I cancelled cable a few years ago and now use YouTube TV. I love it because I can record everything, never run out of DVR space. I can run 5 tvs with different shows on each. I can watch TV anywhere on my phone and laptop. I can stop on one device and pick back up on another. Well over 100 channels now (but I only really watch a handful). Every channel also has an on-demand section. Like TCM has what’s live but also a huge library to stream from.

I have Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Peacock, Max…but if I had to just use one service, it would be YouTube TV. It follows me, and is not tied to my house. If I go visit another state, it will even switch to the local news wherever I am. It has, by far, the most content in one spot for one price.

Modern billionaires are the manifestation of the rampant consumerism of the masses. Want to do your part against the billionaires? Start with consuming less. Buy less. Move toward minimal.

To be fair, no user “owns” their account. Everything about your Twitter account, from the user name to the data you tweet belongs to Twitter. I hesitate to call it a dick move. It’s more of an Elon move.

Collections add a little something real to an interest. You are into baseball? Collect baseball cards and baseball memorabilia. Some find a tactile connection improves their enjoyment. For some people, it may be old video games, for others it may be coins, stamps, achievements in video games. Yes they are digital, but you can see them in your achievement/trophy list. I think some people are drawn to collections more than others because they favor a certain learning style over another. I’m not educated in behavior in any way so I am qualified to share my opinion on the Internet. There’s nothing abnormal about that. The collecting part. Not the part where I have no real knowledge on a topic but I feel my opinion is worthy of being heard. That’s actually normal, too, probably. But it shouldn’t be.

They are tolerant of things harmful to them because they have been indoctrinated to devalue themselves beneath the capitalistic company. However, this makes people assets to the highest bidder. Start a whistleblower rewards organization that pays people for revealing corporate exploits. The organization is filled with passionate lawyers and talented media personalities who will counter the indoctrination by exposing any and every corp any time they degrade people. Corps install security cameras and all sorts of monitoring metrics with which they can use as puppet strings to manipulate their employees. It’s time for the employees to spy back and get rewarded.

You can say the same thing about many ideologies: socialism, communism, capitalism. All are great in theory. But humans exploit any system they can. That is their nature and purpose.

People will not care about something until it exceeds a tolerance. It’s not productive to explain away behaviors with a label. What’s of more importance is why people are tolerant of things that are not in their best interest? How do we change that?

For me, sugars and processed foods (grains especially) were an addiction. I see a lot of advice about allowing yourself a “cheat” day now and then but I would advise against it. It’s like telling a drug addict it’s ok to shoot up now and then, or it’s ok for the alcoholic to have a drink on special occasions. Processed foods are harmful to us over time. So while it won’t kill you when you are 20 or even 30, it will catch up with you.

Push through those cravings. They will go away.

I have not used it enough to tell. I asked it to make a one-shot for me. It set up the entire plot, created the stat blocks for the monsters, set up the encounters. Created the traps and the puzzles. It even made the magic items, along with detailed descriptions and lore. I’ve had it help with making a custom setting, including custom races and classes. It’s not copy/paste perfect of course, but good enough of a framework that I can easily go in and tweak stuff. Definitely saves hours of work.

I love seeing pictures of the world from other people’s perspective. Urban shots. Nature shots. Any old boring shots like just a side road you walk down, or a tree you like to sit under. I like being able to see the quiet places in the world as well as the loud ones.

If that describes a lot of anyone’s posts, add me there and I will follow you back https://pixelfed.social/i/web/profile/577121287304400256

For me, I don’t need new fancy features to communicate. I don’t need video chat rooms. I don’t need constant notifications. I just need a simple place to post my social expressions and read other people’s social expressions. I don’t want my experience to be shaped by algorithms designed to keep me engaged and present. For me, social media is like going down to the pub and talking with some regular friends. The BIGGER a platform is, the less it’s about being social, and it’s more about promotion. Promotion of self, events, clubs, companies, etc.

Threads will take away people from Mastodon, but that’s a good thing. Because it will appeal to people who desire a different social media experience. They can take the foam off the top, leaving us with a smaller group that prefers a simpler, less invasive, social media. I don’t have to share all my contacts, my browsing history, my health data or my financial data to Mastodon (or any service in the Fediverse) in order to use it. You cannot say the same about Thread.

I will always side with something like Mastodon over Thread. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe Mastodon cannot fail. It certainly can. But it won’t be Thread that kills it.

I love this. I especially love the “play at level 1 until it’s not fun”. Progression is secondary to a good story. Back when I was playing 1st and 2nd editions, new players would start as zero level characters, where we roleplayed short adventures around them being apprentices for organizations such as a thieves guild, a church, a fighter’s guild or for some wizard or going to an academy. The characters might end up meeting each other by having similar quests given to them and they become friends who evolve into adventurers.