My wife and I were lucky enough to be able to purchase a home at a decent rate and then refinance a few years later to an even better rate (around 3.5%). We bought in 2019, when the world was still somewhat sane. The thought of trying to sell and get a new home at the higher rate makes me sick to my stomach and I feel bad for my brother-in-law.
I was working on one of my users desktops (adding RAM). The machine wasn’t recognizing all of it. I eventually cave and call tech support. Their solution was to not use all of the RAM slots. I called up the next day and got a competent person to replace the board, but pretty much all calls were like that.
I worked with HP once at an internship like 15 years ago…I still avoid them because of the shitty experience.
I switched to US Mobile last year. I had a rough month or two with data not working properly, but it’s smooth sailing now for $20/month for 5GB of data.
On the Kindle, you can email yourself e-books.
Have you checked out The Expanse series? I think it’s 8 primary books, with like 4 optional novellas. Its not exactly what you’re looking for, but it does deal with some of what you’re interested in. It was also turned into a pretty good TV show.
We have been very lucky and fortunate to acquire the American dream. My wife and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of her family though. Every time I look at the housing market it’s only gotten crazier.