Wren

That’s so sweet. The time we have with our loved ones really is a gift

Love wins 🏳️‍🌈

Idc, I would drink all of these forbidden refreshments if presented like this

Am I allowed to have a few? Because I can’t pick just one haha: Priory of the Orange Tree, Jane Eyre, Lord of the Rings series, A Song of Ice and Fire series (yes, even after the season that will not be named), Fingersmith, Rebecca, Redwall series. There’s more, but I feel like this is too many already 😅

I have Devil House in my to read pile! I’m going to put it at the top of the stack now

Why have I never thought of this? I use MSG everywhere I can and this never occurred to me - thank you!

Yep, loaning physical media with software isn’t a thing anymore for that exact reason. Any software or digital platform we offer (ancestry, language learning, ebooks, etc) we either have a ‘one copy one user’ licence which essentially functions like a physical copy, we’re directly paying for each time something is accessed, or we have a subscription specifically made for libraries. We can loan out things like Kindles loaded with ebooks that we’ve purchased, but there’s still a grey area with loaning out a tablet that has the major streaming services installed (with accounts paid for by the library), so we haven’t gone down that route yet

Yep, physical input devices all the way. I literally just upgraded my computer from an Aya neo (touch screen only), to a GPD Win 4 specifically to have more physical inputs. While the Win 4 is also a handheld gaming pc (that is even smaller than the Aya), it has a slide out keyboard and an optical mouse sensor, which has honestly made so much of a difference in being able to use the device. Even just simple things like scrolling through Steam has become easier, never mind situations that involve any sort of typing.

I still love my Aya though, things a tank.

Lmao thanks, yeah I like variety haha

I mean I like them, so I’m gonna say yes haha

Sorry you had a terrible sound engineer that night though :/

Thanks I’ll check it out!

Same! I was lucky enough to get a limited edition one of Peach too. And this one, all their designs are so cool

Sleep Token - This place will become your tomb (2021) / This eden (2023)

Grim Salvo - MILDRED (2022)

Tame Impala - The Slow rush (2020)

Spiritbox - Eternal blue (2021)

Bad Omens - THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND (2022)

Can I include EP’s? If so, Lorna Shore - … And I return to nothingness (2021)

Black Tiger Sex Machine - Once upon a time in cyberworld (2022)

Apashe - Renaissance (2020)

Florence + The Machine - Dance fever (2022)

Hozier - Unreal unearth (2023)

I’m sure there’s more

It’s definitely survivorship bias and likely that the barrier for entry is a lot lower now, so only ‘better’ music would be made (ie record companies doing risk assessment and deciding what would be more likely to sell) / your average person can make music now relatively easily, which I suppose technically ‘dilutes’ the overall ‘quality’ of music today - take your pick

Ooo another Larkin Poe fan in the wild! Literally wearing one of their shirts right this minute

4ish hours to get into the Catacombs in Paris. Not long by some of the other times mentioned here, but I got sunburnt pretty bad despite being in the shade a lot. Totally worth it though, it was really cool and my dad really wanted to see it

Oh, good shout! That one looks 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

I personally love it, and yes it can with a dock similar to the Switch’s. It’s ran every game I’ve thrown at it, and I’ve an original 2021 version. There’s a few quirks, like the joysticks will sometimes just decide to not do a random direction, but recalibrating is easy. Obviously the resolution quality isn’t as stellar as if you were running a pc meant output to a monitor, but on the built in screen everything is crispy. It’s decently heavy though, so my baby wrists get tired after a while. But yeah it’s great, playing whatever wherever is pretty ace.

I do not

Anecdotally, I have an Aya Neo. I know a few people with a few of the others brands. There’s a decently sized Aya Neo Discord that I’m part of, and I would assume the other brands have something similar. There’s definitely use of non-Steam handhelds, or there wouldn’t be a growing market for them.

There’s quite a few. Steam deck and Asus, as you mentioned, but there’s also AyaNeo, GPD, OneXPlayer, Aokzoe, Lenovo, etc. And many of these brands have several different models, if you’re counting individual products.

It’s such a shame really, because there are really cool independent sellers with some awesome handmade / hard to find vintage stuff, but they’re drowned out by drop shippers (who wouldn’t even be able to sell anything on there if people knew that same item was available through aliexpress without the 100x markup)