u/abbybutterflly

Cutting back caffeine made me realize i was using it just to feel normal

I didn’t really think much about my caffeine habits until I started trying to cut back recently.

At first I thought I was just drinking coffee or grabbing canned drinks because I liked them but after lowering it a bit I realized I was mostly using caffeine just to feel normal during the day.

The weird part is I wasn’t even getting that much energy from it anymore. It was more like if I didn’t have it, I would feel slower and kind of off for a while.

After reducing it for a bit even smaller amounts suddenly started feeling stronger again not in some crazy way just more noticeable than before.

It honestly made me realize how fast tolerance builds when caffeine becomes part of your daily routine without you thinking about it.

I’m still not trying to quit completely or anything, but I definitely look at it differently now compared to before.

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u/abbybutterflly — 17 hours ago
▲ 6 r/drinks

Why do canned drinks feel so different now compared to a few years ago

I've been noticing this more lately when i grab drinks lately

Some of the usual canned drinks I've had for years still taste pretty familiar and consistent, nothing really surprising there.

But recently I've also come across a few newer ones that feel a bit different overall. It's little difficult to explain but the experience doesn't feel exactly the same as the older ones I'm used to.

It's not necessarily better or worse just different in a way that is noticeable after trying a few over time.

Even the flavours seem to be leaning in slightly different directors compared to what used to be common, like there's more variety now than before.

At first I didn't think much about it, but after trying a different ones on different days it's kind of stands out more.

I'm not trying to say anything specific is changing for the better or worse just observing that there seems to be a wider range of options now compared to a few years ago.

I want to know if anyone else has notice the same thing or if I'm just overthinking it.

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u/abbybutterflly — 3 days ago

Anyone else feel like building interactive courses takes longer than designing them?

Been doing instructional design for a while now and one thing I keep running into is how much time goes into actually building stuff vs designing it.

Like the planning part is fine figuring out structure, objectives, flow, all that but once it gets into production, especially anything interactive, it slows everything down.

Branching scenarios in particular always take more time than expected even small changes from stakeholders can turn into a full rebuild depending on the tool you’re using. And LMS export issues just add more back and forth than needed.

I don’t know if it’s just the way most tools are set up or if this is just normal in the industry, but it feels like the actual instructional part is maybe 30% of the work and everything else is just building and fixing.

Even when I’ve tried newer tools they help with drafting content but you still end up manually shaping everything into something usable for a real course.

I want to know if others are dealing with the same thing or if there are workflows people are using that actually reduce the production grind without making everything feel stripped down.

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u/abbybutterflly — 3 days ago
▲ 129 r/ExpatFIRE

The hidden costs of buying property abroad seem to get ignored in a lot of FIRE discussions

I’ve been looking deeper into overseas property markets recently as part of long term relocation planning and one thing that keeps standing out is how much discussion usually focuses on cost of living while the actual ownership side barely gets broken down properly.

Places like Bali and the Philippines obviously come up a lot because they still look relatively affordable compared to major US cities, especially if someone is thinking about semi retirement, remote work, or geographic arbitrage long term but once I started looking into property ownership itself instead of just rent prices, the numbers became a lot less straightforward.

The purchase price is usually the easy part to find what gets harder is understanding all the surrounding costs that affect the real long-term picture taxes, transfer fees, legal setup, ownership structures, ongoing maintenance, local regulations, and the restrictions that sometimes apply specifically to foreigners.

A lot of discussions online make overseas property investing sound very simple, but the deeper I research it the more it feels like one of those areas where people only fully understand the process after already going through it once themselves.

What surprised me most is how fragmented the information is you end up pulling pieces from expat forums, lawyer websites, YouTube videos, and random calculators just to estimate realistic numbers before even deciding whether buying abroad makes sense compared to continuing to rent.

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u/abbybutterflly — 5 days ago

Why is there no good chrome extension for cleaning TikTok reposts

Spent a couple hours browsing extensions for TikTok found tons for downloading videos without watermarks, found some for auto liking and follow unfollow stuff almost nothing specifically for reposts.

And the things I did find made me nervous some of them want your password right on the setup page, instant no from me. Others have reviews saying accounts got action blocked after using them because they delete things way too fast.

Here's what I actually want something that runs locally without asking for my password something that doesn't just nuke everything at once because I want to keep my recent reposts from the last month or so. Just need to clear out the old embarrassing stuff from like a year ago.

Also would be nice if it had gradual pacing not blasting through deletions in two minutes. Something that removes reposts at a normal human speed so TikTok doesn't think I'm a bot.

Does this even exist? I've looked around and haven't found anything that checks all these boxes most extensions either want your login info or move way too fast starting to think I might just have to deal with manual deletion.

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u/abbybutterflly — 6 days ago

I’ve been trying to understand how people in Dubai actually approach EVs, especially Teslas, and it doesn’t seem as straightforward as I expected.

On one side it feels like owning one makes sense if you’re staying long term and driving regularly but on the other hand I’ve also seen people mention that a lot of residents still test different cars or switch between options depending on their situation instead of committing right away.

