rice, but the Zojirushi just absolutely nails it every time, even when I'm using weird rice blends to finish the last of a couple bags or the like. It's just a delight to use. Plus the little tune it plays makes me happy. :)
It is a fairly obscure song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69J61M3GEGQ
I think I really appreciate it most when it's pondering the correct cook time for brown rice, which takes ages. Nobody has time to babysit that on the stove.
That was a cool bit of history, thanks for sharing it. :) I knew the tune was called "Amaryllis", which is one of my favorite flowers, but I didn't know the greater context. Neat!
And yeah, fully agreed on the brown rice. I don't eat it often, but I 100% use the zojirushi when I do.
My wife lived in Taiwan for 10 years, so when we needed a rice cooker, she said, "I will get one from the Asian grocery store. You know it's going to work well or the place would go out of business." I have no idea what brand ours is, but it works great.
I keep telling myself I don't need a rice cooker since I already have a pressure cooker. It's a guess how much water+time I need but it turns out well most of the time.
Pressure cookers work for grains, and I think I didn't see the rationale for a dedicated rice cooker when I was comparing a shitty temp-coil Aroma model to an instant pot - there isn't much difference there. With a Zojirushi there is no overcooked rice crust on the bottom of the cooker, as long as you follow the instructions it delivers a perfectly homogeneous fluffy rice batch every time without any variance, and will happily preserve it in a more or less ideal state for quite a long time while you do other kitchen tasks. I think that's the main use case, is that a rice cooker is 100% reliable fire-and-forget while a pressure cooker will do bad things to its contents if left alone without supervision.
My whole-home water filtration system.
I did it myself, using PEX, took like 4 hours of work in a finicky space and going extra slow. Cost about $900 upfront, including an extra spin-down filter and a backflow prevention.
Now, for about $100 a year, and a few hours of cleaning the housings for the filters, I have better-than-Brita filtered water coming out of every tap in my home. With some extra assurance that I'm not getting sediment or heavy metals coming in while the city does pipe repair/replacement work. 100% do recommend.
My hybrid-electric heat pump water heater. That was not a DIY, but I have it in the attached garage. It's a bit more expensive December through February, but it's virtually free water heating between May and September...which is when we take far more showers courtesy of yard work. Despite being 3x more expensive than a typical water heater of the same size, the cost savings inside of 3 years made it worth it because of how much more efficient it is. If you have a regular electric hot water heater, it is worth ripping it out even if it's relatively new.. Especially since there are often incentives for these from the electric companies.
My washer/dryer ventless combo unit was life changing. Put in dirty clothes, press go, 3 hours later your clothes are washed and dry with no swapping. Runs on a 120V outlet, thus saving tremendously from my electric dryer, as well as no longer needing a vent.
The Steam Deck has changed the way I game. It fixes all the flaws of the Switch, especially the part where I don't need to re-buy my hundreds of games. I only maintain a Windows machine for titles requiring kernel anti-cheat. And even that is being relegated to a dual-boot with Bazzite taking over courtesy of all the work Valve has done making Linux gaming console-like. Related, the Steam Controller is still my favorite controller and I am sad when I have to use any other.
I've only had my VW ID.4 (an EV) for about a month now. It's the best car I've ever owned. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but that phase has lasted a lot longer than those cars.
Can you say more about your filtration system? Do you also do softening?
Sure, I'll dig up a parts list in a few (and edit post). But I chose not to do softening at that juncture, as my water hardness does not bother me and I hate dealing with the salt tanks. I'm contemplating trying out an electric de-scaler to the system, but those are hit-or-miss depending on what is causing your hardness. It would be a very different setup if I was using well water, which needs even more (bigger) filtration. The main trigger to install was that I had just gotten the new water heater, and a letter came in that they are doing work on many water mains nearby and we would probably be seeing a lot of sediment come in that we'd need to drain. When it started happening, I decided I'd rather not be randomly surprised by gross water.
System parts (minus PEX and connectors):
After install we did blind taste-tests of bottled water, Brita filtered water, home filtered water, and regular tap. Out of 10 people, 8 preferred the home-filtered, 2 preferred the bottled. So now I can get good-tasting water out of my bathroom sink and my hose tap.
That's awesome. How much space does it need, and how often do you need to put eyes/hands on it? In my house that sort of thing might need to be in the crawlspace.
About 3ft wide, 4 ft tall, 1 ft deep. Mounted to the wall near my water main shutoff.
Typically only need to get to it once a year, but when you need to, you really need to. I would advise against crawlspace unless you have a very roomy one with easy access.
Can you tell me more about your washer/dryer combo? That sounds amazing and I didn't know such a thing existed. What one do you have? Any downsides compared to the "normal" setup?
Behold the future!
It's easier on our clothes, solves the "crap forgot to swap the laundry" problem, and takes up less space. It has (with an update) pet hair removal cycles.
The biggest downside is you need to keep on top of maintainence. Since its ventless, every bit of lint gets caught in a filter. Failing to clean this diligently will result in the heat pump coil getting clogged up. Wash the foam filter, run the self clean cycles....get creative with a hose to wash out the coils when you fall behind.
This model does have a bit of a flaw in the filter design, where lint can sometimes escape around it. YouTube tells me putting some strategic high-temp caulk can fix it.
In the end, the hassles are worth it for us. Especially since space was tight and now we have a folding table next to the washer. Oh and that our old dryer vent had an equivalent of a 40ft run, and would get clogged incredibly fast. There were no less than 6 right-angle turns in it, which also made it virtually mpossible to clean without total disassembly.
They're quite common in Europe, me and my partner had one in our old house which was quite small. I think unless you splash out they don't dry as well as a dedicated dryer but it always did a pretty decent job for most things.
I got one of those in July of 2024, though the Samsung unit. There were 3 available brands at the time. GE, LG, and Samsung. They all have their quirks but the Samsung one seems to have the better heat pump design and internally sprays and cleans its coils. The only downside is it takes "longer" to do laundry, and the lint trap takes a little more effort to clean since it is so thorough. I've had to shift to just throwing a load of laundry in when the basket gets full, when I would previously have a laundry day and do everything in one day.
Honestly, it's fantastic. You can throw a load of laundry in before work, and come home to clean laundry. Throw a load in before bed, same thing. The only time I haven't had something come out completely dry was a large comforter that other dryers also struggled with.
I had a whole house water filtration system and also loved it, but I just had it installed when I got a water softener. It was magically the way I could drink water from any tap in the home and not regret it.
Nice to see another id.4 owner on here! I got mine last year and still love it. It's hard to go back to driving any other older car now.
I ended up wiring a dash cam into the fuse box, which has also worked great, but I had to switch it to only be on while the car was on unfortunately. Be warned that while it has the setting to charge the 12v with the main battery when it's low, it will not keep up if you don't drive every day.
Switching from an ICE vehicle to an EV was one of the greatest decisions I've made. It's just so much nicer and easier to live with in almost every way
I have three that I'll share:
Fender Stratocaster (Dave Murray Signature)
I joined an Iron Maiden tribute band in 2017, and in order to tick off an A for authenticity, I bought Dave Murray's signature stratocaster. Having played guitar for years, but never owned a true strat (or any fender, for that matter) I was sceptical that this would be the gamechanger it proved to be. It is astonishingly good. The pickups sound great, and it practically plays itself. The neck is slim, the frets are chunky, the action is tight and low, and with 9-42 gauge strings on I feel like my hand simply glides through whatever song I throw at it. It's a thing of beauty. I love every scratch, dent, and spot of wear on the thing. I've played it constantly for 7 years, and I still love it every time I pick it up.
iPhone 15 Pro
Perhaps this one counts less, since I've only had it about 9 months. But I have been loving the switch to an iPhone, and this thing feels so polished and exciting. It feels magical to use, and continues to do so. I really like their implementation of an always-on display, I find magsafe super satisfying, and the eventual addition of Apple Intelligence to UK English phones is just a great time. Notification summaries have been tickling me pink ever since I got them. The integration with my other Apple stuff is continually wild, and it feels like a treat to pick up my phone and use it.
Hand-made Crokinole Board
When I first learned about crokinole, I couldn't quite believe that such a simple game could be as fun as it is. But I took a punt, and ordered a lovely hand-made board from a family business in Canada. The first thing to note is that it is simply a beautiful object. It's bright, round (obviously), and meticulously well made. The game is simplicity itself, but devilishly tricky to master, and among the most addicting things I have ever played. It has become a staple among my family's gatherings. Every child and every adult wants to have a go, and there is a never ending cycle of "just one more round" that eats late into the evenings.
Damn you! I've had a garagesale $10 crokinole board for years but it's in really rough shape. The pegs aren't equidistant from eachother so sitting on certain sides gives you an advantage, and the deck is more coarse than smooth. I've always wanted a quality board but could never justify it and I've since forgotten about the hobby entirely.
You unlocked that memory for me and sent me down a rabbit hole of finding the best quality and locally-made board. It arrives Dec 23rd! When my wife asks what happened I'll just point to 0d_billie :P
I’ll await my thank you card in the post ;P
Irt switching to an iPhone, yes..! I bought an iPhone 13 ~2½ years ago and have really, really loved it. Was on Android since the first Galaxy S came out and I am only really missing a small handful of apps and features from Android. iOS is really great if one doesn't really need customization and the phone itself feels luxurious. I have been really happy about the switch too and I don't see myself going back.
