More words do not always create more understanding.

I spent a year and a half learning Spanish with different apps every day: Praktika, Anki, Memrise, and Duolingo. Felt like I was making progress.

After a while, I hit a wall. None of the apps told me when I made a mistake. For two months, I kept making the same error without knowing it. Apps help you practice, but they don’t catch the mistakes you overlook. I ended up getting really good at repeating my own errors.

So I decided to book a 45 min lesson each week with a real teacher. In the first ten minutes, she noticed mistakes that the four apps had missed for months. That one lesson helped me more than all the apps put together.

This happens with other skills too. If you use an app to learn an instrument or to code, you face the same problem. Apps give you practice, but teachers give you feedback. You need both. Many people avoid correction because it costs money and can feel uncomfortable. But getting feedback is what really helps you move forward when you’re stuck.

Keep using your apps, but also try to spend an hour each week with a teacher who can point out your mistakes. And start sooner than I did.

Lots of people freeze food when it’s about to go bad. Instead, freeze cooked rice, shredded cheese, herbs, leftovers, and extra bread before they go stale. Future you eats a quick meal and you throw away a lot less food.

How to pick peaches- from your Asian auntie. 

Now, I am mostly familiar with yellow peaches but I am sure this technique will work with other peaches. 

First off, you should know that the sweetness and juiciness of a peach has little to do with how soft or firm they are. You can have a rock hard peach ripen in your kitchen over a few days and it will be delicious. You can have a soft, yielding peach from the farmers market and it will be mealy and dry. So picking a delicious peach has little to do with if a peach yields to your touch at first. 

When you look at your peach, you want it to have red and orange colorings or a significant blush alongside its base color of yellow flesh.  You want it to have both a blush and a base color because you know it has been out in the sun and has been given time to grow.  Likewise, avoid green tinged peaches as they have been picked too early. You should also see a prominent seam- this means that it has had enough time on the stem for it to have aged properly- juvenile peaches are not going to have the depth of flavor as a mature peach. 

Then, taking the peach to your nose, you want to inhale deeply where the stem is to make sure there is a “peach” like fragrance. As the peach softens, that fragrance will become intoxicating and you will know it is ready for eating before you even enter the kitchen. But it doesn’t need to be strong when you first buy them- just a little bit of fragrance tells you they will be perfect later.

Finally, as you hold the peach in your hand, consider the weight of the peach in relation to the volume.  If it feels heavier than it should in relation to its volume, it will more likely be a juicier peach. Remember- the peach has to feel heavy for its size. Big or small peaches can both be delicious but they must feel like they have been watered sufficiently during their growth. This is an important part- more than color or fragrance- because dry mealy peaches are not as tasty raw.  They must be baked or cooked with sugar to soften and hydrate the fibers therein. Still delicious but it takes more work. 

There is some debate as to which kind of peach is better: cling or free stone. People argue that cling peaches have a better flavor as they come earlier in the season so you can satisfy that craving sooner rather than later. But for me, I think the wait for free stones later in the season has merit. It’s a little easier to eat and tends to be less messy. 

Speaking of mess, I know some people like to keep the fuzz on their peaches and some people like their peaches peeled. Peeling a ripe peach is a joyful thing for me- when the flesh is soft and yielding, the peel comes right off with a gentle tug. But eating peaches with the fuzzy bits also means you can taste the sweetness of the sun right there. So it’s definitely up to the connoisseur.

I hope this helps you during peach season.

Edited for grammar and green tinged peaches tip in comment.

I've been meaning to send the Education Department my tax documents for the longest time.
The options were mail the documents or fax them. I don't have a printer, so was going to have to drive to staples, pay to print out my documents, sign them, and then pay to fax them or mail them. A pain in the ass to say the least all to just get out of default for my federal student loans.

I am a perennial procrastinator, and have been putting this off for months, (probably why I'm in debt/collections, I know).

