#the box set is much cheaper than if i had to buy all the volumes

[fragglez]

can christmas come any slower I want giftcards so i can buy the fma boxset

[cazort]

Ugh. Awful day. Six months ago my wife and I bought a washing machine and chose to buy a Speed Queen, which was much more expensive than most other brands, because it had a top-notch reputation and long warranty and we just didn't want to have to deal with breakdowns. This was a tough choice that we did not make lightly. Buying a house was a huge financial burden and my finances are now tighter than they've been in years, and the amount of money at stake matters. We were hoping to buy stability and leave us with one fewer thing to worry about during a stressful life transition.

Well a few days ago, it broke after 6 months, which is irritating enough, but the company has been hellish to deal with. They keep over-promising and under-delivering. Tuesday they said a local service company would reach out to schedule an appointment within 48 hours. Over 72 hours went by with no call. I called again today and the system said the wait time was 1 hour 6 minutes. This is literally the longest wait time I have ever had from any company. I put my number in the queue and they called me back...1 hour 50 minutes later.

The rep was barely helpful. She did not seem to understand the gravity or magnitude of the situation and spoke as if what happened to me was business-as-usual, rather than a rare, once-in-a-blue moon occurence that the company wanted to bend over backwards to fix. She tried calling the contractor and couldn't reach them. She did switch the ticket to a different contractor, who called me back later that afternoon, so now I have an appointment set up for next Thursday.

But I'm upset. I'm upset that I paid over twice the price for what I thought would be a premium product unlikely to break, and with a commitment to outstanding service, and instead I got a company that provides the longest hold times I have ever seen in my life, repeatedly makes promises it fails to deliver on, and reps that have no authority to escalate the issue or do anything to right the situation.

And I still don't know what is going to happen on Thursday. Will the contractor show up? Will they be able to fix it then and there, or will I have to wait days or weeks for a replacement part? Am I going to need to drag our laundry to the laundromat and incur additional costs doing so?

I have already filed a BBB complaint. I would like a partial rebate of the price I paid, because the value I have received is not worth what I paid for. I also am talking about my experience online.

Speed Queen has a top-tier reputation. They are a brand mainly used by laundromats, supposedly made to handle a heavy volume of use and last for many years. But the way they have treated me as a customer makes me feel like I've been cheated and would have done better buying a cheaper brand available at any box store.

I'm a reasonable person. I don't expect top-tier service if I buy a cheap, low-end product. I can even forgive mediocre service. But paying premium prices and then getting unspeakably bad service is just unconscionable to me.

If they had told me it might take a week to get contacted, I would be annoyed but it wouldn't be as bad as saying I would expect a call in a certain time frame and then have that call not come. And I might feel better if they did what most companies do, which is to at least apologize profusely and tell me they are really concerned with what is going on and escalate the situation. Like earlier this week I called my bank about something they messed up and the woman was like "Yeah you are right, the interface is actually really bad. I get why you are upset. We really need to improve that."

Like sometimes that's literally all it takes. Someone saying "Wow, we really messed up. I'm really sorry that sucks so much."

But no I didn't even get that.

And of course if this happens to me I'm gonna talk about it everywhere. So right now I am warning people about Speed Queen. They may have an amazing reputation but my experience with them so far has been awful.

[poindextermoving]

The Pros and Cons of Moving Services

Contrary to popular belief, moving on your own doesn’t have to be an option. Whether you’re working with a tight budget or simply don’t want to deal with the stress of moving, it’s worth considering other options such as hiring movers or helpers. While this article won’t tell you which option will work best for you, it will help guide you through some of the more important considerations that come with using services rather than relying on friends and family members who might not be available at the time of your move.

The Pros Of Hiring Movers

It’s a challenge for most people to find time in their busy schedules to relocate. With moving services, you can easily shift your belongings from one home to another without having to lift a finger. But how do you know if hiring professional movers is worth it? We’ve examined some of the pros below.  It’s a challenge for most people to find time in their busy schedules to relocate.

1. Moving services are generally cheaper than doing everything yourself. This might seem obvious: why would you hire someone else to handle what you could do on your own? On top of that, being able to move on a specific day will almost always beat doing things yourself with no set schedule. However, when comparing hourly rates among moving companies, prices can vary dramatically—as much as fivefold! The key is researching beforehand so that you have an idea of what companies offer discounts based on volume (an entire house versus just a couple pieces), delivery length (further away), etc.

2. You can be more selective about when you move. If your current place has become a burden, then leaving it might feel liberating. But there are other times where you just can’t exactly pick up and leave at a moment’s notice—for example, if your employer needs you to stay in your current home for some reason or if you’re still paying off a mortgage that won’t be settled until months from now. In these cases, hiring movers may help; after all, even though you would have liked to move yesterday, you may not be able to do so for another few weeks or months.

The Cons Of Hiring Movers

When you use professional movers, they are responsible for transporting your belongings. This means that any problems that occur during transportation are their responsibility to fix or replace. For example, if something gets broken during a move because a mover didn’t take proper care when handling it, that mover could be liable for paying for repairs or replacing your item. It might sound like an unlikely scenario, but I know several people who’ve had to deal with these issues while using moving services. It can happen! Also, hiring a moving company means you don’t have as much control over how your belongings are transported as you would if you moved. The company may choose not to disassemble furniture or pack up fragile items (like antiques) appropriately; so no matter how carefully you packed them before leaving home, things could get damaged during transit. That being said…

Because most services require tipping, hiring help does come with its fair share of additional costs—just in different forms than buying boxes and packing supplies.

What To Look For In A Mover

Hiring professional movers can be an expensive undertaking, but it doesn’t have to be. By knowing what to look for in a mover, you can save yourself time, money, and hassle while still getting quality service. When searching for moving services, consider experience level (freight or residential), types of services offered (packing, unpacking, or both), insurance coverage (and liability limits), and references from other customers. Before hiring any moving company, make sure that you have all these details figured out; after all, once your belongings are on their way, there won’t be much chance to renegotiate if something goes wrong.

Look at Poindextermoving.com Company is right for you!

In Conclusion, Consider Your Options

Moving labor can help people move quickly, but it can also come with a lot of headaches. For instance, if you choose to hire moving labor and something goes wrong, you’re liable to take full responsibility. In addition, if they damage or lose any of your belongings while on their way to your new home, there’s no insurance policy in place to protect you. It’s best to think through all of your options carefully before deciding which option is right for you!

Moving helpers are great for helping people move quickly because movers are often willing to get started immediately; however, when moving helpers arrive at your new house, they may be more inclined to rush through tasks—like packing up fragile belongings—to keep you happy.

Contact Us:

Address: 1155 W. 23rd St. Suite 10A Tempe, AZ 85282

Email: info@poindextermoving.com

Phone: (480) 605-0635

Website: Poindexter Moving

Blog: The Pros and Cons of Moving Services

[airisu7425]

April Shopping 1

As I mentioned in my previous post, CDJapan has decided to ship out all the packages/orders that were held because of the suspension of the SAL shipping method - with airmail and without any extra cost, which I really appreciated. In my case it meant 7 (yes, you read right SEVEN) packages, which arrived in 2 weeks. Hence the variety of different fandoms: Promare, Mairimashita Iruma-kun, Given, HQ!!, JJK, Naruto, Tensura...

I finally received my copy of Twittering Birds vol 4 (limited first print) - the first one never made it, so had to reorder it. I got the latest Finder and Natsume volume as well. The GIVEN movie desktop calendar made it to me as well - too bad Mafuyu’s page is over (he was in the January/February page).

Let’s see the figures: I like the Pop Up Parade Series - for that price level you can get a quite decent figure. I did a comparison shot for Lio with the ARTFX J figure and there you can see why the later cost a lot more. However, this is my first non-chibi Galo figure and I’m happy with it. :) As for the Rimuru figure - it’s my first Figuarts Mini figures and I’m really surprised how nice it is. It is a bit like nendos, but cheaper (half the price or less) and much less extra parts. The details of the eyes are amazing - some 3D painting technique they used and it shows. They are a good alternative for nendos if you don’t mind the less extra parts and extra faces (plus the box takes up much less space XD).

Plushies! I am weak - when I see Megumi’s demon dogs, I have to have them. Especially if they come as a package, like with these plush keychains. They are bigger than I expected - as so soft! ♥

Talking about JJK - with this keychain set I did not have to face the nightmare of blind package - in the box you have all characters of the set. Yay! Love this set, especially because it has Nanamin in it!

Up next are the HQ!! ‘tree’ acrylic standees. I loved those images so much, had to have them - all of them, of course. They look stunning!

Haikyuu!! stamps are silly little gadgets but they are cheap and cute, and the set contained 18 characters! I love how almost all the Jackal boys got in the orange team. XD

I received another Nyaruto set! I never thought they would include Zabuza and Haku in any of these sets, so when they I saw them, I knew I needed this. I pre-ordered one last set which will come out in September, but I stop collecting and buying them after that.

Last but not least, a few other things I got: GaLio mug and rubber straps, AshEiji clearfile, Pash! Illustration File 2020 and a textile mask with the logo of Inarizaki.

[anneofgreengablesincorrectquotes]

Hi I hope this is not an unusual thing to ask but if you can help me I would be incredibly grateful. I borrowed the first book (anne of green gables) from the library and absolutely loved it and I really want to read the whole series. Based on wikipedia i think there are 8 main books, and 12 books total? I want to buy the kindle version so i went on amazon but the suggestions are these really shady ones. So I was hoping you could link me to legit/official versions for me to purchase. Thank you!!

Hello dear, 

Not an unusual thing at all, we love the books and are happy to answer questions! So yes, there are 8 main books, the first 6 of which focus on Anne and the last 2 of which are about her children. 

