I’ve been learning Monster Hunter and am a little ways in - I started out with SnS but am trying out some other tools too. I kinda interspersed it with trying out Dark Souls too (which definitely feels like the more punishing of the two!) and it’s been pretty interesting to try out a more Japanese perspective on combat that’s often described like “watching animations and taking turns”. I’ve also been doing a bit of the Gower MMO Brighter Shores from time to time. It’s been lovely to see Andrew’s particular sense of understated humour in the quest dialogue, and I’ve slowly got a few hundred levels here and there idling away for XP.

Yeah, sensory overwhelm is definitely a thing; I’m pretty sensitive to light in my bedroom overnight, and then when I wake up I forget to draw up the blinds to let light in (and stop mould etc.). Huge draw on my spoons but it’s also what I need to do to stay functional.

I’ve heard a lot about habits and mentions of that book too! I found an article about his four laws – make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying (ctrl+f to jump down to it) and the cues/cravings responsive/rewarding cycle, which kinda makes me want to look into it in more detail too. I hope the book was useful!

The weather this year has been crazy variable so far - even in New Zealand where it should be summer we’ve gotten some severe Antarctic cold snaps! I hope you’re keeping warm, one step at a time.

I’m a week late to the discussion but just wanted to add some context about the last line: this was the announcement in September 2023 about that, The Beehaw project is entering some significant challenges. I took some time away from the Fediverse myself and also hadn’t been keeping up with it much over 2024, but I guess the new year’s spirit pushed me into trying to make it stick again (here’s to better habits this year!)

By the way, I think you’re right about small community groups, they are definitely hard to run and I can understand why a lot of them moved to more-closed discord groups with closed invites instead. I guess there will always be different ways for humans to connect in the social ecosystem, so at least there will be something out there.

In any case I guess welcome back and I hope you can find some cool discussions here again!

I made a similar move a few years ago - none of the for-profit newspapers, and like you said, a stronger preference for national broadcasters who don’t have to worry about revenue directly from the populace (even if they are funded by public taxes), and a lesser dependence on advertising. I’m not even from the US and signed up for the NPR newsletters because they were so good and interesting!

I can’t help but feel you’re correct that clickbait is leading to a decline in the quality of things-that-I-read. In my opinion, it’s the manifestation of capitalism in communication and socialization and feels like such a terrible problem. Money may make the world go round – but it is clear that it doesn’t always do it in a sustainable way. I do what I can (with contributions to the DeArrow extension for YouTube for example) to stay focused on mitigating it, but I feel like I’ll have to do more in the future.