The NABU PC caused a bit of a buzz in the retrocomputing community a while back. After all, it doesn’t happen often that a huge batch of brand-new computers from the 1980s suddenly becomes available on eBay. Out of the box, the computer itself isn’t that useful: with no internal storage, or any application software whatsoever, it can really only serve as a bare-bones development platform. But since its hardware is quite similar to that of other contemporary home computers, emulating one of those shouldn’t be too difficult, which is exactly what [Ted Fried] did: he managed to turn his NABU into a TRS-80 clone by using his MCLZ8 CPU emulator.
The MCLZ8 is basically an 800 MHz Teensy CPU with an adapter board that allows it to be plugged into a Z80 socket. It emulates the Z80 CPU in real-time, but it also holds the TRS-80 ROM and performs real-time translation between peripherals. On the input side, it reads out the ASCII characters coming in from the NABU’s 8251A UART and stores them in the virtual TRS-80’s keyboard buffer. On the output side, it transfers the TRS-80’s video data to the NABU’s TMS9918 video chip.
Click through the break for more!
One problem [Ted] ran into was a difference in screen resolution: the NABU has a 40×24 character display, while the TRS-80 generates a 64×16 character image. [Ted] solved the vertical difference by simply keeping the NABU logo on the screen at all times, and decided to just ignore the 24 characters that drop off the right side – it’s not a big issue for a typical BASIC program anyway.
The repurposed NABU might not be a perfect TRS-80 clone, but that’s not the point: it shows how easily the NABU’s hardware can be reprogrammed to do other things. For example, [Ted] has already started work on a new project that doesn’t emulate the Z80, but instead runs code directly on the Teensy’s ARM A9 processor. As you might imagine, this gives the NABU several orders of magnitude more processing power, although the practical use of this is limited because the CPU still has to wait for the NABU’s slow data bus and display chip. [Ted] explains the setup and runs a few impressive demos in the video embedded below.
[Ted]’s NABU experiments are a great example of the Teensy board’s flexibility: we’ve already seen how it can emulate a Z80 as well as an 8088. We’re also curious to see what others will develop with the NABU’s hardware – if they can still buy it, of course.
[Laena] and her colleagues at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science in Melbourne, Australia used a Raspberry Pi to make a low-cost electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detector to measure inflammation markers, which could be used to detect cardiovascular disease or sepsis early enough to give doctors a better chance at saving a patient’s life.
ECL reactions emit light as a result of an electrically-activated chemical reaction, making them very useful for detecting biochemical markers in blood, saliva, or other biological samples. ECL setups are fundamentally fairly straightforward. The device includes a voltage reference generator to initiate the chemical reaction and a photomultiplier tube (PMT) to measure the emitted light. The PMT outputs a current which is then converted to a voltage using a transimpedance amplifier (TIA). That signal is then sampled by the DAQCplate expansion board and the live output can be viewed in ppLOGGER in real-time.
Using the RPi allowed the team to do some necessary, but pretty simple signal processing, like converting the TIA voltage back to a photocurrent and integrating the current to obtain the ECL intensities. They mention the added signal processing potential of the RPi was a huge advantage of their setup over similar devices, however, simple integration can be done pretty easily on most any microcontroller. Naturally, they compared their device to a standard ECL setup and found that the results were fairly comparable between the two instruments. Their custom device showed a slightly lower limit of detection than the standard setup.
Their device costs roughly $1756 USD in non-bulk quantities with the PMT being the majority of the cost ($1500). Even at almost $2000, their device provides more than $8000 in savings compared to ECL instruments on the market. Though cost is much more than just the bill of materials, we like seeing the community making efforts to democratize science, and [Laena] and her colleagues did just that. I wonder if they can help us figure out the venus fly trap while they’re at it?
Investment accounts might be where you earn the big bucks, but checking accounts are for the day-to-day transactions that keep life running smoothly. With a checking account, you can deposit paychecks, send money to friends, pay off your credit cards, withdraw cash, transfer funds to savings accounts or pay for purchases with a debit card.
