Long story short, my (23f) SIL (20f) and her boyfriend (20m) have come to live with us because they got kicked out of the boyfriends parents house and then my in laws house. My in laws struggle with substance abuse and my husband is my SILs only sibling. We told them they could come stay with us as long as they got jobs and SIL got her GED, and they cleaned up after themselves. We don't charge them any rent and they were only suppose to kick in like $200/month for groceries when they started working. (We have two kids and my husband is the only one working currently.)
They have been here since the end of October and only one of them is working. All together, I'd say they've worked maybe three weeks, and they're on work place number four. It's been three months. They argue with us when we tell them to do things, complain that the WiFi doesn't reach their bedroom so it makes playing video games hard, refuse to pay for any of the groceries or household supplies they use.
They have enough money to buy booze and vape pods, but not enough to pay their car insurance. Which led to them getting a court date when they got pulled over. Guess who got to pay for their car insurance? Us.
This is literally wrecking my marriage because I'm so angry all the time from these fucking adult moochers living in my house. We have offered to pay for a deposit and first month's rent on an apartment for them, but they don't want that. "I've got to be able to keep a job for longer than a week first." Direct quote from my SIL. Not to mention she's been talking about having a baby. We've tried nicely talking to them, I've tried being a hard ass, and nothing is working. I'm done and I want them out.
Would I be the asshole if I told them they can either pay for half of an apartment, and we can pay the other half, by April 1st or they can find somewhere to go? Either way they're getting the fuck out of our house, even if it's to the streets?
Edited to add: My husband's parents struggle with substance abuse and are a mess. It was not out of the blue that something crazy would happen and my SIL and her bf needed to get out ASAP. In fact, the straw that broke the camel's back was that my MIL was fuuuuuucked up on some Xanax and pulled a knife on SIL and bf. I have never met bf's parents and had not met sister until they came out here to live. They live across the country and for obvious reasons, my husband tries to keep his distance so he wasn't really sure what was going on with his sister either. They're not addicts or bad people, just incredibly irresponsible, disrespectful, lazy, and entitled to others stuff. My husband's grandmother also really encouraged us to have them come stay with us because she thought they'd do well here. Not trying to argue with anyone, just fill in any holes into our logic of allowing them to come stay with us. Obviously we thought they were capable of functioning in society or we wouldn't have given the expectations we did. (Job, GED, be responsible and clean up your messes, etc.)
Hope that clears things up!
Edit 2: there's not enough to warrant an actual update, but the boyfriend had court today for having no car insurance. I tried multiple times to explain to them that it doesn't matter if you get insurance AFTER the citation, this state is strict as hell and they're going to give you a huge fine. Not only that, but bf is not a US citizen, only has his work visa. I'm not sure what they need money for or if his citizenship had any part in it, but while my SIL was on the phone flipping out about trying to get a loan to pay for stuff, my husband said "oh by the way, you guys need to be out by the 1st of April, good luck" and that was the end of that.
Hope they can come up with whatever money they need, cause they're not getting it from us

PLEASE USE PASTEBIN LINKS TO POST YOUR LOGS FOR HELP. DO NOT PASTE HUGE LOGS IN THE COMMENTS, IT'S UNREADABLE ALREADY.
Sorry for the necessary capslock.
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Found out today how to properly stream PC games to psvita if you have AMD gpu.
Actually, you can stream to vita everything. I mean with proper framerate.
It should work for Nvidia also, but can't test myself.
My setup is old and cheap but can manage this flawlessly.
For your reference:

Cpu Intel Core Quad Q9550 AMD R9 280x 3gb 8gb ddr2 ram Cheap 300n pci wifi card Cheap wifi repeater 

In my configuration, Pc and psvita are connected alone to a 13€ wifi repeater. If you connect to the same network your smartphone and keepsending/receiving whatsapp videos, don't expect this to work properly. Connection will drop, lag will happen. This really relies on wifi quality you can throw at them.
Packed everything working for me here:
Download: PSVITA_AMD_STREAM.zip
Pretty much straight forward,

1. install moonlight client on psvita 2. install openstream server on pc (it will also install gamepad drivers) 3. start openstream, go to Configure, select the h264 encoder (1st one) 4. Go back and start Server. 5. Open moonlight, connect to the server. 

- On moonlight you need to add manually the pc name and ip address.
Your ip and PC name info: open cmd and type ipconfig /all
- Once paired with password, go for "Desktop" (no Steam BigPicture).
Any game you will launch fullscreen will be sent to the vita, controls are set already.
At the worst, you'll have to configure them, like for some emulators.
Troubleshooting:
1. If you get

 "Fatal: Couldn't bind RTSP server to port [*****]" 

and "Server down", do not close Open-Stream and open cmd as administrator.
Then input:

netstat -ano | findstr ***** 

Mind to replace the ****\* (5 digits) with the port shown in the error, for example, 48010
and kill the process with the following:

taskkill /f /pid **** 

replace ***\* (4 digits) with the id shown in the previous command response.
2. Please note a codec pack is required by OpenStreamto work.
K-lite codec pack I use https://codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_mega.htm
3. If server is up and psvita can't connect, keep trying. It will.
4. I also suggest to go into psvita settings, scroll all the way down to power save settings,
and deactivate wifi power save mode.
/Troubleshooting
Tested:
The Witcher III (had to change xinput1_3 file for controller to work properly)
Metal Gear V TPP (no problems)
Blasphemous (v2.x works ok, v1.x has input problem)
Resident Evil 2 Remake (no problem)
Citra emulator (no problem)
Street Fighter V (the very tiny lag doesn't match these kind of games)
EDIT: I had this idea, if you know about playnite https://i.imgur.com/9sGPRFH.jpg
u/TsukikoChan found out how launch apps from moonlight adding services to the menu.
+++ BACKUP THIS FILE SO YOU CAN REVERT BACK +++
What I did was edit "apps_windows.json" file stored in

 C:\Program Files\Openstream\assets 

As it's write-protected you may have to unprotect it first from "properties",then with Notepad++ edit like this:

{ "env":{ "PATH":"$(PATH);G:\\Playnite\\" }, "apps":[ { "name":"Playnite", "output":"playnite.txt", "cmd":"G:\\Playnite\\Playnite.FullscreenApp.exe" } ] } 

Where "G:\\Playnite\\" is the path you have playnite installed.
Windows paths have only one \ so make sure you edit the file properly.
​
Find my settings here
​
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Thanks and credits to:
u/TsukikoChan (SHE found out first but got no luck and her post got bot-eatenIt's her we need to thank for the main info I collected here)
u/PaulMaximumsetting (I suppose one of those behind Openstream, support the project!)
Find the software also here: https://open-stream.net/
and the source here: https://github.com/LS3solutions/openstream-server
​
If you try to google "open stream" there's a lot of garbage and it's noteasy to get to the app, that's why I'm packing and linking here.
Link to Tsukiko comment for more code informations: https://www.reddit.com/vitahacks/comments/lclpbq/amdmoonshellopenstream_stream_pc_games_to_psvita/gm3qbqt/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Hope this helps. Long live psvita!

The Tale isn’t long. All the other faff is. Words in the Glossary will be marked with ^*
—-
Me - Contracting Electrcian. Dresses in high visibility long dark blue trousers. High visibility blue and bright yellow, long sleeved work shirt. Company logo left breast pocket. Both of these have the shiny reflective strips. Dark brown work boots with blue PVC glue^* on them, because, glue. Also, I have my hard hat^* clipped to my belt.
I live in a small-ish rural town in Australia. The kind where everyone seems to know everyone. It can take 40mins just to buy milk because of all the “oops-eye-contact” socialising. I’ve been fixing all manner of equipment at this store for a while and get along with mostly everyone. But not Produce-Tzar “Steve”.
—-
It happened again, Tuesday, after work. I got a Pokey.
I was at The Supermarket, looking at jam^*. Holding, and contemplating, a jar of IXL^* Raspberry in my left hand, and an IXL Strawberry in my right, I heard the all too familiar behind me..
Woman - (terse) : ”Where is the sugar.”
Me - (I ignore her. Without an “Excuse me”, she could be talking to anyone. Outwardly I must seem to be daydreaming, but jam is no joke. This is a week-long commitment, and it cannot be rushed. Jam people will understand.) : “...”
I receive a poke to my back, signifying that The Pokey Game has begun, followed by.. Pokey Woman - (terse, and indignant now) : “I saaaid, where is the sugar.”
Me - (still striving for a jam resolution) : “Isle 17, half way down, 3rd shelf.”
Pokey wanders off. All Pokeys, 100%, never thank. Ever.
About 2mins later, while I’m feeling guilty for glancing at the Beerenberg Plum^*, I receive a much firmer poke in the back, followed by..
Pokey - (annoyed, verging on anger, slightly raised voice) : “There IS no isle 17.”
Me - (still looking at jams. The Beerenberg knows I’ve glanced now. It knows it’s a contender.) : “I am sorry madam. I mis-spoke. Isle 7, half way down, 3rd shelf.”
She again wanders off, a little stompy now.
About 5mins later, holding the winner, I’m a little further down the isle looking at the ingredients on a new breakfast cereal. From the end of the isle I hear..
Pokey - (raised voice exclamation. I imagine that ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’^* is playing in her head.) : “THERE HE IS!”
Putting the cereal back and turning, I see Pokey heading toward me, followed by Store Manager “Brad”.
Pokey - (older-than-me lady. Standing. Pointing. Glaring, vengeful eyes.) : “TWICE! He sent me to the WRONG ISLE, TWICE! I want him REPrimanded!”
Brad - (arms crossed, also glaring at me.) : “This is not one of my staff, madam. Is there anything else I can help with?”
After a couple quiet moments, Pokey demands sugar, and Brad escorts her.
I head to Brads office, where a few minutes later..
Brad - (tired and exasperated, like all supermarket store managers ever.) : “Could you at least do this on my day off?”
Me - (matter of fact) : “Mate, you know the deal. I stop when the planogram^* stops changing. That replacement touch-screen for convection oven two should be here tomorrow. I’ll see you then, hey.”
As I’m walking out, I hear Brad say, “Standard chimes for the end of cook this time!”
I’m smiling, because I already know I’m going to set it as the 16bit theme song from ‘The Twilight Zone’ TV show. It’s one of the selections in the installer menu. The other oven already has 16bit ‘The Imperial March’. Because of course it does. (No. Seriously, they do. Brad gets to pick when the planogram stops.)
Thank you for reading.
—-
Glossary
Glue - Glue of any variety has no master and doesn’t obey the natural laws. Beware of glue. PVC glue for electrical conduits will always end up on your boots. Just accept it.
Jam - Typically a fruit conserve. What some less discerning call Jelly. Jelly is made of a Gelatin base, is wobbly, and your Granma will put fruit in it. If it’s a special occasion, you may get Trifle.
Hard Hat - You lift the brim of a hard hat to gaze at the newest idiocy on a job-site. My hard hat has the slickest, sickest stickers.
IXL/Beerenberg - IXL Fruit Conserve is the best jam on the planet. This is my hill. Beerenberg is second. Beerenberg Plum on peanut butter toast is amazing.
The Ride of the Valkyries - That one by Wagner in ‘Apocalypse Now’ when they’re dropping napalm on everything. Good film. Jed Bartlet is in it.
Planogram - Every efficient shoppers nemesis. This is the plan for a store where products are supposed to be put. Stores change this all the time based on how much kick-back a manufacturer gives them for prominent placement of their products. Sometimes they swap WHOLE ISLES around. You go in to get jam one day, and now that isle is health foods. Changing the Planogram was invented by Satan.
The Twilight Zone - Rod Serlings, The Twilight Zone. A black and white TV show from a million years ago. You like X-Files? Stranger Things? Go find and watch the OG of the genre.
—-
The Tale is over. The rest is just my idiocy. Read, or don’t. All good.
The Pokey Game I’ve said this before. High Vis clothing is mercurial. You are both invisible, a personal assistant, and a Corporeal Google. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve been politely and rudely approached for information and/or assistance. Polite has always gotten all the friendly help I can muster.
Over the years, I used to engage with the Rude. I tried reasoning with the Rude, seeking to understand the why of the Rudeness. I tried giving the Rude the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they’d had a bad day, gotten some bad news. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
I tried remonstrating with the Rude, in an attempt to bring enlightenment and humility. Having done work in Police Stations and Court Houses, I knew that cells had no wifi access, so I stopped getting all up-in-their-grill.
I learned that, sometimes, Rude is just Rude.
So I started playing with the Rude.
—-
Here are The Rules: (For the time being)
1 - All Rude gets ignored. (This is not to bait into escalation. Most times, Rude just goes.. away. Which is fine.) (Actually, I’m not sure if it isn’t with the hope of baiting. So I can play.) (It’s probably baiting, hey.)
2 - All Pokeys must be played with. (Regardless of venue or personal time constraints.) (See below for examples based on venue.)
3 - Must be dressed in High Vis. (Playing the Pokey Game in casual dress is like low-hanging-fruit. Because what if I was dressed similarly to store staff without realising it.) (I started to bring the hard hat to the supermarket because it was happening so much there. I wanted an extra difficulty for more points.) (There is no points system.)
4 - Must be pleasant and polite. (Cells have no wifi.)
5 - Extra Points if a Pokey comes back more than twice (Sent a guy to three different isles once. 3 is the most so far.)
Venues Service/Gas Stations - These are mostly for directions. Mostly by Caravaners. So of course they get the wrong directions. - If asking to borrow tools from my work vehicle, I walk over to the vehicle, and drive off.
Hospital - Non-staff cannot be played with. They may be in need of medical attention, bereaving, worried, etc. That’d just be mean. - Staff get played with. I stand there ignoring them and see just how committed to the poking they are. Twice poked is the most so far. I put them on my list for further attention by other means.
General Pubic Areas - Same as Service/Gas Stations
Supermarkets (The Main venue for games) - “Where is..” gets the treatment in the tale. If they come back for seconds, they’ve had to walk past other people to arrive back at me. They are more than fair game. (Maybe it’s like that joke where the bear says to the hunter, “You don’t come here to hunt, do you.”) - “Get me..” something off a high shelf. Readers 6’ and over will attest - when out in he wild, you are by default, a Common Use Implement. For these Rudes, I keep grabbing the wrong items and try to give it to them. Without speaking.
—-
I still wonder what some people must have gone through in their life, to be at the point where poking others is acceptable. I feel kinda bad for them. Just not bad enough to stop playing.
Oh yeah. IXL Raspberry.

