I believe the Pac Man cartridge for my NES is probably the oldest video game I still pick up regularly.

OMG! So many things. I’d probably spend months looking through the stats of my life alone. But first, dinosaurs! What did they actually look like? How did they act? What actually killed them?

This is kind of what I’m thinking. Our history only goes back a couple hundred years as opposed to a couple millennia of recorded history for many European countries. We have fewer historical periods to obsess over so, more of us end up on the same topic.

Porn.

Like any type of media, you win by getting porn on your side. Bring the NSFW content creators over and everyone else will follow.

I used to work on the road and I’m no stranger to 8-16 hour drives so here are a couple suggestions.

Get some sort of long playing media. Have you checked if you can play files through the USB? Some cars of that era would play MP3s off of a USB drive. If your phone won’t play through the Bluetooth, does it have a CD player? 8 hours is about the length of a lot of audiobooks, you could get a hard copy of one of those or even just music CDs. Either way, it’s nice to have a backup to the FM radio for that long of a drive in case you end up on a stretch where there aren’t any good stations.

Speaking of backups, this is going to out me as an old dude but, I’d suggest a paper map of the area you’ll be traveling. You’re liable to hit some dead zones on that long of a drive and you mentioned some worry about keeping your phone charged. If you can get a paper map and highlight the route you want to take, you’ll have a good fall back. Bonus points if you get a copy of the same map to someone that you can call for help. When I was in college my dad and I had copies of the same Atlas (thanks for the free maps State Farm) and I would often call him for advice if I hit serious construction on a long drive.

Try to stay aware of your general alertness. If you’re feeling sluggish, don’t hesitate to stop at the next gas station or rest stop and get a coffee or pop or something. Personally, I’d steer clear of energy drinks because the crash when they wear off sucks if you’re driving. Even just getting out of the car and walking around often helped me. Alternatively, if it’s late and you’re really dragging, stopping at a rest stop for a quick power nap is not the worst idea. It sure beats waking up in the ditch (been there, would not recommend). If you have some music that really pumps you up, have a copy of that with you too. I used to carry a CD with the metal mix that we used to play to get pumped up before football games in highschool.

I’m not sure how many people still know this but most major highways have small green signs with numbers on them along the side of the road. These are mile markers. The exit numbers generally cover from the nearest mile marker. I mention this because they’re worth keeping an eye on. If you’re traveling by map, it’s a good way to gauge the distance to an exit you’re looking for and more importantly, if you need to call for help, knowing the road and mile marker will get help to you faster.

Seconding this. I’m a native of the upper Midwest so I’m a big fan of the seasonal emergency kits. I would add sunscreen or a long sleeved shirt to the list though. Can’t count the number of times I’ve been on a long drive that happened to keep the sun in the driver’s side for several hours and ended up with a pretty bad sunburn on my left arm.

When I was in my early twenties I was friends with this girl and, we would flirt with the idea of hooking up from time to time (never did though). One night we were texting and I honestly thought she was suggesting that she wanted one from me. I sent it, basically got an “OMG, WTF dude!?” In reply. Eventually, she admitted that she was trying to suggest it but only because she never thought I’d actually send it. At that point we were good friends (very much just friends) and I kinda suspect that she was trying to make me feel better about the whole thing.

So I guess the answer for me is… kind of?

LMAO, he would get a kick out of that. I really don’t need that big of a Dutch oven though and I had talked myself out of it like 3 times already.

Plus, my wife is already joking about how “rather than inheriting it from your mother we’re going to inherit it from your father” and that seems like too good of a story to ruin.

Lol yeah, like Chris was saying, cleaning it up went fine. The backfire was dad wanting to keep it for himself.

Yeah, I had a Teflon wok for a while. Those are not great.

I have a 6.5" that I got for those skillet cookies you see at restaurants and while I don’t use it much for that, I use it all the time to make a single egg for a breakfast sandwich. My wife uses that one a lot in the summer for campfire snacks. She makes a bree and tomato dip with a balsamic glaze that is worth keeping the pan for that alone.

I don’t have a black iron fryer but I do have an enameled one that I absolutely love for sauces or a big batch of sausage gravy. The tall sides make it a lot easier to cook a big batch without splattering sauce all over the stove. I’ve actually never used that one for its intended purpose but if I lost all my pans and had to start over, I think I’d get the fryer before I bought the standard pan in that size.

I probably wouldn’t buy the wok again though. I think it’s fun but honestly, it’s probably not nearly as practical as a carbon steel one would be.

I’ve been listening to this as it comes out and it’s so good!

I was a fan of the non fiction seasons of revolutions and honestly, I was skeptical when the first episode came out but, it has turned out great. I’m so glad I stuck with it.

So I’ve been thinking about this and I think it mostly depends on if my wife was also duplicated. If so, I could see the 4 of us living together and pooling resources. Possibly even working out some shenanigans to double dip or get out of some things. However, I can’t see my wife or myself being cool with an arrangement where a duplicate and I share my wife. I don’t know if I’d kill The other me over it but, I could see us coming to blows over it.

Okay but hear me out here. What if you both worked the same job 75% of the time rather than 50? You’re still working 25% less but, 25% of your pay is overtime which should be paying time and a half. It’s still a pay cut but if you’re both pooling your resources, probably not really noticeable.

I’m picturing me and my duplicate having a fight that devolved into us actually trying to kill each other over this because honestly, I’d rather shoot a man…no scratch that, I’d rather BE shot than give a speech in front of a significant number of people.

Yeah, my wife found it somewhere online a while back. Not having kids ourselves, we end up talking about our niblings a lot but we always felt like the phrase “nieces and nephews” was a bit cumbersome in conversion so, it filled a need for us. I keep hearing it from people that have no connection to us so it seems like we’re not the only ones who’ve latched onto in recent years.

I think my wife and I might be one of the last couples to be embarrassed enough about meeting on the Internet to lie about it. When we talk about how we met around our niblings, we always have to explain that “we met on the Internet back when that was something you lied to your friends about”

Same here! Only child of my adopted parents and only kid my birth parents had together so, I’m ending a couple of lines. I’m the god parent of a few niblings but if (God forbid) they should ever become my responsibility, they’re not getting a name change.

So I was about to recommend the ACLU mobile justice app but I went to check if it was still working and it seems to be down. Reviews suggest it’s been offline for a while. So if anyone reading this had also downloaded it and was assuming it would be there for you, maybe double check that.on your device.

Seconding this. If you’re handy, look into work as a field repair technician of some kind. I used to repair machine tools for a company that covered a tristate area. Not only did I not know what I would do from one day to the next, I didn’t know how long the day would be or if I’d even be home at the end of it or staying in a hotel. Money was great and the work was very interesting. Admittedly, the drive time and lack of a schedule for home life gets old after a while but, I did it for 15 years and the first ten were great. I was ready for another career after a decade but stuck it out for another five years because I was picky about the new gig.

No regrets.