I bought cast iron pan which I think is the best ever purchase I made.
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A bidet. $30, attaches under your toilet seat. Life changing.
+1 for bidet; got mine after recommendation from a friend and since then my folks and son-in-law have also upgraded
Which model did you buy?
The best purchase I’ve made this year has to be the tickets for the “Barbie” movie on opening day July 21st. As I watched the movie in theater (the best way to watch a movie), I was literally moved to tears by the performance of the lead actress, whom I might add, deserves an Oscar this year.
Fellow lemmings, I, for one, will definitely be buying “Barbie” on Blu-ray to have it in my collection.
Multiple copies, in fact.
I truly enjoy seeing you pop up all over Lemmy, especially with posts and comments like these! Rose gold effort!
Aw shucks, thanks.
Wait, no, now my cover is blown. 😭
Oh my god I loved you in that science meme!
Not to brag or anything, but I’m pretty good at both science AND memes.
My job is memes
Two questions for you!
1.) What is the most useful thing we in the Lemmy community can do to help you get that Oscar?
2.) I have a secret Santa this year coming up in a month that I am a part of with some friends. Would you be interested in leaving a comment for a friend of mine in response to this that I can show them a month from now for the secret santa?
“Hey Rome, this is Margot Robbie wishing you a merry Christmas and happy new year?”, or something like that?
Thanks for being cool either way and good luck getting nominated this year!
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Memes. I don’t know how it works either so I’m just going with it.
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I’m sure he would appreciate the sincere thoughts of you as his friend more than a social media comment left by a complete stranger from the Internet. Which is what this is.
Still, hi Rome!
You’re no stranger, you’re THE Margot Robbie! Well, A Margot Robbie. And since I saw that name on my screen that means we’re best buds, right?
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You are the opposite of me, I got bored in 10 minutes and I turned it off after 30 minutes.
It’s cool that people can enjoy so different things.
Look at the username, it’s her.
Do you…actually think that’s the real Margot Robbie and not just someone pretending to be her for a theme account?
Looks like I completely dissappeared into the role of “average Lemmy user” here.
That’s called acting.
I’m pretty sure it’s not actually her, but in the context of the post the user replied to, it’s still worth playing into it.
Agree to disagree on that one.
Good knives. Well worth it.
This and knife sharpening kit. I brought back two Farberware pieces of crap and use them more than my Wusthof chef’s knife now.
Are whetstone any good?
It is worth learning. A single two sided whetstone and some basic skill will give you sharp knives for the rest of your life.
Bonus, keep your cheap knives. They are typically a softer metal that will require maintenance more often so you can practice.
Also learn when you need to sharpen and when you need to hone. Your knife may be sharp but the edge is out of shape (folded, bent over). A few swipes of a hone and you could be back to 80-90% sharp.
At this point I use medium value knives and sharpen them once a year. I have no regrets regarding learning to sharpen with a whetstone. I also typically don’t sharpen beyond 1000 grit and it’s still enough for people to remark on how sharp the knives are.
Best of luck.
Instead of a hone you could make a strop. A 2”x10” bit of leather, buy a stick of stropping compound and you get to feel like an old timey barber.
Once a year?? I have to sharpen like every time I use my kitchen knives
That’s no longer true. A dishwasher safe trend took over, most cheap knives are extremely hard now. I’ve a nice old set of not quite stainless that sharpen very easily and the ten thousand grit polish stone I have actually does something. Most new knives I sharpen for people I don’t even go over 3000 because they are far too hard to take much effect. My personal favorites are old Wiltshire 70s wood handled inox cleavers and Opinel knives, those opinel especially turn into a razor incredibly easily.
If you know how to use it. If you do not know got to use it a kit that you just stick in the knife is going to be way better.
Or you can learn? It sounds like a skill worth learning
Yes. Best way to sharpen a knife
I bought a really nice Benchmade pocket knife. I like the way it opens Amazon packages
For anyone reading this, do not “get into” pocket knives. You’ll not know what to do with all the damn knives!
same goes for flashlights. you won’t stop even if you already own 15 D4V2s (excluding those you already gifted to friends and family ofc)
Thanks for the warning. The last thing I need is another weird hobby
Give them away to friends and family who aren’t into knives. There are a lot of garbage knives out there, so it helps to have a friend who knows what I should be using and how I should take care of it.
I wish I had more upvotes. Good knives make cooking easy and, more important, prevent injuries.
