Personally I like Vera best because it’s a unique name that sounds pretty. However, as someone with a long name as well, I just let my friends call me whatever they want so long as I agree with it. That’s sort of how nicknames work; you don’t get to choose but if your friends are respectful enough, you can approve of it.

Back in college and grad school I used Adobe Acrobat to read all class materials and write notes/highlight texts. One of the benefits was that it was easy to search for key words. You could search your own notes/comments and you had the option to copy the highlighted text so it was searchable.

The pro version also has OCR features so you can do the same with scanned text. I wouldn’t pay for it now considering Adobe’a anti-consumer policies, but you can easily find a bootleg copy.

And if you enjoy reading print outs, you can print the pdfs along with all your comments and highlights.

Edit: Forgot to mention this was all on my laptop since typing and reading is a lot easier oh that than a smartphone

Surprised PBS shows aren’t mentioned more here, especially not Mr. Rogers Neighborhood being mentioned.

So in no particular order:

• Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood: great show for teaching kids to how to navigate emotions and complex situations like death and discrimination but in ways they can understand

• Sesame Street: similar to Mr. Rogers but more for younger children

• Bill Nye the Science Guy: Made science accessible and fun for children. Good way to build a sense of curiosity and desire for experimentation

• Zoom: similar to Bill Nye in that it made me what to try all the activities they shared. Lots of fun games, recipes, brain teasers etc to keep kids busy. The fact that it had an all kid cast made it more accessible as a kid. Highly recommended since it seems less remembered than other PBS shows

Non-Educational:

• The Simpsons: this may be divisive but I grew up when they were super popular and I believe it helped develop my sense of humor. The earlier episodes were also pretty wholesome

• The Avatar (Last Airbender and Korra): well written show that is based on many East Asian cultures and touches on themes of depression, genocide, war, and hope (among many others). One of my favorite shows to this day

The Portal games are fun puzzle FPS platformers with a great story, though there’s a good chance you’ve already played those and didn’t consider them platformers.

Another FPS platformer is Roboquest. It’s a roguelite shooter. Very fast pace and stressful but fun if you’re into that kind of thing.

I also want to second Psychonauts. I haven’t played #2 yet but the first game had a unique and interesting story with fun gameplay.

I’ve heard A Short Hike is a relaxing game. More about exploration than meeting game objectives but could be a nice break when you’re stressed. Basically the opposite of Roboquest haha

“This book has been debated for ages,” said Nguyen, a bookseller on Hanoi’s Nguyen Xi book street, who gave only his first name for fear of inviting backlash against his store.

Funnily enough, this could be more identifying than if he gave his last name. There are more Nguyen last names than first names.

Can you use an aux cable? Just thinking of old school solutions

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Is a dedicated mp3 player out of the question? Would be a simple solution that doesn’t require any internet access for when you’re in areas with poor reception.

Never went to the big cons but I recently went to a small local anime market. Went with a friend who goes to a bunch of those events and had a lot of fun!

Some tips if you go

• Bring water. It gets hot in there and I couldn’t find any vending machines so I was dehydrated
• Eat first. The venue had two food places and both were super crowded. Was like a 30 min wait for mall food court food
• Be prepared for the smells. The stereotypes are true. Some people smelled so bad there. I wore a mask but I could still smell some people
• Go with a friend. It was a lot of fun and way less intimidating
• Start small. Same as going with a friend. Less intimidating and more doable.

Frank to Dee: There is nothing more threatening to a man than a woman who is smart and attractive. We have to pretend you’re both!

I love my 8Bitdo Ultimate controller. It’s comfortable to use and holds a decent charge. Having a charging stand is really useful too. If you have multiple non-PC devices, I would recommend getting the Pro version so that you can use Bluetooth. Otherwise, the USB one will work well.

Only other minor negative is that the d-pad is a little mushy so I will occasionally hit the wrong direction accidentally. So not the greatest for fighting games.

If you don’t need the charging stand, there are cheaper USB only controllers too.

Lastly, if you want to try to improve your posture, my family bought some chair restraint straps for my grandma who kept tilting in her chair. The ones I linked aren’t what we got her but they were the cheapest I could find. You may also want to get your eyes checked. Could be the reason you’re leaning forwards so much is because you can’t see as clearly as you think.

If you’re using Lemmy there’s a good chance you’ll be excluded from the study. Some of the largest Lemmy communities are Linux related.

Never heard this song before but it looks like “Don’t Hurt Yourself” by Beyoncé fits the bill.

I’d disagree on Pedro Pascal"s performance. I thought he did an excellent job as Joel. He was nominated across multiple awards for that role.

As for the movie/character you mentioned, I had never heard of it but will check it out. I’m assuming you mean the 1984 version which seems to have better audience reviews than the 2024 Netflix TV series adaptation.

Fair. I’d say the bond between Joel and Ellie is wholesome in a world that everything and everyone is out to get them.

Wrote this in another thread but I love the found family trope and Spy x Family totally fits that bill. I wrote a few other examples below.

Movies

• Logan
• Ice Age
• Wild Robot
• Up
• Despicable Me

Shows

• The Last of Us
• The Mandalorian
• The Witcher
• Daddy Buddy (this one is an anime on Crunchyroll. I highly recommend this if you liked Spy x Family. Revolves around 2 assassins who accidentally wind up with a 4 year old)

• When I’m in command, every mission is a suicide mission.
• [introducing himself] I am the man with no name. Zapp Brannigan at your service.
• Brannigan’s Law is like Brannigan’s love: hard and fast.

Helps to wave your arms back and forth while saying it

She has to be the most quotable video game character ever.

How are you holding up? BECAUSE I’M A POTATO. clap clap clap Oh good. My slow clap processor made it into this thing. So we have that

If you become light headed from thirst, feel free to pass out.

Here come the test results: You are a horrible person. We weren’t even testing for that

Protagonist has got to be Bayonetta (though it’s based only on the first game). Her character growth in the first game was so good, even if the plot was a little convoluted. Never finished the second one since I didn’t like playing on the Switch and never played the third one. Hope her character is still good though.

Honorable mentions are Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite, and Stelle from Honkai Star Rail (though this one is mostly for the absolutely ridiculous dialogue options we get to choose).

Favorite female antagonist is hands down GLaDOS. Such a fun, sarcastic, and likeable villain.