u/gold_and_diamond

I funded my FSA to $3400 because I needed some dental work. I'm not going to do the dental stuff now until 2027 and most of my FSA needs to be spent by 12/31.

Wondering what tests in Whoop Labs might be worth it? I'm a middle-aged guy and generally get Lipid Panels and stuff from my doctor anyway. I also live very close to a Quest lab so getting there is easy.

I'm on a monthly plan. But it seems every button I push, I'm met with some type of "buy x for 50% off"; "refer us for 10,000 credits", "upgrade to a better plan at 30% off".

I wrote a series of mathematical instruction books several years ago. They were quite successful but the publisher has declined to renew my contract. The rights to the books have reverted back to me.

These books are aimed at students between the ages of 12-22 although I've had adult readers in their 40s and 50s who wanted to brush up.

Because these were originally textbooks, they were very dense and had several hundred pages. I'd like to break them up into smaller manuals that don't cost an arm and a leg to print or to purchase.

I will need to update them because many of my word problems alluded to things like iPods and landlines and Pinto Cars.

Are there best practices as to both size of POD books and also #pages in these books? I did a very scientific study of walking to Barnes and Noble and just picking up a bunch of books. Around 200 pages seems manageable but I really have no idea.

Thanks in advance.

I volunteer teaching English to new English learners. One thing I've been doing is taking public domain novels (Dracula, Moby Dick, etc.) and abridging them and converting the text to A2 level English. The output isn't fantastic to be honest.

Ideally I'd like a shortened abridged version in A2 English. My process in ChatGPT has been:

1. Convert the entire novel to A2 (advanced beginner) English.
2. Ask ChatGPT to then shorten the novel to around 10,000 words. For some works like Christmas Carol this takes it from 28,000 words to 10,000 words. But for others like A Count of Monte Cristo it will take it down to 40,000 words.

Here's the problem:

1. Often ChatGPT will override my demand that it recreate the orignal novel sentence by sentence. Instead, it just says "Oh A2 requires a shorter novel so I made it shorter for you."
2. Sometimes it drops entire important plot points and then adds or creates (e.g. hallucinates) new scenes and characters.

Any suggestions on my workflow? Would it be better to go chapter by chapter which would really add time to this project? I volunteer so don't want to spend hours and hours on it.

I swear I go to Amazon and filter by Movies, Bluray, and Price or On Deal and the first thing they show is Yogurt or something unrelated.

Amazon and Walmart and BN often have good deals but I can't figure out the best way to regularly find them. Or maybe there's an aggregator site that I don't know.

Thanks!!!

I don't use Chase Travel Portal and generally just transfer my points over to Hyatt. Is there a better option I should consider?

I’m a male mid 50s. I’ve never had a problem with my bowel movements. But maybe 3 or 4 times in the past 5 years I’ve had it so bad that it took me hours and hours back and forth on the toilet, taking laxatives, and finally finding relief. When I do find relief my stools appear to have been very compacted and hard.

And then nothing for months and months.

Also I very rarely have diarrhea. I don’t take meds and don’t have any known other reasons.

What might be causing this rare occurrence? Is it possible something I ate? Lifestyle? Age?

It’s just odd to me that it happens so rarely but when it does it’s absolutely miserable. And I’m asking because I just had an episode a few days ado and I’d love never to have one again.

I've owned a rental property in a MCOL city for about 20 years. I live in a HCOL city. The house was originally my grandparents and I bought it from them when they went into assisted living homes. They needed the money.

I rented it to a cousin for about 13 years and when she got married I converted it to a rental property with a property management company.

I bought the house originally on my own. I got married about three years later and added my wife's name to the title. She has never lived in the house.

My wife and I would like to move back to the MCOL city in about 4 years full-time and retire there. Rather than sell the house and pay capital gains and pay back depreciation deductions, I'm looking at moving back to fulfill the homestead exemption. So here are my questions:

1. My wife did not purchase the house and was only put on the title after I owned it and we got married. Does my wife also have to live in the MCOL house for homestead exemption purposes? Or is it just me?

2. I travel a lot for my job so if I'm based out of the MCOL house but am traveling out-of-state for work, does that time out of state (in hotels) count toward the homestead exemption requirements or does it have to be boots on ground?

