This makes a lot of sense because as we have been seeing over the last decades or so is that digital only socialization isn’t a replacement for in person socialization. Increased social media usage shows increased loneliness not a decrease. It makes sense that something even more fake like ChatGPT would make it worse.

I don’t want to sound like a luddite but overly relying on digital communications for all interactions is a poor substitute for in person interactions. I know I have to prioritize seeing people in the real world because I work from home and spending time on Lemmy during the day doesn’t fulfill.

If you would like to live there someday I would recommend that as your goal. I would recommend you start doing some research on permaculture which is about building wholly sustainability. Part of this sustainability is financial and piecewise building and investment. So if you want to build and live on this one day you will need the money for it.

So start with leasing the land for at least 1 year to get some cash and for you to better understand where you might want to build a structure and what you need. This allows you to plan and see what part would fit a dwelling the best. This also lets you figure out what you need for this house (i.e. water, electricity, waste removal etc.) as well as figure out how this investment can make money for you. Start small and build modularly. Your dwelling may start on as shack or even a place to set up a tent and grow larger. Same with whatever you end up doing with the land.

Permaculture talks about building food forests which are sustainable year round sources of food, goods or materials. Some of which you can sell or use yourself. These are typically perennial plants, vines and trees which all grow off each other and make a beautiful space. This can be your space for “remote working” either for yourself or visitors.

While planning on starting on this you can continue to lease your land to farmers as you slowly take it over yourself for your bigger vision. This is suppose to be small, slow but sustainable growth to your final vision.

I always feel nervous preordering anything. I got a new Fitbit so I think I have some time before it fails so I can see how this rePebble works out. If it is as good as it looks I might just get it. 30 day estimated battery life is amazing

To combat this you can fill a heat tolerant water bottle with some boiled water, wrap it in a shirt or sweater to prevent burning, and put it into your sleeping bag to warm it up quickly.

The first time I did this I ended up so hot that I had to take it out. Its a wonderful trick and I have woken up spooning the cool water bottle in the morning

Role-playing game isn’t about miniatures

I feel like miniatures is a separate and interrelated hobby. I don’t really enjoy it but its nice to have something physical for combat. That being said free VTTs do so to replace the need for that.

It’s not about the ogre, it’s about whether choices have an impact on the story.

This is exactly my point is that by relying on it constantly there is no actual real choice and its just lying about railroading the players. If I have the choice about going to clear out the undead in the forbidden temple or clear out the bandits on the outskirts of town and behind the scenes its the same dungeon map I will never know nor will I care. But if I go to kill the undead at the forbidden temple and end up at the bandit camp why make this choice? I love being able to re-use material like this, (In fact I had a dungeon that was an extra-dimensional space where the players got to choose between monsters and demons which used the same map). Same thing if a group of assassins is coming to attack the party and they are deciding between going shopping or the spa. The assassins will find them either way at whatever place they are doing. This is a great use. But if I heard rumor about these assassins and attempt to hide from them but no matter what I do they will always find me that is removing choice.

I think its more of an advanced technique that given as some beginner friendly advice. Its easy to use it all the time to reduce agency instead of using it sparingly.

If you are dungeon mastering I would recommend avoiding the Quantum Ogre as much as possible. The idea here is to use the same encounter depending on whatever decision the party chooses. This is tempting because this reduces prep work and can reuse information. However, if the decision doesn’t have any consequence why make the players make this decision? TTRPG are about collaborative story telling so decisions so matter and if they don’t why am I even playing. If you want to reduce your prep maybe have the same monsters but at least change the terrain or starting criteria.

If there is decision lead clues about what might be different between the options if it is important decision. These clues might not be obvious but that is what skills checks are for. Make decisions worthwhile so players feel engaged

Duh. Rubbing things together releases their own internal fire

I think it was lumped into fire. Since lightening does cause fire in nature. Moreover, I think fire stood for heat as well since fire is pretty much the only way to naturally heat something

Caution is a good idea but as long as you aren’t drinking gallons of tea or taking tons of herbal pills you should be fine.

It really depends on the herb but as a general rule you likely cannot. If you are cooking and decide to add double or triple or even 10x the herbs / spices then the recipe suggests you will be fine. The worse case scenario is that you make it taste bad. That being said everything is poison at high enough doses but for culinary herbs that is a huge dose. You will really have to force yourself to eat large enough quantities since it will taste very unpleasant.

There are plenty of other plants that are more dangerous.

https://www.npr.org/ and https://www.mprnews.org/ are my go to sources

I was there that day. In the before time

We are just upgrading ours for our primary bathroom since we are doing a glow up. We are going to have two waffle style rugs / mats to fit our strange space. One for in front of the mirror and one in front of the tub. We have a large shag style one that was always on the floor but now has been upgraded to be used to get out of the shower and then hang to dry.

The “permanent” bath mat gives me the ick thinking about it.

Remember this is a marathon and not a sprint. So think in long terms for fixing things. Even if you sell the house having something done correctly will increase the value. Fix something and maintain as best as possible to keep it working or as high value. This feels best if you do it room by room so you can enjoy the things you fixed.

Never for when you are in the office. Unless you can “work” by goofing around with coworkers or wandering around holding things while listening to podcasts

This when you pad your time and set hard boundaries for what you can do. I like to schedule emails for later in the day. It helps that I work from home

I want to be as efficient as possible for my job. So I can get as much done in as little amount of time as possible so I can get back to my life. Only goal

There’s so many different companies that are just resume hunting. Don’t know why really

I’ve found that jobs that are actually hiring move quickly. They move from applications to interview within a few days. Constant talking about within the hour seems excessive.