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Avonlea

Anne of the Island

Anne of Windy Poplars (also called Anne of Windy Willows)

Anne’s House of Dreams

Anne of Ingleside

Rainbow Valley 

Rilla of Ingleside

The other books I believe you are referring to are the books composed of short stories:

The Blythes are Quoted (also includes poems

Chronicles of Avonlea 

Further Chronicles of Avonlea

There is also a prequel that I haven’t had a chance to read called “Before Green Gables”, it wasn’t written by the original author Lucy Maud Montgomery but I’m hoping to read it in the future because of how much I love Anne.

Now, the only other places I personally know of where you can purchase the  box set and/or the short stories besides Amazon is Barnes & Nobles and Christianbook.com.

Barnes & Nobles:

Box Set: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-complete-anne-of-green-gables-l-m-montgomery/1000287754?ean=9780553609417#/

Chronicles of Avonlea: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chronicles-of-avonlea-lucy-maud-montgomery/1100400743?ean=9780553213782

Further Chronicles of Avonlea: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/further-chronicles-of-avonlea-l-m-montgomery/1100450407?ean=9781502481801

The Blythes are Quoted (out of stock, unfortunately): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-blythes-are-quoted-l-m-montgomery/1132012101?ean=9780735234680

Christianbook.com:

Box Set: https://www.christianbook.com/anne-of-green-gables-volume/l-m-montgomery/9780553609417/pd/09416

If you want to save the most money, currently the Christianbook box set is cheaper than the Barnes and Nobles one.

I will open this up to our followers as well, as someone else might know of another site that sells them for less with just as good quality.

Thanks for the ask!

Admin: Diana

[setmeatopthepyre]

Mental Health Tips

So, I was looking through my mood tracker recently and realized there’s been a gradual but undeniable increase of good days and a decrease of bad days, and it hit me that yeah, I have been doing better and better. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that getting my ADHD diagnosis in January was a life changer. There’s a (great) book on ADD called You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy? and that was exactly how I felt. Wait, all the things I’ve been struggling with, all the times I beat myself up over my lack of discipline or worried that I had a brain tumor because I’d forget things in seconds or thought I might be bipolar because I could go from the highest highs to extreme lows multiple times a day, that was all because of one thing? Amazing!

Anyway, realization is one thing. Then there was medication (also a life changer), and therapy, and look where we are now! Over the past year I’ve learned a few things that have had a huge positive impact on my mental health, and I thought they might be useful for others struggling with their mental health, whether it’s ADHD or something else.

You’re not the only one

Just to start off nice and cheesy, but it’s true. The reason it might feel like you’re the only one dealing with what you’re dealing with and struggling to do what seems so easy to others, is because mental health is still stigmatized and not something people generally talk about. But that doesn’t mean they don’t know it.

When I got my diagnosis, I talked about it a lot. Part of it was hyperfocus; it was something that was on my mind a lot so it became my one subject to fall back on. However, another part of it was knowing that if I’d known what ADHD really was earlier, my life would have been so much better so much sooner. At times I was sure I brought it up too much, but I’m glad I did. Being open about my mental health issues made people around me open up about theirs. Whether it’s people you know IRL or a tumblr page with mental health memes, that affirmation that other people have the same quirks and struggles as you do helps so much.

The bare minimum is better than nothing

Yes, it’s obvious. It’s still something I struggle with because there’s that little voice that goes ‘yes, but I should be able to do more’. Guess what? That there thought qualifies as not one, but two negative thinking patterns: should-statements and all-or-nothing thinking. Just because you think you should be able to do something doesn’t mean that’s the best choice for you, or realistic. Besides, who says you should? Society? Society knows nothing.

Thinking you should just be able to do all your dishes but getting overwhelmed at the prospect of doing so isn’t helpful. Washing a single dish, or even just rinsing one because that’s all you can manage? That’s still better than nothing.

That said, yes, strive for progress over perfection, but remember that progress is not the bare minimum. Sometimes, the bare minimum is maintaining the status quo, or even just making sure things get slightly less worse than they could have. And that is okay.

Remove steps & automate

Speaking of which: often it’s possible to make the absolute minimum easier. How? By removing obstacles, simplifying things so that they don’t take as many steps or spoons to complete. If your laundry basket is in the bathroom while you tend to undress in your bedroom, that’s where you move your laundry basket. Personally, even having a laundry basket with a lid on it is too many steps for me most of the time. If I can’t chuck my dirty clothes right in, they end up in a pile on the floor. Solution: my laundry basket is within throwing range and doesn’t have a lid.

It only has to work for you

Sure, society dictates that clean clothes go in a wardrobe or a dresser. That’s just the way it’s done. But guess what? When clean clothes start piling up all over my room because I can’t bring up the energy or focus or whatever to put them away, I break out boxes. One box for clean laundry. One box for clothing I’ve worn but isn’t dirty yet. And then the laundry basket goes right beside those boxes in my room, in plain sight. That’s my system until I feel better. If I’m feeling up for it, there’s an extra box so that I can divide my clean clothes up between ‘large’ (aka pants and shirts) and ‘small’ (underwear and socks) to make it easier on myself when I get dressed. Did my laundry? Clean clothes go in the clean clothes box. Wore something but it still smells okay and there’s no stains? Toss them at the ‘worn’ box.

Is it how “things are done” normally? No. Does it mean my clothes are even more crumpled than usual? Yes. However, it also means that there’s less clutter in my room, it’s easier to find something to wear, and there’s less risk of me just living in a pile of trash because my room’s a mess anyway.

Your idea of progress may be different from others. Your coping mechanisms might not work for other people. Your adaptive behaviours may not line up with societal expectations, and that’s fine! In fact, that’s more than fine, because they shouldn’t. They only have to work for you.

Remove forks

So the whole spoon theory is fairly well known in mental health circles, but reading about the Fork Theory was an eye-opener for me. It’s explained here, but because reading that article is another extra step (ooh, so meta), here’s the most important bit:

You know the phrase, “Stick a fork in me, I’m done,” right?

Well, Fork Theory is that one has a Fork Limit, that is, you can probably cope okay with one fork stuck in you, maybe two or three, but at some point you will lose your shit if one more fork happens.

A fork could range from being hungry or having to pee to getting a new bill or a new diagnosis of illness. There are lots of different sizes of forks, and volume vs. quantity means that the fork limit is not absolute. I might be able to deal with 20 tiny little escargot fork annoyances, such as a hangnail or slightly suboptimal pants, but not even one “you poked my trigger on purpose because you think it’s fun to see me melt down” pitchfork.

This is super relevant for neurodivergent folk. Like, you might be able to deal with your feet being cold or a tag, but not both. Hubby describes the situation as “It may seem weird that I just get up and leave the conversation to go to the bathroom, but you just dumped a new financial burden on me and I already had to pee, and going to the bathroom is the fork I can get rid of the fastest.”

It’s close to the whole ‘removing steps’ thing, but less about making a task easier and more about giving you space to deal with things.

What this means for me is that when I’m having a less than stellar day mentally, I pay extra attention to what clothes I put on in the morning. Nothing too tight, nothing even slightly scratchy. It may be a tiny fork in the morning, but if I’m in a socially difficult situation, it might be a tiny fork too many that will lead to me being overwhelmed or overstimulated. I need to make sure I’m as comfortable as absolutely possible, aka remove as many forks as I can. Sometimes this means shaving my legs even though I think it’s bullshit that I care about that, or wearing clothes that draw as little attention to me as possible. No, I don’t want to care about what others think, but the truth is that part of me does, and I can’t change that right that instant. What I can do is minimize the chance that I get overwhelmed on an already stressful day.

Forks don’t have to be annoyances. They can also be tasks you keep putting off or something you keep reminding yourself of. Sometimes having a self-care day for me means doing all the easy things I’ve been meaning to do for ages but haven’t gotten around to. Sometimes it’s writing down all the things that are buzzing around in my brain, just so that I can assure myself I don’t have to remember them anymore because they’re on paper now. Sometimes it’s turning off notifications for specific apps because seeing them pop up makes me feel guilty when I’m not in the right frame of mind to respond.

Sometimes removing a fork costs spoons, like when I’m at a restaurant with a friend and I know that sitting in a spot where people walk by behind me is a pretty big fork for me, but removing it means asking them if they mind switching spots. That’s when it helps to be open about what you’re dealing with, because most of my close friends know by now that I always prefer to sit with my back to a wall, and I don’t even have to ask.

Compromise and automate

Back to the should-thinking. Sometimes removing forks means throwing all the shoulds out the window because they just aren’t working right now, and you’ll get back to them later. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think I should care about what other people think, but I’m not there yet, so sometimes making life easier for me means compromising on that and conforming to societal standards if I know I’m going to need everything I have to get through a day. Another example: I feel like I should buy whole vegetables and cut them myself and cook my own meals, because pre-cut and prepackaged things are often more expensive and just contribute to more plastic waste. Okay, cool, but that ideal version of me who has the time and energy to do that hasn’t shown up yet, and in the meantime I need to eat. Buying a pre-packaged meal with actual vegetables in it is still cheaper than ordering pizza because I can’t get myself to cook, and it’s still healthier than trying to fill up on crackers because I couldn’t deal with the social aspect of opening the door for the pizza delivery. 

Sometimes, in order to remove steps, you have to compromise. Sometimes, in order to remove another worry (aka fork), you have to automate. When I first started on meds, I would write down the time I took them, calculate when I’d need to take my next dose, and set an alarm. It made me procrastinate taking my next dose, because it was too many steps. There was an app that did all that for me, but I thought it was ridiculous to pay for an app that did exactly what I should be able to do myself. 

I bought the app. I tap one button and my phone sends me a notification when my next dose is due. I have my phone on silent/no vibrate all the time, because notifications are overwhelming to me, so I have an activity tracker watch that lets me reroute only specific notifications to my watch, and now my watch vibrates when I need to take my next dose. I know this isn’t an option for everyone because obviously those things cost money (and it just goes to show how life is so much easier for the rich because they can automate so much), but if there’s any way to turn something you have to do often into something that will do itself mostly on its own, it may be worth looking into. Yes, even when you think you should be able to do it yourself. 

Are you sure the thing you’re worrying about is a problem?