It’s been years since my last totally new build, and wanted to share what I learned about making my new PC into a spectacular neon rainbow over the last month. My kids thought my old computer was "so boring" compared to my sister's so I knew I had to bring my A+ game with a rainbow explosion :)
I’ll start out by saying that figuring all this out has been by far the most confusing and frustrating part of my new build. Every time I thought I understood everything, there was always yet another exception to the rule. So don't feel bad if you feel like this is all super complicated and confusing, because it is! There's a TLDR is at the bottom.
​

The difference between RGB vs ARGB

The first and most crucial piece of information is that there are two types of “RGB” for PCs:

• RGB = 4-pin 12V header = Every LED on the device must be the same color
• ARGB = Addressable RGB = 3-pin 5V header = You can control the color of each individual LED on the device

ARGB (also sometimes known as digital RGB) is far more flexible, can create way cooler effects, and it’s what most modern LED devices use. It's also a newer technology, so a lot of older "How to do RGB" posts/articles just assume you're using the 12V kind. Also you should never plug an ARGB 5V device into a RGB 12V header. Each type of device should be kept to its own type. Some photos comparing ARGB vs RGB headers can be found here.
What makes it very confusing is a lot of product listings and articles (like my post title!) just say "RGB" without specifying which type they're referring to until you dig deeper into the specs.
​

The different ARGB connector types

Adding to this cluster-mess is that most 5V 3-pin ARGB devices use a 4-pin footprint which have one of the pins left off so there's only 3 physical metal pins. But because nothing involving RGB is straightforward, there are also some ARGB devices that use a 3-pin footprint instead (JST-SM 3 pin). This image shows the two different ARGB connector types.
Because of this, some ARGB devices include a cable compatible with both types of ARGB headers. But other ARGB devices only provide one option and you'd need an adapter if it's the wrong type of your setup. This very important detail isn't always listed in the product description either because it’ll just say “3-pin Addressable RGB” without specifying which types of headers are supported, making it extremely frustrating and confusing. In an attempt to keep it clear in this document I’ll use the following abbreviations which I’ve made up just now (if there are better ones, let me know and I'll update):

• 3P3F - 3-pin Addressable RGB header with a 3-pin JST-SM footprint. Sometimes also called a DGV connector (Data, Ground, Voltage).
• 3P4F - 3 pin Addressable RGB header with a 4-pin footprint: 3 physical metal pins as one pin is left off so the signals look like this: (+5, Data, NC, GND) - used by most ARGB devices and motherboards. NC stands for "No Connect" because it's blank.

​
​

How do I control all these lights?

Modern motherboards usually include both 5V ARGB and 12V RGB headers which can be used to control your lights via their respective motherboard utility software (MSI Dragon Center Mystic Light/ASUS Aura Sync/etc). These motherboard headers can be named a variety of things depending on the manufacturer. On my MSI board the 5V ARGB header is called JRAINBOW while the 12V RGB header is called JRGB. You can use both types of headers at the same time as long as you make sure to connect the correct type of (5V ARGB or 12V RGB) devices to their respective headers.
For ARGB, most motherboards (Asus/MSI/ASRock) use the 3P4F header for ARGB, but other motherboards (Gigabyte) use the 3P3F header for ARGB. However based on comments it looks like newer Gigabyte boards have moved to the "standard" 3P4F ARGB header which is good news. So check your mobo manual to confirm what it has. Yes, it’s a confusing mess.
Older motherboards might only have a 12V 4-pin RGB header or even more horrifying, no RGB header at all!!! We’ll cover what to do in that case a bit further down.
Making things even more complicated, some manufacturers created proprietary headers/protocols that plug into their own proprietary light controllers which are then controlled via USB. Corsair is the most famous example of this as their fans/lights will only work with Corsair's proprietary hubs which then talk to your PC via an internal USB header. Though as some comments have pointed out, you can buy adapters to get around this.
Corsair isn't the only one either, other "addressable RGB" manufacturers (NZXT for example) have decided to do their own thing with a proprietary connector and/or protocol that doesn't work well with anything generic, and it's often not obvious that's the case until you buy it and it doesn't work with the other stuff. If you keep to the same ecosystem it'll (usually) "just work" all together, but you'll limit yourself to a specific brand.
If you want LED devices that have more flexibility across brands to mix and match, look for the device product description to say "Compatible with MSI Mystic Light and Asus Aura Sync" which typically means it uses a generic 3P4F ARGB header. But there may be exceptions, so I can't 100% guarantee it'll work with your other devices and this is a huge reason why RGB can be such a headache.
Finally some fans or light strips or cases have no external connections - they can only be controlled by an included remote. The product descriptions sometimes aren't clear when this is the case, so you have to read the specs very carefully and read the reviews. Some devices provide both a remote and ARGB header connection and you hold down a button on the remote to switch between the two options.
​
​

How do RGB fans work?

The fans typically come with two cables connected to them: one for controlling the fan speed (like any other fan) and the other for controlling the LEDs. However some fans have a 3P4F header while other fans have a 3P3F header, and some fans provide both types of connectors. Also remember that double the cables, double the cable management!
There’s also some fan “kits” that come with an ARGB hub that all the fans ARGB cables plug into and then you can control the LEDs with a wired remote. This is more common if you buy a 2, 3, or 4 pack of ARGB fans together as one package. Also some fan kits have the ARGB cables plug into their specific proprietary hub, and then the hub has a single cable that plugs into the standard ARGB header for your motherboard.
​
​

I have 20 ARGB fans for my case and only 1 ARGB header, what do I do?

Most motherboards only come with one or two ARGB headers. You have a few options

1. Use a simple splitter - Straight forward and cheap. You connect it to your motherboard's ARGB header. However whatever colopattern is used on the longest device will be the colopattern used for all the other devices connected to the splitter. So if you set a 12-LED pattern (like a rainbow) with three devices connected to the splitter - a 12 LED strip shows all 12, a 6 LED fan shows the first 6 of the pattern, and a 3 LED fan shows just the first 3 of the pattern. So all devices connected to the splitter will be mirrored. This may or may not matter to you based on how you want to light your system. Also each ARGB device has an amount of max current it could use, so you want to make sure the sum of all those devices hanging off the splitter is less than what your motherboard supports (usually around 3A).
2. Some devices allow you to daisy-chain them together so you only need one motherboard header to connect multiple LED strips/fans (think of how your Christmas lights chain together). You'd have to determine if your particular device can do this as some devices have a connector to support this and some don't. It often has the same limitations as using a splitter with the mirroring. However as a commenter pointed out, that's not always the case depending on the device.
3. Use a hub - Typically an ARGB hub works just like a splitter and is connected to your motherboard's ARGB header, but also includes a connection for power (usually provided by a SATA power connector from your PSU), so you can power more LEDs/devices than a splitter. But it still has the same mirror coloring limitation, which may or may not be important to you. Some fan kits (especially if you buy a 2 or 3 pack) come with a hub included.
4. Use an ARGB controller - The most flexible option because each device you connect to the controller can have unique colors/patterns and won't have to be mirrored. It’s typically controlled via an internal USB header on your motherboard and does not use the ARGB header on the motherboard at all. It also allows you to control the lights without having to use the motherboard software. I went this route and *highly\* recommend it.

Keep in mind that there are also power limitations to consider. Some LED devices have their own SATA power connector to get around this limitation, while others just use the ARGB header 5V power which will then have a limit on how many fans/strips you can daisy chain or split off. That particular limit will be motherboard dependent (usually around 3A but you have to check your mobo manual for your specific board) and also dependent on the power draw of the LED devices. But the end result is that you can’t actually control 20 ARGB devices off a single ARGB header because the LEDs would get way too dim.
​
​

I don’t have a RGB or ARGB header on my motherboard, how can I turn my PC into a rainbow wonderland?

There’s two options:

1. Make sure the LED device you’re interested in comes with its own remote. The drawback for a physical remote is that it might be complicated to get that remote outside your case if it’s a wired remote, so anytime you want to change the colors/patterns you would need to pop open your case. This may or may not be a big deal for you. There are some remote-only LED kits that use a wireless remote though, so you could search for those too.
2. Buy specific hardware to control the LEDs like the Razer Addressable RGB controller I mentioned above which connects to your PC via an internal USB connector that almost all motherboards have.

​

My experiences with different devices:

• Razer Addressable RGB Controller: By far the best purchase I made in my technicolor rainbow journey, this lets you connect 6 different ARGB devices and give them each unique colors/patterns. It works with ARGB devices that use the 3P4F header (3 physical pins in the 4-pin footprint). You use Razer’s Synapse3 software to design the lighting schemes. This software does have a bit of a learning curve, but is quite powerful as you can layer different effects. I’m a huge fan of this controller and since it was only released in Nov 2020 I don’t see it mentioned much yet, but I consider it a must-have for anyone who wants to seriously light up their PC. Especially because it seems to be the only universal controller like this that exists at the moment. You can split/daisy chain on each of the ports too, for a maximum of 80 LEDs per port, or 240 LEDs in total. The fans I bought have 12 LEDs each so there’s quite a lot of headroom for daisy changing. It’s compatible with just about any ARGB device that uses the standard WS2812b LEDs that almost all ARGB devices use. It connects to the internal USB header on your motherboard so it's also compatible with just about every PC. You could also use a standard micro-B USB cable and connect it to an external USB port, so you could use it with desktop 5V ARGB light strips too. It also comes with tape to stick it to your PC or alternatively it has screw holes compatible with SSD mounting in your case (which is what I did). The one odd thing with this is it uses an old-school Molex connector for its power source instead of the “standard” SATA power connector which is a bit annoying to attach another cable to the PSU. There are SATA to Molex power adapters available, but I didn’t try it so perhaps someone wants to be a guinea pig let us know how it goes.

​

• G.Skill Neo Z RGB RAM: You control the RAM RGB using the RAM manufacturer’s software running on your PC. The G.Skill software is fairly configurable, I had no issues and I really like these RAM sticks in particular because they diffuse the light really smoothly.

​

• Asus 3080 Video card: You use the video card manufacturer software to control the LEDs on your video card. So DragonCenter for MSI cards, Aura Sync for Asus cards, etc. The Asus 3080 I managed to snag just has a small logo LED so I turned it off because I already had so many LEDs going on in my system.