Anyway, I did some googling, and turns out there are plenty of services that can handle all of this online for free.

The one I used allowed me to upload a pdf, sign it digitally via esign, and fax it across the US all for free in high quality digital format, and I'll get an email from the application once the fax has been received by the department of education. It took all of 2 minutes.

I won't list the actual service I used as I don't want to break any rules and advertise, but happy to share in DMs. But seriously, there seems to be a fair few legitimate applications that do this that are backed by big companies.

All I had to do to get 5 free faxes was share a link with my wife to "invite" her to the application.

A good time saver and probably saved me a few bucks at Staples.

I see lots of post people get upset when realizing they gave their phone number to strangers. Buy some temporary SIM cards and use them (for example when buying new home, when buying something online, whatever, etc.). You can always throw this SIM card away.

I just found out about first time home buyer programs. Evidently my state, county, and city all have seperste ones that stack. My city one is especially good, they offer a no interest equity loan for up to 30% of the house that come due only when you sell the house or move out.

Let me emphesize that: My city will fund up to a 30% down payment on your house if you are a first time home buyer. The biggest hurdle is you need a 600 credit score and less than $20,000 in fluid assets (excluding retirement) That basically removes the barrier for purchasing a home for most people, and with that large of a down payment you should get a decent interest rate. Basically you could move towards home ownership for cheaper than renting. Thats without the potential grants from the state and county that are basically free money.

Anyways, I thought that was crazy because I'd never heard of it.

I have a couple companies I use for their services and have had luck with these a few times.

- if you are late on a payment and not doing that routinely you can call and ask to have the late fee waived. I’m sure we’ve all forgotten once in a while a bill is due, if you don’t do that often most CC companies will wave the late fee if you are otherwise in good standing.

- about once a year you can request to have a permanent reduction in your APR, often times it will not be a huge amount but doing this yearly has gotten me down quite a bit from where it started (of course if you pay off your bill monthly, which you should, this shouldn’t matter much)

- an alternative to yearly drop in APR you can request if there are any available promotions you can take advantage. Most notably I will ask if there are any special APR offers and I usually get 0% APR for a whole year. This is great if you are wanting to make a large purchase and need time to pay it off and make sure interest does not accrue. Me and my wife go back and forth on this so we always have one card that gives us 0% for a whole year while the other cards we drop the APR permanently. Juggle these around to consistently have good deals that can help in everyday life.

I’m sure there are more tips for credit cards so if you have any drop them in the comments!

Nothing else have helped protecting from those fuking thorns. But with welding gloves I could pull those shits out of the undergrowth no problem.

Fukin hate blackberry.

Don’t know if there is any science to this but I swear it’s helping my brain and I’m not as anxious driving as I used to be.

I usually take a look at the route before leaving and the rule is to only look at the route (not the turn by turn) if I absolutely need some help.

Before paying $50–$100+ per night for parking, think about whether your car could be somewhere more useful.

Oil changes, detailing, tire swaps, windshield replacement, paint protection, and other services that don't require you to wait can often be scheduled while you're out exploring. Instead of paying just to store your car, you'll come back to one that's cleaner, maintained, or repaired.

Personal example: Downtown Toronto parking can cost up to $50/night. During a recent trip, I scheduled my annual maintenance and a full interior/exterior detail while I was in the city. The total cost of the services was still less than what I would've paid for parking alone, and I got my car back in better shape than when I dropped it off.

Sometimes the cheapest parking doesn't even get billed as parking, but do make sure that your shop allows overnight storage.

EDIT: adding this here because a lot of people are skeptical of how and why, or clearly don't have strong reading skills. Not saying this will work in every situation.

$120+ tax for interior cleaning, got a promo rate from IG.

Sunday night drop, Monday scheduled clean, Tuesday afternoon pick up because fabric seats take a lot longer to dry 😉 so they kept it for longer. Tuesday after pick up, drove it over for oil change at Cdn tire for $100 for next day, then at end of day Wednesday when service was done, I called for a brake job that I "forgot" to ask for originally, so they spent Thursday working on it. Picked it up this morning. 5 nights.

