to quote chris rock: “you’re going back to shawshank??”
There are a lot of sacrifices involved with moving overseas that people don’t think about when doing it.
I’ve been away long enough that I don’t even feel American anymore, if such a feeling can exist. As far as I’m concerned, I’m only American because people tell me I am.
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In Japan, most homes, especially older ones, have poor insulation and no central heating. This one is no exception. Instead, people make do with wall mounted heaters, stoves, hot carpets, and a winter table called a kotatsu, a low table with a blanket on the sides and a heater underneath.
It’s also a reason toilet seats are heated in Japan.
Another good example of how it’s always something.
I now own 2 circa 2015 Macbook Pro 13"s. One has a bad T key, the other a an E key that’s going bad in the exact same manner and frustrating the hell out of me as I try to type this. I checked - it’s $500 to repair and I was told very common when you buy these off ebay. I like the 13" because it sits easily in my lap as I sit in my comfy chair and try to write. An external keyboard doesn’t work for that.
So now I’m faced with the prospect of rolling the dice on another $650 used Macbook off ebay (this recent one lasted less than a year), or bite the bullet and get a $2k shiny new one. Yes I could skimp and get one for $1500 - but 4 USB ports and quad core matter to me - as does SSD of at least 500GB. So at that point it’s only $150 more for a 1TB vs. 500GB - yolo. And I want to avoid the crappy 2016-2018 butterfly keyboards that had lots of problems.
I bring home $7200/month (after max 401k contribution) and really don’t live an expensive lifestyle. In theory I could save another $3k a month or so.
But it’s always something.
What I need is a 1099 side job so I can write this stuff off.
IANAL. Maybe you could set up an S corp(or use some other method) that funds aspiring travel authors and provides seed money for them to use for technology tools(laptop), while doing research(traveling), and working on their projects.
Wait a few months and get a new macbook that has the apple chip not Intel. Used macbook market has to be total shit right now, 2015 was last good model and everyone knows it.
No they finally fixed the keyboard but again next year’s model will have the apple chip not Intel and I’d expect it to be a ton better or uh at least wait until reviews.
Probably can’t wait and it will probably be like $2700 for similar specs. So I think I gotta pull the trigger.
I don’t need screaming performance - just need something that will last 5 years and not crap out on me when I’m on the road.
Ok, but why is that the case? No central heating, I guess is more understandable (but even that is weird for a “luxury” home). But poor insulation? That’s pretty cheap (I think). Why would poor insulation be standard?
Thanks. That first article seems to suggest that it’s mostly a dumb tradition that has persisted.
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We are a family of 3 in NH. Our baseline budget (basically everything we have agreed to pay for plus food + gas without other discretionary spending) is $4500. Our mortgage is $1600, cable co $260, and cell phone $300. (We pay for some other family members on our cell bill.) No car payments.
In practice we manage to spend about $6000/month. Although less in these times of the pandemic.
Yeah from my one trip it seemed like they only heat (or AC) the rooms you’re actually in. So they don’t see the need for insulation or something.
My buddy who lived there said he thought it was to prop up the utilities and force people to buy space heaters and other heat gadgets.
For the bathroom - no heat, but heated toilet seat - problem solved.
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Somehow the item disappeared from my cart as not available. But then the same item appeared for $50 more and deliver tomorrow (instead of Sept 21-26). Shady. But I pulled the trigger.
The heated toilet seat in winter is glorious. And the heated kotatsu table is also extremely cozy, so much so that it can be hard to extract yourself from it.
We even have to use a “futon heater” to pre-warm our futon prior to sleeping in winter because we don’t keep a heater running at night. This is actually cozy too and I sleep very well during the winter months.
In the five years I’ve been here I’ve gotten used to the cold indoors. But before moving here, when I visited this same area in the winter I was just miserable, especially coming from SoCal.
You get used to it.
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Agreed. Should be standard in USA#1 even w/ better insulation and climate control.
Well maybe not standard, but at least more common. We just did some remodeling and we intentionally didn’t put one in the kids bathroom.
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Good timing on this. The W key just died too.
Hmmm. So your W, E and T keys went first?
T on the old laptop (gone). E and W on this one (going, not gone yet).
The repair guy I talked to said most of the ones you buy off ebay were liquid-damaged and will crap out in 1-2 years. + 2015 is getting long in the tooth. And the butterfly keyboards on 2016-2018 suck. So I decided to bite the bullet and get a new one.