Like the article suggests, I'm not entirely sure we're better on paper than last year.

Obviously there's more to a good hockey team than being good on paper though. What are everyone's thoughts?

All,

I come to you with a request. Though I enjoy hiking and the outdoors, I am plagued with incredibly flat feet that get painfully sore after only a few miles of walking.

I'd like to enjoy the outdoors more, but the pain builds and builds until it's no longer enjoyable for me to walk and explore. Part of the issue is that I don't own shoes suitable for such activities -- I mostly wear Vans and other similar flat, wide shoes.

Does anyone here have a similar issue? If so, what are your recommendations for good hiking shoes for a person in my situation?

I would call myself a beginner when it comes to hiking, so they don't need to be anything too fancy, but I'm willing to spend a decent amount to mitigate my stupid feet.

Thank you!

I figured we could all share some of the cooler things we've done to get the conversation moving in here.

Here are some of the automations I'm proud of and get the most use out of.

Blinds and Lighting

• Open and close the blinds (Ikea Fyrtur) according to the light levels outside
• If a window is open, the blind will only close to 50%, but it will close automatically after the window is closed
• Turn all lights off when the blinds are opened, and turn lights on in occupied rooms when the blinds are closed
• Automatically close the blinds in the bedroom and bathroom when the shower is on. Open them after we leave the master suite.

Websites

• (Selenium) Auto login to Amazon to check on the status of my Kindle daily reading streak and notify me if I forget to read. We must keep the streak intact!
• Auto categorize new transactions in YouNeedABudget and mark them as approved, as well as pull my net worth into Home Assistant
• Get my most-listened to tracks and artists from Last.FM and pull those into Home Assistant
• Notify me if there are documents in my Paperless-NGx server that need to be categorized and filed

Reminders

• When I walk in the door, announce any outstanding Todoist tasks marked with the @alert label so I know to do it before I sit down. Examples are to change the furnace filter or Venmo my friend for Youtube TV
• I run OCR on the camera feed from my garage camera to determine whether the bins are in the garage. The bins say Trash and Recycling on top, so I look for those words in the image. If they are in the garage in the evening before trash day, I receive an alert

Media and Torrenting

• Notify me and display a badge in Home Assistant when there is a pending request in Overseerr
• (Selenium) Log into my favorite private torrent tracker website from Node-RED to check whether I need to take any actions

HVAC

• Preheat or pre-cool the house prior to peak electricity pricing going into effect. During peak hours, auto adjust the thermostat to prevent it from running
• Turn the thermostat off if there are windows open. Automatically restore previous setting (cool or heat) when all windows are closed.
• Turn the bathroom fan on after the shower is turned off and no one is around. Turn it off after 80 minutes or the humidity in the bathroom is within 10% of the humidity in the bedroom, whichever comes first.

Misc

• Node-RED monitors the status of my UPSes for my servers. If the battery drops below 50% while the power is out, it initiates graceful shutdowns of my Synology and other servers
• Auto sort the Home Assistant grocery list upon adding a new item