​

• MSI X570 Tomahawk: You control motherboard RGB via the manufacturer's respective motherboard utility software. For MSI specifically their RGB software used to be available as a standalone program called MysticLight, but now their RGB software is only available bundled as part of their DragonCenter software package. For older MSI boards you can still install and use the older standalone version to control the LEDs, but unfortunately newer MSI boards (like mine) you have to use the bundled version. My board has only a few LEDs on the back so I just turned them all off.

​

• Lian Li Strimer Plus Power Cables: I blew $100 on these but they were so worth it! These are extensions so they’ll work with any power supply. The 24-pin Motherboard one comes with a controller, and you plug in both the motherboard and GPU extensions in that controller. You can use the controller as a physical remote, or alternatively you can connect the controller to a 3P4F ARGB header on your motherboard. You long press on the “mode” button to switch between the options.Make sure you get the “Plus” version which is newer and looks much better than the original version. It uses a SATA power connector and can get *super* bright. The normal GPU extension has a 6+2 and 6+2 connection, and there’s now also a new 8+8+8 GPU extension available for the RTX 3080/3090 cards that require it. The GPU extension comes with the option to drive it off a 3P4F ARGB header, so you don’t have to buy the 24-pin extension in order to get the controller if you don’t want to. But I’d highly recommend getting both. These are my favorite RGB devices in my build. Finally, these Strimer Plus light strips have too many LEDs for the Razer ARGB controller, so if you try connecting it to the Razer controller, you’ll get an error and it’ll refuse to recognize it. I have them connected to my motherboard ARGB header directly.

​

• DeepCool Castle EX 240mm AIO: IMHO this is one of the best looking AIOs out there because you can remove the logo entirely or replace it with your own custom one. It includes a connection for both the 3P3F and 3P4F ARGB footprints so that’s a huge bonus too. Default fans were a bit loud though at 100% and replaced them with ARGB ones that are quieter.

​

• DeepCool CF120 fans: Nice and cool 12 LED ARGB PWM fans. The stand-alone CF120 come with adapters so it works with both the 3P3F and 3P4F ARGB headers. Sadly the CF140 wasn’t available standalone, so I had to buy a 2-fan kit. The kit includes both a fan controllesplitter and an ARGB hub/splitter. Unfortunately the ARGB hub that came in the kit only includes one ARGB header adapter and I don't’ see anywhere that sells the adapter by itself. So both fans would have to be the same colopattern, unless you buy another CF120 just to get an adapter. Which I did. RGB is a slippery slope!

​

• Be Quiet 500DX case: Has the standard 3P4F ARGB connection and hooked it up to the Razer controller and works and looks great. There’s a button on the front to control the LEDs by cycling through the options on each press if you don’t have a ARGB header. You hold down the button for 3 seconds to toggle between using the button or using the ARGB controller to controller the LEDs. Also the front panel strip and the interior top strip are mirrored, so you can’t make them unique colors from each other. It uses a SATA connector for power. Case is great too!

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• Razer BlackWidow Keyboard: Standard RGB mechanical keyboard, RGB is controlled via Razer’s Synapse3. You can do some cool effects triggered by specific keys you specify. It’s really nice to have both this keyboard and my ARGB controller controlled by the same software. The only disappointment is the lighting scheme isn’t saved to the keyboard memory, so if you use Linux or plug it anywhere else, it just defaults to a rainbow color.

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• Phantek Digital Halos: I originally was going to go with these because they allow you to add LEDs to *any* case fan and can be cheaper than buying a ARGB fan if you already have boring non light up fans. So you can light up your Noctua NF-A12x25’s if you wanted and they look really good.

There are 2 different main lines:

• Halos RGB - 12V RGB with 18 LEDs (120mm) or 21 LEDs (140mm)
• Halos Digital - 5V ARGB with 30 LEDs for both sizes. Looks much better than the RGB version.

And then each line has two different versions:

• Normal (non-Lux): Plastic frame, plain cable
• Lux: Aluminum frame, braided cable, and crucially, includes a 3P4F ARGB adapter.

I originally bought these not realizing that the normal non-Lux version only has a connection for a 3P3F header, which is not compatible with my motherboard or the Razer controller. You can buy the adapter separately for $5 a pop, so I bought that, but all 4 adapters were *super* loose on the ARGB header and would fall out of both the Razer controller and motherboard headers. I really wanted to like these, but I had to return them because it just didn’t work well at all. I was also super annoyed I had to buy an adapter and wait a week to ship because Phantek’s product description doesn’t make it clear at all that it’s not compatible with the standard 3P4F ARGB header.
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Some last notes:

• Razer’s Synapse3 software theoretically has hooks to also control the RGB RAM and the MSI Mystic Light from inside the Synapse3 studio, but I found it to be very buggy and didn’t work well. Also while my RGB RAM has 8 LEDs, I could only control 4 of them with Synapse3. So that level of integration doesn't seem quite there yet. In the end I had to use 4 different Windows programs to control all the various devices (Synapse3, MSI DragonCenter, GSkill, and Asus Aura for the video card)
• For Linux users (as 99% of RGB software is Windows only) or for people who don't want to use their motherboard's software because they hate it, or for anyone who wants to script their lights, there is an open source project called OpenRGB for controlling select LED devices. But device support is limited and I haven't used it myself so YMMV.
• There’s a subreddit dedicated to custom Razer profiles that you can download and use.
• I did not explore any of the Crucial RGB fans/controllers because they’re so expensive. I believe they use a proprietary connection though. I’m sure someone in the comments can provide more information on that ecosystem. (Edit: And here's some very useful information on that ecosystem)
• Crucial isn't the only one to create their own proprietary ecosystem as some other fan/case/LED strip manufacturers also decided to do something proprietary, and it's often really difficult to figure out what kind of connecter or protocol a particular device uses without having to buy it first and see for yourself. It's by far the most frustrating thing about planning an RGB system. But these closed ecosystems are becoming less common and typically if the LED device you're buying says "Compatible with MSI Mystic Light and Asus Aura Sync" then it uses a generic 3P4F ARGB header.
• RGB=Red, Green, Blue. Each color is made up of 8 bits to give 256 (2^8) possible values for each color, and then all combined give the 256x256x256=16.7 million possible unique colors you see in marketing all the time.
• For anyone looking for the technical details, 12V RGB devices work by dedicating one line for Red, one for Green, and one for Blue and adjusting the voltages to adjust the colors. ARGB is more complex and details can be found here.

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This is everything I wish I’d known when I started this whole process, so hopefully it can help someone else out too. I’ve always thought being a concert lighting engineer would be a fun job and this is the closest I’ll probably ever get. So while RGB isn’t for everyone (and just like Crossfitters and people who don't use Facebook, you don’t have to ask someone if they don't like RGB, they’ll make sure to tell you), I’m extremely happy I went all out on the RGB!
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• PCPartPicker List
• Photos of my build

TLDR: Buy 5V Addressable RGB (ARGB) devices that use the standard 3-pin ARGB header in a 4-pin footprint (3 physical metal pins as one pin is left off) and get a Razer Addressable RGB Controller which connects to your motherboard’s internal USB header. Now you’ve got something that’ll work with almost any PC and almost all standard generic ARGB devices.

*Updated Feb 3 2021* (I also update the list with new potential problems/tests as I find them)
Edit: Feb 3rd 2021: Sony released firmware Version 20.02-02.50.00 today. I've only done one test so far, but it seems to have solved the "Green Screen of Death" for me SO FAR... I'll update when I have more.
My PS5 has the rest mode problem/bug. [Edit] I've solved it partially for me. See test 7 and beyond below
If you don't know what the rest mode bug is, basically, you put your PS5 into rest mode, and then at some point, your orange light will go out, and you won't be able to power on with your controller. You have to press the power button on the console, it beeps, but doesn't actually turn on, and then you can use your controller or the power button again to turn the system on. It will complain that you unplugged the PS5 (even though you didn't) and it will often want to do a repair to the storage. - Is this happening to you? Or do you have some other version of this? I'd love to hear the variations... (if there are any). I'd also love to hear if you have the exact same problem.
Edit: It now seems to me that there are a few different causes to the rest mode bug. One solution will not fix it for everyone, but if you can identify which type of rest mode bug you have, we may be able to come up with a solution for the most common types. I'm going to start listing them with specific names and descriptions here. I have the first two listed below.
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[Edit:] Types of rest mode bug:

• USB-A rest mode bug: Seems to be solved by either not using any of your USB ports, or using the USB-C port specifically. This bug tends to manifest overnight or during an extended period of time while the system is in rest mode (similar to what is described at the beginning of this post) - This alone will not solve the green screen of death. You may have both, like me.
• Green Screen of death (Suspending games): This is also a rest mode bug, but it usually manifests when you're suspending a game or when you're waking a suspended game. It can usually be avoided by fully closing your game and WAITING for a minute or two before putting your PS5 into rest mode. This is just a crazy hunch of mine that I cannot prove and I don't have any evidence of it so far, but I feel like this green screen is associated with HDR, resolution settings, or both. I have not been able to test this yet.
• WiFi / Network rest mode bug: Seems to be associated with WiFi... possibly even WiFi6 Specifically, or network instability, or automatic DHCP settings perhaps. I don't have this problem, but I also have a straight ethernet connection to my router with no switches or hubs between the two, so maybe ethernet is less likely to have this problem, or I'm just lucky not to have this issue.
• Several other fringe cases exist, but I'm not seeing a pattern or common thread to them yet. I'll update with more bullets here as we learn more.

Okay, so now that I've described the problem I'm talking about, I've been trying to figure out why it happens. Or at least how to avoid it while still using rest mode. Rest mode is handy for keeping your games up to date and allowing remote play to wake your system, so even if you aren't using it to suspend games, it can be helpful.
There are a lot of theories out there about why it happens:

• Its tied to HDMI-CEC where your TV is sending a signal to turn off your PS5 while its in rest mode, and that's causing the bug. - Tested, for me, didn't make a difference
• It's tied to having external storage plugged in - This has multiple things to test:
  • In your settings, do you have it set to "Always" power your USB Ports? Or "3 hours" or "Off". The theory here is that the power to the external drive shuts off and causes the problem. This doesn't seem to make a difference for me.
    • Which USB port are you using? - There are two high speed USB-A ports in the back, a high speed USB-C port in the front, and a slower speed USB-A Port in the front. Which port are you using? Does using a different port make any difference? I've seen at one person claim the USB-C port fixed their problem. TESTED THE FRONT USB-C AND IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING SO FAR (SEE TEST 5 BELOW)
  • Some people claim formatting your external drive with your computer or using the PS5 to format it for media, and then formatting it back to the game storage set up fixed the issue. I haven't tested this yet
  • Some people claim its the TYPE of drive that causes the problem. HDD vs SDD... Many people claim the Samsung T7 SSD works great without rest mode problems. I bought one to test this. for me, it did not solve the issue until I moved it to the USB-C port.
  • Some people have a theory that corrupted games or games transferred from the PS4 can cause this. On both my HDD and SSD I deleted everything and downloaded all the games fresh to test. It did not solve the issue.
  • Theory: If playing a game installed on external, shut it down, wait a while, and THEN put it into rest mode. (doing it too fast causes the crash) - I've actually seen this, and I think it does make a difference for the Green Screen of Death.
  • Theory: if the drive draws too much power in rest mode it crashes the PS5... to test you'd need to try a drive that has separate power (not using the USB port to power it)
  • Leave the external storage disconnected (don't plug it in) - DOING THIS KEEPS THE REST MODE BUG FROM HAPPENING FOR ME SO FAR (but doesn't help with Green screen of death for me)
• Theory: its caused by a corrupted PS5 firmware:
  • Tests:
    • Rebuild databases using safe mode - didn't solve for me
    • Download official firmware from Sony's website and install firmware from a USB Stick - didn't solve for me
    • Factory reset PS5 - didn't solve for me
• Theory: It's caused by game updates.
  • Some people have noted that their system will crash if it tries to update a game while in rest mode or even multitasking while playing a game. Might be worth testing with automatic updates disabled to see if it helps.
• Theory: A few people mentioned that network problems may be to blame
  • Potential tests:
    • Wired VS Ethernet
    • Eliminate hubs/switches and plug in directly for wired connections
    • Unplug ethernet and disable wifi or shut off router at night to see what happens
    • Assign ip address and other network settings manually instead of automatically

I'm in the process of doing extensive tests to figure this problem out since my system has it. Its slow going due to needing to test things overnight each time...
Test 1: Sometimes crashes immediately

• Game running
• External HDD Connected via back USB-A (2Tb Seagate)
• Features available in standby: ALL ON (Always on USB ports, Internet available, etc)
• HDMI CEC Disabled

Test 2: Typically fails sometime overnight

• Game closed
• External HDD Connected via back USB-A (2Tb Seagate)
• Features available in standby: ALL ON (Always on USB ports, Internet available, etc)
• HDMI CEC Disabled

Test 3: Typically fails sometime overnight

• Game closed
• External SSD Connected via back USB-A (2Tb Samsung T7)
• Features available in standby: ALL ON (Always on USB ports, Internet available, etc)
• HDMI CEC Disabled

Test 4: No Rest Mode Failures so far

• Game closed
• External SSD NOT CONNECTED (ejected safely and cord disconnected)
• Features available in standby: ALL ON (Always on USB ports, Internet available, etc)
• HDMI CEC Disabled

Test 5 (Jan 15-16, 2021): No Rest Mode Failures so far!

