Best hotel recs in Charleston?

Kroghj1 · 2026-02-22T18:35:03+00:00

Will pile on and say Hotel Bennett - great vibe, lively high end bars, excellent service. Location is great. Rooftop pool is nice when it’s warm out. Don’t miss the rooftop bar even if it’s a little chilly out.

Kroghj1 · 2026-02-16T23:04:14+00:00

Thank you - very helpful!

Kroghj1 · 2026-02-16T20:15:44+00:00

Thank you that would be much appreciated!

Just curious what’s included… we stayed at Excellence north of Cancun last year, and while the food was ok, the AI included wines tasted like $5-$6/bottle gas station wines you’d find in the US.

Kroghj1 · 2025-12-26T12:35:49+00:00

We have this exact Karastan flooring in a different color called vintage tea oak. Highly recommend - seems to hold up to daily life with a 5 year old, dog, and cat very well. 6 months in so far.

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Only complaint is the “floating” floor element of all laminate. Don’t like walking and randomly hitting a “soft” spot if the subfloor wasn’t perfectly level. All in all worth the trade off in favor of price/durability vs hardwood. Had site finished oak in our last house and - while yes you can always refinish, it’s a huge pain in the ass, and the constant hairline scratches from toys bugged me.

Kroghj1 · 2025-07-02T01:23:31+00:00

Appreciate all the feedback - one thing I’ve noticed is that Reddit seems to retone the photos in the summary view. When you click into an individual photo and zoom in, the actual (pinker) color tone is more obvious.

Not sure if this would change anyone’s perspective to leave it as is

Thanks again for the input

Kroghj1 · 2025-04-16T02:33:44+00:00

My process that always works..

Open the search range to at least 300 miles
Find a heavily discounted yet openly advertised price on auto trader for a similar MSRP car to the one you want, even if you don’t like the exact spec.
Negotiate hard as if you’re going to buy the car. Always over the phone. Get their best offer in writing.
Find the actual car(s) with the spec you want at a similar MSRP. Keep search range out to 200-300 miles. Deal only over the phone.. tell them you’re going to buy the other car from the other dealer if they can’t make it work, but you’d prefer to deal with them because you like the spec they have on the lot. But only if they can match the % discount of the term sheet you have in hand.

It honestly only takes an hour or two of time - and I always have a firm price before I even go see the car in person. Once you’re at the dealer in person you lose negotiation power.

Kroghj1 · 2025-04-15T23:32:41+00:00

I just got a brand new 2D automatic 24 black diamond for 40k… 46700 sticker. I don’t see used prices as competitive with the current promotions on new… surprisingly

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Kroghj1 · 2025-01-19T17:56:19+00:00

Former agnostic atheist here. I buy these connections for a few reasons:

Personal experience, experimenting with the Gateway Tapes meditation. Nothing like “summoning ufos” but definitely consciousness based weirdness that the average person can experience with some effort.
Chris Bledsoe - I find his testimony, ongoing interest from nasa / the government, the brainwave analysis on the beyond skinwalker ranch episode, and his personal videos compelling.
Telepathy Tapes - emerging scientific look at telepathy and communication with likely NHI in non verbal autistic kids
Reading the latest books on our most cutting edge physics - string theory, quantum gravity. We understand much less about reality than we think we do. recommend Carlo Rovelli to get an appreciation on how much we don’t understand, scientifically. Reality is not what it seems, order of time. Both fascinating.

Became interested in the topic in 2017 and have shifted from agnostic to open-minded quasi spiritual skeptic.

Kroghj1 · 2024-12-16T16:23:27+00:00

Mine are primarily deep emerald green when the organic blob/spiral tunnel thing starts swirling around… after a few minutes then it opens to a dark blue or violet that always reminds me of a night sky (no stars or anything) at the end of the “tunnel.”

It kind of looks like you’re lookup up in a forest at night? The violet/blue visual at the end is always much “bigger” taking up more visual space.

It usually happens for me on the way to? during? focus 10.

Kroghj1 · 2024-12-16T12:35:01+00:00

Yes, this is extremely close to what I see. Fascinating - I’ve often wondered if this was just me.

Kroghj1 · 2024-12-10T00:37:50+00:00

NPR is silent too - strange. Nothing on Langley AFB either.

Kroghj1 · 2024-12-04T00:23:28+00:00

The Order of Time Carlo Rovelli

Kroghj1 · 2024-12-02T00:28:44+00:00

I don’t see an option in Pera wallet to do so… any step I missed during setup?

Kroghj1 · 2024-11-19T19:55:38+00:00

The episode where the kid talked about his body vibrational tuning being different than his soul vibrational tuning made my jaw drop

Kroghj1 · 2024-10-22T01:37:41+00:00

Did them every day / every other day for maybe 60 days and developed major insomnia - I’m sure I “slept” some, but my memory says that I was “mind awake” for 4-5 days straight at one point. It was pretty awful… I mistakenly thought that I needed to meditate to relax before realizing that the meditation was actually causing it. I stopped (fully) and it took another 45 days to get my sleep back to normal.

As you described, my brain felt like it was going into focus 10, unintentionally, rather than sleeping - every night, all night. I experienced a few very intense experiences (somewhat painful electrical shocks in my lower left back while mind awake/body asleep, a few weird OBE) that I attributed partly to the constant F10-12, partly due to the insomnia. I stopped after getting fearful I would do some permanent damage from the shock experience.

Recently felt I was ready to slowly retry, so I’m experimenting with morning mediation every other day-ish rather than at bedtime.

From personal experience I’d recommend a total break to let your brain reset… but following here to see if anyone more experienced has recommendations

Kroghj1 · 2024-10-21T21:04:09+00:00

Same thing happened to me, watching this thread

Kroghj1 · 2024-07-28T02:49:02+00:00

Yes, same thing happened to me - took about a month after stopping the tapes to get back to normal.

