There’s 3 things that really stand out for me that I would say made a massive difference to my life:
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Cordless screw driver. Bought the day after building a flat pack bed with a crappy screw.driver that just shredded my hand. Thought it was frivolous at the time, but I’ve used it so much since. It’s light, small enough to fit in my pocket and good for 90% of DIY tasks.
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Tassimo coffee machine. Bought it 9 years ago, use it every day. Nice quick easy coffee. What’s not to like.
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My first DSLR camera. It was a Nikon D50 back in 2005/6 and it sparked my interest in photography to this day. It gave me a hobby I can take lots of places and do it alone or with others. I never loved the D50 camera itself, but I did get some really nice shots with it
- vasectomy
- divorce
- campervan
Tells a story.
Although I can’t say these are the best purchases in my life, I have also purchased all three, and can attest they were money very well spent. Very. Very. Well. Spent.
My Garmin Fenix watch, it was during the first month of wearing it that I realized my life and fitness can be like a video game and I get badges and points for doing things. It drives me to move and even after 4 years, it still is making me motivated.
A nice wallet, I looked for a long time and ended up with a Trayvax wallet. I just love the damn thing, it’ll last me forever and it’s unique and functional. Each time I pull it out of my pocket, I appreciate it’s look and feel and form.
My osprey back pack. I’ve carried it to and from work, on boats, kayaks, walking, for camping and to my friends houses. It is just so functional and comfortable in a way that a less expensive one isn’t. It’s made to be comfortable AND hold things.
A computer — no other item I own has changed the course of my life as much as owning my own computer has.
I bought a 97 Ford Taurus off a friend for $800 back in 2008. Her dad thought it was on its last legs at 155k miles so he wanted to sell it. I drove it for four years. It was running fine until someone blasted it out in front of my girlfriend’s house and drove off. At the time it had 206k miles. 50k miles for $800 was certainly one of my best purchases.
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1: My motorbike - hands down my best purchase. That has single handedly done more for my mental health than the last 9 years of various anti depressants.
2: My PC - the same as others. It’s just nice to be able to have the option to do just about everything.
3: A car - I didn’t really buy this. My mum gave it to me as a first car. It’s not the flashiest. It’s just the most basic type. But I love it. I spent 23 years just putting off getting my licence until I just decided to get it just to get it out of the way. And I have missed put on so much by it. The sense of freedom, not having to rely on getting lifts, or getting public transport. (Not opposes to public transport. It’s just that where I live, it’s a pain for commuting)
Out of curiosity, how does the motorbike help your mental health? Is it having transportation in general, or the feeling of riding a motorbike specifically?
I’m gonna be honest. I find it really hard to describe the feeling. I’ll try, though, but I’ll try. Sorry if it doesn’t make sense.
It’s not just a mode of transportation to me, at least. There’s an insane sense of freedom to it. The adrenaline from having sports car acceleration speeds just straight between your legs. It’s like when people say to play music as a coping mechanism. Only this mechanism isn’t just sitting around. It actively forces your mind off those things. Like, yeah, you’ll think about it. You may still have those megatove thoughts. But they just sorta melt away and get blasted away, almost. The raw sounds of the engine, only adding to it. Ot drains it all out, (If you like the sound, I personally have a stock exhaust, as thays more than enough, I really enjoy the sound of just amy exhaust, well, except the shitty tinny ones thay oiss everyone off. Or the unnecessarily loud ones)
And the fact that you are sat on top of a solid block of steel, with thousands of explosions happening right there. Woth a fuel tank just above it. Kicking out insane power, even a 67hp 650cc. With pretty much nothing protecting you. One slight mistake, and it all goes tits up. But you’re in control of it. And it’s gonna keep you upright if you handle it. It’s relaxing. I also think it helps because you can feel what the bike is doing. Even with slight inputs.
Keanu Reeves said, “If you ride a bicycle, you can kind of understand.”
Sorry if thays too long and doesn’t make sense. And sorry if it’s kinda cringe. But, I truly do love the bike.
(Also, from what I’ve seen, the biker community is insanely inclusive and nice. Even just riding past another rider. Just that simple gesture of “Hey man,” it makes you feel like you’re somewhere you belong)
Very good writeup.
It actively forces your mind off those things.
That’s the biiiiig thing for me. It’s incredible meditation. The road demands the rider’s full attention for short-time planning, spatial visualization, sensory inputs, and muscle control. It’s literally a matter of life and death. At the same time other parts of the brain aren’t required, so the mind wanders, but in a much subdued way where stormy thoughts turn into a calm flow.