• Game closed
• External SSD CONNECTED via FRONT USB-C (2Tb Samsung T7)
• Features available in standby: ALL ON (Always on USB ports, Internet available, etc)
• HDMI CEC Disabled
• So, it's only one night of data, but Test 5 shows the most promise so far. It's the first scenario that works with the drive attached so far. I'm going to test having the usb ports turn off next. I can see that the drive has power due to its light and I would prefer to have it off when the system is resting, but I don't know how that works with game updates, so maybe its not a good idea. I'm going to test it anyway.

Test 6 (Jan 18, 2021): No Rest Mode Failures so far!

• Game closed
• External SSD CONNECTED via FRONT USB-C (2Tb Samsung T7)
• Features available in rest mode:
  • USB power: Always off
  • Internet: Always connected
  • Wakeable: Yes
  • Time till rest mode: Don't automatically put into rest mode
• HDMI CEC Disabled
• Seems to be working. I've gone two overnight periods without a crash and usually it would crash by now. I also tried suspending a game with everything else the same and it did a green TV crash where it fails during the pulse phase and the TV Screen turns solid green for a few seconds. So I still can't suspend games, but as far as I can tell, rest mode is working well otherwise with this scenario. It seems that switching from the back USB-A ports to the front USB-C port can make a real difference in the success rate for some reason. It doesn't make a ton of sense, but thats just what the data is showing so far (in my case).

Test 7 (Jan 19-20, 2021): No Rest Mode Failures so far!

• Game closed
• External SSD CONNECTED via FRONT USB-C (2Tb Samsung T7)
• Features available in rest mode:
  • USB power: Always off
  • Internet: Always connected
  • Wakeable: Yes
  • Time till rest mode: Don't automatically put into rest mode
• HDMI CEC (Device link): ENABLED
• HDMI HDCP: ENABLED
• Basically this is the same as Test 6 but with the HDMI stuff re-enabled. So far, this seems to support the USB-A to USB-C scenario as the solution for my particular instance.

Test 8 (Jan 22, 2021): No Rest Mode Failures so far!

• Game closed
• External SSD CONNECTED via FRONT USB-C (2Tb Samsung T7)
• Features available in rest mode:
  • USB power: Always off
  • Internet: Always connected
  • Wakeable: Yes
  • Time till rest mode: Don't automatically put into rest mode
• HDMI CEC (Device link): ENABLED
• HDMI HDCP: ENABLED
• ACTIVELY DOWNLOADING SEVERAL UPDATES for both internal and external storage when put into rest mode - Worked fine
• Its looking more and more like my particular situation has been almost entirely corrected by moving the SSD to the front USB-C. So far, every test has indicated that this fixed the problem with one exception: I still cannot suspend games. If I attempt to suspend a game, I'll get the green screen of death where the TV turns green during the phase where the system is pulsing its light (working through to rest mode). Iv'e seen the screen flash green like that briefly when various devices are activating HDR, and I suspect it may actually have something to do with it. If I get ambitious, I might try deactivating HDR from a system level and see if it makes suspending games work. I feel like there is more risk of game save corruption with this green screen bug, so I'll have to think about what I'm doing before I jump in on that one.
• Update Jan 31, 2021: I'm still on the test 8 setup. Its working great as long as I don't suspend a game, or put it into rest mode too quickly after closing a game. If I suspend a game or put it into rest mode quickly, I get the Green Screen Of Death.
• Update Feb 3, 2021: Sony Released Firmware version 20.02-02.50.00 today. During my lunch break, I booted up miles morales and suspended the game successfully. It went into rest mode without the Green Screen of Death, and appears to be in rest mode without problem. I'm going to let it sit suspended until tonight and I'll try bringing it out of suspension to see how it does. I'd really love to know if any of you are seeing improvements with the rest mode bug with the new firmware.

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Original post continued below:
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Obviously, I'd like to be able to keep my external drive connected, so I'll probably keep doing some tests involving external drives being connected.
I'm going to try to test a few more things
I'll probably try testing the USB-C connection in the front next.
Have any of you had the rest mode problem and solved it? Was it using one of the theories above? Or was it something else? Are there any other solutions you've heard of working? Let me know and I'll add them to the list.
Also, if any of you have tried any of these things, please share what did or didn't work for you so I can compile the results together.
Thanks for your time.

No one asked but I really enjoy this thread so I wanted to weigh in.
I see a lot of people posting who have limited investing experience. I get it. Everyone needs to begin and everyone wants to make some money. Hopefully this is helpful.
Here is how I would treat $2,000:
Spend $500 on an anchor, long hold stock. A stock like Apple, Intel, Amazon, the QQQ’s. Each week add to your position. Even if it $25 a week, add. Savings accounts are a thing of the past. Most anchor stocks will return 6-12% each year. Anchor stocks are also great “containers” to hold your cash as it clears. Example. Let’s say you pop a penny, you clear a 75% return. Invest the return in your anchor stock for the 48-hours and do research on your next play. A lot of people have their account restricted because they buy a penny, they move to another penny - the new penny starts to go sideways and while you can sell those shares to protect your money...bang, you get restricted because your cash didn’t clear.
Spend $500 on a couple small-cap stocks. A few hours of research on industry trends and consumer trends will really help. I will give you two I am playing that have 20-50% AirBNB and DraftKings. Both of these companies are game changing. Hotels/Motels will take years to recover from COVID and who really wants to stay in a hotel right now? What people want and need is a place they can get away for a few days, have great WiFi and feel safe while not having to pay $6.00 for a hotel Starbucks or $9.00 for in room M&M’s. State by state - just like pot - gambling is being legalized. DraftKings is the easy leader. This stock is already up 11% this year. Another great play are small-cap 5G plays.
Finally, spend the last $1,000 around penny stocks. The caveat is you should invest in a stock that has a product coming. Zomedica is the perfect penny. The key to investing the $1,000 is you have to be willing to lose it. It has to be money that can be replaced in the next 30-days if your play doesn’t pan out. Having cash on hand (to buy dips and move) is critical. If you can’t replace the money you’re investing you also probably don’t have the cash on hand to juice your play when it gets hot. Pay close attention to volume and price entrenchments. The reason the current ZOM stock is a good price point is the current fall back line is around $2.30. If that line fails, the next entrenched price point is $1.90. Pennys take time to build a foundation. Once a foundation is built they are a safer play. Using this strategy, could you miss a 600% increase? Yes. But you will also avoid a lot of stress by watching your money get flushed. SNDL is another penny I am playing but the pot field is really crowded so there is higher risk. GTE is a really interesting energy play. Biden is squeezing supply which means the price of oil will increase. One thing to notice is all of these Pennys are in different sectors - tech (zom), pot (sundl), and energy (GTE). Another interesting play is IBIO.
Anyway. Good to see so many newbies. Build a base, pick some high potential small-caps and lastly do your DD to pick some penny winners. My penny hit rate is about 65% (meaning I made 100%+). On average I lose about 25-50% on my losers. Net, net I make about 175% a year on my original $1,000 and about 35% on my anchor and small-cap. So at the end of the year I went from $2k to about $5k (in that example). Good luck!

Ticketing for BTS is a bloodbath, not gonna lie. Especially with the influx of a lot of fans who will want to see them live post-quarantine. I was able to get my hands on some twice, although it was a very intense and fast paced process. Keep in mind, I am writing this from the perspective of someone who has only seen BTS in the US. I think a lot of the advice is still applicable internationally, but I can’t provide detail on that.
Cost
BTS tickets, in comparison to the other artists who are in their caliber of popularity, actually aren’t hugely expensive. You can get nosebleed seats at around 60-80 USD a pop. BTS tickets range from $60 to $300 USD face value per person (not including fees) at first sale value depending on where you sit. The average price of a ticket according to Ticketmaster is $299 (with fees). The only official initial ticketing site for BTS is TicketMaster. Don’t forget about the cost of transportation, food, lodging, and merch! If you’re gonna buy merch, you will probably spend a few hundred. Allocate $50 dollars per person for food/drink. Transportation and lodging heavily depend on your proximity to a venue, but it will probably be a few hundred for a hotel room. Transportation heavily depends.
Seats
It really depends on the venue. Being close without actually being on the floor is probably your best bet. To prevent mobbing, all of the floor seats have actual chairs, but it can get quite intense down there and the tickets are more expensive. Lower 1st level seats close to the stage are what I consider to be the optimum. However, if you want the chance of getting to see BTS really close up, then you’ll wanna look for floor seats, but those can range from 300-500 USD at face value. The only VIP experience is soundcheck. These tickets are more expensive, but you’ll be let in with a small group of fans for floor seats and get to see BTS do their mic checks. There’s a higher chance of interaction with them there, but it is more expensive. Hi-touch and meet and greets aren’t something that BTS do now.
Even if you don’t get your ideal seats, there are huge screens and the staff do live camerawork and follow BTS around so you’ll have a good view. The show itself is very immersive, around three hours with no opening acts, and the production value is quite literally insane. If you want a taste, look up the concert performances of Anpanman, Euphoria, Dionysus, and Mikrokosmos of YouTube. Your seats won’t matter much when you get there. The vibe of being in a concert, enjoying music with your fellow ARMY, and getting to see BTS is magical.
Safety
BTS concerts in comparison to others that I have attended tend to be quite safe. ARMY as a fandom are pretty respectful and security guards have even said that they were blown away by how polite and well-mannered most fans are. However, there are always exceptions and it’s better to be safe than sorry. The times I felt most unsafe were trying to leave the concert because it was late at night and there’s so many people, but if you plan right, you’ll be fine. I recommend not attending alone if you can, but I wouldn’t be worried if that isn’t a possibility. For context, my first BTS concert I was with a friend and both of us were just sixteen with no adult chaperone and we never felt scared in the venue once.
The vibe on the floor can be more aggressive as people are moving around. Some may get pushy. It gets hot and there is always the risk of fainting. Also, you have to line up beforehand which is a whole ordeal and fairly time consuming. There are pros and cons to floor seats, but it may be a touch more dangerous if you have any of these concerns.
Preparation
Last time ticketing happened, there were three separate rounds of ticketing. An ARMY membership presale which happened first, then a lottery-draw fan presale that you had to register for, and then finally a regular ticket sale. All of these happened on different dates in successive order. Theoretically, to optimize your chances, you should purchase an ARMY membership which will give you the best chance of snagging a ticket if they go about ticketing in this manner again.
Make a TicketMaster account beforehand and enter all of your information including payment. Make sure you have enough money in your account for the transaction to go through without issue. Look at the venue map beforehand for your ideal section. There will be extra fees tacked onto the ticket price such as taxes and processing fees so account for that when you’re putting money in your account. Last time they offered pre-registration which was selected lottery style. It’s worth it to register in case you get picked. Be wary of ticketing on multiple devices, as the similarity in IP address may make TicketMaster suspicious. However, you can ask your friends and family to help you out by ticketing too. Beyond ticketing, you should also book your lodging and transportation if relevant in advance.
The Final Hour
Make sure that you clear your schedule for a few hours when ticketing happens. You will want to be somewhere where you won’t be distracted and the wifi is high speed which you can test through googling “internet speed test”.
The specific time tickets go on sale will be announced and you want to log on about 15-30 minutes before. DO NOT REFRESH UNLESS YOUR PAGE CRASHES. Once you enter the ticketing queue (the dreaded purple walking man) if you refresh, you will go to the back of the line. Keep an eye the whole time. It will tell you that there are 2,000+ people in front of you, but just hold faith and eventually the screen to select tickets will appear.
You gotta move fast. Tickets will blip out of existence in seconds. Being extremely picky will not benefit you. Know sections that you would be okay with getting tickets in and keep those in the back of your head if you don’t get your first choice selection. Where you sit doesn’t matter that much and you’ll come to understand that when you actually get to the venue.
Once you have the tickets in your cart, check out ASAP. Don’t give up during the process, even if it seems crazy as hell. Once you’ve gotten it all confirmed, take a deep breath, and get excited! You’re gonna see BTS! Congrats!
So, you don’t get a ticket. What do?
Hope is not lost. Trades and resells. There are Facebook groups exclusively dedicated to selling/trading tickets, so check that out. Just be wary of scammers. You can also get resold tickets which tend to be more expensive. That’s how I got the tickets to my first BTS concert. They were $255 each for seats on the first level, but the subtotals added around another $50. StubHub is a good site for that.
Notes