This may seem super simple and obvious, but I legit had to change the ‘worry flowchart’ my therapist gave me to have an extra first step: ‘Do I have proof the problem exists?’ Spoiler: most of the time the answer is no.

I’m running late, I’m not sure if I’m going to make my bus to work. I’m stressing out about what will happen if I’m late. Maybe my superiors will get angry at me. Maybe this will be one too many times. But guess what? I don’t know if I’ll miss the bus. I might still make it. Until I know for certain that I’m going to be late, there’s no use worrying about what might happen. Even if I end up being late, I don’t have any proof that my superiors will be angry with me. I don’t know yet if the problem even exists, so why act like it does?

Another example: I can beat myself up over the fact that people think I’m lazy because I need to take a break. I feel terrible. I don’t want them to think I’m lazy! I can’t relax even though I desperately need to take a break. I told my therapist, and he asked me for proof. Do I have irrefutable proof that people think I’m lazy? Of course not, that’s an assumption I make. Am I a mind reader? No, I just tend to assume the worst. Okay, so why am I worrying about it if I’m not even sure the problem actually exists? Right.

This is not a moral failing and it does not affect your worth

Building on that: even if people think I’m lazy (and I don’t have proof that’s true!), that doesn’t mean their opinion is fact. Their perception of me is not a moral failing on my part. My therapist made me provide proof for and against the hypotheses that I was lazy, and there was way more proof against that statement. At the time, I was in school four days a week, working three, and had two other projects on the side. If, for example, my parents thought I was lazy for having no energy to do chores on my one free day in two months, (again, I had no proof they even thought that), they would’ve simply been wrong. They could’ve thought it all they wanted, but it did not mean I was lazy.

A lot of symptoms of mental health issues can be perceived by others as negative character traits, and that’s one of the reasons it’s so difficult to discuss sometimes. The thing is: their perceptions and opinions do not actually reflect on you or in any way determine your worth. Your brain going about things differently than theirs is as much your fault as needing glasses is (it isn’t).

And last but not least:

Emotion comes first (and goes last)

That sounds nice and cryptic, right? What I mean is that knowing your immediate reaction to something is unnecessary and that things aren’t as bad as they seem is different from feeling it. Your knee-jerk reaction is going to be emotion. Likewise, it’ll take a while before your emotions catch up with where your brain is going when you reroute your thoughts away from negative places.

The RSD, or Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, that comes with ADHD means that sometimes I have extreme negative emotional reactions to situations. When someone responds a little less enthusiastically than what I’m used to, for example, or when friends talk about something they did without me (even if I wouldn’t have wanted to do that particular thing and they know that), or even when someone didn’t hear what I said, it can cause this void to just open up in my chest and swallow every sense of happiness I may have been feeling. It happens suddenly and drags me straight down to my lowest point.

Lately, in those moments, I’ve been able to check in with myself and analyze what it was that triggered this meltdown. Thanks mostly to therapy I can rationalize that things aren’t so bad, and I can claw my way out of that pit, but that always comes one step after that first instinctual emotional reaction. Likewise, knowing things are fine does not mean the negative emotions disappear straight away. They take some time to dissipate, and I’m a little more emotionally vulnerable for a bit while they do. Emotion happens first, and leaves last.

It can be disheartening. It can feel like progress isn’t being made, but that very realization is progress, even if you’re not feeling it yet. Emotions follow the path they know best, and if for you, like me, that path is automatically assuming the worst, you’re gonna feel the emotions associated with that for a while, even when you rationally know it’s all crap. The thing is, practice makes perfect, and redirecting your thoughts into a more positive direction will, eventually, make that path the easiest one to find. Your feelings may take a little while to figure it out, but they’ll find that path eventually.

I’m not saying I’m cured. I’m not saying I know everything. I have bad days and struggles and all that, but I have been doing better. 

I mentioned it briefly at the beginning of all of this, but I started tracking my mood in July. It’s just one general mood a day, which obviously doesn’t quite display the ups and downs I deal with, but I tried to log the average for the day. I started doing so because I sort of knew I was doing better and better but of course once you get used to something, it becomes the new normal and it’s hard to tell when progress happens, so I tracked it:

[tillyswatson-blog]

All You Need to Know About the Rural Boxing Gym in Wisconsin

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The crash destroyed the home front porch, and damaged the garage, and the semi also hit a gas meter. Knowing there were other struggling students at Foothill who, like him, were reluctant to seek help, Bodo and other student leaders started trying to find them to connect them to resources. The manufacturer offers 20 petrol variants, 22 diesel variants, 1 hybrid variant. 6,200We've chosen to go with Intel's current gen Skylake CPUs and DDR4 RAM in the interest of future proofing. Visualization: Data is only as good as our ability to analyze it. Despite being told I over pronate and couldn't wear a neutral shoe, these Ultraboosts haven't failed me once. Despite its strength, the Achilles tendon is also vulnerable to injury, due to its limited blood supply and the high tensions placed on it.. A much cheaper investment would be an armband or a belt pouch to help you carry the phone while running.. 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[cleverwordsandsadstories]

Rig Rundown/Studio Tour

Hey dudes, been a real long time since I did a walk through of my music rooms with you, figured it would be a good time to give you one of those. 

So where to start, well these are my three main boys,up on the wall from right to left, my tele, an xavier thinline, it sounds like santana, its huge sounding. it stays in tune super well, and it has a bridge pickup that isnt too bright or too barky, love it. My sisters jazz bass which I have been “barrowing” for like, 6 years. its perfect, I have another bass, a yamaha 5 string fretless, that I barely use and will likely sell, because this jazz bass just does everything so well and I dont have to eq it, or reamp it, its direct, with compression, nothing else. and lastly, my signature strat, special switching system, and a 5 position mid boost preamp and a hipshot b bender, I love this guitar, its perfection. 

below them, my blue strat, I have the trem set floating and the strings are old and really dark sounding. I might switch it to flat wounds because the pickups in it are really bright, and with darker strings this guitar sounds so cool and surfy through a clean amp with a ton of spring reverb. love it. and then there is my washburn, its a floyd rose guitar. I wanted to be joe satriani growing up, but the older Ive gotten, and the more Ive played, ive realized that isnt me. an old fender trem, and a set of locking tuners is good enough for most people, floyd roses just dont sound right to me. they lack a certain character. and full humbucker guitars arent my thing either, as soon as I switched back to a strat from my tele...man, it was eye opening, single coils with a mid boost > humbuckers with a coil tap any day. I am thinking about switching the humbuckers out for p90s with that mid boost circuit in it, or maybe even just a booster. 

I do recognize that my main guitars all have humbuckers in the bridge position, a lot of bridge single coils lack a thickness to them, the only single coil bridge pups I have ever liked were tele pickups. but its easier to just drop a humbucker in there or leave one in there than try to shove a tele pup in there. 

NEXT

my acoustics, my first act, my douglas, and my ovation. My first act was my second guitar ever, I got it in 2004? the pickup in it is from a harmony solid body from the early 80s, it is scarred six ways from sunday, it was my main live guitar for about ten years. I love this guitar, it sounds better than almost every electric guitar I have ever heard. if it wasnt for the fact it was so hard to ground and was so noisy, I would use this guitar for EVERYTHING. The Douglas was a graduation present from a customer at the music store I used to work at, it sounds like wes montgomery, its so fat man. and when you run it through my marshall and overdrive it, its so round and warm, its perfection. lastly is my ovation, its a 76 balladeer. it didnt come with a pickup which is disappointing, but I use a gold foil sound hole pickup with it that works really well. these three guitars are usually mic’d with that sweet audio technica at2020, and then I also run it through my amps on a cleanish setting, mix those in box, it sounds amazing. 

NEXT

heres my pedalboard, and also my main amp....and yes, that is a shelving unit, and my pedals are zip tied to it. The fender mustang floor is a life saver, I listened to it A/B’d with amps in the store I used to work at, and they were so true and lifelike, as good as a line 6? no, but this was like 500 dollars cheaper when I factored in my discount. great marshall tone, great bassman, great champ, all of the pedal sounds are great. and I can record at 4am and not get evicted. from left to right. 

behringer compressor. very smooth Dynacomp clone, it it so smooth, almost like an orange squeezer, but this thing sounds like country. 

behringer pitch shifter/harmonizer I use it to do two things, 3rd harmonies, so if im feeling lazy and dont want to double track a guitar, I can just do this and there it is. and i use it for full step bends, when you combine it with the b bender, you can really emulate a steel guitar

Electroharmonix LPB-1. my booster of choice, I prefer this so much in front of a dirty amp to something like a tube screamer. get an amp sorta dirty, roll your volume down to get a clean sound, and click the boost to get distortion. 

behringer hellbabe wah. optical, spring powered wah. very narrow Q, adjustable range, I use wah a lot, but I dont like it to have a really wide sweep like how crybabys do, this boy works so well.

also I know thats a lot of behringer, but guess what. sold pedals for 6 years, I have had dozens of different brands on my board, from vox’s joe satriani pedals, sans amp pedals, JHS dirt boxes, three or four seperate chorus’s, a few different flavors of delay, but I stuck with the ones I have, because they sound great....and because their resale value was low enough that I couldnt justify selling them to buy other pedals. plus they just sound good, yea theyre plastic but fuck you, they sound so good. 

NEXT

while I do mainly use a fender mustang to record, I have slowly been switching back to using a real amp. MY AMP. its a Marshall Valvestate 100 Watt head, into a Bugera version 1 2x12 cabinet, so I dont have those harsh turbosound speakers in it. I have changed the tube out in the head for a ruby tube like 3 years ago, its holding strong so power to those dudes. I have the amp set really loud (more on that soon) but the gain set really low, if a marshall running almost flat out with the gain pretty low worked for ACDC it will work for me. so about me running a 100 watt head flat out in an apartment, well you might have noticed that little boy up there

that bugera power soak is a life saver. my amp sounds so warm and chewy, and I never was able to get that tone from this amp before I got it. the valve state has a tube preamp, and a solid state power amp, so the idea is, if you run it low, it should sound about the same as it does full out. it doesnt, I think the power amp section definitely plays a smaller role but it does still play a role. I have the amp set to like 7/10, because above that I definitely get some suck to the sound, where the volume drops a little bit when you hit it really hard, and below that it is a little grainy sounding, theres just this high end sort of fizz, and the amp is a bit too dynamic at low volumes, if you hit it really hard it just gets too loud compared to when you play quiet. the compression I get from running it that loud through the soak just leads to such a solid sound. All of my youtube videos for the last few weeks are this marshall, but there is one last part to my sound. 

a first act delay pedal. this dude is a bucket brigade delay, that has a fault that drops the volume just a little bit when its on, and when you set the delay length reallly long, it gets really atmostpheric, and when this and the spring reverb in the amp start playing with eachother, its lush, its big. I put this in the effects loop and just this, nothing else. this, in conjunction with the soak, keeps my volume managable but also thick sounding. 

so there it is my dudes. Hope you got something from reading all this, cause I love talking about guitar gear so much more than you can imagine. if working at music stores didnt pay so fucking bad, this is all I would ever do. 

[newstfionline]

‘We Are All Accumulating Mountains of Things’

By Alana Semuels, The Atlantic, Aug. 21, 2018

It’s easier than ever to buy things online. It’s so easy that Ryan Cassata sometimes does it in his sleep. Cassata, a 24-year-old singer/songwriter and actor from Los Angeles, recently got a notification from Amazon that a package had been shipped to his apartment, but he didn’t remember buying anything. When he logged onto his account and saw that a fanny pack and some socks were on the way, he remembered: A few nights back, he had woken up in the middle of the night to browse--and apparently shop on--Amazon.

He shops when he’s awake, too, buying little gadgets like an onion chopper, discounted staples like a 240-pack of gum, and decorations like a Himalayan salt lamp. The other day, he almost bought a pizza pool float, until he remembered that he doesn’t have a pool. “I don’t really need most of the stuff,” he tells me.

Thanks to a perfect storm of factors, Americans are amassing a lot of stuff. Before the advent of the internet, we had to set aside time to go browse the aisles of a physical store, which was only open a certain number of hours a day. Now, we can shop from anywhere, anytime--while we’re at work, or exercising, or even sleeping. We can tell Alexa we need new underwear, and in a few days, it will arrive on our doorstep. And because of the globalization of manufacturing, that underwear is cheaper than ever before--so cheap that we add it to our online shopping carts without a second thought. “There’s no reason not to shop--because clothing is so cheap, you feel like, ‘why not?’ There’s nothing lost in terms of the hit on your bank account,” Elizabeth Cline, the author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, told me.

Shopping online also feels good. Humans get a dopamine hit from buying stuff, according to research by Ann-Christine Duhaime, a professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. “As a general rule, your brain tweaks you to want more, more, more--indeed, more than those around you--both of ‘stuff’ and of stimulation and novelty,” Duhaime wrote in a Harvard Business Review essay last year. Online shopping allows us to get that dopamine hit, and then also experience delayed gratification when the order arrives a few days later, which may make it more physiologically rewarding than shopping in stores.

Sites like Amazon have made it especially easy to shop. In 1999, the Seattle retailer patented a one-click buying process, which allows customers to purchase something without entering their shipping address or credit card info. It launched its Prime program in 2005, and now more than 100 million people have signed on to pay $119 a year for “free” two-day shipping. As a result, most other major retailers offer free shipping too. Returning stuff is a little more difficult--shoppers usually have to print a label and then go to the post office or a UPS or FedEx site to return packages. Many wait too long, or decide the hassle isn’t worth it because the stuff was cheap anyway. A recent NPR/Marist poll found that nine in 10 consumers rarely or never return stuff they’ve bought online.

Justine Montoya, a caregiver in Los Angeles, buys all sorts of stuff online--baby formula, clothes, household goods. She estimates that she shops online twice a week. “It’s just so easy--you click a button, and it’s on its way,” she told me.

In the last few months alone, I bought an $18 smart watch from Wish.com that I will probably never use, a second Kindle because it was on sale and I am worried my first Kindle is going to die soon, an electric space heater I no longer need, and a pair of wireless earbuds that I had hoped would allow me to charge my iPhone and listen to music at the same time, but that instead just fall out of my ears whenever I put them on. I also bought, on Amazon, a (used) book about hiking in the Sierras for $1.99, only to find the exact same book in a box of my stuff in my parents’ basement. I didn’t return any of it.

In 2017, Americans spent $240 billion--twice as much as they’d spent in 2002--on goods like jewelry, watches, books, luggage, and telephones and related communication equipment, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which adjusted those numbers for inflation. Over that time, the population grew just 13 percent. Spending on personal care products also doubled over that time period. Americans spent, on average, $971.87 on clothes last year, buying nearly 66 garments, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. That’s 20 percent more money than they spent in 2000. The average American bought 7.4 pairs of shoes last year, up from 6.6 pairs in 2000.

All told, “we are all accumulating mountains of things,” said Mark A. Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He sometimes asks his students to count the number of things they have on them in class, and once they start counting up gadgets and cords and accessories, they end up near 50. “Americans have become a society of hoarders,” Cohen said. Montoya said she has more stuff now that she has started shopping online: “It’s easier to accumulate more, and it’s easier to spend more.”

At the same time we are amassing all this stuff, Americans are taking up more space. Last year, the average size of a single-family house in America was 2,426 square feet, a 23 percent increase in size from two decades ago, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The number of self-storage units is rapidly increasing too: There are around 52,000 such facilities nationally; two decades ago, there were half that number.

Of course, not everyone is a part of this hoarding revolution. There are people who can’t or don’t shop online, because they don’t have credit cards or because they are barely making ends meet. Only about 29 percent of households with incomes under $25,000 are members of Amazon Prime, according to Kantar Consulting. Some people are embracing the zero waste movement, or have followed the example of the author Ann Patchett, who published a widely-circulated op-ed in The New York Times about how she resolved to stop shopping for a year. When she ceased buying things like lip gloss and lotion and hair products, she started finding half-used versions of them under the sink, and realized she hadn’t needed new things after all. “The things we buy and buy and buy are like a thick coat of Vaseline smeared on glass,” she wrote. “We can see some shapes out there, light and dark, but in our constant craving for what we may still want, we miss life’s details.”

But most Americans are not curtailing their shopping habits. And as consumers demand cheaper clothing, electronics, and other goods, manufacturers are spending less to make them, which sometimes means they fall apart more quickly. The share of large household appliances that had to be replaced within five years grew to 13 percent in 2013, up from seven percent in 2004. Cheap clothes might lose their shape after a wash or two, or get holes after a few tumbles in the dryer; electronics become obsolete quickly and need to be replaced. While some of this stuff can be recycled or resold, often, it ends up in landfills. In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, Americans put 16 million tons of textiles in the municipal waste stream, a 68 percent increased from 2000. We tossed 34.5 million tons of plastics, a 35 percent increase from 2000, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Over that same time period, the population grew just 14 percent.

“Sometimes, people sit down and cry when they see the amount of garbage we produce in a day,” said Robert Reed, a spokesman for Recology, which handles recycling for West Coast cities like San Francisco. Centered in America’s tech capital, Recology has seen an increase in discarded electronics, including products with lithium batteries, Reed told me. In 2016, a lithium battery fire burnt down a waste management facility in San Mateo.

The 16,000 students who live in dorms at Michigan State University left behind 147,946 pounds of goods like clothing, towels, and appliances when they moved out this year, a 40 percent increase from 2016, according to Kat Cooper, a spokeswoman. The university packs up these goods and donates to them to its surplus store, so that incoming students can buy used, rather than new, stuff. In recent years, dorm cleaners have been finding so many packages of unopened food and toiletries that the university started a program to get students to donate leftover food and toiletries to local organizations like food banks when they move out. This year, it collected 900 pounds of personal care items and 4,000 pounds of nonperishable food items to donate. Pomona College has seen the volume of packages delivered grow by 325 percent in the last 12 years, according to Patricia Vest, a spokeswoman; it, too, asks students to donate unused goods to a resale program. This year, it diverted 42 tons of clothes, furniture, and office supplies.

The Internet has also made it easier to recycle some of the stuff Americans buy and no longer want. Online consignment shops like thredUP and Poshmark help people buy and sell clothes from their closets. Secondhand stores like Goodwill have moved online, too, selling the growing pile of goods they get on the Internet.

But the ability to easily get rid of stuff may be making people feel a little better about buying things they don’t need, and motivating them to buy even more. On a recent weekday, I stopped by the massive warehouse where workers from Goodwill of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin sort donations to Bay Area stores. Some of the stuff that’s been donated has never been used. Near the front of the warehouse stands a rack of clothes with their original tags on--a $245 blue Nicole Miller cocktail dress, $88 Kit and Ace pants, a pale green J. Jill blouse. “We are seeing items that have been barely used or not used, because when people shop online, it’s a lot of work to return it,” William Rogers, the president of the Goodwill, told me. Rogers himself is guilty--when we met at the warehouse, he dropped off four wall sconces he’d bought a year ago on Amazon. He had tried to put them up, decided they didn’t look good, and brought them to donate.

Secondhand shops can’t resell all of the donations they get. Cline estimates that 85 percent of the clothing that is donated to secondhand stores ends up in landfills every year. Just nine percent of plastic that ends up in the municipal waste stream gets recycled, according to the EPA, and only 15 percent of textiles get recycled. It can be difficult to take apart clothes and re-use the fabrics, Cline said, so lots of clothing in the waste stream gets sent to the developing world, used for rags, or sent to a landfill.

Fifty years ago, the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick coined a phrase for these “useless objects” that accumulate in a house: “kipple.” In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for the movie Blade Runner, he theorized that “the entire universe is moving toward a state of total, absolute kippleization.” Kipple reproduced, Dick wrote, when nobody was around. The ubiquity of mobile devices and the ease of online shopping have made Dick’s prediction come true, with one small tweak: Our kipple does not just multiply on its own, every time we turn away. We grow it ourselves, buying more and more of it, because we can.

[camgirlsurvivalguide]

FAKE HAIR DON’T CARE - The what’s what of hair extensions

Come one, come all! It’s the Camgirl Survival Dummies Guide to putting someone else’s severed hair on your head and pretending it’s your own! I was asked by a few people recently to give advice on hair extensions (since I have some experience) and I decided to write up a big old post here for anyone who wants to take a peek at it. 

The best person to talk to about hair extensions is, first and foremost, your stylist. Not all hair types work with extensions. Extensions can and do damage your natural hair, depending on the method you choose, and choosing to DIY any of these methods can cause damage, to your natural hair or to the extensions you buy. Extensions are expensive, and there is almost no way around that. They’re also a fucking pain in the ass, if I’m being honest, but damn do I look and feel twelve thousand times cuter when I’ve got my great big bad hair on - so here are my tips and tricks to making the most out of using someone else’s hair as your own.

GENERAL EXTENSION ADVICE

- Be gentle. Use a soft brush and work tangles from the bottom gently up toward the weft. Remember kiddies: the hair doesn’t grow back after you rip it out, like it does on your own head. Each fucking strand probably costs you like five cents, so treat your extensions like the gold they truly are, and they’ll last you longer.

- Wash sparingly. If you use a non-permanent extension method, this is great, because you can just take them out when you shower, but if you’re using a permanent method ... dry shampoo now is your best friend. Do not scrub permanent extensions near the root/scalp. Don’t blow dry or apply heat near the bonds/near the root/scalp. Use heat tools sparingly. 

- OIL. Your natural hair produces natural oil, which is why your roots look healthy shiny and the ends of your hair look like a shitty split end desert. Your extensions can’t produce oil for themselves, so you’ll need to add oil for them. Always use heat protecting spray before styling your extensions, use a leave in conditioner when you do wash them (in the case of clip ins) or once in a while with your permanent extensions, and be sure to add an oil (like Moroccan or argan) to the length of your extensions to keep them looking natural. 

- Medium length hair woes are usually what cause us to go get extensions, but are also subsequently the worst length of hair to try to hide using extensions. Search “how to blend short hair with extensions” for tutorial ideas on how you can get your hair to look a little more convincing. 

TYPES OF EXTENSIONS 

CLIP INS PROS: Cheaper, longer-lasting, DIY-able CONS: More time consuming, cheapest looking WORKS BEST ON: already long, relatively full hair AVERAGE YEARLY COST: $300ish

Ah, clip-ins. Everyone and their dog had a set at some point in high school, and they looked just as shitty as they felt: dry, thin, and very obviously not growing out of the tops of our own heads. Clip ins can look awful, and they can look pretty damn good - it just depends on how much work you’re willing to put in.

I wear clip ins for a few reasons. First, I’m cheap and I like to do things myself, and clip ins let me experiment. I dye them myself, and (since they just ... clip ... in) I put them in and take them out whenever I want, so I’m not paying a professional their professional rate to help me with them. Second, my hair is naturally quite oily, and I go to the gym 5 days a week, which means I wash my hair a lot, and that’s not wise with more permanent types of extensions. Being able to put in clip-ins only when I want to works for my lifestyle, since I find myself not wanting full, crazy luxurious hair probably 75% of the time. Lastly, for the past year my hair has been a pastel colour, and for anyone with crazy colour hair, you know as well as I do that it fades fast. Being able to dye my natural hair and my extensions myself at my house was the cheapest and most reasonable method for me to have extensions that matched my hair. 

My advice with clip ins is to do it properly: get a good set of extensions, and when you first receive them, go to a salon to have them coloured to match your hair and cut to blend with your style. It’s good to go a little heavy in terms of weight (the fuller the better) because it’s easier to blend more hair than it is to try to blend a thinner set.

TAPE INS PROS: Mid-range price wise, absolutely beautiful, semi-DIY CONS: High maintenance, limited style options WORKS BEST ON: thin/fine hair, jaw length or longer AVERAGE YEARLY COST: $2500+

Long story short, tape in extensions fucking rock. They look amazing. They add length and volume without the clunky bulk at the root that clip ins cause, they blend seamlessly with your natural hair at most hair lengths, and they’re relatively low hassle because once they’re installed, they stay installed for 6 to 8 weeks. The hair can be used for up to 6 months (as long as you take good care of them), too, which means you’ll get 3 or so installs on any given set of hair. It’s also a relatively inexpensive method in terms of install price: my girl put them in for $100, and would remove them for $100 (putting fresh tapes on and the whole nine yards). I loved my tape ins. I really did.

The reasons I got them removed were cost and effort. Sure, they looked fucking fantastic, and when my full time job and only responsibility was to get cute and get on cam once a day, it was something that blended into my lifestyle pretty well. But now that I’m a student with a gym routine, the whole diva hair thing is a lot lower down on my list of priorities, and styling all that hair every day takes time. The biggest bummer with tape ins is that you can’t wear your hair up in a ponytail or a bun because of how the tapes lie. Not even that it would look bad (which it does) but it’s kind of painful if you try, in my opinion. I had to schedule hair appointments every 7 weeks like clockwork and that got expensive pretty quickly. 

Let’s do the math: $200 every 1.5 months = $1600 in installation (not including colour, cut or tipping the stylist). The hair itself cost me between $400 and $600, which I had to do twice a year at minimum, so that’s roughly another $1000 ... that’s $2600+ per year, just in hair and install (again, not including colour and cut and tip, which is a whole other ballpark). They looked amazing, and I don’t regret having them, but for me, it was a limited-timeframe sort of option.

I managed to cut costs somewhat, though. I found that I could remove the extensions myself at home using a tape extension remover I found online for cheap (which was more or less just a blend of coconut oil and rubbing alcohol), and I would usually dye my extensions and my hair from the same box dye at home, too - so when I went to the stylist, I was only asking her to install and cut to blend them. Still, tape in hair is expensive, and you run the risk of ruining them if you DIY. I know there are tons of YouTube tutorials on how to put in your own tape hair extensions but I tried like 40 fucking times and screwed them up each and every time, and so did my girlfriend who tried to help me with it, so ... yeah. Not really DIY-able all the way. 

BEADED/SEW IN WEAVE PROS: Cheap, DIY if you have a patient friend CONS: Heavy, painful, hard on your natural hair WORKS BEST ON: Very thick, full/coarse hair AVERAGE YEARLY COST: $300+ DIY, $1000+ (???) professional 

My best friend has a lion’s mane for hair: super full, crazy thick, super gorgeous. Unfortunately, she fried the living fuck out of it with bleach one day and lost almost all the length she had. Tape ins weren’t an option because in order to have enough hair, she’d have to buy like 4x what a regular person would put in, so the cost just didn’t make sense. Clip ins were fine but she wanted to be able to go to sleep and wake up and still have long hair - so, I watched a couple tutorials on YouTube about beaded weaves, ordered a lil kit off amazon, and viola! We had our own weave salon up and running in my living room.

I don’t have much advice on these, because it really was a pretty hodge-podge DIY sort of situation. We took clip-in extensions, clamped beads to her natural hair and then sewed the wefts to the little beads, which would take me 2 or 3 hours, and we’d do this once every 6 weeks or so. It’s hard to explain and you definitely couldn’t do it alone, but if you’re one of these people with short but super thick hair, it would do you good to look up this process and see if you could convince a friend to help you out. 

KERATIN BONDED EXTENSIONS PROS: Very natural looking, super style-able, practically invisible  CONS: expensive, time consuming, not DIY at all, hard on natural hair, one-time use hair only WORKS BEST ON: very fine/thinning hair  AVERAGE YEARLY COST: ??? it’s expensive as fuck I just know that

I’m pretty sure these are the extensions that Paris Hilton used to advertise. In summary, they’re fucking expensive, but they look exactly like your own hair and they work amazingly for individuals with hair so fine/thinning that tape in extensions would show through. The installation requires really special, intensive training to pull off, so stylists who offer this service usually charge through the roof for it - and you can only use the hair once, since the hair is in tiny strands with tiny bits of keratin as adhesive, that they install using tiny tweezers or something like that. A friend of mine had these and absolutely loved them, but they were very expensive and very time consuming, not to mention very delicate: she had to be super easy on her hair, particularly as the bonds got older with age. 

MICRO BEAD EXTENSIONS / “Dream Catchers” PROS: Super fucking nice. The nicest. The nicest ones you can get.  CONS: Super fucking expensive. The most expensive. The most expensive ones you can get. WORKS BEST ON: Most average hair types - fine to regular to thick, but not thinnest/thickest AVERAGE YEARLY COSTS: probably kajillions. I’ve heard horror stories.

So these are the Rolls Royce of extensions, from what I’ve been told. They essentially combine the techniques of a beaded wave and the keratin bond to create thick individual strands that can add a ton of length in a super natural looking way. I wanted these pretty bad but just couldn’t justify the price. I *think* they can be re-used, too, but I’m not totally sure - I’ve never had them myself, nor do I know anyone well enough to have asked them if they just collect the strands of hair that fall out of their heads or if they throw them out. It’s a weird, kinda personal thing to ask, if you think about it.

EXTENSION Q&A

Q: Where do I buy good hair extensions? A: I bought mine from a store in a mall (bad idea) and from my hair stylist (sort of good idea, sort of bad idea). I’ve heard tons of great things from online sellers like Bellami Hair, but I personally like to touch and see the hair I’m spending hundreds of dollars on in person before I buy it. Call me old fashioned, I guess. My girlfriend bought her hair from Sally’s (clip ins and beaded weave) and they looked great, too. 

Q: What about Amazon? A: If it’s cheap, it’s going to look cheap. Extensions aren’t cheap because they’re an over the top luxury sort of item, so if you’re not willing to pay the price, I argue that it’s not worth it to do them at all. This is coming from someone who literally tried to DIY fix my own tattoo one time because I didn’t want to pay someone to do it. I get it. I’m cheap, too. But extensions don’t work well cheaply done.

Q: I’m not really good with styling my hair. Are hair extensions hard to make look good? A: Yeah, they are - but they’re also an amazing way to force yourself to get good at styling. I sucked at styling my hair before I got tape ins. I didn’t know how to curl or braid, no joke - and now I can do a whole bunch of stuff, because having extensions forced me to learn how to make them look good. They do require work. It’s not like you’ll wake up every day with movie star looking hair - you’ll have enough hair to make into movie star hair, but you still have to actually style it to that point. 

[observationsandimpressions-blog]

Cheap

We Americans are living in what I call the WalMart economy.  It’s a tragedy that we have been conditioned to buy the CHEAPEST item we can find, disregarding other features and benefits to save a dime.  Why do I call it the WalMart economy?  It’s because WalMart was the one who advertised “Save money, live better” attitude, then whipsawed their suppliers to give them the absolute lowest prices in the market.  WalMart did not care about quality, only price.  Once upon a time they advertised “Made in America”, but that fell by the wayside when they discovered that it was SO much cheaper offshore.  What are the side effects of the WalMart economy?  

Quality falls. That blender you bought for $10 will give you 10 months of service, maybe, unless you use it a lot.  The things that used to last a decade or more (especially refrigerators) now don’t.  The degradation of quality is so pervasive that people take it for granted.  I spoke with an acquaintance recently who told me that he buys all his tools at Harbor Freight because then he doesn’t care if someone steals them.  He KNOWS they’re junk.  Is it a part of our use and dump society that we accept poor quality as a cost of doing business?  Why do people accept such shoddy goods?  Because they’re cheap?  What a terrible reason!  Would you buy $5 tires for your car?  I sure wouldn’t!

Size of the product drops. A few years ago Dial soap got a bunch of publicity because they reshaped their soap bar and reduced the weight 15%.  It’s the only way they could compete with the constant pressure to cut costs.  The same is true for candy bars, bacon (12 oz. is the new standard?), beer (look closely at the volume of a Stella Artois…), and so many other things that I have only scratched the surface here.  We’re being cheated by the people selling us stuff, and it’s because of WalMart.  

U.S. manufacturing disappears.  With price being the only driver for a product, we who live in the U.S. will not pay the higher prices that American-made goods require.  The products go overseas- China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc.  The workers there toil in terrible conditions, sometimes very close to slavery, for $1 per day.  And it’s to provide us with inexpensive (and cheap too) products.  The tragedy is that Big Business doesn’t give a damn about their workers in those far-away countries (nor, for that matter, their workers here), only that they provide the goods at the Lowest Possible Cost.  If they could figure out a way (or find a different country) to pay workers $.10 per day they would.  And why? Because then WalMart will buy from them!  WalMart has such an impact on the economy that being the “Low Price Leader” has changed the entire marketplace.  We have lost our moral compass when it comes to fair wages, living wages, and living standards, not just locally but globally.

High-quality brand names generate low-quality product offerings. I was dismayed to see Milwaukee Tools being sold to Home Depot, because I knew that Milwaukee Tools, a brand I’ve grown up with as a quality tool manufacturer, had to make a lower-quality tool line to sell at Home Depot.  Their standard line stuff would be just too expensive to sell there, where the shelf space and sales turn per square foot are closely tracked.  A $200 Milwaukee circular saw sitting right next to a $40 one from Skil or Black and Decker would sit there too long for Home Depot to carry it for long.  And Craftsman?  What a sorry, sorry state those tools have sunk to!  They used to be the Homeowner’s Standard- if you had a Craftsman set of something it showed you were serious about your tools.  Now?  They have gone from being the quality standard to pure Chinese junk.  I know, I’ve tested them.  It’s because of WalMart.

Retail competition dies.  Any store that wants to sell what WalMart sells has to compete on price, because the American consumer has been conditioned to accept nothing else.  It’s killing American retail and killing customer service (want anything other than the low-price leader?  Good luck!).  The only stores that survive in the WalMart economy are high-end stores, specialty stores (think carpet), or stores that do not sell what WalMart sells.  

It’s extremely difficult nowadays to find, much less buy, something of quality that will last a long time.  The high-end markets in just about everything have disappeared, or been relegated to niche status for professionals only.  Kitchen appliances, tools, household goods, lighting, all of the high-end items are very difficult to obtain; most of what remains is junk. Sure, Williams Sonoma carries some very good products, but over half of the Williams Sonoma price is Williams Sonoma profit- the quality isn’t THAT much better.  That doesn’t mean I don’t shop there- I shop there more frequently than I do WalMart, and the WalMart is closer to my home.  

And the worst thing of all is that WalMart’s purchasing strategy is so rapacious.  Not only do they drive for the absolute lowest price, they also expect rebates from their suppliers to the tune of 25%!  What does that do?  It forces the supplier to cut their cost and quality to be able to make any profit at all- and even a penny profit on 3 million items is $30,000. It’s livable, even though if you were to take into account the hidden costs of that product you’d be losing money, the hidden costs being things like resource degradation, human exploitation, other business loss (if you sell your item to WalMart, it’s hard to sell it to Williams Sonoma!), etc.  And they’re teaching this procurement strategy to all the other big box discounters, so suppliers are pressured from all sides to find the lowest cost item, quality or country of origin be damned.  It used to be that suppliers could choose to NOT sell to WalMart if their business model required a higher margin, or they refused to reduce their cost (quality) to meet their expectations.  Now, because that lowest-cost expectation is everywhere, there’s very little choice. Welcome to the world of cheap. How’s it feel being forced to buy crap from a guy in Arkansas, made in Bangladesh, and that won’t last the season?

[gamerszone2019-blog]

The Best Nintendo Switch Controllers We've Tried So Far

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/the-best-nintendo-switch-controllers-weve-tried-so-far/

The Best Nintendo Switch Controllers We've Tried So Far

Since shortly after the Nintendo Switch‘s launch, I’ve been on the hunt for new Switch controllers. It’s a versatile little console, allowing for a wide range of different controller options, from playing with your PS4 and Xbox One controller to pads that resemble the classic controllers of the past. The Switch Pro controller is an obvious and great choice, but it’s also expensive, and in my experience, the D-Pad leaves a lot to be desired.

Thankfully, there are a ton of options from third-party companies like 8Bitdo and PDP that help account for personal preference while also introducing new features not found in first-party Nintendo Switch controllers. They aren’t all winners, but I have tested and identified some solid options worth considering if you need something a little different at a more affordable price.

We’ll keep this article updated as we test new controllers, adapters, and more. In the meantime, read on for an overview of the best Nintendo Switch controllers we’ve tried and can vouch for. Note that all pricing indicated below is subject to change–Amazon slashes the price on these products regularly, so you may see a discount when clicking through that we haven’t listed here.

Quick look: The best Nintendo Switch controllers we’ve tested

Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

The best first-party Switch controller

The Good:

The best ergonomics of any controller I’ve used

Buttons are satisfying to press

Features NFC/Amiibo support, HD rumble, and motion controls

The Bad:

D-Pad is prone to incorrect inputs

$70 price tag is a bit steep

First off, we can’t talk about the best Nintendo Switch controllers on the market without talking about Nintendo’s first-party option, the Switch Pro controller. It’s a great pad with very few faults. For me, it has the best ergonomics among Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony’s first-party controllers. It’s the perfect size for my large hands, and the triggers are shaped just right for resting fingers. The face buttons feel good to press; the +, -, Home, and Screenshot buttons click wonderfully; and the analog sticks have a good amount of tension. The one problem I have with the Pro Controller is the D-Pad. It’s prone to incorrect inputs, which is most noticeable when playing puzzle games like Tetris 99 or fighting games like Mortal Kombat 11. This usually happens when you press a direction on the pad, but you’re a little off-center, causing an input in the wrong direction. It’s not something that breaks the experience completely, but when I’m playing a game that relies particularly heavy on the D-Pad, I always opt for a different controller.

The Pro Controller also boasts a lot of features that most third-party controllers rarely include. This includes NFC/Amiibo support, HD rumble, and motion controls. These things aren’t required for the vast majority of games, but every now and then, a certain utilization of them can put a smile on your face–HD rumble is used excellently in Super Mario Odyssey, for example. However, the Pro Controller’s price tag is also $70 USD, which is more expensive than both the DualShock 4 and latest Xbox One controller. There’s no doubt the Pro Controller is an excellent pad, but when there are great options at cheaper prices, it’s hard to justify buying a second, third, and/or fourth for your friends to use.

$70 at Amazon

8Bitdo Wireless Bluetooth Adapter

The best way to use PS4 and Xbox One controllers on the Switch

The Good:

Enables use of a DualShock 4, Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One, Wii U Pro, Wiimote, DualShock 3, and any compatible 8Bitdo controller

Easy to set up

The Bad:

Some games can cause abnormal vibration, which requires firmware updates to fix

Can’t wake up the Switch from Sleep Mode

The first time I plugged the 8Bitdo Bluetooth adapter into my Switch’s dock, it felt like black magic. I was using my DualShock 4 on a Nintendo platform, hitting Circle when it asked for A, Cross when it asked for B. And when it asked for X? You guessed it: Triangle. There was definitely a period of getting used to what buttons I should be pressing for each input the Switch requested, but once this passed, the adapter proved an excellent way to use not just the DualShock 4, but a wide array of Bluetooth-enabled controllers that don’t already connect to the Switch directly.

Of course, any controller you’ll use with this adapter won’t include features like HD rumble, motion controls, or Amiibo support. These losses are negligible for the vast majority of experiences, especially when using your favorite Bluetooth controller is the trade-off. One downside to this adapter, however, is a rumble issue that crops up with certain games. Most recently, I’ve experienced this with Fire Emblem: Three Houses, where your controller will vibrate abnormally even if you turn off rumble in the Switch’s system settings. This issue has been fixed for games like Splatoon 2 and Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy, though this requires you to plug the adapter into a computer to update the firmware.

$20 at Amazon

8Bitdo SN30 Pro Plus

The best Switch controller for customization

The Good:

Extensive button mapping and macro customization

Adjustable dead-zones for analog sticks and triggers

Customizable rumble functionality

Removable, rechargeable battery

Allows for the use of two AA batteries

Also doubles as an excellent option for classic games

The Bad:

The 8Bitdo SN30 Pro Plus is one of the more exciting Switch controllers. Not only does it feature a design inspired by the SNES, it also features extensive customization for button mapping, analog sticks, trigger inputs, and vibration adjustments. It allows you to swap button inputs, invert the X and Y axis on your analog sticks, and more. You can even create macros of up to 18 inputs. All of this customization must be done on a computer, but 8Bitdo’s customization software is a breeze to use. The one downside is that there are no extra buttons or paddles on the controller, so the remapping is restricted to swapping buttons.

My personal favorite thing about this controller is the fact that it includes a removable, rechargeable battery and also allows for disposable batteries. As someone who is currently sitting next to a box of dead PS3 controllers, I’m happy to know there is a great alternative to the Switch’s Pro controller that I’ll be able to use long after its rechargeable battery dies.

$50 at Amazon

PDP Faceoff Deluxe+ Controller

The best budget Switch controller

The Good:

Great D-pad

Excellent ergonomics

Remappable paddles

Audio port works great for voice chat-enabled games and listening with headphones

The Bad:

Can hit paddles by accident in some cases

Can’t wake the Switch up from Sleep Mode

When I learned the Switch had a Pro controller alternative that included an audio port, boasted remappable paddles, and only cost $25, I didn’t expect much in the way of quality. The PDP Faceoff Deluxe+ wired controller exceeded my expectations and is now one of my favorites to use with the Switch. Holding it, it feels very similar to Nintendo’s Pro controller. I don’t think any of these controllers beat the Pro controller in pure ergonomics, but this PDP pad comes close. The general shape is the same, but the sticks and triggers come up a touch higher. I like the raised height of the triggers, but I feel like they could have been reshaped a bit to better fit the natural curve of your fingers.

Nevertheless, this hardly ruins the experience. The inclusion of remappable paddles is a fantastic addition. You can map any button to these paddles, and I found it incredibly useful for games that assigned sprint to a face button. In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I’m able to sprint, jump, and glide, all while controlling the camera with my thumb firmly planted on the right stick. Of course, this can present some problems in certain games. When switching from Breath of the Wild to Super Mario Maker 2, I would instinctively squeeze the paddle while making some jumps. And unfortunately, there’s only one configuration profile and no way to turn the paddles off, so if you don’t want to use them, you’ll have to go through the short process of mapping them to each other–this makes it so there’s no input when pressing them. It’s a minor issue, but an annoying one nonetheless.

Thankfully, the PDP Faceoff Deluxe+ feels good enough to use to deal with the occasional accidental button press. Its analog sticks have a similar tension to the Pro controller’s, and it has a great D-Pad. The 3.5mm audio port is a good option for voice chat in supported games (e.g. Fortnite), though I spent most of my time using the port to listen through my favourite pair of headphones. This works really well, with the ability to control your volume on the controller itself and within the Switch’s menu. And with its wired connection, you don’t have to worry about its battery dying. Because that wired connection powers the Switch, however, you won’t be able to turn the console on from Sleep Mode–you’ll have to hit the Power button on your docked Switch before starting to play. As long as you’re okay these few inconveniences, then I can wholeheartedly recommend the Faceoff Deluxe+.

$25 at Amazon

Hori D-Pad Joy-Con

Best Switch controllers for handheld mode

The Good:

The best, most convenient option for a D-Pad in handheld mode

Very comfortable for games that excel with a D-Pad

The Bad:

Restricted to handheld use only

Incompatible with most cases and grips

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the Switch is the lack of a proper D-Pad on its left Joy-Con. It’s not an automatic dealbreaker, with games like Breath of the Wild and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate not utilizing the D-Pad for anything super demanding, but when the situation calls for it, the Hori D-Pad Joy-Con feels a lot more precise and comfortable when playing in handheld mode.

The D-Pad on Hori’s Joy-Con is softer than what I usually look for, but it’s hard to deny just how pleasant the experience is. I didn’t realize how much I missed a D-Pad until I used this to play games like Mortal Kombat 11, Tetris 99, and Super Mario Maker 2. These games, as well as many others, have since been a lot more enjoyable in handheld mode.

There are a few things that are important to note, however. First off, this Joy-Con can’t be used wirelessly, so you’re restricted to using it in handheld mode. Secondly, it’s incompatible with most cases and grips. This is because the latch button protrudes out further than Nintendo’s official Joy-Cons. I took a pair of scissors and cut out a space for it on my cheap Orzly grip case, but I likely won’t be doing the same to my more expensive accessories.

Zelda Edition: $20 at Amazon Mario Edition: $20 at Amazon Pikachu Edition: $20 at Amazon

8bitdo M30 Bluetooth

The best classic controller on Nintendo Switch

The Good:

Fantastic D-Pad and ergonomics

Connects directly to Nintendo Switch

Also compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and Raspberry Pi

The Bad:

Not suitable for all games

8Bitdo’s M30 controller might just be one of my favorite pads ever. As a Sega Genesis kid, I’ve always held a special place in my heart for the six-button controller, which is what the M30 emulates and improves on. Its ergonomics have been shaped differently to make it more comfortable to hold than the Sega original, and the D-Pad is by far my favorite of any 8Bitdo controller. Classic titles, platformers, and fighting games are the obvious choice for the M30, but I’ve also found myself enjoying Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with it. It’s definitely not going to work with every game, especially those that rely on a second analog stick, but it’s a controller I’ll always go to if it’s possible to do so.

$30 at Amazon

8Bitdo N30 Bluetooth

The best NES controller for Nintendo Switch

The Good:

Better shoulder buttons than the subscription-exclusive NES Joy-Cons

Includes a Home button

Connects directly to Nintendo Switch

Also compatible with retro receivers and USB adapters

The Bad:

Not suitable for all games

The 8Bitdo N30 isn’t going to be for everyone. It’s an NES-style controller that is great for very specific games, like everything in the Switch Online NES library and very few others. I prefer the NES controller’s shape and button layout for that console’s games, but in trying to find other uses for the N30, I was largely unsuccessful. Even modern Tetris games like Tetris 99 and Puyo Puyo Tetris require more than the D-Pad and B and A buttons–the extra two face buttons on the N30 are restricted to Turbo. The N30 includes shoulder buttons for L and R, which does extend the number of games it can be used with (e.g. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe), but the options are still limited.

I mostly use my N30 in conjunction with a retro receiver that lets me use it with real NES hardware and RetroUSB’s AVS. It’s my new favorite pad for that console. It’s also an excellent option for the Switch, but it’s not necessary to enjoy any game, NES or not. However, if you are looking for that very specific NES experience, I can wholeheartedly recommend the N30. Nintendo’s own NES Switch controllers are good, but they have inferior shoulder buttons and need to be charged the same way as your Joy-Cons–not to mention, the Nintendo Switch Online subscription that’s required before you can even purchase them. With all this considered, the N30 is perfect for the job.

$30 at Amazon

8Bitdo SN30 Bluetooth

The best SNES controller for Nintendo Switch

The Good:

Connects directly to Nintendo Switch

Comes with a retro receiver for SNES use

Also compatible with USB adapters

The Bad:

Not suitable for select games

The SN30 Pro Plus discussed earlier might be the best Switch controller on this list, and with its SNES-style layout, it’s great for classic games. However, if you’re looking for something a bit more authentic to the SNES experience, then the basic SN30 is your best alternative. Like both the M30 and N30, it doesn’t work with every game, but there are plenty of great options with the Switch’s excellent selection of platformers and fighting games. And if a recent FCC filing indicates anything, we could be seeing SNES games on the Switch in the future.

The SN30 also comes with a retro receiver that can be plugged into a SNES. If you still have a Super Nintendo–or an Analogue Super NT–then this is an awesome option to play classic games on that console. And as a bonus, this retro receiver can also be connected via USB, as long as you have an extra USB-C cable attached.

$40 at Amazon

Source : Gamesport

[healthnotion]

How to Build a Home Gym on the Cheap

Let me replay you the typical situation you find yourself in every time you go to your commercial gym. You wake up or get home from the office, change into your workout clothes, pack all of the stuff you need (supplements, shoes, protein shaker, etc.) into your gym bag and head out the door. You jump into your car, and, like many living in a crowded urban environment, hit traffic a couple minutes into your commute. You sit, waiting for cars to dissipate so you can accomplish the grand goal you’ve set for yourself of working out. 30 minutes, 4 near collisions, and 2 mental breakdowns later, you arrive at your destination. You warm up while waiting for the guy doing bicep curls in the one and only squat rack in the 20,000 sq. ft. facility studded with endless lines of treadmills and ellipticals. You finally sneak into the rack, perform your squats while fending off that one guy who gives you form advice while proselytizing the benefits of yoga over weightlifting. Finally, you’re done with your session (two hours later) and drive 30 minutes home to eat.

Does that sound familiar?

Now, let me share with you what a typical training session looks like for me and thousands of others who have freed ourselves from the gym membership rat race.

I throw on some shorts — sweatpants and hoodie if it’s cold; no shirt if it’s warm — and head out into my garage. I walk over to my stereo system and put on some soft tunes to get me in the right mindset during my warm-up. Squats are on the menu, so I rack my bar (the bar only I and my friends use that is superior to every bar at the gym I used to pay $70/month to attend) and begin incrementally increasing the load. I’m at my top set, so I turn on some Dave Mustaine, twist the volume knob to 11, and go to work. Around an hour later I conclude the assault on my body, walk 10 feet inside my house to the most anabolic machine in the known universe — the refrigerator — make a protein shake, and reflect on the hard work accomplished.

