My Celestron NexStar SE6. Initially, I felt nervous about such a big purchase for a hobby that I was still only exploring (especially living in NYC). Even though I have yet to capture a really good photo of Jupiter or Saturn (I’ll get there eventually), it’s really been worth it. It’s given my wife and I a really good excuse to get out of the city regularly (we were married last August, though a wedding doesn’t seem appropriate to call a “purchase”, otherwise that’d have to be my answer). During the summer I actually started looking forward to the longer winter nights.
What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
61–70 of 140 posts
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s the best thing about it?
The best description I've seen is, it's not for people who want to play more games, but those who want to play games mores. With all the other things going on in life, been able to just press a button and resume where you left off in 5 seconds is such a game changer compared to the rest of the ecosystem.
Switch nails this and the PS5 absolutely does not.
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#63A cheap hand-cranked coffee grinder. I usually buy pre-ground coffee and have zero desire to switch, but (because reasons..) I happened upon a pack of unground beans and was convinced (still am) that it would be much less bad for the environment to dispose of the beans than getting a grinder for just one pack and then dispose of that. Until I stumbled upon an Amazon page (yes, that Amazon :( ) for a cheap grinder whe…
I bought a hand cranked coffee grinder several years ago. After a while I got a little annoyed by the work it took to grind some coffee, so I made an adapter for my cordless drill. This made grinding coffee a lot easier when I needed a quick cup of coffee.
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#64Home office lighting. In my home office room (10.5 m²/115 sq. ft), I used to have 4 neutral-white (3000K) LED bulbs of average brightness (450 lm). I replaced them with the same number of cool-white (6000K), super bright LED bulbs (900 lm). What a difference! It took a few days to get used to it, but I am very happy with the change. I feel much more energized at work. I sometimes work before bedtime, and I was worrie…
I assume 4000K (cool white) and 2700K (warm white) are mixed up.
Definitely seconded, makes a huge difference (I also have a LED bar with 4000K + 4800 lumens in my office room)
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#65Steam Deck.
I got it to replace playing games on an Intel Mac, as Mac has become a worse platform for gaming (32bit dropped, OpenGL deprecated, no Vulkan support, and now developers would have to support Apple Silicon).
The plan was to use it mainly in desktop mode, but it has been really amazing for handheld gaming, that I game more on the couch and in bed with it than as a desktop.
Also Proton works really well and it is great to be able to boot in to a full Linux desktop environment. It’s so refreshing to have control of the device and to use it how I want.
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#66I didn't "purchase" anything - but I upgraded from a "cleaner" to a "housekeeper". What's the difference, you might ask?
My wife and I are both working parents and we commute to London at least twice a week, leaving very little time for things like laundry and general tidying up.
We have an absolutely fantastic lady who comes in 3x a week, and rather than only doing the usual cleaning, i.e. mop the floors, clean the stove, dusting etc., she does a bit of everything. The laundry is taken care of, the expired/spoiled food in the fridge has been thrown out, kid's toy pile tidied up, my t-shirts have been folded and placed in their drawer. The bedding has been replaced, even the dog's bed has been cleaned.
I can't tell you the immense quality of life improvement this has brought us. Now, when we come home tired at 6pm, we don't have to spend the next 3 hours doing chores, we can just put little one to bed and then sit down and enjoy dinner together. It's brought us closer, made us happier and given us more time with our daughter.
If you can afford this luxury, I highly recommend it. It's the biggest quality of life improvement I've ever experienced - But you need to find a GOOD person you can trust to essentially run your house in your absence.
Needless to say, she's getting a nice Christmas bonus :)
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#67It wasn't 2022, but 2020 when my SO got femtolasik (of all places in Estonia). €1700 and a couple of days of discomfort. It's not surgical so the recovery is speedy. Such a massive quality of life improvement as an outside observer (and by her own account as well). The procedure is quite fast, circa 10 minutes, and of course meetings before and after to determine suitability and post procedure care.
Is that 10 minutes for both eyes?
I had one as well this year and while the procedure takes 10 minutes for both eyes, the actual shining of a laser into your eye took about 30 sec per eye. The rest was getting you ready, getting a temporary healing contact lens in, etc.
I opted for TransPRK, took about a week to get back into my previous state, then in two weeks everything was crystal clear.
Best thing ever
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#68Logitech G903 mouse. Using a responsive mouse made computing more pleasant.
This is a personal nitpick, I'm glad this mouse works well for you & that's all that matters, but I hate the light on the "G" mice. When I was using one I covered it in electrical tape because the light was really bright and hurt my eyes when my hand wasn't resting on it (eg I was typing).
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#69A french butter cup! It works by pouring a bit of water in the outer cup and the inner cup that holds the butter, fits upside down. Keeps it fresh without oxidation. I love real spreadable butter on my bread and together with my bread slicer, I’m a happy man :)
pleasae tell me about the bread slicer.
For me, and 2020 not 2022, a used bread machine.
Fresh multigrain bread with only natural ingredients early in the morning, smells wonderful, and makes you want to get up. Also does pizza dough, the kids make all kinds of chocolate bread, cloud bread, etc, etc. All stuff that's really just a bit too much hassle for a busy family to do manually, requires handling a hot oven, etc.
Re: What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
#70Boiling water tap. Amazing to make tea instantly without boiling the kettle, it’s also brilliant for cooking (boiling pasta or veg) and filling up hot water bottles. Amazing to have boiling water on tap (ha) cutting lots of time and no noisy kettle. Even free up worktop space by removing the kettle!
Interesting, does it just heat instantly on demand, or does it keep a small reservoir? How is the energy efficiency compared to a kettle?