You truly have to find what helps you. For some people it’s minimal activity and relaxation, for others it’s something frantic and crazy(but not their job), some people turn to sex and relationships, others turn towards absolute control, while someone else may prefer to fully relinquish control of everything and just plain let another person be in control of every aspect of their life.

Being burned out takes a while to figure out sometimes. I personally want to be 70 feet under water on a reef every chance I get so I don’t have to think about or really deal with people. Nature often helps people who are in jobs where they are stuck indoors and time with very few people and minimal communication if they normally deal with a constant stream of people. Basically the polar opposite of their job.

Going for a walk in a park our on a beach is a good place to start it you can. Find something that allows your mind to just exist and be a part of your surroundings. In a pinch you may find that searching for an asmr nature video may help if you can’t figure out what you want to do or don’t have easy access. Sometimes it’s about finding your element. If the idea of being in water sets you on edge and stresses you out it’s probably not going to help, at the same time if you don’t like heat going for a jog in a desert won’t be your cup of tea either.

This, this, and this.

As computer cases have gotten smaller the heat buildup has gotten bad. My mother in law had one of the SFF pc’s from 10 years ago and after about a year the HDD died. Replaced it with a used one I had that was 7200rpm vs 5400rpm and it was dead in 6 months. That drives twin still works today but was always in a tower case.

Heat kills CPU’s, RAM, MoBo’s, and everything else in the computer.

Upgrades are limited to RAM and SSD but those upgrades generally mean even more heat so then you end up thermal throttling. You could get an external GPU but now you have a huge brick sitting next to your little box pc. IMHO they agree great fir something like retro gaming/emulation but you will generally be better suited by a full size computer especially if you buy a board that has a long lived socket.

Warranties are great but the issue is that the warranty fairy will try to get out of it as often as possible. Generally this is done by pushing the blame onto someone else, usually the purchaser.

I personally buy a cheap case without a psu, then get a good power supply. A mid range MoBo like an AM5 B850 with a cheap compatible processor. Add some RAM and a SSD with a budget GPU then you end up with something to get started and closer to the end of the socket lifespan you can grab a better cpu and GPU then buy a cheap case and MoBo and have something you can sell, give to someone else, or use a a server. You will start with a better computer and end with a MUCH better system.

I started with an x470 with a Ryzen 1600 and 16GB of RAM and a used 1080ti. I doubled my ram (not as easily done on with ddr5 sadly) upgraded to a 5800x and am waiting for a GPU that isn’t outrageous in cost but will double my fps. My old cpu was dropped in a B450 with a used RX480 16GB of ram and a 1TB SSD for my stepson to use as a gaming machine similar to a steamdeck (ChimeraOS) and he upgraded the GPU to an RX7600.

And these devices are controlled both hardware and software by an oem.

PC’s are hardware and software agnostic. Some OEM’s have done weird stuff with the hardware and bios/uefi to prevent users from upgrading and don’t some things but as long as you can buy a motherboard, gpu, ram, and other parts is going to be tough to convince three manufacturers to prevent an end user from using it how they see fit.

I am 16 years younger than my other half.

Age is a number and people mature at different rates based on their life experiences and intelligence. I survived mental, physical, and sexual abuse as a child. I am also considered high intelligence… in elementary school I was ranked in the top 10 percentile of my age group based on standardized testing. In middle school all of my testing showed me at a minimal of college levels with some areas in graduate school. I had no friends and have literally had the crap beat out of me for no reason than I existed. I have also buried a child and a wife. I am more comfortable with an older woman because those my own age and younger are generally more self absorbed.

Stick to someone of the age of majority who makes you happy and isn’t abusive. The rest is your business and nobody else’s.

Movie theaters control sound reverberations. A simple sound bar worth a sub will improve audio quite a bit over any output but even a pair of Bluetooth speakers can help, if you want stereo look at the Anker Soundcore series with “TWS.” I use a pair of Soundcore Motion Boom’s for when I am doing stuff and they area amazing, I upgraded from a a pair of Soundcore 2’s that fell off the roof and few times and were not really holding a charge like they should.

To give you the sound you will want to make some sound deadening panels. Basically get some 1X2 furring strips and build some simple squares, cover them with fabric(something with a soft texture is best) , and insert some cheap convoluted foam then hang them around your viewing space. As time goes by you can add more if you feel the need. Also carpet the room, but at the very least get some throw rugs. You could also hang something like the rugs on the wall, it’s ghetto but as I said the experience is about controlling sound reverberations.