Couldn’t agree more sharp knives don’t slip. Yet some people out there are purposely blunting kitchen knives.
People with glass cutting boards 🧐🤨
People with iPad cutting boards 😗😶
I’ve heard that, but I’ve only ever cut myself with the really sharp knives and yeah it’s clean, but when the knife is dull it just kind of pokes my finger and that’s it
I bought some knife set that cost like 1000 dollars. It was an impulsive buy when I won an award at work.
Damn I learned expensive knives are worth every penny. I’ve had them twenty years. Normally I’d buy a knife and have to throw it away after a couple of years because they couldn’t be sharpened as they were cheap.
I cook every day and it makes it so much easier.
You can sharpen every knife. Better knifes stay sharper for longer, but they still need to be sharpened regularly. This also applies to ceramic knifes, which stay sharper even longer, but also need to be sharpened after a lot of use.
Oh I wasn’t aware you could sharpen ceramic knives. Does it require different tools to sharpen than steel knives?
Diamond dust grinder wheel. Hard to find.
Just wait for the knife sharpening man to roll through town at that point
My house. Even though we have to pay taxes and mortgage interest, it beats paying rent to a landlord. Also, we bought it in 2020 and it has appreciated it value significantly since then. However, that appreciation is kind of fictitious to me, because if we sold the house it’s unlikely that we’d be able to buy a similar one in the same area for less. So, it’s just a nice house.
Yeah housing gains do nothing for you if you want to stay in the same area.
Theoretically you’ll have more equity so you can take out loans, but with high interest rates you’ll likely avoid that… and your property taxes will eventually go up since your home value has gone up.
Hate the fact that my house has gained so much.
At least property tax increases usually aren’t as bad as rent increases, at least in my experience.
My apparently controversial take is that flat property taxes should be abolished and the imputed rent of a given property should be progressively taxed as income instead.
Whatever down payment you put into your house (+ whatever equity you build) appreciates at the rate of housing gains in your area. You protect that capital from devaluation due to inflation. Housing gains can do a hell of a lot for you if you want to trade up in your own neighborhood.
And insurance goes up now that it would be more expensive to replace.
Our air fryer. I thought it was all hype. I just didn’t know. It’s so convenient for so many things.
Along similar lines, our Instant Pot. So covenient for so many things. We cook rice in it, chili, stews, my dog’s food, stock, etc.
Our bidet. I cringe at how dirty my asshole used to be. It’s amazing.
Hell yeah. We got a ‘Ninja’ that is an air fryer and pressure cooker. We use it so much. We are also on team bidet. The worst thing about having a bidet is the feeling of disappointment you get whenever you take a shit somewhere else.
We’ve got a Ninja also. They’re great! I roast veggies in it, prep my meals for the week, all kinds of stuff.
We were on vacation for a week and very much missing our bidet.
Question. We were gifted a Ninja air fryer ages ago and never use it because it’s giant and we live in a tiny apartment. The basket barely fits in the sink, the whole unit is like 3x the size of the basket, and having to shake it every few seconds so stuff doesn’t burn is a pain in the butt.
I think we’ve used it like twice in three years. What exactly am I missing here? Did they fix these issues in newer models?
Wow that sounds gigantic. It must be a different model than ours. I do shake it for fries or veggies occasionally but that’s maybe twice during the cooking time. Anything else I can just let cook or flip once.
My wife and I have a big, fancy bidet. We love it, of course. We’ve been remodeling our house and living in air B&Bs over the last five weeks. Ugh. Missing our bidet so much!
I am the same with the bidet. Without water (or something wet) touching my chocolate starfish i feel kinda dirty as well. Crazy.
Steam Deck - I know I’m not supposed to promote a specific product (change SD to a handheld gaming device if you must), but after my son was born, moved to a different country and changed jobs my life was rather hectic. I had no time to play videogames at all, which was my go-to method to unwind since I was a little kid. As an almost 40 years old responsible adult I can now still enjoy gaming in bite sized bursts, in bed, instead of scrolling through social media or watching mindless videos. The best thing is I can be next to my SO while she does something else I can work through my backlog.
Vasectomy. Before I got my vasectomy, I had a lot of anxiety that the condom might fail and an unwanted pregnancy would occur. That’s not to say vasectomies can’t fail, they can, even years afterwards, recanalization can happen so I get tested every year.