Stay left, look in, lean, apex, watch out for the pothole, left again, shift down ahead of the intersection, ok they are yielding, back on the throttle, shift up, don’t lean over the manhole covers, wow view’s pretty, hey pedestrians looking to cross let’s come to a smooth stop…
- Back in 2017 while stationed in AZ I adopted a dog who was the cutest little Blue Heeler, for $5 we have been inseparable since and she is the single greatest thing that’s happened to me.
- Last year in April my Powerstrokes transmission failed and on a whim I bought a 98’ 4 runner with 245k miles. We have now built the hell out of that little rig and have put 15k miles on it in 11 months
- 100 pairs of socks on Amazon. This sounds nuts but, I got 100 pairs of black socks 2 years ago for $60 because I was tired of my socks always missing. I still have 50 socks I haven’t touched.
Is AZ Azerbaijan?
Arizona
How was anyone meant to know that? Why use 2 random letters to refer to a state in a foreign country?
By order of lasting positive effects,
1. First vape (a cigarette-shaped item from the corner store, cherry flavor). I had been smoking with suicidal enthusiasm for 18 years. I was out of breath, coughing, stinking, and (at $7 a pack) broke. A decade later, I still vape, but I can breathe now.
2. First not-fully-depreciated used car (3-year-old 2012 Focus SEL hatch with 30K mi). Apart from warranty transmission work, the car’s been stable, and pretty. The real change was introducing me to finance and lending. I grew up poor with a debt addicted dad. At 32, I had never had a credit card. I’ve still never given the bastards a dime, but I’ve pulled in thousands in rewards and have an outstanding credit score.
3. Passport / first international airline ticket. I mean, yeah. I hadn’t had any desire to leave my state, let alone see the world. At 20, I grudgingly flew to Europe to visit my girlfriend who was studying abroad. We didn’t last, but the travel bug did.
Honorable mention, only because it isn’t technically a purchase would be my first union payment. Best deal ever.
Edit: how do you add line breaks? It worked, magically, when I made the list heading bold, but that was hella annoying.
People that say “vaping isn’t good for you!” etc etc are people that are missing the point and people that have clearly never tried both.
Firstly, no one is saying it’s good for you, just that it is better for you than smoking is.
Secondly, maybe listen to people like yourself who have extensive experience with both options, the different in you personally health is night and day.
The statements “vaping isn’t good for you” and “vaping is a lot better than smoking” do not conflict with another; they can both be true.
Whether vaping is an improvement or not depends on what you were doing before. If you were smoking before and are substituting cigarettes for vaping, you hurt yourself a lot less and it’s an improvement.
If you weren’t smoking before (the case for most teens for example) and would start to vape, you’d be hurting yourself significantly more than before.
You should be advocating to never touch a vape (or cigarette) to non-smokers and to try vaping to get out of smoking addiction to smokers.
Fair point.
It’s obvious that the best thing for your lungs is clean and fresh air and the best thing to do with nicotine is never try it.
But some people are always going to be attracted to that sort of thing and it’s sensible to not fear monger the option which is clearly the healthier choice.
I might be misunderstanding your edit question, but I think you did it?
It’s just Enter twice to force a new paragraph using Markdown.
No. it’s really strange and only happens with numbers. I entered everything just like one would, with double spaces, each item starting with 1., 2., etc. Nothing I did would make it come out with a gap.
It only worked after I changed the first letter of the section to an asterisk (to make the subject bold). Also, like you see here paragraphs that start with anything other than a number work fine.
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It’s
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Only
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Numbers
4. Asterisks
5. Work
6. Fine
I’m using sync, but I doubt that matters.
Numbers at the start of a line followed by a dot signifies a numbered list item. If you just want the numbers without it being considered a list item, you need to escape the dot like this:
- This is a list item
With line break
1. This is not
With line break1. This is a list item With line break 1\. This is not With line break- This is a list item
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- Bidet toilet seat
- Good mattress & office chair.
- Home Automation devices (mower/vacuum/lights etc).
What automated mower do you have?
Lawnmaster L10
Bidet which i installed during covid when stupid fucking people were fighting for TP. Been using it since then. Worth every cent.
Agreed, but specifically an aftermarket electric seat bidet to save in a load of plumbing.
What are you talking about ? A handheld one will cost ya $30 and all you need to do is screw it to the flush using a T joint.
Isn’t heated tho :P
