FumblingBear

One thing that helped my friends and I really enjoy reading again is book clubs! Since the start of Covid, I've personally run ~3 books clubs with different people where we all vote on a book together, set a pace (usually a few chapters a week), and a time to meet weekly on discord and then discuss.

It's been a great way to solidify friendships, broaden my interests (Not every book that's been voted on was one I'd have picked alone), and cultivate a habit of reading and enjoying meaningful time with people.

I highly recommend anybody with friends who might be interested to reach out and give it a shot! It's been a delight! I've even branched off into hosting a movie club now with the same idea, just pick a movie weekly and watch it asynchronously, then hop on a call to discuss :)

I still use mine pretty consistently for some specific use cases. Video editing in DaVinci Resolve using my MacBook Pro w/ Mac Virtual Display helps a ton with workflows where I need the extra space, and is definitely what I find the most helpful for it. I've also used it some for music production with Logic Pro, and it can be somewhat helpful, as long as I'm not live tracking instruments. Pretty much anything that benefits from more screen real estate is great on it.

Also, media consumption in general on it is unparalleled. I watched Lawrence of Arabia a few weeks ago in the Super Panavision 70 native resolution and was in awe of how much a difference it made for my appreciation of the film.

It's not a product for everyone, but I've not used anything quite like it. One of my favorite memories of it was getting my father to send me some of his favorite photographs from his travels (he's a professional photographer with a great camera setup) and making an album of spacial and panoramic photos for him and some other family members to relive. My grandma literally cried because she can't travel anymore so being able to see the world as if she was there was super meaningful :)

Constructed Languages (Conlangs) are something that I've never personally studied, but I've always been fascinated by their existence. Toki Pona was my first introduction to a conlang outside of pop culture ones like in television or movies, and it always seemed like such a neat project and community.

It seems like the community is responding to a sensitive and difficult situation with the grace and care that I would hope for with the name "The Language of Good."

If you're interested in learning more about conlangs, the youtuber Jan Misali [0] was my introduction to them and has some really fascinating videos about conlangs (and many other various videos). It's a really niche subject, but it can be cool to see just how much thought and care has been put into passion projects like them.

The reason I bring up them in particular is because they have many videos covering Toki Pona and are a member of that community, so it seems relevant.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/@HBMmaster

I was thinking the same thing! Having played through Factorio and a fair amount of GregTech really reframed my viewpoint on energy production that a huge part of the benefit of fossil fuels is the byproducts, not just raw energy output.

I've also been using transcribe for over a decade and can vouch for how great it is for learning music and transcribing by ear. Irreplacable for my workflow.

Moderately amused at the quote "We are ending the war on protein." In my experience, every single brand in recent years has been coalescing around the idea of making protein bars, drinks, prominently labeling the amount of grams of protein are in items, etc.

I'm not opposed, as protein seems to be a good target to prioritize, but claiming there's a war on protein just seems so out of touch to the point of absurdity. It's practically the only thing that people care about right now.

My clanmates and I noticed that some of the more popular goldfarming hotspots were much less populated that day. Rev caves, Zalcano, etc. Not sure about impacts for the broader economy though. Maybe FlippingOldSchool will release a video analyzing the economic trends over the course of that week? Would be interesting for sure.

LOVE Bellavitano! I'm a huge fan of most of their cheeses, but especially the Garlic & Herb—it's like a delicious pizza :)

Thanks for mentioning Spider and Web. It's by far my favorite modern take on a text adventure. There were a few moments that really blew my mind when I figured out how to progress.

Highly recommend anyone who is intrigued by the premise to just jump in and give it a go!

I think I may be the commenter you're referring to, and yes, I have used many different VR devices over the years. I've owned at least 3 other headsets and used 5.

My point in saying the usefulness of it being tied to the ecosystem was more of a negative one than a positive one if it wasn't clear. It is personally useful for me because I have a lot of Apple products at home (though I also have PC and linux stuff too), but I wish my primary use-cases for it were more platform agnostic.

I'm also very in support of aggressive anti-trust legislation and it's probably my biggest point of contention with Apple.

Despite all that, I still like the Vision Pro and think it's an incredible piece of tech that blows every other headset I've tried out of the water for the things I like to do.

As far as I know, you can't have different virtual desktops for each room. The window to use the virtual desktop dynamically pops up over my laptop when I open and unlock it.

I do have a few widgets floating around in different rooms, but rarely use it from somewhere that isn't my chair or bed, so it's mostly a few clocks embedded into my walls to keep track of time, and those are persistent.

I won't be upgrading from the M2 model, but I still get a lot of value out of mine simply using the Mac Virtual Display with my Macbook Pro. Of course there are other benefits (gaming w/ ALVR and a PC, watching movies, reading comics) but it makes video editing workflows much nicer for me because I can set the resolution to ultrawide and have much more real estate for Davinci Resolve.

It never really leaves the house, and I get why a lot of people don't like it, but personally, it's one of the coolest pieces of tech I own and I get a ton of value out of it. The value is just tied to being integrated into the apple ecosystem more than it being a standalone device, which is a very Apple thing to do.

I have lots of criticisms too, but overall I really like it. Also converting photos to spatial photos and looking through old memories in 3D is truly incredible. Can't overstate how much I love that feature.

The thing I'm most excited about from this release is the backwards compatible Dual Knit Band, which I'm definitely buying.

They're referring to Hollow Knight, not Silksong.

The same thing has been happening to me lately too. Someone asked if I really knew and typed the alt-code every time I use it and I replied yes, if I'm on a Windows machine. On the one hand I agree it's often a tell for AI slop, but it's frustrating that nobody seems to dig any deeper than that anymore.

