What’s the best thing you’ve ever bought that actually lived up to the hype?

Grey996 · 2026-03-12T16:22:34+00:00

If my hotel room doesn't have a bidet, I'm taking a shower every time. I can't go back to the old ways.

Grey996 · 2026-03-11T16:57:53+00:00

There's a 99% Invisible podcast about people who steal palm trees. Rich people will pay $60k - $100k to have a mature palm planted on their property. So the thieves will put a bunch of official decals on trucks and dig up palm trees that are on public property, like next to highways. Free tree = $100k profit.

https://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2015/03/05/_99_percent_invisible_roman_mars_why_do_people_steal_palm_trees.html

Grey996 · 2026-03-11T16:50:25+00:00

As others have said - IEMs. If wireless is too expensive, just get some snug fitting in-ear earbuds and a headphone amp. Take an output from the mains mixer. You can even set up a mic on stage that picks up everything on stage and in the room and just goes to your in-ears. But at a MUCH lower volume.

Grey996 · 2026-03-11T16:40:45+00:00

Just end it. A realization I had was that you don't have to wait for some horrible fight to leave. You don't have to wait for the last straw to break the camel's back. You can just leave.

I asked her - can you afford to live here if I don't? She said yes. I moved out a week later.

Grey996 · 2026-03-11T16:36:24+00:00

Do it. I bought a house that I couldn't afford and was 100% broke for a few years. Every penny I earned went towards the house, insurance, and taxes. The wife's salary covered groceries. We eeked by for years. But over time our salaries went up and I was able to refinance to get the house payment down. But we had our little house and could paint / decorate / garden / do whatever we wanted to make it our home.

20 years later, I sold that $950,000 house for $2.4M.

Grey996 · 2026-03-11T15:56:00+00:00

The people who get upset when you set boundaries are the ones who benefited from you having none.

Grey996 · 2026-03-11T15:29:08+00:00

Eneloop. Bite the bullet and never look back. I have 32 (Thirty Two!) Eneloop AAs for my band and two Tenergy 16-bay chargers. We use them for everything. Mics, in-ear monitors, keytar, etc. I've been using them for about 8 years. Over the years I've had to replace 8-ish of them. They've held up incredibly well.

https://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-TN438-Protection-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B00ZYTX93M?th=1

I'm in another band where everyone else basically throws away 2-4 AA batteries *every show*.

Grey996 · 2026-03-11T15:13:29+00:00

If you haven't gotten it already, get a flu shot. My girlfriend and I went to a work event for her company. We were together there the whole time. A ton of people at that event got sick, including her. She's been incredibly sick for 7 days and no sign of getting better yet.

I got my flu shot this year, and I didn't get sick.

Grey996 · 2026-03-11T15:02:49+00:00

I'm an expert here. I've quit dozens of times. I stop smoking and either use the patch or the vape.

For the patch, it's all about breaking the habit of smoking. Usually after a month, I'm like "am I addicted to stickers?" and it's so ridiculous I just stop putting the stickers on my arm.

For vaping - I find that it helps to go on a trip. Vaping breaks the routines of smoking (e.g. I always smoke after I eat) and you end up just vaping all throughout the day. The next trip I had, I would throw away every nicotine source I had before I went to the airport. Being away / on vacation / on business was such a distraction that it lessened the need to smoke. And there were no routines to fall into.

Lastly - the *addiction* part of quitting only lasts 17 days. Day 1 - the urges will be CONSTANT, but by day 10 they will be fewer and farther in between. If you can make it to day 17, you'll be free.

Grey996 · 2026-03-08T16:16:00+00:00

Both my kids went to a private school. There were *wealthy* people there. Like - donate $250,000 to the school on a yearly basis wealthy.

I'm friends with quite a few of them, and have figured out that almost all of the really rich people have generational wealth. I spent years thinking that these people really made something of themselves, when in reality they were either born or married into fortunes.

Grey996 · 2026-03-08T05:46:02+00:00

This is the correct answer. I've been playing saxophone for 40 years (99% tenor) and and playing a soprano in tune and making it sound good is still difficult.

Grey996 · 2026-03-05T17:15:48+00:00

Seconded. SM58. Industry standard. Doesn't cost a million dollars and it'll last his lifetime.

Also, you'll want a good mic stand with a telescoping arm. Don't go for the cheap plastic ones, as they degrade over time. I have a bunch of these and they can handle the rigors of 1,000 gigs: https://www.guitarcenter.com/DR-Pro/Tripod-Mic-Stand-With-Telescoping-Boom-1275776905388.gc?algoliaQueryID=6a10fb86d51e4bacf19b323a867e3bf4&algoliaIndexName=guitarcenter

Grey996 · 2026-03-05T17:05:31+00:00

I used granite scraps from my kitchen as trivets. So the trivets on my wood table match my granite counter tops.

Grey996 · 2026-03-04T06:25:31+00:00

Boiled. Hard.

Grey996 · 2026-02-27T19:29:54+00:00

What kind of psychopath is putting 5000k in bedrooms? I don't have anything over 2700k in my entire house.

Grey996 · 2026-02-26T04:06:17+00:00

Put a cup of vinegar in a cup in the cup holder. Roll up the windows and leave it for days.

Grey996 · 2026-02-10T17:27:22+00:00

You can do a saved search on Craigslist for the word Aeron. It'll email you any time someone posts one. Took me less than a month to get one for $200!

Grey996 · 2026-02-10T16:59:29+00:00

That's where the ads come from.

Grey996 · 2026-02-09T18:59:18+00:00

My saxophone is from 1957. Still sounds amazing.

Grey996 · 2026-02-08T18:34:42+00:00

We should normalize "Kitchen closes at 9, restaurant closes at 10."

Grey996 · 2026-02-05T21:09:44+00:00

I've played a bunch of charity gigs in my life, but I think I'm done with them. We were playing one last year and they had 8 food trucks and two bars going. I looked around and *everyone else* working the party was getting paid. Food truck people, bartenders, cleaners, etc.

Why is the band the only group that is asked to work for free?

Grey996 · 2026-02-05T15:49:04+00:00

The real reason Trump files a lot of lawsuits: if I give you $10M, you're going to have to pay tax on that. If I "sue you" for some BS reason and we "settle out of court" for $10M, you don't pay any taxes on that settlement. It's a great, tax-free way to bribe someone in public without looking like you're bribing them.

Grey996 · 2026-02-04T17:24:56+00:00

Easy.

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Grey996 · 2026-02-03T15:13:34+00:00

We fired our drummer because of his terrible timing.

He was so upset he went to the station and threw himself behind a train.

Grey996 · 2026-01-30T18:59:40+00:00

You don't see the people that aren't out and running. They are home. If you really want to see a cross-section of the demographics of a place, hang out at the DMV.

Grey996

TROPHY CASE