My work gave me $1000 for office stuff to work from home. They also provided a KB/mouse, three 1080p 24" monitors, a UPS, brand new laptop, a dock for the laptop, cables, a headset, etc.

I already had my system set up for work from home including two 1080p displays, a 1440p display, mechanical keyboard, wireless mouse with charging mouse pad… Even a headset and KVM.

I spent the money on an additional battery for my homelab rack (which will extend the uptime of my firewall during a power outage.

I’m pretty happy with my setup, I combined everything, and decommissioned my oldest display, and bought myself a laptop stand, so when I’m on my PC (selected from the KVM), I have five displays, three wide, and two above. When I select my work laptop, the laptop screen becomes a sixth monitor, and the stand props it up to be one of the top displays, so I have a 3x2 grid of displays.

I’m usually fine with three for my personal use, but more are not unwelcome, at work I was pushing from three to four pretty consistently in the past few years.

Though, I find that having a 1920x1200 or 1440p display set up in portrait is usually pretty helpful for work. So I can see more of a page. I wouldn’t recommend doing that with a 1080 display, since most sites that have a static width are optimized for screens that are at least 1280x768 (around 720p) and going down from 1280 px wide to 1080px wide, results in some horizontal scrolling… Which is never fun.

This is the way.

I find this does the opposite of helping.

One of two things happen: more commonly, I break it down too far. Now, the task isn’t “clean”, it’s about 28 steps of get x cleaner and y supplies and scrub this clean and wash that and do the thing over there to tidy up, etc. Then, once I’m done making a task list for this one very simple thing I need to do, and micromanaging every aspect of it via a list of things to do, I’m now overwhelmed by the massive list of things I need to do in order to accomplish this one very simple task.

On the flip side, if I don’t micro manage myself into task paralysis, I end up breaking it into smaller sections, like “clean living room” and “clean bedroom” etc… And make an agreement with myself to do one today, one tomorrow, etc, until everything is cleaned. So today I only need to clean room x, and I’ll do room y tomorrow. So I clean room x, but I don’t want to put away all the cleaning stuff, I’ll just need it tomorrow, so I put it in the corner ready to go for tomorrow. I accomplished something, I cleaned a room. I’ll do the rest later. About three months later, I’ll wonder why the cleaning supplies are sitting out, and remember I was supposed to clean room y. Feeling like a failure, I’ll be unhappy with myself and instead of getting back to that task I’ll just put the cleaning stuff away, because if I’m going to start over, I’ll need to clean room x again. You see, the dopamine from getting room x cleaned that one time basically made my brain say “yep, task is done, we cleaned” then file it away in the completed file, never to be thought of again.

For me, I have to go all or nothing and just fight my task paralysis head on. I don’t often win, but if I don’t, things never get finished.

When I need to sleep and can’t, my go to is a relatively mindless game that I’ve gotten exceedingly good at automating my way through. Something like Sudoku, solitaire (specifically Klondike), or something. Usually on a digital device so I don’t have to move too much to play and I don’t have to worry about physical cards, shuffling, etc.

If it’s a particularly bad night I can pair that with some music. I find either ambient trance or something similar, to be the best for this. One of my favorite “go the fuck to sleep” albums is called “Dreamland” by Robert Miles (may he rest in peace). Alternatively, I find nature/rain/thunderstorm sounds to be particularly calming for me, though YMMV. The calm pitter-patter of raindrops falling seems to really put me in a sleeping mood.

Combining these generally gets me ready to snooze the fastest. The other option I have is mediation, but you need to be practiced at getting into the right headspace for it to be effective. Meditation isn’t really what you’re after since you have said that basically sitting around with nothing going on is when you start to panic, which is generally how mediation begins, so I’m not sure it will be super helpful.

The only additional advice, which is a bit of an offshoot from the mediation thing, is that trying to not think is a contradiction. You can’t try not to do something; unless you have some issues with impulse control, the “act” of not doing something is the antithesis of trying. You can’t try to clear your mind, you clear your mind by not thinking, if you’re thinking about clearing your mind, then that’s a thought which, if present, precludes you having a clear mind.

