Bags

It wasn't super relevant to the story, but yeah, I could just browse the files right on their PC, definitely a "Not intending to share it for free" kind of situation, completely devoid of any authentication or security.

I've actually taken note of my navigational skills over the last couple years... I grew up in one state, and then a few years after graduating college, moved to a different state. When I was growing up, phone navigation didn't really exist as it does now, cars didn't have built-in navigation, and standalone navigation devices were slow and not all that great (at least the ones I could afford).

I find that when I return home, even 10 years later, I am able to navigate all the places I used to go unaided with ease, back-roads, niche routes, able to travel for hours without getting "lost".

When I moved, though, I had very recently gotten my first smartphone, and google maps was very convenient to "learn" the new area. I ended up just continuing to use navigation since it was convenient. I've found that beyond the major main routes, I don't have the same kind of "built-in" navigational skill that I do for my original home-turf. I never really learned the area.

I am moving towards a smart-phone-less life, and I've been able to let go of a lot, but GPS navigation remains a sticking point. I need to start training myself to navigate unaided in my current area.

Many many years ago in the paleolithic era when 2.4GHz was king, a neighbor in the next unit over had an unsecured wifi network... I connected my old laptop, figured out where the connection was best (turned out to be beside the stove in the kitchen?), piped the connection out the ethernet port and into the WAN port on my router, and set up my own "secured" network lol. I'm fairly certain anyone with a straight-up unsecured wifi network doesn't have the skills or knowledge to detect someone leaching their bandwidth. I did that for like 3 years without a single hiccup until I moved and finally had to start paying.

Everyone that I tell this to thinks I am crazy, but for the past 5 months I have eaten a Huel hot and savory meal packet for dinner almost every single day, and it's honestly amazing.

I was having problems with over-eating and self control, and portion sizes. I would turn to basically anything when I was bored, to the point that I'd just open a can of beans, heat it up, throw some spicy Old Bay on it, and eat that. There were a few times when I was letting my food stocks dwindle that I'd make a whole cup (dry) of rice and just put salt/pepper on it because I had literally nothing else, and then eat the whole thing. I've now removed all food from my apartment except the Huel and a bowl of apples/pears I keep around to not be COMPLETELY devoid of snacking if really needed, and it's been very good for me. Learning to feel a little hungry, getting on a super regimented schedule with an appropriate portion of food once an evening, not having anything to impulsively eat... Occasionally I'll still have an off day, and eat like 5 apples in a row instead of just the occasional 1 every coupe of days, but that's becoming less and less frequent, and 5 apples is probably a bit better for me than random bullshit like multiple servings of barely-seasoned rice.

I feel healthier, sleep better, and have dropped 2 waist sizes in 5 months without any additional effort (still working up to the gym, but that's definitely the next step). I also have more free time in the afternoon since I don't have to make food or even spend a second thinking WHAT to make, and there are far less dirty dishes (my mortal enemy).

Thanks! I wasn't planning on being super vulnerable, but it all just flowed out so here's a wall of text: Yeah, I very much value these friends, we were so very very close for so many years, we went to high-school together, knew each other since 2006. In ~2016, I got really really drunk (which I didn't/don't normally do) and said something stupid to the group that was way out of line. I got so incredibly embarrassed and had so much shame that I pretty much just ghosted them. I couldn't get rid of that shame and had no idea how to process it so I just never talked to any of them again and turned to a romantic partner for all my needs. Super unhealthy. I tried reaching out again in 2021, but I was still debilitated by shame and resent for both what I originally said, and the fact that just totally ghosting people you've been close with for a decade for one stupid off comment is absurd in its own right... that didn't work out. After making a lot of personal progress and finally some much needed therapy, I've gotten over the shame. Well, it's still there, but I'm more at peace that it's part of the past that I can't change, and it deserves to be forgotten, it wasn't really all that bad to begin with. I still resent myself quite a bit for the whole debacle, but reconnecting with them, and getting positive results and finally making progress and doing more than just awkwardly share a few texts is what I need to work through that resentment. Sometimes when I'm having a bad day, I still get the impulse that it would just be so much easier to just ghost everyone again and not have to deal with these feelings, which is WILD to me considering how much I really want to talk to them again. Like how can one stupid comment I made while drunk 10 years ago affect me so much. Brains are kinda stupid.

