While I agree that Biden no longer really seems fit to be president, the dangerous Trump argument is absolutely not one to be downplayed. A man that attempted to overthrow the government in a tantrum when he didn’t get his way should be absolutely nowhere near close to becoming president again. A sack of potatoes or Biden’s literal decomposing corpse would be a better president.

I agree that it’s disappointing that these are our only two options and that the Dems could not figure out a better candidate this go around.

Oh my God yes! I was dying!

There were moments during the debate last night where I just sat there dumbfounded at the absurdity of our current reality

I don’t really care about Ghostbusters, but I found this to be a really interesting video. He seems very wise with a lot of his tips and explaining why he does things the way he does.

One of the things that he mentioned that I also have personally found helpful is he said something about pre-portioning snacks so you don’t eat too much.

It’s so incredibly wasteful, but for snacks in my house, I prefer to buy the bulk packages of snack sized portioned snacks (whether it’s chips, nuts, etc.). Thing is, I know it’s so incredibly wasteful for the environment to have things individually wrapped. But when they are individually packaged like that, it’s a hell of a lot easier to see and understand just exactly how much you’re eating and usually stop yourself before you get too deep. Sure, it’s more economical and wasteful to buy a giant family sized package of chips. But when I have to open each individual 150 cal snack bag, it’s a lot easier to stop at only 1 or 2 bags.

Of course, not every snack comes packaged this way. I have thought about buying certain snacks and then pre-portioning them myself like he does, but it involves a lot more hassle and I don’t have anything like a kitchen scale.

I just assume no one is ever flirting with me unless it’s a creepy old man

That’s actually a super neat photo, too. It’s the perfect positioning and framing for a portrait combined with the scenic nature view.

I’m not quite the same demographic as you, but I get it.

For me, it’s simply not possible to have kids unless I adopted. And that ain’t happening (adoption is a long, arduous, and expensive process and I’m only one person…wouldn’t want to take that alone). I suppose technically my body might physically be able to produce kids…I haven’t tried, but that’s missing the point.

People sometimes ask me if I want kids and it’s just such a silly question for someone like me. It’s like asking if I had a mega mansion, how would I decorate the 7th bathroom? What I want is irrelevant because that’s not at all in the realm of possibility.

I don’t know if I would want kids or not. But since it’s not possible, it’s not worth dwelling over.

Before my current job, any job I’ve had had an 8.5 hour shift with a half an hour unpaid lunch. But I managed to score a gig where I have an 8.0 hour shift with a half an hour paid lunch. It seems uncommon in the US, but I guess it must be common elsewhere.

Weirdly I know quite a few people who converted to being religious as adults. As children, they weren’t raised with any particular religion.

It’s not even a shadowban thing. I’ve noticed a lot of subs have hidden requirements for your post to show up in them. If you don’t have enough posts in the sub or your karma isn’t high enough, even if you’re not shadowbanned, your threads just straight up won’t show up… especially if you made a new account recently. But it doesn’t tell you that. It just lets you think that no one cared to look at your post.

I’ve noticed that some subs don’t seem to be this way and my threads will show up regardless of how often I’ve posted there and regardless of my overall karma.

If these were colonoscopy pics, someone would be having a huge problem with their colon

Thank God this doesn’t happen to me anymore as an adult

Damn I remember seeing this printed out when I was literally a child. Interesting to see this text come back in 2024.

This sounds super interesting! I didn’t know that smart vents were a thing. I’d like to get some more smart home tech stuff in general and this seems up my alley. Plus my vents seem to be stuck open anyway so it wouldn’t hurt replacing them lol.

Haha. Well I don’t mean the dampers themselves are smart. I mean that the HVAC companies will do pressure checks make sure things are flowing and vented properly if they are adding in dampers in particular areas.

Haha well true. I just presume that if you have dampers built into the system by an HVAC company that steps would be taken to ensure it doesn’t mess up your system.

Thanks for the advice! I’ll have to read more into what goes into a mini split system. I’ve only ever had central air my whole life (or window AC).

The mini-split route idea is a great solution, but I am wondering if you have an unvented or poorly insulated attic that is a contributing factor to your problem. If your attic space isn’t setup properly and you throw a mini-split at the problem, it is sort of like pumping water out of a boat without fixing the leak that is flooding the boat. Even something as “simple” as a powered attic vent could help in HVAC performance and operating costs. If the hot air can’t vent or your insulation is inadequate, it just stacks down and heats the top floor.

Unfortunately, I don’t live in a free-standing house. It’s a townhouse, so it’s connected to other units so I don’t think that I can make changes to the attic.

The other thing I would be looking at is if the HVAC run up to the second floor is done properly or if the dampers are not right. A house that size really shouldn’t have much trouble if everything is balanced right.

I don’t seem to have any dampers at all as far as I can tell.

Having the nest with a second temp sensor would just force your HVAC to work harder to cool the upstairs.

Yeah, I get that I would be pushing the HVAC system to simply be on more, but at the very least I could actually set the temperature upstairs instead of having it fluctuate so wildly. Often, I’ll set the temp low at night to be more comfortable. It’ll be to the point where I’m basically freezing with the sun down. But then in the morning, when the sun rises it’s unbearably hot.

The single sensor nest can be a smart move to reduce costs with the higher degree of control.

What do you mean by this?

Having dampers installed does more or less the same thing as closing vents, but with a higher cost. A zoned system is expensive and kind of silly on a house of that size.

So there’s no real reason to get dampers installed then?

There is a single air return upstairs and the filter has been somewhat recently replaced

I know multiple people say to close the downstairsregisters, but HVAC sources that I look at say that it greatly stresses the system if you do this and that it’s a bad idea.