American here, can confirm. Drank the “greatest country” kool aid as a kid, then started to travel in young adulthood.

I’m still struggling with the fact that I feel least “at home” and most isolated in the place I call home. Every single place I’ve ever been outside the US (7 countries and counting, 4 in the EU) has seemed more welcoming, interconnected, simple to get around, and vibrant. Let alone a more reasonable cost of living and a much better safety net.

True Detective, season 1

Yup!

Socialize it.

I get superstitions about being cocky or headstrong. Nearly every time I do, the universe corrects my behavior, typically by me failing in some huge, embarrassing fashion.

I’ve had some success playing tinnitus ringing over headphones and it made it markedly better. Still comes and goes, but from what I understand, it’s encouraging the mind to start ignoring it. Kind of like going nose deaf.

Or earwax. See a doctor.

Installed my huge emulator library, but GameNative is where I spend the vast majority of my time. It runs PC games from basically any online market (Steam, Epic, Amazon, etc).

Plays 2d perfectly and most of my games are indie titles.

Great “pick up and play” format.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room

Worth a read for anyone who thinks AI may be sentient, or for those trying to pop the psychosis bubble of an buddy.

Formerly steam deck, now unseated by my AYN Thor. It can play 70-80% of the games the deck can in a package that fits in your pocket.

My breville coffee maker and bratza burr grinder. It makes the best coffee and doesn’t complain.

Also, my dolphin pool cleaning robot. Vacuuming a pool manually is such a hassle. Outsourcing that to a bot is truly amazing.

Anything that buys me back my time.

Herniated L3/L4. No chair has helped me. Only things that have are

• sit/stand desk
• movement (the best position is the next position)
• dead hangs, progressed to pull ups
• deadlift, slow progression, perfect form. Teaches proper lift positioning and bracing to execute successfully.
• same for squats

Not medical advice in any way. These are just the things that have helped me immensely. If you take any lifting advice off the Internet, get a coach.

I know if my back starts to hurt it’s because I’m not doing one or all of them enough.