We've met up a couple times now, gotten breakfast, just shot the shit for an hour or two, caught up on the crazy amount of things that have happened to us all.

When I first reached out to these 2 a month or two ago, literally 2 days after I sent the first text, I saw one's brother and another friend from that group at a concert, and we talked and moshed and shared a joint, like what a crazy coincidence. We're trying to coordinate more concerts.

I've been getting back in contact with some good friends I haven't talked to since ~2016-2017. Turns out the 2 people I was most interested in reconnecting with out of the 8 or so people I used to hang around with in college are getting married... to each other (They had never dated or shown interest in each other while I was still part of that whole group, so it was a bit of a surprise!). We had a great day on Sunday, if even for just a couple hours. They invited me to their wedding, and the bachelor party :) I'm excited to catch up with everyone else there, too.

My brother has a Honda Navi, which is just kinda like a scooter shaped like a tiny motorcycle. I've ridden it before and it is hilariously fun (You can do wheelies on it, which I was not expecting), I've been tempted to pick one up myself for zipping around town when I'm just a little too lazy to take the full-size bike out. He looks so funny riding it. He has some kind of vintage hard suitcase thing bolted to the back and he does most of his shopping with it lol.

I have an Ikea Langfjall chair in the high-back model, which doesn't seem to be sold in the USA anymore, at least. (I can find it on the British site though). Not quite head-rest height, but tall enough. It's supremely comfortable in a stiff, regimented posture kind of way, and the Ikea Office stuff is (expensive but) some of the sturdiest and most durable Ikea stuff I've ever owned. I bought it right when it was first released in 2019, it's got a 10 year warranty, I expect it'll last twice that.

My Dell Latitude 7280 has a similar rubbery coating both inside and out, and the keyboard is really nice, similar to Thinkpad keyboards I remember from the past. It's also got a magnesium chassis, and seems to be quite durable.

I read a bit more of your comments before posting and it seems like you're looking for a new, more powerful laptop... At least that exact Latitude model is a few years old, and low-power (and small, only 12" screen), but I'll leave it here as an interesting note. I use it as a field-capture device for my astrophotography camera that can be powered by a big USB C power bank. Works great for that use, and is small thin and light.

I am doing a similar thing with a mid-level build in a Dell Dimension 4600 case for my daily driver, but going full deep-end.

My main hurdle right now is RAM. I'm trying to find a 2x16GB set of green RAM with no heat spreader. I happen to have a stinky-poo-poo set of 2x16Gb Samsung 2133 (unknown CAS, but likely terrible). I'd ideally like to have something typical like 3200CL16, but really the only thing I can currently find are all those CL22 sets by Crucial. Does anyone have any other ideas for RAM? I'm thinking of just picking up one of those Crucial sets, it's probably good enough and certainly better than whatever I've got now, but the fact that I can very easily get gamer-y RAM with lame heat-spreaders in exactly the capacity, speed, and CAS I want, but I can't get it in green... You always want what you can't have!

I have a single 80mm exhaust fan, and I've done some testing, and with the components I have (R5 5500 and RX5700XT), it's actually not as bad as I expected thermally, and suitably quiet. I am waiting for some more Be-quiet 80mm fans to come in to put one in the front, and also possibly on a hole I have yet to drill in the side-panel...

I didn't know what these were until a couple days ago, I saw them posted elsewhere and did a little digging. There must have been some release on Sunday because I went to the mall to meet up with some people before heading elsewhere, and there was an absolutely apocalyptic line with hundreds and hundreds of feet of little rope barriers, armed security guards, people brought chairs to sit in line since god knows when... all in front of a tiny little shop that sells things that all just look like funko-pops to me but are apparently unique and desirable for whatever reason... There were even more people all over the mall with bags from that shop carrying the weird little fuzzy things around.