• There are specific guidelines for the bags you can bring into the stadium. Please look at the venue’s rules beforehand. I just recommend that in general.
• BTS concerts are a full day/two day experience. Take time off of school or work for it if you can because it’s pretty time consuming.
• Plan for the weather! The Chicago concerts were super cold and rainy and the New Jersey concerts were quite hot. Dress appropriately for the weather and bring relevant layers as needed.
• Having an ARMY Twitter account will be helpful. Look for social media projects related to your venue. You should be able to find them through searching Twitter. This may be a special fancant or something else.
• My personal advice: pre book Ubers/Lyfts and set a designated meeting spot. Trying to get one after the show is hellish.
• There is no bad seat in the house. Just different perspectives. See here, here, here, here, and here.
• If you have close ARMY social media friends who are attending and want to meet up, make plans to meet at a designated place. Also, some of the local fan bases will set up seat buddy google forms so that people can get to know the people they’re sitting next to beforehand.
• Official song fanchants are put out on BigHit’s website. Try and familiarize yourself with them beforehand.
  • The standard name fanchant goes as follows. “Kim Namjoon, Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jeongguk, BTS!” Here’s a good example.
• Some ARMY are known to give out freebies at concerts, so don’t be worried if someone asks you if you want some.
• Don’t call ARMY bombs, ARMY bombs around security or outside the venue. Locals will not know what you mean and it can get you in some hot water. Instead, call it a lightstick.
• People dress up for BTS concerts like they’re gonna walk a fashion runway. It can be fun to plan a cool outfit, so if you’re gonna do that, but things beforehand. Nobody’s gonna judge you if you don’t, but as an ARMY culture thing it’s pretty common.
• If you have medical issues, I recommend contacting the venue beforehand to make a plan of action and figuring out specifics. Will save you time and trouble at the venue.
• Most people arrive at the concert 3-4 hours early to hang out, get freebies, meet new ARMY friends, meet up with social media friends, and buy merch. You can always show up an hour or so beforehand, but that bonding time is a lot of fun! Plus, merch lines are very long so you’ll need to have time for that.
• Besides your phone/wallet/essentials, don't bring anything you don't want taken away. Although unlikely, it could be lost or stolen.
• If you’re driving, figure out your parking plans in advance by looking at the venue website. Some have special parking passes.
• Wear decently comfy shoes! Although there are seats at all the venues, you will be standing for the majority of three hours and you will feel as if you have just gone through an intense workout between the jumping around and the screaming.
• Security can make your life bothersome if you bring prohibited items into the venue so do your research beforehand on what is allowed and what isn’t.
• Make a safety backup plan in terms of people you can call for help or stay with in case anything goes south. Police and security guards are always around in case you need help, so don’t be afraid to ask. There are also first aid stations should you need medical assistance.
• You will probably be given a slogan (paper sign). Keep it for posterity!
• I had a folder on my phone with screenshots of my ticket’s barcode, fanchants, confirmation emails for my transportation/lodging just in case I couldn’t access the internet.
• Cameras other than your phone and small lenses that attach to it are not allowed. This is a BigHit policy to combat fansites and also ensure that you are getting the most out of your experience.
• Here’s a comment with some very good advice about concert etiquette
• The entire experience of a BTS concert is magical. Your seats or how much merch you could afford don’t matter. It’s a once in a lifetime experience and you will never regret it. I can’t even properly describe it, but seeing BTS live was one of the highlights of my life.

Things to Bring

• Clear backpack/bag that meets stadium guidelines
• Charged portable charger with cable (two if you’re feeling fancy)
• Earbuds!
• Small wallet. I don't recommend bringing your entire wallet in case it gets stolen. A mini wallet with your ID, a credit/debit card, and cash will suffice.
• Tickets! If you have a digital ticket, bring print-outs as well just in case. I would also bring printouts of the tickets/conformations you will need for your transportation and lodging for the night.
• ARMY bomb and batteries. These can be officially bought through Weverse Shop although they are sold in other places. Ebay and Depop are good bets, but you can’t guarantee they are official.
• Venue map
• Chapstick, deodorant, hand sanitizer, sunscreen stick, wipes, gum, OTC or your personal PRN prescription drugs (if needed), earplugs, and period products if relevant.
• Water bottle and a granola bar. Sometimes security will let you keep them, sometimes they won’t, but it can’t hurt to try. Bring an empty, reusable bottle to fill up once you’re in the venue.
• If you want, add some BTS themed decorations like pins or keychains. There are a lot of fanmade ones on Etsy. BT21 keychains are always cute. Here are some examples.
• Something to do while waiting in line. There are lots of people to chat with, but it may not hurt to bring a game of something like BTS UNO or a slim paperback if you get tired of being social.
• A paper fan if it’s gonna be hot
• A jacket or rain slicker if it’s gonna be cold or rainy
• Here’s an ARMY nurse’s tips on what to bring to keep your health in tip top condition while concertgoing
• Binoculars (not a necessity, but may be nice if you’re in high up seats)

Hey all...I've been pretty exhaustively trying all the current streaming services. I know this is a Stadia group but I thought if anyone out there is curious about what the experience is like on other services, perhaps you could benefit from a layman's experience using each service and trying to make it my "main" service. Like I said, I'm a layman, not a professional reviewer, so there's a lot of things I'm still learning, but having tried all three of the major services, here's my thoughts.
Edit: Please bear in mind this is not an exhaustive list, just some thoughts based on a couple of months of on and off testing. I'm certainly not trying to sway or influence anyone's purchasing decisions, just giving some general thoughts that might help when trying to decide which service to look into. I know not everyone can get ahold of / rush out and buy all of the devices I have listed here - I happen to work for a tech company so I have a lot more devices floating around than most other people. Your mileage, of course, may vary!
I know there's also Steam Link, but since that requires you to have a PC capable of playing the game in the house somewhere, I'm not considering that a streaming service.
Testing Devices:

• ChromeCast Ultra (Stadia Only)
• iPad Pro 2020
• Asus G14
• Pixel 2 XL (xCloud only)
• iPhone 12 Pro Max (Stadia only)
• nVidia Shield (GeForce Now only)
• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook (Stadia only)

Amazon Luna

Notable Games: Control, lots of highly rated indie titles (Blasphemous, Bloodstained, Iconoclasts)
To be fair, I only have about 6 hours on Amazon Luna, but they've been pretty excruciating. My wifi averages about 75-90 MBps, and about half of the games I tried suffered from lag and graphical smear, mostly the Ubisoft+ games. The indie games played fabulously well. Luna is probably the service I have the least to say about. It's $6 a month for Luna on it's own, so it's kindof like the "also-ran" effort - it's cheap, but might be the most forgettable of the bunch. The user interface is better than GeForce Now, worse than Stadia, and unlike Stadia it doesn't seem like Luna can be enhanced with browser extensions.
I have Ubisoft+, so I tried to play Immortal: Fenyx Rising on Luna and it was absolutely horrible. Smeared graphics, dropped frames, input lag, the works. It was the only experience across all of the big three services that was literally unplayable. This seemed to be a problem only with the Ubisoft games, however, I have to stress.
Pros

• Netflix-style game selection, with lots of indie titles you don't see many other places. Control is the only standout AAA title, and it looks and plays fantastically. Indie games were great too.
• Integration with Ubisoft+ is seamless and the games just become part of your library.
• Twitch integration is pretty cool - nice to see streamers who are playing the game live when you jump into the game page.
• Runs in the browser but also has dedicated apps - a plus for me.
• Luna is probably the best service for Twitch streamers - it's integrated right into the UI. I don't stream so I wasn't able to test it, but it seems pretty easy.

Cons

• Seems to be in Early Access, so I literally don't know anyone else who has gotten an invite.
• The pro of having niche indie games is offset by the con of not having a wide game selection. Of all the services, seems like Luna has the least, but broadest, selection.
• Seeing an ad for Luna, WHILE PLAYING LUNA, was irrationally annoying. Amazon just can't freaking help themselves I guess.
• I signed up for Luna fully expecting to play all of my games claimed through Prime Gaming...literally none of those games are available.
• If there's a way to find Luna from the main Amazon home page, they've hid it pretty well. I'm sure it's buried in one of their dozens of menus but I could not for the life of me find a quick and easy way to get to Luna from Amazon dotcom.
• This is a very minor point, but Amazon Luna ONLY works on Chrome, while Google Stadia works in either Chrome or Edge Browser (since it's built on Chromium). Probably doesn't make a difference for most people, but to me Edge seems to run better, so I'm docking a point.

GeForce Now

Notable Games: Cyberpunk 2077, Control, Immortals: Fenix Rising, Metro series, Destiny 2 (all paid)
I picked up an nVidia Shield specifically for GeForce now, but my wife and I have ended up using it primarily for Kodi and to watch Netflix more than playing any games on it. I'll just say it straight out - GeForce Now sucks ass. It's a broken, shoddy, inconsistent mess. It's actually WORSE on the Shield than it is on PC, because there are so many times when I needed a keyboard to do anything. I tried playing Immortals: Fenyx Rising on GFN on my Shield which required me to log into Ubisoft+. I'm fine with that, since you only have to do it once...but using the Shield remote that came with my Shield, the on-screen keyboard never popped up, forcing me to track down a second keyboard from in my garage and plug in. After I plugged in the physical keyboard....THEN the onscreen keyboard popped up and just mirrored what I pressed on the physical keyboard. What? Why?
Games are all over the place as well. Witcher 3 was a nightmare - every time you try to play the game, it wants to install the DLC packs onto whatever virtual machine you've been assigned. Then when you can play, it dips so far under 30 fps it's literally better to just play it on a budget PC with Hairworks off.
Plus the Shield ain't cheap - it was like $200 at Best Buy, and didn't include a controller. $100 more gets you a Series S, and $100 LESS gets you a Stadia-enabled Chromecast WITH a solid as hell controller, just for comparison's sake.
Pros

• Raytracing, I guess. Control looks great?
• Links with Steam, GOG, and Epic, so you keep your games if the service goes down at some point in the future. Also technically "cheaper" overall than Stadia cos you can find cheap keys online or Steam sales (which seem to be more frequent than Stadia sales) and still get the game in your GeForce Now.
• GFN seems to have the widest selection of enabled games. Not all that impressive since you have to own the game already, but this does give it somewhat of an advantage.
• Links to Epic library, which is cool. 80% of my games on Epic were not GFN enabled, which is not as cool.

Cons

• Literally the hardest of the big three services to use. Not a "pick up and play" experience. Requires a lot of effort to get working, and even then, inconsistent across platforms.
• Even on nVidias own hardware, it can be tricky to figure out what games actually are on GeForce Now and which aren't and get them running right.
• Some games just don't play well. Witcher 3 is a buggy, low framerate mess...while Control is smooth as butter. No rhyme or reason as to why. I couldn't get Mankind Divided to play full-screen - it always wanted to play in a window.
• Since you're just running a virtual machine, you still have to fiddle with graphical settings. Some games don't look right when first started, and you have to remember to go into the settings and change things to match whatever screen you're on.
• Twice I still had to wait in a queue to play even though I paid for the Founder's subscription. Insanely frustrating.
• One hour limit to gameplay if you don't pay for the Founder's subscription, and you're stuck waiting in a queue. There were times where I was in a queue of over 300, which translated to upwards of 18 minutes one session, waiting to play. I would go as far as to say, if you don't pay for Founder's, don't bother with GFN at all.
• Also, just because I don't have anywhere else to put this, Ubisoft's Cloud Save system is atrocious. This isn't nVidia's fault, I just want to complain about it.

