IMO the Windows Store is why valve has invested heavily into gaming on Linux. Windows Store could easily become a huge Steam Store competitor if Microsoft were an effective company. So Valve wants to enable devices that don’t run Windows. Numerous other benefits for something like the Steam Deck as well, but I’d bet we see another Steam Machine someday - probably after they convince more companies to support Linux
To avoid confusion, just say driver and passenger side.
I meant this to be a joke, but if you assume your bed drives forward toward the side with your pillows then it actually works. But if you read in bed with a reading pillow then I guess you probably want to drive your bed toward your feet side of the bed…
Mountain bike - on my second bike now, my favorite hobby and form of exercise, excuse to get in nature with my dog, explored a lot of my state because of it.
Kobo e-reader. The night light is amazing, I used to use a neck light for night reading to not wake my wife but this is way better. Easier to travel. The dyslexic font helps my dyslexic ass like 10% too which makes a huge difference in me reading more.
My first raspberry pi in Jr high led to a career in software. Still love pis, and have even more toys now
I usually eat, drink, and watch Youtube until I’m tired and it makes things worse. Instead, play loud music and do chores, then exercise, then do something productive that you enjoy
Kinda hesitant to share because the URL’s are the names of my family members (kinda a gift to them, kinda me just holding on to the domain names in case they want them someday). But they’re definitely not impressive. One of them I’d like to spend some time to make more fun, but as it is now, it’s mostly a gimmick (zombies walk towards you and you walk away - 2d, score is just how many seconds you can avoid getting touched). Pretty rewarding weekend project though, and you can easily show it off
Happy to share! And glad you found value in it
I can definitely relate to this. It seems like even a little time with a hobby has a large impact on my evening. Sometimes I’ll do something a little hard like studying Spanish for a few minutes, which leads to guitar and then chess and then I feel more accomplished come bed time. Some how makes me feel more recovered from work
Forgot to mention that slow-living or whatever you want to call it is valuable. Just spend a while doing nothing. Thinking. Chatting with a friend. Be bored. You’ll probably knock out some chores, and get really motivated to do something big (humans do not like being bored)
Edit: gonna put more hobbies I think of here
I’ll list some hobbies at the end but for me, I struggled feeling motivated after work to do anything but eat and be entertained. It got pretty bad until I decided I needed to figure out something different. I thought I was just missing hobbies but even as I picked some hobbies up (usually on weekends) I wouldn’t do them during the week.
Most of my issues revolved around stress (from work), turns out.
I still struggle with this so don’t expect a magic solution, but what I found was that my job was actually a lot more stressful than I thought. To the point where I’d wake up in the night thinking about work problems that for sure weren’t a big deal and that for sure wouldn’t be solved half asleep. So now I try and be more productive at work to make sure I avoid deadlines getting tight, and towards the end of the day I make sure my tasks are simple, if possible. I also try and take lots of breaks and I check in with myself “am I relaxed right now?” “would a break make me more productive” - and I unfortunately found that media isn’t a good break for me at work. Somehow the stress stays, while also adding in cravings for more dopamine-inducing activities. Good breaks for me include walking, actively listening to music, daydreaming, planning stuff (holidays, dinner, my upcoming evening, weekend), reading (pretty much anything), and learning new stuff (I’m studying Spanish and chess right now, recently learned all of my PLL algorithms on a Rubik’s Cube). I’m a software engineer for context.
The largest stress benefit for me has been biking to work. Yeah, I almost get ran over sometimes which is scary (even with bike paths 90% of my route, you still gotta cross roads, and even with a walk sign cars still won’t see you), but driving during rush hour is stressful (there are studies on this but I’m too lazy to link any). Biking is just fun. I even bike in winter (studded tires and poggies/bar mits). Since not everyone has the luxury of biking, exercising immediately after work is something to consider. It for sure helps me separate work from home. There’s plenty of studies on exercise lowering stress.
And if your job isn’t too stressful, there’s another issues with not committing to hobbies… For me, it was that I was/am addicted to media. Once I get started with some dinner and YouTube, it’s hard not to lose a couple hours. Best advice for easing out of it is audiobooks make it easy after eating to do chores/walk/not get more food. But other than audiobooks, avoid consuming media while eating. Also avoid media served by an algorithm. It’s so easy to watch a great video, and refresh the recommendations to look for another. Then you’re watching sub-par videos just hoping for a good one… Wasting tons of time. I use an extension to hide video recommendations. I can still search, and browse my subscriptions, but it saves me a lot of time (extension is called unhook I believe).
