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Probably worth mentioning, that the benefits of this can be reaped in part just by being and walking in nature every day. Especially on the mental health side, in some places of the world, I think it’s a general concept called “forest bathing” or similar.

I’ve never done a hike longer than 100km, which means I’ve never been on the trail for more than a few days at a time.

However, I’ve noticed the same effects ever since I started doing that more frequently. I’m much less prone to falling properly sick than any of my friends or family, whenever my partner falls ill, I typically go through a mild similar thing in a few days time, but often survive without even fever, when they can be bedridden for weeks, even. I might get some signs of a flu or whatever, but so much milder. It’s not unusual that I just entirely skip being sick at all, even mild symptoms, even if my entire household is struggling in bed with fever. And I tend to be the caretaker then, so ample opportunity for the bugs to pass on to me, constantly.

And every time I realize I’m falling unusually sick, I realize that it’s been some months since my last hike.

And if I just keep doing a hike or two biannually and otherwise visit the forests or the lakes or whatever at least once a week, even if just briefly due to stress and work and all, I am so much less prone to proper sickness, but having any sickness at all in general too!

So this is mostly for those who read the OP I’m responding to and thinking, it’d be nice to afford 6 months of a vacation — you need not! It works, even if this is just an anecdote, with fewer efforts and much more casual execution too! And it has been studied a lot, although take it with a grain of salt because I haven’t stored any of the studies/papers of the abstracts I’ve read just passing by thanks to my adhd curiousness.

I think the consensus is, nevertheless, that there are provable, observable benefits of being in nature, even if just a bit at a time, even if not all that frequently. But I’m not a researcher or work in these kinds of fields, so just be wary that I might be overselling or even misrepresenting it. But I feel fairly confident in saying so.

Fair enough, that’d explain it. I did expect air conditioning to be a big part of it, kind of makes a lot of sense that you do run servers as well.

Still, that’s a huge bill to eat each month.

Yeah pretty sure all evil deeds start with good intentions. So, no. I would very likely mess up my own head by thinking I’m doing the right thing, and if I’m secure in my position as the leader, I’d have a big load of yes men hovering around enforcing and enabling my every thought and idea, be it good or not. Most likely it’ll tend towards the “not good” side over time, and at some point everything just gets distorted and convoluted and by that point, there’ll be no return. And if I’m not secure in my position, then I’ll be dead and replaced before I can spell out my first decree as the ruler. If I’m to be good, I’ll not be ready for the bad coming my way. If I’m ready for the bad shit, I have to be ready to dispense my own bad shit. And that, then, wraps into my first point.

There’s no way that would work if I was truly benevolent. I don’t believe it’s sustainable or even possible to lead as a dictator that is good or benevolent.

Edit: that’s in practical terms. Let’s not even begin with the ideals — can one really ever be both benevolent or just generally good, and a dictator? I believe not. Sharing the burden and the authority would almost always be the more moral choice, not to mention more plausible in terms of lasting.

I have personally never seen a bill of more than 60€ per month. I have some friends living in bigger houses, not apartments, and they tell they can get over 100 fairly frequently, the bigger ones more in the North can get over 200 in the winters, but even still, I’ve never even heard of anything reaching 300.

But I’m in my thirties and don’t really know anyone from beyond upper middle class. That might help explain my experience if it happens to be the outlier, but just reading the responses to this, I might not be the outlier here.

Anything four figures is just crazy surreal to me. I can not even imagine what it takes to reach that kind of electric usage. Or maybe it’s just extremely expensive, not the usage itself being crazy? I would think living in a place where sustaining one’s existence requires that kind of resource usage would be very hostile against settling and building in general?

But if it’s just personal usage rather than the regional climate or whatever, and an insane price of electricity isn’t the main reason, then I don’t even know what to say. That’s crazy.

Was just about to comment the same. I’ve seen bad shit thanks to my adhd and the all too common morbid curiosity.

Even I wasn’t ready for that, it’s not common to get such a close and focused view on that shit…

I want to emphasis, for anyone morbidly curious, you really ought not click the link unless you want to feel very upset and uneasy. Be warned.

Also, as a side note, that’s not an easy single shot to make, especially if the initial reports are right that it was taken 200 meters away… unless you’re a professional. You have to be very familiar with the gun and really have the sights/scope honed to leave it at a singular shot like that. That’s a small target at that distance even if aiming for center of mass. It’s from the side as well it seems… not many would be comfortable taking that one.

I don’t like this somehow. Feels wrong, even if here especially the target really had it coming.

I don’t mean this is in a bad way, but they are sort of right on the last part. Apologies aren’t useless though. They are very needed to maintain healthy relationships between people, be they romantic or business or otherwise.

But I do also get very tired very quickly, if someone is over-apologizing or just constantly doing it. Either there’s a reason for the apology and they constantly fuck up or do something wrong, at least in their own opinion enough to warrant the apology. or they keep saying it where they need not do so which is just frustrating and I have also associated it with lack of confidence.

Either way, I can understand your ex, and have felt the exact way they did, and I wanted to just stop by and say that it is not necessarily intended as an insult or as a criticism or whatever, just that they really could not deal with it. I had no hard feelings or anything bad to say about the people I’ve met like this, always apologizing, it’s simply a very human incompatibility.

There are people who don’t perceive the apologies as tiring or annoying or as lack of confidence or whatever. Those people will love you for it. But the people who don’t, aren’t necessarily intending to signal or say it’s bad, it might just be that it’s incompatible with them. That’s how I’ve explained it or how I feel it anyway, but I found myself relating to your ex so thought I’d throw in an anecdote from the other side.

