Girl I was dating liked Resident evil games. I bought a GameCube because 4 was an exclusive. It became my favourite game and console of all time.
Then I got put on anti anxiety meds that gave me awful insomnia, so id be playing games like Starfox Adventures all night.
There was a small amount of thought put into it, but my official refurbished Steam Deck. Fairly impulsive of me to have gotten it. Love it.
Also, if you look at the majority of the stuffed animals in my room besides a couple, they’re kinda impulse buys and a couple of them have been amazing because I can just cuddle with them while watching videos on my phone in bed or hug them when I’m excited or stressed or bored or whatever I’m feeling. They make for great companions for me.
A cat. In line at the pet store for kitty litter and saw a literal pile of kittens near the check out. Turns out that the local shelter was having an adoption day and my partner found a black cat that immediately nuzzled into her shoulder and the little kitten motor purred so loud it sounded like snoring. They bonded in that moment and have been best friends for the last 14 years.
Wow, glad it worked out! I’d say impulse buying a pet is usually not a good idea!
But I see you already had cats? (Or you wanted kitty litter for… something else?) And adopting a shelter pet… worst that happens is it goes back to the shelter I guess! So maybe not so risky in your situation.
We had one cat and didn’t expect a second but it was a conversation that we had started and expected that maybe the first cat was alone and sad when we left for work (in the long ago era of 2013, a pre pandemic life). Given that the shelter was locally well respected we took a look and, yeah, it’s risky but that’s the nature of impulse purchases!
Bidet hands down no question. The world is missing out.
I’ve had the same experience. I splurged a bit and got one with all the bells and whistles (warm water, heated seat, etc.). It’s such a shockingly significant improvement to something I do daily. Couldn’t imagine going without it now. I can’t believe they’re not more common.
Yup. I’m going to get the full warm water, bells and whistles version.
I am not a user, but I am bidet-curious. I can’t see how a gentle spray of water can clean poop from my hairy ass cheeks. Unless it’s like a pressure washer. Which I also don’t want.
Or is it just a starter and you finish with paper?
Even a minimally featured bidet will at least soften things up and make wiping more effective.
I used a tushy bidet to start, which is pretty cheap and easy to get going and get comfortable with it. I would recommend the warm water options, but you need to have a sink nearby to steal the warm water from. Fancier warm water bidets have an instant water heater, so you don’t need a hot water tap, just power.
I have since upgraded to one with all the features, and here’s how my process typically goes:
- Sit down on heated seat
- Push out what I can
- Using the remote, turn on low pressure heated water with pulsating mode. I can also move the spray back/forth with the remote to get everything.
- Switch to high pressure for a moment. That has enough pressure to get up in there a bit, which seems to lubricate/soften any parts that didn’t come out through sheer effort earlier.
- Pause, push out one more time
- Go back to low pressure to tidy up
- Turn on blow dryer for a bit, or dry off with TP if I’m in a hurry.
I’d been wanting to give sampling a shot for a while, so I bought an EP-1320 Medieval. It was a sizable adjustment from “traditional” music making, but I’ve been having a ton of fun!
Steam deck. OLED. Linux. Not locked down to hell. Nuff said.
I bought a Steam Deck with my first paycheck ever, and it was more expensive than my salary. Zero regrets.
arent you locked down to Steam now? ie the games you buy are only through steam
Nope. Runs Linux and there are launchers for pretty much all the other games stores. It’s just a significantly smoother process for things you have in Steam because of the work Valve has done on Linux compatibility.
You can pirate on the deck. It’s like two extra steps but you can.
If you’re not a Linux weirdo there are subreddits and people have made it easy, though you do have to use desktop mode to download games afaik.
If you’re already a big linux weirdo, just ssh in and look at htop while playing any steam game in deck mode and figure out how the magic works yourself, trust me it’s a lot of fun and the thing is really nice to explore because it’s not locked down at all.
Preach. I do couch gaming, so this machine is unbelievably nice.
What games can one actually play on such console. I mean it surely can’t run triple A games right?
