This is a great way to think about it… as much as I would love to completely drop the companies I hate like Microsoft or Google or Twitter, sometimes you have to use it for school/work/etc. (Good God I hate Teams.) Like food conglomerates it’s just far too hard for the majority of people to live off the big tech grid.

The first time I ever heard of 15-minute cities was through conspircy theories (I like learning about them) and you’re right that it is actually crazy. It’s the exact same anti-vaxx crowd, who also believe 5G is harmful and similar “theories”, lead by right-wing pundits and grifters whipping up outrage over nothing.

I agree a weekly rewatch and a currently airing thread would be great. That said, in my opinion we should have a recommendations thread. People asking for recs, people posting suggestions like “if you like X, try Y!”, maybe “I’m interested in watching/reading X, is it worth my time?”

I just bought Subnautica and Cities Skylines, so I’m looking forward to playing them both.

Wow, thank you! <3 Hal is a masculine name (and I pretty much go by it all the time) but if I say my name is Halley, people just tend to assume I’m a girl. I really thought it was a gender neutral name… I’m autistic so I can’t tell as easily as other people lol. I guess my advice is: when you’ve picked your name, ask other people whether it reads as fem or masc! I know you’re cis but it can still be really annoying for people to assume you’re a gender you’re not because of your name.

I wanted a science-based name because I’m a little nerd lol. I considered Kelvin at some point. In the end, (and I really can’t remember why I specifically chose it) I named myself after Edmond Halley – Hal as a nickname, as a reference to HAL 9000 of course.

Honestly, I sort of regret it, because Halley isn’t as gender neutral as I thought and everyone considers it a girl name. I wish I’d been more out there and straight up decided to call myself Truck or Brick or something.

I’ll add that if you can’t find it on libgen, or if you’re looking for comics and manga ie things that might not be on there, FMHY is a great thing to google ;) includes audiobooks if you’d prefer that to reading. Includes direct downloads as well as torrents.

That said, depending on what you want to learn, there may be a youtube video on it. There’s tons on youtube for certain subjects like video editing or coding if that’s what you’re interested in.

Edit to add: if you’d rather buy a physical copy, ebay and AbeBooks are great sources.

A Hat in Time: 50% off at £12. A really cute 3D platformer.

Wobbledogs: 40% off at £10. Looks and plays like a pet simulator but is almost more about genetics and seeing what kind of bizarre “dogs” you can create.

Let’s Build a Zoo: 45% £9. I’ve seen this described as similar to a Bullfrog game (think Theme Hospital) and that’s good way to put it. It’s a zoo simulator, but full of silly humour and things you can do, like butcher your animals for meat. A big feature of the game is breeding, including crossbreeding animals to create hybrids like a snake/pig monster.

Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper: 80% at £2. It’s an old game and the dating shows, and nor is it a brilliant masterpiece of writing (it’s Sherlock investigating Jack the Ripper after all) but it does scratch the detective game itch. It’s fun to explore London as it was in Sherlock’s day, and it does provide its own theory as to who Jack the Ripper was, as well as laying out the events in a way that are much easier to follow than reading a book. I’d recommend it for true crime and mystery fans and I look forward to the other games in the series.

My picks for some (actually) hidden gems :)

Going to stay with a friend in a few hours. We’re planning on smoking, watching cartoons, maybe some light gaming, then finishing it off with watching the new Transformers movie on Sunday!

I have not considered that, I think I’ll bring it up with my DM… it’s my first “all-evil campaign” so I just figured we’d be good to play without putting some guidelines in place! I’ve talked to the DM before about the player but I think next session I’ll talk to the player in private, tell them cooperation is key. They have a lot more experience with regular RP than tabletop which is probably where these issues are coming from.