Damn This WiFi

Diary of a Digital Nomad

Category: Reviews

  • Review: Kodiak Cakes Instant Oatmeal

    Review: Kodiak Cakes Instant Oatmeal

    As I sat here eating a very late breakfast (which I suppose qualifies as brunch now), I realized I should share what I consider to be an important find for quick and satisfying breakfasts while traveling. The links below are affiliate links, so I might earn a small referral fee if you decide to buy something, but this is an honest recommendation after months of treating this as a food staple on the road.

    Not long after I left my Atlanta apartment, I discovered instant oatmeal cups from Kodiak Cakes*. I grabbed a few without much thought, figuring they would make for easy breakfasts. I had no idea at the time that I was about to adopt them as a go-to breakfast that I can prepare and eat while busy doing other things.

    Other brands offer instant oatmeal cups, but believe me, I’ve tried others and they are not the same. Here are the things that make me skip the others and stick with the ones from Kodiak Cakes:

    • Packaging. Even before you pick up one off the shelf, you can see that Kodiak Cakes uses paper for their oatmeal cups. Some other brands use plastic. Eww.
    • Flavor. I grew up eating a lot of instant oatmeal from Quaker Oats, and even continued that into adulthood, but most of their varieties seem overly sweetened. This became more obvious as I got older. The level of sweetness of the Kodiak Cakes varieties seems much more appropriate.
    • Serving Size. I feel reasonably full and can move on with my day after eating one serving from Kodiak Cakes. Other brands? I always feel like I want more and that their “serving size” is not very honest. Even when I was growing up, I remember adding two or more “single serving” packets of Quaker Oats to make a satisfying amount, and serving sizes of many products have become smaller over the years to mask the effects of inflation.
    • Corporate Responsibility. Even setting aside the issue of plastic or paper packaging, Kodiak Cakes donates a portion of their profits to conservation efforts. Other brands? Who knows… but I suspect they donate to the C Suite execs’ annual compensation instead.

    After relying mostly on the instant oatmeal cups, which seemed to generate excess waste, I bought some paper bowls and a box of Kodiak Cakes instant oatmeal pouches. I’m not sure the overall waste is less, though. This is an underlying problem with the lifestyle I’ve been living since late July, it generates much more waste than I’m comfortable with. Returning to a more sustainable lifestyle will be one benefit of settling down in one place for a while.

    There are some things I would mildly criticize about Kodiak Cakes instant oatmeal, but they’re not anything that would turn me off from continuing to buy their product. I feel like their selection of flavors is pretty limited, and some of the flavors were worth trying once but I would never eat them again. That’s a personal preference, though, not a brand problem.

    Also, it can be hard to find their product in stock in a physical store, so sometimes I end up buying an alternative simply because I can’t find what I want. There are many factors behind this (retail shelf space is no trivial thing), and I know I could order them online instead, but I hope that when I clear a shelf of their oatmeal cups it will encourage better stocking later.

    If you’re on the road, or just busy, and you want a quick and easy breakfast, I will readily recommend Kodiak Cakes Oatmeal in a Cup*. I enjoyed my instant oatmeal this morning, and I think you will enjoy it too. Yours, that is. You can’t have mine. I already finished it. 🙂

    * Link leads to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

  • Review: GL.inet GL-AXT1800

    Review: GL.inet GL-AXT1800

    Occasionally, I will post a public review of a product that I have found valuable for this digital-nomad lifestyle. Private posts may contain rants about products and services that don’t turn out so well…! One product that has clearly earned some time in the good-products spotlight is the GL.inet GL-AXT1800 travel router*.

    I can’t claim to have discovered this myself. In fact, I have to admit I originally viewed it with some skepticism. I owned a router already, which I’d set up with DD-WRT and a lot of custom configuration, so I understood that having a router to connect to hotel WiFi would be simpler than connecting each individual device at every place I stayed. Still, the idea of lugging along another piece of equipment didn’t appeal to me, so… I didn’t.

    Oops.

    After many problems dealing with hotel WiFi (see the name of this blog, haha), I finally decided to add a router between my devices and hotel networks. I still didn’t want to deal with the bulk of my full-size router, so I went back to Reddit where I’d seen people talking about travel routers. After reading a few posts to refresh my memory, I ordered a popular model. Main reason: It was smaller than my regular one.

    But I was clearly missing the point. Yes, it’s smaller – but the interface is also optimized for my exact use case. It’s not just a small router. It’s a router pre-configured to deal with, and simplify working around, the various problems caused by hotel WiFi networks.

    The good:

    • All of my devices can be configured one way, once – a basic router will do this, and this alone saves a lot of hassles.
    • In places that restrict how many devices you can connect, it will look like you’re connecting one. And it’s true, you’re only connecting one device to their network… but you’re connecting multiple devices to that one device. Think of it like a power strip for a room with only one working outlet, except for data instead of electricity. Something like that, haha.
    • The GL-AXT1800 simplifies reconnecting – which is absolutely vital, because some hotel WiFi networks require guests to reconnect frequently, either by design (to limit your use) or due to unreliable infrastructure. If I get cut off in the middle of work, I need to get back online as fast as I can. This router helps me do exactly that.
    • I have the router set up to connect through Proton VPN*, so all of my devices are automatically using that VPN. Other VPNs are supported, of course.
    • The GL-AXT1800 is a travel router. It’s small. It’s easy to pack.
    • It’s kinda cute. There, I said it. When the rounded antenna are up, it’s just… kinda cute.

    The not-great:

    • It took me a while to figure out the interface and process for connecting to the upstream network.
    • Proton VPN support isn’t built-in like some other VPNs, so getting that set up took a few more steps which might feel off-putting to less technical users.
    • When I first started using it, I had repeated problems with my Linux-based personal laptop getting disconnected and not being able to reconnect. My Windows-based work laptop had no such problem. I don’t know why this was happening, but it was almost enough to make me return it. I realized I could use the included Ethernet cable to connect my Linux laptop to the router, though, so I did that and everything has been fine since then.

    In Summary…

    If you travel a lot, get one. Really, it’s that simple. Learn its interface, experiment with its options, and get things configured the way you like. Do this at home, before you’re on the road, so any difficulties will feel less stressful.

    There might be other models to consider, but whichever one you choose, I’m confident that having a compact and preconfigured travel router will save you a lot of headaches.

    Once you’re enjoying your network connection in your hotel room, naturally the next step is to check out the membership options here so you can read more than just the public posts!

    * If you make a purchase via a link in this post, I may earn a small referral fee or receive another benefit which will not increase your purchase price. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.