What I didn’t think about before is how much flexibility seems to matter here some people don’t just jump straight into ownership they try different setups first, especially when they’re still figuring out how often they actually need a car or what kind of driving fits their routine.

Even outside EVs it feels like people in Dubai don’t always treat car usage as a fixed thing. Sometimes it’s full ownership sometimes it’s temporary use depending on lifestyle and sometimes it’s just about convenience for specific periods of time.

With Teslas specifically I want to know if most owners in Dubai actually bought theirs early on or if a lot of people experimented with different options before committing.

It just feels like the decision isn’t as direct as it might be in other places.

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u/abbybutterflly — 10 days ago

I’ve been thinking about how people approach cars these days and it feels like the default mindset is slowly changing depending on where you are.

In some places it’s still very straightforward if you need a car you just buy one and that’s it. But in other situations it doesn’t feel that fixed anymore.

Some people seem to move between different options depending on their situation sometimes renting makes more sense if you’re only staying somewhere temporarily or don’t want long term commitment other times people only use a car occasionally instead of owning one full time. And in some cases it even feels like having someone else handle the driving is becoming more normal than it used to be, especially in busy cities or travel situations.

What I find interesting is how that changes the whole idea of convenience. It’s not just about buying the right car anymore, it’s more about how often you actually need one and what kind of flexibility you want in your day to day life.

Even things like selling a car seems different now too because it doesn’t feel like people keep cars for as long as they used to.

I just want to know if this is something others are noticing as well or if ownership is still very much the default in most places.

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u/abbybutterflly — 10 days ago

I’ve been trying to figure out my undertone for a while and I feel like I’m going in circles at this point.

I’ve compared my skin to all those charts, looked at veins, tried the gold vs silver thing, and somehow I still don’t land on one clear answer some days I feel like I lean warm because certain earthy tones look decent on me but then I’ll wear something else and it completely throws that idea off.

What’s making it worse is photos depending on lighting, I look like a different person. Natural light, indoor lighting, even phone cameras change how my skin looks so when I try to compare myself to examples online it doesn’t feel reliable.

I’ve bought clothes thinking they would suit me based on what I thought I figured out, but then I wear them out and something just feels off not bad enough to return sometimes, but not good enough to feel confident in either.

Same thing with makeup some shades just don’t sit right even if they look fine on people with a similar skin tone.

At this point it feels like I’m just guessing every time I pick a color. I’m not trying to follow strict rules I just want some kind of consistency so I’m not second guessing every purchase.

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u/abbybutterflly — 14 days ago

I recently went through an IME for my workers comp case and didn’t expect it to shift things this much

Up until that point everything was based on my treating doctor the reports were pretty consistent, treatment was ongoing, and it felt like things were moving in a clear direction. After the IME, it’s like the same injury is suddenly being looked at differently.

Some things that were documented before don’t seem to carry the same weight now, and a few details that didn’t seem like a big deal earlier are suddenly getting more attention. Nothing about the actual injury changed but the way it’s being described definitely did.

That’s the part I wasn’t ready for it’s not even about agreeing or disagreeing with one doctor over another it’s just confusing seeing two completely different takes on the same situation. It makes it hard to figure out what actually matters when decisions are being made.

Right now it feels like I’m stuck somewhere in between those opinions and the whole thing depends more on how it’s interpreted than what actually happened.

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u/abbybutterflly — 15 days ago

Something I’ve been noticing more lately is how language can quietly become a barrier in live spaces without it being obvious at first.

People can be sitting in the same room fully present and engaged but still not really getting the full message depending on the language being used. It’s one of those things that doesn’t stand out immediately because everything else might feel inclusive on the surface.

I’ve seen a few different ways people try to handle it interpreters, separate sessions, that kind of thing and they do help but they also come with their own limitations usually it ends up being a trade off between how consistent it is and how simple it is to run.

What I’ve noticed is that once you try to scale any of those solutions things get complicated pretty fast more coordination, more planning, more chances for things to not line up on the day.

At the same time ignoring it isn’t really an option once you start seeing it happen.

Feels like it’s one of those areas where most people agree it matters but the practical side of actually solving it still isn’t as straightforward as it should be.

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u/abbybutterflly — 16 days ago

I’ve been looking at a situation recently where the main issue in the case isn’t really what happened but how the medical side is being interpreted by each side.

What’s interesting is that they’re basically working from the same set of records, but the way they’re being described makes a huge difference. One side presents it in a way that feels very direct and easy to follow while the other side focuses on small details that make things sound less clear or more questionable.

It stood out to me how much the framing of the same documents can change the overall picture. Nothing in the records themselves is different but depending on how it’s explained, it can either feel straightforward or a bit uncertain.

It also made me realize that in cases like this, it’s not just about having the medical information it’s about how well it’s put together and communicated when things get technical, even small differences in interpretation can change how the whole situation is viewed.

In a way, it feels like clarity becomes just as important as the actual content of the records themselves especially when the case depends heavily on medical details being understood correctly.

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u/abbybutterflly — 16 days ago