Probably not a popular view here but I’ve found my hobbies more fulfilling since I started doing stuff other than gaming. Native plant/food gardening, reading books, working out… all of this stuff can be affected by capitalism too of course but I’m less beholden to it. I still game a bit now and then but much less than I used to.

AI-generated articles, books, coloring books for example, are all a thing now. Behind the Bastards did a podcast episode on the latter two.

They can join the gut flora party!! 🎉

Sauteed/air fryer brussels sprouts 🤌

I used to hate tomatoes, then I tried home-grown and just realized grocery store tomatoes often suck by comparison. There are many plants that don’t store/ship well so you either can’t get them in stores (e.g. pawpaws) or they taste bad because of short shelf life/bruising.

but being vegan on a day to day basis means checking what is in every little thing you eat or drink, I mean literally checking labels and searching ingredients

That’s true in the sense that you have to do it when you encounter something new, but once you become familiar with products, you just know what is safe and what isn’t after a while. I wouldn’t say going to the grocery store is much more difficult for me than an omnivorous person because I’ve been vegan/vegetarian for about a decade now and I’ve just got a mental list of many products I know are appropriate for me to eat. Yes I do still have to check labels when I’m getting something new (and have to stay aware of when recipes get updated) but it’s not as arduous as people make it out to be, IMO.

And that’s just buying processed food. If you’re cooking from scratch it’s pretty easy to know what’s going into your food and select plant-based protein sources like tofu, beans, seitan etc.

In addition to your diet/lifestyle, I’d say you can be a force for good in the world in terms of animal welfare by just trying to consume less, have a smaller carbon footprint, and do what you can to support wildlife. Something I’m passionate about myself is converting my lawn to prairie in order to foster local wildlife. You could also volunteer your time/money towards supporting habitat restoration projects or something like that.

For any new parents out there, current recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics is basically don’t give children under 2 years old any solo digital media time. Meaning no tablet babysitter when you’re cooking, driving etc.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/screen-time/art-20047952

Stasis was in the first game, yes. You were required to use it several times to be able to pass through a few malfunctioning doors. You get it for free early in the game and don’t have to upgrade it at all to open the doors, preventing the game from soft locking itself.

There also isn’t any guarantee that a quality game will actually sell well, especially if the dev takes a risk and creates something new instead of releasing the 14th installment in a well-established series. It sucks but this is what it looks like when you have gigantic businesses steering video game development.

Y’all Y’uns Fuckers

I’m a student teacher right now in elementary! I try to get my kids to think critically whenever I can. I hear kids talk about insane shit they saw/heard on tiktok (I got into an argument with a student who thought Slenderman was 100% real because of something they saw on tiktok) and I try to really get them to think and actually justify why they believe things.

This is a great example of why it’s so important to emphasize teaching critical thinking in school right now. Misinformation and disinformation is just going to continue to grow.

I’m betting it would actually be cheaper to cook something like rice and beans than it would be to eat cereal.

The actual signs exist (get yourself a planisphere or a stargazing app, find some dark skies, and discover them for yourself!), it’s just all the magic personality nonsense associated with them is bullshit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza

I don’t think that’s true.

Now I’m wondering if there are documented cases of other primates being infected by rabies…

I have an e-reader as well as a phone, tablet, and paper books and honestly I still prefer my phone over anything else. With my phone it’s easier to look up words/concepts I don’t know if I want more than a simple definition of the word. Sometimes I will use the e-reader with my phone next to me for when I want to look something up. These days I would say paper books are my least favorite medium though. Big, bulky, and it’s more work to read them in the dark.

Bikes, trains, busses, scooters, pedestrians, … are all traffic.

Two of those are mass transit and the rest don’t make very much noise.

Did you know they’re based on Japanese history?

I don’t mind paying for YouTube premium because I think YouTube is a valuable service and recognize it’s expensive to host videos.