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Ah, you mean what do we do to cope with the crushing existential pressures of modern existence?
In order from productive to not productive:
Hike, photography, walking, playing music, writing music, editing photos/videos, producing music, cooking, playing videogames, Lemmy, porn.
That about accounts for all the time I'm not sleeping, working, shitting, showering, or shaving,
Can you please change 'working' to 'slaving' so that you keep the alliteration?
Sir/Madam, as an expert in this area, I draw issue with your comment: several of these can be performed WHILE shitting. The determination of which specific activities are compatible is an exercise left to the reader.
I have two:
I don't normally watch streamers, but I suddenly want to watch you streaming lichess.
Walking and running
You might also enjoy hiking, which is pretty much those two things but mostly the first.
Lemmy. Lol. And a nice walk with my favourite music is good too
Hah, I do the same in AoE 2 as well, though I put the AI to standard and like to give them grief, like build towers around their base early in the game, or use an army of monks to convert every unit they send towards my base, and build up my own army of converted units; or lure them into my base by deliberately leaving a gap in my walls, except the path to my tc is lined with towers along the way - sometimes I even make a maze of walls and towers and it's fun picking them off one by one as they make their way towards my tc.
But lately though, I've been doing all of that in 0 A.D., an opensource RTS like AoE. One of the cool things about 0 A.D. is the soundtrack, it's really, really done well, especially considering it's a free game; and I also like the customisable AI - in addition to difficulty, you can set their behavior to defensive/aggressive/balanced etc, and you can have a ceasefire period where the enemy doesn't attack you at all for x minutes after the game starts, which gives you enough time to build up your base.
That sounds fun and creative
These comments are more safe for work than I expected.
Whenever I feel like I need a breather, I ride my bike. Just ride, not hard or fast, just spinning the cranks. Feels amazing.
Replaying old games that I have fond memories of. We're in an incredible renaissance of classic games getting source ports or updates that bring them up to modern standards, and I'm loving it. Daggerfall, Blade of Darkness, Jagged Alliance 2, Morrowind, Jedi Knight, Caesar 3... I'm sure I'm forgetting ~~some~~ many. They let me forget the present and pretend that I'm back in simpler, happier times, at least for a little while.
A nap.
Riding a bicycle, browsing forums, drinking, fishing, hiking, and vidya games.
I found this post while playing AoE2. I enjoy playing the campaign a lot because there are so many and because of the sandbox gameplay.
So I can pretty much infinitely play them and have done so from time to time since it launched :)
Walking, watching lets plays, playing minecraft
I like to cross stitch. It's calming and satisfying when a project is finally finished.
Getting near blackout drunk and then hating myself for doing so for a couple days with a hangover.
Watching cartoons from my childhood. Not quite as so early it's Nick Jr level. But like I've watched Hey Arnold so many times at this point(my favorite), Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the Angry Beavers, Ahhh Real Monsters, Pete and Pete. I was so happy to hear Paramount+ had a bunch of those shows... but then all the striking stuff happened so I just went back to my hard drive with a bunch of the shows.
I like driving around in open world games like Forza Horizon and Watch Dogs. Not even doing anything, just exploring the streets.
Recently it's listening to audiobooks. Makes commuting or doing chores great.
Factorio. Hands down. I have a few other games that I self-soothe with, mostly colony builders, idle games, or automation games, but Factorio is my go-to when I get into a bad headspace. To the point that my "end of world" plan includes immediately scraping the entire mod database to a portable hard drive, along with Rimworld's entire collection. If I have those + my Steam Deck, I feel like I would be able to manage in a full social collapse and Mad Max-esque world. I know how to build a variety of generators and the proliferation of solar panels has made post-collapse planning a lot easier.
I am also regularly doing mirror backups of the whole of Wikipedia. I am thinking of adding Wikihow to that automated task. Wikipedia is only like 20GB for the aggregate knowledge of most of humanity, so well worth keeping for research after the internet dies.
Beat Saber, currently. Get me in that music zone and let me wave my arms around like an idiot.
Making TTRPG maps. I just put on some music, throw down a background and a grid and start doodling. Thinking about details to add in here or what kinds of encounters could go there is pretty meditative.
Stellaris, so similar vein as AOE2 lol.
Sleep. I like sleep. It's incredibly soothing to switch off from reality and often my dreams are vivid and interesting.
I haven't been able to remember my dreams for the past 10 years, I envy you. Sleep is definately my comfort too
Sleep
Depending on the weather, go for a walk while listening to some music
Sitting in silence.
I call it 'havin' a stare'. I just sit and either look into the distance or middle ground and do nothing. We don't get to do a lot of nothing as we get older, so when you get those moments it's nice to indulge in them. I'm not meditating, or being mindful, or any random words you want to use. Just havin' a stare.
My dog does this also, but his gaze is fixed on me and from the top of the stairs or round corners. It's very unnerving and not even remotely relaxing for me, but maybe he enjoys it.
I like wandering around skyrim and doing occasional side quest
Doing dumb runs in EU4 while cheating. I give myself a few techs at the beginning of the game to be stronger than everyone else and focus on my objective.
For example, Hindu Hungary, Jewish Arabia, Totemist England, Tengri Russia, Protestant Ottoman Empire, destroying France as a small East Asian country and forming it again by culture converting, being Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by starting with an African country etc.
I watch the anime gurren lagann. It's a stupidly chaotic optimistic show that basically asks "but what if humanity really could do anything?"
Answer: we would throw around galaxys like frisbees in giant space robots.
So when I'm down I like to watch it and think maybe I can do anything if I believe.
Putting on a good old mindless comedy movie. Give me Black Sheep or Airplane or Mr. Deeds or Bridesmaids and I immediately zone out and relax.
I love airplane, I will check others.
Recently, playing Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead on my steam deck.
I excuse it by convincing myself it's preparation for TEOTWAWKI which can't be far off now.
I play heroes of the storm vs AI. It's pretty fun.
Fountain pens. And brawlhalla.
What do you do with the fountain pens? Write/journal? Or do you more enjoy inking them etc?
Inking them is a ritual, I do enjoy that, but more often it's journaling or studying. It helps with mindfulness
Watching old Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. They never showed on tv where Iβm from, so I got in to them about 10 years ago.
Thereβs something comforting about watching an old movie with dated pop culture jokes being made in the background. I donβt really focus on either one and just enjoy the coziness.