The best checking accounts provide a wide range of deposit and payment services with no fees for monthly maintenance or minimum balances. They won’t charge for ATM withdrawals and will reimburse for non-network ATM fees charged by other banks, and the very best provide you with reasonable interest on your checking account balance. You can open a checking account in-person or online at most banks, credit unions and other financial institutions like neobanks.
Whether you’re looking for no fees, high interest or physical branches, our picks for best checking accounts have you covered. Note that the accounts below with the highest interest rates may involve restrictions like minimum balances or a required number of debit card purchases per month in order to achieve the maximum annual percentage yield, or APY.
Best checking accounts
Axos Bank
Axos’ Rewards Checking offers relatively high interest rates with reasonable requirements. If you receive $1,500 a month in direct deposit payments, you automatically earn 0.40% interest on your checking balance.
Use your debit card 10 times a month ($3 minimum purchase) and you’ll add another 0.30% interest on top, for an easy 0.70% return on your money. A minimum $2,500 balance in an investment and/or trading account will each add another 0.20% interest onto your checking balance, and paying off an Axos loan adds 0.15%, bringing your maximum APY up to 1.25% — more than most “high-yield” savings accounts.
One of the features that separates Axos from Ally, my other top digital banking choice, is the ability to deposit cash. Axos uses the Green Dot Network, which lets you deposit cash or even pay bills with cash using stores like CVS, Kroger, Safeway and Walmart, though fees may apply.
Axos has no monthly maintenance fees and no minimum balance requirement. Rewards checking requires a $50 minimum deposit to open an account. Also, Axos provides unlimited reimbursements on non-network ATM fees, whereas Ally is limited to $10 per month. Unfortunately, unlike Ally, Axos does not yet support Zelle, the free person-to-person electronic payment system.
Monthly fee:None
Minimum opening deposit:$50
Out-of-network ATM fees: None
Out-of-network ATM reimbursements: Unlimited
In-network ATMs: 91,000 (MoneyPass)
Direct deposit funds available early: Yes
Mobile check deposit: Yes; $10,000 daily limit; $50,000 monthly limit
Cash deposits: Yes; MoneyPass ATMs and Green Dot Network
APY: 0.40%-1.25% APY, depending on usage and other Axos accounts
NBKC
Formerly the National Bank of Kansas City (and before that Horizon National Bank), NBKC provides its users with a variety of banking services, primarily online checking accounts with competitive interest rates. It has four local branches in (you guessed it) Kansas City — but not much in-person help for the rest of us.
The Everything checking account from NBKC currently offers a 1.01% APY with no balance or spending requirements. It’s a decent rate with no strings attached. This account also boasts no overdraft or insufficient funds fees, no monthly maintenance fees, no non-network ATM fees and no foreign transaction fees. And NBKC offers access to about 37,000 ATMs nationwide via MoneyPass.
Along with online checking accounts, NBKC also offers CDs and money market accounts, but no standard savings account, so there are no integrated features like round-up savings built in to NBKC Everything.
The Everything account does give users early paychecks and reimburses non-network ATM fees up to $12 a month. If losing your money to bank fees bums you out, give NBKC Everything a good look.
Monthly fee: None
Minimum opening deposit: $0
Out-of-network ATM fees: None
Out-of-network ATM reimbursements: $12 per month
In-network ATMs: 37,000 (MoneyPass)
Direct deposit funds available early: Yes
Mobile check deposit: Yes
Cash deposits: MoneyPass ATMs
APY: 1.01% on all balances
Quontic Bank
Quontic is a fully digital bank with three checking account options — Bitcoin Rewards, Cash Rewards and High Interest. I selected High Interest for the best checking accounts collection because it offers an easy 1.10% back on balances up to $150,000, when you complete 10 debit card transactions over $10 each during a monthly billing cycle. While the interest requirements are more restrictive than Axos, they’re still reasonable for most checking account users.
Quontic has eliminated its reverse rate on checking balances. Now all balances receive 1.10% back in annual interest (provided you complete those 10 qualifying debit card transactions). It also has virtually no fees — no monthly maintenance, minimum balance, overdraft or non-network ATM fees.
This checking account supports Zelle for personal payments and provides cash from 90,000 ATMs using the AllPoint network, though it limits users to $500 in withdrawals daily. It does offer mobile deposits via iOS or Android; I couldn’t find any listed mobile deposit limits.
