Hoarding does make more sense now
At the time I write this in November 2022, there are still two things that stick in my mind from not-so long ago, as in under 2 years ago.
That time when paper towels and toilet paper vanished from store shelves, and that other time all the aerosol disinfectant products (such as Lysol disinfectant spray) vanished from store shelves. Yes, both came back, but neither came back quick.
Very recently, a toilet bowl cleaner I use (one I like very much because it does such a good job) stopped appearing on store shelves. I won't even say what brand it is just in case I find a bottle of it elsewhere. For the time being, two bottles of it were acquired after looking around, and that should last a while. However, any time I see a common household product I use suddenly become hard to get, I run out and buy several of the whatever-it-is; I do this whether news reports a shortage of the whatever-it-is or not.
Is this hoarding? Yes. True, it's just 2 bottles of cleaner. Not exactly a big hoard by any means. But those 2 bottles were bought because of my experience with common household item shortages in the not-so distant past.
If somebody has 72 rolls of toilet paper in their house (bought as four 18-packs) and/or 32 rolls of paper towels (bought as four 8-packs), I won't even make fun of them even if there are just 2 people living in the house, because I know. I get it. I understand why they have a ginormous amount of paper product. It's because they remember when it was unavailable and don't want to be caught without again.
It's not even a money issue, because this stuff isn't expensive. It's an availability issue. Even if you make six figures a year, it doesn't matter, because if Everyday X Product isn't available, it's just not available, period. The only way to get around that is to stock up in advance when Everyday X Product is available.
Back in my childhood, I do remember older people from that time that did the hoarding thing. They would buy a year's supply of anything they used even on a semi-regular basis. Paper products, cleaning products, toothpaste, brushes, you name it, they had a ton of it. I would see those large quantities of product in their homes and thought it ridiculous.
I don't consider it ridiculous now, because again, I get it. They dealt with a shortage of everyday stuff in their younger years and learned to prep after that by buying in bulk. It didn't matter whether they would use the stuff or not. What mattered was having whatever Everyday X Products they needed just in case of a shortage.
Stocking up that way now isn't as crazy as it used to be. Not crazy at all, actually.
Does this mean hoarding everyday items is now the smart thing to do?
What is a good watch for winter?
My answer to this question is the exact opposite of what most would recommend.
Usually, when one thinks of "winter watch", the standard answer is to wear something tough, like a G-SHOCK or maybe a Glycine Combat Sub, Victorinox I.N.O.X., Luminox or some such.
These are all fine choices, but it's not what I use for the colder months.
My watch of choice for the cold is the small, thin and ultra light Casio AQ230.
Why? Simple answer. It's one of the thinnest watches I have that slides under the cuff very easily.
When I'm wearing a sweater or coat, wearing a thick watch bothers me. When putting on the sweater or coat, a thick watch can get caught going through the sleeve. After that, if I leave the watch in front of the cuff, the watch gets pushed into my hand. If I put the watch under the cuff, it doesn't feel comfortable at all.
Thin, light and on a metal bracelet is the best combo for a winter watch
Thin means the watch slides under the cuff. Light means you're not bothered by the weight. The metal bracelet also makes for easier sliding under the cuff since there isn't any strap tail sticking out.
Winter is the only time I can actually tolerate a metal bracelet. While I do love my "I don't care" W735H watch, its thickness and strap get in the way when I'm wearing long sleeve stuff.
Other options for thin/light/bracelet watches:
Casio A158. Cheap and widely available. And to note, it is thinner than the A168.
Casio A700W. Like the A158 but with a far superior amber night light and ridiculously thin at 6mm. (Yes, really.)
Casio A500W. 5 alarms, countdown timer, a whole bunch of time zone options, decent amber night light.
Citizen Eco-Drive Paradigm "Super Titanium". Analog, 10mm thick, smoothed edges all around and the light weight of titanium. Also has a sapphire crystal that is AR coated. It's Eco-Drive so it's solar, meaning you'll most likely never have to change the battery.
