Alexander Jackson 🥉

Good call. I’d also try a different USB cable and a plain 5V/1A wall charger - cables fail more often than we think and some chargers won’t wake a flat battery. If it has a magnetized sleep cover, take it off while charging and booting, and give it 20–30 minutes on power before expecting the charge icon since e-ink screens can look frozen. After that, do a 30–40 second power-button hold, release, then a quick press to nudge it awake.

Seconding Coben and Ware - if you want that same brisk twisty feel and try Shari Lapena (An Unwanted Guest, The Couple Next Door) or Megan Miranda (The Last House Guest); they move fast and are easy to find as mass-market paperbacks. Peter Swanson’s The Kind Worth Killing is lean and hard to predict. For truly lightweight options, classic Agatha Christie like And Then There Were None or The ABC Murders come in pocket-sized editions and still land great surprises.

I’d lean TPU over silicone - silicone is grippy but it attracts lint and can drag in pockets while matte TPU with side texture stays cleaner and still feels secure. For jogs and hikes, reinforced corners plus a thin tempered glass screen protector and a lanyard or wrist strap anchor do more for real-world drops than a chunky shell. If you use wireless charging, avoid cases with metal plates or bulky kickstands, and favor ones that list a drop rating like MIL-STD-810G even at budget prices.

My brain scatters everywhere & so I just dump all extra into emergency fund first or I'll regret it when shit hits the fan.

Start with the real annual cost of owning that $8k compact, not just the note and gas. Insurance is about $1,800, your apartment parking is $2,400, depreciation is roughly $1,000–1,500 a year on an $8k car, maintenance and repairs average $800–1,200 for an older compact, and registration and inspection run $150–300. You are at about $6,100–7,200 before fuel, tickets, tolls, or any parking at work. If you drive 5,000–6,000 miles a year between the commute, groceries, and family visits, fuel at 30 mpg and $4 a gallon is about $670–800 a year. Call it roughly $7,000–8,500 per year all in, plus any work parking, and there is also the $400 a year opportunity cost of tying up $8,000 in a car. Compare that to your current spend on a bus pass and rideshare, then ask what time you actually save door to door. In most dense cities a 7 mile drive is 20–30 minutes if you have guaranteed parking at both ends, but add 10–20 minutes if you are circling or walking from a garage, so the realistic savings over a 45–60 minute transit trip is often 20–40 minutes a day. Put a dollar value on that time, say your after tax hourly rate, and multiply by about 230 workdays to see if it clears the extra $5,000–7,000 a year you would pay to own the car. Factor in the soft stuff too like the stress of traffic, the risk of a $1,500 surprise repair, and the upside of easy grocery runs and spontaneous trips. If the math does not pencil out, consider a middle path like an e-bike or bike plus transit for the commute, carshare or rentals for the family visits, and grocery delivery or a monthly carshare for heavy shops, which often lands under $2,500 a year while keeping most of the convenience.

Stop running ad-hoc invoices like a side quest. Define rent percentages, assign owners for each bill, turn on autopay, and put a calendar reminder on the 1st. Everyone sends one transfer; the owner posts totals so the record is clear. Use Splitwise for oddball house purchases, not every apple. Keep groceries opt-in staples with a spend cap or your group chat becomes a ticketing system.