Consumers Credit Union, which offers up to 4.09% on checking account balances, stands as the big competitor to Quontic in this category. Consider, however: Consumers Credit Union’s highest rates require associated credit card purchases. Without minimum credit card purchases, the initial rate is 2.09%. After the first $10,000 in balance, Consumers Credit Union’s interest rate drops to 0.20% or less — meaning a $100,000 balance at CCU would earn you $389 a year, whereas Quontic would earn you $1,100.
Monthly fee:None
Minimum opening deposit:$100
Out-of-network ATM fees: None
Out-of-network ATM reimbursements: No
In-network ATMs: 90,000 (Allpoint)
Direct deposit funds available early: No
Mobile check deposit: Yes
Cash deposits: No
APY: 1.10%
Charles Schwab
Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking is a fully online checking account that compares well with almost all competitors. The APY is 0.40% for all accounts, with no monthly balance or debit card spending requirements. While Schwab does have physical brokerage locations, it does not offer in-person banking.
There are no monthly maintenance or non-network ATM fees, and Schwab will reimburse unlimited amounts of other ATM provider fees. Schwab accounts work with the Visa and Visa Plus Alliance network, which includes over 1 million ATMs in more than 200 countries. The Plus Alliance network in the US also includes retail outlets like CVS, Target, CostCo and Walgreens.
You can’t deposit cash with Schwab, but it supports Zelle for personal payments and doesn’t charge anything for foreign transactions — a great bonus for travelers using international ATMs.
A Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking account requires a linked Schwab One brokerage account, which also costs $0 and has no balance requirements. Schwab’s checking account allows scheduling automatic transfers to your brokerage account, a simple way for new investors to put extra money to work.
Schwab doesn’t charge traditional overdraft fees, and it will automatically cover any such transactions with money from other Schwab accounts. However, if you don’t have enough money in your accounts to cover a transaction, Schwab will reject it and charge a $25 insufficient funds fee. It also offers standard mobile apps for iOS and Android, no restrictions are listed for mobile deposits and it has a maximum daily ATM cash withdrawal limit of $1,000.
Monthly fee:None
Minimum opening deposit:None
Out-of-network ATM fees: None
Out-of-network ATM reimbursements: Unlimited
In-network ATMs: Visa/Visa Plus Alliance
Direct deposit funds available early: No
Mobile check deposit: Yes
Cash deposits: No
APY: 0.40%
Chase Bank
Selecting the best checking account for those who want the option of banking services at a physical branch is a balancing act of weighing the best account terms against the number and location of brick-and-mortar bank offices.
While my runner-up choice, Capital One 360 Checking, provides better terms than Chase Total Checking®, it doesn’t have nearly the number of branches or geographical coverage. Chase has more than 4,700 offices in 48 states (sorry, North Dakota and West Virginia), whereas Capital One has about 770, mostly on the East Coast, Texas and Louisiana, according to Branchspot.
Chase doesn’t provide interest on your checking, but it is offering a $200 bonus when you open an account and set up direct deposit. Even though Capital One offers 0.10% on your money, you’d need to have $200,000 in your account for a year to earn $200 in interest.
Chase has no minimum balance requirement nor any minimum initial deposit, though it does charge for non-network ATM transactions. It accepts mobile deposits via its iOS and Android apps, with a daily limit of $10,000 and monthly limit of $25,000.
Monthly fee: $12
Requirements to avoid monthly fee: Monthly direct deposit of at least $500; or $1,500 daily balance; or $5,000 combined average balance
Minimum opening deposit: None
Out-of-network ATM fees: $3
Out-of-network ATM reimbursements: None
In-network ATMs: 16,000 ATMs, more than 4,700 branches
Direct deposit funds available early: No
Mobile check deposit: Yes
Cash deposits: Branches and ATMs
APY: No
Best checking accounts compared
Best digital checking account
Best free-fee checking account
Highest APY checking account
Best checking for investors
Best in-person checking
Bank/institution
Axos
NBKC Bank
Quontic
Schwab Bank
Chase
Account
Rewards Checking
Everything Account
High Interest Checking
High Yield Investor Checking
Total Checking
Branch access
No
Limited (4 branches)
No
No (361 brokerage branches)
Yes, 4,700 branches
ATMs (number/network)
91,000 (MoneyPass)
34,000; MoneyPass
90,000 (Allpoint, MoneyPass)
Visa/Visa Plus Alliance
16,000
Out-of-network ATM fee reimbursement (monthly)
Unlimited
$12
None
Unlimited
None
Overdraft fee
$25
None
None
$34
$34
Foreign transaction fee
None
None
None
None
3%
Monthly fee
None
None
None
None
$12
Minimum opening deposit
$50
None
$100
$0
$0
FAQs
Do I need a checking account to manage my money?
