Super General Advice (the thread for advice without making a thread)

Most stoves are designed to be taken apart to an extent, especially electric ones. You can pull out all the coils and drip pans to wash (i normally stick them in the dishwasher once a month) and then lift up the stove top itself to get to any remaining grime. You don't need to do anything special, just don't have the stove on. (Note that this may not be true in other countries as I'm in the US but it's true on every coil electric stove I've ever cooked on)

 

Same here, if by inside you mean under the burner, you should be able to just take it apart.

 

so I've got this weird personal problem I'm looking for advice on

Spoiler: explanation

basically, whenever I get into a depressed mood (or sometimes just on a complete whim), I have a tendency to delete my files: documents, games, videos, installed programs, etc. there's a variety of reasons why I do this, thoughts like 'I never touch these and am never going to so why keep them', obsessive concerns over file space / keeping my computer 'tidy', that kind of thing. and then the next day or so I go and redownload or remake those files that got deleted. it's been a problem when trying to create things--mostly with games or game levels, e.g. I start making the level, suddenly delete it, start making it again, and so on. I've also done similar things like deleting posts / remake threads / create new accounts, which are things I rarely do these days, but is still something that happens from time to time

(just ftr, I have zero subaccounts or other accounts here. this is my only one, and I currently don't have any intentions of making more. I have definitely done the post deleting + thread hiding and remaking, though.)

luckily it seems mostly confined to my digital files, but I know I've done similar things with physical possessions in the past, e.g. selling games or books and then trying to buy them again, tossing out all my drawings, and so on. tbh I think it only happens so much with digital files because I'm on my laptop all the time, while I barely spend any time interacting with any of my physical possessions these days

this is a concerning problem since I've definitely lost important files to this weird tendency of mine, and I know I must be straining my computer/internet constantly downloading the stuff I delete over and over. it seems tied to my mental illness primarily, but now I fear it's become an actual habit. at least I know there are some things I'm reluctant to delete now, such as my writing, since I've deleted them in the past and severely regretted it, so that's mostly safe, but I'd like to absolutely find some way of reducing the deletion problem if not outright stopping it

one tactic I've been trying to combat it is exploiting 'out of sight out of mind' and hiding files in folders to help protect them. this isn't completely effective, though; sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. not sure if there's a pattern or anything.

does anyone here have any ideas or suggestions on how I could deal with this?

 

Would getting a larger hard drive help?

 

it might reduce some of the anxiety over file space, yeah...currently I have a hard drive that holds about 500 GB. which is fine for things like games and documents since they take up a relatively small amount of space, but I download a lot of anime which can take up heaps of space very easily. probably as expected, my anime collection is a very frequent target of this deletion habit

I've had thoughts of moving my anime to an external hard drive or something to make it a little harder to get at, but I've yet to actually go shopping for one atm...

 

Mine was mostly an indirect way of punishing myself. Like, I would think, I need to be more serious and do important things, I should just get rid of these distractions. For me, realizing that giving up my hobbies and interests looked exactly like worsening mental illness, and not like focusing on what’s really important, helped? It wouldn’t last because it doesn’t work. Having a life with less fun and creativity doesn’t make me any more productive, it just makes me more miserable, so it’s thankfully hard to really commit to beyond the occasional particularly low moment.

I still have those thoughts sometimes, but now they mostly make me go, wait a minute, am I doing okay? Can I try halfhearted self care instead just to see what happens?

I don’t know if that would be enough for everyone, though. My impulses to get rid of things tend to be fairly mild, I think.

 

Would Scrivener be a good program for organizing things for DMing? More specifically, I have a couple campaigns where time keeping and time related stuff are important- I don't need a calendar view but the ability to keep logs of dates and events in one area and other notes in another area would be nice. If Scrivener wouldn't work for that, does anyone know a program that would?

 

Problem: window AC at office is almost old enough to vote, and even though it mostly works fine, the mesh in the air filter is falling apart. As in, any time you touch it it puts a hole in it. This means I can't clean it, which I'm pretty sure is a major contributor to how grody the office gets. The manufacturer doesn't make replacement parts anymore. So:

1. How much of a hazard to life/limb/lung is it that there are definitely bits of metal mesh in the guts of the air conditioner?
   
2. Does anyone know if it's possible/advisable to jerry-rig replacement mesh?

 

It might be time to consider getting a new ac unit instead. As for jerry rigging it... it should be basically the same as on a screen door, or a lot of then now use plastic meshes. Is the unit you use basically just a huge home unit, or a type of commercial window unit?


Things to try:
As long as it's dry inside the unit, use a can of compressed air to blow the dust out of the cooling coils. That should help, and will take care of at least some of the smell/grodiness, as dust can hold onto smells for a while...
If it's moist inside, there's a very good chance that mold is growing inside of the machine. The radiator is a really great place for it if it's moist and has built up enough dust, especially if the unit sits in a spot where it gets some sunlight, as when it's idling it would probably get warm enough to allow mold and bacteria to spread.

For the last time I cleaned out our window ac unit, it said to just set the unit outside on the floor, and then gently run the hose on the radiator (being carefull not to get the electronics on the front wet) until it was clean... This is not actually very effective, though an older, or commercial unit might actually be designed with some thought to the user being able to clean it out properly, unlike the consumer models, which are designed to discourage that.

I'd try using a can of air to clean it out first, then spraying it with bleach water and hosing the unit out after giving it a bit of time to work if the canned air doesn't work.

For the filter, try removing it and taking the frame to your local hardware store, and asking them if they can cut a piece of screen to the size you'd need for it, and then i'd just duct tape the screen to the frame, use superglue along with the duct tape or a cheap tube of two part epoxy if you need it to last a long time, just make sure it isn't the expanding kind.

 

i hear the ones for fish are slightly higher quality than the ones for reptiles so you might want an aquarium light instead, also make sure that the reptile or fish bulb is suited to your lamp's voltage etc since it might not be

also i dunno if the reptile bulbs are also heatlamps and if so they'll use much more power

but yeah from what i've read aquarium lights are a really good choice for people too

 

generally i opt for "full spectrum" lights, which includes UV light

plants don't need UV light (according to google) and yet... they never grow half as nicely under lights that aren't full spectrum. idk

 

My doctor just has me take D3 supplements. He said I could use a tanning bed if I really wanted, within very strict limits for safety reasons of course.

 

Personally I'd just take vitamin D tablets. You'd need about 800IE a day :)

If you feel better with a lamp that's of course fair, have you considered craigslist or something like it?