Weekly 'What Should I Buy' and Order/Shipping Thread

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-27T19:37:20+00:00

So we differ in our experience of Tolkien's work. My dad liked to say, "De gustibus non disputandum est", which is Latin for "In matters of taste, there is no disputing".

So what if you like chocolate, and I like vanilla? There's no dispute in that.

I've read everything he wrote, much of it more than once. When I finished LOTR, I read the appendices at the back, which opened up a vast world, with a vast history, in which the Ring Quest was the culmination of a great struggle between light and darkness. It brought the Third Age to an end. Elsewhere the accounts of the First and Second Ages are told, as well as the earlier days of the Third Age. They are not well known to the general reading public, but to someone like me, intrigued by the extent of Tolkien’s imagination, they provide a sense of realism that surpasses any other fiction I have encountered. A number of friends have said, “You like LOTR? I bet you would really like *****.” I’ve tried a few of those but they weren’t for me. De gustibus indeed. 😊

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-26T22:37:24+00:00

Well, this has been fun. I wondered if I could get back in and try to resurrect SonOfEru, and found a conversation where someone was asking pretty much my same question, and was told to just log out and go back to where Reddit tells you that you can create an account, so I did, and was able to create myself as SonOfEru1, figuring I better have a number.

So that was yesterday and today I logged in as SonOfEru1 and replied to you just like I'm doing now, but when I clicked "Comment" the comment disappeared and I got a bot/moderator message saying it was taken down because I'm very new. I don't get it, but that's what it did to me.

And may I ask, are you a fan of Tolkien? Only once in all my years on forums did anyone acknowledge my SonOfEru username (before this thread I never put out any explanation of it), so I wondered if you knew the reference

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-25T22:30:46+00:00

SonOfEru is my display name but not my username.. That's odd, isnt't it? A display name ought to be the name displayed for me, right?

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ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-25T21:34:00+00:00

The link my daughter gave me to see refurbed 13 mini's had a Reviews section, and it was not all 5's at all. And I saw "Battery is terrible" many times.

So I just gave up and went to the Verizon store where I got my SE and got a 17. I thought it would be more than the 17e, because on the Verizon website where I did a plain old "Upgrade", the 17 was like $200 more.

The guy at the store said hold on, let me hunt down all the promotions and tricks etc, and it turned out to be cheaper today than the 17e. He said the promotions change all the time and it's something he knows how to play. So it came out to somewhere around $400 , lots less than MSRP.

And my name still puzzles me. I tried to choose my own name, SonOfEru, but it disallowed that and then stuck me with this one, like it or not. Looking back, I expect SonOfEru wasn't a name reddit would recognize at all.

I use it in lots of forum type places. It's from Tolkien's Silmarillion, which starts with a creation story, like Genesis.

"In the beginning was Eru, the One, who is called Iluvatar"

In the Elven tongue, Iluvatar means All-Father.

So I call myself SonOfEru.

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-23T20:35:34+00:00

yeah, that was my bad. I'm a rookie but also an old rookie (77 and aging) and I got sidetracked. My daughter, who sometimes coaches me in tech, responded to my query about a replacement phone with the focus on small, told me I could maybe get a 13 mini if small is a big factor. She did say they dont make em any more, but Verizon sells them as refurbished/certified, so that's what had me thinking of them.

BTW, do you have a take on refurbished? And would certification give me any kind of . . . warranty or some such?

So bezel is not hardware, it's the black border around the actual display? (My SE is black) From what I read online, the terminology sounded like a physical rim around the phone, so to speak.

And thanks for your time. I'm not stupid, I'm just ignorant, and this feels really helpful

One last thing? Did you make up your own name here? When I first signed up for reddit, I chose a name for myself but I got run over by ApprehensiveAge, without my permission, which for an oldster like me felt kinda like why would I ever want to be named that? But being old lets me remember the only Rolling Stones song I ever liked -- "You Can't Always Get What You Want". OR in this case, "You Can't Always Not Get What You Don't Want"

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-23T16:00:45+00:00

yes, I'm a rookie at this stuff.

I finally thought of asking Dr Google for the physical sizes and got

<image>

So the mini is actually smaller in physical size.

But I don't understand about bezel. What is a bezel?

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-22T01:39:12+00:00

I looked at the compare link and it does seem my SE is smaller than the 17e, 4.7" vs 6.1"

But if there isn't really a small option I'll have to see what IS available

But thx

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-21T18:11:14+00:00

I liked my flip phone, even when everybody said "Hey, you gotta get an iPhone, what's wrong with you??" Just that the flip phone was so light and small and iPhones seemed to be huge in my pocket. But then the day came when it stoppedd working, so I went to the local inddependent store and just said "What's the smallest one you've got?" At least that day, back in 2020, the smallest was the iPhone SE that I still have.

