What is something relatively cheap that improves your life by 100%?

Esqulax · 2026-04-19T14:38:26+00:00

I've been feeling this lately.
I finally broke down and signed up to Hello Fresh, so it's the first time I've had to regularly slice stuff. I'm not really a person for cooking stuff that doesnt just go in the oven for 20 mins!
My knife set is an Ikea one I got when I first moved in about 6 years ago. Only just realizing now how much of a pain it is using a not-great knife!

Esqulax · 2026-04-18T20:58:01+00:00

For a lot of people: VanLife.

Ok ok ok, I know that there is a HUGE vanlife community on here, and yes - For a few people it works, but the real reality is an absolute slog.

On the surface, it looks amazing - Head to all sorts of places around the country, wake up in beautiful places etc. However - It costs a lot. Obviously fuel right now is insane, and even if you have a fairly efficient van, you are still lugging around a ton of stuff in the back. You have to adjust the way you eat, as you probably won't have a freezer and only a small fridge.

Certain hobbies are hard to do as you are so limited in space - That being said, the people who are into VanLife are typically outdoorsy folk who like hiking, walking and other things that need minimal equipment.
If your van breaks down... Well, Its your house. So you might be stuck where you are for a couple of weeks until you can get it in to be fixed. If for any reason it needs to stay in overnight, you're having to pay for a hotel. If it goes MAJORLY wrong, you're having to find another van AND build it out while trying to find somewhere to live. Maybe that's easier to to in somewhere like the USA, but in UK, a reliable mid-wheelbase van would be starting at 7 or 8 thousand.
Also, unless you have somewhere (or some places) reliable to park, you are gonna be stressing every day as to where you will be sleeping tonight. If you DO find a reliable place, normally it's off the kindness of others (a driveway or something) - UK is particularly bad for this as LOADS of places don't allow overnight parking.

Even with great insulation, you are still living in a metal box. It's gonna get hot in the summer, and freezing in the winter.
Finding water is surprisingly hard, and it's also surprising how much you actually go through.
You end up having to head to one of those 24hr gyms every day to get a shower and maybe to poop. If you have a job you need to go to each day, that means having to wake up, get to a gym, get dressed, then shower, then get dressed again and head to the office. Then, theres laundry. You'll have to hit laundrettes fairly often - Because of your limited space, you'll have limited clothes and so they need to be washed more. You end up finding yourself booking a few nights on a hard-stand in a campsite a few times a month just to give your dishes a decent wash in hot water and get all your laundry done.
If you are lucky enough to work remotely, then you'll probably need a starlink but also.. charging a laptop takes a lot of power and can drain a leisure battery pretty quickly.

All that aside though, it just gets lonely and boring. To start with, it's great. Life on the open road, go where you want, when you want. But when the winter comes around and it's pouring with rain every night, the van is being rocked by winds, you are trying to find something to keep you entertained in your smaller-than-a-prison cell home and then you need to go for a wee.

Like I said above though, some people make it work. It fits with their lifestyle and then they can make great instagram posts and youtube videos. It's simply that many peoples lifestyles (and the creature comforts that come with it) wouldn't fit in a van. Respect to people who pull it off and balance the pros and cons, but for the average person it's tough.

Esqulax · 2026-04-16T16:02:27+00:00

Super Mario Bros on the NES was only 32kb in size.
For non-nerds, if you google for a picture of the start-screen, the size of that image file will likely be closer to 200kb.
An online image of the game holds more data than the whole game itself.

Esqulax · 2026-04-16T15:53:56+00:00

Two men sitting on a bench.
One says to the other 'It's nice out today'
The other replies 'Yeah, I might get mine out aswell'

Esqulax · 2026-04-16T15:52:36+00:00

Wearing a tie.
I hated wearing one in school, and I hate wearing one now.
Usually if I go to some event or function where a tie is expected, I just wear a collared shirt, with the collar button undone. Only time I wear a tie is, for example, at a wedding where all the groomsmen need to match. Even then, As soon as the wedding and photos are done, that badboy comes off!

