Hence why the members of c/fuckcars are so intense (I include myself in this).
The only practical way to avoid exposure to society’s car dominance in your everyday life is to live far from society… Which ironically forces you to own a car and drive to get literally anywhere.
To your “edit” point: Don’t take a handful of downvotes personally; it’s pretty easy to do accidentally on mobile so they may have been unintentional
Outer Wilds
Reviews of the game are fantastic (“this is the best game I’ve ever played” - everybody) but trying to fly that damn spaceship is so hard. I also heard there’s tricky platforming later on, and if you mess up you gotta start waaaay back. I did not grow up with video games so I’m terrible at that kind of thing. I should just give up and watch a playthrough but apparently that defeats the whole point of the “incredible” story, which is the only thing I’m here for in the first place.
I guess I’m just holding out for someone to release an assist mode or something.
Seven on 7 is a series of TV news shorts and commercials from The Boys universe. It’s a delightful little parody of Fox News. The whole series is available free on YouTube.
I mean, obviously it’s not for everyone, but it’s important to actually experience urban living for yourself before deciding you hate cities. Especially given the political situation in the United States right now, where so many suburban and rural residents are bashing cities and urban living without having properly experienced it for themselves; I think there would be a huge bite taken out of the urban/rural divide if more people had experience living in cities, and got to personally see the good and the bad for themselves. Plus your twenties is a great time to learn street smarts, because that way you’ll be less likely to have a bad experience when you do visit a big city in the future, whether it’s for something fun like a concert or something serious like going to a medical specialist. There are a lot of basic lessons like “never ever leave anything visible in your unattended parked car”, how to use public transportation, being able to firmly say “no”, and general situational awareness that are just good life skills that city living forces you to pick up.
I’m not at a point in my life where I want to live in a big city anymore, but I’m so, so grateful that I did in my youth.
Travel, live abroad if possible, and experience living in a big, culture-rich city. Unfortunately the economic realities of the 2020s are making this increasingly out of reach for many youth, but if you have the resources and opportunity, absolutely go for it. As you get older, responsibilities and lack of energy will likely sap much of your ability/desire to move around as much (this isn’t true for everyone, but it’s extremely common). Even if traditional travel is impractical for you, there still exists cheaper opportunities for exploration that are a bit off the beaten path, such as the WWOOF program.
Regardless of your situation/location, one thing that basically anyone can do is get involved in a cause. Find something you’re passionate about and throw yourself into it. Make sure it’s something that you can do in-person and not virtually… as in, there are local groups you can join for this cause, although if there aren’t you can always try making one or forming a local chapter of a larger org. With the right networking you’d be surprised how many other people will join you, especially for causes that involve your local community. This is a great way to meet other people, get to know the issues facing your neighborhood/city better, and learn to navigate your local government/NGOs. Again, as you get older responsibilities/exhaustion can make this sort of thing a lot harder.
Agree with everyone else that this isn’t normal for someone your age and get a second opinion.
However addressing your other questions: you’re at an age where lifestyle starts to really matter. Diet, exercise, ergonomics, environmental exposure to pollution/toxins, alcohol/drug use, sleep habits: these are all things that many healthy young adults can avoid having to worry about… until suddenly they can’t anymore. It is common, especially starting around age 30, to find there’s unhealthy behaviors from your teens and 20s that you just can’t do or do to excess anymore. It’s different for everyone; for some people it’s that they can’t sleep on a crappy mattress anymore, or drink certain types of liquor, or pull all nighters, or eat garbage, etc etc.
So while it sounds like you have some personal health issues outside of what’s “normal,” you still are at an age where the cumulative effects of a poor lifestyle can start to catch up to you. I think a lot of people greatly underestimate how sedentary their lifestyles are in particular, and of all the behaviors to change for the better as you age, going from sedentary to active is probably the hardest, given that our world is built to keep us sitting: sitting in our cars, sitting at our desks, sitting on our couches, basically sitting from the moment we wake until we go to sleep. Humans never lived like this until very recently: basically every decade since the personal automobile became the standard mode of transportation it’s steadily gotten worse. So yes, definitely do some doctor shopping, but now is also a great age to take stock in your lifestyle and how you’re treating your body. Because yes, it does get a little harder each year, but the speed of which it gets harder is at least partially up to you.
JFC covid booster rates are already hovering about two inches from the floor
Absolutely. You used to be able to reliably go to the reddit comments section for more information/context, clarifications/corrections/alternative takes, sources/citations, etc. on pretty much any post. “The real TIL/joke/story is in the comments” and all that.
