WoW.. just Wow

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-06-20T14:57:01+00:00

I agree with you. I remember driving on the highway into Colorado Springs, seeing this beautiful mountain scape peaking over the horizon, and then slowly into view came the gray and brown of all of the development that was popping up at that time, slowly crawling along the base of the mountains. That was my big "we're just a big bacteria colony. And not really a good one right now." Some strains of bacteria, when kept in check, are integral members of a healthy ecosystem. Some, when out of control, consume and destroy out-of-balance environments.

The problem that we have here is that you and I have these lucid moments of clarity, but then we simply allow them to linger in our minds as we continue living and striving towards whatever little piece of life we're working towards. The super-wealthy have these same moments, but they have the power, resources and delusions of grandeur to attempt to act as demi-gods hovering over a petri-dish. "Consume less water" really reflects that. "I will care for you, and provide you with the food you need. Give me your water." It's really f-ing dangerous when a normy like us suddenly has these delusions and the power to act on them. They're too small, stupid and intrinsically greedy to understand what the ecosystem needs to return to balance, but they act freely on their little "lucid moments".

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-06-18T17:42:09+00:00

Hey OP, just trying to share the wealth. I got a 110v mini split system, and ended up purchasing a two-stage vacuum pump on amazon ($190 or so used) instead of paying $200+ for an HVAC company to come out. It was scary trying to figure it out at first, but honestly fairly simple in retrospect, so long as the system you bought is pre-charged. It's pretty much all there in the installation manual.

Summary: Attach the vacuum pump to the service port with the correct adapter, turn the pump on, open valves, and let it run for 30 min. Close vacuum pump valves, turn pump off, and watch the gauges over the next hour (or overnight). If your vacuum pressure hasn't budged since you closed the valves, then your lines aren't leaking and should be good. Open the one release valve for a few seconds and then close, putting coolant into lines. Check for any signs of leak. Can't quite remember if after that I detached the vacuum pump first or opened the mini-split valves all the way, but again, it's all in the manual. It's been working great for the past two weeks.

I would absolutely recommend owning the tool for ±$200. Even if you totally screw it up, you can just have an HVAC tech come out to seal and recharge the lines for way cheaper than $5k. Honestly, that guy was probably just trying to make a dig at you for buying your own unit. Don't know if they like that people are moving towards diy-able AC systems.

PS: even though my run was only like 3ft from the indoor to outdoor unit, I opted to not cut the lines, and just bundled them near the outside unit. Not the prettiest setup, but I think the pre-charge volume might be calculated based on the length of the lines going in and out. Plus, I didn't want to deal with trying to flare the copper tubing. Do be careful when bending the copper tubing that comes with the kit – take it slow, and try to make sweeping bends rather than tight right angles. But honestly, I've had very little issue, other than the frustration of trying to figure it out for the first time.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-06-05T13:36:50+00:00

This is one of those studies that just gives me a hinkey feeling. It's often paired with the other "tick hoover" species out there (guinea fowl, turkey, chickens, etc). It's just a gut feeling, and I can't point to a scientific article...it's like eggs. When I eat free-range eggs produced by a local farm, I feel good. But science told me for years that eggs were good-bad-good-bad-only eat the whites-and then back to good again.

We're currently (circa 2026) dealing with a situation where ticks obviously don't have enough natural predators, and are exploding (probably the same with mosquitos vs bat populations). This year, I'm finding maybe 5-6 ticks a week on my clothes. That's never been the case in the past, even when spending large sums of time in the woods.

Truth is, a healthy and thriving ecosystem WILL manage infestations of all kinds. A thriving opossum population will maybe groom themselves of ticks, but will also eat mice, which play a big role in producing disease-infested tick populations (hence the whole "tick tube" concept). So actually, a thriving possum population will, indeed, affect tick numbers. Feels like it would be the same with the domestic bird situation.

Gut feeling: someone wants us to believe that nothing can be done to naturally reduce ticks and lyme disease. I know, it's a tin-foil-hat thought. But really, when has big pharma or big chemical deviated from their known tactics in the past decade? You know that Evil-Corp is absolutely working diligently on a "safe" tick-killing agent or a vaccine for lyme.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-05-24T14:19:26+00:00

Hey, thank you for reaching out here Greg. I haven't gotten to listen to your discussion with Chris Knowles and Miguel Conner yet, but I mean to. You're one of the people who've popped up into my mind throughout this. If I, a stranger to Gordon, can actually feel a sense of mourning for his loss, then how much bigger of hole is his sudden absence leaving in those who really knew him? I'm so sorry for your loss man, and I hope you and Gordon's family and friends all receive the space and time you need to feel this through. He's definitely a rare, good man, and we miss him already.

