This is a skill I do not have, and apparently I may be one of two people in the world who can’t do it.

People are downvoting a simple, literal fact.

Instacart and Uber Eats, mostly.

Waiting out this winter's covid surge living in the hot zone.

I haven't left the house in months.

My town doesn’t allow polymeric sand so I have to use regular masonry sand. It hasn’t affected the stability of the pavers, but pulling weeds all summer is kind of annoying.

Maybe you use plain sand now and come back and do it when it’s warm.

I was around pre-Internet, and it wasn't any better. In fact, this "virtual world" has been a huge positive for me and has given me many opportunities to expand my social group and have a more fulfilling life. I don't see the value in fetishizing disconnection.

My subscriptions are public: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisMasto/channels?view=56&shelf_id=0

Kind of a mix of well known science and tech stuff, and some out there things.

I flipped through and grabbed a few from different genres:

• https://www.youtube.com/@KathyLovesPhysics
• https://www.youtube.com/@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt
• https://www.youtube.com/@HenryPhillips

The way I use them is to reflash the firmware with ESPHome, at which point they have nothing to do with Sonoff. I got really into these things when they came out and made a video about the process: https://youtu.be/Kdf6W_Ied4o?si=4nh7kP28IglwVHBx. There are a bunch of different ways to use them including retaining the original software, but I kind of stopped paying attention when I got mine working.

It's worth noting that they have two different products. The "NSPanel Pro" is completely different, I think it runs Android. I haven't played with that at all.

I have one Kindle Fire using the Fully Kiosk Browser and a wall mount with a hidden power cord (https://a.co/d/05GVxVP). It uses the camera to turn on when you walk up to it. It’s ok, but I installed it 3 years ago and never really finished making a dashboard for it. In practice, we control the vast majority of stuff by voice with the Google/Nest Home integration, or switches. The big control panel thing doesn’t hold enough interest to even bother putting controls on it, and I mainly leave it showing air quality graphs.

Of more practical use are smaller panels for area-specific uses. I mainly standardized on NSPanel, because I was experimenting with them and ended up with a bunch. Example: https://youtu.be/DBzg7v1Q5Zo. I have a short attention span and tend to stop when it’s 90% good enough. I also have in other places a DIY HA SwitchPlate, and HASPone on a Lanbon L8.

That, but I actually get a lot out of my hobbies and personal unfinished projects (they're always a learning experience).

It's more about the cost of struggling with things and thinking I'm lazy or a failure, and the real-world consequences of not having gotten any help until my late 40s.

There are several. I have one as I mentioned in my comment: it's called a Phyn Plus. It works with and without sensors. I have some in strategic places like under the water heater.

It actually caught a leak, although it wasn't from the plumbing. It was rain getting into the chimney and dripping into a puddle in the boiler room that set off one of the sensors. I like the cable-style sensor they have -- it's like a 4-foot-long headphone cord, but the whole length is a water sensor, so if any part gets wet it goes off.

Risky or Not?

Each short episode discusses one amusingly named food or situation (e.g. “ Unopened Carton of Heavy Cream Almost 3 Weeks Past It's Expiration Date”). Hosted by two food safety experts with good banter.