Nowadays the reddit comments section is all jokes (not even good ones), reaction gifs (not even relevant ones), and non sequiturs. I’m unclear what percentage is bots and what is oblivious people with nothing useful to add but a compulsion to contribute anyway.
I keep visiting the reddit comments section anyway out of habit, and nearly every time I walk away feeling disappointed and a little dirty. Fortunately Lemmy’s comments are more like the old days when you at least felt like you were conversing with a human (and a literate one at that). Unfortunately outside of a few niche topics, Lemmy is severely lacking in subject matter experts, so there isn’t anywhere near the same level of additional context and fact-checking on most posts that used to exist on reddit. I don’t know if this is a demographics problem or a “we’re under the critical mass threshold” problem; I assume it’s both.
Apparently the gardening and eco/tiny-house world is very wholesome, because that’s 75% of what I watch (not including music) and I never see recommendations for ragebait.
There is a subscription page! I had no idea for years that in addition to the home page (which is a mix of subscription and algorithm videos) there’s a subscription page which only lists videos from channels you’re subscribed to, in order of recency.
Everyone makes fun of California’s prop 65 warnings, but this is exactly the situation they exist for: knowing which colorful plate sets to avoid at Crate & Barrel.
You say this like we don’t still have kitchenware with lead (or other nasties like cadmium) in them, often for purely aesthetic reasons. Most of these are discontinued products still in circulation, but some are still being produced (in theory they’re “safe for use” because the heavy metals are sealed behind something nontoxic, but scratches and chips may expose them).
It really depends on mode of transportation, especially if a car is involved or not. I suspect a number of people in this thread are folks who drive most/all places and aren’t including all the stuff they have stashed in their cars, available if needed. Also, driving means minimal exposure to the elements, so even less stuff is needed to stay comfortable/presentable than if you are walking, biking, waiting at transit stations, etc.
As a former Tokyo resident I’ll also add that I used to carry a folding fan around with me in summer when I lived there, but I have no need in the US where air conditioning is so prevalent (to the point of overuse). I also stopped needing a fan so much, regardless of temperature, when living in less humid places.
Also, shocked more people aren’t mentioning a water bottle. I bring a reusable water bottle with me any time I have to leave the house for more than a couple of hours, especially if I’m cycling somewhere but even if I’m driving. How are y’all staying hydrated sans water bottle???
There’s a huge difference between losing your temper when controlling a digital go-kart versus a real-life one-ton vehicle.
It’s a good first step that you recognize this is a problem, but it needs to be followed up with actions you can take when it occurs. In the case of driving, if your impulse is to follow the driver who pissed you off, you need to get off the road at the very first safe opportunity (a side street, a freeway exit, a parking lot, whatever) to give yourself a chance to cool down and both mentally and physically distance yourself from the situation. It doesn’t matter how much of a jerk the other party is (again, unless they are actively putting people in danger, in which case you should be pulling over to call emergency services); when you’re on the road the only thing you should be concerned with is your own behavior. There is zero justification for escalation; you are not teaching the other person a lesson, you are putting people’s lives at risk over a minor slight.
I used to work in transportation and you wouldn’t believe the horror stories. Please don’t underestimate how quicky and easily road rage situations can turn ugly; it’s never worth it.
Actually some crosswalk buttons are fake. For example:
In New York City, only about 100 of the 1,000 crosswalk buttons actually function
This response is literally road rage. (Given the discussion about literally vs figuratively elsewhere in the thread, I genuinely mean literally).
Road rage is dangerous for you, the other driver, and other bystanders on the road. Please reassess how you respond to perceived aggressions and slights while driving. The only time you should escalate is if another road user is actively putting others in harm’s way (e.g. DUI) and even then the best course of action is probably calling your local authorities for them to handle the situation. If the situation is not severe enough to warrant a 911 call, your focus should be on de-escalation (before it turns into a situation that is).
I’ve heard there’s another reactor in the Willapa Hills that was constructed but never activated. Like some ghost story it still sits, unused, to this day.
Washington State checking in. They don’t call us “the evergreen state” for nothing!
All it took was sacrificing our river ecosystems and invalidating native tribes’ entire way of life
Crazy thought, but what if it differed by industry? Something like blue collar jobs get Monday off, white collar gets Friday off. That way office workers can for example more easily stay home to get their cable serviced and plumbers can more easily meet with a mortgage agent. Obviously because of overlap it’s not perfect (office workers can’t meet with mortgage agent, plumbers can’t get their cable serviced), but there’s a huge issue currently with people working 9-5 M-F being unable to access services that are also only available 9-5 M-F, so this would at least distribute things a little more. (This kind of thing already exists for some industries like restaurants, where W-Su workweeks are common)