You have to stop thinking, not just try to put things out of your mind, but stop all active thought and analysis. It is way easier to say, than it is to do, and I wouldn’t pretend it’s easy at all. I learned how to do this through meditation, and it’s a fat departure from how you normally operate mentally, and not an easy thing to achieve. One of the strategies I’ve used is when your brain assaults you with a thought, you recognise it’s existence, but refuse to interact/engage/analyse it at all, and just let that wash over you, and into oblivion. Again, easier said than done. Not allowing your thoughts to latch onto ideas and allowing your mind to be quiet, without commenting on, about, or examining every passing thought, does not come naturally.

I think of it a bit like this: take the example of your mind being a street in a busy city, every individual on the street is an independent thought you might engage with. This idea is a bit like sitting by yourself and watching everything around you without getting involved. Someone walks past screaming about some topic, like how the world is going to end and you just watch them walk by and don’t comment on the matter. You recognise they’re there, you just don’t get involved. Your passive demeanor does not and should not imply you either agree, nor disagree with their statements or viewpoint, you are just present, observing them making a scene. Eventually they move on to yell about it in another location and you give it no further thought.

I hope that makes sense. Of course, modern society with all the social interactions we have, whether online or in person, always gives us the option to engage in discussion about everything and we’re often encouraged to do so. People will outright ask for your opinion when having IRL conversations at times, which is a prime example of this conditioning. If you’re able to break away from the need to have an opinion on everything and anything that crosses your path, and value people’s opinions exactly as much as required, which isn’t much, then you can break free, and you don’t have to bother yourself with everyone’s opinion and making yours heard. IMO, there’s no value in sharing your opinion, especially when the recipient of that opinion has their own opinion which obviously will not change based on what you could say, so why bother even having one? It takes mental effort and time away from what’s important to you to engage in such trivialities, when the outcome is unaffected by anything you think or say. Why invest the time and effort having an opinion when nobody cares what your opinion is enough to for it to have any impact on what happens? This isn’t a value statement about you or your opinion, this is a value statement about any would be recipient of your opinion, they don’t care, that’s a problem, but it’s a problem for them to solve; your opinion is valid, and if they can’t see the validity in your opinion, why waste your time and effort creating one just so they can ignore it.

You cannot control the actions of others. You can’t change what they care about. Both of these things are issues that the opposing individual must address about themselves, that you have no way to change about them. Save yourself the grief, and just don’t bother with it. It sounds like you have enough on your plate, you don’t need to add their crap to your pile.

With all that being said, it’s a radical departure from the accepted social “norm” so it’s a lot of stuff that’s easier said than done. I’m sorry that you are going through this. I don’t know all the details and I don’t have the answers; but I’ve been though some rough shit, and it always sucks. I value you and your opinion, so if you want to reply, I’ll be happy to hear anything you wish to share. IMO, it sucks right now but the fact that you’re reaching out to anyone for help is a positive sign. Do not be afraid to ask for the help you require, it is not a sign of weakness to need help, it is a sign of strength and character to recognise that you require assistance and you are willing to ask for that assistance. It’s brave and demonstrates a strong understanding of when you are unable to handle things alone.

We all need a little help sometimes. If you want to DM me, to inquire further on anything I’ve said, or to simply rant/vent, or if you just want to chat about technology (or literally anything) as a means of distraction, I’m happy to oblige. I believe my matrix account is linked to Lemmy, so that’s also an option.

All the best OP.

Version 1.0 released in 2016. I’m pretty sure my process pre-dates this tool.

Looks good, but my collection is already ripped and converted, so I don’t have a need for it anymore.

I’ll keep this in my pack pocket if I happen to ever buy physical media again.

I use a private streaming application. I don’t want to say which one, but popular examples include Plex, jellyfin, emby, and Kodi.

It’s not really compatible with the DVD menu systems, though, that would be really fun if it was.

My bad, it’s been a while.

No lie, a large amount of my digital media was pulled from physical disks.

I set up a system with a ton of space and two optical drives and just cycled through, disk after disk, pulling the content off. Once I had it, I ran it through handbrake and converted it to H.264 (AVC/AAC), and then put all the disks away and forgot about them.