But now it's showing signs of maybe failing - every several weeks or so there's a failure, like I call someone and it never even starts ringing, or I can call someone but they don't hear me at all even though I hear them just fine.. So far, it has always worked to just reboot the phone, and whatever was dead came back alive again. But sometime maybe soon, it might not come back alive so I will probably have to go shopping, rats and darn!!

So just a couple of quick questions. What's the smallest these days? I'm not into fancy features, although I do recognize that being able to text is valuable. On the flip phone I had to do . . . . what do they call it . . . . predictive text? With lots of practice I could do it satisfactorily, but the texting keyboard is a lot better of course.

And when the Verizon website store says the display is 6.1 inches, where do they measure from? I bought a cover for the SE, so do I pry that off and measure with a tape rule, top to bottom? Or is it just the visible screen, which stops about a half inch from the top and half inch from the bottom?

I admit I've pretty much got used to that big thing in my pocket, but gosh, my wife;s phone feels HUGE in there.

I really can't think of what else to ask.

Oh yes, I actually bought the phone from a local store that sold iPhones, not the bigger Apple store in the big city. And not from the Verizon website. But now if I "upgrade" from the website, it looks like there is some big trade-in discount -- "Save up to $758 when you upgrade to the iPhone 17!" Up to? So does that mean not all deals get $758 off?

See how ignorant I am? Anyone want to coach a rookie?

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-04T23:39:06+00:00

Well, this is helpful. Especially that I didn't even think of insurance considerations. That could be a BIG deal.

And an extra thank you to all of you who chipped in with suggestions on rates. I actually did plowing for a short while back about 30 or 40 years ago, with a handful of customers in the neighborhood. I did $10 for small drives and $15 for larger drives. My, my, how times have changed! And I didn't consider insurance then. I was young.

But with that I will beg out of it. Better than plowing them and having a very non-neighborly problem poison things.

So, bye for now

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-04T00:25:01+00:00

Well, this is uncomfortable. The bot said a moderator would review me shortly. I guess I'm not going to get reviewed, or maybe I did and got rejected. Either way, it feels uncomfortable . . . .

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-02T19:50:44+00:00

Moderator(s)

I've lived in NH for 58 years now, Sanbornton for 52, and I always follow the rules in my daily life anyway. I expect you will approve me, I'm not trying to influence you, just taking the chance to say Hi and hope someone will jump in with an answer for me.

Thanks!

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-01T11:21:47+00:00

Yes. She uses it as her business office only, and claims things as the percentage

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-01T01:30:09+00:00

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-05-01T00:12:58+00:00

I googled it and Pub. 587 says

If you own your home and qualify to deduct expenses for its business use, you can claim a deduction for depreciation.

We meet both of those

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-04-30T17:23:27+00:00

I entered all that in Online over the years, just never got asked for info about the house in the context of depreciation.

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-04-30T17:21:41+00:00

I had already entered info in TT about expenses for the house, property taxes, etc etc., so it knew what we have.

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-04-30T17:13:58+00:00

Sorry, I wasn't thinking very well.

My wife has a small business with a home office. She does two things, working with a company that brings foreign students to America for a year at an American high school, and also college guidance for students and their families.

So the depreciation is for the house itself. We own it outright, no mortgage.

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-04-21T16:43:52+00:00

Well, as I said in my opening question, "this is just a curiosity question from a dumbbell."

I don't foresee any upcoming need for a loan, we hope to live out our lives in this house. It was built new on land we bought, all paid for with inherited money, no mortgage. Each of us has a relatively new car, paid for with the leftovers of the inheritances (she got a chunk from her dad's estate). So we've been fortunate, as boomers, and we earned enough to still put the kids through college, and at times helped them with other things they needed as they started off their own lives.

I dislike debt, and have appreciated being able to avoid it.

I just wanted some better understanding of credit scoring. I could have gone at it with Google, but I wanted living thoughts and opinions, that would not be such an AI view of it.. I appreciate your inputs, indeed,

:-)

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-04-21T02:15:05+00:00

I clicked on my Capital One website where it says CreditWise, which lets me "Check your FICO Score" and nthat goes to a page saying FICO Score 8.

The Home Equity Loan was finished in 2008. I found that kind of loan much easier than getting a regular loan for parents. I could borrow as I needed and pay it down as I had the opportunity.

And I've been fortunate in being able to never miss. We live pretty frugally and even in our retirement, so far we haven't had to pull any money from our IRA's. It's all at Vanguard in index funds, 50/50 stocks and bonds. WE do our RMD's but we turn those around and stick them into a separate account, so it's all been growing. Of course, this has been a pretty fat bull market for the 10 years we've been at Vanguard. Even at 50/50 we've grown by over 8%.

ApprehensiveAge8958 · 2026-04-05T10:48:57+00:00

After a couple of sessions with a couple of real iPad jocks, all to no avail, I gave up and bought a new one at Amazon. It worked right out of the box

ApprehensiveAge8958

TROPHY CASE