#gamify your life sure but not like that.

[megamijadeheart]

There's a genra of game called "Cookie Clicker" that I personally kind of detest.

You start with a Task. And if you do it well enough, fast enough, you can Expand and expanding unlocks the ability to Gain Minions (employees, villagers, survivers) who will start doing the base task for you, though not as well as you do as the Player. But them doing the thing now unlocks More Tasks. And you can Expand More and Gain More Minions. And it's a closed system with unlimited growth potential and the Minions don't have lives or get paid or sick or anything. They are mechanical slaves to Do the Task. And you, as the Player, get to do the fun bits of planning and organizing and reaping the benefits and expanding more and feeling very clever and accomplished.

The only reason I hate this style of game is because it is the game that people think American Capitalism is. People with wealth think they are the Player of the actual real world and other people are just the automated means by which to make the money number go up. And the Minions are fed the dream of becoming Players- that if they work that bit extra, if they are more efficient, more skilled, work harder- they can stop being a Minion and start hiring their own.

I hate that exploitation is so built into the American Ideal of what Success looks like. The idea that by hustling harder we minions can break out of the cycle of being exploited and become the exploiters instead. That that should be the goal somehow.

I wish the kinds of people who enjoy the feeling of Number Goes Up Means I'm Winning would play Cookie Clickers instead of. Like, the stock market. Or entrepreneurship. Because mentally they think they are playing a game to win, but this is the real world and people are being hurt by their exploitation and hoarding.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Musing off a @thydungeongal post, can anyone explain to me the advantages of a gamified system for rp/negotiation?

This might just be a matter of preference (and the fact that I'm a drama kid) but I've never been able to wrap my head around the idea of interactions really needing a mechanical framework outside of expedience. "Roll to bluff the guard out of searching your bag full of contraband", sure, that's part of a distinct challenge.... but I can't for the life of me imagine framing a dramatic scene around one of my players making a +5 argument roll dealing 3d8 rhetoric damage to the opponent's reputation.

Like, I understand the idea of giving players a framework to guide their actions, but it leaves me puzzled when I see people claiming d&d's lack of a "social ruleset" as some kind of failing. It's like complaining that a boat makes a bad airplane

[theminecraftbee]

i ABSOLUTELY want to see the behind the scenes/extra symbolism discussion of the blackjack fic!!!!!

YEAH OKAY TIME TO RAMBLE ABOUT CHOICES THERE, i'll stick it under a cut for people who want to read this ficlet without me explaining a lot of the choices. also because it's LONG.

so let's start with: blackjack as the game is a deliberate choice. like, i considered poker, and then realized i like blackjack more. to explain in full i've gotta go into a little detail about the setup.

this is because the setup here is that the watchers, the listeners, grian, and martyn are all "writing the narrative", effectively. they are putting their own wants and desires for what the next life series will be on the table and betting for it. abstractly, grian cares about the gamified life series (the specific rules), the watchers care about the character interactions and the drama of it all, the listeners want it to be meaningful to them and to feel like it has a point, and martyn, though he doesn't really realize this, is here because he is the one who keeps MAKING half the life series narrative, and the one who plays into it the most. they also represent grian as the guy who makes the rules, the watchers and listeners as the audience and the way it sometimes wants the same things and sometimes is opposed to each other in what they want, and martyn as the guy who plays directly into the story.

in blackjack, these people aren't playing against each other. like, okay. blackjack as you play it "properly" can have many people at a table, but you'll notice that if you try to use an odds calculator online, there's no way to calculate odds based on what any hands but yours and the dealer's are. that's because blackjack decks in casinos are normally like, at LEAST four decks shuffled together, to make counting cards harder. besides, the people at the table with you aren't your opponents anyway! everyone at the table can beat the dealer and get double their bet back. or, in this story, everyone at the table can beat the dealer and get their part of the story guaranteed to be in the next game. they aren't COLLABORATIVE--there's no way to help the other people at the table either! but they aren't ADVERSARIAL. they are not, inherently, working against each other. they just happen to be all playing against the same dealer.

so anyway, the dealer here is death, because one, as death points out in the ficlet, literally the only inevitable constant in the life series is death. the story will INEVITABLY end with everyone dead. everyone is playing against death to get the kind of story they want, because ultimately, what will REALLY shape the story is those deaths. in the life series, death ultimately decides how the story goes, and you're betting against it to tell the specific story you want.

that's also why death wins the tie. its my understanding that a tie in many casinos actually just means you get your bet back; you lose nothing, but you gain nothing also. however, this game is rigged. you can't 'tie' death; it's death. if you die, it's game over, after all.

death is also the dealer, however, because it is PREDICTABLE. one strange quality of blackjack is that the dealer's moves are entirely deterministic. sure, you don't know what the dealer's actual hand is, since they keep a card hidden--that's why it's gambling--but a dealer in blackjack, by rule, must ALWAYS take a hit if their hand is 16 or lower, and must ALWAYS stay if their hand is 17 or higher. no exceptions. as such, you can guarantee the dealer will always have at least a 17 at the end of a round, or they will bust. death in the life series follows rules. you know when it's coming. it's more a matter of whether you can stop it.

that make sense as a metaphor? okay cool.

anyway, more details! so the specific cards dealt here don't matter so much as the hands; i don't know cartomancy someone else will have to tell you about the symbolic meanings of a standard deck of cards. what i CAN tell you is that the hands everyone got and how they played them was deliberate.

so, first: basically everyone made what is arguably the "correct" play. yes even martyn. we'll get to that. however, what happened with each of them represents their personality.

grian doubles down. it's grian, of course he does! for those of you who don't know how doubling down works: when you have a hand of 9, 10, or 11, it is reasonable to double down. the dealer deals you exactly one face-down card that you don't reveal until the dealer reveals their hand, and you double your bet. the reason these specific numbers are the ones you double down on is because, mathematically, you can't bust on these in one card, and you're somewhat more likely to get a winning hand with them than not. however, doubling down means you can't take another hit! you have no way to know if you'll beat the dealer or not after you do so! after all, if you, say, are like, grian, you'll most likely need at least a 7 to beat the dealer if you double down with a 10. you're guaranteed not to bust, sure, but you've doubled your risk anyway.

of course, grian is exactly the kind of guy to double his risk in a situation where he has nothing to lose. of COURSE he doubles down. and of course he loses; he doesn't bust, sure, but that face-down card isn't nearly high enough to win.