One giant caveat though is the repair cost. I have a tiny 1 cm scratch in a really annoying spot on my phone, and they said at the store that it would cost €400 to repair it (needs a completely new screen). And it's at least €100 with an off-brand one from an unofficial repair shop, but that seems more in line with repairing and Android phone, but I don't really know if an off-brand screen is as good or if those types of shops can really be trusted
I have personally had bad experiences at the off-brand repair shops, I've had phones returned with missing screws, "ghost touches," yellowed bezels (when some iphones had white bezels). Not worth the savings imo.
It may be better now that Apple is being forced to support better repairability, but I would recommend sticking with the "apple authorized" stores since they have to use legit parts.
My Aeropress. I have had one for about 10 years, only recently having to get a new one. Use it every morning in the exactly same way, giving me good coffee every time. Lovely uncomplicated analog way of making coffee.
I second the Aeropress. Just recently got the metal filter too. Thick-walled diner mugs for me too, I'll rarely ever go back to regular mugs. I just love the super thick walls on the diner ones (example).
Really for me a lot of my tea/coffee hardware are things that give me joy every time I use them. Electric gooseneck kettle (Bonavita). I have a hand grinder (Kingrinder K6), other brewers (clear plastic Hario V60, french press, Flair Neo Flex for manual hand-lever espresso, etc), and various teaware (multiple teapots, teacups, gaiwans, brewers, etc).
My mechanical keyboards too are a great source of constant enjoyment.
Coffee and Mechanical Keyboards? Are you me?
I went from an aeropress to a ceramic v60, to an integrated v60 carafe, to a Hario Switch which is now my daily driver. (And I recently picked up the new Aeropress Go Plus to use when traveling). Using a 1ZPresso grinder, don’t remember exactly which one. I have a Flair Lever Espresso maker (one of the older models), but don’t use it all that much because I’ve struggled to dial in something that tastes good with it.
I don’t have any fancy mugs, just some standard ceramic ones. My go-to each day is a stainless steel camp mug that’s slightly insulated I think, since I take a good 3 hours to drink my coffee in the morning. I also have a Fellow Carter Move for when I’m out and about.
On the keyboard front, I started my mechanical keyboard journey with a Drop ALT that now sits in storage, and am actively using a Keebio Iris Rev 7 with JWick Taro switches for my gaming PC, and a Keebio Iris CE with LowProKb’s Sunset low-profile switches.
Are YOU me!? Mechanical keyboards, Hario Switch, Flair Pro 2, 1zpresso JX-Pro, and a Fellow Carter Move (lost). Nice taste there, stranger. :)
u/0x29A another vote for the Switch here! I chose it after wanting less plastic in my life touching hot water and it does its job admirably and will likely outlive me.
Hah, I also chose the Switch because it was glass and wanted less plastic in my life touching near-boiling water.
Haha! I just added the Hario Switch to one of my wishlists a few days ago, also the Clever brewer. Wanted to mess with immersion+pourover combinations. As far as the Flair, it does take some getting used to, but I realized I was using closer to a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio and 1:2 worked much better for me. I pulled an awesome shot with the Neo Flex this morning using 15g in, 30ml out, with a fine (but not extremely fine) grind. Also pre-heated everything because otherwise it drops the temp too much without it. Used a trick Lance Hedrick has mentioned where he pre-infuses for a couple of seconds by just pushing the lever a bit, then pushes to 9 BAR / main espresso pressure, and then lets the pressure slowly fall off through the duration of the shot- and for whatever reason that combo of things got me probably the nicest shot yet. But I totally understand not wanting to bother often because it does waste a lot of coffee if you're constantly having to dial it in and just not satisfied.
The diner mug I have I got from a record label of all places, for like $15 and now I look around for more because I love the thick design. It looks good, feels good in the hand, stays warmer a bit longer than regular mugs. I do have a few regular mugs I enjoy too. Double-walled glass or insulated tumblers if I want some insulation too.
I also enjoy Aeropress, and a hand grinder. It’s really paid for itself by making much better coffee than the local cafe.
What mechanical keyboard do you have? I’ve been thinking about getting one for some time to try and type faster for longer at work.
I have... a lot of mech keyboards. Too many, in fact. All of them $150 or less though. Some a lot less. So even though I have a problem, I haven't let it get to the "super custom" hundreds of dollars level yet.
I've also used more typical office/gamer brands like Logitech and I do not recommend them for mech keyboards.
Here's a breakdown of my current ones and switches (if I can remember):
Wired:
Wired+Wireless:
For entry-level/first mech keyboards, I highly recommend Keychron. They have some very inexpensive options that are still high quality. I'm very surprised at what you can get for the price. My TH66 from Epomaker was also extremely inexpensive, but I will caveat that Epomaker both makes some of their own and also distributes many other KBs, so the quality/etc can possibly vary, but my TH66 is awesome and feels premium for how inexpensive it was (in fact, they sell a few models on Amazon and I got it on a sale there a while back). Not sure about their service or anything, though. Keychron's probably a safer overall choice, though with Amazon instead of direct maybe that's less of an issue idk
The Ducky and Varmilo are great too. I use the Varmilo as my daily driver and sometimes swap it with the Ducky. Both are fullsize (incl. keypad) and feel great. Got both of those from mechanical-keyboards.com over 4 years ago. Their service was great.
Sorry for the overwhelming amount of info- mech keyboards can be a bit daunting when you see all the options in terms of switches, keys, layouts, etc. (Here's a WIRED guide: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-shop-for-a-mechanical-keyboard/)
I too get a lot of joy out of my mechanical keyboards. Ok fine, you've convinced me to make my own post.
Guess I'll throw in for the coffee + mechanical keyboards crew too.
I use my Aeropress every day (except when family is visiting, when I'll break out the Cuisinart drip machine). I'm not a coffee aficionado or anything but I very much appreciate the consistent quality I get out of that thing.
A few years ago I got deep into building my own mechanical keyboards--researching and sourcing boards, microcontrollers, switches, keycaps (all the various profiles), then soldering everything together and 3D-printing my own cases. The end product is a few different Corne keyboards (two wired, one wireless), as well as a hand-wired macropad powered by a Pi Pico, and I also put together a Ploopy Nano trackball. I've also customized the layouts and firmware (roughly based on Dvorak but with several changes to how symbols are laid out to make it better for writing code). I love my keyboards.
I have the Yuropress (chinese copy) and since I'm the only coffee lover at home, it serves me really well.
I alternate between this and the V60. I love both equally.
I'm a big fan of an Aeropress, I do need to get one of my own now that I'm not living with my friend's!
Being small, sturdy, and simple also makes it great to take camping. There’s something extra satisfying about heating up water on a campfire and having a good cup of coffee out in nature on a chilly morning.
I use a stainless steel "moka pot" style coffee maker. Super simple, just 3 pieces and a silicone seal. I really enjoy it. The Aeropress has appealed to me before because I've heard so much good stuff about it, but I've never had the opportunity to try one. Have you tried a moka pot style coffee maker? How do they compare?
Only in videos and while it does look similarly easy, the brewing style is pretty different so I guess it will be a very different flavor profile.
Yes, I imagine they do taste different, which is part of my curiosity. I like the very strong extraction of a Moka Pot style brew, but some describe the Aeropress as being espresso like as well.
Maybe some day I’ll try one.
I’ve tried both and I prefer aeropress. More varied ways to brew. It’s also a lot simpler/easier to clean and no need for a stove so there’s that bonus too.
You’re not making it easy to continue to avoid unnecessary consumption. :)
I’ll probably try one when my IKEA moka pot fails. The handle is a bit wobbly, so it might be time sooner than later.
It is something which lasts a long time, and it is good for travel!
I have a Jansport backpack that's been with me in grade school since 3rd grade, through college, eight moves, Japan, dozens of vacations, and I took it to the deliveries of my children. No rips, tears, or anything that affects its usability. Every time I think about all that it makes me smile.
Wow, I got mine in third grade. Granted it’s a spiritual successor now after a lifetime warrant replacement. But it has been with me through college, Japan, and many moves too! My zippers have some issues but nothing bad. What color is yours? Mines black. And I do love it.
This is from a few years ago, but it's blue. Glad you like it too, I hope it stays just as nice!
this is such a fun question! For me it's my little pop-up book keychains from the 90s. They're like this, but the original brand is MUCH more detailed than the new ones. Here's an example of an original one.
I have two that are actually mine from childhood, and then a couple years ago I went hunting on ebay and bought a few others. I don't think you can find many on ebay anymore because I bought most of them haha
I don't really actively play with them anymore cos I'm now scared of breaking the spring, but I love them so much!!
This is such a cute answer, I love it! :)
Those are so cute!!! I lowkey may have to order that for the basketball one...
they're super fun! even though the "new" ones are much less awesome than the 90s ones, they're still extremely awesome and it's a lot of fun to open and close repeatedly. I have a bunch of them on my desk because I'm not scared of breaking the springs if it's a replaceable item which the old ones are not
I have a few things that "continue to delight" worth mentioning.
Mechanical keyboards. I see I am not along in my love of mechanical keyboards. It can be an expensive rabbit hole to fall into. I have had several dozen over the years, but I pared my collection down and gave away or sold a bunch of them when I moved last year. I used to predominately prefer vintage boards, but as I prefer tenkeyless keyboards it was difficult to find keyboards that fit both categories (really just my IBM Model M SSK). My current favorites are:
** Headphones (and related gear) **
For a number of reasons, I have rarely been able to listen to music on actual speakers (work, sleeping babies, etc) so I gravitated to listening via headphones. A friend sent me a used pair of nice headphones about 15 years ago and I could never go back to listening to inexpensive and uncomfortable headphones ever again. Another expensive rabbit hole! My current favorites are:
Last, but not least... My arcade machine, which doubles as a miniature server closet.