Took ttc around downtown.

I’m a sucker for nostalgia, but here’s some food for thought for all you lucky people who have been able to maintain old friendships.

1. I think the fastest way for those friendships to become stale is if every outing results in the same conversation/activities. How work used to be. How funny it was when you used to have the same class together. Etc etc.

2. I think the fastest way to close yourself off from new people is when every outing results in the same conversations. E.g - Your book club starts with the OGs and soon it grows… those new people are going to fall off real quick if they can’t relate to anything you’re talking about.

As I said from the start - the old times are so easy, fun, and relaxing to re-live. That said - I’ve lost a lot of friends through the journey of life, I’ve made it more difficult on myself to gain new friends, and it’s because I/we didn’t put enough effort into leaning into the present. Balance is always the key!

If you're anything like me and are constantly thinking and analyzing things all the time, you know that it can be very draining. I am not diagnosed ADHD, but I suspect my behavioral patterns are consistent with it.

Something that helps the thoughts feel less oppressive is to set "office hours" with yourself. If an especially charged, volatile or heavy thought pops up and tries to pull your attention, put it into a notepad and return to it at a designated time. Set aside 30 minutes or so (whatever works best for you), and dig into the topics. Then at the end of that time, close the log and set it down. You can even set reminders for your next office hours of where you left off.

By doing so, you are able to train yourself to let the thought go until your office hours. And then when you are having your office hours, you may find that the topic isn't even really relevant anymore. And any thoughts that are still relevant can be given your undivided attention that is free of whatever fleeting mental/emotional state that first triggered the thought.

However, you have to honor your office hours. If you put things in a notepad and never hold your office hours, you will unintentionally train your mind to not be able to trust your office hours and that the desired things will not be processed

Office hours applies best to especially charged things that take up a lot of processing power and focus. Obviously you cannot shut down or schedule every thought that comes into your head, but if you notice your internal state shift significantly when a particular thought arises, it may be good to try putting it into your office hours log. If it's an emergency, you won't have to ask if it's an emergency - it will be emergent and blatantly relevant and demand attention.

In holding office hours for myself over just the past couple weeks, I have noticed a reduction in general anxiety throughout the day, and a greater sense of peace and going with the flow of things now that my mental bandwidth has been increased due to having a healthier approach to the things that were taxing my system.

Hope this helps someone!

I just finished my semester and I decided to take some time to update my resume and portfolio. It is something we all know we should do, but we always put it off because we are too busy with classes and assignments. Now that I have some free time, I realized I forgot some of the projects I worked on and the skills I learned. It is so much easier to document everything while it is still fresh in your mind. I just wanted to share this tip with other students here. Use your break to polish your resume, update your GitHub, and maybe even write a few blog posts about what you learned. It will save you so much stress when internship applications open up!

A real fix should still work on a busy day, a bad day, or when that person is not around.

Look to see if they have free returns on full price purchases. Buy what you need from the full price stuff in order to know how their tops, bottoms, etc. fit.

Now that you definitely know your size, return for free, and make use of buying their clearance and discounted items that don't have free returns, or returns at all.

No reason to name names of where I actually had to learn this, but there's a big difference between some brands. Happy shopping.

Having lesser tabs my your browser helped me focus on my current work (the tabs already open) and avoid opening more unrelated tabs that cause distractions

This may be my single greatest contribution to humanity!

I was making myself a brat the other night when I realized my hotdog/brat buns had gotten moldy. I figured I would just use some white bread slices instead. Not great, but it works. Then I realized if I use 2 slices the amount of bread thickness would be closer. And I would be able to make a sandwich out of the toppings, then wrap that around my brat. So basically for me it was a mustard and relish sandwich, placed a brat on top and curved it around the brat.