(grian also had to lose so i wasn't directly making a rules prediction, lol. him losing leaves it somewhat more ambiguous whether his rules requests of 'enforced red name bloodlust' and 'no life trading' will be true or not.)

the watcher wins the hand outright, standing immediately. a 19 is a pretty good hand, and drawing a 19 outright is ABSOLUTELY a situation where you never take a hit. the watcher also wins outright because "bonds that are seemingly unbreakable" is, in fact, a life series standard. the interpersonal relationships are like, the whole story. of course that gets to beat death and make it in! however, it's not like the watcher gets a blackjack; it's no SO guaranteed that it gets a 21. there's always a chance of going wrong.

the listener busts outright. there is no guarantee of your death being meaningful. sometimes, you just get unlucky in the hand you draw.

then, there's martyn, who has a 16. when the dealer has a 7, the dealer is MOST LIKELY to have a hand that will beat a 16. that's a strong card for the dealer to have! however, 16 is a hand you are statistically most likely to lose with in that scenario. the odds are already stacked against martyn; if he doesn't hit, the dealer will almost be guaranteed to win, but if he DOES hit, he's far more likely to bust than he is to win. so, what do you do? most odds calculators tell you to take the hit, because it gives you slightly better odds of winning, but there are ALSO multiple people who will tell you NOT to take the hit, because "not busting" can sometimes be all you need in order to win. you CAN'T win if you bust, after all, and in blackjack, if you bust, you hand over your bet before you even determine if the dealer busts.

(i've seen some people say you should just surrender outright if you have a 16 and the dealer is showing 7 or more; that's the kind of situation that is.)

martyn, of course, takes the hit, because martyn's the kind of guy to risk the statistical odds he loses then and there. he's rewarded for it, sort of! he gets an 18, which is a decent hand! he then holds, because you have to be actively stupid to take a hit on an 18.

unfortunately for martyn, he doesn't actually escape the odds entirely. he tells a good story by taking that risk, sure, but death comes for us all in the end. also, martyn had like a 75% chance to lose anyway--like i said, 16 when the dealer is showing 7 or higher is just about the worst possible situation to be in while playing blackjack. i went ahead and gave death a 3 there too, because sometimes the world is unfair. sometimes if you take the risk that would make you seem actively stupid, that risk would have paid off. sure, 90% of the time it wouldn't, but one out of a hundred, maybe, if you had taken the hit--

anyway. i could probably say more but this is already long enough. gestures. CARD GAMES WITH STAKES AND MEANING OUTSIDE OF THE GAME ITSELF MY BELOVED.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I’m relatively new to the fandom and have really enjoyed a lot of your posts… I have a question that I couldn’t quickly find an answer to in searching through your tags…

What’s the deal with streaming? Like, I listen to BTS. I enjoy them a lot, I listen to a pretty even mix of all their albums though I probably like MOTS:7 era the best). Some days I listen to them like all day lol (if I’m cleaning the house or something) and I listen to them a lot in the car or while working. I’ve enjoyed some solo releases more than others so I naturally streamed those more. but like the more I start following accounts on here and on army twt the more confused I get about the intense pressure to stream constantly? I’ve heard that people play certain songs (or albums I guess?) on repeat on mute and/or have dedicated streaming devices they keep going all the time.

Not to be negative or rude at all but like…what? Maybe because I’m new to KPop and have never followed it until BTS but that just sounds so weird and… idk the word, maybe disingenuous? Again I do not mean this as an attack I am just genuinely confused. Wouldn’t BTS themselves want us only to listen if we were actually enjoying it and not out of some competitive attempt to get better ratings? It feels so odd to me, like that is not how I would behave with any other artist that I love. I would only ever listen to them out of a genuine desire to hear their music. But there seems to be so much weird shaming out there for when/if songs are not streamed heavily enough? And for any other artist I would just write that off as a difference in taste among the fandom, but here it’s treated like a personal wrong against the artist…?

But as I say that I’m sure there’s more to it… I have definitely seen people talking about payola or chart manipulation so idk. If I should google this instead, just tell me to, I just have already tried and didn’t find that much clarity, just a bunch of people on quora and Reddit talking about certain songs not getting streamed enough.

Anyways this is super long, sorry if it annoys you. Just thought you seemed knowledgeable and levelheaded enough to ask? Love your posts. All the best.

*

Ask 2:

Okay wait I’m the anon that just asked about streaming and I went and re-read your post about “inorganic success” — I had read it before but somehow I didn’t put together that the 24-7 streaming is an attempt to combat payola or like go up against it I guess. Okay. That makes more sense. I still feel like there’s a weird focus on charting but I guess if it’s about getting more concert venues and more radio play it makes sense.

You can ignore my last ask then I’m sorry if I’m being dense or something lol.

***

You haven’t at all asked a stupid question. Your confusion is easily explained by you being new to k-pop, and everyone new to this madhouse asks this question eventually. I’ve talked about this before, but can’t find the post for the life of me so I’ll briefly go over it again.

First, you need to understand what k-pop is. K-pop is a system that gamifies music consumption. Competition is something you’ll see in the music industry regardless. Western stans such as Arianators, Barbz, and the Beyhive have organized around streaming goals and efforts for at least 10 years now. But there’s no other music industry that explicitly emphasizes competition among groups and fans, the way the k-pop industry does.

Competition is baked into its DNA:

From the idol training system under agencies with supposed specialities that are treated like warring houses a la Game of Thrones (a mentality created by the Big 3),

to the music shows where fans are encouraged to vote daily and weekly for the best artists and where wins are tied to streaming numbers,

to the highly publicized year-end award show criteria that outline key metrics for wins in streams, sales, and fan votes.

Basically, the k-pop industry creates a clear hierarchy of talent and acclaim for artists in their system, directly stokes fan participation in buying into that hierarchy, and the numbers are the easiest litmus test/short cut to settle the question of who is at the top.

And all of this is served with a cocktail of parasocial delusion and entitlement that has (more easily manipulated) fans thinking their perceived investment into their faves, earns them the right to micromanage their fave idols’ careers. All of this benefits the labels and industry because they’d rather have you more engaged (even if toxically), than not.

Everybody here buys into this system despite what they’ll tell you, some just manage to keep their wits and perspective to prevent getting sucked in, while others fall headfirst into it.

And so, like I said in my ‘inorganic success’ post you referenced, the focus on streaming is part of fans really just playing the game. Excess is something you’ll see on the charts in any case, whether in k-pop or in the West.

