I know OP and multiple commenters already said OkGo, but these songs/videos have been a micro obsession of mine the past week and I can’t pass up the chance to share them

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c

For this one, the entire song is played via percussive methods by driving a car on a prepared track with improvised instruments. Damian, the lead singer, had to learn stunt driving to drive the car at specific speeds for different parts of the track. They calculated the spacing of instruments over the distance as well as how much time it would take to maneuver to different parts of the course and the speeds necessary to maintain the correct beats per minute. They used over 280 guitars and 55 pianos, and modified the car with audio equipment and levers to control what mallets were extended. The song ends up sounding rough, frustrated, desperate and pained which is perfect for the lyrics, and IMO better than the studio version.

The other one is Upside Down and Inside Out. The song alone is not my cup of tea, and yet with this video it’s really incredible. They recorded the video in 27 second increments of parabolic flight to make the whole thing happen while they’re weightless. In the times between takes, they had to endure 30 seconds of 2x gravity and then wait 5-10 minutes to climb again. The sequences are edited together, so if any of them didn’t make it back to their marks in time the take wasn’t usable. They spent two weeks messing around experimenting with choreography and props, and one week filming.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LWGJA9i18Co

They do making of’s on a lot of their videos, and it’s truly incredible the amount of time and planning and preparation and ambition they have for them.

I disagree with the premise that women aren’t gaming as a hobby. You would never know how many women play single player games, and in multiplayer games not being in voice isn’t much of an indicator.

I think this is very much a game dependent thing. When I commanded open world events in Guild Wars 2 I didn’t have any trouble, but when I played Overwatch, I would get judgement and snide comments and extra scrutiny. Most of the time I didn’t have any trouble from teammates but that <10% was bad enough that I don’t blame any woman from staying quiet.

I think each game attracts certain people and encourages certain behaviors, and those people will create their own subculture around the game. See Helldivers for example. Guild Wars 2 has done an admirable job creating an online space with less toxicity than most. Overwatch not so much. I think it’s extremely common for people to form gaming clans and carve out their own enclave away from the random population, so they can play even games with highly toxic hostile cultures in relative peace. I think if you found yourself in a larger gaming clan that explicitly made toxicity unacceptable, you would find yourself surrounded by women on voice with you.

Are you thinking of Santa Clarita Diet?

I’ve wanted to visit Italy for about 20 years now. Maybe some day. There’s always some other need for the money and time.

When I go outside in a place that has plants I try to ID at least one that I don’t know. When I get a positive ID on it, I’ll look it up and sometimes it will have edible or medicinal properties.

Oh man I got to enjoy a chicken of the woods mushroom for the first time last year and it was amazing. We enjoyed sumac tea all summer and have a bounty of hickory nuts this fall. I made wild riverbank grape jelly from grapes harvested from my mom’s backyard. Definitely need to be careful with ID’ing and never picking something you’re not 100% sure of but it’s liberating and satisfying.

Yep! Got it 👍

I wrote a little rhyming riddle a long time ago, it’s not really funny but might as well share it

Air without and air within
Rainbows play upon my skin
What am I?

I won’t go hungry without creative works, I always have a choice whether to engage with them. I consume them in order to feel an emotion. Those emotions can change and become tainted by controversies or the actions of the people involved, but not always. Because my relationship to the art is and always was about how I feel, if I don’t like the feelings it gives me I get rid of it.

My favorite game to play when I am sick is Banished, a medieval city building game that was the labor of love of a solo dev. It starts off quite brutally difficult until you learn the best ways to handle the first winters and then it becomes a cozy opportunity for optimization, and a challenge to balance expanding the city as much as you can while supporting the population with agricultural and forestry goods. It’s inspired some other games to follow in its footsteps, and it has a modding community still making content for it.

Quick plug for sugar wax. It’s gentler, cheap, can be made at home, and after the up front cost of muslin strips and a wax warmer, costs you almost nothing but time.

I’m, put simply, over it. I am not a model, I am not an actress, my worth and value as a human is not based on having a flat tummy or a perfect face. I am a human covered in hair, little red bumps, scars, lumpy bits and odd little freckles. My body serves just about all of the purposes I need it to on a daily basis and that’s good enough for me. I can do gardening, go dancing, lift my kid to do airplane and carry all the groceries. Life is too short not to eat the cookie.

I’ve tried it, but personally I wasn’t able to handle it, the cat, and holding the cat’s mouth when trying to use the plunger. It was just way easier for me to hold the pill in the same hand holding their head and just drop em in.

Pilling a cat is a skill but one worth learning. I had two elderly cats who each needed pills and both hated it in their foods. I hold the kitty in my lap, pull back their head and poke a finger between their front teeth and release the pill down their throat. Then stroke the throat gently and release, and give them a high value treat right away. First time is rough but it gets better and becomes routine for everybody. If the cost ends up being a big difference it’s something to consider

His name is Guillermo. Guillermo the Guillotine.

Keep recognizing when the impulse to do it happens, understand it’s a reaction to an emotion, and learn some alternative ways to handle that emotion. If the maladaptive behavior happens again, take responsibility. Apologize to the effected people for that reaction and say you’re working on it. Not blaming others for a shitty response is a good start.

I was a very data driven dater, and I found that if you’re looking for a long term relationship then success looks like having common interests, common values, and common goals. Not all of them have to line up or be exactly the same, but there should be overlap and at least a lack of conflict in them. Common interests let you find ways to enjoy being together, common values help you make decisions that the each of you appreciate, empathize with and understand, and common goals mean that you are both working towards a future that the both of you will be happy with.

On dates I would ask questions that would get as much information about those things as I could.

Thank you for writing the comment for me so I didn’t have to. Every history nerd I know in my life is a woman except one. The women know all sorts of interesting contextual things ,the origins of traditions, crafts, foods, the local area, and social development. The guy I know knows all about wars and battles amongst other classic History things. Both are valid and count!

This was exactly my play too, mind locusts were crazy OP, especially with movement bonuses over Xenofungus. I usually played Zahkarov over Deirdre but the result was always the same, lol. A planet covered in Xenofungus and a massive mind worm/locust army. That game is so good, I was immensely disappointed in Beyond Earth. It couldn’t live up to the original unfortunately

Try Debian based Linux Mint with the KDE plasma desktop environment. Linux has its issues but they’re honest issues. Linux has hiccups because a bunch of volunteers are trying to build an airplane while flying it, while Windows has a bunch of C suite goons purposely creating a hostile user environment to monetize you for every red cent.