That’s quite an interesting problem to have. I’ve never been very prone to nostalgia myself, partially due to there not being that many good memories. Not sure how to express this in English… I don’t know how I would have handled the whole dropping out, unemployment, being kicked out and being homeless. Or if I would have handled it at all. I’m impressed.

The part I can actually relate to is “I just want to keep barely working and playing games and staying up late forever”, while also very much not wanting to be that way. (typing this at 5am) For myself, I’ve identified the likely problem to be that I no longer have any goals or dreams. There isn’t really anything I’d want to work towards, nothing I want to achieve. I can’t come up with anything either, so I’m kind of stuck in the present unable to look to the future, just trying to survive day at a time. Whenever I do think about future, I can only think about it in a negative way. I’m curious, how do you view future? Or do you have any leads as to how you might get out of your situation?

If online friends aren’t your thing, this won’t be of any use, but when it comes to making real friends online… Based purely on my personal experience, I’d recommend some kind of an online penpal site. The ones where people look to chat with people from other countries or speaking other languages, for example. Differences between countries and cultures give a lot of interesting stuff to talk about, and easily leads to deeper conversations. Especially helpful if there isn’t much going on in one’s day-to-day life. And people there are generally looking for actual friends, more so than in most other online communities. I’ve made most of my best friendships on sites like that. Some of them I’m still friends with a decade later. (I just now realized it has been that long… damn.)

I know at least Firefox and Signal do the same. I don’t see why it should be changed, since pinching and double tapping are also supported. Although, the zoom on double tap is indeed way too strong.

Always remember to return your shopping cart after using it to move the bodies.

Love forests! Apart from the mosquitoes…

I suppose I still do it in some sense. If I have a lot of muscle tension built up or am otherwise starting to get a headache/migraine. I just lie down in bed, and focus on breathing until my body enters that sleep state where it completely relaxes and doesn’t respond to my commands. Like a nice nap, but without actually falling asleep (much faster, no grogginess). Or like sleep paralysis, but without the demons. ;D

I also tried meditation to focus on the subconscious stream of thoughts, which was extremely fascinating. But I had to stop after a week or so since I started to become aware of it even when not meditating, which felt like someone constantly whispering in my ears and it was quite maddening. I would still recommend giving it a try though. Becoming aware of some subconscious thought chains/loops, especially the negative ones, and learning to cut them short had a huge impact on my mental well-being.

One cool thing about remembering dreams you’ve had is that some stories might turn into storylines. For the past few years there has been a dream story going on in my sleep. Every now and then randomly there’s another dream that either continues or relates to that story. It’s pretty fun, like following an interesting TV show and waiting for new episodes!

I have dreams every single night, and remember at least one of them once I wake up. Always have. Only exceptions are when I’m extremely tired or when I drink chamomile tea before bed. Found out about the latter last summer, and it admittedly kind of freaked me out; not having/remembering dreams is just… weird.

In recent years I’ve run some experiments on what works for me and what doesn’t. ‘6h for work - 9h for rest - 9h for whatever’ division seems to work wonders for me, with one day off in a week.

Trying to sleep less than 9h just messes everything up, unless I divide the sleep into two sections. Funny how that works. Extra 1.5h of being awake, especially during the productive night hours, was quite nice. But I hate waking up, and doing that twice a day is just simply too much!

I suppose I’m on the opposite side of visualization spectrum. I can easily conjure images so realistic and detailed that they pass for the real thing. I can also add texture, smells, temperature, sound, etc. but I can’t fake weight or pure white color which for some reason always turns out somewhat grey or beige.

I don’t think much in words however, most of my thoughts are in images and sensations. Which does make verbal communication somewhat challenging at times.

Sometimes the realism of visualization worries me somewhat. Many mental processes have a tendency to get a bit out of conscious control, and it would be quite troublesome to no longer know which of the things I see are actually real. On the plus side, I can visualize paintings on my walls, without actually buying any! I like having no decorations in my home, which seems to confuse people. Perhaps I should start comparing it to a blank canvas…

No idea who that is, but I’m still leaving an upvote just for the template and beating of kids. >:)

In general and if you don’t know the person you’re making the recommendation to, agreed. But I know several people I’d definitely recommend (and have recommended) Arch to as the first distro. Even just the installation process is so educational, it’s a worthy starting point, after some general youtube videos perhaps. If someone just wants to take Linux for a quick test drive, Arch definitely isn’t the way to go.

Although, I’ll admit I’m not sure how to describe the type of people I’d recommend it to. If their interest is less practical, and more theoretical. Or if they get really into their hobbies and like to tinker and poke at things to see what happens. Or if they just have an endless curiosity and need to understand. Surprisingly many people I know fall into these categories.

That was pretty much me when I first decided to try installing Arch… at 2am.

It’s interesting to look at graphs of animal populations and how those vary. Increasing population, using too many resources, shortage, population plummets, environment recovers, more resources for less animals, population starts rising again…

I suppose it’s somewhat arrogant to think humans above that. Although, we could be.

Ah continuity, I like it!

This gives me very strong Talos Principle vibes. I should try playing the sequel at some point…

Concookielations!

Older houses definitely have them… but there was this trend at some point to renavate older houses and remove the oil heaters and fireplaces and wood heated saunas, and replace everything with electric ones. Why? No idea, trends are weird.

I love this. I’ll also probably have nightmares tonight now that I’ve been reminded of Lovecraft’s stories. XD

Since plastic was already everywhere, we collected it, made it white and covered huge areas with it to reflect more sunlight. Great idea, didn’t backfire at all.

Maybe they are what the dimension needs to be protected from?