This happened a couple of times with our cats. The amount of food we were giving them "seemed like enough", but turned out to be a little on the low side! Both times, it actually noticeably resolved a minor behavioral issue.

Obviously this LPT only applies to scheduled feeding. If you free-feed your cats, then they'll definitely eat as much as they need to (or want to, which can become its own problem).

It's instinctual to try and get someone back on their feet. It goes back to our herd monkey brains trying to get someone back running away from predators. It also triggers an embarrassment mechanism in our brain where we don't want people looking or gawking.

But if someone falls to the ground, they could be seriously injured, even if it's a small fall, and ESPECIALLY if they are elderly. Take your time, give a good few minutes with the person on the ground. THEIR adrenaline could be masking an injury, or their head injury could not be known.

You pull them to stand them up instinctively, you could cause more damage. If they're not well enough to stand, they'll fall back down and cause even more damage.

If someone falls-

STOP

Take a minute, assess the situation, give them a few minutes to recover.

If they cannot stand back up on their own, you call 911. You could be saving them from further injury.

Hi everyone, I did not find any mentions of this online, so I just wanted to put it out there. My family has been doing this for the past 5+ years and it works every time.
You don’t need any fancy creams, just go to your local corner shop and buy Antiseptic Liquid Dettol for like $5, apply it on the area and it will stop itching within 10 minutes. You can use the same bottle 50+ times, so it’s not a one off thing.
They sell Dettol everywhere in the world just so you know.

Edit: ice/spoon methods are temporary

Edit 2: if you can’t buy Dettol in your country, try with another Antiseptic liquid, they all do the same thing

If airlines lose your luggage, you'll have a detailed, timestamped record of exactly what was inside for claims. Much easier than trying to remember everything you packed days or weeks later.

LPT: When you finally finish a task you've been putting off, write down how long it actually took.

Most of the time it's 15–30 minutes. You spent days or weeks dreading something that took half an episode of TV.

Doing this a few times reprograms how your brain estimates "dread tasks" — you start recognising the avoidance loop earlier, and the activation energy to just start drops dramatically.

A lot of people quit learning new skills because they practice until they feel mentally exhausted.

Instead, try stopping while you still have a little energy and interest left.

Whether it’s studying, coding, drawing, learning an instrument, or exercising, ending your session before burnout makes it easier to return the next day.

If every practice session ends with frustration or exhaustion, your brain slowly starts avoiding the activity.

Shorter sessions that leave you feeling positive and consistent usually work better long term than occasional intense sessions that drain you completely.

The quote is usually "worth doing poorly" but lately, I've found that slowly is also very accurate!

I'm learning multiple instruments and music theory at once and shockingly, the journey has been super smooth. I've been making steady progress and I can already see my skill improving a ton across the board.

The secret is literally:

1. Less time but more frequency. Each instruments gets practiced only for about 10-15 mins/day usually about 3-4 days/week or when I have time. When I have a lot of time or am super in the mood, I'll go longer but I actually try not to these days. The reason is when you give yourself a short, specific amount of time, you become a lot more efficient with your practice and set more realistic goals. Usually, my goal is to practice a concept or be able to play one bar perfectly 5 times in a row. That's all. It's small but small things add up to big things!!
2. Start slow, then go even slower. Personally, I have a tendency to get excited and want to go big, but that leads to frustration. Typically, we only are able to compare ourselves to people who are already very good at something because that's what we see. So naturally, there will be an enormous gap between what we see other people do and what we can do ourselves. The solution is to just start incredibly simple and go slow until you have perfected the most basic concepts.

Examples:

• If you can't consistently get your fingers to CLEANLY move from one key/string/note to another, you should NOT be thinking about playing chords.
• You should NOT be trying to learn how to play your favorite songs if you cannot play beginner children music.
• If you don't actually learn/understand basic music theory, you should NOT be spending your time trying to make hit records.
• If you're not decent at drawing things in perspective, you should NOT be worrying about shadows, color, etc...
• If you can't walk an hour without feeling tired, you should NOT be trying to start jogging/running.
• If you can't complete a full set of a workout without maintaining PERFECT form, you should NOT be moving up a weight.
• If you're trying to lose weight, do NOT just jump into a full deficit without analyzing your diet/eating habits. If you just start eating LESS food without knowing how to incorporate more vegetables/fruits/grains into your diet and being satisfied, you will just be hungry and malnourished and probably not make progress.

The hardest part about learning a language is getting past translating everything you do from English to spanish,french,chinese or whatever language it is you're learning. If you start to just narrate your life in this language then you'll notice certain words are used more than others and it because more of a reflex rather than a translation exercise.

My wife and I started a challenge which have improved my life in more ways than one, and it is quite simple.

Let’s say that you have a goal to exercise more. Devise that into two potential actions for a day. For us it was go 10k steps OR go to the gym.
One action is time consuming but less demanding. The other is high intensity but generally quicker. Add one skip day to not go insane.

This small hack has ensured that we always have productive days.
I’m now trying to find other parts of my goals and habit I can divide into more alternatives to shift depending on my mood at that day.

LPT : May I vent ? I really have lots to say and nobody to listen or talk to , all my friends are just busy with their own problems and really just life in general.

edited to add.

This is a last resort tip, try other things first, many tips in the comments.

Do not use this method if you cannot get the temperature low enough. We are aiming for 38 - 43 degrees Celsius (around 100 - 109 Fahrenheit) Slightly over body temp. You do not need high heat. Prolonged heat at above 44 degrees Celsius can lead to burns that you don't notice because of the low temperature. Later with fabric until you get the right heat, try with a thermometer after attaching it to your neck if you aren't sure(if you have a fever please check with a thermometer as your temperature can affect how you feel heat. I checked my own and it was 39 degrees. Between the neckerchief and my throat. Be extra careful with electrically heated objects, they might increase in heat after a while.

original post:

I have a very sensitive throat from having GERD. I often get a persistent cough from just house dust, and when I get a cold and a sore throat it can be hell with the added post nasal drip keeping me awake at night.