The difference with BTS and ARMYs however, is in the why of how the fandom streams. Essentially, you’re more likely to find people just as passionate about the music itself as they are about giving that music its due in hard numbers and consequently, recognition. You’re more likely to find fans like this in the ARMY fandom, than any other, in my opinion. Some people forget that the og ARMYs were k-pop fans first. They were fans who intimately understood how this system worked, they understood why the Big3 maintained dominance in k-pop for literal decades, and they saw the worth in the music BTS made, loved it enough to invest time into the playing the game better than anyone else at the time - pushing BTS from nugu status to where they are now, competing well outside the realm of the k-pop system but in a space that remains complex and highly competitive.

Another aspect that differentiates how ARMYs stream vs other k-pop fandoms, is that due to the sheer size of the fandom in absolute numbers, the average ARMY typically streams less than a typical k-pop stan. Basically, in other fandoms the typical stan has to stream more per person to have even a fraction of the gains seen in the ARMY fandom. ARMYs also aren’t doing anything other fandoms aren’t doing, it’s just that so far, they’re more efficient at it and don’t have to worry too much because BTS makes music that keeps attracting more fans, adding to the size of the fandom. They’ve also generally stayed away from more illegal methods given the intense scrutiny and animosity the fandom has faced for being part of the reason BTS upended the ordained hierarchy in this space. It sounds silly but it’s true.

But that’s only one side of the story. The other side is that in the fandom, everybody here really just does what they want. And many people genuinely enjoy listening to BTS that much and that intensely. Going by personal experience in what I observed before I became ARMY, I noticed that many ARMYs are Type A and organized - people who like and study data. The first time in my life that I saw someone create a spreadsheet for fan theories on a k-pop MV, was when an ARMY made one for I NEED U MV. I’m not sure what it is about BTS, but from the beginning they’ve attracted the sort of fans who genuinely enjoy listening to music often, people who enjoy creating and playing around with playlists, and people who track and measure applicable data. So your assumption that the people who stream like this are people who don’t actually enjoy the music, is wrong. In my opinion. For a lot of ARMYs, streaming and appreciating the music isn’t mutually exclusive.

Personally, I listen to music a lot. And I’ve always been that way, so when I became ARMY, I just sort of naturally fit into that culture. The sort of music BTS makes is a joy to listen to, I play their stuff literally everyday and it feels like the most normal thing in the world for me to sleep to Serendipity sometimes (in my sleep playlist which includes brown noise and rain sounds), or to do laundry to Let Me Know playing, or to drive to UGH and Set Me Free Pt 2 playing. I have multiple accounts because I listen to all kinds of music all the time, and it’s just convenient for me to have things set up such that I can flip on a playlist in every situation I’d want one on.

But like I said, the reality is that everyone in this fandom does what they want. It’s true there are certain people in the fandom who obsess over streaming, these are typically chartmys and akgaes, but most other people stream however they like. Fandom in general is a pressure cooker environment so I don’t blame you for noticing that pressure, but at the end of the day you really should just do what makes the most sense to you.

ARMYs generally recognize the reality of the space they are in, they recognize what it means for BTS, and most simply tweak their normal listening habits to maximize the gain and support to BTS. Plus sometimes it’s fun to play into fandom’s initiatives as a way to connect with other fans (such as in streaming parties).

I ended up rambling but let me know if this answered your question.

[study-cat-pink]

gamify your life 🎮🕹️🌟

"5 minutes later..." you continue scrolling

STOP NOW. 🫵 This post is going to teach you how to (make sure you 🫶) reach peak motivation and get back on track !!

resources are hyperlinked!!

Firstly, why should I start gamifying my life?

A: It instantly motivates you and encourages long-term motivation to it's game elements (eg: levelling-up) , making reaching goals and doing work so much easier!!

1)Track your progress ✍️

A popular website/app for gamifying your life is HABITICA!

HABITICA a highly customisable habit/to-dos/goal tracker website/app for students and working adults. I use this website for the daily grind, and I can testify that ITS WORKING, I'M ON THE GRIND 💪.

Completing your habits/to-dos/goals gives you coins, which you can spend on rewards (eg: eating ice-cream) and cool armour! You can even join a clan to fight monsters with your friends using your completed tasks.

HABITICA keeps you engaged with a point system, competition with other clans, incorporating game elements, and rewards.

2) Keep consistent 📈🔺

Many seem to reach a plateau in their productiveness or simply lose inerest in their goals and habits.

It's important to keep consistent so habits stick, and we can reach our goal.

[ 💫The consistancy formula 💫]

Identify your motivator

Ask yourself these three questions everyday

What is my motivator?

What will I gain from this?

What will I lose from this?

You can even write this down on your HABITICA as a daily or any other notebook/ website of your choice!!

3. Visualise the outcome of when you have completed your habit/goal/to-do

Running these scenarios adds an extra boost to your gamifying experience, driving you to work towards the outcome of the goal and further away from quitting.

3) Reflect, revise and reward

It's important to take a look at your ticked to-do list at the end of the day and your HABITCA dashboard to see how much you have accomplished.

The visual tracking of progress motivates greatly, and even seeing the rewards you gave yourself can spur you on.

Then, you can decide how much rewards you can have, how much EXP you gained, and how much you can level up. Maybe you even gain a new title ;)

In addition, it's important to reflect on the mistakes you made, for example, it may be overscheduling tasks or rushing through an essay, and deduct EXP and points. (ouch!!)

Improve your gami-life step by step, level by level, and life inexplicably becomes just like a video game.

-cybersugar!! 💗

If this post helped you, do consider leaving a like and reblog :D, and follow me if you're interested in more posts like these!!

As always, feel free to ask any questions, requests, or drop me a tell!! I'd really appreciate some feedback on what you like and don't like, and if you think my tips are applicable. ;)

i'll totallly try my best to answer EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM 👹 (laughs in burnt-out student)

F in the chat pls

[eccentric-nucleus]

the only story in the progression fantasy/litrpg/etc space that i've really enjoyed and kept up with has been super supportive, tho that's with the caveat that the first sixty chapters are basically a self-contained novel that is pretty good, and then the next uh hundred and thirty chapters spend a lot of time defusing a lot of the setup. it's not just the slice-of-life stuff that predominates, it's the part where the story slowly picks away at the setup

like so, this is gonna have spoilers for the first chunk of super supportive. i've already made a post about this before i think but this will be post #2 i guess.

so super supportive introduces the state of the world: it's like 2040, and aliens contacted earth in the 1960s and brought with them all sorts of cool technology, intergalactic communication, and also the system. magic is real and aliens can do it and now with the system some people will get selected to have superpowers and get to go on quests to alien planets and get fabulous quest rewards (further superhero powers!) for doing so! wow everybody wants to be a superhero because it's so cool!

oh yeah so the technical term for the system is 'the interdimensional warriors contract', and earth is tithed to submit people to it. the aliens get to choose who. and if they choose you, you can't refuse. you also can't really refuse a summons. one of the most popular, to the aliens, classes is the one where you're just a personal assistant. classes with actual superpowers also sometimes get summoned away on some quest and are never heard from again. sometimes they get death notifications, months or years later, but sometimes not. you don't get to pick your class either; those get assigned to you, though you can swap classes with somebody else during a brief provisional period after you've been selected but before your superpowers come due. also, humans have no clue how to really use the system; the aliens make a big point of not telling anybody anything about how it's put together or even things like "these skills are good and these other skills suck". part of the 'appeal' stat involves mental changes to make you more sociable and agreeable.

they do pay superheroes for their work. but they can't really say no to a job, or control what they do. one early example of 'tasks superheroes get summoned to do' is 'help evacuate a dangerous research station' 'but only our contracted employees; explicitly do not allow the other staff who have not contracted to our corporation to leave'.

also, a major character early on is: literally an imprisoned slave who's chained to his desk and has a geas over him such that he's not able to do things like 'express preferences'. some alien wizard just dropped him down at the embassy and he's been stuck working there for decades now. i'm sure it's fine.

so as it goes through the early chapters and these things get revealed there's a lot of tension between how everybody in-universe thinks about this ("superheroes cool") and the out-of-universe information, in which it's clear this is something more like indentured labor. there's a lot of ominous weight about the power differential there. this is a world where magic is real, the universe runs on magic, aliens can use magic, but humans can't. and the magical system aliens have put in place on earth is one that is explicitly gamified with pretty tokens and prebuilt skills and nothing even approaching, like, information on how it works.

so that's interesting! and then the first 'book' ends and the main character gets back to earth and it seems like there's a lot of backing-off of those implications. all the aliens we meet are super cool and nice and honorable. despite some gesturing at various factions of aliens, there hasn't really been a lot of followthrough on, like, the alien politics involved or how they're set up. so i'm still reading because i think it definitely still has promise, & it's written in a fairly engaging fashion, but all of this is basically contingent on it actually having a good payoff for all the buildup, & i'm not really sure that the author really cares about that stuff specifically.

[jodjuya]

Me: "alrighty, I played kotor on the light side, so now I'm definitely going to play kotor2 as a dark side character!"

Also me, actually playing kotor2: "I don't like being mean to people in video games :("

Also, I feel like if I play my character as an angry rude self absorbed piece of shit, then I miss out on doing quests and getting rewarded for doing said quests? Like, if every time someone asks for help, I tell them "fuck off or I'll murder you on the spot", then I miss out on actually playing big chunks of the game. So it seems kinda self-defeating.

Which is the whole schtick of being evil, sure, but it isn't very fun or engaging as a video game. I miss out on 'yes, and'-ing all those story hooks.

I think this is one of the fundamental flaws of video game morality systems.

It's annoying not being able to push my character to the dark side without making him be a puppy-kicking cunt at literally every opportunity. Any time I engage with a conversation tree I end up saying something marginally compassionate or whatever, and the outcome it flashes at me afterwards is "light side points gained, dark side points gained, influence with [character 1] lost, influence with [character 1] gained"

And so nothing has happened aside from me spinning my wheels in place.

Which i think is, like, the game's core theme? That there is no black and white, that life is more complicated than that & that everything is really just shades of grey - if your worldview is exclusively based on blacks and whites then you're Doing It Wrong and are doomed to naught but failure and ruin.

Which is fine

There's nothing wrong with having nuanced complexity in your storytelling...

...except that this is Star Wars

And so the medium is utterly wrong for that kind of message! It's like trying to train a dog to cook you breakfast.

ESPECIALLY!!! when you've gamified the morality system such that your players are actively penalized for not engaging with it as utterly black-and-white-ly as it's possible for them to do!

Textbook ludonarrative dissonance innit?!!

And so while I'm not disliking my experience with the game's storytelling and themes (leaving aside here the many, many, MANY flaws with its execution), I'm incredibly frustrated with the constant feeling of having to wrestle against it for control of my character's story, history, personality, goals, and motivations.

Playing this game feels like trying to ride a bicycle through sand, or trying to drive a car with flat tyres.

ESPECIALLY with this whole thing around having a great and terrible past, full of offscreen misdeeds and misadventures, which now need to either be embraced and/or atoned for, except that—oh no!—amnesia happened and now i don't know what any of those things were or who I am or why I did them! And you, the player, can't just choose those details for yourself and carry on role-playing accordingly, because every now and again you get fed some new snippet, which necessitates overwriting the equivalent snippet you came up with for yourself

How the fuck am I supposed to role-play with that?? Every time I feel like I've gotten into this character's groove, some new plot point flashback pops up and I have to recontextualise every damn little thing and start over with figuring out who I am and why I'm doing what I'm doing! It's utterly maddening!!

so I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is

hats off to Obsidian Entertainment for completely nailing the feeling of what it's like to play in a ttrpg campaign that's run by an incompetent GM who doesn't know what he's doing!

Great job, gang!

Vibes: ✨ captured! ✨

[simplestudentplanning]

Apps I Use For Uni

All are available in the App Store (not sure about Google Play)

Notion

mainly used for note-taking

Google Cal/iCal

deadlines, test dates, etc.

schedule study sessions

track personal appointments/events

Tweek (similar to TeuxDeux but free)

to-do list

Habitica

habit tracker, to-do list, and routine tracker but gamified (I use this when I feel like I’m not doing well so I can see myself “levelling-up” and “gaining experience points” and feel like I’m actually doing good in life)

Now Then

time tracker (Not really essential, but cool to see how much studying I do. It takes a while to get into the habit of tracking stuff.)

Flora

to prevent myself from constantly checking my phone (You can even “bet” money, so if you do get distracted on your phone, the money gets donated. It’s like an incentive to study and not get distracted so you don’t lose money.)

Spotify

study music

raining sounds for sleep

Knowt

free (and in my opinion, better) version of Quizlet (You can import your notes and have an AI automatically make flashcards for you. It saved me SO MUCH time making flashcards!)

[thenugking]

🌤️🌪️🪐 please!

🌤️How do you interpret the game mechanics in your fic?

I try to avoid going into a lot of detail about game mechanics, because they can make things really clunky and unnatural. I can’t use the phrase “spell slots”, it sounds far too gamified to me, so I stick with a more general “using magic takes energy”. From First Rest we have:

Wyll’s able to convince Shadowheart to use the last of tonight’s spellpower on summoning up a bucket of clean water,

Because I’m not going to fucking say “Wyll gets Shadowheart to use her last available Level One Spell Slot on casting Create Water, and then she needs to have a Long Rest to get some more back.”

Some things that are clearly just there for game balance I ignore. Like, sure, it’s useful in game to be able to pay Withers 200 gold to bring back your party members whenever they drop dead, but in fic, it really cheapens the emotional weight of death to have Withers be doing that all the time. That said, as much as I hate when fics feel beholden to the “only four party members” rule, I do kind of want Gortash telling Lee that nope, sorry, Orin can’t come on this mission, we already have four people, it’s just not possible to bring any more because of Reasons, sorry, I’d love to bring your freak of a sister along but everyone knows adventurers can’t hang out in groups of five.

(Lee: Well that’s all right, Orin’s basically just an extension of me so she’s a Summon actually--)

🌪️Is there a nugget of game lore that fascinates you, but you haven’t written about yet?

Hmm. If something fascinates me enough, I usually have to write something, just to get it out of my head. Although I would at some point like to write pre-game fic about Astarion’s siblings. Astarion too ofc, but there’s six other people here being horrifically abused and developing their own relationships and issues with each other and having their own terrible trauma responses. I want to dig into that and make things horrible for everyone.

🪐Who’s your favourite non-companion character, and why?

Orin Orin Orin my beloved baby girl who has done nothing wrong in her life, except for all the horrifying atrocities.

I will hold up my hands and admit that the reason I started liking her was aghsj Hot Evil Lady. But then I started really getting into exploring Durge, and Lee specifically, and goddd this girl is tragic. She’s my poor little meow meow who’s been groomed and abused by every family member she has, and honestly what fucking chance did she ever have to be a good person, or even a normal person? She’s tragic, and sympathetic, but has also, yknow, hurt so many people, and done shit that’s way too fucking evil to just be excused with, “well she’s an abuse victim.” Which ofc is a big theme of BG3 generally, but the game never fucking explored that fully with Orin, so now I get to do that. 

I’m loving writing her in No Highly Esteemed Deed, having her be very clearly Lee’s victim and, I hope, entirely sympathetic for her eventual decision to stab them right in the brain, but, well. She’s still clearly utterly fucked, she was obviously intending to rape Lee before they raped her, and it’s not exactly a spoiler to say that getting rid of her abuser isn’t going to suddenly fix her. Like, I’m currently writing Ketheric seeing an Innocent Victim and looking out for her, and you might notice that this is very much not the dynamic we see with them at the end of Act 2!! I love writing Orin destroying any positive relationship she has because she doesn’t know how to have a healthy friendship and is too disdainful and afraid of the whole idea to try.

I love putting her in Situations and have her fucking maim her way out of them and then voluntarily go back in them because she maimed everything outside her Situation too and now there’s nothing else left <3

[lixenn]

I really wanna read your fic and start engaging in the fandom more especially with oc stuff but I am so so scared bc of past experiences and fear possibly offending someone... Plus reading is actively hard for me due to untreated ADHD... Do you maybe have a tip of how i could start small? I see people i follow mention you quite often.

Wow, it’s so sweet that you came to me for advice anon! 🥺🥺 I feel super honored and very flattered that you want to read my story. I’m going to try my best to help you out 💪🏼(also great job on reaching out, have a gold star ⭐)

This might be a bit long I hope that’s okay (I ramble a lot, I apologize in advance). I will also structure this in parts so it’s not as overwhelming.

---

Engagement in fandom

I feel you Anon, interacting with people is hard. I’ve lurked on tumblr for years before I recently crawled out of my gremlin cave and started to actually talk to fandom folk. But worry not, Lix is here to help! I like gamifying difficult aspects of life (looking at you chores), so I have come up with this analogy:

Approach interaction like you are in a game with different levels. Here are some levels I made up (of course you can always adjust however you want)

Level 0 just scrolling through posts, no interaction at all

Level 1 Liking posts

Level 2 Reblogging posts without tags or text

Level 3 Reblogging posts with general tags

Level 4 Reblogging posts with personal tags

Level 5 Reblogging posts with your own text plus tags or Replying to posts

Level 6 Participation in ask games as anon

Level 7 Participation in ask games with anon off

How does it work?

You establish your baseline: for example you are usually at Level 1

You set a goal you want to achieve: for example you want to participate in ask games with anon off

You then start the game by taking a babystep into the next level: in this example you start reblogging posts with no tags or text (so level 3)

You spend some time on the next level until you are comfortable with doing this sort of interaction

Then you go to the next level

Repeat this until you have reached your level goal

Again this is just an example of how you can approach fandom interaction. I just wanted to show you that taking babysteps for interaction is totally okay!

There’s no need to immediately jump into a full on fandom discussion about your favourite character. Break the huge goal into small parts to make it less overwhelming (I’m sure I’m not the first person telling you this 😅). Also it’s totally fine if there are set backs, some days replying to posts might feel like the biggest chore on this planet and there’s no need to force yourself into doing it! Keep your own pace, this is not a sprint, but a marathon Anon! And I’m here to cheer you on!

How to interact

So, you have reached the level of interaction where you actively engage with other people. Congrats! ✨🎉You are doing great. But now you are stomped on how to interact, which again here are a couple options:

Ask questions. Honestly, that was how I started interacting and it’s still my go-to these days. Asking questions shows that you are invested, that you are curious and writers, artist and bloggers appreciate these kind of interactions a lot. I like questions about my ocs because they often help with character building and sometimes it even inspires a scene for me to write. It’s great! You can also just start small here, it doesn’t need to be deep. You can ask about an ocs favourite colour or just how the writing is going or if the other person likes cats. For real, even small mundane questions make my day, go wild!

Compliments. You see a fanart and think it’s beautiful? Put that in the tags! You like the vibe of this one oc? You can write that in a reblog. Again, start small and it doesn’t need to be poetry, a simple “I like this!” is fine and dandy!

As for the offending bit…

I can also understand the fear of offending, especially if you had bad experiences. For me it’s mostly anxiety that fucks me over.

But I think unless you dabble into super controversial topics you shouldn’t be too scared. Just present everything respectfully or as a headcanon, then you should be good to go (people can disagree with your headcanons but that doesn’t make it offensive, it’s just a difference in opinion).

Furthermore if you are scared of doing something the other person won't like you can always reach out in DMs to clarify if they are comfortable if you ask something with xy topic.

Also keep in mind that people might not instantly reply back. Maybe they don’t have the spoons, maybe irl is being a bitch, maybe they are on vacation with spotty internet, maybe their laptop exploded or maybe they simply have a goldfishbrain like me and forgot. The possibilities are endless but that doesn’t mean they hate you. I know the nasty little voice in the back of our heads often try to convince ourselves of that but it’s not true, people are sometimes just busy.

Reading

Now, I don’t have ADHD so I’m not sure if I can give good advice here, but I will try my best!

You could start with short works if you struggle with longer stories. Oneshots are great! So are works with short chapters. Shameless self promo here: My fanfic the Varia Housekeeping survival guide (short the Guide) has super short chapters (most are one DIN A4 page).

Of course you can always split up chapter into chunks. There’s no need to read 5K works in one sitting. Take your time. If the format bothers you, maybe you prefer reading in a certain font, then you can also just copy the text in a document and change it to something you can easily read (as long as you just use that copy for your own private purposes, it should be fine.)

Some popular fanfics also have podfics if the actual reading bit is hard on you, that limits your options a bit but it’s a way to start.

---

Well, this got long as hell. I hope any of these ramblings are useful to you and that I didn’t totally overwhelm you with text.

Stay strong Anon! You can do the people thing! I believe in you!

[vro0m]

Do you think the younger drivers have an advantage on the track because they play those driving video games so often? I was thinking about Gran Turismo and an article I've read about surgeons who play video games regularly having better precision in surgery than the ones who don't play.

So I wonder if the F1 drivers who play driving simulation games in their downtime are better off than the ones who don't. Idk all the ones who play, but Norris and MV come to mind

Hiii Anon! Very interesting question! I wasn't sure how serious I should get with the answer but in the end I followed my heart and went serious and extremely long because that's always what I do anyway.

Tl;Dr : No, probably not.

There's two ways video games could impact real life F1 skills, and that's through training of skills directly or indirectly related to F1 driving.

The first possibility is training skills so tightly similar to the ones used in real life F1 racing that it transfers to real life racing. Think of actual sim driving for example. It can be used to learn unfamiliar circuit layouts, where to brake, where to accelerate, etc. I don't know enough about the F1 racing games to know if they are accurate enough for it to transfer, but I guess if they are it could help learn the circuits. However, it also means the in-game physics need to be good enough for the car to react in the way it would IRL, otherwise it's pointless when it comes to where to brake, for example. We know that's what they're trying to do with professional driving sims and when the on-track data and the sim data don't correlate that's a big issue for the team. And we also know that the car performance vary a lot between teams so how accurate can the video game really be?

Another thing to take into account here is that driving an F1 car is extremely physical, and when you play a video game you don't get all the physical feedback and sensations you would driving the car, which makes it way easier. Your vision would be more stable without the vibrations and the bottoming and the bumps in the road etc. You can focus more easily without the noise, the radio comms, the pain, the exertion, the heat, etc. But also you're missing info like physical sensations, wind, probably to some extent watching around to see where the other cars are, etc. So racing sims can never be accurate enough.

However, there's also indirect skills. I've kind of mentioned that one or twice before when listing what I would test the drivers for if I was hired to study their cognitive and psychological profiles, but there are more general cognitive skills that they're bound to have unusual performances in compared to the general population, otherwise they wouldn't be able to do what they do. For example, their attentional skills must be different to most to be able to deal with the distractions I mentioned earlier such as radio comms, visual disturbances, vibrations, pain, etc. for a whole race. I would bet on their short term/working memory, which allows for the active retention of information (think mental calculus : you need to remember the numbers AND apply an operation to them), to be very good, because they're being told their times and other people times and need to conclude stuff from that, etc.

So a possibility is that playing certain games (and not necessarily only racing ones) serves as training for these transversal skills that aren't exclusively tied to racing an F1 car. We have data that suggests that it is the case, and that video games can be beneficial for so called soft skills. BUT. Really though?

See the thing is my thesis was on a subject parallel to this and so I've learned a thing or two about the effects of video games and one such thing is that even though we do have studies that show positive outcomes to playing video games, the skills learnt through video games unfortunately don't transfer to new contexts very well. Even when said video games are actually gamified training programs rather than commercial video games. It means for example (and this is a made up example to be clear) you might have data showing that people who play Call Of Duty a lot have above average visuo-spatial skills due to learning to shoot people precisely and quickly but that doesn't necessarily help them navigate an unfamiliar environment IRL better than average because although both tasks rely on visuo-spatial skills, the task they've trained for (shooting people in a video game) is extremely specific and the gains don't necessarily generalise to other similar but different tasks (finding your way in a new city).

So all in all, I don't think them playing video games makes much of a difference. Not in a direct training way, especially as people who have access to actual professional racing sims + regularly drive actual cars around actual circuits ; they would learn way more by doing the real thing, especially for years, than, say, by playing fun video games during their winter break. And not in an indirect way either, because they're bound to be such outliers in the relevant transversal skills anyway that I don't think playing video games would make much of a difference. It's not impossible that directly or indirectly the video games are somewhat beneficial for them, but imo the gains would be negligible.

[nickgerlich]

Make A Dash

One of the biggest fears of companies advertising during the Super Bowl is that no one will remember them. Actually, the fear goes deeper…it is highly possible for viewers to miss an ad completely. It is unreasonable to expect people to sit perfectly still for about four hours, taking in every play and advertisement. No can do.

And at $7 million for 30 seconds, this problem becomes critically important. To see just how difficult it is for an advertiser to sink its talons into you, watch any sporting event or even just a linear TV show tonight, and then tomorrow morning, try to remember the ads. It will be tough, even after I have primed you for the task. One study showed that viewers only remember up to a tenth of the ads they saw in the preceding 24-hour period. Good luck.

But DoorDash has quite possibly found a way to overcome this obstacle. They are making sure eyeballs stay focused by gamifying its ad. Of course, we don’t know exactly what time during the game their ad will air, which makes it even more intense. One lucky viewer who can crack a special code in DoorDash’s ad, and enters it on a special website built just for the game, will win one of every product and service advertised during the game.

That’s a lot of loot. It may lean heavily into snack foods and beverages, but Kia is going to be advertising vehicles.

I don’t know that I have seen such viewer engagement with an ad since the CoinBase QR code brought down the internet a couple of years ago. And the point of requiring people to focus on the DoorDash ad is to inform viewers that DoorDash can and does deliver anything and everything, not just your dinner. They report having two million items available on their app.

There will be more than 50 advertisers on this Super Bowl, most of which are national companies paying the steep price of admission, but also some local companies that get in for much less because they will only be seen locally. You have to do something drastic to stand out in this crowd, and DoorDash may very well have cracked that code in the process.

As for DoorDash, they are trying to break free of the impression that they are only in the food delivery business. When they started out ten years ago, that was the truth, but in recent years they have added many non-foods. This comes at a time when Uber, which has positioned itself as being in the transportation business, added food to its P2P taxi service, and then non-foods as well.

Critics may scoff that we have increasingly become a nation of lazy people, too busy to go to stores and restaurants. No, home delivery is a tool just like spreadsheets and calculators are for accountants. Anything that can get jobs done faster is a good thing, and it doesn’t matter if it is balancing the books, or balancing the demands of a busy life.

I like this campaign a lot, and it has my attention. In fact, that’s what DoorDash needs to be focusing on intently in the week leading up to the big game. People need to know to be watching for the ad during the game, because if they don’t, they may have just stepped out to get another beer.

I’ll be watching for this one. A new Kia might be nice.

Dr “Know The Code” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[deramin2]

My ideal game is a $10 - $20 city builder with resource elements and a creative setting (bonus pints for being communist, and I love ancient world settings). That's probably been in early access for years because the devs have no other way to fund it and also want community input on what works and what doesn't. I will sink a minimum of like 60 hours into it, mostly while simultaneously watching Actual Plays or listening to obscenely long playlists. Nothing gets me as excited to play a game as that combo, and while they're all tiny indie projects, it's a surprisingly abundant genre.

Some I've played recently: Timberborn - Intelligent beavers build their society after humans wiped themselves out, and deal the the ecological fallout of drought cycles and polluted water. A lot of nice quality of life features that try to improve upon limitations in older games.

Builders of Greece Prologue - Just getting into this ancient Greece city builder. This is a free demo of a larger game in development.

Banished - The OG survival city builder with a medieval European setting. Help a group of refugees build a new home.

Surviving Mars - Found a colony on Mars with diverse mission sponsors and maps that alter play style. Create a communist utopia or an overworked hell. (I always make a utopia). Optional scenarios give you extra goals to progress stories and give you bonuses. Same developer as Tropico 3-5. Probably my favorite city builder with a lot of quality of life features, and incredibly easy tile placement in predictable shapes. Incredibly hopeful.

Mini Metro - An ultra minimalist but surprisingly challenging game about building metro lines. Generative ambient soundtrack that responds to what's happening.

Mini Motorways - Sequel to Mini Metro focused on car management. Also a generative soundtrack.

The Wandering Village - Build your city on the back on a massive walking beast called a Onbu. Work symbiotically with it, or forcefully control it (I'm nice to mine). Roam the roads of an ecologically devastated world to rather resources and fine new people to join. But watch out for the spore clouds that can infect your trees and make everyone sick.

Flotsam - Build a raft city in a world flooded by catastrophic global warming and sea level rise. Scavenge the ocean garbage and sunken ruins for useful resources. Manage the weight and shape of your city and make sure not to run out of fuel and get stuck.

Builders of Egypt: Prologue - Ancient Egypt city builder that's in super early development. This is more "support something now to get something promising later." The historical research that went into it (and that they tell you on loading screens) is super detailed and they're really thoughtful about how to represent and gamify the culture.

Frostpunk - Steampunk city builder set in a harsh frozen world. Didn't play it very long because it was too harsh and depressing, but I've heard good things about it if the setting appeals.

Airborne Kingdom - Build a floating city in the sky that seeks to be the best of humanity and unite terrestrial kingdoms that have become increasingly isolationist. Manage the weight of your city and make sure not to unbalance it or it will fall out of the sky. Also on Switch.

Before We Leave - City builder where your peeps are leaving a bunker generations after a global catastrophe to rebuild their lost civilization. the game uses large hex times and placement is part of the challenge. Also on Switch.

Townscaper - This is more of a toy than a game, but you build colorful island cities using blocks that have a smart response to the tiles around them on an irregular grid. There's no game play, you just make something pretty. Very relaxing. Also on Switch.

Dorfromantic - More of a tile placement game like an infinitely complex jigsaw puzzle than a city builder. But you do create a gorgeous and unique map of the country side with towns, fields, forests, grasslands, rivers, and railroads. Turn based and quick to pick up but challenging to master.

Civ City Rome - This game is super old, and kind of flopped commercially, but I find it incredibly charming and fun. The dialogue is very funny and has a sort of Life of Brian vibe. Back when people thought you needed combat in city builders.

Sumerians - I have not played this yet but it's an ancient Mesopotamian city builder that looks really fun and beautiful. Looking forward to digging into it.

[dropintomanga]

HIRAETH - The Middle and The End of It All

Continuing where I left off months ago, it’s time to explore the last two volumes of Yuhki Kamatani’s HIRAETH - The End of the Journey. The ending does end with a sense of loss, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t move forward despite of it.

Talk about suicide and suicidal ideation after the jump, so just a warning.

In Volume 2, the trio of Mika, Hibino, and Hani continue their trip towards the underworld, Yomotsu Hirasaka (also known as Yomi), to die. Along the way, they run into a researcher named Chihiro Awashima, who knows about Hibino’s immortality. While she wants to hopefully use the knowledge of immortality to improve the medical world, Chihiro’s also desperate to find a way to save a friend who’s dying of a terminal illness. Chihiro challenges Mika’s way of thinking (her desire to die after losing her best friend) by saying death is absolutely scary. Hibino tries to ignore Chihiro with vague answers about his immortality and once the trio makes an attempt to escape her grasp, Chihiro appears and collapses in front of them. She the admits that she lied about her friend and that she’s the one who is dying - from cancer. Chihiro then cries out in desperation how much she wants to accomplish something meaningful before dying. 

Hibino and Hani do convince Chihiro to accept her impending death and that her life still has meaning even if she doesn’t feel like it. There’s something Hani to Chihiro says that made me think.