Google Stadia

Notable Games: Cyberpunk 2077 (paid), Hitman: World of Assassination (Pro), Destiny 2 (Pro), Red Dead Redemption II (Paid)
Stadia is easily the best overall, but it still has its cons. I came to Stadia thanks to Cyberpunk 2077 so I have the most hours played on Stadia of the big three services. Stadia on the Chromecast Ultra seems to me to be the hands down best way to play streamed games currently.
Of all the services, Stadia was the one that felt the least like a "me-too" service and more like a dedicated platform. Almost all of the other services felt like a way for corporations to dip their toe in the water and figure out if there's money to be made, while Stadia feels like someone who really grasps and cares about gaming is at the helm.
Pros

• Least barrier to entry. Download Chrome or Edge Browser, grab any bluetooth controller, and you're off the races.
• No subscription required. You can play any game purchased on Stadia without a subscription with no queue system, no picking a virtual machine, no Steam big picture mode...it's just, hit the Play button and go.
• This is a big one for me - seems to have the best "capture" integration. Though, the iOS / Android app could use work (just let me download the image and share it? Why do I need to share a link?) overall, sharing your snaps and vids is pretty easy on Stadia.
• Playing with the Stadia controller on my TV after picking up a Chromecast Ultra felt like magic.
• Similarly, being able to "pick up and play" games like Cyberpunk 2077 on a Chromebook felt similarly magical. The game looked its best, believe it or not, on a Samsung Chromebook that I tested at Best Buy. Random side note but the Google guy at Best Buy was SO EXCITED that I wanted to check out Stadia on a Chromebook. He was over the moon.
• The game selection for Pro does have some interesting titles that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise. But see Con 1 below.

Cons

• The game selection for Stadia Pro is a tad lackluster at the moment. Definitely enough to keep me playing, but there wasn't really a "must have" title that jumped out at me. Bunch of average, quite playable titles
• The game selection for purchases is a little thin as well, seeing as how the service is over a year old at this point. I know it’s on literally every other platform but I would have loved to do a second play through of Control on Stadia, and stuff like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Hades, even some older indie titles like Transistor or Pyre, some of the Lego games...
• UI seems like an complete afterthought, which is a little weird since this is a Google product. This is solved a little bit by extensions like Stadia Enhanced, but that's a third party fix so I'm still listing it as a con. No search? Captures seem deprecated?
• Probably the highest "cost" to play, since you have to buy the games outright, and sales seem few and far between. If Stadia just vanishes at some point (which, let's be fair, Google has a track record of doing with their services) they haven't really outlined what happens to your library.
• No raytracing yet. Not really a con for me personally, but other services offer it.
• This may just be a bug but I'm listing it as a con - a number of times the Stadia homepage just wouldn't load. I was left staring at the Stadia logo wondering what was going on for minutes at a time. I'd have to close out of the browser and restart. Not sure if that's an issue with Chrome, but it seemed to happen on Edge browser as well.
• Stadia-specific versions of games. Now, hear me out - usually this is a PRO not a con, but in Stadia’s case it seems to be a con as making a wholly new build of a game for a specific platform probably just isn’t in the cards for a lot of developers. That could be what’s slowing down a lot of games coming to Stadia - the time and money required to build a new version of the game. Hopefully we see some “Stadia first” games that will convince other developers to jump on board.

Xbox Game Pass / Game Pass Unlimited / Gold / Live / Play Anywhere / xCloud / Whatever it's being called these days

Notable Games: Nier: Automata BAG Edition, Dragon Quest XI S, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
Xbox Game Pass gets added to this list on a pure technicality.
So, technically Xbox Game Pass isn't a streaming service, but I include it because on Android, there actually is a "cloud" option for playing your console Game Pass library. The Cloud streaming works surprisingly well, but you're limited to either an Android tablet or phone because it doesn't seem to work properly on Android TV. I've heard you can sideload onto the nVidia Shield, but that was beyond the scope of what I was trying to accomplish with these reviews...I just want something I can pick up and play. So, yeah if you don't mind playing on your phone, Game Pass Cloud is actually probably the best of the bunch in terms of ease of use and game selection. There are so many things I want to play on Game Pass it's actually a little overwhelming. However, I don't want to stare at a 5" screen for hours to do so.
Pros

• Wide game selection with lots of games being added every month (almost every week, seems like)
• Broad game selection - seems to be some standouts from just about every game genre. I know this seems like a repeat of point one, but they're very different things - it's one thing to just throw a ton of games on your service, its another to make sure you're representing every genre out there, which Game Pass seems to do more admirably than any other service.
• Streaming seems to work just fine. I was able to play Dragon Quest: Inquisition on my Android phone with very little issue. Couple of times the connection dropped, but it was no better or worse than Stadia.
• It seems like services are stumbling all over themselves to get included in Game Pass.

Cons

• Again, inconsistent experience. Offerings are different on console than on PC...why is Torchlight III a console exclusive? Why are all the good games pushed to console and cloud, with PC being an afterthought?
• Games seem to come and go randomly - some popular games pop up for a few months and are gone, other seemingly niche titles have been on the service since launch
• Probably the biggest con - no streaming on PC, iOS, or Android TV. Baffling choice. Maybe there's business reasons I'm not aware of, but as a user, it's maddening.
• Minor point, but good lord Microsoft needs to simplify EVERYTHING related to Xbox. No one can figure out what the hell service we have when I try to talk to people about it - there's Game Pass, but there's also Games with Gold, then there's Live, then there's Game Pass Ultimate, but there's also Play Anywhere, which isn't really a service, just some sort of cross-play, And the number of times people thought I have a Series X when I actually have a One X was insanely frustrating as well. I know this doesn't have anything to do with the service, but jeez man why is everything Microsoft does so haphazard?

Whew! I actually had way more to say on this topic than I thought, I guess. I've probably spent more time and energy on this than I should have, but working from home has given me a lot of time on my hands, so hopefully my experiences can help save someone else some time and effort. Would love some counterpoints as well!

If you were not aware, Comcast (which is a de facto monopoly in many parts of the state) instituted new data caps of 1.2 terabytes per month for internet starting Jan 1. Customers will be charged if they go over 1.2TB, but deceptively, these fees are waived until March 2021 (I presume so no one catches the policy change until months into effect). This may seem like a lot of data, but even a small household with HD-4K streaming, video chat like Zoom for school/work, maybe some video gaming (many games have huge downloads), etc will easily put the average household over the cap and cause fees.
Comcast clearly did this to make more money off of us. It's 2021, the internet is not a "luxury" but a completely necessarily utility (try maintaining a job, or hell even finding a job, without the internet). The fact that we are being charged more than our already high rates is absurd. We're already being fucked by the lack of competition in high-speed (don't tell me Verizon or Frontier with their 40mbps max speeds compares to what Comcast/Xfinity and Cablevision/Optimum offer, it's incomparable).
I recommend that you look up your reps and write them IMMEDIATELY to act to ban these data caps. There is no reason the largest entertainment conglomerate company in the country needs to nickel and dime us for more money.
Here is what I wrote my reps, Rick Lopes (Senate) and Manny Sanchez (House):

Hello Senator Lopes, Congratulations on being elected to the Senate, I am happy to say I was one of your voters. I am writing because I am deeply concerned about Comcast’s new data policies, and action is needed by yourself and your colleagues (I’ve also written to Rep. Manny Sanchez as well) to protect consumers. As you are likely aware, Comcast under their Xfinity brand is a de facto monopoly in many parts of the state. If a resident needs high-speed internet there are often no alternative options except slow, dial-up options falsely advertised as “high speed” – I live on Shuttle Meadow Ave for example, and other than Comcast at 100+ mbps, the only option is Frontier at “up to 40 mbps” which would suffer even in my 2-person household. There is frankly an illusion of choice, and anyone wishing to have competent internet for work and school is forced to take the local high-speed provider. Recently, Comcast announced a 1.2 terabyte monthly data cap taking effect Jan 1, 2021 which would charge users for overages. This is DEEPLY alarming for CT residents especially during a pandemic, but will persist beyond COVID-19. Over a terabyte seems like a lot of data, but for a family using video chat, streaming entertainment, and/or video games it is very easily surpassed. The net effect of this policy will be a majority of Connecticut families will be forced to pay even higher rates to Comcast/Xfinity. You need to pass legislation banning such data caps immediately. There is no actual justification for Comcast creating data caps. This is merely a response to “cord-cutting”; with more customers leaving cable in favor of streaming video, Comcast is looking to make internet their profit puppy. The issue, however, is that unlike cable which is primarily for entertainment, the internet in 2021 is an essential utility—try finding a job or staying employed without internet access. Comcast says they need the data cap to promote network infrastructure stability, but Connecticut users already pay far more for internet than those who live in areas with greater ISP competition. Moreover, Comcast is a massively profitable company which just acquired NBC/Universal. It is the largest cable TV and home internet company in the United States. There is absolutely no need to listen to their lobbyists, because they will only continue to act in the company’s best interests rather than those of your constituents like me. I respectfully request that you pass legislation banning such data caps for home internet. Moreover, I would love to see legislation that increases competition in some way. In the UK, for example, legislation was passed to force ISPs to rent out their network infrastructure to competitors—similar to how CT residents can “choose” their energy provider, which rents on Eversource infrastructure. This kind of solution both promotes competition and better prices for consumers, and removes barriers to entry for new businesses (namely setting up an entire network). Moreover, I would love it if we passed a state net neutrality bill. It is clear that the federal FTC has abandoned the best interests of the American people, for example the exiting chairman Ajit Pai is a former Verizon lawyer and has demonstrated his loyalty to them time and again in office. Net neutrality is supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and is in the best interests of consumers, to the detriment of service providers who are looking for more ways to make money off of us. I would love to discuss this issue in more depth, and help research other states’ approaches to similar legislation if you need it (I am a law student at UConn).
Regards, [NAME]

Also, I need to rant about why I hate Comcast so much. They are an absolutely horrid company. To name a few:

1. They rebranded as "Xfinity" to create the illusion of being a different entity. Deceptive as hell.
2. They offer insane prices compared to places with greater competition (no duh).
3. They are a massive conglomerate who uses this vertical integration not to reduce costs for consumers, but to drive them up. (You would think based on basic economics that they would use economies of scale to save money, which they do, but they don't pass these savings on).
4. They sell your internet usage data to advertisers and it's a cost of having internet with them.
5. By default they force your router to offer Xfinity wifi hotspots to passers by.
6. Like most monopolies, they offer better rates to new customers than loyal, existing customers.
7. They have repeatedly argued that internet is not a utility and instead argue it's a luxury.

I can pull citations if needed.

