overview for fefellama

Should I get an eclectus parrot? in c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

[–] fefellama@lemmy.zip 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Hey OP, I know these responses all generally say not to get one, and for good reason, so that might bum you out. But I just wanted to applaud you for doing your due diligence before getting an exotic pet that you are unfamiliar with. So many people out there get animals that they are unprepared for and don’t do any research before hand, and ultimately it’s the animals themselves that suffer the most. That’s how you end up with pythons in the Everglades. So it’s refreshing seeing someone with forethought and who is genuinely willing to listen to the experience of others. I hope you find a pet that you like, avian or otherwise.

'Gaming' keyboard that isn't mechanical? in c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

[–] fefellama@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A web search says this uses Cherry MX Brown switches

Strange, I had the same thought about swapping out the switches and found that OP's keyboard had Razer's Orange Switches (which supposedly are tactile and silent), but maybe that's a newer/different model. Regardless, I second the recommendation to try out some different switches. There's a big different between the feel of linear, tactile, and clicky switches, and if someone doesn't like one, they might still be fine with another type. Clicky switches in particular can be polarizing for their sounds, but linear switches can be as smooth as butter.

Do adults still have time to play video games? (I mean: Do *you* still have time?) in c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

[–] fefellama@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Am thinking of getting a steam deck for the same reason. I have plenty of time to play games, but almost none of it is uninterrupted time. I NEED the ability to pause and put something down for minutes or hours at any moment to deal with real-world responsibilities.

Instead of asking all my stupid questions separately, could I just get a ton of "How to Adult" type resources in the comments? in c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

[–] fefellama@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think one of the most important things any adult needs to know involves interest and debt, which are two parts of the same puzzle. Not knowing about interest can very quickly lead you into a lifetime of debt, and seriously alter the course of your life. It's so so so easy to fall into these traps and yet so difficult to climb out of them. And it's not because people are stupid but because these types of things are purposely vague and shady and designed to prey on people that are either desperate or maybe don't know much about interest/debt for one reason or another.

TL;DR interest is a fee that you pay to borrow money. Be aware of that and thoroughly read any documents you sign before borrowing any sort of money. Debt by itself is not a bad thing if you know what you're doing, so just make sure you know what you're doing. You should pay off your entire credit card bill each month. And avoid variable-rate loans and pay-day loan places like the plague.

ADHD warning: long block of text in case you want to learn more

If you go to buy a house but don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars on hand, you'll take out a mortgage which is just a loan. That loan includes the price of the house (principal) as well as an interest rate (currently something like 6-7 percent in the US). If you buy a car but you don't have the money to pay for it all up front, then you might take a loan to get it, which again consists of the purchase price of the car (plus any taxes or state fees or whatever) and then the interest rate that you get. If go to college but can't afford the ludicrous tuition, you might take out a student loan to pay for it, which includes interest.

Credit cards are a special type of loan that can be ridiculously easy to fall victim to. But the people who tell you to never get a credit card and pay for everything with cash or debit cards are misguided. Credit cards can be a great thing.... if you pay them off in full and never pay a cent of interest. They have such ridiculously high interest rates, or APRs, often in the range of like 20-30 percent. Which is nuts. But if you pay off the bill each month, then you pay exactly 0 percent interest. Say you buy something for $100 on a credit card. That's basically you taking out a $100 loan from your bank and promising to pay it off when the bill comes. So a month later when the bill comes, you can pay it off completely and you'll have spent exactly $100. Even better than that actually since many credit cards have cash back or points or miles or whatever, so you actually only paid $98 bucks, or maybe you got some miles out of it for your next vacation. Wonderful.

However, if you instead don't pay off that $100 when the bill comes due, or if you only pay the minimum payment and not the whole balance, that's when those ridiculously predatory interest rates of 20+% come in to play. And then suddenly your $100 turns into $130. But then if you don't pay it off again the next month, it just compounds from there. And then eventually it gets to the point where you literally can't afford it any more. You could be paying off $100 every single month and it would not put a dent on the amount that you owe because the interest is accumulating faster than you are paying it off. Happens way too commonly and can seriously fuck you up either for life or at least for the next few years of your life as you declare bankruptcy or tank your credit or end up paying thousands more for your easy-to-make mistake. Those horror stories you see about people paying thousands in student loans for years and years only to log into their account and see that they still owe basically the same amount that they started with... yup that's because of interest.

But if you pay off your bill each month, then credit cards can be great! Super safe and easy to combat fraud, great for not carrying cash around, tons of perks, super convenient since you can pay with your phone or smartwatch, and other benefits that are too nuanced to list.

Debt by itself is not a bad thing. If you were to never take out any loans ever, you probably would never be able to afford a home, or you might never go to school for the career that you choose, or you might never start up that small business that you've worked so hard towards. It's just super duper important to be aware of the terms that you agree to when borrowing said money. Tons of loan sharks out there (like pay-day loan places) actively want you to falter on your loan because then you suddenly owe them way more than what you thought you would owe.

Oh and for the love of god make sure to find out if the interest rate of any money you are borrowing is fixed or variable. Fixed meaning it stays the same for the length of the loan, and variable meaning it can (and will) change, which almost certainly means it's going to go up. Stick to fixed loans for the sake of your sanity.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, but seriously, just knowing that credit cards can fuck you if you don't pay them off each month is enough to save tons of people from a lifetime of debt and poor credit. Debt and interest are not bad things by themselves, you just need to be aware of them to function in today's society, because not knowing about them really sucks.