Annual failure rate of condom (average use) is 18%, and with perfect use it’s 2%. This means that over a span of 20 years, even with perfect use, there is a 33% chance for a pregnancy which is too high for me. A vasectomy with annual testing of sperm count is as close to zero as possible.
Yeah, this isn’t the usual holiday present thing… this is something you buy for yourself.
I agree with OP though on the cast iron though, these are super affordable and last forever. restoring a rusty cast iron skillet is pretty easy, so there is no reason to buy them new; from a bang for the buck perspective, this is really good.
This guy fucks
Yup this is why I got my tubes tied. Too much anxiety just relying on the pill!
Pretty smart. Hope it wasn’t too difficult for you to get it (many doctors treat their patients with condescension and dismissal about sterilisation, especially towards women).
Oh man it was a nightmare finding someone who would sterilize me. I was 24 when I started seriously looking, and I can’t tell you how many doctors told me I’d change my mind about not wanting kids (insert huuuge eyeroll here), and one doctor even said that he thought my boyfriend was forcing me into it and that I didn’t understand how permanent it was. Thankfully I did finally find someone to take me seriously but man, what a pain in the ass!
Before leaving Reddit, I spent a lot of time on the r/childfree subreddit and read many threads with similar experiences. They have a list of CF friendly doctors, so this is a great resource that can save people a lot of time and frustration.
Yep - back in the day the LiveJournal childfree comm had a similar list which was really helpful!
Is the annual test really necessary?
If you want to be 100% Sure then yes.
Most people are fine with being 98% sure though.
Okay, thanks.
Most people don’t do it, but it’s mostly for my peace of mind.
Got my procedure scheduled in two weeks, so I am hoping it’s a one and done thing
Vasectomies rarely fail, just make sure to follow the instructions and use other contraceptives until you get the tests cleared (since you will still release sperm even afterwards for a while). Hope you have a smooth experience like mine.
I worked with a guy that had to go in three times but I think he was no following post operation care. You are supposed to abstain for a few days while it heals.
When I got my vasectomy it was no needle, no scalpel. They make a small hole then pull the vas deferens out cut and tie it to itself then do the other, all with pain numbing spray. Was 5 minutes not including the ball shaving. I went in to work that night, with an ice pack on my balls all night but barely had any issues. Some extra swelling happened but I went back for an injection of anti inflammatory and it went away.
Yes, if you fuck once annually
Yeah, I’m 5 years in and stopped getting tested.
It was a fantastic purchase though!!!
This means that over a span of 20 years, even with perfect use, there is a 33% chance for a pregnancy
No this is completely inaccurate and wrong…there’s a 33% risk of a condom failing. You’d still have to time it with ovulation of the person you’re boinking for there to be a risk of pregnancy. And even then, having sex in the most optimal period isn’t even a guarantee of pregnancy, far from it.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3638209/
This is talking about the percentage of women with unintended pregnancies. They also compare it with no contraception which is 85% annually.
aye aye
I bought a rice cooker, and it easily earns it’s permanent space on the countertop. Having the ability to cook 5 (dry) cups of rice and have it stay warm for days is so convenient.
Warm for days? That’s a mold incubator …
I haven’t experienced any mold in mine. It’s a sealed unit (outside of it venting during cooking) and I’m no mycologist but I’m sure that mold spores wouldn’t be too appreciative of the cooking process.
So you just cook rice several days ahead and don’t open the cooker until then?
Some times, also left over rice can be put in the refrigerator and then used for fried rice. Sometimes I’ll just make as much as I need on that occasion. Either way it comes out perfectly every time.
Mold? Not likely. Bacteria? Yes.
Per the CDC: Bacteria can multiply rapidly if left at room temperature or in the “Danger Zone” between 40°F and 140°F. Never leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours (or 1 hour if exposed to temperatures above 90°F).
It stays hot, nothing’s gonna be growing.
With mine, the rice is still pretty good after about 48h on the keep warm setting. It’s still edible after 72 but starts to get too dried out at that point.
An opposing viewpoint here, from a couple of rice snobs – I’ve spent 30+ years (my entire life) with a rice cooker so I’ve never questioned not owning one.
Ours broke (the gasket did, after 10 years), and the company that made it no longer exists (Sanyo), so we tried just cooking rice on the stovetop for a year before we bought a new one. It’s now been 2 years without a rice cooker, and we don’t plan on buying one of those fancy Korean ones I’ve been eyeing.