It spreads the toppings/condiments around so you get a bit each bite. And it prevents wet things like relish from soaking through the thin connection of bread on a normal bun.

As a bonus, no more trying to match up packages with different amounts in them. Just get a loaf and use the leftover for sandwiches later. Also, way cheaper.

Edit:

Since you all seem to love this invention, I have another for marshmallow lovers. Next time you have smores, replace the graham crackers with rice crispy treats!!!! Diabetes for sure, but damn son....

It can be as simple as looking forward to your morning coffee or getting to watch your favorite show at the end of the day. Or something a little more involved that's coming up later in the week, like seeing a friend or practicing your hobby. Try to keep them present in your mind.

It helps to lessen that hopeless feeling from settling in too deep, and may help you to get going on your immediate tasks. You may also slowly regain interest in little things you once enjoyed.

Recently, I sold a car to a dealer. I also filed a Release of Liability. Since it was sold to a dealer, I thought everything was taken care of. Two months later, I got tickets in the mail. Apparently when dealers buy your car, they don't actually register it; they hold the title until they find a new owner. In my case, the dealer I sold to, transferred the car to dealer #2, which then sold it to a new buyer. However, that new buyer didn't register the car (or they did but the DMV hasn't processed it yet). So when I got the tickets in the mail, my name is still the registered owner in DMV files. I was able to contest this by showing the Bill of Sale and the Relase of Liability (a pain in the ass nevertheless). But if I didn't keep records, I would be stuck with these tickets.

If you are going to buy a gift certificate to a restaurant or store, it's best to use a credit card in order to have proof that the transaction was fully completed.

For Father's Day, I put $50 on gift card to a restaurant that my parents like. I went there and paid in cash. It seemed like it took the older cashier a long time to ring it up. Eventually the lady gave me a receipt and the card, and I left thinking everything was fine.

Fast forward to today. My parents tried to use the card and the waitress said it hadn't been "activated". They claimed that my receipt wasn't a receipt. It looked like a receipt to me, but they claimed it was an "informational receipt" and there was no proof that I had actually paid. Eventually after a lot of arguing, they relented and put the money on the card, but I could have been out $50 cash because the cashier was either incompetent or a straight-up thief.

EDIT:

A lot of people are complaining that cash is better than gift cards. Giving cash as a gift just seems impersonal to me. When you give a gift card, it encourages to go to a new place or try something they otherwise wouldn't. I don't pretend that gift cards are amazing gifts, but anything is more personal than just cash.

Also, many people are saying that you can't buy gift cards with a credit card. According to the internet, that depends on the retailer.

On venmo you can get a venmo debit card and it works just like a normal debit card, but I mainly use it for any subscriptions I'm likely to forget about. It prevents subscriptions from unexpectedly taking money from my bank account and for some subscriptions auto cancels them from a missed payment. Then I only move the amount of money I need for the subscription

Edit: yes obviously this will prevent you from using what ever service you were paying the subscription for if you don't move enough money into the account to pay the balance for the subscriptions you want to use.

Edit 2: What I meant by "auto cancel" is for some subscriptions when you miss a payment and your service is deactivated it will still try to charge your card again the next billing cycle and reactivate the subscription cycle. Whereas for other subscriptions when your service is deactivated via a missed payment it will not try to reactivate itself by trying to bill you again in the next billing cycle.

Edit 3: I think the privacy.com shilling should fuck off

Obviously only applicable if you actually appreciate them reaching out.

People can often feel awkward or uncertain about asking for help (especially guys). Sometimes folks feel like they're a burden, or that their request is 'too much', regardless of how innocuous it may be.

If you're like me, and enjoy helping people (especially if it's something that plays to my strengths), make a point of thanking people for thinking of you when they ask for help, even if you're not able to fulfill that specific request.

This achieves two things. First, it makes it more likely that they'll seek help in the future if they need it, and second, it pushes back on the societal narrative that we should all fend for ourselves.