My arcade machine isn't super highend, but it supports two players and has a trackball (Golden Tee and Bowling games are popular when friends are by for beers). The arcades games themselves are emulated and powered by one of my little servers.
I still love being on my computer every day, it still something that brings me joy. Growing up in late 90's and later being on early internet, technology was always super exciting for me. Being on-line felt like being an explorer, never knowing what I'd find. So many interesting things to read, people to interact with, I miss those days.
Talking about an specific product, maybe my AirPods Pro 2. It's such a good and well designed product.
Do you find the issue now is needle in a haystack or change in all content on the internet that makes it less enjoyable?
Yeah, for sure. I think the old web used to be "real food". Sometimes home cooked, sometimes professional chefs. Some was tasty, some was not, but it was still food. Nowadays most of what I see is junk food, made to be addictive. So I have to constantly fight the urge of endless scrolling to be able to still find and enjoy what's real, you know? Like Tildes.
Absolutely, and I’ve used such an analogy before as well. I hope there is an internet UPF free revolution!
It's not a simple consumer gadget ... But my solar array. I bought my house knowing the roof was pretty good for solar, and positioned perfectly south. Nothing beats checking in on the production for a day or a month and seeing you're making more electricity than consuming.
I had a house with roof solar and loved it. That is probably one of the only things that I miss from Florida.
Might be cheating a bit since it's software, but I've slowly spent 700+ USD upgrading my copy of Ableton Live to the highest "suite" tier (haven't pulled the trigger on the upgrade to live 12 yet, though) and it's without a doubt the best purchase(s) I've ever made. I'm a hobbyist musician and I probably will never make that money back from the music I make in it, but that DAW is the best piece of software I own, and I never get tired of making new music.
Apart from that, I basically only wear Uniqlo Airism half sleeve t-shirts. They're the most comfortable t-shirt I've ever worn and I'm constantly surprised at how good they feel straight from the dryer, as someone who is very squeamish about weird-feeling fabric.
Uniqulo has some Airism underwear that is a godsend in the south in the summertime
I've already posted an answer with a specific item, but a more general answer is that I also love well-used high quality items. I've learned that I'd much rather have fewer high quality items than more new and shiny items. Grant Peterson, the founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works, coined a term that I think perfectly describes my view: Beausage
https://accidentalrandonneur.wordpress.com/2017/03/15/that-thing-called-beausage/
Similar to the concept of wabi-sabi, but I really like beausage, or beausification (my personal take on it) because it's more directly describes in my native tongue what it is -- beauty through usage. I love things that take on a patina and become better and have more character with age.
A few examples:
Most products now are made with synthetic materials that just look like trash after a while, so I've been really focused on spending a bit more up front for materials that age with grace, which is unfortunately becoming hard to do.
Any advice on resoling? I have a nice enough pair of dress shoes that I really ought to resole before they wear completely through. If it doesn't require too much specialised equipment, I'd love to learn a new skill!
Unfortunately I didn't do it myself, had it done -- I guess my wording was ambiguous. I have glued a sole back on a pair of Chacos, but that was easier. :) Speaking of Chacos, I have some of the old school ones form back when they were still made in Colorado (before being bought and moved to China) that have had 4 soles on them -- too bad the new ones aren't as durable.
My Leatherman, My wife jokes that it is my comfort object, I have had it for the better part of 20 years and I carry it everyday. Some times I just pat it to make sure its still there. My wife might be right.
A tiny wood gasifier stove. It's called the bush buddy, never patented, copied for mass production as the solo stove and later bastardized as the solo stove bonfire.
The effect of even a little fire on the human spirit is just impossible to understate. Add to that the novelty of the unique look of hot air combining with wood gas. Set it all in a cool night in the back country. Very satisfying.
An anecdote: one night after a search (I'm part of a mountain rescue team) that didn't go so well, spirits were not high. We were heading back to the campsite where we were staying and everyone was already committing to head straight to bed. I started a little fire in the stove on the picnic table to decompress. Everyone ended up gathering around and talking together for another hour and you could just see the stress fall off in that environment.
I'm always delighted by my little wood gasifier stove
I've never heard of this kind of thing and it looks really cool! Is the primary purpose for heating or just decoration? Can you use them indoors without an outside vent?
The primary purpose is to use as a stove for cooking with a small pot or pan.
It's just wood, so you can use it indoors without dedicated ventilation. But you'd want to conscious of the size of the space and how much airflow it gets and all that. Similar to if you were going to light a ton of candles.
This doesn’t fit your request perfectly, but this item does bring me unfettered delight every time I use it:
Trains
Just any trains. It could be a tram, regional rail, high speed, low speed, underground metro, or a steam engine on the narrow gauge shovelin’ coal. Every time I use a train it makes me happy. I get the same feeling from flying, but there are some big emission issues inherent to flying that slightly dampen that spark. Trains, even if a particular train is using a poor fuel, are so efficient that it doesn’t dampen the spark. And electrified trains are even better. I just took an inoui from Bordeaux to Paris at over 300 kph! Currently I am on the Paris metro, and I’ll soon be boarding the eurostar and going through the Chunnel to London. Today is a fantastic day!
As a side note, I am meeting a friend in London. He says that londoners hate the name “chunnel” apparently they always call it the “channel tunnel”. Well I think that is stupid. The chunnel is a fantastic name! I love a good portmanteau, and chunnel is one of the best. Long live the chunnel, and long live trains!
I like it !
As an anti-materialist myself, it’s cool to see someone point out an experience they enjoy!
I personally like baths and showers and will say they almost always bring me delight to take.
I also love trains. We have a train that runs from our small town to New York City that I would love to use when going to the city (somewhat frequently to visit family), but unfortunately every time I need to go I either need the car for one reason or another or don't have time, so I end up flying. My wife, on the other hand, hates the train, but whenever she goes alone she inevitably finds the train to be the most suitable way to get there. Life just isn't fair that way. haha
I'd LOVE to have 7 hours to just sit back and look out the window while reading a book.
Another train lover here!
This Patagonia jacket is probably the single most expensive piece of clothing I have, and it is the reason I look forward to cold weather again each fall, since it is also the warmest piece of clothing I have ever owned and I get to wear my jacket again!
I can and have gone outside just wearing a t-shirt beneath this in Danish and German winter – so not tested in extreme cold, but you know, pretty cold. The only caveat is that it’s not much good if the weather isn’t dry (or light snowfall is still fine, too).
And as if that wasn’t good enough, Patagonia is a nice brand to buy from.
Edit: and the pockets actually fit stuff. Like, wallet, keys, phone, earphones, very small water bottle, granola bar, tissues, spare buff scarf (or different brand) and gloves levels of stuff. You might end up looking a bit pregnant, though.
U solicited suggestuon You can get a functional single layer waterproof breathable shell that will add waterproofing and maybe 10 deg extra warmth if you need. You can real brands on sale for like $50 at rei outlet in us, I’m sure there’s a german equivalent.
Definitely thanks for the idea, I appreciate it and will look into those!
It may be silly, but a Stud Finder. The one I have is not new, it's been with me for awhile. Most of its life it quietly sits in my DIY tool bag. Every so often I lose it, but I find it again.
My husband owns a really nice one that has a tool that marks walls and a built in laser leveler. But still I think it’s best use is to hold to my chest and make beeping sounds.
The one I have is so useless, this is about all its good for.
I am always fond of the Penrose-tiled blanket that I designed and crocheted myself. Took about a year from concept to execution and was well worth it! I also made it during covid times so it was a real comfort project for me too.
I would love to see a picture if you are willing to post one. I used to crochet a ton but haven't in many years.
Have you seen the Einstein tile? Perfect for a sequel.
Hey! Sorry about the late reply, bit of additional hump to go through image hosting, but here's an old pic of the blanket! Imgur link
Haven't seen Einstein tiles before.. Seems more complicated for a crochet shape but may consider it for a future project. Would be a fun challenge!
Oh my, that is beautiful. Thank you for the picture!
I told myself I would never make another blanket that required sewing the pieces together, but you might have convinced me otherwise. I might do one where the pieces have a different color in the corners for the matching rule, like this set of 3D-printable tiles I made.
Ooh yes that would look great as a blanket as well
Shapes also seem more difficult than my p3 tiles-- good luck! If you end up starting it would love to get an update lol!
Mechanical keyboards have been mentioned. I wouldn't have thought of it on my own, but I want to list it as one of those things that catch a lot of disdainful, sometimes almost aggressive flak (or perhaps condescendence) from people who have more often than not never even tried one, or maybe they just don't type much. A good mechanical keyboard is a thousand times better for typing a lot than thin laptop rubber nipple keyboards or, god forbid, touchscreens, and it's just a pleasure to use.
We can segue right into the main dish, my VR headset. Sorry for being predictable (if you've read my comments before), but even though I will have been a VR user for 5 years next month, there's always something magical about strapping a bunch of stuff to my body and being transported to another world to hang out, chat, sing, explore, play or exercise.
Yet every time VR is mentioned in any press release (I was watching TGA last night) there's always a bunch of people saying something like "they still make VR headsets? Nobody wants that! That's an answer looking for a question!" or something. And I just know with absolute certainty these people have never in their lives used VR, or maybe tried it for 5 minutes and experienced nothing. With luck they tried a development kit 8 years ago and somehow imagine the industry has remained unchanged since. It's a fact that there are loads of people that enjoy VR, so perhaps they should keep stupid takes about things they know nothing about to themselves. Sorry for the mini-rant here.