Whenever I see a SATA optical drive that someone doesn’t want, I grab it and tuck it away. Shit is rare now.

I’m sure I could go to a shop and just pick one up, but honestly, I don’t have a reason to. Give me an opportunity to snag one for free and I will not pass it up.

I have an external Blu ray drive at this point.

I’ve always wanted a good quality 3.5" external drive. I rarely have an internal disc drive (cd/dvd/BR) on any of my computers. A few years ago I had the need to pull some files off of a 3.5" floppy, I had to boot up an old Dell PE 2850 server that had a 3.5" drive on it to get the files off the drive. Luckily the copy of Windows server 2003 still booted, and the raid array was operational. It was like a miracle getting that stuff off that disk.

It was late at night and I couldn’t wait until morning to go buy a USB 3.5" drive to get the data.

I work in IT and people question my sanity when I’m walking home with SCSI interfaces and corresponding SCSI tape drives. I even picked up a zip 100 usb drive at some point.

I never used it for it’s intended purpose, but as soon as someone needs data off of some archive, on an outdated storage format, I become the MVP.

Iron man.

I think the third one?

That’s Tony’s dad, in a message he recorded for Tony.

I’m in Canada, so things here are a bit different. On top of that, things differ greatly between physicians.

I went into my primary care physician, and I inquired about ADHD, because I’d done some learning, and thought I had it, but didn’t want to self diagnose. I thought he’d give me a referral to a psychiatrist for diagnosis, instead he gave me a survey, which was maybe 20 questions at most, took maybe a minute to fill out. After, he looked over my answers, said something to the effect of “this seems consistent with mild ADHD, do you feel it is affecting your life?” Very yes. Then he prescribed me a relatively low dose of ADHD meds, and as soon as I got that prescription filled, my life changed for the better.

I’ve been on it ever since and much happier for it. Took like 3 minutes at my primary care physician.

Meanwhile, my brother went to his primary, who referred him to a psychiatrist, who did weeks of discussions and examinations before any prescription was provided for him. He also has ADHD.

Different physicians, different people, different experiences.

For anything times 5, I just take the other number, half it, and then multiply by 10. Voila. Times 5.

I have none of these things.

The convenience closes at 11:59.

I guess I’ll starve until morning.

I have my own hotdog toaster, tyvm.

I will thank you not to discuss it.

No. I know those areas are kind of playing by their own rules. I’m located in southern Ontario, well outside of the GTA. I don’t want to be any more specific because I don’t want to dox myself.

I expect that for most mid sized cities/towns or rural areas nearby mid sized cities (within an hour or so), the pricing is similar. For the GTA, GVA, or even other large cities like Montreal or Ottawa, the prices are much higher

I agree, I always feel that pride is about being open/honest/proud of who you are and who you love, and being accepting of others, in who they are and who they love.

The specifics of who you are and who you love are not important.

Minority or not, all are welcome as long as you can accept others for who they are and who they love.

… With the obvious exception of relationships that are illegal… I’m specifically thinking of pedos here, but I’m sure other illegal relationships would also be unwelcome, like bestiality, I guess. IDK.

I feel like that’s what I was trying to say.

To simplify, to be at pride, you need two things: a pride in who you are and who you love, and an acceptance of others, who they are and who they love.

In that, the OP in OP’s picture would not be unwelcome, as long as they can accept others for who they are and who they love.

I don’t think I’ve met anyone who would attend pride that would have any issue with him getting engaged to this girl.

They’d probably cheer.

Pride isn’t about gays as much as people think, yes, a lot of the LGBTQ+ folks show up with their gender and sexual preferences basically hanging out in the open for all to see, and that’s the point. Everyone I’ve talked to is all about being proud of who you are. Straight, gay, bi, lesbian, trans, queer, whatever. Be you. Pride is more about being who you are without prejudice, not some anti straight LGBTQ+ rave.

This guy could have proposed in the middle of the main stage at pride and gotten cheers from people.

Sir, your proposal didn’t defeat shit. Good luck in your future.

We paid over $700k CAD for a ~3000 sq ft home that’s about 20 minute drive from a major city.

Most places are similar from what I know. A new build up the street from us is asking 1.5m CAD for something much smaller.