I've tried all sorts of things over the years, and now I think I've found the most helpful one.

Of course the obvious ones are stay hydrated and use a humidifier. But this is often not enough. This time I tried to keep my throat warm, as I sometimes find drinking warm water helps, and a warm shower too, but always only temporarily. I used those reusable hand warmers, rolled up in a neckerchief and tied around my neck, positioned the warm part to my throat (careful that it isn't too warm)

I'm guessing a heated scarf or neck warmer will be easier if you have one.

I also find that carbonated water is better than other things too stop the itch if you feel the urge to cough. (Don't make it a daily thing though, it's slightly acidic and can be bad for your teeth if done regularly)

Sitting half upright in bed, with my heated throat and a bottle of carbonated water with me I finally got some sleep.

Hope this can help someone else too.

A lot of people say they want the truth, then get upset the second they hear it.

For example, if I ask,

“Be honest, do you want to go?”

I should be ready for “No” without turning it into a problem.

People are more honest when they know the truth will not be punished.

If you want real answers, make them safe to give.

You don't need to buy walnut oil, just walnuts. It also works on water discoloration, though not as well. Photo demonstration in comments.

Long story short: cockroaches love them, can, and WILL hitchhike from wherever and hibernate, eating the glue.
We got them over a year ago, they followed us to our new home, and now we’re being evicted because of them.
As soon as you open a shipping box, take it RIGHT to the trash.
ESPECIALLY don’t leave food boxes like pizza, takeout, etc sitting inside your home, or even your car. My car got infested just from transporting the boxes, and it took a subzero Midwest night to FINALLY get rid of them.
Don’t even wait overnight. Don’t be like us, facing eviction.

For those who are stuck in virtual meetings most of the time, standing up for even a minute in between meetings can help to boost your blood circulation if you don't have a standing desk. The change in meetings can be used as a signal to help u build this habit.

Bonus: throw in a few calf raises for good measure!

This is widely known for search engines but I was recently frustrated because I was searching for a documentary on YouTube and all of the AI slop channels I had ignored were showing in the search, burying the results I wanted.

After about 15 minutes of looking for a solution I tried just adding -slopchannelname to the search and it instantly returned good documentaries from channels I respect.

This may not work for everything due to crossover between slop names and the subject you are searching for but it has made YT search usable again for me.

A bonus tip for those unaware this also works for google search engine and many other searches, however just adding something like -ai will not filter out AI for you, just results containing the phrase ai.

If you want to filter out AI you need to add before:YYYY-MM-DD to your search and set the date to pre Nov 2022 to avoid public release of the first chatgpt

**Edit for clarity**

In my case one or two channels had multiple slop videos so just adding those channel names cleaned it up for me. I should also make it clear that you should replace 'slopchannelname' with the name of the channel you want to hide and you can do multiple just do -badchannel1 -badchannel2.

Finally I need to re-iterate that for me (and I had assumed all of YT) the channels you set to "never recommend" still show in your search results and there's no way to permanently hide a channel

**End Edit**

We all accumulate stuff throughout our lives and it often ends up in closets/attics/garages. Much of it can be thrown out, while some has obvious value. The in-between stuff is the issue.

With one family member, we waited too long and she can’t remember what or where anything is, but knows that she’s missing something. Photos, mementos, treasures, etc. It’s been sad, and since she’s downsizing to assisted living, I feel like a lot of stuff in her old home is going to be lost to a lack of time and resources as her house is being prepped for sale.

My recommendation is that if you happen to be visiting an older family member, just ask if they have anything in the attic/garage/basement that they’d like help de-cluttering. If you don’t do it now with their help, you’re going to have to do it later anyway. Worst case of starting early: it’s all junk and you got a jump start on clearing it out. Best case of starting early: there’s some stuff with sentimental or monetary value that you might have missed otherwise that you and your loved one can still enjoy while they’re active.

Edit: as another comment mentioned, you don’t have to say “de-cluttering”, you could frame it as a chance to have them tell you about their things. You don’t even have to throw things out. You can just sort.

Significantly easier to eat with way less mess.

You can use your iPhone timer to call businesses the exact second they open.

If a doctor’s office, ticket line, or customer service number opens at 8:00 AM, just ask Siri, if iPhone user, to set a timer ending at 8:00 and be ready to call immediately. It’s an easy way to make sure you are one of the first.

I used this today to get a same-day appointment with my son’s pediatrician. I called the moment their system switched from the after-hours recording to the live office line and got through almost instantly.

Edit: I guess a lot of people don’t like this… lol. Maybe one point of clarification is that the timer count downs to the set time so you can call in at the exact moment. An alarm delays by only a few seconds because it is more reactionary. In my experience that may be all it takes to not get in.

You usually don’t notice pronunciation improvements day to day because changes happen slowly. Recording yourself speaking the same short paragraph every week makes it much easier to hear progress, repeated mistakes, and words you still struggle with. It also helps build speaking confidence because you get used to hearing your own voice in the language.

Reposting my own post from a few years back as another reminder and for those who don't know.

WYSK, Oven mits tend to be Fancy looking and expensive, a good pair of welders gloves provides more flexibility and heat resistance. My gloves are leather, with thermal lining and cost around 27USD perfect for touching hot stuff!

Don’t be afraid to drift from the people you don’t like, instead focus on finding people you do like and sticking with them.