Zazezizozuzy

Mario 64 taught my kid how to think through problems and eventually encouraged him to start reading. Baba Is You took that problem solving to another level.

I've historically played FPS games. Recently stumbled onto Foxhole which is more of a large team strategy game. It's a sort of wargame that emulates multiple aspects of war beyond just the frontline fighting. Imagine an RTS, but you play as a single unit. Every item, weapon, vehicle, etc in the game has to be manufactured by players. Players then have to deliver those to the frontline. There is a whole manufacturing and logistics network outside of the actual combat. There are no combat stats, no killfeed, and very little incentive to play only for solo efforts. Even ranking up requires commendations from your team for playing support roles like medic. Everything is designed around teamwork and long-term efforts towards the war and I really like that. Especially compared to how most games are designed more recently.

What drew me to it was the potential for multiple ways of play. You don't just have to go out and shoot people. You can instead be the guy who digs trenches prepping for defense. Or building structures in a newly captured zone. Being able to switch between them at will. What has kept me playing is the community. Very few games have a player base that will stop what they are doing to explain things to new players. There are definitely goofy players. And probably some trolls. But I've never asked a question in chat and not gotten a serious answer.

While the game doesn't have the same appeal as say, Counter Strike which I thoroughly enjoy, it does have a refreshing style of play. You can play hardcore or casual or anything in between. And sometimes it's nice to just chat with folks while you're pinned down in a trench waiting for backup or a much needed shipment of ammo.

Morrowind was the first and only game I had on my Xbox for the first couple years I owned it. Definite bias and rose-tinting due to that, but here's what I would suggest:

The magic of Morrowind is in the discovery of the world. Modern RPGs like Skyrim might give you an arrow to follow that points directly to where you need to go for a current quest. Leading the player to ignore most things outside of that objective arrow. Morrowind instead says "Go Northeast of the village to find this cave". By doing this, the player organically stumbles onto things and events that build out the world.

A good example of this is the early mission to travel from the starting village (Seyda Need) and head to Balmora. One option you have is to walk there, which takes a bit of time and offers multiple encounters along the way. One that quite literally falls into your lap. When it happens, the game doesn't explain anything. You have to piece it together. That discovery is part of the intrigue.

Even if you're not interested in the characters or culture, the game offers a lot. You could alternatively delve into the empty steam-driven ruins to find who built them and why they are empty. Perhaps instead you see an unknown cluster of plants to pick and practice your alchemy. Maybe you stumble onto a wrecked ship full of pillows and want to track down the owner listed on the shipment invoice.

If you feel like you're walking from point A to B to C, you may be following too close to that arrow. Trying to find what you're pointed to without seeing what else is happening around you. Stop and look around every once in a while. There's probably something or someone nearby. Anything that catches your interest should be investigated. What may seem like minor events often become the most memorable moments.

My wife sells through Etsy and has been for a while. The biggest transition she has seen is buyers moving from purchasing items, to making items themselves. While the larger, successful shops are declining, there has been a steady increase in small, beginner shops. Based on that, she moved to selling more patterns and teaching craft workshops. In my opinion, Etsy should harness that. If they provided a way for crafters to showcase how they make their products, they could start selling that. It would have several benefits. It fits a simple subscription/learning model which is very popular right now. It also encourages the handmade community that they are trying to support.

I'm going to second this, especially for a tech blog.

I sent one up in January. Despite not spending much time on it so far, there were a couple things I've already gathered from it.

First, is basic Git functionality. Without having much experience with remote repos, it provided me a good opportunity to try things out without being able to break too much. I essentially write up posts locally, then push them to a GitHub repo. Super simple.

Second is Linux and SSH. I have local repos on a Linux machine at home. I can SSH into the machine, write up a post, then push it out. I had very little knowledge of Linux and SSH prior. It's been pretty helpful.

The biggest thing I think it offers is convenience. I have a very simple way of writing posts, no matter where I am. It's pushed me to learn new systems (ones that a lot of people are already familiar with) and it allows for a simple means of fixing things (through GitHub's interface) in case I do break anything.

An issue with 1), is that many people don't actually care prior to that situation. There are so many people with no goals and no motivation to do anything. They may start a project, but there is no incentive to complete it. If you don't work towards anything, you won't have anything to regret.

I would be interested in knowing what 'hard on the heart' means. They mention it can lead to cardiovascular disease, but I understand that to be kind of a vague term.

I am a fairly healthy young guy and I have extremely high blood pressure. Every doctor I've seen has been unable to identify a cause through testing, dietary changes, fluctuation of exercise, etc. When I was younger, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and have had major bouts of depression my whole life. More so since getting a job as a developer. Any data connecting the depression and HBP would be really helpful.

I ride my bike to work three days a week. Driving my car (manual) the other two is my calf relaxation.

Did this though April. I have high blood pressure and my doctor is going through a list of substances that I should remove from my diet to see its effects. I cut out alcohol through April and my blood pressure went up significantly. After the first week I was showing a consistent 160/100. My doctor then recommended that I have a single drink at least every couple days.