RiffTrax. Especially the Star Wars prequels and the Twilight trilogy.

You’ve got my bow…

Beyond the practical advice in this thread, I’ll add that there have been more times I’ve gone fishing to sit and think in the quiet outside than to actually catch fish. I find it just as fun to wander around the bank of a pond or paddle around a lake or river trying to fish as much as actually fishing.

I grew up with bait casters and cane poles and a family that loved fishing, but now I’m learning how to fly fish and I feel kinda stupid. I’ve always wanted to fly fish and never had access to it, so now I’m basically starting from scratch: new method, new species, new environments.

Here’s my strategy and thoughts on fishing and hobbies in general:

1. Learn how the equipment works. I’ve never used flies or a fly rod before, so I’m taking the time to learn how to use it and understand how it works. I like manuals and books, but others have pointed out that there are a lot of video series out there for fishing.
2. Learn about the fish in my area. I grew up primarily pond and lake fishing on either the bank or by boat for primarily panfish, catfish, crappie, and largemouth bass. While those fish are in my region, I also have access to trout and other species I’m not familiar with. New regions and species also mean new regulations and laws; don’t forget to learn about daily limits or mandatory catch and release. You don’t want to end up accidentally having a protected species in your creel or on your stringer when a game warden stops by.
3. Set reasonable expectations and achievable goals. This isn’t my primary hobby and I don’t have the time to disappear every weekend on fishing trips. It’s going to be a slow process and I’m going to make mistakes. I also don’t expect to catch a fish for a long time. My goal is to learn something new and practice doing it. What’s your reason for fishing?
4. Don’t over indulge on gear. You can drive yourself mad trying to get the best gear, especially the way it is marketed, but I’ve had just as much fun fishing for bream with a cane pole, a box of crickets, and a styrofoam bobber older than I am as I’ve had with a collection of tackle boxes, high-end bait casters and a bass boat. You can catch panfish with stale bread and catfish with hotdogs.
5. Be honest with yourself about your learning style. Some people can teach themselves a new skill, some people need lessons. How much can you teach yourself before you need help, or how much money (for you) is it worth spending to learn how to fish?

The compliment to the quote above should be “misery loves company.”

There’s a variation of this that I like better: “It’s not your fault but it is your responsibility.”

Framing it this way shifts the tone from passive to active; you have a problem, but you take responsibility. It also helps the responsible party set themself up for correcting the behavior in the future. Saying you’re late because of traffic and accepting the consequences is fine, but recognizing that you need to leave earlier to accommodate traffic is better.

I had a teacher who would ask for an explanation, not an excuse. If the explanation started to place blame on someone or something else, he’d just shake his head and say “no excuses.”

Ten years ago two-day shipping meant two days from order to delivery. It now means two-day delivery once shipped in one to five business days. Most prime eligible purchases now just mean “free shipping.”

I got attached to Prime as a student where two-day shipping and a $50 annual student subscription made it a useful service. There are Prime features on parts of the Amazon website I couldn’t find my way back to the same way twice. The site is riddled with dark patterns from customer service to Prime video.

I haven’t been able to transition my household fully off Amazon, but I have switched to alibris.com as an alternative storefront for books and other media. Used sellers like thriftbooks, half-price books, and goodwill are all Amazon booksellers on alibris for the same price. They’re all shipping via media mail anyway, so Prime is useless on both sites.

Yep. Apollo shutting down is why I created an account, deleted all my content and my Reddit account once things started getting really fucky.