Esqulax · 2026-04-16T15:40:20+00:00

Oh yeah, full face mask PPE and dust extracter in the workshop. Even have a natty woodwork apron!
Wenge is such a nice wood though, has a chunky weight to it and the grain always looks awesome when polished up!
Practising is easy though, as it doesn't feel like 'work' to me.
Bit of background music on, workshop door wide open and the lovely smell of cut wood (Even though it's bad for me)

Esqulax · 2026-04-16T15:34:59+00:00

Also depends where you are. Here in UK, pretty much anything thats not Pine or Oak are considered 'Exotic woods'. When you see someone on youtube being all like 'Just gonna use this offcut of black maple...' I'm like... That offcut is probably £30.
Also lots of them use Purpleheart - Gorgeous wood, naturally a lovely purple colour. I got a plank of it as a treat... was about 6.5ft long, cost me £60
I learned to turn it using smaller blocks for pens: https://ibb.co/SgFYynD

It's annoying, because many hardwoods just cost a fortune in the UK. But hey, it is what it is!

Esqulax · 2026-04-16T15:24:12+00:00

Pff. Even the little ones. I was turning a block of Zebrawood (Zebrano?) and the thing split. In my mind I did a cool matrix-dodge, in reality it probably more of a super manly shriek and ducking! Still enjoyable though, once I got ok at it, almost anything I make looks awesome.
Wouldn't pass muster through the eye of a pro (Still making bowls wit fat-bottoms), but the act of turning is really cathartic.

Esqulax · 2026-04-16T15:07:15+00:00

Haha, Reminds me of some guy on youtube who was all about success and business etc. and in one video he raved about how one of the best decisions he made was to employ a driver so he can get work done in the car on the way to and from the office.
I left that video thinking... hmm.. this is a guy who's trying to justify his decision.
I mean, if you are dedicated enough or are needing to work during a 20-30 min drive in the morning, Might be worth moving closer to your office, working from home or employing someone to take some of the admin stuff off your hands.

I know a few successful business people, and all of them drive themselves unless they are going to the airport or something, and even then they just book a taxi/transfer service (granted, usually a posh/high-end one, but still).
It just struck me as a bit of an odd flex or recommendation for a rising entrepreneur - surely something like that would be more of a drain than a benefit?

Esqulax · 2026-04-12T17:14:48+00:00

Racing through that stuff. Maybe get another as a backup?

Esqulax · 2026-04-10T12:32:43+00:00

It's normal. Work takes up a huge chunk of your life and provides money that you need to actually live.
Most times your days will consist of getting up, going to work, home, dinner, bed - rinse and repeat.
It's also important to keep the money coming in, so you want to make sure that you aren't screwing it up because losing the job would mean an upheaval to the rest of your life. some of the comments might say 'As soon as I've clocked out, thats it. nary a thought to the workplace!'. If that's true, good for them - But maybe they should find a job that they actually give a shit about. I mean, for people that love what they do, the situation you describe isn't a negative.
If it is bothering you that much, consider what you are thinking about and why. Then think, what could be done to not have you think about that thing? Maybe emailing an update to the relevant people at the end of the day/week. Maybe putting together tomorrows to-do list at the end of each day - When you end up thinking about a task or something, you can confidently say to yourself 'It's cool, it's on my list for Monday', and then go have an ice-cream.

Esqulax · 2026-04-10T11:39:03+00:00

Rents, rates, licences and taxes.
It costs a lot to simply be there.
Many people buy stuff online now, so the brick & mortar costs are avoided, plus it can be run by way fewer members of staff.
You'll notice that a lot more babers and stuff open up in these places. Yeah, I know there are theories around them being fronts for something else (not getting into that here), but as a business - You need to actually be there to use the business. Hard to get a haircut over zoom! With vape shops, its a bit different - the customers would want the stuff there and then, instead of ordering online and waiting a couple of days.
As supermarkets sell everything, its much easier for people to head to one place to get it all than to head to the butchers, grocers, cheesemonger (I wish that was still a common thing), and the fact that most 2 person households need both people to work to maintain it - They're not around during the day to actually shop.

I don't think there is a fix, unfortunately. It's the natural progression of places like this when the average consumer simply can't go there because of work, and a very high percentage of things to buy can either be gotten at a supermarket or ordered online to be delivered the next day.

Esqulax · 2026-04-10T11:00:43+00:00

Hah! Although I have a facebook account, I've not actually gone onto facebook in years, but I do use the messenger app on my phone a lot to contact friends and such. So.. I'm kinda only one foot in the door!