This is pretty obscure, but I've found the more niche, the more I enjoy a blog. [0] It's a series of posts on a blog called Taskerland (written by Moreau Vazh) that do some literary analysis on classic works of horror, specifically, the works of Thomas Ligotti and H.P. Lovecraft.

If you enjoy short form horror stories, and want to read someone's interpretation of the themes and background of some horror with substantial literary merit, it might be worth a shot! It actually encouraged me to start my own blog, doing something similar—though I'm still in the early stages of writing it.

[0] https://tasker.land/category/series/canon-fodder/

All of the other replies to you seem to give examples of other sandbox games that are successful / fun and suggest that maybe you just don't like the genre, but as an avid fan of sandbox games, and many of the other titles given by other posters, I still agree with you.

No Man's Sky feels devoid of any personality or interesting content in a particularly unique way. No amount of updates will ever fix for me what feels like a fundamental gameplay loop issue.

All of the layers of systems they've added with each new update still just feel __bad__. I'm glad so many have found a way to enjoy the game, but I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when none of them seem to address the issue of "collect arbitrary resources to build gear to collect other arbitrary resources ad nauseum" in a way that I just find fundamentally unsatisfying.

I still understand that reductive description can apply to many of the other games I actually enjoy (i.e. Minecraft, etc.) but that's what's so strange to me about NMS—by all means, I __should__ like the game. But I still think it's a miserable experience devoid of any real meaning. Even if the point is to find your own meaning in the systems it provides, I can't quite put my finger on it, but it just feels so much worse than any of the others.

Maybe someone else can better articulate why it feels so bad, but to me, despite all of the work they've put on the game, it still feels so devoid of meaning.

I always take out headphones when interacting with service workers, but I'd say at this point a solid 80% of them have their own airpods in even when taking orders or in a directly customer facing role. I think the social stigma has just changed over time.

For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of your app and was hoping for a Vision Pro release. I didn't know you released it, but will be buying it today.

I know that doesn't pay the bills, but I appreciate the hard work you do.

Can only answer for myself, but yes—I am completely unable to picture my parents.

Actually the opposite. They’re explicitly not allowed to.

Fair point—I just get a little annoyed when the marketing speak confuses the average consumer and felt as though some of the jargon they used could trip less informed customers up.

In this specific case, it's because iPad's never got the M3. They're literally comparing it with the previous model of iPad.

There were some disingenuous comparisons throughout the presentation going back to A11 for the first Neural Engine and some comparisons to M1, but the M2 comparison actually makes sense.

I've read and adored a lot of Thomas Ligotti's fictional works—I think this comment will finally push me to read The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Thanks for sharing some additional reading to consider too.

At least from what I've read from Ligotti, he has such a hauntingly poetic way to touch on the horrors of the mundane.

Thanks for sharing :)

Absolutely! I'm definitely not trying to minimize the impact that aging has on our bodies, just add another data point to the discussion :)

I've just seen people my age and younger suggest that running while fat is too hard and give up on it but I've started to enjoy it for the first time in my life despite my weight.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I'm 6'2" ~265 lbs (pretty fat) and around 30 years old. I started running to train for a 5k with some buds and found that I can comfortably run in zone 2 for about 1 hour with only mild soreness and minimal joint pain.

I've only really been getting into it in the past ~6 weeks or so, so still a beginner. Just wanted to chime in and say that running while fat is totally doable and you just gotta ease into it and try to avoid pain! Discomfort might be a part of the process, but running slowly in zone 2 has become quite relaxing and a great part of my day, despite having hated running when I was in the best shape of my life.

I used to only run in zone 4-5 because I focused on speed and just assumed misery was a necessary part of the running experience. It's been a total blessing to learn that it doesn't need to be like that at all!

Hope you can find a good balance for what works for you as a heavier person. Listening to your body and knowing your limitations are super important. Just wanted to share my experience as a heavier guy too.

Funnily enough, yes! Though my care in Anchorage, AK was also great. I didn't realize it was unique enough for you to name the location on a guess though.

I'm a veteran and my experiences with the VA have been great! I fully recognize that many others don't necessarily have the same experience, but I am consistently impressed by the quality of care that I receive.

The other veterans in my area (that I know and talk to) also seem to have good experiences with our VA healthcare. Just chipping in to say that while there is a lot to criticize about the VA, there are things to praise too.

I somewhat agree that it's __somewhat__ clickbaity, but the other important part of something being clickbait is "being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misleading". [0]

I'm sure there are some definitions of clickbait that don't require that, but at least colloquially with people I talk to, it's assumed that clickbait necessarily engages in deceptive behavior where the content is not aligned with the title / thumbnail.

In this case, it's certainly designed to draw attention and get a viewer to click, but it's also the thesis of the video. He literally considers it to be the worst product he's ever reviewed, and thinks that they may iterate on it to improve the functionality in the future.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait

In my experience with aphantasia, I struggle with the ability to describe people based on their physical attributes (my parents for example) but I think it's distinct from face blindness. I can easily recognize people that I know purely based on their faces, but I don't believe that people with face blindness could. I just can't visualize what they look like mentally.

Interesting! I don't think I've experienced the flip side of facial recognition! It sounds like a very strange phenomenon to have happen! I can pretty much always recognize the people I know in real life, but if there's a drastic change to their appearance, (i.e. shaved head, dyed hair, etc.) I simply don't notice that there's a change.

I haven't had any experiences with exploding head syndrome either, though I do suffer from insomnia sometimes. I've gotten better at managing it nowadays, but for a long time I was unable to get good sleep without medication like Ambien.

Fascinating that we have so much in common though! It's actually really cool to know that although I'm the odd one out when it comes to most of the people I know, there are other people out there with similar forms of neural processing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences :)