This is why I do a lot on my kitchen counter. Sometimes I’ll eat there, do knife sharpening and knife stuff there, you could read a book there, drink my coffee (it has the coffee machine too), etc. also my kitchen window has an excellent view of sunrise
I know that Georgia is very lenient on maximum stay, 364 days a year and any day outside of the country the days are reset. You’re essentially a citizen that has to take mandatory annual vacations.
Tblisi is pretty well developed from what I have heard and it’s a very safe and peaceful place (ignoring 2008 >:( ). It’s still pretty poor compared to developed countries, so despite that human development is decent, you won’t be able to afford as many foreign products (especially tech).
I usually buy used refurbished components from reputable stores. Likely eBay too. Being in the tech industry I realized how mind bogglingly cheap even slightly “old” hardware is. If you want an entry level/mid tier you can buy a used office PC with an i7 8700k or something (make sure that specific model has GPU power overhead) and buy a refurbished gtx 1080 ti. Make sure to add an SSD if it doesn’t have one already. In fact skip the HDD and buy a high capacity SSD, they are cheap nowadays.
Speed queen washers and dryers. LGs and Samsung’s drop like flies in comparison. They are expensive but they are made in the United States and last donkeys years. I’ve heard of people moving out after 10 years, and taking their speed queen dryer with them.
Also, in general, hand made Japanese knives. Any knife will keep cutting if sharpened but most of “sharpness” is thinness of the blade. That’s why we don’t use meat cleavers for daily prep. Japanese knives are made to be thinned and polished, as the edge will become thicker with repeated sharpenings. Other knives will get thicker and thicker and become complete carrot crunchers. These can be thinned too but it’s much more difficult with only sharpening stones.
Additionally the handles are easily replaceable by anyone, western style handles require destructive disassembly of the existing scales and rivets.
Easy (relatively) chowder with random veg, protein and cheese
The only specific ingredients are onions, garlic, spices, heavy cream and at least some cheddar.
Before starting salt all of your veg. This is so they are INTERNALLY seasoned, otherwise you’ll have salty soup and bland veg.
Saute your onions (with any other hardy vegetables) and butter can be used if feeling indulgent. Salt as you saute
Once slightly tender add and cook a couple tablespoons of flour (depends on quantity of soup and desired thickness)
Add whatever stock or bullion on hand (I use home made with bones and veg scraps). You could also use plain water if really starving and desperate though.
Once the soup is boiling add a ton of (salted) minced garlic, FRESH CRACKED black pepper, rosemary, thyme, smoked paprika and a couple pinches of mustard powder. These can be fresh or dry, but I do like fresh garlic and fresh cracked pepper (many of the flavors and compounds are highly volatile and will literally float away if stored post cracking). Also be generous with your spices, makes it way tastier.
Add your veg. It can really be anything from broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, corn, peas, carrots, mushrooms zucchini, celery, cabbage (not too much), bell peppers, etc. experiment and go nuts.
When pot is hot again add your protein, nothing specific. I’ve used ham, pork, ground beef, ground turkey, deli meat that was gonna go bad, breakfast sausages, Italian sausages, chicken breast and thighs and even tilapia. Make sure to salt them for 15 mins before adding.
When your proteins are not raw and almost cooked add heavy cream (if you don’t have much you can also add some milk, you can also freeze milk, let it melt and drip into a container, when halfway melted remove the frozen milk and whatever is collected is highly concentrated because all of the fats in the milk melt much faster than water)
When soup is reduced to desired amount turn off the heat and let it cool to a light simmer. Add your cheese and stir thoroughly. If soup is too hot your cheese will cook and clump up in nasty globs and will not thicken your soup either.
Honestly the worst thing about school were the other kids. Everybody are little psychopaths and are utterly ruthless. At work everybody just wants to get paid and no one really gives a shit about other’s business (YMMV though).
Also there’s no homework, which is a godsend as somebody with ADHD. Just show up, work your little butt off and go home, nice and simple.
I die a little inside whenever I see someone clueless buy a 1000$ computer with an HDD, and expect it to be way faster. And I die a little more inside when my work’s laptop, selling for 120$, with SSD and upgraded ram remain unsold for months.
Also if you do go through with that make sure to get a soft mat to stand on. Standing on a hard surface for long periods is also bad for you (and painful, and cold).
His advice is fantastic but I have to mention 1 thing… HP is TERRIBLE. I’m a repair technician and we get so many of these damn things, it’s like 10% to 20% of our business, and we repair iPhones, androids, iPads, Mac’s, PC desktops, laptops, gaming PCs and even vintage computers.
This is because of how HP laptops are designed. All of the components and hinge assembly are attached to this thin flimsy plastic palm rest, it has the rigidity of a wet newspaper. During use, opening and closing, the plastic flexes constantly and over time the plastic gives, snaps and the laptop can no longer stay open.
Not only do they break frequently but the repair is expensive. Since everything is attached to the palm rest a technician needs to gut, then reinstall every component onto a new palm rest. Around 1-2 hours. Troubleshooting and testing afterwards also takes longer, as every component has been “fooled around with” there’s a high likelihood for mistakes.
It stings when I have to tell customers that the repair for their $500 laptop is like 250 or 300$.
It needs to be done carefully. If earwax has gotten onto the grill, it’s easy to squish it into the grill and your earbuds will sound extremely muddy and quiet. I usually try to prevent this by removing any visible wax collecting on the rubber ear bud. If it’s on the grill anyways, remove the rubber earbuds, add a drop of hydrogen peroxide onto the wax and let it sit for a minute. Afterwards use a toothbrush at an angle to “scrape” the wax off. This is to prevent mushing the earwax into the grill mentioned previously.
If the earbuds are muddy you can attempt to use a finer brush and scrub vigorously. It’s a little gross but you can blow on the grill to clear it sometimes. God forbid don’t suck.
I’ve had wusthof handles break on me and they are a pain to replace. You have to drill the rivets, remove the scales, glue new ones, drill new rivet holes, hammer new rivets and then shape them. With Japanese knives you tap the handle off and put in a whole new one.
Another issue with wusthof is that the bolsters on their chef knives are way too large. They weigh the know down and makes it annoying to sharpen. Over time it will develop a recurve and won’t contact the cutting board. Your only option is to grind it down, which is a big endeavor because they’re so damn big nowadays.
They’re still great knives but because of those issues that Japanese knives don’t have, they aren’t the best BIFL option for me.