I've been enjoying my pizza stone (and peel). Once I got the dough recipe just right, damn, one sure can make some kick ass pizza at home.
I make my pizza dough with my thermomix. Overly expensive, unfortunately associated with some MLM practices (mostly commission-based sales I think), but popular in Portugal, it's a fairly good kitchen robot I received as a gift a decade ago. It makes things in a blender-like heatable metal cup with rotating blades in the bottom and an optional tray on top. Main features are weighing in grams, cooking/stewing/steaming and mixing/shredding/grinding/pureeing/pulverizing (depending on speed and rotation direction). Modern versions have step by step tutorials and internet integration for recipes that automatically prime the parameters for you. It's very good for making soups, sauces, creams, desserts, doughs, powdered sugars and stews with mixed ingredients.
What an absurd line of thought for VR. I feel this way about blockchain and some other technologies, but VR, at least as a gaming peripheral, certainly has a use.
I would argue (or at least hope) it's still in its infancy. I think VR is still pretty niche when you consider popularity in the gaming community as a whole (or even just PC gamers). There are a lot of improvements to be made, even at the high end tier, and of course the price for that level of hardware will need to drop dramatically.
I was gifted a hand-me-down Quest 2, and while I like some aspects of it, I'm annoyed with others. I want to experience PC VR, and the only way to do it wired is with Oculus Link, and sometimes it takes 20 minutes of fiddling to make it work. My PC currently isn't connected to my network in any wired way, so attempting the AirLink or Steam Link is nearly unplayable. I do plan to beef up my network, including running Ethernet to my computer and setting up a WiFi 6 access point, but I still have reservations on how much that will improve things since I have a lot of devices on my network (meaning a lot of wireless interference).
Hi there. No worries, I also feel that way about cryptocurrencies (blockchain does have some conceptual utility in the distributed/cooperative database space).
I don't think VR can ever be as widespread as gaming as a whole, that's just a function of convenience and accessibility: Certain disabilities hinder VR playing a lot more than regular videogame playing, for instance (or make it entirely unlikely); you don't necessarily need but you certainly want a little more space at home; you can't easily multitask; etc. But it does have its uses beyond gaming, for example it's already in use in certain kinds of therapy, or for showcases. I certainly agree that it has the potential to be more widespread than it is now, especially if hardware prices can be lowered again (the low original cost of the Quest 2 was a massive boon for the community).
I did beef up my network with a mid tier Asus router for VR, no walls between it and the headset. The improvements are immense. I can get the full 1200mbps supported by these headsets, stable.
As is often recommended, I eliminated interference from other devices in the same network by reserving the 5ghz band for VR and using the 2.4ghz band for other devices. Just an option to keep in mind!
I assume if you're connected to a PC, that PC is wired to the router?
I have a UniFi access point that does 5ghz but I don't want to make all of my other devices suffer for the sake of VR.
I'm one of those homelab people so my eventual plan would be to set up a couple access points that have a bandwidth of 2.5g to ensure strong connection throughout the house. I was going to jump on that this year, but discovered that Cox was effectively lying about their fiber rollout - they put fiber the home in a neighborhood behind us, but for us we only get "fiber-backed" - AKA normal internet lol. When someone offers fiber to the home, that will be a major push to strengthen my home network.
Yes, fiber, PC wired to the router and there's an access point in the living room too (I'm adding another after christmas if I get one - it was on my wishlist!) I don't see any degradation in other devices in practice since I don't need the full speed you can attain with the 5ghz band and I do use wired, so in effect you're right, you might need to just beef up your network in a way that makes sense for the space. I hope you'll have better service eventually!
FWIW, I used my Q2, and use my Q3, with wireless airlink and basically don't think about latency, ever. It's reached good enough I don't care for the marginal gain of the cable. And I'm pretty sensitive to framerate, jitter, and the like. Using eero 6e's for my home network.
That same type said the internet would be a passing fad too. They don't really see it for what it is and there's a TON of untapped potential still in it just waiting for the right hardware and software to explode in popularity.
It's times like this I wish Steve Jobs was still around. I'm not a fan of Apple, but Jobs was really good at bringing new tech to the masses.
I guess the bright colors on my OLED TV make me feel good.
For the most part, everything else I own is just stuff. I guess I derive some amount of pleasure from certain pairs of running shoes that I own.
Recently bought an OLED. It rules.
I have a few:
My Canon camera (R10 with an RF 100-400 lens) I use for bird photography, though I'm about to upgrade the EF 100-400 lens so not sure that counts?
An electric heated blanket. I practically live under that thing during winter.
A cashmere scarf my wife bought me for Christmas several years ago. I call it my emotional support scarf.
Crisp cotton bedsheets and duvet cover, I just love the feel of crisp cotton fabric against my skin!
Also, this new sun hat I just bought, it has a sort of shawl / mini-cape attached so it has the bonus effect of making me look like a witch. Then when I go indoors I can pull the hat part down my back and keep the shawl part around my shoulders to stay cozy.
Where did you get your crisp sheets?
Mine's from a local seller (PH), the sheets are labeled as 300 thread count Pakistani cotton
My 2004 Toyota Tacoma has been the most reliable, useful vehicle I've ever owned. It just seems bulletproof so far, and I haul heavy loads with it about twice a month. It is also easy to work on, with lots of space inside the engine compartment. Virtually every modern vehicle I've seen has been cram packed in the engine compartment, or even completely covered with plastic, so my old Tacoma is a joy for anyone who likes to tinker.
I have a 14" Delta band saw that is a pleasure to use also. It was made in 1957, and I can still get replacement parts for most of it, though the original stand is no longer made. It is solid cast-iron, and absorbs vibration so well you can barely feel it on the top of the worktable.
So this one is a little crazy.
I got a leather belt from Abercrombie & Fitch in 1997, back when I was 15 and in high school.
I'm now 42, and I've worn that belt at least four times a week since I got it. I'm wearing it right now. It's basically the only belt I ever wear (unless I need to dress more formal), and I hope it lasts forever.
I feel you. I had a leather belt for about 8 years that would have lasted me forever I reckon. It was lost with the rest of my luggage when I flew to Turkey. Alas I have another leather belt that's about 4 years old and will hopefully stay with me for a while.
It's not often in this day and age that something lasts this long.
My father in law gave me an analog stopwatch when he retired from doing TV work. It is a real treasure to me. As a kid I always dreamed of owning a piece like that. It has such a solid feel to it, and the ticking just sounds so incredibly smooth. I dig it up every once in a while, wind it and just watch and listen for a while.
I also own many tools that have a very special place in my heart. It’s always a joy to use them and I try to take good care of them. But nothing matches the stopwatch.
Would Fleshlight count? :-D It completely fullfills the conditions.
Even though I think it should count, let's get serious.
Thinks I already have for some time that still delight me (or that I still continue on using and I'm glad I have bought them) are for example my 5tg generation Kindle that I got for 50€ and that is right from Amazon and without ads! I'm not a big reader yet thanks to this wonderful and cheap thing I managed to read quite some books in the 10+ years that I have it. And although I'm Czech, I bought like 70% of he books in English which helps.me with this language.
I'm also glad I bought brand new PSP back in the day. It got me into portable gaming and shaped the way I play up to this day. Valve crowned this when they released Steam Deck - quite powerful portable PC for very nice price.
I'm also glad I bought iFixit kit. I had such precision screwdriver but I love the way iFixit is leading and I wanted to support them and I knew it would last me and serve me really well. And it does.
I had used Koss Porta Pro since around 2001-02 for a looong time. I had them fixed a few times under their lifetime warranty, then I bought Anniversary edition which I also managed to break... I have thrown the OG ones out a few weeks ago, they were very used and in a state of me not being able to fix them (and lifetime warranty got changed somewhere along the way). I didn't want to get rid of them, but there really was no value anymore. I still have those broken Anniversary edition ones, they still look good. But I don't use them anymore for quite a few years.
I hadn't even considered to include my iFixit kit but you are so right! Every time I go to use it I am happy I decided to get it instead of any of the vast array of cheaper and less well designed options on Amazon.
At the risk of outing myself as an übernerd, my HP 48SX RPN Graphing Calculator. I purchased it new with a half a summer's worth of savings from my first job in high school in the early 90's, and have been using it regularly ever since. The buttons are just so satisfyingly clicky to use, and stack-based calculations just make a lot more sense to my brain's flow. It makes me happy to use it every single time, and I hope it lasts forever.
I cannot tell you how jealous I am. I fell in love with RPN a few years ago, and now I use RPN exclusively (PCalc on my phone). I splurged and bought myself a HP 11 c and HP 12 c. I have always wanted to grab a 48 series, but they always seem too expensive when I have very little use for calculators in general.
If you're ever in the mood for more modern equipment, SwissMicros has a line of new-manufacture clones that are really good. (Not cheap either, unfortunately.)
Have you personally used them? Do they actually hold up quality wise to the HP ones? I have considered buying them in the past, but I feel like I remember reading something about them being worse quality. If they are just as good, I may start saving up for one of their fancy ones.
I do have a DM15L, which I like. I still use my HP most of the time, as the larger screen is nice, but if I had to use a modern calculator, it would be a SwissMicros. It's noticeably faster than the original, and while I can't say the keys feel exactly the same, I have no complaints at all with how they feel. The build quality is top-notch, and the metal frame is very nice.
