Asklemmy

Bone conducting earphones, my stupid tiny ear canals mean I can't get any ear buds, to stay in my ears, the bone conducters have changed my life....

• my custom made silicon ear plugs are a close second, sweet sleep when I'm on night shifts

Chef's knife. Mountain bike (a "real" mountainbike) Gaming Laptop

I have always hated bath mats. Especially being in a fairly large family, by early afternoon it seems like the bath mat is always saturated and useless; slipping around the floor if you're trying to use it to dry your feet, or soaking your socks if you happen to step on it in the course of other bathroom business.

I recently got a bath stone made of diatomaceous earth and it has erased all of the annoyance. It pulls the water right off you so I always feel safe stepping onto my tile floor after just a few steps on the bath stone, and it dries freakishly fast, like basically in front of your eyes.

I've only had it a month so I don't know how durable it is over the long term, but so far it has been $40 well spent.

Blundstones. I live in a coastal city that's wet (but rarely snowy) the vast majority of the year. Having rain-resistant shoes that are comfortable AND durable has been a game changer.

And if I can mention a second: A proper, long raincoat. Combined with good shoes, I'm able to tolerate the weather here much better than when I'd first moved to this city and relied on sneakers + regular jackets.

Two things together allowed me to sleep soundly for the fist time in my life:

-Melatonin

-A sleep mask

I take melatonin an hour before I want to sleep and the eye mask ensures that no light bothers me.

A foam/gel pillow that allows me to sleep with my neck at the proper angle so my degenerating disks don't keep me up all night. A literal lifesaver.

64 ounce Stanley water jug. I throw ice in it and I have something cold to drink all day. It's beautiful.

Bidet has been good though now it feels gross to shit at work and my politics demand I shit at work.

Contact grill, ie a GE brand George Foreman. I can't fuck up flippimg shit if I'm frying both sides simultaneously. And a food thermometer so my colorblind ass isn't relying on mom's shit advice to just cook it until it's brown.

This battery car starter / tire infator / phone charger. I have used it with some frequency, but more often I can just roll up and fix someone's car problem super quick. I even get out of work with it a lot when a customer needs someone to jump their car or fix a flat (also keep a tire patch kit obv).

All of this is bought from thrift stores. I can only assume most of my shit was originally shoplifted, it's fantastic. There is just so much good shit being sold for almost nothing, I am the KING of expired Chips Ahoy.

Recently? A cordless stick vacuum. My wife has wanted one because ours was too heavy and she figured she would vacuum more often if she had a lighter one. Of course that turned out to not be the case and I am still doing the vacuuming but it is a heck of a lot easier to maneuver around and bring it to other areas of the house.

Previously? Wireless ear buds. Loved those. Unfortunately my dog ate my first pair and I left the second pair on a plane. My next pair will be cheap ones.

I used to have very bad plantar fasciitis from my time in the military. For years I suffered every step of every day. I researched possible solutions and found out zero drop shoes help it. I bought some Xero shoes and after about three months it all just went away. Now I just wear zero drop shoes.

A Comma 3 to run Openpilot on my Honda Civic. It's lane keep / adaptive cruise control on steroids. I drive about 40 thousand miles each year for work, 46 miles round trip on "local" days. Having that level of driver assist on the highway makes a life changing difference. I arrive less fatigued and feel more capable of reacting to hazards. Their tagline is making driving chill, and it really has delivered. I don't know how I did this mileage before Openpilot.

A replacement screen for my 2012 Samsung laptop. I fell on it, slipping on the ice and the screen was totally fucked. So woe is me, time to go to a technician and someone on the bus overheard me and suggested I buy the screen and fix it myself. Tech quoted me 300 bucks and 2 months wait.

So I bought it for under 100 bucks, took just a week and followed a how-to guide on Youtube. It was an improvement because it meant I was finally developing a job skill in computer maintenance and could do something to at least survive in capitalism.

Crocs. Technically two items but you need a pair to get the benefits.

Welder a number of years back. Led to a whole ass career change lol

CPAP

A wok. It sounds insane that a simple and small carbon steel wok would reduce the time needed to cook and clean in my kitchen. It even makes my meal costs cheaper. Just make fried rice or udon noodle dishes or just cook what we get from everyplate in it and it's the best way to cook on the stove.

Slip-on shoes, these specific ones are so well designed I can put them on in a few seconds while standing. They basically have loops for fingers on the tongue and pull/heel tab, I wish there were better quality shoes with the same design though as these have very specific cleaning instructions.

Proper quality in ear headphones/monitors. So nice. Proper over ear headphones hurt my neck, and you can't always turn the speakers up to a decent volume.

chatgpt. it's the perfect workaround for my weaknesses.