What was something that you thought was overhyped that actually lived up to the hype?
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I know I'm alone in this, but I loved and still love VR since htc vive
Maybe I'm missing years of video game discourse but I don't know what you're talking about being alone on this hill. I've been using VR since the Google Cardboard and as long as you temper your expectations it's been plenty fine since even all the way back then. The experiences on the Vive and Index are a bit clunky but otherwise I have fun with them every time I use them.
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High quality audio equipment.
Yes, it's an area filled with more snake-oil and bullshit than any other technical realm I've experienced, but with some knowledge (unarguably required on the part of the user) you can actually figure stuff out and get some ROCKING audio gear for pennies on the dollar.
Last year I got into electronic fix/build/mashup as a hobby, and a project I had in mind for fun was to turn a $10 Sirius Boombox that needed 8xD batteries and a wired AUX input, into a wireless BT boombox. I did it and it was fun as hellllllll. But it was not for the audio, it was for the learning. I repurposed battery cells and a charging board from a Shark handheld vacuum, and grabbed a BT board out of a scrapped shower speaker - made that work by "bolting it" onto a disposable vape battery/charger which draws from the main battery pak.
Well anyways... getting a taste of that deep, rich, penetrating audio made me realize I'd been sold THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LIE by the speaker business. That moment of looking at my Bose SoundLink and realizing I've been a fool for so long. The stupid Sirius boombox isn't even that good now that I look back, but at the moment it was a HOLY SHIT moment for me. Running up to it thinking my music was distorting... but NO... it was actually musical details I'd never heard, and didn't know existed.
Now I have a soul-destroying audio setup (for a small 1BR apartment) that I shit you not, cost me a total of $23. RXV581 Receiver, YST-SW011 Subwoofer and two Polk MXT11 Monitor tower speakers. People either discarded, sold, or donated. I got the Yamaha Receiver/Sub set because... get this... ONE of the surround sound speakers was dropped and it's case cracked, so they threw it ALL away. The Polks were seen at thrift, first for $70 each, then reduced to $34 after a month... then one day muthafukkaaaaaaa $10 each plus tax.\
So yeah. Good audio. I had NO idea how satisfying it could be. I didn't know what I'd been missing.
I've been a frugal audiophile for my entire life. I learned long ago that you can find gear with excellent specs, without spending thousands.
These days, I'm mostly into guitars, and I've found the same thing to be true - there is no correlation between quality and price. I've seen great guitars that are dirt cheap, and I've seen expensive guitars that are mediocre. I put together an entire home studio, with 2 electrics, an acoustic, a bass, and a keyboard, a new computer, interface, mic, etc., all for less than $1500, and it all sounds amazing.
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Crocs. I had avoided them for years until I went on a kayaking tour on Vancouver Island. Well, while they were ugly AF, they are one of most comfortable shoes I've tried that are just... Easy to slip on and off?
I have a pair that I wear exclusively as house shoes. They are so comfortable. But yeah, I don't want to wear them in public.
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Mechanical keyboards
Every keystroke feels and sounds like heaven!
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Oh, I had the opposite experience. Once I managed the courage to get on every single ride at Six Flags, I barely felt the last one I was on. It was fun, but the thrill of free-falling from 300 feet wasn't budging me by then.
Right, the new ones are so overbuilt it takes a lot of the thrill out of them. Nobody else in my family will go on them, and they always try to talk me out of them, saying I'll have a heart attack. They don't understand that I don't get scared on them, at least not any more.
In the old days, you had those wooden coasters, and while you were standing in line, you'd see it come around the curve, and it would creak and sway, and looked like it was going to come apart any second. THOSE were scary.
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Bidet. $30 game changer. Don't ask questions, just hook it up (it's easy), and try it.
You're welcome.
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Yep, went with banana - purely for the clackety clack. I am a child
Got it, no worries, I was just curious.
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Planar Magnetic headphones. Can't go back.
Which ones? I got a set of Moondrop Para2s, and while I love the clarity on treble forward music I still go back to my MDR-CD770s for anything more bass heavy.
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Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2914
I wouldn't say five seconds before totality is boring; you can look up and see the tiny sliver of Sun as it winks out of existence, and see shadowy ripples on the ground from differences in air density. But that's still nothing compared to totality.
There were “shadow bands” that looked like wavy ripples starting around then too, and for a few seconds afterward too.
But OP’s point about non-totally is pretty accurate. It’s a little chilly, a bit like overcast, and you can’t look at it without eye protection until totality.
When we were at the 2017 eclipse it was warmer and we watch the bugs come out and birds roost/land on the nearby lake.