Thanks for the info! I’ll definitely consider them for the future. I never thought about it potentially being faster, but I suppose it makes sense. Especially since they are emulating the cpu anyway, might as well throw all the performance you can within the power budget. I think I’ll keep trying to find a garage sale vintage HP where the seller doesn’t know the real value, but if my impulsivity starts telling me I need a new calculator, I think I’ll grab a swissmicro.
I've thought about this for a while and couldn't think of anything until I realized that structures I've built can count as possessions. I'm very proud of the 15'x20' half chicken coop/half shed that I spent about a year building: https://i.imgur.com/YYJLnm7.jpeg. I'm also proud of and happy with the greenhouse I just finished building (https://imgur.com/a/eWfBANO) so my chickens can enjoy playing with my compost in a slightly warmer space over winter (also check out a video discussing it here if you want: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewC1qoUi3Tc).
These delight me because they're exactly what I envisioned and nearly exactly what I wanted from them. I confess I do see the mistakes I've made when building the coop, but those are starting to fade in favor of just seeing a useful building that my chickens appreciate (and on another related note, I'm enjoying my chickens more than I expected I would. They are goofy, skittish, cute animals, and they delight me whenever I'm out with them. Plus they give me someone to talk to when I'd normally be outside alone!).
And to sorta fit the spirit of the question better: some good coffee in my French press delights me twice a day (or sometimes three on a weekend). I still appreciate good coffee every single time. And we've been getting that particular coffee since 2015!
Before it broke, my Mobiscribe. When it wasn't pissing me off with its rather numerous flaws (e.g. it had a habit of freezing up for 30+ seconds straight, in notebooks with lots of pages full of lots of lines).
Huh, this seems neat.
Which version did you have, how did it break, and will you be getting another? Also, how does the stylus feel on the screen? I hate it when it's all scratchy, but nowhere near me seems to sell them so I can try it IRL.
The original Mobiscribe, the screen broke (no cause, it just shattered itself one day), and I bought a PineNote (which the Mobiscribe was sort of a stopgap for anyway). Apart from the lack of open-source-ness, I didn't have any real(ASTERISK) complaints about the Mobiscribe as a whole. Apparently the newer versions have a better CPU, which was the #1 showstopper. They could make the case a bit better.
The stylus is fine, generally if it's scratchy then you need to replace the nib (or at least clip off the sharper bits, to kick the can down the road a little). It feels a little glassy on the screen, smoother compared to the ReMarkable for instance, but it's still really quite nice.
Actually, my #1 complaint about the stylus is that it's hexagonal. If it weren't for that, I'd say the stylus is outright better than other styluses (the RM2's stylus is far heavier, and apparently deliberately so, because a weighty metal pen is apparently perceived to be "high quality", which is stupid). The PineNote's stylus is almost better than the Mobiscribe's, it's rounded rather than hexagonal so nothing to dig into the hand, except it has the pocket hook thing at the top, which is annoying and useless and digs into the web of my hand if not rotated out of the way.
You can buy nibs online from the official store of most e-note sellers, albeit at a rather grossly high price of ~$1/nib and you can't buy e.g. a 50-pack to save money. You'd think a shaped piece of felt would be much cheaper.
Very helpful, thanks! How's the PineNote treating you? I hadn't heard of it before, but my interest is piqued...
The PineNote is very, very lacking on the software side and documentation is lacking. Also, I don't entirely trust the hardware since I left it out in the sunlight once and the screen glitched, possibly from overheating. Also apparently leaving it out in sunlight will permanently yellow the screen over time, and this is a device whose main benefit IMO is that it's always readable and thus can be left out in sunlight instead of needing to be switched on to read its contents.
The PineNote, AFAICT, requires Wayland, and I can't find decent documentation for a no-keyboard-required compositor that isn't GNOME. I fucking hate GNOME, at least on the PineNote. I've used XFCE on an e-ink tablet before, it was flawless. If it weren't for requiring Wayland I'd just use XFCE (yes I know the XFCE team have added preliminary support for Wayland, but it's not stable and it's definitely not packaged for the Debian Stable that the PineNote ships with).
The problem with the PineNote, AFAICT, is that nobody has really written an ecosystem for an e-ink tablet on Linux. For instance the main drawing/notetaking-with-stylus app everyone uses, Xournal++, has a built-in scrolling system that cannot be disabled, and scrolling is just plain stupid on e-ink touchscreens (which are 1Hz). It's clearly designed for desktop usage, and hasn't been redesigned for an e-ink tablet, and it has by far the best stylus latency right now. Its UI sucks - creating a file requires typing in a filename (which is a PITA on devices that don't have keyboards) instead of just having a "new file" button to be renamed later. The file system (as in Xournal++'s system for opening/etc files) is the standard desktop stuff, which sucks and should be redone from scratch.
I'm not complaining per se, I imagine the response would be "patches welcome" and I'm happy to do my own stuff, but GNOME is missing some basic documentation and my whole impression of PineNote is that it's fragile as glass (e.g. repeated hard-resetting it might apparently brick it, even if the hard resets aren't frequent) and I don't understand the tech in-depth enough to risk experimenting with it myself.
I'd be interested in where you heard that. Not as a sealioning thing, to be clear. I'm legitimately curious about the technical details of how they managed that particular failure mode, which I've never heard of before in any device.
In the #pinenote chat like basically everything else. Basically, there's some chip that's guaranteed to survive losing power without warning 500 times over its lifetime and after that, could break at any time. And hard resetting removes power without warning, which trips that.
I can't find it anymore, ugh.
EDIT: Comment on 15th November 2024 by dsimic:
[I] <dsimic> @minikuba : FWIW, forcedly powering any device with LPDDR4 DRAM is a bad idea, because the JEDEC specification says that LPDDR4 DRAM chips aren't supposed to powere off without following the right ptocedure, and up to 400 forced power-offs are officially guaranteed before the chips may go nuts
Interesting. TIL. (I have the expertise to understand this issue, but not the experience to have encountered it before.)
I did some research and it's a power supply sequencing thing (the chip requires a few separate power supply lines that need to be turned on and off in the right order, and "just pull them suddenly all at once" is not the right order). I get the sense this is one of those "you're supposed to design the board in such a way that that doesn't happen" things. It certainly can be made a non-issue, and I would be surprised if this was a real problem on most devices.
But I haven't looked at the PineNote specifically and don't know how much effort they put into their LPDDR power sequencing.
Thanks for the detailed write-up! Definitely sounds beyond my skill set for now, but I'll be keeping an eye on it for future iterations.
I found a barely used Taylor at one of those trade in media stores a while back and its been fabulous. So smooth.
Still kind of a cheap guitar, but a huge upgrade from the rando-made-in-china that I had been using for years that had some kinda factory defect on the neck.
Cool! I've never played a Really Expensive guitar, I wonder how it scales? I guess it's probably very much diminishing returns past a certain point... Though on the other hand there's definitely a kind of class of acoustic guitar that professionals often use that cost ~1800-3000+, like the martin d-28 and that kind of thing, so maybe there's something to it
I imagine its the sound thats a big difference at those price points, they’re probably already using the best wood they can for the fret board.
I recently bought these little magnet-loaded leather toys called Fidget Macarons that bring me a pop of joy every time I use them.
I bought a stereo system a few years ago and that brings me immense joy. I listen to a lot of music and it always gets my day pointed in the right direction. And as an extension of that, I picked up some Sennheiser IEMs on sale for about $120 that have been absolute godsends when I travel. They are worth every penny because they sound phenomenal and help me be ground myself when travel stress creeps up.
Lastly, I’ll echo another comment and say my bike. I rode the same bike for ~10 years and just upgraded this past summer. What a joy! I have loved cycling for a long time and this helped reinvigorate my passion for the sport.
Others have chimes in with practical answers but I'm with @RheingoldRiver on the childhood nostalgic joy on this one. I have items I like very much and will replace them with similar when I lose them, sure, but object of pure joy every time I even walk by or remember I own it or actually use it, is a different category above and beyond mere "excellent".
These objects are not going to be objectively as good for whoever buys or owns them next / as well, they're Joyous perhaps only for me. As such, the rest of this comment is basically useless for gift ideas.
In no particular order
A Chibi Totoro stuffie. A rare instance where a replacement item means much more than the original. When I was a kid, Totoro was played in the theatre dubbed in the local language, and caused a huge hit for merch. For Christmas that year all I wanted was a Chibi Totoro stuffie, the little shy white one with chicken feet that secretly has a huge mouth and can turn invisible, but only briefly. I got one, but long story short it was ruined almost immediately from sibling in-fighting. I kept this ruined treasure for a couple decades until my husband decided to get me a brand new, shipped from Japan reprint: this time it's as shiny white and fluffy and adorable as it is untainted by bad memories.
My cello. Although I don't play it much anymore the richness of its sound brings me to tears nearly every time I do. Simply walking by it makes me happy. It's an instrument I chose for myself as an adult.
Hmmm three is a trend so I'll save the rest, but yeah a significant number of these items are a balm to some sort of old wound. Rubik's cube. Down sleeping bag. A PS2. A sapphire necklace and solid cross pendant. A lone yellow ceramic cup, half a sake set, some small plates missing their big center piece plate. These items are coming with wherever I move next.
