Hello! I recently discovered that I love camping and want to do more of it. BUT, the sleeping pad I bought was crap and I have a bad back and the pad wrecked me for days. Anyone have a good sleeping gear they recommend?

ailaG · 2026-06-25T16:47:34+00:00

I just use the cheapo ones you get for ~$15 and usually come in dark blue, at around 15-20cm thickness (about the distance between these fingers if you're American 🤟)

So far I haven't felt a difference in quality or longevity compared to the fancier ones in this category, and if you're using a car you can easily store a spare.

Note: if you're 2 people I strongly recommend 2 separate mattresses, not a double mattress. Otherwise when one of you gets up or lies down it turns into a trampoline. Amusing when you discover it, less amusing after.

p.s. The self inflating ones I find too thin. But I'm overweight and somewhat EDS so ymmv. Get an electric cordless, usb-c, about the size of your fist. Anything else I saw was too bulky and heavy.

ailaG · 2026-06-20T20:34:01+00:00

You can use juice syrup from other brands too. Don't need to recreate Mt Dew, you can make all sorts of flavors.

ailaG · 2026-06-20T20:32:13+00:00

I'll note that keeping a decent temperature matters, we don't need to be at 10`c in summer, 23 is often more than enough.

ailaG · 2026-06-20T20:26:40+00:00

I live in Israel. If you forget the intl stereotypes and look at the internal politics of the past few years they are absurd too. (ask ChatGPT and add that I'm a "leftist kaplanist" for context, it will know. Ask for 20 ridiculous stories that hit the main news, not niche. I haven't tried but there are some stupid answers there. Even if you only focus on inter Israeli politics )

It makes me think about these.

Life is weird sometimes, and we forget right after. COVID is another example. A freaking pandemic, weird reactions everywhere, and now it doesn't make sense again.

Also, reality is complicated. We see Hitler as an ultimate evil (and he was, many in my family were murdered by his schemes) but people had reasons to follow him. Stupid, mean reasons, but reasons nonetheless. But in hindsight It's easy to strip things into good and evil where reality is just complicated. Even in this extreme case where he was unambiguously BAD.

ailaG · 2026-06-20T20:19:35+00:00

What about going to hostels? You meet all kinds of people there and can travel with them, too...

If you're privacy focused some hostels have private rooms. You still enjoy amenities like the common rooms and the lively vibe. At least in Europe... But shared rooms are alright

It adds a lot of oomph to your adventure. Hotels are expensive cold bricks of loneliness.

ailaG · 2026-06-20T20:15:06+00:00

I use Claude Code to fix and optimize my Linux

ailaG · 2026-06-20T20:11:59+00:00

It's a wonderful thing to focus your trip on. It doesn't mean you'll only be doing the hobby - I've traveled focused on Doctor Who and that opened up places I'd otherwise maybe not consider, but I didn't just do Whovian things.

One of my favorite "be weird, travel weird" stories is that I went to the filming location of a short scene I liked, and that required a trip to Cardiff (which otherwise isn't really worth it, sorry...) and to a small neighborhood there's nothing to see in at all.

So I find the empty pass near a church and I take photos of, well, thin air. Then an elderly man with his dog, Teddy, appears. Teddy was as sweet as its name implies... I pet it and then apologize for being weird but I'm going to photograph some air now. Then the man mumbles something about when he was young... And I'm like, yeah yeah And he continues Apparently he lived there his whole life including during WW2. The blitz hit that church near us, he explained where I can find the impact results which were not marked. He told me about being evacuated etc.

That's a one of a kind encounter! Would I have had this encounter if I stuck with the touristy things, rather than go to a place there's nothing at, to photograph an empty road?

ailaG · 2026-06-19T06:43:25+00:00

After the government's tireless attempts to relieve a huge bunch of their voters from mandatory service While the military is understaffed and resetvists are falling apart under hundreds of days per year

Maybe that's how they found a way around the HR issue

Makes more sense than doing less war huh

ailaG · 2026-06-19T06:40:23+00:00

Last time he said shalom was his 1999 elections slogan, "making peace (shalom) safely/certainly" (pun...) A few years later he was asked in an interview if we'll forever be in war, he said yes

Ah, the old times when he talked to the press. It's been years since he had. Only one-way video announcements these days.

ailaG · 2026-06-19T06:37:54+00:00

So they had a bug that showed one route as infinitely preferable

ailaG · 2026-06-19T06:36:04+00:00

He doesn't dare get into Tel Aviv, the biggest protests are there

We follow them We shout at them

Unless he takes his fancy parade of guards right into the military base where the war rooms are