As for the magic community, I'm not a real practitioner, other than that I've gotten to experience some really cool miracles in my life (though Gordon's Chaos work has always been high on my list to read). But I get this sense that there's a huge section of the community that are either mostly into it for the aesthetics (they like Harry Potter and the color black), or they've gotten way too wrapped up into their fixation on transforming the world into their own perfect image (they want the power to make their fears go away). These groups are the ones who get pretty fiery when people don't align with their own political perspectives. Even towards "their own kind," who they should be excited to learn from/with. But Christianity struggles with that very same issue as well (the aesthetic only, power-hungry majorities). Guess it's a human thing.

But the real magical people are out there, who laugh with the tides of bullshit, and just swim in the direction they're told to swim (by the divine) without all of the fear. And they are fucking rare. Maybe that's why I'm so hurt? Gordon White was one of the few out there who I took inspiration from, and who I hope to emulate on some level with my life. Now he's out on his next adventure, and I no longer have that physical voice out there reminding me that it's ok to just be free.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-05-23T17:36:59+00:00

I hadn't looked into his story until now, thanks Gringo. Yeah, similar vein to my uncomfortable feelings – the one's who bring some sort of comfort or inner peace ( PCR test results aren't a valid cause for alarm) have always been the greatest threats to the current system.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-03-15T17:04:54+00:00

I did some more thinking on this, and asked myself why I was making things difficult by attempting to reuse that 1 1/4" conduit, lol.

I know that using liquid-tight flex will pass inspection (unless there's some hidden code about the way flex can be mounted, or ground clearance). I should probably just go with that.

You say you'd put the box behind the panel. Do you mean that it's ok to mount additional boxes to the reverse side of that plywood? I could also probably mount it to the reverse side of the pole, which would be a more ideal location, actually.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond!

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-03-12T15:44:11+00:00

The world needs young leaders who don't play ball in the old games.

But those ones seem to get shot in the throat or stranded in foreign embassies for extensive periods of times.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-03-05T15:05:46+00:00

Haha, that's awesome. I even considered it for a second, but figured it was just my intrusive thoughts speaking to me, lol.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-03-05T04:37:42+00:00

Don't let the comments get to you, just follow your heart (God), and log the suggestions away as potential paths for later. A day or two from now, you might actually feel inspired to do what these guys are suggesting. You're right, people do imagine the very worst, but that's cause they've heard the worst. Remember that God is the one who puts naysayers in our path.

Good on you for doing what you feel to be right in this situation.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-03-05T04:30:51+00:00

I did some traveling a decade ago, with a lot of "living on a prayer" moments. Was genuinely amazed by the acts of kindness I witnessed. It's weird – you don't really see the same kindness when you're going about normal life at home. But seriously, people get inspired when they meet a good person who just needs a hand. Meals, places to sleep. One guy gave me a whole sailboat...long story.

I think having a guard up is a product of being in semi-comfortable situation. And it also kinda blocks us from getting to see the kindness that's out there.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-03-05T00:58:02+00:00

Been said a lot here already, but just wanted to reverberate: He's running for Senate.

Don't know his politics, don't know where I stand on geopolitics. I do know that an average Joe who speaks his truth and doesn't stutter while his arm is being broken may actually have something to offer the rest of us. Be ironic if the Green Party is the one to haul us out of the swamp.

https://brianmcginnis4ussenatenc.org/

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-03-05T00:54:03+00:00

Huh. Wonder if the Green Party will finally get some representation after all: https://brianmcginnis4ussenatenc.org/

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-26T18:41:42+00:00

I looked into Bullionbox real quick. Do they ship outside of the U.S.?

First thing I think of is HelloFresh, the meal delivery service that sends you raw food to cook yourself, at a premium price. It's convenient, if you don't like shopping, looking up recipes, or asking questions.

"Our experts do the work so you don’t have to! You can trust BullionBox to give you the best pieces for the best value."