I'm not looking to game the system but am looking to do the absolute minimum to fullfill the homestead exemption. I've done the math backwards and forwards and it's about a $200k delta if we do it.

Are there any other trip wires we should be worried about?

This was from a small town in Illinois.

The Drive In theater was showing E.T. & Back to the Future

The standard theater was showing Back to School, Top Gun, About Last Night, Big Trouble in Little China, The Karate Kid 2, and Under the Cherry Moon.

Crazy to think you had three bona fide classics and some other really fun ones all in the same week.

I'm a bigger runner at 6'2 and 215 pounds. When I run for 2-3 minutes my heart rate goes right up into Zone 3 and even Zone 4. So then I walk a minute or so and then repeat.

Even if my HR measurement is off, the reality is that I'm gassed after just a couple minutes running.

I suppose I could just run/walk but it feels like I'm in Zone 1 walking and then right up into Zone 3/4 and back again over and over.

Would doing more cross-training (biking, rowing) in Zone 2 transfer over to running so I would be able to run longer in Zone 2?

My wife and I are spending a few days in Seward. We like to fly fish but are not traveling with any gear. Can someone recommend a place in Seward or Cooper Landing where we could rent everything we need and go wet a line for 1/2 day? I've been Googling but most of the shops are selling guided services. Due to our schedule, we're going to have to decide probably the day before we fish. I don't want to book a guide and then cancel last minute. We're most interested in wade fishing for trout but open to other ideas.

I found a camera bag this morning with two cameras inside it. Tell me the types of cameras and the ID card that was inside (unique and not a driver's license / passport) and I'll arrange a return.

I'm guessing 6 am but maybe even earlier. I'm planning to get there around 9 am and don't expect to be able to see anything other than a lot of happy New Yorkers.

I pay my rent through Bilt sending my landlord a check. Bilt immediately pulls the rent amount from my checking account the day they send the check. They do not wait for the check to clear.

Previously the amount hit my Bilt credit card.

Last month my landlord said he never got the check. Then he called the next day and said he’d found it after misplacing it.

What will I have to do if the check gets lost or misplaced? The money is already out of my account. Will I have to sort it out with Bilt AI? I can’t even put a stop to the check because Bilt sent it.

I think Bilt will have to put a stop to the check and send out another one. Given the customer support issues this seems complicated.

I was diagnosed with TN about 5 years ago. I was having episodes in my right jaw and finally went to a neurologist who diagnosed it. I don't have a severe case; it comes on 2 to 3 times a year and I can take carbamazepine and symptoms mostly go away. I realize I'm lucky but when I do get episodes it's incredibly painful. I know I'm preaching to the choir here.

Recently I started having some severe tooth pain. My dentist did x-rays and told me I have a cyst below a bottom right molar. Most likely I will have to have the tooth extracted.

I'm concerned that this procedure might make TN worse since I often read that dental procedures can bring on TN. Any recommendations for me?

I know these things are never going to be perfect. Most TDEE calculators I use show me with a 2300 daily calorie burn. Whoop shows me only burning 1800-1900 a day. I would assume it would be most accurate since it’s using real data.

I was trying to get a ticket last night at a decent price in a decent section. Waited outside MSG until the show started and there were dozens of tickets still for sale on Ticketmaster and Stubhub for $500 plus. They evidently never got sold and their price never dropped.

Are these people who ended up going to the show but would have sold them for a. lot of money if someone bought them? Are they scalpers who just don't care? Kind of sucks if the seats remained empty.

I had some fraudulent charges attempted on my card. They were blocked I then locked down my card. But I've had two more charges attempted and blocked. I looked at the settings and it seems just my physical card is blocked but not the actual number. I didn't know they were two numbers. Should I just cancel? I'm glad the charges aren't going through but don't want to continue to have these issues.

I seem to recall StubHub closes up a few minutes before a show starts. Not sure if this is still true. I live close to a venue where Bruce will be playing. I thought I'd just wait until the last minute possible and snap up a ticket some scalper has given up on selling and is listing cheap.

Has anybody done the digging into short-term Target Index Funds (2030, 2035, etc.) to see if the professionals have done any reallocation based upon current economic conditions and outlook?

Some people think stock market is in the biggest bubble ever; and some say you can't possibly time the market. Both might be right but I'm curious what the big fund managers for Vanguard / Fidelity have been doing in past 6 months?