After reading that, you’re likely thinking to yourself, “Man! That sounds nice, but . . .” “But.” The most detrimental word to any man’s mission. “But I don’t have the money.”

I’m here to help you with that. Today I’ll show you how to build a home gym on a budget, and how it’s easier to afford than you think. By the time we’re done, you’ll be wondering why you didn’t make the switch sooner.

How to Build a Home Gym for Under $1,000: The Effective, But Budget-Friendly Equipment We Recommend Starting With

Without a doubt, a home gym can be expensive to build. In fact, I’ve seen people spend upwards of $50,000 to install a fully decked-out gym in their garage. But, just because some folks decide to spend that much on working out at home, doesn’t mean it’s either necessary or a good idea.

The reality is that it’s possible to create an effective home gym for under $1,000.

You really only need a few essential pieces of equipment to get started. We suggest the following, pretty much regardless of your goal; whether you’re looking to lose weight or gain muscle, you can see success using these items:

Olympic barbell

Squat rack with a pull-up bar

Weight plates (rubber or iron depending on your budget)

Flat bench

Jump rope

There are hundreds of additional pieces of equipment we could recommend, but only after these basics are met.

When it comes to obtaining these foundational pieces of home gym equipment on a budget, you’ll want to buy things that are both effective and provide a variety of different uses. Purchasing on a budget, however, does not mean that you buy cheaply made equipment. Cheaply made equipment will cause less satisfaction, less use, more likelihood for injury, a lower resale value, and a greater chance of having to purchase replacements. Thankfully, due to there being more gym equipment (largely due to the growing garage gym community) being purchased now than at any other time in history, you can get incredibly good equipment at great prices.

Below we break down our specific brand/product recommendations that meet this requirement for being both quality-made and budget-friendly:

Olympic Barbell

The Olympic barbell is the piece of equipment that we recommend being the highest quality piece of equipment in your gym. You will likely use the barbell more than any other piece of equipment, and there are big differences, both in the performance and durability, between a high-quality barbell and the cheap rods of steel that some manufacturers label as barbells.

The barbell we recommend for most people, especially those who focus on the squat, deadlift, bench, and overhead press is the Ohio Power Bar from Rogue Fitness. The OPB features a 29MM, 205K PSI tensile strength shaft with aggressive knurling, a center knurl, powerlifting knurl marks, and a bronze bushing rotation system all for under $300 (as of this writing). All of the aforementioned specifications may sound like gibberish (you can learn more about barbell anatomy and terminology here), but just know that it’s a barbell that can take just about anything you can throw at it, is made in the USA, and comes with a lifetime warranty; this is a barbell that you’ll be able to use your whole life, and maybe even pass down to your grandkids.

If you’d like a bar that is a bit cheaper and features a thinner shaft as well as no center knurl (feels better for front squats and overhead press due to the knurl not scraping your chin) then we suggest the FringeSport Wonder Bar V2. The Wonder Bar V2 is a great, imported barbell that can be purchased and shipped to your door for under $200. The Wonder Bar has a high tensile strength steel, medium-aggressive knurl, bronze bushing rotation system, and a lifetime warranty.

Squat Rack with a Pull-Up Bar Attached

The squat rack is the centerpiece of nearly every home gym. It’s the place where you’ll squat, press, do pull-ups, and a myriad of other exercises. A good squat rack will allow you to feel safe during use, lasts an extremely long time, and, as your bank account increases, will offer various attachments to increase its versatility. Thankfully, most squat racks on the market today can handle whatever weight you can lift now, plus whatever you plan on lifting in the future. Because of this, we don’t feel the need to recommend as high a level of quality as we do for a barbell.

The squat rack we recommend to most people on a budget is the PR-1100 Home Gym Power Rack from Rep Fitness. The PR-1100 features a footprint of 48” x 47.5” with a height of 84”. It has a max weight capacity of 1,000 LB (more than everyone reading this would likely ever dream of lifting), comes with a multi-grip pull-up bar, and has optional attachments like a lat pulldown and dip handles. In addition to the functional elements of the rack, it also comes in an optional red or blue powder coat version that would look good in any home gym. Although you can spend much more on a squat rack, if you’re on a budget, this is a great option that will last you many years, has good resale value, and is priced extremely competitively at under $250.

If you want a squat rack that is sturdier, features thicker steel, and offers a few different attachments, then we suggest either the Rogue R-3 Power Rack or Rep PR-3000 Power Rack.

Weight Plates

Since you now have a barbell and a place to hang the barbell, it’s only logical that you buy things to hang on the barbell. Weight plates come in various sizes, colors, and materials, but for most people, your best bet is to find some iron Olympic plates second-hand, through Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, yard sales, etc.

If you can’t find a set of weight plates worth the asking price, then there are a few budget-priced options you can order new online. For new iron plates on a budget, we suggest the CAP Barbell Olympic 2-Inch Weight Plates. They’re cheap, accurately sized, weigh close to what they state, and are readily available. Most iron weight plates are cast-iron and come from similar factories overseas, so there is little need for the average home gym owner to spend much more than what the CAP Barbell Plates are priced at.

If you plan to do any Olympic lifts like the snatch or clean and jerk, then we suggest getting bumper plates. Bumper plates can get expensive quick, so we suggest buying just enough to meet your needs for the Olympic lifts and having iron plates for the rest. The best bumper plates we would recommend for those on a budget are the FringeSport Black Bumper Plates. These are made from virgin rubber, have a precise weight accuracy, won’t mess up your foundation or barbell, and can be had for about as affordable a price as bumper plates can.

Flat Bench

Although most people associate a flat bench solely with the bench press, with enough creativity, it can actually end up being a very versatile piece of equipment. I’ve used my flat bench for everything from box squats, box jumps, rows, split squats, and more. A quality flat bench will provide a solid platform, be about 17” from the ground, and have a firm foam pad.

The flat bench we’d recommend for those on a budget is the AmazonBasics Flat Weight Bench. We tested its durability and despite its low price tag (under $50 as of this writing) it stood up to just about everything we threw at it. The AmazonBasics Bench is stable, has a decent vinyl covering, and best of all, won’t break the bank.

Jump Rope

The last piece of equipment we’d recommend for those looking to start a budget home gym is a jump rope. This may sound kind of silly to those that haven’t used a jump rope since elementary school, but a jump rope is a killer conditioning and coordination device that can be used for both long and short duration intervals. In addition to running, sprinting, and jumping, the simple jump rope will provide you with a way to warm up and increase your stamina and endurance.

You can find a jump rope just about anywhere, but if you want to order a cheap jump rope online, something like the Garage Fit PVC Jump Rope works great for most people. We’d suggest avoiding a speed rope and sticking to the thicker PVC ropes as they’re more versatile and easier to learn how to use.

Once you’ve gotten our recommended essentials in place, you can begin expanding your gear selection by adding things like adjustable dumbbells, kettlebells, plyo-boxes, and other pieces of equipment that pique your interest. You may also want to grab a couple horse stall mats from your local farm supply store to protect your foundation.

The suggestion we most often make regarding adding new items to your gym is to start with the essentials, and then set a goal, such as working out four days a week for three months in a row; once you achieve this goal, reward yourself with a new equipment purchase. This increases the likelihood of you completing the goal and gives you a reward that will motivate you to keep up the exercise habit!

The Surprising Affordability of a Home Gym

Here’s how the cost of our recommendations above (using all the cheapest options, and an average number of weight plates needed to start) would shake out (prices are rounded up):

FringeSport Wonder Bar V2: $200

PR-1100 Home Gym Power Rack from Rep Fitness: $240

AmazonBasics Flat Weight Bench: $50

CAP Barbell Olympic 2-Inch Weight Plates: $350

Garage Fit PVC Jump Rope: $8

Total cost: ~$850

As you can see, it’s possible to build a quality, highly effective home gym for less than $1,000. And you can do it for even less if you buy the above equipment used.

While $1,000 might still seem like a lot if you’re looking at that nut altogether, compare that cost to paying for a membership at a commercial gym.

The average cost of a gym membership is $58 a month. (Yes, $10/month gyms exist, but they don’t have power racks — just Smith machines — and are thus far from ideal for effective workouts.)

This means that if you’re currently paying $58 a month for a gym membership, and cancel it to start a home gym, the money you would have spent on monthly dues will have paid off the investment in a little over a year. And after that time, you’ll start saving money month after month.

And that’s just the money a home gym will save you on the membership cost alone. There are other ways that ditching your monthly dues for a home gym will save you money as well.

According to a survey by MyProtein, Americans aged 18 to 65 years old spend an average of $155/month on their health and fitness. This number includes not only gym membership fees, but supplements, clothing and accessories used at the gym, meal plans, and personal trainers.

These are all things that can be avoided when working out at home. Beyond skipping the membership fee, you can wear whatever clothes you’d like because only you and your friends will be the ones in your gym; you don’t need as many supplements because you’re close enough to your fridge that you can eat real food; and the nutrition and training advice you’d receive from a trainer can be replaced by either an online programming/coaching company for much less, or entirely replaced by the large amount of free content online. Not to mention you’ll also be saving on the gas it used to take to drive to the gym!

Hold onto the money you save, or use it to reinvest in adding equipment to your personal gym; even if you go the latter route, you needn’t spend any more than you used to on belonging to a commercial gym.

To sum up: Building a home gym can be done on the cheap, and be more within your reach than you might have thought; within just a couple of years (months for some) worth of what you’re already spending on a gym membership, you can have a home gym that will provide you with both better workouts and greater satisfaction. And the benefits don’t even stop there; by working out at home, you’ll also have more time to do things you’d like, will set a great example for your family, and can have friends work out with you whenever you please, without ever having to worry about running out of guest passes.

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Coop runs Garage Gym Reviews, a website dedicated to helping people start their own home gym though in-depth equipment reviews. In addition to their website, Garage Gym Reviews can be found on YouTube and Instagram.

Related Resources

How to Turn Your Garage Into a Home Gym

The Pros and Cons of Garage vs. Commercial Gyms

How to Build a Weightlifting Platform

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