My username is actually centered around the idea that the more passive an activity, the less valuable it is to you. I personally want more active hobbies in my life. It is weird to me that so many fulfilling hobbies exist, but I regularly waste evenings on YouTube…
If you can have low stress and minimal cravings for YT/Netflix, here’s some hobbies:
Adventure is out there. Don’t waste your youth. Some of these might not seem like ideal after work hobbies, but most are totally doable in an evening.
YouTube I know some peer to peer stuff exists but I haven’t checked it out. Not sure how federation would come into play
Most of us only know 5th grade math
My wife and I have wondered about this idea. If we were to have kids, we’d want them to be tech savy and inventive, but hopefully not get too addicted to the internet at a young age. There’s something to be said about not buying them a computer, but letting them build one, I think. But it’s an odd line to walk.
Definitely will say I was interested in what I couldn’t have, but I do think there are healthier ways to fuel an interest. Hope that someday my kids will just want to tinker with my stuff
Yeah definitely some lasting consequence. I’m a pretty good liar, and extremely skilled at manipulating people to calm down. Sometimes I wish I stood my ground better and let there be friction between me and others. Instead I sort of morph into whatever they need, sometimes abandoning my core principals. It came in handy to save my siblings’ asses a few times though. But literally just yesterday my wife was video calling her mom and showed her my brand new ear piercings (which I’ve wanted my whole life, but is a huge no no for men in Mormon circles, so it’ll be a big deal when my side of the family finds out) - anyway, I wanna stretch/gauge them because I like the look of small tunnels, so my mother in law says, “they look so nice, but you won’t gauge them, right?” And I’m like “no of course not” because I know it’s probably a bit shocking to her that I pierced them at all. But I wish I instead said something non-commital like “not now, but I love the look of small gauges”
Overall, the biggest effect is probably the distance I feel towards my parents lol
If your curious, I’d describe myself as quite chill, but very reserved. I wouldn’t even say I was constantly on guard… I was just a good liar. Got caught for very few things. I have a lot of siblings though (10), so I doubt I’d have had as much opportunity if I were an only child or something
It was more about moral concerns of the internet. Pretty common thing for Mormon parents to do. But yeah entertainment may have played a role, they weren’t exactly what I’d call “active” parents.
They were scared of unmonitored access to the internet. And only up to T rated games were allowed, so for Halo I used to trade game cases with friends to hide what I owned. And since my parents were extremely Snoopy, I’d even switch my T rated games around so they thought I was just too lazy to match a game disk with it’s case, and never get too suspicious.
Edit: Programming was allowed, just had to be on the shared computer in our living room where everyone could see what you were doing.
When I was leaving for college I bought a laptop and they made me keep it in the box until I left. It was honesty torture. I wanted to set it up and stuff but they insisted that our home computer would work fine…
My first Pi got me into computing which led to my software career now. Won it from a YouTube giveaway and kept it a secret because I wasn’t allowed to have a computer. Put retroPi on it and told my parents it was for gaming. Coded my first game in Python (from a tutorial). I once put it in a crayon box and used that as a portable handheld. Later. Made a janky arcade cabinet. Sad that my kids may need to use a different brand device. I have no love for public companies
I relate - the nights I have been motivated to do something else after work make me wonder if I’m actually beat, or just addicted to TV (Youtube for me). Always feel better and sleep better when I don’t search mindlessly for something to entertain me while snacking nonstop. Even video games make me feel more fulfilled but I’m still struggling to watch less youtube. About to eat breakfast and of course I wanna watch a video while I do lol
Also trying to use less Youtube. I have quite a few hobbies and projects but Youtube sucks up at least a couple hours of my day. Didn’t realize how addicted I was until I tried to use it less lol. Fortunately my recommended page has been way off lately
Came to say this. Been loving my Trilium instance.
Game: Halo 3 Book: The Kingkiller Chronicles Movie: Harry Potter series (yes, I hate Rowling, but I can’t move on yet) Show: Doctor Who. Been rewatching nuwho with my wife and it’s like I’ve become insatiable for more. Been reading the books, comics, and audio plays. Gonna try Torchwood after