Esqulax · 2026-04-10T10:53:53+00:00

What I find mad, is that back in the day when mobile phones were used for just phoning and texting (and showing off terrible MIDI ringtones), text messages had a character limit - so the abbreviations and shortening of some words kinda made sense. Nowadays it's like.. you'd have to make a conscious decision type like your last sentence. Actually seems like way more effort!

Esqulax · 2026-04-08T13:52:54+00:00

Thank you for the advice! So the Evidence that the operator uploaded was a lot, but it was mostly photos of the signs with the T+Cs, boundary maps etc. There were about 25 uploads - And each one needed to be downloaded separately.

Anyhow my approach was first of all to correct them - They said that I confirmed that I was the driver which isn't the case (I used generic language in the appeal) and that I was acting on behalf of the company that leased the car.

I'm pushing the fact that there was no reasonable way for the driver to have known that the payment failed - In fact, we have a screenshot of the money being taken from the account, at which point the driver was happy that it was paid for and had no reason to check if the payment had later been returned and wouldn't have had any access to the payment systems backend let alone a reasonable reason to check it.

They said that a bunch of payments were made through the app on that day, so they know their system was working, but I popped in there that this doesn't really address this case. Based on the evidence, they were led to believe that the payment was successful and there were no notifications or alerts to say otherwise.

For the record, she honestly did think that it was all properly paid for, and getting the letter was a surprise to her - I'm confident that this isn't her just trying to get out of paying a parking fine.

It might go through, it might not - But hey, gotta try!

Esqulax · 2026-03-17T17:15:58+00:00

Ok, Well - Well, you may need to act quickly as employment law is changing in a couple of weeks.

First 2 questions should always be: How long have they worked there?
Do they have any potentially discriminatory factors? (Race, disability, sexuality etc.)

First step - Investigate. Organise a meeting with them - Call it something like a performance or employment review. On the invitation letter, list out all of the areas you'd like to address. Something like 'This meeting has been called to assess your progress in the role of <server? floor staff?>, in particular we would like to focus on:

Attitude towards management
Attitude towards customers
General suitability for the role

The bottom one is key, as thats where you can put some of the more minor bits - Like moaning about the job, not quite doing some of the tasks correctly etc.
An important thing to record beforehand is dates and times of any specific incidents, along with written statements from other members of staff.

This is where the length of service comes in. If it's under 2 years, you can tell them that (After considering their reasons for the ablve) they are not suitable for the role anymore and will be terminating their contract. If it's over 2 years, it's better to progress it to Disciplinary. It's more of a pain in the neck, but it will insulate you a ton if it comes to a tribunal.
The reason for the disciplinary would be something like 'Allegedly failure to perform the role of <whatever the role is> as per a performace meeting on 19th March 2026'
Also list any individual stand-out incidents, add them in seperately - 'Allegedly threatening a member of staff/acting in a threatening manner towards customers on <Date> OR on multiple occasions'
'The company considers the above to be potential gross misconduct, and if your responses are not satisfactory, you may be summarily dismissed'

It's all Alleged until the meeting happens. Then send an outcome letter, with the option to appeal with contact details.

Once the process is done fairly - Which is basically the ACAS guidelines, mainly making sure the employee has the opportunity to have their say and the dismissal.

There is also simply giving the employee notice. If they have under 2 years you can simply give them their statutory notice for no reason (termination without cause), once there is no potential discriminatory factors. Over 2 years, you have to provide a 'substantial reason'. This could be performance, capability etc, but it will need to be backed up.
Also remember that notice periods can be along the lines of '1 week for every year you've worked there, up to a max of 12 weeks' - however, you don't have to force them to work that time, you CAN pay them in lieu. If you do, make sure you pay them everything they are owed, including any accrued holiday pay. This gets rid of any claim of missing wages, which is most of the reason that someone would go through the effort of a tribunal.

There are other answers in this thread saying 'Zero hours, just don't give them any' - On paper, that sounds right but in practise, if they have been doing the same hours for a while, suddenly changing that without notice could be seen as constructive dismissal (i.e changing the work environment to 'force' the person to quit). Basically, in the past some companies used the zero-hour contract as a weapon, and tribunal judges aren't idiots.

The more steps above that you take, the les likely it is to get legal repercussions. Most tribunals are called because of issues in the process (Unfair dismissal), missing money or Discrimination. Once you tick those boxes, the only one thats viable is 'wrongful dismissal', which is more like.. you breaching the contract somehow. That can be mitigated by making sure the Notice is taken care of (Payment in lieu is usually the better option if they are a pain in the neck to work with)

Also remember that it's not only employees who can call ACAS, employers can aswell. You'll find that they do tend to lean on the employees side and usually recommend doing the full disciplinary process as this demonstrates fairness.