Depends
https://steamdeck.com/en/verified
All these game will work swimmingly. Those marked playable will usually work perfectly fine out of the box, but maybe have an ugly launcher or something you need to use the touchscreen for. Those marked unplayable will have bugs but in my experience work fine too. There’s a more detailed less conservative compatibility db online too.
In terms of power it’s about between a PS4 and PS4 Pro, with a faster CPU, more RAM, slower GPU, but with a really fast NVMe SSD so games like CP2077 are very playable but not at the highest settings.
Gotta remember the Deck has a 7.4" 800p screen, so its not comparable to the horse power needed for a PC at 4K or something.
Most consoles end up around the same render res once you’ve accounted for checkerboarding, dynamic res and DLSS/FSR nonsense.
The deck also does shader pre-compilation and caching for games on steam so it often performs much better compared to a Windows PC with the same hardware for example.
Anything ray tracing is out of the question though as it uses AMD, not Nvidia.
I don’t play AAA games (nor know what new ones are there) - if you have a game in mind I could try it and report back?
The only game I tried that it really struggled with was NFS Unbound.
I was also able to do PS3 emulation on it, including Skate 3 and Motorstorm.
I can play zero dawn on mine and boy did it make train rides tolerable.
I am planning to buy a Deck when I can afford it. I’ve been a PC player all my life but this is going to be my way of supporting Valve for all the good things they have done for Linux gaming. I mostly play Paradox strategy games, so I’m not sure how that will work on the Deck without a mouse. But maybe Terraria and Stardew Valley might be playable using controller style keys.
You’re in luck, the deck runs those fairly well in my xp.
I bought a weight set, barbell and dumbells on impulse because it was really cheap at a local flea market and I use it every day and am in the best shape of my life now
Guitar. It’s the most fulfilling hobby I’ve ever picked up. Music is in our genes, letting it out is a fantastic feeling.
After playing guitar for many years, I impulse bought a bass and it’s been a game changer. I found my instrument.
I bought Minecraft on an impulse. I’d heard people talking about it but didn’t know much. Looked it up, and it was going to enter Beta in twenty minutes. Bought it on the spot, installed it the next morning, have logged untold thousands of hours ever since.
I assume youve been exposed to the mod scene?
I played FTB in its glory days. Not sure what’s good now, but I miss Thaumcraft and Xycraft.
I bought a collection of Dreamcast bits, Sonic Adventure and Powerstone (yes I know they’re easy to pirate, but the ✨vibes✨) a while back on a whim without owning the console and now I’ve got a whole setup with a CRT. Living the retro dream(cast).
Bedding. I stayed at a hotel in Baltimore earlier this year and I loved the pillows so much a bought a set as soon as i got home. They weren’t cheap and I didn’t need them. But wow my bed is so cozy and comfy now.
A house back in 2017. I really had no business buying a house, financially speaking, but I was getting fed up with renting land under a trailer I owned. They kept raising the price significantly every single year. Turned out to be a great decision since I was able to get a good interest rate and a good price. Of course there are downsides, like when the water heater flooded my bottom floor. Still worth it though.
A house. It was 2017 and I wanted a place to getaway to in the weekends. Went to look at one and didn’t like it, but there was another nearby that I looked at and called up a realtor to represent me.
A month later I was a homeowner with a low interest loan.
2017-2019 was rough as I was paying for a mortgage and rent.
Housing costs then exploded, I moved into it full time for COVID, refinanced for an even lower interest rate.
Congrats!
A car. I was planning to buy a house but my old car annoyed me so much I bought a new one on the next day. Two weeks after, my team lead let me know that I was lucky I didn’t buy a house since the company was going under
That’s brutal. Did you get back on your feet?
Well this happened a month ago, the situation is still uncertain but I’m in a better situation than my coworkers. If I had bought a house I would be fucked though
No One Lives Forever
I bought it right after it was released and I don’t know why. I’d usually only pay full price for a game if I had obsessed for months over it. It ended up being a favourite game of mine.