Not always, but it can be difficult to pay bills or get approved for credit accounts without one. It may be helpful to think of a checking account as one part of a multifaceted personal financial system. Though it may require some management on your end, there are benefits to using an array of tools, with each serving a primary function: a checking account for receiving money and paying bills, a credit card for spending (and earning rewards or cash-back incentives) and a savings account for storing short-term savings or an emergency fund — with investment and brokerage accounts driving long-term savings goals such as college and retirement.
Do I need to pay fees to use a checking account?
No. Some banks may pass off fees as the normal costs of doing business, but with all of the free checking options available, you should avoid fee-heavy accounts. There are plenty of free checking options that will give you the tools you need to receive income and make payments, in addition to other benefits including mobile banking, without incurring any regular charges in the form of a monthly service fee.
How many checking accounts should I have?
For most people, the answer is one. Even if you can earn a little extra money by combining rewards or interest, it’s usually not worth the time and hassle. Your personal checking account should be simple and easy to manage, and should offer overdraft protection and mobile banking. If you run a business, you should look into opening a separate business checking account, which is different from a standard checking account.
How do the ATM networks like MoneyPass and Allpoint work?
An increasing number of financial institutions are online-only (like some of the banks profiled above), without their own branches or ATM networks. Given this, an online bank will partner with established networks like MoneyPass or Allpoint, which place ATM locations in popular retail establishments such as pharmacies, grocery stores and convenience stores. People with an online checking account can use a “Find a nearby ATM” feature on their bank’s website or mobile app before making an ATM withdrawal to insure they won’t incur an ATM fee if their financial institution does not offer ATM fee rebates.
For checking accounts, banks and credit unions may or may not charge “overdraft fees.” Overdraft fees are penalties levied when withdrawals or payments — cash from an ATM, automatic bill pay or paper check, for example — are bigger than the amount of your checking account balance.
In the case of a true overdraft, banks will process your payment or withdrawal and give you a negative balance. That’s when they may charge an overdraft fee, typically in the range of $30 to $40. Many banks now provide free overdraft protection, meaning that if you have another account with them, they’ll transfer money to cover your negative checking balance.
“Nonsufficient funds” fees, often abbreviated NSF, are related to overdraft fees but slightly different. The most common example of NSF is the “bounced check.” In this case, your withdrawal is rejected, your checking account does not go into a negative balance and you’re charged a fee, usually around $25.
More and more banks are eliminating overdraft and nonsufficient funds fees entirely. Banks that don’t have any overdraft or NSF fees will generally reject payments and withdrawals that are more than your checking balance and not charge you anything.
How much interest can I earn with a checking account vs. with a savings account?
While many accounts use an APY as a selling point, it’s important to note that a checking account’s interest rate will rarely net you much. A balance of $2,500 at a 0.10% APY earns you roughly $2.50 annually. In contrast, savings accounts generally deliver between 0.60% and 1%, which would net you between $15 and $25 per year. So if you’re looking for an interest-bearing checking account, you’re not going to find a great or even good one. Go for a savings account instead.
More than two dozen options were examined across a broad range of categories in both traditional and online-only banks in order to determine these picks for the best checking account. As with any financial account, a handful of key features rise above the rest: ATM and branch availability, overdraft protection, fees, bank bonus enticements and reimbursements, minimum deposit requirements and just how simple it is to move money in and out of an account — whether by direct deposit, mobile deposit or old-school cash deposit. Interest rate isn’t really a factor with a standard checking account (more on that below).