My selmer bari saxophone. I got it 2 years ago after using a much older, borrowed one from my community band director. The borrowed horn was fine and I am extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to use it, but man, mine is just the best thing ever. It's so SMOOTH. I'm not fighting for control of my low notes or squawking in the upper octaves. I can purr or belt with ease. It's a basic intermediate model but I've never had a horn that just works like this one. The case is also a much lighter plastic shell construction compared to the heavy wooden behemoth of the borrowed horn and, most importantly, it has WHEELS. I'm a short lady so anything to help with lugging the beast around is incredibly appreciated
I was trying to think of something to add to this list, but the things that give me the most joy when I look at them are really having to do with our little bean. The dog gives me so much joy, but she isn't a thing. She's my pet. So I wanted to think on other things, and honestly, my tea kettle and mug collection give me so much joy when I look at them. It's the best thing to open my cabinet, and select the mug that fits my mood, whether it's the design or the size or both. And my now-discontinued kettle that doubles as a carafe and keeps the water hot for hours after it's boiled so I don't have to wait for the kettle to boil over and over if I want multiple mugs of hot tea.
Behold, the disco light! A rainbow MBT-brand "Spinning Star", which I grabbed while working at Goodwill during a Saturday sale some, oh, six years ago. One of the most impulsive buys of my life.
Do I host a lot of parties that could call for it? Nope.
Have I ever used it? Not yet!
Is it doing anything besides gathering dust right now? Nah.
Does it bring me joy and delight? Absolutely.
Seriously, no idea why I love this thing so much despite never using it. There's a funny video of the night I brought it home, with it spinning on our kitchen counter and then me leaning in the frame bobbing my head with a giant grin and thumbs up. I have zero regrets about this purchase.
My vintage watches: I got tired of wearing smart watches. I am very picky so it’s a joy when I stumble upon one that I enjoy.
Mechanical keyboards: It’s only been two yers, but I love the retro style of the ones I own
Super73 S2: I’ve had this electric bike for 3yrs and it’s basically how I get around.
My rubix cube: I’ve had my 3x3 for about 7yrs now. It’s basically my fidget spinner and I use it constantly.
With watches, it is something most people overlook until they get one. For men, it is kind of the one piece of jewelry that you get, and people do notice them more than you think.
I personally have four watches which are:
I’ve definitely seen Truwood watches online. I started off saying I would collect only Nixon Sk-09 watched, then moved onto collecting Casio. film watches, then moved onto Seiko Zucca dashboard watches and seiko timetrons. I went down a rabbit hole, but people ask a lot about them and they are good icebreakers in a world where I need to network a lot.
Not sure how they are now, since I got my first Truwood when they were starting out, but I would say they are a mixed bag. I had issues with a few of them, but got good warranty work on them. Part of my problem was that I was daily wearing them, and wooden watches are not designed to be as durable as other watches. So part of my problem was user error, but I have had too high of a failure rate with them to fully endorse them, even though most problems were covered with warranty. In total, I believe I went through one of their first revision watches and two of their second revision watches with a mechanical failure, and had two straps break on me. One of the mechanical failures I am hoping to take to a watchmaker to get it repaired. However, when I was daily wearing it in university I got a lot of compliments, and now that I just use the working one as a formal watch, I get less compliments but it occassionally does get noticed.
Edit: I felt this rambled on a bit and wasn't concise and organized so I am going to make a pros and cons list of my experience with Truwood watches
Pros:
Cons:
Overall: I would recommend them as a formal watch that is worn occasionally, but the reliability issue makes it something I would not recommend as a daily watch
You might want to upgrade. Even the "cheap" $30 cubes these days are insanely fun to fidget with.
I have a few other versions. Once people learned I liked cubes that became a staple gift for a while, lol
The one I miss the most is my Pebble 2 watch. It hit the perfect sweet spot for ergonomics and features. Sadly, a -40°C day did it in.
The one I still use daily is my FingerWorks iGesture pad. 25 year-old pointing device, and there's still nothing that comes close to the functionality packed into that little beast.
For non-tech stuff, as dumb and as cringe as it sounds, a wooden Japanese practice sword (bokken). When my university martial arts club bought a cheap set in bulk in the 90s, I got the last one. It's straight, but the wood it blotchy
I also miss my pebble,. Mine was smashed (boring story heavy box on top of it), and no smartwatch has quite filled the void of it.
Another former Pebbler checking in! Mine just stopped taking a charge one day, which made me very sad. I chased alternatives for a while, but there's just nothing like it.
Still using my Pebble Time Round every day! Still the sleekest and best smartwatch for my use cases.
My bicycle comes to mind. Iv got some serious usage out of it and it's nice to cycle.
My mp3 player is also up there. Although I do wanna install rockbox on it to make the interface better and then I think it will be as good as it gets for usage.
My portable speaker is rad. In fact some of the best times iv had recently have been cycling and listening to tunes.
Second the bike. I found a used Cannondale for $100 my freshman year of college and that thing saved me over $2000 in parking.
I used to keep it in my trunk, and one time my car overheated and I was able to bike to the nearest gas station to buy coolant.
I still go on trails with it sometimes. It doesn’t get as much love as it used to, though.
Bikes are pretty cool and a great way to experience the world. Keep on cycling homie.
My Cafelat Robot lever espresso machine makes me happy every single day, and I've had it for close to 3 years now. Alongside it are my Technivorm Moccamaster and Niche Zero grinder. It's a happiness trio.
I keep having to force myself not to get a Moccamaster. I love drip coffee as a daily ritual and have a solid coffee maker/setup. Is it worth it in your opinion? Could you notice the difference in drip coffee from whatever you were doing before?
I got one for a couple of reasons: my partner has chronic pain issues, so using a lever espresso machine is completely out of the question. Also, I daily drove a Chemex for years. While I enjoy the daily ritual we also wanted something that she could use if I'm not home. Deep in my heart the Chemex is my true love but for an automatic brewer I'd say show me one that is better than a Moccamaster. So yeah, it's fully worth it. Also since you can get them in different colors we were able to get one that very closely matches the Robot.
I went from an Areopress to the Moccamaster + Zojirushi glass vacuum carafe and I couldn’t be happier. The ‘press is still on duty as a travel necessity but having arguably better coffee that stays warm all day is a quality life upgrade.
I justified mine by getting it a third of the price off by buying a retuned one online. I have a feeling you won’t regret it.
My fountain pens! I've gotten into the hobby around last year, and I now have 18 of them. It's not an exciting collection but I think I have a good range from budget pens to borderline luxury ones and each of them is pleasing to use in their own way. I have about 15 bottles of ink that accompany them, though majority of my pens are not inked. (A fountain pen topic might be due.)
I have two other things that I use that while they do not delight me necessarily, they are extremely reliable and I try not to take for granted. My headphones Sennheiser HD 600 and my office chair Steelcase Leap. The chair especially cost me a pretty penny (had to pay MSRP) but it was so worth it.
I loved my fountain pens in college, but have used them less since graduating since I don’t write as much anymore (I used to bullet journal for keeping track of my college tasks, but now I don’t really get out enough / schedule enough things for needing it).
I regularly used my Kaweco Sport AL, and a Moonman and potentially Moonman Mini(?).
I have 2 cheap "shark pens" bought from some china-website or other for the equivalent of about €2 each, and 1 "proper" pen that runs about €15-20 depending on where you buy it. I use a blunt tipped syringe to fill old plastic cartridges with ink I love that only comes in bottles.
I am beyond pleased with the cheapest ones, and have never had any issues with them. Of the more expensive ones I've tried, only the 1 has stayed with me.
I do not use them for calligraphy, and my penmanship isn't anything to write home about.
It just makes me happy. Shopping lists, doodles, you name it, it makes me happy.
I also don't take them apart to wash all the pieces all the time. They are pens. Just pens.
It's far from a hobby that breaks the bank. My cheaper pens like Safari, Kakuno, and Preppy write surprisingly great and a joy to use. I haven't tried filling old plastic cartridges yet but that's on my list. I'm using converters where I can, but I also have VAC and piston filled pens that are great in their own right.
I have terrible handwriting but it's something that will develop itself overtime.
As for the cleaning, I agree. I only take them apart and wash them when I change inks, but that's because I don't want to spoil the new ink in any way from whatever was left on the pen. The only pen I care more about is my Lamy 2000, but it's such a durable workhorse that I don't worry about it.
The only reason I reuse old cartridges was that I had bottled ink, and no converter. And then I've just kept doing it that way. No good reason to if you have converterts!
I enjoy not washing them and watching the colour of the ink slowly fade from the old ink to the new ink over time.
So do I! Got a second-hand lot of Kaweco cartridges where every colour had no more than 1 used up, some still untouched. The small ones. And enjoyed changing ink and seeing the different shades and transitions.
Would never sign anything professional with it like that...
But will I doodle an entire page full of lines or squiggles just to see the slow fade? Yes!
Absolutely no way someone could do all their professional work in a very slow rainbow...
It does make everything very traceable back to me in the office though which has both upsides and downsides.
Oh I could only imagine! laughs
I have looked up what colours are allowed for legal documents and the likes, since many countries actually have written law stating specific colours only for certain things. Technically... I could use whatever I want, always, where I live.
Seems like yellow highlighter ink in a fountain pen would be especially horrible. laughs again
I've settled for a fuchsia, document proof ink. The colour makes it easy to see if it is photocopied. Not that I ever sign anything of any legal importance. But if I did... It would be hard to fake my signature!
I have two companies that I will continue buying products from for the foreseeable future. I absolutely love every product I have received from these companies.
First is Darn Tough. I started with a 3 pack from REI. They were amazingly better than any socks I had used before, but way too expensive. But I slowly kept adding to my collection over time. Starting a few years ago, I threw out all my other socks and have sworn never to wear anything but Darn Tough since then. The only exception is my ski socks. I have quite a few ski socks that are smart wool (from before their quality declined), but I only buy Darn Tough for my new ski socks. Every day I put on some fantastic socks, and it makes me happy.
