u/toe_beans_4_life

I have a 6 year old Galaxy A51. It's been a very reliable phone, but in the past couple of months it's had issues.

It was lagging really bad about a month ago, and got stuck in a bootloop once. I thought the issue was caused by a new app that I was using, so I deleted it and the issues did stop.

But then this week, my phone restarted itself and the same bugs were back (extreme lagging, restarting itself, etc).

It just did an automatic restart today but that resolved all of these problems and it's working perfectly fine again.

I looked it up and apparently Google has had major issues with its most recent updates, but I'm only seeing complaints from Google Pixel users online. It says my most recent Google update is from March 2026. Am I experiencing the same issues as those users, since my phone uses those Google updates?

I was getting nervous bc I thought I would have to get a new phone. But now since it's acting fine, I guess I won't unless it starts again. I know my phone is old, but this has to be some kind of software update issue if it's so off and on like this.

I'm re-reading A Series of Unfortunate Events for the first time since I read it as a child. And I'm realizing that this series included my first exposures in literature to both a gay couple and someone who doesn't fit gender molds (they're not described as any particular label, just too androgynous to tell their gender).

I don't recall understanding that Charles and Sir were a couple when I read book 4, The Miserable Mill. It's not subtle at all, I just didn't get it as a kid. But by the time I read The Penultimate Peril - when their hotel room was described as having only one bed plus they were holding hands - I understood it.

Although I will say that both depictions aren't really positive, you'd also be hard pressed to find any healthy, non-tragic adult relationship in the series. And the Baudelaire children make it obvious that the relationship isn't healthy, and encourage Charles to leave. As they do with many of the other bad things in the series. So the gay couple is portrayed similarly to the shitty or tragic straight couples in the books, on an equal playing field.

I did have multiple other queer family members that I knew of growing up. But my parents were extremely homophobic and transphobic when I was a kid, so finding something in my books like that was nice. I think it positively impacted me more than I know.

Someone posted recently asking for recommendations of media similar to HOL.

I noticed that multiple people recommended Archive 81 as an audiodrama that's similar, but I didn't see anyone other than me mention The Magnus Archives.

I highly recommend TMA to HOL fans. It's a horror anthology series. Each episode is an archivist taking or re-recording statements from people who witnessed strange, supernatural, or unexplainable occurences. There are many different types of horror in it, from body horror to liminal horror. There is a major entity in the overarching plot that works similarly to the House (episode 146 is one of my favorites. It deals with this entity stalking a person from their childhood home through their lifetime, and feels similar to the Navidson Record).

Just wanted to drop this here in case anyone is interested, because TMA is one of the best horror experiences I've had. And I think many people who loved HOL would like TMA!

Asking because I feel a little ridiculous right now.

I loaned a copy of Crichton's The Lost World from my library, and the narrator is George Guidall because it's an older version.

I'm about 30% through the book because I like it. But Guidall's voice for Malcolm is getting to me. Nothing against him as a narrator, this is just me being picky. He makes Malcolm sound whiny and I never got that vibe from that character.

So I checked the audible version and it's Scott Brick. I know Scott is a divisive narrator and a lot of people dislike him. But I really enjoyed his narration of Jurassic Park and I think his voice fits the tone of Crichton's books.

Now I'm sitting here almost about to spend $14 for an audiobook that I've already listened to 4 hours of, just because of the narrator, when I could finish it for free.

EDIT: I just realized that I have a leftover credit on Libro so I guess this is kind of irrelevant now, since I can still get the Scott version with money I've already paid. Still tho, I could use that credit for a book I haven't read at all yet, so I guess I still feel a bit ridiculous.

I've recently decided that meal prepping is just too much effort for me, plus I typically don't like eating most foods repeatedly.

But one thing I do like and can tolerate several days in a row is protein shakes. I love the convenience and how filling they are. I've only had one kind tho, a plant based Koia one that my work keeps in stock.

They're expensive to buy even with my discount tho (almost $4 a bottle). I figured there are probably some people here who use protein or meal replacement shakes.

Do you have any recommendations? I would prefer plant based ones bc I need to keep my saturated fat intake low. But I can have dairy so feel free to recommend dairy ones as well!

EDIT: forgot to mention that I'm talking about the pre-made bottles, not powders!