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A little disappointing.

I had been pretty well consolidated to just lightning cables for everything. It did what I needed, the connector is small, reversible, easy to use, and it fit most electronics for my family of four. I had built up a nice stable of accessories like power banks and charging blocks that fit everything and hadn’t needed to buy anything new in years.

The switch to USB-C came with great fanfare and seemed like a good idea. However it really doesn’t give me any direct benefits and I have to buy all new accessories. Now I’m in a transition mode for a few years where I need usb-c, usb-a, and lightning cables and chargers. Worst of all the market that I kept being told was leaving behind still has more support for usb-a - my laptop has mostly usb-a, even new model motherboards for building my kids gaming computers are mostly usb-a, I don’t see a good selection of usb-c chargers, power banks are still mostly usb-a, keyboards and mice are usb-a, kvms are usb-a, etc

Trying to switch to usb-c has meant more cable types rather than fewer. It has meant buying duplicate chargers and it has meant less convenience where usb-c is not really mainstream yet. Hopefully the market will more fully adopt usb-c quickly but I meant to be a late adopter to this transition and feel almost like an early adopter

It’s by state, and would never be tolerated where I live.

Unfortunately it seems to be a systemic issue with certain states. At one point several had federally monitored elections to prevent shenanigans but I don’t know if that’s true anymore

Some states do not allow counting early votes early, some states allow a couple days for mail in votes as long as they were postmarked today, plus there will almost certainly be challenges and recounts

Very true. In contrast, I’m fed up with Firestick and am interested in trying AppleTV instead. But that device is two years old. I’m not in a hurry to buy, so that means I’m on the sidelines as I waited for the Spring announcement, then the summer announcement, then the fall announcement, and a new model never came. Now I’m getting stubborn: there must be a new version coming soon. If I knew when to expect any update, Apple would likely already have my money

It’s easier and less stressful for me to vote in person. My polling place is like a two block walk and there’s rarely a line, plus I know there’s no room for shenanigans to disenfranchise me.

Mail in voting seems more complicated, although my state mails them out by default and it’s probably just lack of familiarity. Anyway, in person is easy and pleasant so I don’t see any reason to change.

I don’t know if I’d need to buy stamps but I’m already late for my new lawn care guy because he insists I need to mail him a check but I haven’t had stamps in years and he’s about the only check I write

This year is the first time it’s complicated though. My older kid is voting for the first time and I want to vote with him for that milestone. He’s at college but didn’t follow up with mail in voting so we have to figure out the logistics of getting him home on a school/work day

For newbies to home automation, it’s finally getting to the point where we should recommend Matter/Thread.

I mean, I won’t use it yet because I have mature Zigbee and Z-wave meshes, and use Home Assistant, but they want to run HomeKit and don’t seem to want to do their homework

Yeah my nostalgia food is Kraft mac&cheese. It always tastes amazing as it reminds me of my childhood ….. but i try to rarely have it

Somewhat the opposite.

• I seem to be the only one here who likes Bisquick pancakes, at least as a starting point (I usually add something: last time it was half a can of pumpkin, walnuts and pie spices)
• I find frozen meatballs significantly worse than hand made, plus there’s usually a lot of junk ingredients. However realistically that usually means I’ll Use sausage or shredded chicken thighs

It does make a huge difference to have a decent mix and Bisquick isn’t filled with all the crap of a standard mix. But remember Bisquick isn’t really a pancake mix: it’s a baking convenience combining a handful of common ingredients in common proportions. If you don’t want the convenience, do it yourself. It doesn’t really even take more time but you have to have the ingredients on hand.

While I like the flatter style pancakes, if you want fluffier, thicker, make some bacon. Seriously, if you give a little time for the mix to do its thing, Bisquick will fluff right up. Make the mix, cook some bacon, put the pancakes on: bingo, fluffy pancakes

On days when I feel like this, the two most important pieces of equipment are a rice maker and an air fryer. Now I can have chicken breasts over rice at the touch of a few buttons.

• take a look at how much sodium too much instant rice has, plus it’s overly processed to make it quick. With the rice maker it might take 15-20 minutes but all I do is pour rice and water in and press the button…. Much better than instant and no sodium. This is what converted me from a potato guy to a rice guy.

• air fryer gets a bad rep because it’s only the chicken tenders and fries labeled with directions, but it does a great job with chicken breasts or thighs - just press the button and wait for it to ding!

No, it’s really not. If you read the label you might be surprised how often just one meal puts you over your max recommended daily amount, and by how far.

Excessive sodium has a much stronger and well proven connection to health problems and early death than most of the other crud in boxed slop