We found the rice tastes better (a bit of burning at the bottom adds flavour), and we don’t need another appliance taking up space. The only thing I miss is the keep warm functionality, but now we just freeze the leftover rice and microwave it (or make fried rice with it).
And now we have more counter and cupboard space to buy other gadgets, as we’re cooking enthusiasts.
For large amounts of rice we luckily have a pressure cooker.
Thanks. I’ll definitely try this.
This is one I thoroughly do not understand, maybe because I have not tried it, but cooking rice is already so easy, why would i need a separare appliance for it?
Plug n play. No overcooked rice forever
I guess, overcooking is a measurement problem anyway tho.
my take is, if you are alone in the kitchen and doing multiple cooking tasks. then you have one less thing to worry about.
it is also good because even children can operate the rice cooker. so you can assign that very easy task to a person with little to no experience and just a minimum of instructions.
1.wash rice
2.measure water by cups
- put in the cooker and push
I have one and it’s a little easier to prepare, keep warm, and clean. If you eat a lot of rice, it’s worth it.
I thought the same thing for 20+ years. A nice rice cooker is great though. Ours has a yumcarb setting that my wife likes, which has a separate basket with holes in it. Most of the starch leaks out of the rice and pools below it.
I have a tiny kitchen so I appreciate being able to conveniently cook rice in the corner of one countertop, especially when I’m cooking with two pans on the stove.
Is it a Zojirushi?
It’s a Tiger.
African or European?
Asian, Japanese in particular. Osaka prefecture in even more particularity if their about us page is to be believed.
I think that was a joke question based off of the Monty Python skit lol
Wait what? It doesn’t dry out or go bad?
I’m guessing it’s a “keep warm” mode.
I’m paranoid about it going bad or attracting pests…or even just using energy unnecessarily. But apparently it’s not bad for any of those things!
Otp got it. I have some in it right now that I made two nights ago. Texture wise, if I press down on it, it slowly springs back up. If that gives you a good sense of how it’s holding up. & it’s a sealed unit water can’t escape once it’s done cooking (it vents steam during that process)
What brand and model? I’m curious to check it out.
I’ve got a tiger jbv-a10u. I’d imagine there’s some other good competition in this space too though.
Off the top of my head no particular order:
- Proper mop bucket like heavy duty on wheels. Mopping takes minutes now, nothing has worn out in years, very little waste.
- Proper broom, not plastic. Got tired of all the waste from plastic ones wearing out so quickly. I got one of these and it is an amazing buy it for life kind of thing.
- Bidet
- An IDGAF pocket knife. All those times when I was young and just needed a vaguely knife-shaped piece of metal but dad was like “don’t hammer that knife into that rock you’ll damage the blade” or “don’t hammer that knife into the can of beans” or “don’t hammer that knife into the deer skull you found” well now IDGAF. Sturdy, cheap, doesn’t matter it it holds an edge or stays clean.
- A Dremel. I don’t have a lot of space and this thing is great for cutting random things I don’t have real tools for.
- Respirator and impact goggles. Originally bought for going to protests but I’ve found they’re just fantastic around the house. Don’t want to breath in murder chemical while cleaning an oven? Or microplastics from sawing your latest art project in half? What about “This Dremel blade might explode if I use it like this and I don’t want to lose my eyes”?
- Yak tracks, they work. I’m getting too old to fall on ice and walk it off.
- The right shoes for the job. Walking shoes, climbing shoes, hiking boots, brown leather heels for construction work, eight inch black leather stilletos for getting attention, blue suede boots for getting attention, six inch pink platform boots for getting attention, blue gogo boots for getting attention. They’re all crucial to my day to day.
- Cats. They keep the sad away, works great.
- Jars everywhere. You can store spices, leftovers, paperclips, q tips, an array of rocks for making minis, paints, pepper ferments. They are so versatile and easy to clean I have maybe 150 or so of them currently.
- Air fryer. Didn’t think I’d like it but I’m a convert now they’re great.
- A growing collection of glues. I don’t know why but the ability to properly fuse shit together unlocks so many possibilities. This is a new discovery for me.
- A growing collection of solvents. Like the reverse of glue the ability to clean things in specific ways is great.
- Metal wire shelves. They’re versatile, sturdy, relatively cheap, easy to break down and transport if you’ve been averaging a move a year for ten years.