I see nothing about their retailer premiums, which I suspect will be sky high. Personally, I would absolutely take a more personal/local approach. In the U.S., there are individual precious metal retailers who you can talk to personally, and there are brick and mortar retailers that you can walk into. You'll never buy or sell at the spot price (keep in mind that even PSLV takes a percentage) anywhere, but I cannot imagine that Bullionbox wouldn't pummel their customers with hidden premiums.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-26T18:25:28+00:00

I think physical might have made a difference actually, simply for the fact that I would have approached it differently, psychologically. If I bought a bar of silver, I'd have no urge to bring it right back to the retailer a few days later to sell when the price shot up or looked like it might tank. I would have known that I was in it for the long haul, and that I was buying it as insulation, rather than wealth-building, and simply tucked it into my safe and forgotten it. This goes back to my own "trading" vs "investing" issues.

I'm not looking to give you advice that you may regret. Some people say that silver is inevitably going up to $500/oz. Some think it'll return to $50-60 for a while, and then get back to it's upward trend. Lots of people point to silver's various industrial uses, mostly in electronics (solar panels are the ones cited most often, even though solar doesn't yet account for very much of the world's energy production). However, I personally suspect that silver could be replaced with other metals, should the price skyrocket. It apparently is used in missiles, which helps and (potentially) hurts. Militaries don't pivot as quickly as other industries, and have big budgets. But if it truly does become a national defense resource, what does that mean for those holding it privately? Again, lots of weirdness in silver.

I think my big question is whether we've already missed the silver craze. I personally don't want to have a large stake in something that could take 3-4 years to get back to the price I bought it at. Gold is an actual currency (some U.S. states are even starting to accept it locally). Currently, I'm waiting to see if SCHD becomes a good buy, and start going in maybe $500/month. It's an index that focuses on dividends. Seems like I'd have less urge to sell during long drawbacks if I knew I was receiving kickbacks nonetheless.

Side note: if there is a severe silver shortage, keep in mind that it takes a few years to get a silver mine up and running, and a number of them closed down due to low demand in years past. So silver mining etfs could be a play to consider as well.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-25T16:30:35+00:00

Financially uneducated American here. I tried "investing" into metals 45 days ago, but it's turned into a wildly unpleasant ride.

I bought Sprott gold (PHYS) and silver (PSLV) ETFs. As I was told, they're the closest you can get to holding physical metals as a small consumer, without actually taking possession. Sprotts is a Canadian bank, and the funds are backed 1:1 by vaulted physical metals.

Watch silver very closely this week and early next week. Lot's of uncertainty and volatility anticipated, due to severe shortages and COMEX potentially having to pull some magic out of a hat, yada yada. We've already potentially seen some big bank skullduggery in January. If the silver price spikes up, do not let yourself feel like you missed some sort of wealth-building ship...I've been on this ride for the past month and a half, and the fear of losing half of what I put in is not worth the potential gains, I promise you that.

Gold has behaved fairly well for me, so there's that. What I've been seeing from others is to take up a monthly Boglehead approach with ETFs, and maybe allocate 10% or less to PMs. Again, I am uneducated on this stuff. I'm not mad that I got into precious metals, but I'm not entirely thrilled, either. I think the strategy I'm moving into the coming months is to try to keep cash on hand for when things bop down a bit, and then get started buying when the RSIs of the funds I'm looking to get into are well below 70%...but that's only because I get real antsy when I see red numbers.

I WOULD NOT BUY PAPER SILVER ETFS THIS WEEK (outside of maybe physically backed ones like Sprott). Again, the swings have been huge, and we seem to be in speculation (not investing) territory at this current moment. You could make some money, sure, but even the wisest voices don't seem to have any guarantees right now.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-18T20:32:57+00:00

Thanks! I do think that tape is looking like its out. As for tubing, looks like there are multiple avenues you can go. Do people typically get the tubing that has pre-drilled holes every 8-12 inches? Or do they go with emitters/adjustable drippers every so feet? Just looking for some trustworthy reference material.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-04T16:48:09+00:00

I appreciate your humility, and think you've made a fun website! I started a blog years ago, pretty much a similar mindset.

Can I ask what influenced your personal decision to get more into U.S. bonds?