But being on a phone screen and needing portability honestly I would go buy a tablet (I suggest the Samsung A9+) and a pair of noise canceling earbuds I have a set of Soundcore Space A40’s that I use to listen to music while mowing, in a quieter environment like a store I hear next to nothing. My other half uses the A9+ and she had had no issues I suggest that over the super cheapo ones as they tend to only be decent for a year or two. We bought a pair of them in 2021 and both are nearly worthless for anything outside of a wall tablet for home assistant after 3 years and they are still barely working for that. My stepson’s was swapped for my even older Tab S4 which was an upgrade over the newer cheapo.

https://amzn.to/47zXmKL Space A40’s are running 45.00 right now https://amzn.to/4mmJ0SH A9+ is 210.00

That makes your setup a ton better for less than 300 and it will easily last you for a while.

My stepson is likely a 37 yeast old virgin.

Don’t be like my stepson.

Get a haircut, take a shower, go out on a date. When you are with her ask her on another. Take the chance to see where things go. If you don’t before you know it you will be someone’s 40 year old virgin.

I’ve been over 100 ft under water. The water pressure is at about 45 PSI at that depth. I don’t come up to the surface squirting poo water. There are people who have went deeper than that and never heard of it happening.

Yeah, before then you just stunk.

Some cultures started bathing but many did not until later on. The “Dark Ages” was a time where bathing was nearly nonexistent and cleanliness wasn’t even in people’s minds. People would relieve themselves in buckets and just toss it out the window.

Here is a really good one. Look up information about the Palace of Versailles, huge building with tons of rooms and huge parties with tons of lord’s and ladies’ eating and drinking but no bathrooms. People would relieve themselves in the stairwell’s. That is why the upperclass wore tons of perfume, to overcome the stench. Modern society has come a long way in just a few hundred years.

I remove almost everything that is considered breaking current events. Someone is going to do something stupid to someone else. Disasters are going to happen. Wars are being fought (IMHO WW3 had already begun and everyone is trying to stay out of it like the US did in WW2) just that everyone is avoiding it. I have watched a local to me longlines station have a lot of new activity and a person is living there in a travel trailer but two years ago it was basically defunct. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfHyy-4W5X0 is an example of a different one but gives an idea of the use.

All this crap happens and there is nothing I can do about it nor does it help my daily life. I get a little bit of local news directly from their site and everything else is related to tech or science. I also block Javascript on the browser I use for news feeds, it prevents headlines from other crap being shoved into articles I choose to read on many sites and if breaks a site I just remove it from my feed.

I’m also doing a lot of repairs on a 100 year old house while I live in it, trying to work towards teaching people who have dealt with childhood trauma and others with PTSD how to SCUBA dive for free, and doing my best to stay sane with everything that has happened in my life.

Honestly depends on what it is. I have four pentium pro’s sitting here that at current value are worth about 100 each.

Some parts can be desired in the retro gaming community.

You may be better off doing what I try to do. Fix them up and install Linux. Then give them to someone who could use it. I left a laptop with a dive operation while I was there so they could give it to a school. I installed linux and a few other things and grabbed a copy of Wikipedia so they could take it to a community without internet and still have some access to the knowledge. I threw in a copy of python and rust to support programming as well as some learning applications and videos. I stuffed a 320GB hdd till therewas only about 10GB of free space. I wish I had more to take down but space was limited.

I think it’s more about what children see in front of them and what they see as role models. With the internet age we see people making tons of cash fast. Many years ago we had cops and doctors on TV among other things and that is what kids wanted to be.

Simply put kids emulate and want to become what they see. That is part of the reason why some parents want more control over what things their children are exposed to. Many of those parents also want to sit in front of a screen vs actually spending time with and teaching their children.

It doesn’t help that everyone is more worried about making a fast buck vs doing something that will help others lives be better. I just wonder what kind of abuse will be handed out by parents from a generation that is almost completely self centered.

I’m using TP-Link Omada series access points and they are amazing. You can run them off of a power brick or POE (power over ethernet) and put then anywhere that you can run ethernet. They can also work in mesh mode if desired and are not super expensive. Combine them with the OC200 controller or run the controller software on an always on PC and they work flawlessly.

You can pick your preferred wifi version and upgrade to a newer version later on by just changing out the access points and adopting them into the system.