Each financial institution’s online banking capabilities were taken into consideration. We also looked at some new, trendy features, such as banks making funds available a few days early to customers who’ve signed up to receive their paycheck via direct deposit.
We paid close attention to bank account fees. Even if a bank touts a “free checking account,” that might not be the whole truth. If you’re considering a new checking account, scrutinize the fee schedule, which will reveal how much a bank charges for a “monthly maintenance fee,” using an out-of-network ATM, falling below a minimum balance requirement or spending more than you have in the account (resulting in an overdraft fee). You don’t want to get hit with a $4 fee just for making an ATM withdrawal at the wrong machine for your bank account.
Though some fees may apply only in certain conditions — you haven’t set up direct deposit or you want to receive monthly paper statements, for example — such waivers should be carefully scrutinized. You won’t want to be in a position where missing your minimum deposit by a couple of bucks or keeping an account balance that’s slightly too low racks up a “monthly maintenance fee.”
We’re also a bit dubious about checking accounts that feature cash-back and rewards incentives. Though a 1% cash-back account could be moderately lucrative, this type of account may obligate you to hit a monthly spending threshold or maintain a certain minimum balance. If earning cash back or rewards is your priority, you’re better off using a cash-back credit card, the best of which offer significantly higher rates. And if you tend to maintain a high account balance in your checking account, consider putting some of that cash into a savings account, CD or money market with a higher annual percentage yield.
Checking accounts researched
LendingClub Rewards Checking
NBKC Bank Everything Account
Chase Total Checking®
Consumers Credit Union Rewards Checking
Alliant Credit Union High-Rate Checking
Chime Spending Account
Axos Essential Checking
Connexus Credit Union Xtraordinary Checking
Simple Simple Account
CIT Bank eChecking
Wells Fargo Everyday Checking
Bank of America Advantage Plus Banking
Discover Cashback Debit
Capital One 360 Checking
Aspiration
PNC Virtual Wallet with performance spend
Betterment
Fidelity Cash Management Account
HSBC Choice Checking
TD Checking
Current Bank
Varo Checking Account
Wealthfront Cash Account
Novo
BlueVine Business Checking
Ally Bank
More personal finance advice
The editorial content on this page is based solely on objective, independent assessments by our writers and is not influenced by advertising or partnerships. It has not been provided or commissioned by any third party. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to products or services offered by our partners.
Trying to solve Wordle #561 for January 1, 2023, but hit a dead end? We have today’s Wordle answer right here. But before you rush in and start wasting guesses, consider checking out our tips on Wordle for some strategies (and starting words) that could help you find the solution in record time, and then come back here for the answer to the Wordle today if you had no luck.
How Wordle works
Wordle is a vocabulary game in which players get six tries to guess a five-letter word. Once you enter a guess, individual letters within the word you entered will appear in different colors. Each color has a different meaning.
Green: The letter entered is 100% correct — the right letter in the right space.
Yellow: The entered letter is in the correct word, but you’ve placed it in the wrong space.
Gray: The entered letter is not used in today’s Wordle answer, so it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
The goal is to guess the correct word in as few attempts as possible. If you don’t get the answer in six guesses, you lose.
Hints for today’s Wordle
Today’s Wordle starts with the letter W.
Today’s Wordle uses two vowels, but not in succession.
Today’s Wordle can mean “a long, high-pitchedcomplaining cry.”
wachiwit – stock.adobe.com
What’s today’s Wordle Answer?
Are you still having trouble? No worries — you can’t get them all! If you just want to see today’s Wordle answer to continue your streak, you can find it below.
All my life, I’ve had this weird, annoying voice in my head.
It’s not necessarily an evil voice. It’s not convincing me to commit murder or rob banks. No, this voice is mostly about making me do stupid stuff. When I was a kid it might say something like “bet you can’t run to that point in the horizon without stopping.” Or “bet you can’t backflip off that precarious ledge.”
We all have inner voices, but my “bet you can’t” voice has been part of my makeup for as long as I can remember. And, on balance, it’s a net positive. Usually it’s forcing me to eat well and exercise. Today, at age 41, I’m mostly fit and healthy.