Next is LTT store products. I am less enthusiastic about LTT as Darn Tough, but their products are very good. My first big purchase was their backpack. It was one of the most expensive backpacks I have ever purchased, but it was worth every penny. Next purchase was the screwdriver. I exclusively used cheap screwdrivers before this because I never really felt the need for something expensive. This screwdriver is absolutely worth it. Most recently, I got the scribedriver. I already had some decently nice pens, in particular a rotring 600. I used to like the rotring, but the scribedriver is better in every way. I didn't particularly like the refill that was included, but I found a Parker 0.7mm gel ink refill at a local store that is fantastic. I ran out of ink on that refill during a test last week and had to use my rotring with a 0.5mm gel ink refill and I was very sad. I never realized how much the pen itself and the ink/refill quality could affect how enjoyable writing is. I have a few other items from LTT, but none are as fantastic and unique as those three.
LTT stuff is really great, not just as "merch", it legitimately holds up to the wider market. I picked up a screwdriver and scribedriver during their Black Friday sale, and my experience is as yours. I didn't go for the backpack, but I got their 3d Down Jacket and it's great. I'm going to buy some T-shirts at some point.
I haven't watched any of LTT's videos since the GamersNexus fiasco, but I bought their screwdriver back when I was a fan and it has indeed held up. I would genuinely recommend it as a product, independent from LTT as a media organization. I'd never used a ratcheting screwdriver before, so I can't compare it to other products, but it's a very solid tool for various household screwdriving tasks and is definitely an improvement over a normal screwdriver when used for putting together ikea furniture.
Steam Deck. It's not a necessary device by any means, but at such a relatively low barrier to entry to gaming and computing (because it can double as a traditional desktop with the dock if need be), it is so amazing the sort of power that can be put in such a portable package. I get so excited talking about it.
This is totally my one! My Steam Deck is my favourite possession. I also use it as my main computer via a USB hub in desktop mode. I also run all of my old DOS games on it, again via a USB hub but this one’s hooked up to a 17 inch CRT monitor. It’s pure sorcery, and I love it
I just thought of another thing: a water filter that hooks up to the faucet, but instead of one of those cheap plastic "Pur/Brita" ones that hang off the end of the faucet, and are always a bit janky and leaky, I upgraded to a larger countertop one that has to be replaced MUCH less often. Thousands of gallons per filter. It runs a small hose to a fitting that goes on the end of the faucet and to me is much nicer than the big contraptions that hang on the faucet itself.
I get great water out of it, and I absolutely need my water filtered around here, and I use filtered water every day for various things. Less waste, less changing, less janky, more well-built. I love just constantly having access to filtered, tasty water. Thousands of gallons of use and filters are only like $30! Compared to Pur/Brita it's an incredible value
I just want to second your recommendation about the water filters from Water Drop. They also make a pitcher version and it filters radically fast compared to the typical Pur or Brita. I only stopped using mine when I got a whole house water filtration system.
This is really interesting. I've only seen reverse osmosis next to the sink before. I don't think my partner would be fond of the cable going from the faucet head to this filter system. (I also don't think it would work with our sprayer faucet head.)
I wonder if there's some other way we could make it more "stealthy" without drilling a hole through the countertop.
Another thing: A GRIP6 belt. There are a number of companies doing similar things now.
My usual belt situation has been- always too loose or too tight, or I customize it with my own self-made hole (or not), and eventually cheap belts always want to break at weak points, or weaken in general, and are uncomfortable.
A belt like the GRIP6 solved that for me permanently. I've now had this belt longer than any other belt, it's infinitely adjustable down to the most granular need, the buckle stays out of the way and doesn't pinch me, etc. Life changer, for something so simple, because it has significantly increased my comfort on a permanent basis.
Few instruments named, going to call out my ukulele named Kala. I literally bought her for $35 entirely in loose change I had been saving up for years when I was broke; and even knowing how to play multiple instruments now, she's always my first go-to when I want to play something. It really is a great instrument to just be able to pick up and play something. Especially with traveling and such.
She also has a brother now, Hans, who I also get a lot of joy out of - he's an electric soprano from Germany (not where I expected to get a ukulele imported from lol), and oh man as someone who mostly listens to music with a lot of distortion is it fun to mess around with the sound you can get out of something so small
this chef knife brings a smile to me everytime i use it
I'm not the first to mention a mechanical keyboard but I wanted to talk about my very specific mechanical keyboard! Heck, I was honestly thinking about this thread title when I disassembled it over the weekend for a quick clean (which then inspired me to go seek out the designer on Discord to send a message telling him that this thing has been a beautifully designed truck of a board...)
Images first
This got long so I'm stuffing it in this details tag
This is a 40-45%-ish dubbed the V4N4G0N, also affectionately referred to as the Gamervan - "van" being a reference to the designer's Minivan design that serves as the base for this, and "Gamer" referring to the 1-6 numrow available that you wouldn't find on a 40% board. I don't need to proselytize 40%s and hopefully I don't have to explain why I just cannot do even a 60% ("because I wanna!" should be as good a reason, but I can come up with more convincing ones). I had already been using solely 40%s for work for a year or two at this point, but the overwhelming majority of PC games assume the existence of a numrow and using layers to access numbers in a gaming environment is not a fun time. So "40% but with numbers for your stupid League games" sounded great.
I purchased this in Jan 2020, assembled it Feb 2020, and it has been my sole PC keyboard for the last... almost 5 years now. It weighs just shy of 3 lbs; the brass midlayer adds a good amount of heft to it and the board absolutely will not budge from regular keypresses alone. You can see the spots where my gross hands have somehow managed to eat through the anodization. It has survived no less than 5 direct liquid spills, some of which were sugary alcoholic drinks (I have since invested in a cup holder). I've replaced maybe three switches - two because they weren't registering keypresses anymore (gunk in the switch? idk, I have plenty of replacements) and one recently just because it sounded scratchy. In the worst case scenario where the PCB is not repairable for someone who has a soldering iron but absolutely no experience with diagnosing electronic parts, I did purchase an additional PCB in the original group buy.
You know how wear and tear can be pretty visible with hardware? I feel very, very little of it with this thing after five years of extreme use. I work from home and let's just say, someeeetimes I'm not exactly working... like right now, typing a love letter to my keyboard, using my keyboard. I'm pretty sure that some of the switches for the alphas, at this point, are at the level of worn-down smoothness that is oft-praised with switches from well-used-but-somehow-clean vintage keyboards, minus some outliers like the keys I replaced. I hate the issues that plague all my game controllers, whether it's stick drift or just deteriorating rubber on thumb sticks; I hate that I need to replace my mouse every few years because I just haven't found one that can live forever. But this keyboard just has no functional faults despite being figuratively beat to shit for five years.
My devotion to this keyboard might be tested soon; after I reached out to the designer, he informed me that he's actually had a fourth revision of this board (mine was of the very first revision) in the works with some not-necessary-but-nice-to-have internal design changes. I really don't need it because I think my current keyboard will live forever, unless I really wanted to try Hall Effect switches (new revision will support both MX and HE). But I want to support the designer and yada yada.
There are a lot of shiny things that I enjoy using. My ipad and our OLED TV come to mind. But few things that feel like they resonate with me deeply and would more or less be artifacts of my physical presence here.
My 1991 944S2 Porsche. Everything about it makes me happy. It smells like gas and oil. The interior and exterior and pretty rough. Every replaceable panel is white fiber glass, and the steel panels are scratched and dented from being tracked over 20 years. But it starts up every time, drives like a dream, and the tape deck still works. I feel a bit happier when I get home and see it parked in the garage.
My 1991 BMW K1 motorcycle. It's the motorcycle equivalent of the 944S2. It's been laid down, put through the ringer, and it keep running. It's black with like purple specks in the paint. I don't ride it as much as I'd like but I love working on it. Speaking of I need to do maintenance on it.
I love my 3D printer(s). I learned to solid model in high school on a screaming 90Mhz Pentium. But all I could do was look at the models in the computer. Now I can actually have an idea, model it, and bring it into reality. I love it every time.
The shower head in our bathroom is probably a retrofit because it sags in the holder. The very first thing I printed when we moved into this house was a small piece of plastic that props it up. Probably an hour to design it, 15 minutes to print it. 5 years later, and I still use it every time I shower.
I have a back scratcher my wife bought me years and years ago. It's made out of bamboo, and the claw end is the perfect balance of being rigid but soft. It's perfectly satisfying. The cap on the end that held the loop to hang it on a hook is long gone, so it just migrates around the bedroom, but I would never replace it.
This last thing is a little out there, but Daisy squeeze sour cream. It's perfect for keeping the sour cream fresh, it doesn't separate, it's easy to use. Of all our modern wonders, this is what makes me feel like I live in the future.
I have been interested in a 3D printer for sometime, but I’m not sure I’ll get sufficient use out of it to justify the cost or space in the house (for the printer and anything I end up making!). What do you tend to use yours for?
Oh, all kinds of things. For Timasomo this year I made a replica of a Star Wars E-11 blaster that lights up and has sounds for my daughter's Halloween costume.
I just finished printing a batch of three dozen of these LED tealight christmas trees. Prusa Slicer as a feature to add text to models, so I used that to personalize them with a message from our family and give them out as inexpensive gifts to friends. Last year we printed ~150 custom Christmas tree ornaments.
For the past two years I've been working with an astronomer friend to print and customize telescope parts for the Hadley framework. In addition to building the reflector, we've built a whole refracting telescope using some optics he had laying around.
This summer, I made a bunch of replacements for parts that were missing from puzzles and other works at my daughters school.