Note: I was technically supposed to post this earlier this week, but noticed that no one was signed up for today (plus I was super busy earlier), so I'm posting a bit late, under a throwaway account! Fair warning: I'm VERY verbose, so this will be long!
Section One: Assets and Debt
As I mentioned above, I make $56k per year as an administrator in higher education. My husband (K) just got a raise to making $155k per year. He works as a lawyer, has been in the workforce for about 12 years. I won't get into too many details but he works for a small boutique firm, not Biglaw. He also sometimes gets a yearly bonus of around $10k-20k but it's not guaranteed or anything like that. K and I have totally combined finances, so the below numbers are for both of us. I have a humanities PhD but I decided to leave academia and find an alt-ac job. My current position has good work-life balance (I never work past 5 pm), but pays terribly and my university is very badly run. I'm hoping to leave higher education all together in the future and am currently enrolled in a certificate program to try to make a career transition to instructional design.
The big elephant in the room is that my husband, K, makes a lot more money than me. When we first met, he was paying off massive amounts of student loans and making much less, and I was debt free with a lot of savings, so we both spent about the same amount. Now he makes 3x what I make and we are both debt-free, so the difference is much more noticeable. We do argue about money sometimes (more in the past), but the reality is that I have a humanities PhD and will likely never out earn him, and he knew that when I married him, lol. Because of all the labor I do around the house and in our lives to support him as he works a much more intense job, I was very clear that I believed we should split our finances equally as soon as we got married. We don't have separate accounts and we generally check in with one another whenever we are planning to spend more than $100. This system works for us for now.
I also want to address the question about parental or family support. Although I technically paid all of my own bills since I got my Bachelor's degree, my parents supported me a lot by paying for my flights home to visit at Christmas or in the summer as Xmas presents/birthday presents. My parents also paid for my undergraduate degree (and K's parents paid for his undergraduate degree as well). They also gave us about $15k to pay for our wedding.
Finally, my parents recently gave me $20k as an "early inheritance." They told me they plan to do this every year (depending on the stock market). We put this money into a brokerage. I don't consider my parents rich, as they both worked hourly jobs in health care my entire life (as a nurse and respiratory therapist - both with only associate's degrees). We never owned a new car, when we went on vacation we stayed in hostels , and shopped almost exclusively at Goodwill. But they scrimped and saved and now they have over $1 million in a retirement account. So I want to acknowledge my financial privilege in that I came from this kind of background. K's parents are similar.
Retirement Balance: $186k (combination of 401k, 403b, 457, 2 Roth IRAs, and taxable brokerage account).
Equity: None, we rent.
Savings account balance: Approximately $45k.
Checking account balance: Right now, around 8k.
Credit card debt: Right now, around $3k. But we pay it off each month with our checking account balance.
Student loan debt: $0. We finally paid off my husband’s law school loans (around $130k), last year. I didn’t have any student loans from undergrad (parents paid) and my MA & PhD were fully funded.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I’ve been working in my current field for 3 years. I started off making about $53k and got tiny 2% “merit increases” twice. Then in July my payroll title was changed, which triggered a required raise of about $2k. (I am dramatically underpaid).
Before my current position, I was in academia. I worked as a visiting assistant professor for one year at my alma mater (made $50k for 9 months of work) and before that I was a graduate student for 7 years. I was paid $18k-21k in stipends each year and my tuition & benefits were covered. Luckily, I lived in a very low cost of living area and this was enough for me to live on without going into debt. I got my PhD in 2017. Before I was a graduate student, I taught English in Japan for three years and made around $36k per year. In high school and college, I had random jobs that provided grocery/spending money, but I was lucky enough to have parents that paid my tuition and my rent in college.
I’m currently trying to make a career change (as you will see in my diary) and enrolled in a certificate program which runs from Autumn 2020 to Spring 2021 in order to help with that.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $7,634. This probably seems low relative to our joint income, but we max out our 401k (K) and 403b (me). I work for the state government, which means I’m also eligible for something called a Deferred Compensation Plan (457b). This is basically the same as a 401k but you can withdraw contributions and gains from the account at any age without penalty (of course, you still have to pay taxes). I also max this out, and the limit is the same as a 401k/403b - $19.5k. Also this number is before K’s raise is accounted for. It won’t increase until his end of February paycheck.
Other deductions - I have health insurance taken out (about $80 a month for me, K’s firm covers his premiums) and taxes. WA has no state taxes, so it’s only federal taxes. I used to have to pay $50 / month for a bus pass (K's was free), but I don’t pay any longer because I’m working from home during COVID.
Final note - the sum I mentioned in the headline includes a variable bonus my husband gets. My base pay is $56k and his is $155k (as of February 1). This year he also got a bonus of $20k, which is set up a bit strangely. About $4k of this was structured as a 3% matching contribution to his 401k and the rest was taxable income. In small law firms, it’s unusual to get any 401k match so this was nice.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: None.
Any Other Monthly Income Here: We get some interest from our savings account… like $25 a month.
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: Rent comes to approximately $2,050 total for a one-bedroom apartment. Rent itself is $1886, then we have pet rent ($25 per month), bicycle parking ($15 a month) and water / sewage / gas, which is usually $120-150 (variable cost).
Renters insurance: $157.76, paid annually. $13 a month.
Retirement contribution: In addition to the 401k, 403b, and 457, which all come out before taxes, we max out our Roth IRAs. That means $500 each per month per person (for a yearly total of $6k each). As I noted up top, we match out our 401k and 403b (19,500 each) and our 457. My employee also offers a 7.5% match. K's employee offers a 3% match but it is included in his yearly bonus so it's not guaranteed (confusing).
Savings contribution: We put $500 per month into our emergency fund. We also put about $860 a month into our “sinking fund,” which covers large and small annual or sporadic purchases such as vacations, gifts, Amazon Prime renewal, car insurance and renters insurance, etc.
Investment contribution: $875 per month into a taxable brokerage at Vanguard.
In total, we save about 47% of our gross income. We can do this because we keep our housing cost low relative to our high income, we don’t have any debt remaining, we don’t have any kids or parents who need financial support, and we’re very privileged in a lot of ways. We are hoping to FIRE within 10 years.
Debt payments: None.
Donations: We budget $100 per month for donations, which includes one-time donations as well as some reoccurring donations. My husband does pro bono work as well. I would like to increase this by quite a bit, but I still have a hard time budgeting for donations because I spent 7 years living on approximately $20k a year. To go from that to making more than 10x that amount within 3-4 years is obviously something that I am very privileged for, but it is still hard for me emotionally to comprehend at times.
Electric: ~$50-100 (billed every other month)
Wifi/Cable/Landline: An extortionate $87.12 for slow internet that only works for Zoom calls about half the time. Do I really live in one of the tech cities of the future?
Cellphone: $170 (This includes both service and paying off two new iPhones. We could have paid them off up front, but it was actually cheaper by like $50 to go on a payment plan.)
Subscriptions: BritBox ($7.70), Spotify ($16.50), HBOMax ($16.50), We Hate Movies Patreon (my favorite podcast - $8.81). My parents pay for Netflix and my sister pays for Hulu, and we all share.
Gym membership: None. K and I both run and do yoga with YouTube videos. Before the pandemic, we went to yoga classes pretty frequently in person. I’d like to do some online synchronous yoga classes but find it hard to make time.
Pet expenses: Varies, but I budget $50 per month and also include an emergency fund for my cat’s vet bills in our sinking fund. She’s 11 years old and probably asthmatic, so I know her vet bills are going to increase over time.
Car payment / insurance: We own our car outright. Insurance billed yearly is $2,097, about $174 per month.
Regular therapy: $0
Paid hobbies: Nothing regular, sporadic language classes and art supplies.
Other expenses: Right now I’m doing a certificate to hopefully help with a career change. The total cost for tuition is about $5k and we already saved it up (included in our 'sinking fund') basically through spending less during the pandemic. I’ve paid two quarters so far, and the last quarter (due in March) will be a bit more - about $2.3k.
__________
Day 1
Morning: I wake up at 5:30 am. Ever since the pandemic, my sleep schedule has been shot. At first, I was so happy not to have to leave the house at 7:15 for my 45 minute bus commute and I slept in a lot. But the stress (and maybe getting old?) has made me an early riser, no matter how much I try to sleep in. I do value my early mornings with just me, my cat, and my coffee, though.
I start work at 8 am and begin by triaging my emails. I have a bunch of deadlines this week, so it’s busier than usual. My job tends to be very seasonal, and sometimes I have a ton of work and sometimes I have none and can work on other longer-term projects. I have a piece of toast for breakfast and place a Whole Foods delivery order for the following day at 10:30 am. We made a meal plan and put everything in the cart the day before ($117.36, including tip).
Afternoon: I have my lunch break from noon to 1 pm. It doesn’t really matter when I take my lunch break, since I’m salaried, but the others in my office are hourly so in the before times we used to always close our office during the same time. I have a piece of leftover delivery pizza and some spinach risotto that I made a few days earlier. I also have half a brownie – the last one from a batch I made a few days ago (K gets the other half). He also has leftovers for lunch.
I should say at this point that both K and I are lucky enough to have been working almost entirely from home since early March. An area near Seattle was one of the first places to get hit by COVID-19, and my state and both of our employers have been taking it very seriously ever since. Working from home hasn’t always been easy since we live in a 600-square foot apartment. Also, there is a three-story townhouse being built directly next door to us and I can hear the pounding in my dreams at this point.
Around 2 pm, I go for a 2-mile run. I feel like some money diarists tend to toss off things like “oh, I went for an easy 7 mile run,” at the drop of a hat, so I want to be clear – running for 2 miles isn’t easy for me; it’s exhausting, annoying, sweaty, and generally gross. Also I am very slow. But it has kept me sane during quarantine.
Meanwhile, my husband goes to our local pet store to get an enzymatic cleaner (our cat peed in one of our suitcases… I think it’s probably a lost cause, but it was basically brand new, so worth a try) and special weight-loss cat food. Our cat is an 11-year-old rescue from the Humane Society and she is a chonky girl. We had to sign a waiver when we adopted her, saying that we understood that she was very overweight, lol. Our vet recommended a special diet food, rather than just restricting her intake as we have been doing, so we will give it a try ($78). My husband also stops buy our local wine store and picks up two bottles. We’ve been doing a dry January, so this will be our first drink for a while ($27.53).
I have a phone interview scheduled for 4 pm – just a preliminary interview with an internal recruiter. It’s the first ‘corporate’ job interview I’ve ever had, since I’ve been in academia my entire life. I’m trying to make a pivot into instructional design / training and development. I’m just excited to get an interview. It seems to go pretty well, but who knows. They tell me they will probably get back to me by the end of this week.
Evening: My husband whips up a random meal of fridge remnants – pesto pasta with sausage and a fridge salad with feta and bell peppers. It’s pretty tasty with a little Sauvignon Blanc. During dinner, we play a card game we call gin rummy, although it bears no resemblance to the actual game. After dinner, I make a chocolate cake with orange buttercream frosting and we watch Cobra Kai.
Daily total: $222.89
Day 2
Morning: Up early again, a piece of toast for breakfast (very exciting). We’re out of eggs until our Whole Foods order arrives. I’m working on creating some tedious but necessary spreadsheets this morning.
Noon: Our Whole Foods order arrives around noon. Excitement! They’ve given us a half-rotten bag of romaine lettuce and substituted pecans for hazelnuts. I should probably just double mask and go to Trader Joe’s myself (our regular spot, only a 5-minute walk from my apartment). I’m just getting anxious about these new variants.
I have leftover meatloaf and spinach risotto again for lunch. Lots of meetings and more organizing spreadsheets in the afternoon. Around 3 pm, I go for my daily ritual - a 20-minute walk around my neighborhood. It’s still raining slightly but I need to get out. Halfway through the walk, I get an email from my apartment manager telling me the apartment will no longer accept debit card payments, direct deposit, or credit card payments for paying rent. In other words, only checks or money orders (?!). Ugh. Our lease is up in 4 months and we will not be renewing our lease. Our last apartment manager was a gambling addict who may have been stealing people’s identities, but by God, he kept things working. Ever since they fired him, this place has been going downhill.
Evening: I check my bank statements to update my budget spreadsheet and realize that I have been billed the wrong amount of rent. They actually charged me less than they should have. I don’t trust my apartment manager not to start charging me a late fee or something for this, so I call them up. They are baffled by how to fix this, which you would think would be the one thing you would want to get right, if you’re renting out apartments.
K cooks dinner – steak with a Roquefort sauce and glazed brussels sprouts. It’s from a French cookbook we recently bought and it is delicious. I work on classwork for my certificate program while he cooks. After dinner, I do the dishes and buy the 13th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I watch the first episode – lots of shocking twists and turns! I’m planning to watch the rest of the episodes together with my younger sister, M ($22.01).