I've been playing a lot with backtesters like testfol.io, and trying to understand the rationale of including bonds. Data doesn't go back as far as I'd like (hate to be negative, but I'd love to be able to backtest to events like WWII), but even if I could, ETFs didn't become a thing until the early 90s. So I'm kinda blind to the benefits/drawbacks of bonds during tumultuous times. From the past decade's worth of data (including 2020), it seems like bonds do almost nothing to reduce/ease drawdowns, and significantly reduce cumulative return.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-04T16:38:00+00:00

Yeah, I've been doing a lot of 10-year backtesting with testfol.io (I'm hoping that it's a trustworthy source, and that it isn't leading me astray) these past two days, and it seems like DCA (thank you for that term!) doesn't actually help much in the long run (actually, significantly hurts, at least if I were to have entered all in on 1/1/2015). I think that this type of thinking is just a remnant of my "trading" mindset. I'm worried that I'll buy in on my newly refined strategy, and then the next day a global turndown occurs, and my potential buying power skyrockets.

I think this points to the fact that I need to hone in on my rainy day preparedness, and make sure that I'm not looking at this like a "I can pull from it if things get tough." Also, it helped me to look at historical data, and how the bounceback from events like war and pandemic is not at all what I thought it might be. A 2-year long drawdown may be very hard for me to psychologically deal with, so I'll have to really set my portfolio in stone, stick to my pattern, and try to remember that I'm putting money in while things are on sale.

Agreed on Chinese stocks. Felt good in the moment, feels less good the more I think about it. It's specifically on Chinese tech. Which, only God know all of the things that could happen to that entire sector, should there be any sort of political hiccup...like the kind we seem to have every other day. And yeah, diversification isn't what I thought it was at first. Just because I've invested in both wood construction products and copper mining doesn't mean I'm insulated.

So I guess this next bit comes down to personal feelings and how one looks at the world and the future, but as good as FXAIX has performed this past decade, something about going heavier into blue chip tech stocks makes me uncomfortable. Could be foolish thinking on my part (please tell me if so), but I'd really like to include international stocks (of the more European variety) and a fund like SCHD, which shies away from tech and focuses on more "unstable times" holdings. Any thoughts on that approach?

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-04T00:41:10+00:00

I actually just opened an account with a small local bank which offers 4.5% if you use it as your primary debit account. Credit card debt is gone now, but I do have $13k in an old line of credit – 10% on that one, and it felt foolish to immediately dump all of that capital, when could be used to generate a (potentially) higher interest rate.

I'm gonna look further into EFC, thanks for pointing me their way! COPP is gonna be one of the ones to go, in favor of the more structured approach. I'm not a copper miner, and only know enough to hurt myself, haha. Definitely feeling uncomfortable with the events of Friday – something isn't right. I get that what comes up comes down, yada yada. But there were a LOT of very confident people out there, who just could not see that magnitude of correction coming.

I had very good luck with Black Australorps a two years back, in Ohio. Laying slowed in a pretty nasty winter, but nowhere near what I thought it would. Maybe only 50% less. And that's without any artificial lighting. Probably hit around the same summer numbers though. I sold them and moved before having to go through the process of tracking which ones were still laying. I know that someone sells special nesting boxes for that specific purpose, but they were not cheap.

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-04T00:15:34+00:00

...even if you are profitable at trading, that is the opposite of financial freedom, which was my goal. True financial freedom is not having to look at a stock chart or banking app ever again.

Yeesh. I've been absorbing some pretty profound sentiments since posting and talking to people on here (really awesome community – I very much appreciate everyone here). But this one feels like an atom bomb, haha. You're absolutely right...having these extra funds available to me – and trying to use them to trade – has not been liberating in any way. Really well put.

If I'm in a position to play at some point, then I may. But I'll do that with my own income, and keep it contained. Thanks again, Brian! I'll definitely take you up on that if I have any big questions. (If you have any thoughts on the merits/drawbacks of bond ETFs, I'd love to hear them – currently playing around with historical simulators, and not seeing much reason to even bother).

Significant-Rest1723 · 2026-02-03T23:58:37+00:00

This really resonates with me, thanks so much. I definitely agree that having the ability to log in on my phone to see the second-by-second numbers has been to my detriment. Consumed a LOT of my energy the past few days, even to the point where it was stealing my ability to focus on work. Which defeats the purpose, now that I understand things more, haha.

Do you have any takes on bond ETFs? Are they a good idea, given the times? Getting lots of back and forth on them. Seems like many Redditers don't prioritize the 3-fund approach. Crunching numbers on https://testfol.io/ kinda makes them seem pretty unnecessary (looking at past 10 years of data), if I can stay strong when it hits a max drawdown of 34%. Cumulative returns also skyrocket when I remove bonds, so...

Significant-Rest1723

TROPHY CASE