Unpopular opinion: I was wrong about 'The Last of Us'

I avoided that show for months because I thought it was just another zombie thing. My friend in Denver kept telling me to watch it, so I finally gave in last week. I was ready to hate it, but the third episode with Bill and Frank completely got me. It wasn't about the infected at all, it was just this beautiful, sad story about two people. That hour changed the whole show for me. I ended up watching the rest in two days. It made me realize I was judging it by its cover. Has anyone else had a show they were sure they'd dislike that totally surprised them?

Just learned how much closing costs actually are in my city

I was looking at a house in Charlotte listed for $325,000 and my lender sent me a worksheet. The estimated closing costs were over $12,000, not even counting the down payment. I thought it was maybe a few thousand, tops. Has anyone else been blindsided by this, and did you find any ways to lower those fees?

Showerthought: I was cleaning out my old laptop bag and found a receipt for a 1TB hard drive I bought in 2012.

It cost me $120 back then. I just looked it up, and for the same price now you can get cloud storage with AI that can actually find specific photos for you (like 'show me pictures of my dog at the beach'). I found that stat on a tech history blog. It's wild how the value shifted from just holding data to actually understanding it. Anyone else have an old tech purchase that feels like a relic now?

That 4,000 sq ft slab pour in Spokane where the owner kept turning the hose on us

I finally looked at the riverbank where I found my first agate

Back in the day, that stretch of river was full of smooth stones and agate chunks. My dad taught me how to spot the bands of color in the water. Went by last weekend and the bank is all reinforced with concrete now. No more gravel bars to sift through for interesting rocks. It's a bummer how much has been paved over. I still have that first agate on my shelf. Makes me think about what other spots might get lost.