I’m not really a tech guy at all and I let these nerds talk me into trying Linux Mint, I haven’t bothered with Windows 10 for several months now. There was some frustrating troubleshooting at first but once the settings are tweaked how you like them, the updates don’t negate your tweaks like with Microsoft. I’m sure there’s a lot of functionality I’m not maximizing but I don’t feel the need to. I got my productivity stuff figured out, my game stuff figured out, the last thing I really need to get sorted is why my printer is being such a wiener but I use it so sparingly that there’s not much motivation to mess with that. I did dual boot for a while so I wouldn’t feel overwhelmingly stupid when it came to Linux, so I was able to familiarize myself with the new setup at my pace and that helped quite a bit I think. No harm in going that route, then you can see what happens with Warzone before fully taking the plunge

• I would add keeping a jug of sand or cat litter along with a couple 12"+ 2x4s in the vehicle to help with getting some traction if you or someone else ends up stuck.
• i dunno about EVs but if you’ve got an ICE vehicle give it a minute or two of just idling and warming up before going anywhere
• When I start driving on snow I tap the brakes a couple times if nobody’s around just to get a feel for how good my traction is. Am I sliding a little bit? A lot? Not at all? That helps set the tone for what to expect on the roads.
• Don’t accelerate through turns if you’ve already got momentum, and if the weather’s REALLY suspect I prefer to coast on overpasses as well since those ice over first.
• Respect the possibility of black ice. If you live in a mountainous area then assume anywhere in the shade is black ice
• If the house is on a crawlspace make sure any ductwork and copper piping are properly Insulated, keep the crawlspace vents closed during the cold months.
• Use ice melt sparingly if you have to use it at all (sand is preferable) because it’s caustic to concrete.
• if you’re somewhere that gets an absolutely stupid amount of snow, follow your neighbors’ lead if you see them shoveling snow off their roofs. I saw a lot of roof collapses in a luxury mountain town where rich people’s second (third? Fourth? Ninth?) homes were left vacant during a pretty nasty snowstorm

It might be a few hundred to scope the main sewer line but you could probably find promos to lower the cost. There’s a “one stop shop” in my area that’s advertising scopes for $30, but they do plumbing, electrical, and HVAC and I haven’t heard of them doing any of those particularly well. If you find a company like that just be ready to put up with their sales pitch and then keep the video to run it by a different plumber for a dimebag or a case of beer or maybe even some real money.

Do you have many big trees on the property? That’s usually the biggest cause for backups like what you’re describing: roots sneak into the sewer line, then keep growing/expanding and catching all the toilet paper flowing by and then just turns into this big dumb obstruction that constipates the whole line

This is the best way of doing it. I’d recommend some paint thinner and paper towels to help clean up the silicon. Even people that have been doing this work for years can get enthusiastic with caulking stuff in and silicon can get messy fast. Plus make sure to give the whole space enough time to fully cure and be good to go against water exposure. I’m also surprised at the apparent lack of retention screw or something in there, pretty strange

That crack isn’t bad at all, especially if it’s following a mortar line. Are there doors/windows nearby, or is it close to a corner? Insurance will almost certainly tell you it’s nothing. My area had a quake a few years ago and I got a bigger crack (maybe 1/4") above the basement walkout door, also through the mortar like this one. If you wanna seal the crack then you’d have better luck with caulk, mortar would have a hard time taking to such a small crack; and sealing it would make the area more difficult to monitor. Just keep an eye on it over time and bone up on the water management around your house to make sure it’s all flowing away from your foundation, not loitering. I really don’t think you’ve got something to worry about right now based on what I see, and I’ve worked on or evaluated hundreds of houses. Rest easy, friend

Serial reposter

This is something the wife and I have looked at doing for our next house but is clover less resilient to dogs than grass? We were figuring on natural stuff for the front yard but keeping grass in the majority of the backyard because of our pets

I went from AoE1 to OG AoM years and years ago and didn’t think there was a huge jump in feel or quality, but I’m just a filthy casual that plays these on toddler difficulty because I want to relax when I’m gaming. If you’re on my level then you really can’t go wrong, it’s a fun game that can be played in a very simple manner if that’s how you wanna go about it.

I was pleasantly surprised by it too, glad I ended up giving it a shot. Turned out to be a deeper movie than I was giving it credit for even if a lot of tropes still showed up throughout

I upgraded mine but haven’t talked to the wife about including her yet because the family plan is for up to 6 so it’d be cheaper to just buy two individual subscriptions, she doesn’t really care enough to justify that much extra cost. Hopefully Proton adds another plan or two for groups!

Steam’s been fantastic! Problem for me is that some of the battle.net games aren’t on there. If there’s a way to download those somewhere and run them through Steam that’d be incredible. I didn’t even think to consider searching around for that possibility. I’ve seen people run Diablo 4 on their Decks so it’s clearly possible, I’m just still learning how to troubleshoot Linux and I’m trying to be extra careful since their OS doesn’t have much in the way of guardrails to prevent dummies from nuking themselves

This has been exactly my stance as well apart from ever having used Win11. Never did and never plan to, downloaded Mint a few months ago to start getting familiar with it. Turns out I’m not real great at technical stuff but I’m getting there. Dual monitors was kind of a booger and now I’m trying to figure out how to install some games since Bottles is being a real wiener about Battle.Net. I’m glad there’s so many resources and forums out there but I still hope some version of Linux gets dumbed down a little more before Win10 sunsets to make the transition easier for us blue collar folk

Plenty of good suggestions already but I for the under cabinet kitchen lighting (16’ strip of cob LED) I installed a few years ago I just used thermostat (18/2 I think?) wire to run the gap between cabinets. Just don’t make the same mistake I did and use the cheap solder that comes with the kits, it was such a frustrating experience until I bit the bullet and bought some nicer stuff, made the process WAY easier

I really appreciate you making it sound so much more manageable than my first impression led me to believe. You’ve got me looking forward to trying Linux rather than just being full of trepidation about it since programming and the technical stuff isn’t my wheelhouse, so thanks for that!

Thanks for dumbing it down for me. I just built a computer so I’m not a complete bust on knowing or figuring this stuff out, but I don’t want an OS where customizing and making sense of it becomes a second job, you know? I’m just a blue collar guy that likes gaming. Think it’s worth getting another hard drive and having a dual boot just so I could practice with Linux before going all in? Or is that a stupid idea because I don’t know what I’m talking about?

How dumb can a person be and still use Linux for gaming? I’m open to switching from Windows but am only marginally technical so I don’t wanna bite off more than I can chew