People may have heard of these things, but I don’t think most people could give an accurate description of what they are.

Well, yes, “why don’t you care about things?” is a timeless problem. People don’t like to see beyond the immediate. Probably because in pre-history, the creatures that focused on right now did better than the ones who went “but if we keep cutting down the trees, eventually it’s going to cause problems.”

Well, now we have many problems, and our brains have not advanced.

It’s one of those self fueling problems. Businesses post on Instagram because people go there, and people go there in part because that’s where they found out about businesses doing stuff.

Better options are possible, but the big money is backing this hell. Less money to be made from RSS feeds , web rings, and email newsletters.

I don’t use any social media other than this. I find out about bands I like playing from their email lists or bandsintown. I’m on a couple “things happening in the city” email newsletters. It doesn’t demand my attention.

I really would like to somehow convince more people to adopt the idea that, like, Facebook and friends are run by bad people and you can choose not to use their products. Just stop. Find another way. Be uncomfortable for a little while.

But people aren’t up to the challenge.

What I was trying to get at is something can be worthwhile even if you don’t personally enjoy it.

Conservatism, probably. The whole in-group supremacy thing is pretty bad.

I think a lot about how “good” and “fun” are two different things.

You can have a game that’s a fascinating exploration of a theme that really unifies mechanics and story, but is an absolute downer of misery to play.

You can also have a game that’s a glorified slot machine with bugs, no real player input, and abusive monetization, but people’s brains light up playing it.

There’s some subjectivity of course, but sometimes I see games that are good at what they’re trying to be, but I don’t have any fun with them. Some people seem to demand those overlap all the time.

I use nano for quick edits. I don’t know more than the basics of vim, and don’t do a lot of editing on the terminal so I haven’t needed to.

Ars is weirdly pro-windows sometimes , in the comments. I don’t read them as much as I used to.

There was someone a while ago who was trying to get a web ring going for like nerd stuff. They said so many of their friends and people they talked to loved the idea, but no one made a site of their own.

I posted it in a local community group, and everyone said the same thing.

Pop!_os has been fine for me. I’m not a tinkerer. It’s a machine for a web browser and video games.

This is stupid to do this at the OS level. Where are the small government conservatives demanding the private market meet this need? (They are liars, fools, and scumbags who don’t sincerely believe what they say)

I want job postings and a way to reach people I worked with.

I absolutely do not want the click bait and slop.

Cars ruin everything. The primacy of cars is upstream from a surprising amount of problems with modern life.

Off the top of my head …

• free public health care for all.
• forgive all medical debt
• free public education for all, including college.
• forgive all student loan debt
• universal basic income
• more public housing. Homes are owned by the people who live in them, or the state. No profit seeking private orgs.
• close the “buy borrow die” loopholes, where people get untaxed loans to access their wealth without paying taxes
• more tax on the wealthy
• look into making property tax progressive like income. That is, the first $nnn of your house is untaxed, the next chunk at some percent, the following chunk at a greater percent, and so on.
• all Republicans removed from office. They are barred from government positions for life, as well as any private role with decision making power.
• break up mega corps. Disney, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. Their current leadership has their wealth seized, and they are barred from leadership positions for life.
• invest heavily in public transit and safety improvements to existing roadways. Cars are literally killing us as well as sapping our resources.
• mandatory profit sharing for employees.
• mandatory pay transparency
• maximum pay gap between roles. No more janitor making $7/HR while the CEO makes $300/hr
• accounting hijinks to pretend like your org made no profit, or “they’re not employees they’re contractors” are punishable by seizure of all wealth and a prohibition from similar roles for life
• come up with something so venture capitalist bros aren’t deciding the future, if the above doesn’t somehow fix it.

Well surely you can agree that letting men into women’s change rooms

If the idea is that that’s a no-no because men are sexually attracted to women, then I must remind you that gay people exist.

If the idea is that men cannot be trusted, then there are many other spaces where men have power that should be examined first.

Skyrim. It was at best “fine” for me. I really dislike level scaling. The combat felt unsatisfying. I don’t remember the story. It’s not weird like Morrowind. The magic and enchanting was over-simplified.

But for many people it’s their grand joy. So I guess that’s good for them.

Did not expect caves of qud to be on anyone’s list, as I thought it was pretty niche.

I also really wanted to like the game, but it felt oddly empty. I wanted less lost in the wilderness, less static quests, more dynamic stuff to do and explore.

I have much respect for “it’s not fun for me” and less patience for “it’s bad”. Totally understand why you might not find the games fun.

I remember playing it at a friend’s house and thinking “quake is better”, but the four player local play on one game and TV was an overwhelming factor.