The older I get, the more I realize that speaking your mind bluntly and directly is the fastest way to build relationships with the right people.

My friend (51m) lost his wife (55f) last year after a brief illness. I remember speaking to him around the time of the one year anniversary of her death, and I could tell all through that period he was really struggling. I know this week would have been her 57th birthday so he's also been really quiet. Keep in mind that person's feelings each year surrounding the anniversary of their spouse's death, their wedding anniversary, etc, especially around holidays, can be very hard for someone who has lost their spouse.

I cant believe its 2026 and people are still signing their texts and emails with names they dont actually use.

If your name is Nicholas but you want to be called Nick, use Nick in your signature.

I work in sales and am constantly having to email or call people that have only sent me their signature, then they act surprised when I call them the name they use in their signature.

If you want Greg use GREG, not Gregory.

Then you have a glass of water that you won't drink right away when you get back to your seat.

Learn from my mistake: took my cat to the vet yesterday for a routine checkup. They asked if I wanted to do bloodwork on her, saying this should be done once a year. I want to be a good cat dad so I said sure, thinking a yearly diagnostic would cost maybe $100. I was shocked when I went to pay afterward and was given a $350 bill just for the test (not including the visit fee). I would not have agreed to the test for my healthy, active cat if I’d been warned of the cost. My household will be eating beans this month; my cat will not.

Has anyone else been sneak attacked by their vet?

I want to post this because I think it might help others who are currently in a tough spot. It worked for me when things got difficult. I am an 18F student in college. I live in a dorm and I usually eat only one meal a day. Every human body is different so I am not saying this will work for everyone.

When I felt hungry and could not afford extra food I started using a specific routine. You need to find a content creator on YouTube or TikTok who cooks food slowly. It is best to choose a creator who speaks your native language with a soothing voice to help your body relax.

You get a large glass of water. You sit down and focus entirely on the cooking process in the video. You take a slow sip of water every few minutes. Your brain starts to link the action of swallowing water with the visual of food preparation. It tricks your mind into feeling satisfied.

I discovered this habit earlier this month when I spent my entire allowance paying for dorm rent and my tuition. My tuition is fully covered for the rest of the year now which is a huge relief. My parents do not support me financially so I rely completely on my part time job.

I strongly suggest avoiding mukbang videos. The loud eating sounds and fast munching can break your concentration. That usually makes you crave real food even more. You need slow videos that focus on the preparation step by step. That slow process creates a calming effect that eases the sensation of hunger.

I still use this method every now and then because by the end of the video you feel completely full. You can also try adding a pinch of salt to your water for a bit of flavor or if your body is craving sodium. That helps keep your energy steady when you go long periods without eating. It takes time for your mind to adjust to this method so please be patient with yourself.

*Produce items will need to be taken out and weighed, so keep them together.

Edit: I whiffed on the title, by 'charge cycle' I meant keep them a bit charged, check in on them periodically.

I had a drone that I hadn't used for years, until I bought another product by the same brand and wondered if the drone needed any updates and what had changed. All 3 batteries refuse to light up. On closer inspection, they're swollen, and battery protection has turned them off permanently. The cost to replace them is more than I'm willing to pay to have this thing ready to go if I ever use it again.

My dad passed away and being the tech kid I got all of his devices to go through. Same deal, all of the security camera batteries and robot vac battery are dead beyond usage. Replacement batteries for the cameras are exorbitantly priced now they're out of production.

The tip is, some devices have smart batteries with battery protection circuits. They'll stop you from charging if the battery is damaged from chemical degradation, but paradoxically they take a little bit of power to run and will empty the batteries to the point where that degradation can occur. Check your old devices with lithium batteries, keep the batteries disconnected when not in use, keep them charged about halfway, and make sure they're not sitting dead for any length of time if you can help it.

If you go and check your batteries now, make sure they're not swollen before attempting to charge them. If they don't charge, don't attempt to take them apart, take them to a recycling facility. If they're fine cosmetically, but very flat, they might take a long time to trickle charge during a "low current recovery" stage before the device shows any life. Do this somewhere away from flammable goods just to be extra safe. Check old phones and laptops for signs of swelling (screen popping off, bulging keyboards on laptops). If kept inside these can become fire hazards as lithium batteries when punctured can cause an internal short circuit and cause "thermal runaway" which can be incompatible with having a house to live in.