Oh christ I didn’t realize the timing thing, makes this that much more funny. The confident look of the guy when he sees he finally got read a minute after the time they confidently told the other party to come.

It’s so dumb, oh my god

They probably couldn’t be happier, with a deep sigh of relief, seeing as how most of the others would look.

Indeed, I would be extremely skeptical of myself if I ever felt 100% about anything, let alone a decision as big as this. That alone would make me force myself to ask for second opinions from as many different people as possible.

I get the sentiment, and of course one needs to be fairly sure about a thing like this, but nobody should ever feel 100% about anything. Only way that happens is if you either willingly ignore or are ignorant of a lot of things on the other sides of the metaphorical coins. Everything in life is a chaotic mess with so many layers and dimensions that it’d be impossible to navigate it with any certainty nearing 100%.

But the sentiment I do agree with. You have to be sure to a great extent, even if it ought not, or ever really even can, be 100%. It’s an impossible threshold for anyone to clear, and telling someone they have to be 100% when they never really can, or at least should be able to, is just planting a seed of doubt in their mind that is not necessarily helpful. It can be very destructive.

In general, having impossible ideals for people to aspire to is a bad exercise. We know this by heart with body ideals and acceptance for example, we ought to understand this applies to everything else too.

Yeah, I would argue that expanding one’s perspective on matters as important as a decision like this, should almost be mandatory.

Asking for fresh eyes and different points of view on any bigger decision is to be encouraged in my opinion. Making big decisions based on intuition and one’s own limited perspective and feelings is bound to be less well informed and as such, more likely to backfire or turn out bad.

Ask questions. Ask opinions. There will always be people telling you to be your own self and not just follow what others say, but broadening perspectives is not following others or lacking own agency/will, it’s the very opposite. It is what helps one have a healthy starting point to make their own decisions.

I’m not sure why some people just feel the urge to assume anyone asking for second opinions or just thoughts on a matter in general is doing it because they lack their own opinion or free will, but here in the internet, they are depressingly many.

People are complex. Life is chaotic. Everything is riddled with unique situational details and it’s impossible for anyone to navigate that alone. It’s only natural to want a better understanding and perspective on any important issues. It’s to be wholeheartedly encouraged. Not reduced to a stereotype of a puppet with no own free will or agency. That’s just a sad, self-important and vain need for some people to appear somehow more independent and intelligent than the rest of us. Don’t pay no mind to them. Thirst for the knowledge and understanding and the expansion of your perspective.

I’ve used a single Sigg traveler bottle for ages, but I’ve had mold buildup on the cap seal. Luckily Sigg has the caps sold as spare parts, so I’ve only had to replace the cap a couple of times during all this time. But it’s been near 15 years I think now, lining intact and all. It’s got a bunch of dents from falling on hikes, sometimes down from pretty high cliffs, but I feel it only adds to its attitude sort of.

Not sure if I’d go for a Sigg today, I have stainless steel in my sights if this one ever proves ready for retirement, but Id definitely choose one that has either replaceable seals and seals sold as spare parts, or at least sells new caps as spare parts. And I’d for sure go with something similarly robust that can handle drops and getting banged around.

The cap design on the Sigg is pretty unbeatable though. It’s so natural for a finger when opening or closing and keeping the cap while drinking, but it also fits all sizes of carabiners or similar, so it’s just so handy to keep around on house but especially on hikes. I’m spoiled thanks to that, so I think there’s a high standard for whatever I’d choose next.

But I can really recommend the aluminum Sigg traveler. Today it has a lot more actually enticing competition, but it’s a classic choice at least around here in Northern Europe.

Edit: Worth noting; Siggs prior to 2008 had BPA in the lining. Mine has a yellow tint in the lining, which is the telltale sign of the BPA-free, safe one. Today, only the aluminium bottles are manufactured in Switzerland, the others are in China (which I think has been thanks to some brand-leeching Chinese acquisition at some point)

Edit2: I also have a lot of old military surplus water bottles from around Europe (similar form factor) simply because both my few-days-bag and longer hiking rig have MOLLE all over the surface, and the old ALICE (us standard from I think around 1970) and MOLLE (or similar, today almost everything in terms of military surplus has something that fits into it) pouches for the water bottles of that certain shape can be had for extremely cheap, and they are so robust in keeping them in place thanks both to the bottle shape and the MOLLE in general, and it’s so flexible.

I mostly use these to carry extra water as plan B but especially for boiling for food or coffee etc. all of them have a certain funky smell that never disappears, but I’ve tested them all by keeping plain water in them for a week or more, then pouring out and seeing how it looks to naked eye, and how it tastes. The smell on some of them can get into the water a little bit, but all taste normal and so far I’ve not got any problems from using them. I would assume the military of all institutions would take care to make these things valid for long term and active use, since, you know, water is pretty much the main driving force in ensuring troops can keep going. But because of the smell I tend not to go for them as the main bottle, ever.

May I just ask, out of pure curiosity, who is this person to you? I mean to understand why you care enough to conduct any kind of tests or whatever.

If they’re bad company, simply avoid and disengage. Why waste energy and time in fragile attempts at proving something that isn’t exactly provable with ordinary means? Like why even think about all this in the first place?

If it’s personal in that you feel slighted by them, I’d still recommend not engaging in weird tests or similar behavior. You’ll ultimately learn nothing useful and will have spent your time and energy for basically nothing. I get that you might be very driven by whatever the reason is, but maybe if you take a step back, breathe a moment, you might be able to re-evaluate whether this is actually important and worth your effort.

You only have the time you have, and the energy you have. It’s very limited. I just wanted to step in and suggest you might spend it doing something pleasing and positive instead. You’ll be better off, I ensure you.