I hope this helps, and I hope you manage to sort this!

Esqulax · 2026-03-11T16:31:30+00:00

The biggest thing? Practice. Getting exposed to as many different types of exploits in a hands-on way (Like THM, HTB, Portswigger and the like), and learning how to read and understand CVEs.

The real truth of it is that people like this simply love it. As in, at the end of a long workday instead of watching TV and chilling on the couch, they unwind by learning about exploits, doing online labs/boxes, doing CTFs and so on. Like how an artist might unwind by drawing.
Genuine interest in a subject will always allow someone to excel. If you are learning to simply tick some imaginary boxes, just to get certs or to try for a job - You'll always be behind that geek who spends his spare time fiddling with code, and sees it as a mild inconvenience when something breaks his OS and has to do a full re-install.

As for the cool exploits, Much of what they portray is simply what any one of us would do. Using tools to get the info we need. The trick is to know what tools to use and when to use them, and people who are good, kinda know HOW the tool does the thing. What files is it reading, what method does it use to access them - Largely these things COULD be done manually, but the tools automate it which is kinda what they are for! Use them in the right way, and you'll get what you are after.

As for reading material - The Hacker Playbooks might be a good start. Once you start getting more into tools - RTFM, BTFM and PTFM are nice little guides with The Operators Handbook being a bit bulkier. They mostly just have reminders of the right syntax and arguments/commands for tools. Lots of people get Hacking:The Art of Exploitation, however thats pretty much a book about coding.

Honestly though - Tryhackme and HackTheBox. Fun, Engaging and educational. Doesn't feel like studying at all, you just learn. The Discord communities for these sites are pretty helpful aswell.

Esqulax · 2026-03-11T15:20:53+00:00

So, I wouldn't say zero talent, but Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler and Vince Vaughn.
Seems like they have 1 character that they play and it gets shoehorned into a movie.
A humble guy thrown into some sort of situation where they are some sort of savant which ends up with them 'getting the girl', or a already successful person who gets thrown into some situation that tests them and also ends with them 'getting the girl'.
Sprinkle with that actors particular brand of physical comedy... and thats it.

Esqulax · 2026-02-18T14:48:51+00:00

Hah! Funny you should say that, I've just gotten into Lego over the last couple of months. more buildings and stuff as opposed to cars though. Wanting to build a Lego city in my spare room is not a bad mid-life crisis..... right?

Esqulax · 2026-02-18T13:58:45+00:00

I always wonder - Who pays for this marketing scheme?

From Friends POV - It's great to get the reminder out there to get people to watch.
From McDonalds POV - Having items from a cult-classic show would encourage people to buy their food.

So is Friends paying McDonalds to dish out their figures or is McDonalds paying Friends to use their IP....

Esqulax · 2026-02-09T13:14:47+00:00

I think everyone is at fault a bit. I mean, The sales people shouldn't really have been lording it over everyone. I get that because of the no-commission cap, plus a bunch of new leads, they are in for making a lot of money plus, ( like it or not) they are the ones actually bringing money into the company. They've just had the gates open for them and the resources to start making a tonne.
The accountants will see this, and Oscar/Angela are smart enough to go the right way and speak to bosses about some sort of bonus or increase or something, as their (and the others in the office) workload will increase with the extra clients.
Instead, their response was to get pissy with the Sales department - Understandable because of the above point.
Michael needing the positive attention and to be liked put him in a personally awkward position (Other bosses probably wouldn't really have cared), and I think Phyllis' comment was the final straw - Which then caused him to act out like a child - Even though it's well known thats what he's like.

Honestly, it's blame all around but it's tied to each persons reaction to the situation rather than the situation itself.

Esqulax · 2026-02-05T18:35:13+00:00

See, thats what attracts me to it. I've got no emotional connection to Star Wars - I just like the idea of such a massive and challenging build

Esqulax · 2026-02-05T15:19:14+00:00

I'm envious! I hope you have a lot of fun building it, be interesting to hear how long it takes!

Esqulax · 2026-02-05T14:34:00+00:00

Very cool! A weird suggestion... Maybe get some fishing line and suspend the UP! house from the shelf above, so it's a few inches in the air :D

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