Maaaaan, I loved dropout.tv! I was really bummed about the cop show cameo stuff though. it was hard to stop watching but I just don’t support shilling for the police in any capacity. Great group of talented entertainers though.

He only feels that way because he’s now too far behind to have any hope of being one of the gatekeepers.

Looks way worse than it is. Clean it out and add salt. The resin should be fine, they’re rated for like 15 years. I’m sitting at 20 years with mine and it still does a fine job. In fact, by happenstance a buddy works for Culligan and he doesn’t even bring up replacement unless the unit shows actual problems keeping water soft, regardless of age.

E. Another user mentioned bacteria, which can definitely be a cause for concern if the unit was sitting for that time, but should be less of an issue if it was just used without salt and NOT on bypass. Especially considering softeners typically have a pre-filter that sits in untreated water for 4-6 months at a time and a softener doesn’t sterilize water in any way. So you’re getting same bacteria regardless.

Hey thanks for sharing! I’d love to set one of these up for my kid (he’s 4) to play old emulators with. Is there a way to get it working in a kiosk type mode where he can’t get lost in a system menu or otherwise “stuck” outside of a game? I know I’ve configured emulators to auto launch roms before, but can the psp be setup to auto launch the emulator on startup, for example?

I am about the same age and my 4 year old is going through something similar, though admittedly less severe. I want to preface by saying he’s my first child and I don’t know what I’m doing and likely never will.

That said, I’ve made some progress over the last few months by forcing him to face smaller and less impactful disappointments. For example, he wanted ice cream at the grocery store, which is not something we typically buy but instead of saying no, I told him we could get ice cream, just not the one he wanted. I wanted vanilla and he wanted chocolate. As soon as he started to whine that “it’s not what he wanted” I reminded him the other option was none. Ice cream won, he was stoked and there was no melt down this time.

I’ve been doing the same thing in other ways here and there. “Yes I’ll play with you, but no I won’t play that game, how about this one?” And I just stay firm on the boundary of how with the alternative being “no” and fully accepting that a meltdown might ensue. I’ve noticed little by little he just seems to be freaking out less and less.

With meltdowns, the only way out is through, I’ve been told.

On the hand washing thing, I am guessing it’s a sensory problem. The water is too hot or too cold or too wet, something like that. I think you should cut him slack here, bodies are weird and this may be hard for him in a way that doesn’t make sense to you. Using sanitizer or a water-free hand soap is an option to reduce hand washing frequency, might make it easier on everyone.

Good luck!

What is the worst thing humanity has ever invented?

I personally think it’s running.