Tissot T1274104404100. Yeah, not exactly a model name that rolls off the tongue. However, this is also titanium and has an 8.5mm thickness.
I haven't upgraded to Windows 11 (and probably won't)
It was bad enough "upgrading" to 10...
...but I'm at the point where the Win10 OS on my computer runs more or less the way I like it.
When I switched from Win7 to Win10, that was awful and I immediately wanted to switch back to Win7, but couldn't because my 100% purchased (yes, I bought it) and licensed copy refused to "activate", so I was stuck with 10.
After some time, using some helpful tweaks and figuring out how to disable a bunch of crap, Win10 then became usable. Mostly. What I basically did was everything possible to make Win10 act like Win7. There's still some Win10 crap I have to deal with, but at this point it's minimal.
I know the clock is running for Win10. What is the official "end of life" date for Windows 10? October 14, 2025.
Could I still run Win10 after that day? Yes. For how long? Probably a few years. But I know I can only do that for so long...
...which means I'm thinking about Linux once again. I was very close to switching over to it back in '21. Oh-so close. But I couldn't because there are a few Windows-specific things I need for my daily computing life, so Linux wasn't a doable thing.
At this point in late '22 however, things have changed:
More stuff runs on the phone now
A simple example of this is printing. To the best of my knowledge, all wireless printers can be accessed with a phone app now. If my Linux distro of choice decides it doesn't want to talk to the printer, I can copy the PDF to the phone and have it send the print job.
Another example is browsers. I use Firefox which has add-ons in it. But I also use Microsoft Edge bone stock and plugin-less specifically for instances when a web site just absolutely will not work without a browser that allows everything. But sometimes that doesn't even work. When that happens, that's when I grab the phone and use the site's app. When their site doesn't work, the app will. And if the app doesn't work, then I 100% know the site is having a problem on the site's end.
Were I running Linux, same situation. If whatever browser I'm using won't load the site, grab the phone, run the app.
I could list other examples, but you get the idea.
The realization that if I absolutely need Windows for something, buy another computer
This sounds stupid, but it's not.
You can get a laptop for under $200 new easily.
If there's a thing I need Windows for, it's actually cheap enough just to outright buy the hardware and only use it when needed - which in all honesty would not be that often.
In other words, a Windows laptop would act the same as having a specialty tool in the toolbox. It doesn't get used often, but it's there when you need it.
More software is "rent me only"
The technical name for this is a subscription service. An example at the time I write this is anything Adobe. You can't buy the software, but you can rent it. Adobe Photoshop will cost you $31.49 a month.
Only once have I ever actually rented software, and it was for a navigation app on the phone. It was an annual subscription thing for something like 20 bucks, but before buying, I asked myself, "Am I willing to throw away 20 bucks just to see if this works out for me?" My answer was yes, I spent the money, discovered that I didn't like the app and didn't renew the subscription.
That was the last time I rented software.
Both the online-account-required and rent-me-only crap introduces the problem that the internet is necessary just to do stuff.
Right now with my Win10 installation, if the internet cuts out as it periodically does, I can still use my computer. Edit my documents, watch some movies either downloaded or on DVD, edit audio, edit images, whatever. I can do all that without any "INTERNET REQUIRED, LOGIN NOW" roadblock.
If however my PC required internet just to work, would I even be able to get into my computer? Yes, but at the same time no. I could probably login, but parts of the OS would be unable to function, and any software that required an online login obviously wouldn't even launch.
With the phone, yeah I can understand the online-required/account-required stuff because it is, obviously, a mobile device. But my PC is not mobile, nor do I need it to be, nor do I want it to be.
Ultimately, I may give Linux another go to specifically avoid the online-account-required and rent-me-only crap.
The future of USB is C and A
If you want to stay ahead of the curve with USB stuff, use A + C charge ports.
Back in '21, a proposed rule by the European Commission stated that all phones must have a USB-C port. Since then, it's been becoming a reality that every single phone, tablet, camera or whatever-it-is that uses USB has a C port.
