Nice! Glad you're getting yours fitted soon! Honestly, mine have been literally life changing. I truly didn't realize how bad my hearing had gotten because the change was so gradual. The sound generated through the hearing aids is much better than an external speaker, and after the adjustment period, I sometimes don't even notice it's playing. The brain learns to filter it out, along with the tinnitus. It's different than trying to block or mask it with a speaker. Not a cure, but much better. I hope yours work well for you!
Short answer:
Get an evaluation by an audiologist, if possible, to determine if something can be done.
Long answer:
Depending on the personal cause of tinnitus, solutions range from nothing to getting hearing aids with specific software that provides tinnitus relief. I have genetic, moderate to severe hearing loss in higher frequencies and have very noticeable tinnitus. The complications from hearing loss with tinnitus can vary, but personally were resulting in increased sensitivity to noise throughout the day, irritability, and diminished ability to communicate (I couldn't hear what my spouse or kids were saying when there was any kind of background noise present). It led me to never want to go anywhere or do anything outside our home because I couldn't hear or enjoy anything.
I went to an audiologist, had a bunch of tests, and was prescribed a set of hearing aids. Said hearing aids play soft ocean noises in addition to boosting the frequencies I have diminished hearing in. The ocean noises allow the brain to train itself to treat the tinnitus as a routine background noise instead of a panic inducing "danger" sound. Over time, it has helped in significantly reducing my attention to the tinnitus. It will never go away, and I have to sleep with ocean sounds playing so I don't go insane.
Grounds stored in a mason jar, one for drip grind, one for espresso grind.
For drip, we have a Bunn Speed Brew. I got really tired of the leaky $25 drip maker we had and upgraded a month ago for our anniversary. I used 6 rounded tablespoons per 10 cup pot. Very straightforward process.
For espresso, I have a Hario hand mill, a manual DeLonghi espresso machine, a bottomless portafilter, and a tamper with a calibrated 30 ft-lb spring. Tamps perfectly every time.
When I make espresso, sometimes I drink it straight up, and other times I make a red eye: double shot in a mug, topped with drip.
Hopefully they are good before that point and increase in quality? I went in totally blind; haven't watched the show or read anything about them prior. My free time is pretty limited, so I am picky in selecting what I spend my time on.
I have to be honest, it almost lost me for a little when it started focusing on the broader politics of the solar systme, but things picked right back up and are very well interesting again. I'm going to be sticking with it!
I don't have a profound answer, and other commenters have covered my thoughts pretty well. I will share a small lesson I learned from my mom as a kid. First time wearing a new shirt, I jumped off the swing on our playset, and the hook at the end of the chain tore a big hole in my shirt. Naturally, I was upset and started crying. My mom told me, "You can either cry or you can laugh, but it doesn't change what happened." I've taken that to heart over the years and generally try to find the humor in everyday situations. Meaning of life? Nope. Just making life more entertaining.
American football is a bastardized reenactment of WWI. The poor cannon fodder in the trenches (linebackers and whatnot) get chewed up like so much meat while the artillery (quarterbacks) lob shells (the ball) to try to gain a few yards on the field. The field marshals (coaches) try to direct the troops and take all the glory of a supposed victory, while the chateau generals (team owners) rake in the money and suppress the research about systemic traumatic brain injuries resulting from the activities. The general public doesn't know any better and just wants to do their patriotic duty and support their boys.
Of course any real poking at this comparison falls apart next to real historical information but it's a fun little thought experiment to piss off the football fans.
Not a hair person (curse you, male pattern baldness!), but picaridin based bug spray is effective, safe for skin and clothes, and non-greasy. Sawyer's version works really well!
Hardware: what you currently have on hand to play around with.
Software: start with something simple and well documented. Not quite the driver for the learning phase, in my personal opinion.
"Utilities" as you call them: What is useful to you? What do you want to play with or need to improve your personal use case?
I don't mean to be flippant with my answers here. Do a little introspection and determine what is genuinely useful for you to self host. I personally run Technitium, Jellyfin, a portion of the "-arr"s, Immich, and Navidrome. My family uses all of these services/utilities on a daily basis, so they are useful for me to host. I have some of the services that need CPU and GPU processing power running on my gaming PC and others running on a Lenovo ThinkCenter that I got for free from the IT department at work. They have bins of PCs slated for recycling that work perfectly fine but are "outdated".
I'm just a geologist, so I only know which minerals are friendly or not haha. But yes, I always do my best to approach nature with a good dose of respect. Nonvenomous snakes bite, too, so no sense in stirring it up.
Yes, but I'm more coming from the humorous aspect than the mathematical