I don’t know if this will work for anyone else, but sometimes when I’m struggling with motivation to get out of bed, I just imagine Im a pile of jelly/jello, and because i’m so slippery and jelly i just sort of bounce and roll and slide out of the bed out of the covers. I don’t even think about it, I’m just a pile of jelly so I have no brain to even think about it. And before I know it i’ve wobbled out of bed onto the floor and am ready to get go and start my day

Hi. When taking medication daily it helps to use specified containers. But still you forget it every now and then.
What helped me was to make a routine, connecting the medication taking to bringing your drink (coffee, tea) to the table. Or, in the evening before bedtime: locking the door/turning out the lights.
The taking of your meds gets anchored to one of your daily routines.
Best!

We’ve all turned up a hotel before and found that the TV either hasn’t been touched in the past 15 years, dosent have the streaming service you want or charges a fortune for movies you already pay for.

The workaround? Buy a fire stick/roku/apple tv it and bring it with you whenever you go to a hotel. They’re absolutely tiny and are also cheap af. Most hotel TVs let you switch input, so just select the device and bypass the hotel bs altogether. Saved me so many headaches over the years. Also stops you from having to sign in to all your streaming apps all over again.

The language we use is important. It has massive impacts on how we view the world. But it’s difficult to consciously choose, those word choices often come from a more subconscious part of our brain most of us don’t get to tap into.

Your phone has an autocorrect feature that you can add specific text replacements to. When you’re typing, if you actually wanted to use the original text, it’s the top left predictive text option, generally, so isn’t lost. But you can set your phone to automatically replace words!

One of the ones I’m using it for is AI -> Inorganic Intelligence. Honestly, this one is just a shortcut. I’m adapting my language to something that isn’t adopted by anyone else, so can’t just say II or nobody will understand me. But typing Inorganic Intelligence out again and again where others just use AI feels clunky. But since I want to commit to the verbiage change, and I don’t want to make that an experience that causes me friction, I’m just changing my text replacement settings to convert AI to Inorganic Intelligence.

Maybe you have a friend that changed their name as part of an identity transition, and you want to make sure you don’t dead name them while speaking to / about them. You could just add a text replacement (and it only takes a few taps to remove, this is temporary) to correct their name.

You’ll often notice the word change as you type, assuming you pay attention as you type, and that literal visual change in front of your eyes helps reinforce adapting your actual language that comes to mind.

If you, like me, are sick of awful recipe websites that pop up ads at critical points of the cook, scroll back to the top while you were checking the ingredients list, or have 4 pages of backstory before the recipe, use the print button! Almost every recipe website has one. It’ll open up a new tab with the simple text, all ingredients in one place, minimal or no ads, and a far easier layout to follow.

LTP/ In my experience you should always be on a prepaid mobile plan. A couple people working for mobile providers told me that basically postipaid is a scam, for the convinience of "not having to think about paying your bill" you end up paying for something you are not even using.
Of course, sometimes if you are a super heavy user it pays off, but in most cases people actually use a fraction of the "Unlimited" stuff they give you.

You are tied in with a contract, paying for something you are not using...go prepaid free yourself :D

Being inside the closed jug or carton can make it smell bad even when its perfectly fine. For things like cream the effect is even worse.

Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and pretty much any other delivery service will let you add delivery details to your address.

If you take a couple of minutes to provide useful details for someone completely unfamiliar with your house, especially if they arrive in the dark, you will have a much better chance of packages not getting skipped or misdelivered.

For Amazon.com, you can go to "Your Addresses" and click on "Add delivery instructions". Put in useful information on how to find your unit (especially floor and side of building) and any specific hints on where to leave packages. "Call me when you arrive" is not helpful.

If you're at an apartment that makes it hard to know where your unit is, some drivers might elect to skip the delivery.

For other major carriers, you can call their customer service number.

EDIT: I get it - a fair number of delivery people ignore the instructions because they're being lazy or dumb. The tip here isn't going to fix that. But those looking to make the delivery looking for your home/apartment are more likely to deliver to the correct location if you make it much easier to find you.

If you’re looking to boost the flavour, these are much better than adding regular seasonings and spices - they provide the right consistency, flavour intensity and coat the chips much better than regular herbs, spices and seasonings.

They’re convenient, a single cup soup mix is almost perfect for a large bag, and you can get flavours they never make commercially - great for entertaining.

Its super easy.

I haven't ever had a kitten so insistent on licking her spay incision before and she was not handling the cone. I needed something small enough to fit her, and fast, and cheap.

My mom suggested using an old shirt sleeve.

So!

LPT:

1. Cut the sleeve from an old long sleeve shirt. Measure the length against your cat's body from the sleeve at their neck (make sure it isn't too tight.)

2. Cut holes for all four legs and make sure you measure where (just eye it, but check against your cat's body where to put the holes. DO NOT CUT WHILE IT IS ON YOUR CAT.)

3. Cut off the extra length, and cut a triangle shape from the butt end, underneath between the two back leg holes. This is for going to the bathroom.

Do not make the triangle too deep/ toward the belly or they will reach the incision.

1. Put the new onesie on your baby. Make sure it isn't too tight in the neck/ throat. 2 fingers should fit between the neck and the collar. Make sure it isn't tight in the belly area- it should not press into the incision area at all.

Being tight in the belly area may cause irritation and swelling in the incision site.

1. They may not like it. But if they tolerate it, they will get used to it and you can use it for the entire length of their recovery.

2. Do not leave this on the entire recovery: The onesie will become dirty, especially around the incision site.

Remove and wash the onesie and replace it often to prevent infection.

1. Optional, but usefull: Assuming the shirt you used has 2 arms, cut the other sleeve off and make a second sweater. This allows you to change your baby's onesie when it gets dirty, instead of leaving them bare to lick their incisions or tug at the stitches.

You could technically use this for a dog, as well. And pants instead of a shirt if the animal was large enough lol.

Humans always have changes in their facial expression when lying. Especially when they answer something in a way that is opposite from the way they actually feel. You can notice this especially in their facial expression. Their eyes can be relaxed when everything is indeed fine. But if they're sad they will look sad easier when you ask how they are, because the real answer is that they are not fine because of a certain reason

If something even happened they are ashamed about, they may look away in shame

If something happened they are angry about, they will have anger in their pupils

No matter how durable it looks, it will rub off!!! then you can’t tell your 1/3 from your 1/2 and your 3/4 from your cup in a dark cupboard!

I realized recently that half the emails filling up my inbox come from websites i used once and completely forgot about, ordered food, downloaded something, signed up for a free trial, and somehow i'm still hearing from these companies years later. started using separate cloaked email/phone number aliases for different websites. Wish I started doing this before my inbox became a graveyard of forgotten signups.

I saw a LPT a month ago about saving space on your phone by deleting mobile apps. I wanted to give two more reasons you should do this.

Reasons to delete app and use browser:

1. Storage

2. Privacy and Ads: When you download an app, you're handing a tech company a blank check to run whatever software they want on your device, be it tracking or ads. When you use the browser, YOU control what code runs on YOUR device, aka you can get browser extensions that block adds and tracking.

3. Less screen time: For media apps like YT, TT and Insta, the browser UI is much less optimized for addictiveness. It will feel clunkier at first, but you will get used to it. And at least for me it's way less addicting.

Reason to keep app:

If you need the app to send you notifications or other service where it must live on device.

Assigning unique notification sounds to specific contacts is an effective way to prioritize alerts without visual confirmation. This feature allows you to instantly recognize messages from close family/ friends or other important contacts, distinguishing them from general app notifications or less critical communications.

To set this up, you can use either system-level settings or in-app configurations:

iOS: Open the Contacts app, select the person, tap Edit, scroll to Ringtone (or Text Tone), and select a distinct alert.

Android (Contact-Level): Open the Contacts app, select the family member, tap Edit, and choose Set ringtone or Message notification to assign a specific tone to their calls and texts.

Android (App-Level): In Google Messages, open the specific chat, tap the contact’s name, select Notifications, and choose a unique Sound for that conversation.

WhatsApp: Open the chat, tap the contact’s name, go to Notifications, and select a custom Alert Tone.

Using distinct, emotionally resonant tones for family ensures you can identify critical personal messages immediately, even in noisy environments or when the phone is face down. 

Support lines are almost always understaffed so you end up waiting 45 minutes while the same song plays on loop. Sales lines are the opposite cuz every missed call there is lost money so they actually pick up.

So next time, hang up, call again and press the sales or new customer option. When someone answers just say “sorry I picked the wrong option could you transfer me to support?” most of the time they will and you skip most of the wait.

Be nice about it though. The person on the line didn’t design the phone system and they can say no. Doesn’t work every time but it saved me a ton of waiting.