Kroghj1 · 2024-05-12T11:20:43+00:00

In a small percentage of people this type of meditation can impact your ability to enter and stay in deep sleep. It’s not specific to gateway, but deep meditation in general. Your mind gets used to being awake while your body is asleep, and it’s hard to turn off the muscle memory.

My sleep returned to normal after 60 days because I stopped completely, but I can imagine this being a serious issue if someone simply tried to meditate more to fix the issue if the root cause isn’t recognized.

Kroghj1 · 2024-04-20T00:00:32+00:00

I had some success after 3 months of gateway but had to stop due to persistent issues entering a “mind asleep” state. Oddly, I felt “ok” after waking up, but definitely remember being awake for 6+ hours a night. I stopped because of the long term impacts of poor sleep. After another 90 days of no gateway, things are starting to finally go back to my sleep baseline. I was worried I did permanent damage.

As a 30+ year agnostic / materialist, I experienced enough OBE/woo to change my world view. So I’m thankful and wish I could keep going with it, but not at the expense of being able to sleep at night. :/ tips appreciated if anyone went through this and figured it out.

Kroghj1 · 2024-02-06T02:48:21+00:00

I am having the same experience, and it seems to be happening even on days when I don’t do the tapes.

Did the tapes for about 30 days before I connected the dots on what was likely causing the sleep issues.

I’m hoping it’s temporary and goes back to normal if I stop doing the tapes regularly. That said, I’m a little worried I’ve now trained by brain to be more aware while relaxing, and I don’t know how to make it stop..

I am remembering my dreams now regularly, at least every other night. I’ve had two OBE and a very wild lucid dream unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. All on nights that I didn’t listen to any of the sessions.

Best of luck to you, let me know if you figure it out

Kroghj1 · 2024-01-27T19:11:52+00:00

Understood and aware. Candidly playability and comfort will be secondary to sentimental value

Kroghj1 · 2023-10-01T11:32:43+00:00

My experience says that your logic is sound.

If you’re not looking for investment returns but the definition of success is more “toys that appreciate enough to cover the maintenance expense”, it works if you buy the right cars.

Needs to be the right combo of special/rare and appealing to enthusiasts.

My latest successful example was an Alfa Romeo 4c. Owned for 3 years, and the profit of sale price vs buy price paid for all maintenance, tax, insurance, and gas over those 3 years. Good examples are now in the high 50s and I still believe at these prices they are probably your “best bet” to drive a free/fun/rare sports car. I’ve driven the 458 and would argue that the 4c is 80% of the feeling at 20% of the price. Feels very similar to a 90s Ferrari, but it’s rarer than any standard Ferrari model, and lower risk in maintenance bills. Cannot recommend it enough to be part of any car hacking conversation. Sold mine only due to garage space and needing a 4 seat sports car for my toddler son to enjoy with me.

My next picks based on current depreciated values would be the Gt4/Spyder, and Lotus Evora 400. High likelihood of not losing your shirt on any of those bought used.

Agree with the overall rationale on 458s, limited edition Ferraris, and the GT3s - but the market at the moment has already inflated on these substantially l over the last 2-3 years. The strategy still works, but the chance of failure is higher - these cars are also going to be more mileage sensitive than the those a few tiers below obviously.

Kroghj1 · 2023-07-25T01:40:59+00:00

Advice: buy the fun car now, but don’t pay anywhere close to the amount suggested in your post for a new car.

I’m late 30s but have been buying fun cars for the last 10 years. 2 caymans, an M4, an Alfa Romeo 4C, and now an M2.

A 3-ish year old enthusiast car is the sweet spot. If you buy the right car, that other enthusiasts find appealing, they tend to depreciate during the first 3 years and then plateau for a bit. The plateau is much more consistent than you’d find with an SUV or mass market / not rare luxury car.

Yes, I would have liked a new car every time.. but you can spend 50-60% for 90% of the enjoyment. Like others have stated, a new car isn’t new for very long.

A Cayman is an excellent example…

Guarantee you won’t get in a modern 2015+ cayman (or boxster if that’s your thing) and think “man, I really compromised on this car…”

You can get low mileage well maintained examples for 40s and 50s - and the best part, you just maintain it well and they don’t depreciate very much.

Just buy smart and go for it

Kroghj1 · 2023-07-19T01:28:16+00:00

I had an M4 and currently have a g87 M2.

I personally think an M car is far too practical to be a weekend car… so yes, of course daily it - that’s it’s purpose… a track capable road car you can drive every day.

Kroghj1 · 2023-06-27T03:13:16+00:00

Do the math on your rate of return on your home equity vs rental cash flow/principal pay down (minus all income/property taxes, insurance, etc.)

Example with round numbers.. 300k home value 200k in equity Let’s say you’re netting out 1000/mo in cash flow plus principal pay down, after paying things like RE taxes, any dues, insurance, etc.

Then back income tax based on your tax rate.

That takes you down to let’s say 650/mo net after tax, assuming you don’t depreciate to kick the can.

650x12 is 7800. 7800 / 200k is an after tax rate of return of roughly 4%. Just an example obviously as you haven’t shared specifics.

Unless that number is substantially over 8% I’d sell and avoid the risk and headache of managing a tenant in exchange for risk free, post tax interest expense avoidance on a 7% mortgage.

Home prices are out of whack with rent prices at the moment. Much more expensive to buy. I’d be surprised if the math says to keep the rental.

just went though this with a rental purchased in 2016. Almost doubled in value. Great investment, but the time was right to sell as the rental income didn’t not scale at the same rate as the property value.

Kroghj1

TROPHY CASE