If you haven't seen the episode that premiered April 20, Sparkle's Seven, I highly recommend it. It's the 200th episode and they did a special job. I'll wait. Alternately, you can watch the abridged version.

If you have seen it, or don't mind spoilers, read on.

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I'm looking to upgrade my main computer that I got in 2013.

14 inch, 1366x768 screen
Core i-5 3230M (4 core, 2.6ghz)
8gb RAM (DDR3?)
GeForce 660M (2gb)
750gb HDD

It's been a good computer. After five years, though, it might be due for an upgrade. As with the old one, I'll travel a decent amount and otherwise have it plugged into a 24" monitor, keyboard, and mouse at home. I game some, but don't put it under too many other heavy loads.

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I made this chart

This is based on my personal data-gathering and the comments of a few other people. Still, please suggest additional categories or dispute the rankings in order to improve the chart. You can find the Gsheet here

Granular data:

Travel

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The deeper you go, the harder it gets.

You're supposed to be certified in order to scuba dive, but rather than covering the dizzying array of organizations and qualifications you can get, I'll mostly focus this blog on the how of diving.

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IT'S OVER, FOLKS

The seven books of my Harry Potter fanfic:
Steve and the Ickle Firsties
Steve and the Man Snake Thing
Steve and That One Uncle

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Communication has exploded in the last few decades. Yeah, it may seem like we’re all introverts with our noses in our phones, but we actually communicate with each other more than ever before. It’s due to the magic of technology! There are a huge array of options we can use to pass information.

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Not gonna lie. It's rocket science.

Your life is a whole lot better with satellites. They give us our weather, our communications, our navigation.

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The often-cited yet little understood act of dropping bombs in support of troops.

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Getting lost is no fun. If you’re someone who has to be somewhere for something, it sucks even more.

At its most basic, finding your way around involves measuring distances from known places. That could be your starting location, ending location, or a landmark in between. It’s mostly trigonometry.

Many people on this site have a technical background, but let’s do a quick refresh.

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Many of the things I've blogged about in the past - ships, airplanes, etc. - required metalwork to assemble. One of the most effective ways to join two pieces of metal is by welding.

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