I don’t really care about Ghostbusters, but I found this to be a really interesting video. He seems very wise with a lot of his tips and explaining why he does things the way he does.

One of the things that he mentioned that I also have personally found helpful is he said something about pre-portioning snacks so you don’t eat too much.

It’s so incredibly wasteful, but for snacks in my house, I prefer to buy the bulk packages of snack sized portioned snacks (whether it’s chips, nuts, etc.). Thing is, I know it’s so incredibly wasteful for the environment to have things individually wrapped. But when they are individually packaged like that, it’s a hell of a lot easier to see and understand just exactly how much you’re eating and usually stop yourself before you get too deep. Sure, it’s more economical and wasteful to buy a giant family sized package of chips. But when I have to open each individual 150 cal snack bag, it’s a lot easier to stop at only 1 or 2 bags.

Of course, not every snack comes packaged this way. I have thought about buying certain snacks and then pre-portioning them myself like he does, but it involves a lot more hassle and I don’t have anything like a kitchen scale.

That’s actually a super neat photo, too. It’s the perfect positioning and framing for a portrait combined with the scenic nature view.

Oh please. Power hungry? I have no problem with piracy, but you bet your ass I wouldn’t want the legal liability of hosting a piracy community. Do you know that in many countries, mods/admins are risking jail time when they participate in stuff like that? God forbid, some people don’t want to have to worry about going to jail. Get over yourself. There are plenty of other piracy communities all over the internet you can find on your own.

I’m not quite the same demographic as you, but I get it.

For me, it’s simply not possible to have kids unless I adopted. And that ain’t happening (adoption is a long, arduous, and expensive process and I’m only one person…wouldn’t want to take that alone). I suppose technically my body might physically be able to produce kids…I haven’t tried, but that’s missing the point.

People sometimes ask me if I want kids and it’s just such a silly question for someone like me. It’s like asking if I had a mega mansion, how would I decorate the 7th bathroom? What I want is irrelevant because that’s not at all in the realm of possibility.

I don’t know if I would want kids or not. But since it’s not possible, it’s not worth dwelling over.

In school, my method of studying was to panic and do nothing until the night before. Then I would stay up all night before whatever test I had and study then. I remember always hearing that you don’t learn anything that way, but I made it through 4 years of undergrad and 2 years of grad school that way. My grades were just fine.

My sanity, however, was not. Lol!!

Not really. Because my monthly bills don’t come at the same time each month. It would probably be harder to coordinate bills if you’re paid monthly here anyway. Makes more sense to have a steady cash flow imo. Imagine living paycheck to paycheck and your bill is due on the 28th, but you don’t get paid until the 1st. Some people might run out of money before their bill is due and they don’t get their next paycheck yet.

Weirdly I know quite a few people who converted to being religious as adults. As children, they weren’t raised with any particular religion.

It’s not even a shadowban thing. I’ve noticed a lot of subs have hidden requirements for your post to show up in them. If you don’t have enough posts in the sub or your karma isn’t high enough, even if you’re not shadowbanned, your threads just straight up won’t show up… especially if you made a new account recently. But it doesn’t tell you that. It just lets you think that no one cared to look at your post.

I’ve noticed that some subs don’t seem to be this way and my threads will show up regardless of how often I’ve posted there and regardless of my overall karma.

It was really stupid of him to be so cocky about it… eventually causing his own demise. But it is funny that the Wikipedia article says how he had done the experiment many times before, “often in jeans and cowboy boots” lmao.

This sounds super interesting! I didn’t know that smart vents were a thing. I’d like to get some more smart home tech stuff in general and this seems up my alley. Plus my vents seem to be stuck open anyway so it wouldn’t hurt replacing them lol.

Haha. Well I don’t mean the dampers themselves are smart. I mean that the HVAC companies will do pressure checks make sure things are flowing and vented properly if they are adding in dampers in particular areas.

Haha well true. I just presume that if you have dampers built into the system by an HVAC company that steps would be taken to ensure it doesn’t mess up your system.

Thanks for the advice! I’ll have to read more into what goes into a mini split system. I’ve only ever had central air my whole life (or window AC).

The mini-split route idea is a great solution, but I am wondering if you have an unvented or poorly insulated attic that is a contributing factor to your problem. If your attic space isn’t setup properly and you throw a mini-split at the problem, it is sort of like pumping water out of a boat without fixing the leak that is flooding the boat. Even something as “simple” as a powered attic vent could help in HVAC performance and operating costs. If the hot air can’t vent or your insulation is inadequate, it just stacks down and heats the top floor.

Unfortunately, I don’t live in a free-standing house. It’s a townhouse, so it’s connected to other units so I don’t think that I can make changes to the attic.

The other thing I would be looking at is if the HVAC run up to the second floor is done properly or if the dampers are not right. A house that size really shouldn’t have much trouble if everything is balanced right.

I don’t seem to have any dampers at all as far as I can tell.

Having the nest with a second temp sensor would just force your HVAC to work harder to cool the upstairs.

Yeah, I get that I would be pushing the HVAC system to simply be on more, but at the very least I could actually set the temperature upstairs instead of having it fluctuate so wildly. Often, I’ll set the temp low at night to be more comfortable. It’ll be to the point where I’m basically freezing with the sun down. But then in the morning, when the sun rises it’s unbearably hot.

The single sensor nest can be a smart move to reduce costs with the higher degree of control.

What do you mean by this?

Having dampers installed does more or less the same thing as closing vents, but with a higher cost. A zoned system is expensive and kind of silly on a house of that size.

So there’s no real reason to get dampers installed then?

I know multiple people say to close the downstairsregisters, but HVAC sources that I look at say that it greatly stresses the system if you do this and that it’s a bad idea.

Stop making sense!!!

Am I having a stroke

I like these, but places near me don’t seem to sell them. Well, my local gas station used to, but they were always hidden in the back and expired which is gross as fuck.

Well, I mean it’s less weird to write “golf ball-sized hail” bcause it’s a rather common way to describe the size of hail. Energy drink cans are cylindrical, so it doesn’t make immediate sense in anyone’s brain in the sentence as a comparison. I’m guessing the author couldn’t think of a common enough spherical item of the right size to compare with. Still, I think hyphens would have immediately fixed the strangeness, like the person below you commented.

I do totally get paying to support something you use a ton.

But I don’t get comments like this calling blocking ads a cat and mouse game. It’s always been incredibly easy to block ads on the devices I own and I rarely ever have to mess with anything after installing a single browser extension or a single app.

On my desktop/laptop–ublock origin. I would install this regardless of whether or not I care about YouTube ads because ads on websites in general can be pretty cancerous. So I would already have it on my device to begin with. Install one extension and forget about it. Very occasionally ads start coming through, but then the extension auto updates itself and I don’t have to worry about it. It’s effortless and I absolutely never need to mess with the settings.

On my phone–YouTube ReVanced. Just basically download I think two APK files and you’re set. I’ve had to reinstall this a single time over the maybe decade(?) I’ve been using it as YouTube had some sort of breaking update or something. But having to install it again once every many years is hardly an inconvenience. Oh I guess I have had to install it again when I’ve gotten a new phone, but that’s really not that odd or inconvenient to me either…and generally I don’t get a new phone that often.

On my android TV device–SmartTube Next. It’s a single APK file. Set it and forget it. I’ve never had to reinstall the app.

One caveat with this is that it seems harder to watch YouTube ad free (without paying for premium) on Apple devices. So if you use a lot of Apple products it also makes sense.