lol [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grade](military grade). I never gave this much thought until I bought some “military-grade” weight plates for my home gym. They were FAR lower quality than my other plates, but also cheaper. This isn’t even a matter of “which” military, this is a matter of the cheapest thing that technically meets standards.

I loved this book, so I will definitely check out John Dies at the End. Thanks for the recommendation!

I agree with the others, I would go for a full rack over a half rack to provide better safety for squats and bench. Technically, you could shrug off a failed squat, but I wouldn’t want to do that in my house unless I set up a very solid platform under my rack (a very good plywood + stall mat build and if you’re doing this in your house, new stall mats reek for a long, long time). Similarly, if you don’t use collars, you can dump the plates on a failed bench, but I’d rather not do that to my floors without solid protection.

Used is definitely the way to save money, but you could get a similar setup from Titan Fitness or maybe Rep Fitness for about $1k new. Skip the 15lb plates, but get some 5lb, 2.5lb and change plates. I like microgainz.com for change plates, but I’m in the US and don’t know how shipping to Canada compares.

Oh, that sounds like a sweet deal. I should have been aspired to be a corporation instead of a normal person.

Stock “news” is stupid, the Switch 2 announcement has been expected for a year. The only news is that the company confirmed it will launch this year, which was already expected. Real news is when we start hearing what games will be available at launch (or soon after).

I don’t really understand how Walgreens is still in business. I only go there when I need something that the grocery store pharmacy section doesn’t carry and I’m not willing to wait 1-2 days to have it shipped from Amazon. Every time I go, its a ghost town with more employees than customers.

Way back in the late '90s, my first apartment was a brand new development with a T5 connection (I think) that offered each unit 8 glorious Mbps. However, I needed to get that connection shared between 2 PCs in different rooms. Wifi was not an option (expensive and slow), even a router was a major financial investment for me back then. So, I bought an extra network card and a 100 foot crossover cable and ran it down the hallway.

It was so successful, that I continued to incorporate very long cables in my builds for the next 20ish years. Even today, my desktop computer is not wifi capable, but first I migrated to powerline ethernet and more recently mesh wifi with my PC plugged into one of the child nodes.

I don’t like the Witcher because I want to be faithful to Triss, but as soon as Yennefer shows up, all my player choices are disregarded. 5/10, will not play again.

I suspect its being banned because of people using it in public without headphones or earbuds. I was submitted to that experience for an hour+ in a waiting room one time and now I fully supported the ban to prevent it from ever happening again.

Mine is off at the moment.

I’m not sure I understand. You can stream music for free on Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, Bandcamp, YouTube, and probably several other services. Not to mention the thousands of radio stations you can stream. It seems like there are exponentially more music streaming options compared to video. If you’re asking about sites where you can stream without ads, I’m guessing those exist too, but I suspect most people are either willing to listen to ads or pay for ad-free with one of those services.

Since it sounds like you have younger kids, I’d take a decent sized portion of it (maybe 2-8k) and use that to make lasting family memories. Seeing everything of interest in a short range (zoos, aquariums, caves, gardens, museums, national parks, whatever), more frequent small vacations (driving distance or short flights to the beach/mountains/whatever), occasional major vacations (other countries, theme parks, cruises, whatever your family finds interesting). Or investing in lifelong hobbies that you can do together, like skiing, art, tennis, restoring cars, etc.

After that, the rest I would add to my FIRE plan. It would not necessarily mean retiring sooner (though it might), but it would be about adding flexibility to my life. If my savings were larger, I could always just to dip into that to pay for college or I be better prepared to deal with an unexpected layoff or emergency.

I think in 1995 my dad had pay by the minute internet access and I wasn’t allowed to use it (and didn’t really know what it was anyway). Somewhere around 1996/7 he got a dedicated ISDN line with unlimited internet and I stayed up all night talking to strangers in chat rooms or playing video games. Good times!

Scale the Summit - The Levitated

I also dearly adore Whales from the same album. Its probably the better song of the two, but there’s something about the character of the sound in the Levitated that just carries me away.

I’m also a big fan of Marcin and Ichika Nito, so how about a track with both of them? “I don’t Write About Girls”

Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and Mass Effect Legendary are my favorites that I come back to repeatedly. Of course, they were all probably perfectly playable on your old PC.

Hitman World of Assassination was good and not playable on your old PC. I have not replayed it yet, but it is definitely repayable with the option to approach every level in different ways.

I’ve gotten bored with the Assassins Creed games, but the newer ones are very pretty and they’re open world with lots of story and tons of things to do.

You mentioned Far Cry 3, there’s also 4, 5, 6 New Dawn, and Primal. I haven’t played 5, 6, or New Dawn, but 4 plays the same as 3 (just a different story) and I actually like Primal quite a bit.

The Just Cause series is really over the top mayhem, but I enjoyed them. Lots of open world destruction for a…just cause (or maybe just because).

The Saints Row games are ridiculous, childish fun. Very similar to GTA, but makes GTA look classy by comparison. I think Saints Row 4 and Gat Out of Hell are the best ones. The first 2 are quite dated at this point. There is a recent remaster of 3, I liked the original, but haven’t played the remaster yet. There’s a newer one that’s just called “Saints Row”, I’ve only played a little of it so far and its pretty bland.

I had the good fortune of attending a university that used the APA style guide, which gave me the opportunity to break free from the horrible MLA format that I learned in high school. So, no double space after a period for me, despite my advanced age.

Note: I understand that this is a typewriter thing, but while I had occasion to use a typewriter as a kid and teen, they were mostly no longer relevant already and I was never really taught anything directly related to typewriter typing. It is ridiculous that MLA stuck with that rule for so long (I don’t know if they have dropped it since).

I’m with OP, year-month-day is the superior format. Its consistently sortable, even as a text field (like with file names).

I find it so frustrating that I have to wait until Feb to do my taxes. Let’s gooooooo!!!

That’s probably it. I get that many people enjoy overcoming difficult bosses by mastering the tactics, but I find it boring and repetitive. At this point in my life I enjoy games with an engaging story, cozy games, or open games where I can create my own story in my mind as I play it (like The Sims or Mount & Blade…such very similar games :D).

I don’t know a lot about the Amish, but possibly. From what I know, it seems like they embody some of the core principles in terms of contributing to the community and managing a balanced, relatively equal society. I don’t know anything about their religion, so I don’t know if there is a level of control from church leaders that might be more of a centralized control structure. But they might be an example. You can also search for examples of hippie communes or artist collectives.