And that’s partly thanks to the voice which, to this day, pipes up often. Always the same…
“Bet you can’t run a marathon” or “bet you can’t learn a second language” or “bet you can’t quit drinking soft drinks.” Most of the time the voice is my friend, but sometimes it leads me astray. Once it had me doing a sleep experiment that sent my mind into meltdown. That’s probably the worst thing the little voice told me to do.
The second worst? Cold showers. Please allow me to tell you why I’ve been taking nothing but cold showers for the entirety of 2022.
It was the tail end of 2021. My wife and I had family staying over for Christmas. Twenty people all up. We had fun, we made merry, but there were issues. Mainly logistics. My house has two showers. One inside shower — a very normal shower with hot water — and a less normal outdoor shower that only has access to cold water.
To make things easier for guests, I started taking showers outside. Cold showers.
Christmastime is bang in the middle of summer in Sydney, Australia, where I live, so that was mostly fine. It was hot, often over 110 Fahrenheit hot. Sometimes I’d go for a run, get all sweaty and annoyed and just dive into the cold shower. A salve, pure relief.
That’s when the little voice popped into my head…
“Hey you little bitch, bet you can’t do cold showers for the entire year…”
Stupid moron brain voice
You’ve probably heard about the “health benefits” of cold showers. According to the research, there are more than a few good reasons to take them.
One study reports that by increasing the availability of endorphins and another hormone, norepinephrine, cold showers can ease symptoms of depression. (Obvious caveat here: I absolutely do not believe depression can be cured with cold water.)
But to be perfectly honest, none of these reported benefits were in my conscious thoughts when I committed to cold showers for a full calendar year. I was merely listening to the voice.
As a middle-aged man, burdened with decades of ingrained toxic masculinity equating overcoming physical and mental struggle with inner strength, I enjoy putting myself through ridiculous “challenges” for the sake of it. This is my personality. I’m too old to change now. When the voice speaks, I listen and, almost always, I obey.
Enlarge Image
My weird outdoor shower. Where it all began.
Mark Serrels/CNET
A part of me hoped cold showers might help me increase my metabolism or recover faster from training (I’m a keen rock climber), but mostly I wanted to try something different. To have something new to talk about when conversation dried up at school pickups. I’m a shallow man with shallow needs.
Mostly I reckon it’s useful to do something difficult each day for the pure satisfaction of having completed that task. It’s an ego boost, it sets the tone and has an energizing effect that has the potential to reverberate for the remainder of that day.
So I began.
It was relatively easy at first. In my experience, most challenges like this are. Possessed with the psyche of trying something new, I stood in cold showers for five minutes at a time and emerged shivering and proud. I marched into the shower like a madman, frantically rubbing my belly like a hysterical hiker searching for ticks. I just gutted it out.
What became more challenging later was the grind — committing to the bit after my initial enthusiasm waned. Picture yourself stinky, exhausted after a long difficult day of work, suddenly remembering you need a shower before going to bed. This is when temptation kicks in, when it feels more than justified to run a warm bath or stand for 15 minutes in a scalding hot shower.
But I persisted, often on the verge of angry tears, into the breach of Baltic water and shriveled genitals.
Yeah, take that. I sure showed you, you stupid little moron brain voice.
Easy mode
I have a rigid cold shower routine I follow every single time without fail. It wasn’t a process I developed consciously. It emerged naturally in the petri dish of cold shower survival mode.
It goes like this: I turn on the shower. I get naked. I stand in front of the cold, spraying water for a few seconds reflecting on my life choices. In some ways, this is the worst part: before the shower. That’s when you have to make the “choice.”
I take two steps forward. There’s no face- or hair-wetting at this juncture, just pain and unintelligible grunts for about 20 seconds. Then I turn around. That’s always the most difficult part. The large, flat surface of my back exposes the highest percentage of nerve endings to the cold water. But once that’s done? I’m mostly good. I get the soap, start washing. I turn around to wash the soap off, dip my head and hair in. I’m cooking. All is good.
Unfortunately, I soon discovered that Australian cold showers are “easy mode.”