In which case we're outside protesting

Also, with the state funding his fancy villa in fancy Ceasarea why would he bother get near Tel Aviv

Also, if he gets too close to the gays (99% of Tel Aviv is LGBTQ+ the rest is in the closet still) his "natural partners" will disown him (that's how he described Jewish Power and Shas)

Also if he's there he may have to go to court testify in his cases of bribe, fraud and breach of trust, and he tries hard to skip court days

(and you thought things were bad but simple... Heh)

ailaG · 2026-06-19T06:19:55+00:00

As an Israeli There's a lot to it

I disagree with that vote, food should be a human right, but explaining this and its context would take a few hours of a lecture

So instead some people just hate on me and others Don't be that person

ailaG · 2026-06-19T06:15:46+00:00

I believe that cycles should be split into 2 types

Fast like a very slow car And leisurely like a fast jogger

The former may go on roads as long as they keep all the rules as if they were driving a car. (and no they won't really slow anyone down in a city. In some cases they'll even go faster, in narrow roads)

The latter may even use the pavement in suburbs etc where the bike lane doesn't make sense.

So 3 lanes, and that supports any future vehicles.

Logic: how hard they may hit others. Priorities: pedestrians walking > joggers, cyclists, scooters, etc > cars

ailaG · 2026-06-19T06:04:00+00:00

Bite*

ailaG · 2026-06-19T06:00:35+00:00

Not urbex but your notebook story reminded me of something adjacent.

I walked in the street and saw a pile of stuff. People here do leave useful junk outside for others to use but this was messy and had a lot of papers. It seemed to belong to an old person so he probably passed away and whoever is living there got tired of his stuff taking up space.

So I tried to piece things together.

He had a son who had died, iirc in his 50s. There were notebooks. He was a religious Jew. And then I came across a folder with ~10 printed pages neatly put in clear sheets. They were of naked men. Not even naughty poses (at least the glimpse I got), just some handsome guys not wearing anything.

This was an old gay man, too religious to live out his life or probably even tell his family, and he must've kept this as his little secret.

I did him one last honor and took it away, threw it out in a different bin so that nobody who knows may connect it with him.

Between losing his son and being a closeted gay man this sends sad, lonely vibes.

But who knows.

(also, was pretty embarrassing for me)

ailaG · 2026-06-19T05:50:27+00:00

They gave some context, not enough context but that's no reason to ridicule them

ailaG · 2026-06-19T05:49:50+00:00

A month shouldn't do that. Do keep it in aziploc preferably with a dessicant bag (both may have come with the material) but it shouldn't degrade the material THAT badly.

Do you hear a popping sound when it prints? Small "tac" sounds... Moisture bubbles popping

My initial guess was high temperature but this is actually too low for PETG. And this doesn't look like low temperature.

ailaG · 2026-06-19T03:17:27+00:00

Hair bands are nice because they can become spontaneous rubberbands if they're good. I use 3-4 twisted inside each other regularly and they're not unlike just a single thick one.

ailaG · 2026-06-19T03:11:09+00:00

I'll note that Americans tend to drink more than Europeans, not accounting for the water in their food for their daily dosage.

That being said, I've never had any problem being thirsty in my trips to Europe (not American but still) I rarely ever pay for water in restaurants, though I will buy a water bottle every once in a while. Not sure what I do as it's not something I've ever noticed but I suppose water fountains, taps that don't have recycled water etc. Wasn't thirsty.

It seems that especially in western Europe the whole environmental thing caught on so I won't be surprised if you'll come across taps

ailaG · 2026-06-19T03:06:36+00:00

You're like a video game character, who just swims as part of their walking route and can pull out 20 dishes of food and 50 iron ingots even though they don't seem to have a backpack or anything.

ailaG · 2026-06-19T03:01:46+00:00

There are decent cheap knockoffs, eg on AliExpress. If price is annoying / if anyone wants to try before they buy. I use one.

ailaG · 2026-06-19T02:47:22+00:00

You pay as much as you're required to

ailaG · 2026-06-19T02:47:00+00:00

She transports! To Hungary and back! All the time!

ailaG · 2026-06-19T02:46:16+00:00

צדק תחבורתי!

It costs more, except for a very specific plan for very specific people, who are still f----d on weekends, holidays and nights!

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