Daily total: $22.01
Day 3
Morning: K has an 8 am dentist appointment, so he takes off early. He already paid for the work last month, so there’s no charge. I have a piece of toast for breakfast and get to work checking my emails. It’s 8:20 am and the construction crew building a townhouse next door is blasting mariachi music. I’m glad someone is having fun. At least the sun is coming out.
Someone at work has made a critical error, but it wasn’t me, thank God. I was the one who found out about it, but it’s still going to cause a big old headache for me. I’m ready to be done with this job. K and I go for a run so that I can exhaust myself enough to no longer be furious about said careless error.
Noon: I have leftover spinach risotto and meatloaf again – exciting. I’m busy at work but frankly, not a lot going on other than that. Still no word about fixing my rent payments. I’m not really willing to pursue this any further at this point.
Evening: I start making chili (Turkey Chili from the NY Times) and cornbread (from my new cookbook, Jubilee). K is doing some work on our investments when he announces that, somehow, a transfer was scheduled from our checking account to our savings account of $55k (?!) We obviously don’t have $55k in our checking account, so we start frantically trying to figure out what’s going on. Numerous phone calls later, we still don’t know if that was a hack, if my husband somehow mistakenly scheduled the transfer himself, or if the bank messed it up. Either way, it doesn’t seem like any harm was done since the bank with our checking account just declined the transaction. But it seems really strange and worrisome. We get to work changing the passwords on all of our accounts, just in case it was some kind of hack.
After dinner (and chocolate cake), I have a Zoom happy hour with a local friend. We occasionally see each other outside but it’s nice to have a longer chat from the comfort of our living rooms. We both love murder mysteries, so we signed up for a service where a company sends us letters with clues and we try to solve the mystery together. It’s a fun way to stay connected and look forward to something during the pandemic. The service costs about $15 per month, but I paid for it in lump sum for 3 months, so it’s not included in my budget above. I drink some wine and we vent about work (we work at the same place) before getting started on the puzzle.
Daily total: $0
Day 4
Morning: I sleep in a bit, which is nice. Get up around 7 am. My parents are both getting their 2nd vaccine today – they’re both in their 70s and I am so relieved. I send my mom a “congratulations on being vaccinated!” text and we chat for a bit. I have leftover cornbread with honey and butter for breakfast – soooo good.
Work is not particularly exciting today, but someone sends me a last-minute request for something that does not need to be so urgent. I feel annoyed. Still no word from the interviewers on Monday, and I’m beginning to suspect I wasn’t selected to move forward. Too bad. K pays for a Wordpress website for the year (it’s a work-related website, but sadly his work doesn’t reimburse him). It costs $92.48.
Noon: The mariachi music is particularly loud today. I stand out on my balcony in the sun for a while and watch the workers. It’s been interesting seeing a house go up next door in real time, especially since I’m at home all the time. The workers are balancing on the top of the third story wall without, as far as I can see, anything like a safety line. It seems unsafe, but I presume they know what they’re doing.
We booked a cabin for the upcoming weekend in the Hood Canal region of Washington to do some hiking and birdwatching. I want to be as safe as possible and not go to any grocery stores or risk spreading COVID in any way while I’m there, so I place another grocery order with Whole Foods just for some special treats for the weekend. The cabin has a small kitchen and a grill, so we’re planning to make a fancy steak salad on Saturday. I order chips and hummus, some fancy cheese and meats, Tate’s cookies (I’ve heard a lot of good things about these), a baguette, and the ingredients for the steak salad. I also order a few staples I forgot in our last order, like sweet potatoes, more coffee, and half and half. It comes to $87.41, including tip, but that does include like $30 worth of steak. For some reason, I can’t order a small amount of steak online, so I’m planning to freeze half of it for later. (I include this purchase in our vacation fund budget, rather than under our regular grocery budget).
Around 2 pm, K makes a quick trip to our local wine store to buy an Oregon pinot noir and some port to enjoy at the cabin ($59.45). This store has an outdoor walk-up counter where you can tell the owner what you’re looking for, and he brings you some options (the store is way too small to allow customers to enter during Covid). It’s fun to chat with another human being, even briefly.
Evening: After work, we spend a little time rebalancing our investing and retirement accounts. We decide to put more money into bonds and a little bit into REIT’s as a hedge against a potential crash or recession in the future. Then I start making dinner – Broken Eggs (Huevas Rotas) from the NY Times cooking site. You basically cook the potatoes in a skillet in water, spices, and olive oil, and then sauté them to crisp them up once the water evaporates. Then you add onion, lots of garlic, and finally some eggs. It is delicious. I eat it with leftover cornbread while watching RuPaul’s Drag Race season 13 with my sister – we watch the first two episodes. It’s full of twists and turns. A note about this – we have an elaborate procedure for watching shows together developed during quarantine whereby we start the show at the same with an earbud in one ear, while FaceTiming. I also have chocolate cake, of course.
Later, I get an email that I’ve signed up for HBO on Amazon Prime. I definitely have not. I text my mom, who shares my account, and she tells me she signed up by mistake. I cancel right away and luckily they won’t charge us for it.
Meanwhile, K is doing an online Japanese language class over Zoom. He’s been interested in learning ever since we went to Japan last January. I lived in Japan for 3 years so I was able to take us around to a lot of more obscure places and he really enjoyed the trip – it was a blast.
K starts a YouTube yoga class (from Do Yoga With Me – my favorite channel) and I join him for part of it before bed around 10 pm.
Daily total: $239.34
Day 5
Morning: I get up around 7 am and we go for a run first thing. I prefer running early in the morning because there are fewer people to avoid during COVID. We do a different route today – it’s longer (3 miles) but has fewer hills. It’s a slog, as always, but I feel good when I get back right around 8 am. I jump straight onto my computer to start checking work emails and my husband makes us avocado and egg toast for breakfast - it is absolutely delicious.
We talk about how our bathroom smells distinctly mildewy (yay for being a grown-up because I guess this is what we talk about now) and we buy two big buckets of DampRid on Amazon ($26.60). I’ve found this to be a necessity in Seattle. Mid-morning, I take a break from work and start packing for our trip to the cabin.
Noon: I have leftover potatoes and cornbread for lunch, and my husband has the leftover chili. We finish getting ready to leave and head out right after lunch, taking a half day. The only problem is that I have attend a meeting at 3:30 pm, so we head out hoping to get there in time. Our cabin is near Quilcene in the Hood Canal region of Washington, about a 2 hour drive or a 2 hour ferry ride + drive. We are initially planning to take the ferry both ways, but realize that we mistimed the ferry departure, so we drive the whole way instead. Luckily, there’s little traffic mid-day, and we arrive at our Airbnb around 3:00 pm.
The Airbnb is beautiful! It’s a small cabin handmade by the owner, whose house is next door. It’s very rural, with a beautiful view. It’s tiny, but has a little kitchen and a waterfall-style shower with river rocks on the floor. It’s a great place to get away for a short time. Luckily, it also has good reception and I’m able to sit in on my meeting with no problems. My husband also does a little work, and then at 5 pm we’re free!
In our planning, we decided to get takeout on Friday night, since the little kitchen isn’t designed for any serious cooking. We call ahead to a local restaurant to order burgers (one of only 2 restaurants in the whole town). It’s around 5:30 pm and the place is deserted. It’s a microbrewery, but they tell us they haven’t been making beer since COVID-19 hit. None of the workers are wearing masks when I walk in, but they put them on when they see I’m wearing one. I pick up our order - a few bottled beers and burgers and fries ($49.52 including tip).
Back at our Airbnb, we watch Big Trouble in Little China and enjoy our very messy, but delicious, burgers (it costs $4.39 to rent). The movie is very campy but fun. I love silly action movies, as you will see with my other viewing choices. We wrap up the night in a very exciting fashion, eating chocolate cake and watching old episodes of the original Star Trek.
Daily total: $80.51
Day 6
Morning & noon: When we wake up around 8 am, the weather is looking thankfully clear and even sunny! We were expecting rain, so we’re really glad. We decide to go hiking today, and we head out before even having breakfast, with snacks and lunches packed. Our first destination is a hike called Mt. Zion, but unfortunately, we run into enough snow 2 miles before the trailhead that we decide to turn back. We don’t have any traction for our Subaru and don’t want to risk getting stuck on a very narrow mountain road. Instead, we drive another hour or so to the Lena Lake trailhead, a very popular and less strenuous trail. It’s about 7.5 miles roundtrip with 1200 feet of elevation gain.
By this time, it’s around 11:30, but luckily there is still parking. It’s a great hike up, and we run into relatively few people. We always mask up whenever we pass anyone, as does about 50% of the people we meet. The others… not so much. Around a mile from the lake, we start to run into snow. It’s turned into a beautiful sunny day, and I’m loving seeing all this snow! It’s a bit slippery, but not too bad. We make it to the lake mid-day, and it’s super jammed – there’s only a small viewpoint accessible, so everyone is crowded in there. I feel a bit uneasy with all the unmasked people, but we manage to find a spot away from the crowd and sit down to eat our lunch of apples, chips, and energy bars. There are a ton of robber jays there (Canada Jays) which try to eat our chips. It is fun watching them, but I’m annoyed to see some kids feeding them – it’ll just make them that much more aggressive. Bad trail manners.
On our way back down, we get stuck behind a group of 5 unmasked adults, who refuse to cede the narrow trail to faster hikers. I’m a slow hiker myself, so, to be clear, I’m not angry at slower walkers being on the trail but have some self-awareness and let people pass! especially if you’re going to go hiking in a big group during a pandemic! We finally get back down and head back to our Airbnb.
Evening: Back home, we explore some of the trails our Airbnb host has set up around his extensive property, and then relax on the deck. The sun is breaking through the clouds and it feels wonderful to sit out in nature and feel the sun on my back. We open up a bottle of wine and have a few pre-dinner snacks (more chips and hummus). For this night, we brought ingredients to make a steak salad. Our Airbnb host has kindly set up a charcoal grill for us, so we grilled the steak and toast some bread on the side.
We eat dinner while watching the truly terrible Jean Claude Van Damme movie Bloodsport and finish up the very last of my chocolate cake. It’s amazing that anyone ever let Van Damme act… or should I say ‘act.’ I also have a Tate’s chocolate chip cookie or two, accompanied by a little port. My husband and I are truly very old people at heart, so we finish up the night watching a few episodes of Columbo.
Daily total: $0
Day 7
Morning: Unfortunately, K had insomnia last night, so he sleeps in pretty late. I drink coffee in bed and enjoy looking at the view out our big windows. Once he’s up, we get packed up and write a thank you note for our host. It was a great stay.
One of my big hobbies is birding and K enjoys wildlife photography, so we go out to look for some lifers! (The first time you see a new species of bird). Did I mention we are very old people in (relatively) young bodies? We first go to Dosewallips State Park and see some bald eagles, great blue herons, lots of various ducks, and a flock of Canada Geese, which, strangely, includes a domesticated gray goose. He’s much larger than the Canada Geese and seems to be watching over them. It’s kind of cute. Unfortunately, a lot of the birds are too far from shore to be seen clearly.
Our next stop is Point No Point (I love all the sad & disappointed names that early Westerner explorers gave places in the Washington/Oregon coast), a popular birding spot. We see a ton of birds here, and I can understand why it’s so well-known - Red-Breasted Mergansers, Western Grebes, Common Goldeneyes, Pacific Loons, and a few others I can’t identify yet. Most excitingly though, we see a whole pile of otters! They’re lounging around together on a rock just offshore and a ton of people are watching. We watch as they all slip off the rock and go hunting in the shore. It’s my first otter sighting in the wild, and it’s so cool! We also see some seals and possibly a sea lion. It’s a great spot for wildlife. We eat some snacks (hummus, chips, some sliced meat & cheese) before we head out.
I really want to come back to this area another time and explore further, but K has decided that we need to get back home in time for the Big Game. We take the 3:00 pm ferry back to Seattle ($16.40) and get home around 3:45 pm. I veg out at home while my husband watches football. He’s a Patriots fan but he still loves Tom Brady (??) so he’s happy to see Florida win. I don’t understand sports team loyalties at all, but whatever, I’m glad he’s happy. We order from a new Indian place called Spice Box and get vindaloo, roganjosh, and vegetables pakora – so tasty ($53.96). Happily, there’s enough left over for lunch the next day, since I have no plans for what we will eat yet!
I’m really dreading work the next day, as I know that it will be obnoxious. I want to get out of my job so badly, but it doesn’t look like I’m going on to the next interview stage for the job I interviewed no back on Monday. I’m feeling kind of down about it. I try to stay positive and promise that I’ll apply for at least 2-3 new jobs next week. I bake up some frozen cookie dough I had in the freezer and feel sorry for myself. We end the night by watching another episode of Columbo.
Daily total: 70.36
Food + Drink: $395.23
Fun / Entertainment: $26.40
Home + Health: $26.60
Clothes + Beauty: $0
Transport: $16.40
Other: $170.48
Grand Total: $635.11
I think this week was pretty normal for us. Obviously we spent a bit more than usual due to the weekend cabin trip, but nothing outrageous. Our largest consumer spending category is definitely food and drink – we live in a very busy area of Seattle with tons of restaurants and bars so believe it or not, we actually used to spend even more on eating out. We still try to support our local places by getting takeout or delivery during the pandemic and even occasionally getting a few drinks outside. I spent more than usual on groceries due to stocking up for the weekend away.