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Mechanical keyboards
Every keystroke feels and sounds like heaven!
Not to your work neighbours it doesn't!
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Bidet. $30 game changer. Don't ask questions, just hook it up (it's easy), and try it.
You're welcome.
Unless you live in a modular with fucked plumbing not making this easy
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World of Warcraft back in 2007-8
Lok'tar! I remember not affording a subscription back them, so I would spam PvP at the lv 20 cap every day after school. I had multiple full sets of honor heirlooms on my trial account. Good times
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Unless you live in a modular with fucked plumbing not making this easy
It attaches to the float mechanism, so it's pretty easy to install. Only about 15 minutes, and the results are so worth it.
It would be worth it even if you had to pay a plumber to install it. Now that I've lived with one, I'd pay $200 to have one installed.
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Instant pot. Mine has a sous-vide mode and I make the best steaks I've ever made. Whole shebang was only like 40 bucks and I can cook most things in it.
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What's with these? Do they heat up faster? More convection means more heat transfer? I don't get it
Yep, they are convection ovens on steroids when it comes to the amount of airflow.
I was firmly on team "LOL it's a baby convection oven, big whoop" for years, but an actual purpose-made air fryer (not a toaster oven with air fry mode) cooks like an entirely different appliance.
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Pro tip: crush roasted unsalted peanuts and have real peanut butter. You have no idea what you're missing. The peanut butter sold in most places is hydraulically fractured, then the peanut oil is reserved and replaced with inferior soybean. Crushed (not fractured) peanut butter does not separate, and it is breathtakingly versatile in cooking!
And if you want a sweetener, use honey.
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Mechanical keyboards
Every keystroke feels and sounds like heaven!
Next step. Ergo split with non qwerty layout. I put together a Lily58 keyboard and switched to Colemak-DH. Years of discomfort just vanished. The advantages were instant for me. Im a bigger dude and typing on even a full-sized keyboard meant my hands were at a 45 degree angle perpendicular to the keyboard at all times. I had to contort my wrists to type. Then my shoulders were cramped because I had to squeeze them together.
The split instantly relaxed my shoulders. The ability to angle the keyboard meant no more contorting my wrists. Colemak has its own benefits and overall my fingers feel much better.
The only drawback I have is I want a bigger thumb cluster. That's a personal preference you don't even realize until you get a split keyboard. Once you start doing motions to eliminate using your pinky as a hold finger even more comfort opens up for you.
The best part is it's a super portable keyboard by default. So if I want to take it to work I can rubber band both halves together and shove it in my bag. Or better yet print out a foldable case. I got big honking full-sized switches and keys. You can go low profile and make it as discreet as possible.
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Breaking Bad
Did you make it to Better Call Saul, yet? I think I liked it even more.
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When I moved to Wisconsin back in 2006, House on the Rock was one of the first things I heard about from my neighbors to go see. My wife and I looked at the website and said "we'll go see it someday." Well, that day was about a month ago as back then we started having kids and getting used to living in a new place. However, over the past 19 years I've had people tell me that "you've got to go see it."
Now.... I understand.
Is that place a monument to a man's ascent to brilliance?
Or his decent into madness.
There was stuff in that museum that I took DAYS to process and I still really am unable to understand what it was I was looking at. It took my family and I FOUR hours to walk through it. It could have been a LOT longer if we actually stopped to study more than what we did.
I'm 55 years old and I've seen and done a lot things in my life... None of it prepared me for the sheer onslaught that is House on the Rock. Walking out of it I told my wife that I rather chaffed at the entrance fee when I paid it... Now, I'm not sure if they charged enough.
If you're ever anywhere close to South Central Wisconsin... Take a day and go see it.
It doesn't just live up to the hype... It so far exceeds it that trying to explain the place will never do it justice.
wrote last edited by [email protected]It's so cool to see this pop up here--i went there with my wife several years ago and we were absolutely stunned by it's magnificence and sheer scale. I plan on going back someday and spending an entire day there knowing what we're in store for. I had been given a recommendation to check it out by a local who ran a log cabin lodge that was about 1/2 hour or so from the House. That place really blew me away, glad to know other folks are out there appreciating it too!
That carousel was insane, not to mention the amount of animated instruments and nickelodeons scattered about... The living quarters were so cool, if a little impractical. You could have the coolest parties ever in that place...
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It attaches to the float mechanism, so it's pretty easy to install. Only about 15 minutes, and the results are so worth it.
It would be worth it even if you had to pay a plumber to install it. Now that I've lived with one, I'd pay $200 to have one installed.
In some places all the piping and the water tank are behind a wall though