It was during a work trip to New York in March that I discovered not all cold water is created equal. My soft summer body was crucified at the hands of New York’s freezing-ass winter ice water. I was shocked to my core. I couldn’t believe how cold it was. But I persisted, clumsily squeezing out single-serve hotel shower gel as I jogged on the spot like a confused caveman, somehow trying to shift my internal temperature into something bearable.
Later in the year things got worse.
In October, I went on a family trip to the southern part of Chile, where, I assume, the water in my brother-in-law’s shower was piped directly from the icy, snow-capped mountains that surrounded us. The water in Chile was Baltic, to the point where I would get literal brain freeze if I stayed in for too long. Complete agony.
Enlarge Image
On this day, I really wanted a warm shower.
Osiel Aqueveque
The closest I’ve come to bailing on the cold water challenge was during that trip.
We’d just gotten back from a once-in-a-lifetime experience: scaling the summit of Villarica, one of Chile’s most active volcanoes. It was brutal. It took us eight hours to get to the summit and roughly four hours to get back down, navigating snow and icy conditions the entire time. We were geared up to the max, crampons and ice axes, and it was a genuine struggle to get to the top. On the way down everyone eagerly discussed getting home and jumping into a nice warm shower. My heart sank. I knew I would be starved of this well-earned thermal feast.
My family was shocked when I said I still planned to have a cold shower that night. “You can have hot water this one time, surely,” they said.
But they didn’t know the limits of my stubborn stupidity. I’d spent almost a year doing this dumb shit, I wasn’t going to break my streak because I felt a bit frosty. But I can’t lie — I doubt my cold shower that night lasted more than a minute. Enough to get clean and scramble out, into the false solace of a dry towel and steaming hot mug of tea.
But why?
The question I always get is “why?” Outside of “the voices told me,” I still don’t have a good answer for that.
Did I feel any long-term benefits? I’m unsure. This is an experiment with a sample size of one. I didn’t take many sick days in 2022, but outside of that, I’m not convinced cold showers changed anything. I’m not convinced they aid recovery, or cure dementia, or whatever it says on the tin.
Was it worth it? Hell no. Would I recommend going all in on cold showers? Nah. Probs not.
Am I going to stop doing cold showers once the year is up? I’m still not sure. Bizarrely, I think I’m going to keep going.
Am I contradicting myself here? Absolutely. But my feelings about this cold shower experiment are complex, rooted in weird ideas about trying difficult things and not giving up, even if there’s no good reason to forge ahead. Basically I’ve watched way too much anime.
The simple fact is this: I never regretted a single cold shower. I’ve always felt better immediately afterward. Alert, happier. Some people suggested it would help with my skin, and make my hair… better? Thicker? Silkier? I dunno. Maybe it’s my imagination, but my skin did seem clearer, better, softer. I think.
More importantly, after cold showers, I always felt like I had achieved something. I never had that groggy feeling you get when you spend too long in a piping hot shower. It was good to have done something difficult. That was nice.
In some ways cold showers make me happy. I think.
But I also believe willpower is finite. Could the mental energy required to endure cold showers for a year have made it more difficult to achieve the other, less stupid goals I set for myself in 2022? Is it a coincidence that I [checks notes] put on 10 to 12 pounds, felt more anxious and exercised markedly less during the same period? It’s impossible to say.
A part of me believes the resolve I poured into having daily cold showers left my willpower reserves wanting, making it tougher to continue eating healthy, or head to the gym regardless of my motivation levels. Normally, those were habits I followed through on without question. This year? Not so much.
Regardless, I know I will find it difficult to stop. At this point, taking cold showers is a habit so ingrained I know my inner voice will fight back against going back to “normal.” As stupid as it sounds, warm showers will feel like cheating to the little voice in my head. I suspect one year might not be enough for that little bastard.
Because ultimately these things become normalized. Like quitting sugar or caffeine, taking cold showers is difficult, especially at first, and the effort required to maintain the habit never truly goes away, but it does fade. It’s much easier now. Cold showers aren’t necessarily challenging anymore; what was once an active struggle is just noise. A low-frequency hum you’d barely notice until someone shuts it off.
That’s where I’m at. For the foreseeable future I’m a cold shower guy. Thanks, stupid little voice in my head. Thanks for nothing. And possibly everything.