Some other stuff on my Printables profile
I haven't seen this yet. I love my couch. It's a reclining microfiber couch we bought 8 years ago. It has held up to two dogs and two cats, still looks great and is crazy comfortable. I hate how so many couches are low backed. I want a couch high enough I can rest my head against something. I'm lazy. I spend a ton of time on that couch with my wife and surrounded by our animals.
My custom built PC gives me endless joy while also being how I stay in touch with my friends who have spread out over the world.
My drip coffee maker and expensive burr mill make the best coffee. Making coffee and drinking it with my wife to start my day is easily the highlight of every day for me.
An item that brings me endless joy is a raggy old jacket that was given to me in 2017.
I needed to go to Yukon in winter and all the cold weather gear I got in Phoenix was not cutting it. My driver in Whitehorse took pity on me and got me a dirty, patched up jacket from a charity shop. And I did not take it off for 3 weeks.
I love it. It comes out every winter and is packed for every trip. I've had to patch it up a few more times and put a new flease lining in the hood. It makes for a nice blanket on long transits. Wife and kid love to snuggle in it. Have never been able to get the smell out fully. Looks absolutely horrible. And I will wear it at every opportunity.
For me, it's the albums of a Japanese band called EGOIST that I started buying in like 2015 when I was in high school. I absolutely adore these things and is probably my most precious things that I have.
I have a Canon Powershot that has the most ridiculously massive zoom despite being a small point and shoot style camera. I can fill the frame with the moon and it's clear as a bell. I shot a video with it zooming out from some trees on the opposite side of the Grand Canyon. I have misplaced it though!
My 2016 Surly Disc Trucker. I love that bike with my whole heart. It's not fast, it isn't smooth, but there isn't one day that I hop on it and don't end up smiling ear to ear. And I have a whole little quiver of bikes. I love my full squish, I love my road bike, but nothing has the effect of that Surly. Even when I've been a bad bike dad, like right now, and I've cut the cable to my front shifter and run on 1/3rd the total gears, it's still an absolute joy.
It hauls friends. It hauls pets. It hauls just about anything you can think of.
I always wanted to get a Surly, but don't remember the model. I rode fixed gears for the ease of maintenance and the fun I had with them for my commute, but got a Mercier Kilo WT (Wide Tire) that got me through my last few years of college as a fully-equipped weatherproof hauler. I got it because I didn't have the budget for the Surly I wanted to build up.
Your post just reminded me of my baby, which is currently sitting in storage as I try to figure out if I want to convert it to single speed.
Ha, your bike sounds awesome! And more kudos to you for riding a single speed, you must have quads of the gods!!! I can't believe how much the Mercier looks so like my Disc Trucker, great find! You'll have to dig it out and see how it's running!
I think if I were to do it all over again, I'd go for an ogre or karate monkey. But then again, I'd happily snap up most of their models.
a fixed gear will definitely build those quads up. in the first two months i found some new muscles. i'm looking to get back into cycling once a week at least when I rearrange things and have room for bikes soon.
My car. It's a 2020 Honda HRV I got after I totalled my '16 Hyundai Accent. I had to go back to my car broker, tail between my legs, and see about a new vehicle. I had the money from insurance, and the cash in savings to replace it with something that would hopefully be long-lived since I want to avoid debt when I can. I mentioned I wanted a Toyota or Honda, as new as possible, as cheap as possible, because I specifically wanted something to last a while.
He throw this smokey HRV in the mix, the price was just above my budget, so I jumped on it.
I love it as much as I miss my old Accent. It's got a footprint smaller than Honda's same-year sedans, with the height I need at 6'4" to be comfortable, is technically a hatchback (which I wanted for the occasion I need to move stuff/pack things, etc). It's not as efficient as I want at apparently 23-28 MPG. Every time I get in it's excitingly mundane, absolutely comfortable, and I just... love it so much.
The relevant dimensions are fascinating to me, especially since I have to park on the street of my apartment complex.
2020 HRV: 170in long, 69.8 wide, 102.8in wheelbase
2020 Accord (their full-size sedan): 192in long, 73.3in wide
2016 Accent: 162in long, 66in wide (without mirrors).
Pretty simple one, but my lunchbox. It allows for some very easy storage of multiple foodstuff. I've been using it for years, taking leftovers to work. Usually along with carrots, bell pepper etc. with hummus. Fantastic combination.
My campervan.
I built it out from an empty metal box on wheels over two years of weekends. We love it and have even given it a name, by which we refer to it. Every time I go somewhere in it I'm so happy and we both sleep so well -- better than at home. It has taken us across the US, on many trips deep into the forest, has been our temporary home when our house was being remodeled, etc. I couldn't imagine replacing it with some fancy pre-built RV -- we rented one in NZ and it was nowhere as nice as ours, even though on paper it should have been nicer.
My Breville Fast Slow Pro pressure cooker and my Velotric Discover 2 e-bike. Both have been ineffable quality of life improvements that still amaze me!
A rubber or rubber-like cutting board (I like hasegawa), a small offset spatula, and our OLED TV.
My back pack leaf blower paid for itself after the 1st use. I've had it for 2 years now and I always get a smug grin when using it because I know I'm not breaking my back raking leaves or shoveling snow.
I hate that one of my answers to this question is my car. I have an old vw touareg tdi, and it is one of the most amazing vehicles ever made, very rugged and dependable, very long lived, and also comfortable and quiet on the higway. I wish i had one of the older ones where I could replace the stereo.
I have a very old isaiah suit. Way out of style, but the material is amazing, truly keeps you cool in summer and warm in winter.
Ember heated coffee cup. Is there anything worse than cold coffee? I can’t remember exactly when I got them, but it was either last Christmas or the Christmas before, and I’m still tickled when I notice I forgot about my coffee and it’s still hot.
My Quest 2 headset. It's not quite to the level I want, but it still makes me happy every time I go to use it. I love immersion, feeling like you're in another world, and VR does that well. There's just a marked difference between seeing stuff on monitor and being face-to-face with it. Feeling like you bring what's only been the realm of fantasy or digital to the real world. VR movies are fantastic, you can look around at things so that every time you watch it's different. Going places you will probably never get to go to in person is really nice too, it'd be neat if someday there were tiny drones with 360 cameras hooked up to VR that you could fly or roll around certain areas on the other side of the planet to explore and even talk to people there.
I have this cheap yard decoration, that I can't even find a picture of online, on my desk. It's a small plastic statue of a Fox with solar lights for eyes that I found at a convenience store and it makes me smile to look at (it looks cute and fluffy). It was one of those things that when I saw it I thought "I need that" and so I bought it. It isn't often I find something like that.
I have a tiny metal Leprechaun statue my grandmother gave me after her trip to Ireland that makes me smile, it reminds me of her.
At work I have a rather old Soylent Green bar I keep on my desk that still makes me chuckle.
My Benchmade Sheepsfoot Mini Griptilian. I have a small collection of knives, but for the last ~7 years this is the one that I always have on me. The blade steel (s30v) holds an edge really well while being easy to maintain. And it's hard to describe just how satisfying the AXIS lock system is to use. Additionally, Benchmade really stands by their products with an excellent warranty and free knife sharpening, so I'm confident that I'll continue to enjoy this knife for many many years to come.
Sentimental things I love to bits:
A green plushie frog I got from my uncle when I was 1yo.
A (presumably) handmade heart keychain which I bought as a souvenir on a family trip to Turkey with my mum and sister back when I was a teenager.
Various other physical possessions that make me happier in my everyday life and that I feel very grateful to have:
My computer, to nobody's surprise I'm sure! Custom built, bought from and assembled by Morele, good enough for smoothly playing various video games I like.
Highland Creek trekking boots. Extremely comfortable and fit my wide feet perfectly, I'm forever grateful I managed to find such awesome boots. I hope that one day they'll have more in stock in our local store, for now I have one pair I wear and one backup.
Logitech M235 mouse in colors red and black. It's pretty and perfectly sized for my small hand. I love this little thing to bits. I even have a backup ready for when the one I'm using right now inevitably breaks or just gets old and nasty, and I'm thinking about getting a few more in case they stop being produced.
Panasonic RP-HV154 earbuds. The only earbuds I can tolerate, they are extremely comfortable. They are not very sturdy (usually one of them stops playing sound after like two months tops), but since they are not terribly expensive I just buy a bunch at once and exchange them for new ones as needed.
GreenBag blue jute bag. I carry it with me all the time, it's super sturdy and the round handle is super comfortable in my hand even when I carry heavy things in it. Yet another thing I need to get more backups of.
Ring-bound A5 Pukka Pad project books and Pilot G-TEC-C4 gel pens. I use them all the time for taking notes at work and it always feels so nice to write using these. They also remind me of my uni days, and the time when I used to write various personal notes and fiction bits in physical notebooks.
My various drawing supplies: Uni Pin Fine Line pens, Posca PC-1MR paint pens, Canson Mix Media Imagine A4 paper, Leuchtturm1917 square sketchbook, Canson Universal Art Book... Delightful to work with!
Olight I1R 2 Pro flashlight. This tiny thing lives on my keychain and is really handy when the light on our staircase craps out or when I have to look for something in some dark corner. Also charges via USB-C and still works despite many falls. Love it!
I have an old Sony CRT tv (PVM 2030) hooked up to old video game consoles (NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1). Yes, I could just emulate them ( and I do that as well). But there’s something special about playing the original hardware on an old crt tv. It takes me back to being a kid. I just like looking at them as well, even if I’m not playing it. Oh, and extra points for being able to use light guns.