I don’t have a complete philosophy but a big part of my approach is buying things I LOVE. The Marie Kondo concept of sparking joy really resonates with me, if I buy something I don’t love it inevitably will not be with me for life!

This looks good, if I ever need a new bag will look if they have a darker color

. Thanks for the information.

I don’t know sewing machines but plenty of mechanical gear trains have one component designed to fail in order to save the rest. Like a shear key on a lawnmower. Might not be a bad idea to keep a spare around though

I like the sponge example.

To many used tool salesmen to weed through. Time suck.

I brought home 2 baby Sulcata tortoises since they were being severely neglected by a family member. They’re now 3 years old, big as fuck.

How long do those last?

Read it with a Jerry Seinfeld voice.

I hear it lot. People complain “They don’t make it like they used to do”.

But for the most part it’s not true, they do. It’s that we are flooded with Chinese garbage because every one wants cheap.

That’s my personal approach, I just hate buying cheap garbage.

It’s more about quality to me. anything that’s not solid metal and gear-less will wear out.

It depends how much I plan on using it. One time use? Example is a staple gun to hang insulation in my attic. One time job for me by me. Couldn’t justify high quality like Mikita. Bought black decker. Used it once and it’s been in the drawer for ten years now. Probably still works.

Time maters too. Repairs are expensive time wise. As I move up the pay scale time becomes more valuable. A tool I can depend on earns me more money. Clients don’t want to pay for my time spent repairing tools so it becomes unpaid hours for that day. or buy dependable tools.

A balance within these constraints is how I make my decisions. Economics.

If you are looking for usability the Japanese Swinger clones are a great buy and hard to beat because they are generally all metal. Post war, Swinger gave Japan their old blue prints to help reconstruction and the Japanese took that and ran with it. Japan was not big on branding in the 50's so it's next to impossible to figure out who made what and they'd stamp a lot of different labels on machines. Because of the lack of branding they are not collectable at all today. This makes them dirt cheap tanks if you want to actually use it :)

Mine is also a ZigZag model to compete with Swinger but unlike swinger's more elegant design my Japanese machine moves all of the internals back and forth instead of just the needle LOL.

They/them

🥰

For pretty much everything, I look for the value for money aspect. Usually objects are low quality, middle quality and high quality (premium). I think for most things, a middle quality is where the best value ratio lies.

For example, when my wife and I purchased a new Honda minivan, there were several trim levels to consider. We ended up with mid-level package because that’s where the best bang for the buck was. Leather interior, plenty of bells and whistles and $thousands less than the vehicle that basically added a dvd entertainment system.

Sweetie

How dare I indeed.

I beg your forgiveness, and ask that you please accept this payment, with interest.

Plus "big" sister bonus dogo

Besides my environmental concerns, I’m blessed with an absolute loathing of shopping.

Growing up poor I learned the hard way that cheaper is more expensive.

Say I needed to buy a tool that I expected to need regularly and my options were $20, $40, $60 or $100. When I was dirt broke and couldnt afford anything else I'd choose the 20 buck option which would soon break and wear out, so I'd replace it with another one and another one. Eventually I'll get tired of it breaking and get the upper mid range/lower upper range tool for $60 and be set but it cost me $120, more than if I'd picked the most expensive one right out of the gate.

It is expensive being poor. It became frustrating knowing I'd pay more but not being able to afford the upfront cost. These days I try to automatically pick the upper mid tier or lower top tier of all products and look for the best quality for cost, above that for most things you are getting significantly less gain in quality for the money.

Do you know if the cushions are replaceable? And if so where can I buy new ones?

Mines starting to flatten out, but the leather is still in great condition.

Large size in any chair for someone that big

I'm 90% on a large Royal in black leather with the Signature base (kinda combo of the metal star & wood ring) that I found in stock at a dealer & can have in two weeks time

I don't like the "OG" ring bases at all, I'm less hostile toward the signature base but, my preference would be chrome star base on a black leather royal.

Clarification: my SO is amazing. We raise this beautiful fluffer as best we can as a team.

SO also has a sister... who is not so amazing. Very spoiled, confrontational, arrogant, and likes to stir shit in the family.

In honesty, its one of many problems that is causing a LOT of household stress. MiL and SiL are like this about a lot of things (they've both got some very deep unresolved traumas).

Its why SO and I are looking at setting up a mortgage. Even a trailer would be better than this situation: at least I won't lose sleep and can fuck in peace.

Half the cost of an Eames - and it reclines! Of course they don't have the history of the Eames but I prefer Stressless personally.

Cat piss will cut the life of a Stressless down substantially. Ask me how I know...

Either way, huge fan of these. I have a 90's one in my house that I got from my dad who passed away and they don't make slim ones like this one anymore. I have one being delivered early next week from an eBay seller that's going to replace it since the one I have is pretty well worn. Will probably move it to another room.

That’s actually how this started, I just applied it to everything lol