In skimming over a synopsis of the show, it does sound interesting and like it skips tropes that I’m familiar with. Not opposed to checking it out. Will I remember by the time I’m looking for something to watch? I’d give it about a 15% chance.

Maybe. I wasn’t intending to infer it was related to age groups. More that my tastes happened to have changed as I aged.

That said and in thinking about it, I don’t recall any of my friends that I know have enjoyed anime showing interest in anime in recent years either.

Doesn’t mean one can’t be older and still enjoy them, but my anecdotal evidence based on a tiny sample size suggests less appeal to an older audience.

I actually have a separate work phone too. Jealous that you get a stipend for it. Mine is just a older phone with no sim card. Mostly sits in my home office. Connect it via hotspot when I’m out and about during work hours or am oncall.

No reason I can’t repurpose it as my travel phone when needed like you do. That’d be pretty easy.

I enjoyed some anime when I was younger. But that sentiment started changing maybe 15 to 20 years ago? Tried a few things here and there (I don’t recall what) that were recommended to me but didn’t enjoy any of it. So I gave up on it. And that’s fine.

Yeah, that and actually taking decent pictures.

Cheap phone + nice camera is another option. But with the downside of more to pack and carry around.

My primary concern isn’t so much what i’m saying now, but what they think about it later if we keep heading toward darker times.

… yeah that feels entirely possible. Valid concern.

That’s a hassle. They won’t find anything they’d be interested in while searching through my phone. Because I am a fairly boring man (and I’m cool with that). But I don’t agree that they should have the right to do so in the first place, and I do travel fairly frequently so this is a concern.

I guess I can get a burner and create a separate password database that just has stuff I know I’ll need to use while traveling (like airlines and rideshares). And memorize ones that I don’t want them having access to, like my email account (makes password resets a risk) and bank accounts.

With protesting and dissent nearing illegality, It’s no longer safe to have password managers, browser history or social media on your phone. (at borders for now)

I had not considered the risk of having a password manager on my phone and being cohered to unlock it. There’s nothing dissentious there to find so I’m not concerned about that (don’t infer from that that I think it’s acceptable that they can look, I do not). But what’s to stop them from stealing financial login info while they’re at it? That’s the worry that just triggered.

If you express any public dissent toward the administration, you should consider traveling with a dumb phone or a burner, not connected to your email/social online services/password systems.

Traveling with a dumb phone isn’t always viable. A recent example I can think of is I had to scan a QR code and fill out a customs form on a website. There was not a paper based alternative. But a burner works.

DIY Phone

Use the Comet and the Linux stack for calling*, messaging and mobile data as an alternate to your walled and closed smartphone. Contribute to the Linux ecosystem for mobiles.

• No earpiece but the front speaker can do the trick.

Limited to speakerphone, as it stands. Maybe someone will make an attachment that uses the GPIO pins to add an earpiece. Since the GPIO pins are on the bottom guessing that might be a little unwieldy though.

I hadn’t considered that. Which I should have, having been in that very same type of situation before.

I don’t have any great solution. Given how car-centric the US is car ownership really isn’t optional for a lot of people.

Good point. Edited for clarity.

I live in an emissions check only state. My car is an EV and I admit I take enjoyment in knowing ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car drivers have an inconvenience that I do not.

That said, I’d rather we had regular mandatory inspections. Cars are already dangerous. We should be productively trying to catch issues that could suddenly cause them to behave unexpectedly.

Funny

I like that. Now I want an open air case.

Some stuff I didn’t see in reading responses.

• Learn some “handy” skills. Create, build, repair. Stuff breaks all the time (and is probably only going to get worse), and as an adult you may be the one responsible to resolve that. It’s satisfying to do, saves money, makes you more independent, and might even open additional employment avenues.
• Do travel. Pick places with cultures you aren’t familiar with. While some high costs may be unavoidable (plane tickets, for example) travel can generally be done fairly cheaply. It’s an amazing experience and I think can give you some valuable perspectives on life.
• Be reliable. Having a reputation of someone who does what they say they will may open doors.

Something I did see but wanted to say as well anyway:

Don’t try so hard figuring your life out that you forget to live your life. Find balance.

Link to an actively updated article from the same source: https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260828-nepal-tibet-live-china-warns-lake-formed-by-mudslide-on-nepal-border-could-breach

LFS + twm FTW.

You seem to have a good sense of what disros are out there. I think any beginner friendly distro with wherever user friendly DE it comes with will probably be fine.

I’d say maybe stick with a deb or rpm one which most are anyway, for the compatibility point you already made. If you/they need something that’s otherwise not available in your distro’s repos, there’s probably already packages or third party repos available.

But the ask is a recommendation. I find myself generally recommending Fedora, despite not having used it myself for years. It’s easy to install, you can choose your DE, it’s stable, has a good release cadence, and is easy to upgrade and maintain.

I’ve been meaning to try out meshcore, but haven’t gotten around to it. It does sound promising.

In that it’s a mesh network deployed and controlled by individuals, and provides a level of encryption, yes.

But the limited range and low bandwidth makes it ineffective at a large scale. Also a nefarious party (the government presumably in this example) could determine the rough location of nodes, were they so inclined.

Easier said than done, especially as there are more models that don’t have any sort of support for those OSs than models that do.

This is a big hurdle. I had to buy a different phone to install a custom ROM. I bought it used, but even so still fairly expensive. And an extra cost can be a limiting factor too.

Not to mention the hassle to even enable the option to flash it and risk of bricking

GrapheneOS has a webUSB installer that is very easy to use. I would argue it eliminates the hassle. Bricking is still a risk.

Worse, banking apps may refuse to work.

I don’t use banking apps on my phone. I don’t like having anything installed that has access to money. I just access my financial institutions via their website. But I acknowledge they may fill some need others have that I do not. And that not everyone has access to a computer to access websites , and I can see banks trying to force app use when accessing from a mobile browser.

TIL about Citizen Eco-Drive watches. Looked them up. I like them!

I’ll try living that mechanical watch life first, but if I have the same irritations, could see me going the same route.

I just ordered a mechanical watch. Primarily because I think they’re cool, but it not even having a battery feels as far away from a smartwatch as you can get to me, and I like that too.