- A small sewing kit. Great for small repairs. I’ve added years to some of my dresses by catching weak points early and doing 10 minute fixes.
- Proper electric toothbrush. Even the fanciest ones are cheaper than dental work.
- Lastly, a bin of compost in your living room because you live in a city and don’t have much access to dirt. Feed it very slowly so it doesn’t rot. Keep roly polies in there, they’re cute, and springtails to prevent mold, they’re also cute. When you feel sad about living in a cement and steel environment just crack that thing open and pretend you’re looking at a forest floor. Dig around a little see how the worms are doing. Bother your nesting partner by grabbing fistfuls of it and loudly exclaiming “dirt smells great today really earthy!”
Edit to add, how could I forget this? I just got home and in my entryway there is an 18 unit locker like the kind you would find during a Bed Bath going out of business sale and they’re getting rid of everything including the employee lockers in back, you know the ones. I’m poly so each of my partners and my nesting partner’s partners get to pick their own locker to keep overnight supplies in. There are unclaimed lockers for guests to store small things, and some that are effectively house mandatory junk drawers. Also serves as a lost and found when like partners leave phone chargers or whatever else behind. Great purchase.
Lasik. Being able to wake up in the morning and just see things with zero effort was life changing.
I’ve gotta chime in here with an opposing viewpoint. I got all laser lasik and while it mostly corrected my myopia (went from -5 to -0.5 sph), it gave me really bad astigmatism, to the point where night driving is much more dangerous for me. Glasses were a pain in the ass but at least they made things crystal clear. Post surgery everything except bright sunlight now has an annoying halo. I’m 3 years post surgery btw, and went back under the laser twice to try to get it corrected.
That scares me. I also have family members who got it decades back and for the most part they all still have to use glasses.
I have ridiculously bad vision (-9.5 contact prescription) and bad astigmatism already, thankfully every optometrist ever has told me I’m a horrible candidate for it so I’ve never even had the possibility in my mind.
I just asked my eye doctor about this yesterday. She said LASIK would correct myopia for 10-15 years, then it’ll start coming back. She also said everyone loses up close eyesight about 45 so you’ll have to wear glasses or contacts anyway. Said it’s only worth it if you really want to see without putting on glasses.
Damn thanks for the opposing experience. You’re doing a good thing letting people know the possible tradeoffs
It was shocking just how simple of a procedure it was when I got it. The actual surgery was under 3 minutes, the doctor joked about it he could complete it before a song finished at the start. Then my eyes were only recovering for like 36hrs if you don’t count eyedrops.
I had PRK operation, and I confirm. Best investment in my life.
Decent quality automatic cat feeders.
We have 3 cats, and I resisted getting autofeeders for 5 years because it felt silly to buy what amounts to three $75 food bowls.
They paid for themselves the first weekend I didn’t have 3 razor sharp dickheads screaming at me to feed them at 5:15 AM. I should have bought them years ago.
Seriously. My cats are so relaxed because they get their food at the exact same times every day. I still hand feed the first and last meals (canned wet food), but it gives them something to look forward to during the day, even when we are at work.
They can also apparently tell time now because they get ready within five minutes of most feedings, I like to think that makes them feel more connected to their world and existence.
Avoiding 5am starvation yowls is exactly why I free feed, and I’m sure it’s going to bite me in the ass when my two are older and stop maintaining their weight easily. But for now, they’re active and healthy weight even with the free feeding. So we’ll see
After watching a Jackson galaxy video on how to stop your cat from waking you up early, I followed the advice of never feeding immediately after getting up, and instead doing a certain activity first, like making coffee. After a month of taking a shower before feeding, my cat no longer makes any noise in the morning and only starts getting noisy when I step out of the shower. So thats a good tip for those who can’t free feed. I also started collecting every toy and putting them in a secure box before bed since she has a tendency to chase toys around in the middle of the night and yelp with one in her mouth.
wish there was one that could open wet food cans and parse it out. my old gato is on soft foods only.
We use ice cube trays to freeze wet food, then put the cubes in the automatic feeder.
Probably condoms.
I bought a nice sandwich last week
A robotic vacuum cleaner. I just have to clear the dust bin weekly and manually mob some spots that the robot couldn’t clean
I bought a house back in 2009 for around $290,000, sold it in 2022 for $600,000, paid off my original loan and then bought another house outright with the proceeds. No house payment is a huge stress relief. I own this place and will as long as I pay my taxes.