It's going to be a while until "everything is C" is fully realized, so what I'm doing in the home is purposely getting wall chargers that support A and C. There are a bunch of these out there. Some are all A, but the type I specifically seek out are A + C.
There are 5 types of USB ports I use in my life. A, B (the square one which 2 of my effects pedals use), mini (most of my Garmin GPSes use mini), micro (my phone uses this) and C.
I can get A-to-any-style USB cables and that's not a problem. However, it is sometimes a problem with C. All I need with C is a power port. As such, it makes sense to get A + C wall chargers.
On the computing side of things, type A is definitely not going away any time soon, or at least not in the US. There are tons of PCs out there with A ports for connecting things, and new PCs and laptops still have A ports as standard equipment. Type C is for anything mobile, meaning phone and tablet.
As C ports become more common, more stuff will be made that can be powered by USB-C cables - even for things that aren't computers at all. A simple example of that are these rechargeable 9V batteries that get charged via use of USB-C.
Again, if you want to stay ahead of the curve with this stuff, get a wall charger or two that supports USB A and C ports. Getting a 12V USB-C car charger also isn't a bad idea either.
I've been using Tracfone for over 10 years
No-contract is the only way I roll.
The last time I actually had a phone contract was in the late 2000s. I had just moved and needed to change phone service, which was still a requirement to do at the time. I went with the cheapest phone I could find with the cheapest contract I could find because I didn't know any better. The service was terrible as was the phone itself.
I found out about Tracfone when I needed to find a phone for dad back when he was still among the living. He needed something real cheap, so I shopped around, saw Tracfone and said, "Okay. This will do." After his service was set up, I was so impressed with it at less than half the price of my contract phone service that I dumped what I had a week later, got a Tracfone for myself and have been using it ever since.
Over the years I've used several phones, but all with the same Tracfone service. It wasn't until 2018 that I got my first smartphone. I'm now on my third, but only because the first one was too slow and the second had a terrible camera. What I have now, a Samsung Galaxy S7, does the job. The only thing that really annoys me about it is that it has a sealed battery, but oh well.
How I feel about the phone these days
The way I do phone things these days is very different compared to years ago.
I can't stand talking on the phone anymore...
...and it's for one reason. The pausing. On the old analog wired systems, the delay between when you spoke and the person you called heard you or vice versa was imperceptible. Today, no matter what phone or network you're using, there's a delay before the other party hears you and before you hear them. The end result of this is constantly talking over each other.
With every voice call, I feel like I'm being rude talking over the other person even though it's not my fault. The only thing that somewhat mitigates this is making my speech very short, which in itself is rude, but what other choice do I have?
I genuinely prefer texting...
...as long as I don't receive walls of text. Fortunately, that rarely happens. However, I don't like those that "speak in emoji" either, especially those that replace very short words with symbols for no reason other than being lazy.
I do actually appreciate that photos, small videos and small voice clips can be sent in text messages. It would be nice if voice clips in a text message could outright replace voicemail completely, but I understand why voicemail still exists. The reason voicemail is still around is because you can call in remotely (even to your own phone from a different phone) to get your voice messages. You can't really do that with text messaging on most systems.
I do like that my phone is a backup computer with backup internet connectivity...
...for when the internet in the house goes out and I need something to access my stuff online. That has come in handy more than a few times.
It is possible for the phone to be the PC using Samsung DeX. Why don't I do it? There are too many things in Windows that simply don't exist on the phone (if I had to go without Notepad++, Everything and AutoHotKey, that would not be pleasant).
I'm just too much of a workstation style user to go 100% phone for it all.
I know the network doesn't matter...
...as long as it works. And Tracfone works.
Tracfone is just the prepaid version of dominant carriers anyway. I believe the carrier for my Tracfone SIM is Verizon. Years ago I had a Tracfone SIM that was AT&T, and I might have even had one from another carrier at one point. It was all still Tracfone, just with whatever carrier they chose for that particular SIM.
This is, by the way, why I find it funny that younger people make fun of those who use Tracfone, believing they have a "better" service. Highly unlikely. It's more likely whoever they know that has a Tracfone is using the same carrier they are.