“You believe the meaning of human life is to accomplish something before you die. How fascinating. While I thought of nothing but I was letting go...”

I listened to a podcast about this whole chase to find meaning in life. Sure, meaning means more than happiness. But I now wonder if we’re all being gamified to find meaning/purpose or else we’ll never be successful. It feels no different than trying to be a ��personal brand” and sacrificing your mental health for it. It’s okay to accept that things can be meaningless; it doesn’t change the fact that there’s still things worth living for in life. Chihiro’s search for immortality felt like she wanted to feel pragmatically useful to someone who may need her because society told her to.

Near the end of Volume 2, Hani mysterious vanishes in front of Mika and Hibino. The think about how their life turned out as a god. They wondered why they decided to hang around Mika and humor her wish to die. Hani then realizes that there’s a cherished memory they long forgot. A flashback of when Hani and Hibino first met happens. It turns out that Hani was the soulmate Hibino was searching for. Hani returns and while the reunion is a happy one, everyone will go their separate ways the closer they get to Yomi.

At the start of Volume 3, Hibino encounters an old man he met a long time ago, which causes him to unlock traumatic memories of the people who died before him. Hibino keeps a notebook of said people’s words for his memory’s sake and now wants to get rid of it as he feels trapped by them. Mika refuses to let Hibino throw everything away. Hani jumps into the conversation via violent fashion as they felt insulted by Hibino’s actions because they strongly feel memories should be treasured.

The focus on memory becomes important as Hibino reveals that he knew about Hani for a long time and the two already met a long time ago in ancient Japan. After being around each other for a few years, Hani ends up having to disappear. Hibino and Hani would make a promise that they would meet again if somehow Hibino ends up losing his immortality. Yet that memory was long forgotten until Hani displayed insecurity over how they will be remembered, which triggered Hibino’s remembrance.

The subject of holding onto painful memories can be a tricky one to navigate. In modern society, there’s often a bunch of victim blaming towards people who can’t seem to move on from losing loved ones. We’re always told to move forward and ignore the grief that comes with such memories. But as HIRAETH shows, if an immortal and a god struggle with grief and despair, why would anyone think humans can do better?

The ending is a bittersweet one. Hani eventually disappears, but is glad Hibino treasured him. Hibino dies right after Hani disappears. Mika is about to join the afterlife with no hesitation to see her best friend who died, but decides to go back to the world of the living after hearing a bird sing. She credits the new memories she made with Hani and Hibino that made her re-think her desire to die. 

The most touching part of the end is when Chihiro re-appears in the final chapter. She tells Mika that Hibino reached out to her to take care of his personal affairs (which were trivial) before his eventual passing. Both Mika and Chihiro laugh over Hibino’s actions. And Mika says one of the most powerful lines regarding loss with a huge smile on her face.

“I'm so weird. I can’t shake how sad I feel, but here I am, laughing.” 

I’m gonna get into something I haven’t really talked about here. 4 years ago, a pet bird of mine died after having him for 12 years. The morning he died, I saw him looking very ill. I left for work and came home to find him dead. I was in a state of disbelief and sadness. I did tell some of my friends about my pet bird’s death and one of them told me to celebrate their life. Although I’m not going to pretend that my pet bird thought like a human, he looked like he had fun while he was alive because he sung quite a lot in loud and happy fashion. I laugh now when I think about the times my bird made me smile with his behaviors.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been reading up on grief and ways to talk about it without dismissing the subject entirely. One thing that stood out to me was when someone talks about a loved one who passed away, the first thing asked is “What happened to them?” I think people do this because they want to be certain that whatever befell the person who died won’t happen to them. A better thing to say is “Tell me more about them. Tell me how they lived. Tell me what were they liked. Tell me your favorite memories of them.”

There’s a huge collective silence that subtly makes its mark when talking about emotional memories. There’s cases where people might be deemed “too emotional” and put on a “someone to avoid” list. However, if you really want to feel connected to someone, being a bit more emotional than usual is what makes relationships stronger, not weaker.

People going through grief often don’t get a proper chance to talk about the ones they lost with love. There needs to be a better collective response in giving opportunities to them to speak out. Accepting death and all it brings is what really moves us to treasure and move forward in life. At least, that’s what Kamatani is trying to say with HIRAETH and their approach in talking about death.

HIREATH is an amazing manga that talks about a subject rarely talked about in Western culture. It’s uncomfortable to read at times due to so much focus on facing one’s mortality, but the characters make you feel alive and ensure that it’s okay to face it when you have the people you love at your side. And more importantly, accepting the pain of the past can lead to a present and future that you want to fight for and cherish.

To quote a BBC article on the subject of hiraeth (which is a concept in the country of Wales and the source of inspiration for the manga),

"It (Hiraeth) can be quite revealing, in a way. It can give you an idea of how you want to live, so you can try to embody that happiness and bring it with you into everyday life."

[sophieinwonderland]

hello, Sophie :^) how's your day going? I hope you've been remembering to drink water and such.

first off, regarding your last post, no, it's not weird. I feel the same way: wanting to be yourself even if you're not super confident in your self yet. that's totally OK. in my personal case, it shows dedication to myself, and my will to live life unapologetically, as myself. (so wordy, lol)

second off, I have a question for you, though I'm not sure if it's OK to ask, but I can't find anyone else to ask about it-- so no pressure! do you happen to have any advice on how to be consistent with forcing? like, getting yourself to do it as often as possible, every day? thank you! have a good day ☺️

I'm doing well! Thanks!

I think passive forcing is really effective. Just imagine them being with you throughout the day and talk to them in your head. Passive forcing is easiest because you can do it while occupied with other tasks that feel mind-numbing. You need to do the dishes? Take out the trash? Walking through a hall for the hundredth time? All great times to practice passive forcing.

Just maybe not while driving. 😜

We also used an app called Habitica to gamify our life and give us extra motivation. We fell out of it a while ago, but it worked great for months. You can use it to turn your tulpamancy into a game, setting dailies for different kinds of forcing, and setting up tasks to reward you for milestones in your tulpa's development.

Good luck!

[starrlikesbooks]

Hey Castor, i'm trying to find a book to buy for my roommate for his bday. He likes fantasy and sci fi, and i only ever read more grounded, english-lit type stories so i'm totally lost. But then i thought, "hey! My longtime mutual Castor will surely know what's up." Have you got any recs? Preferably something from the last year, so he's not likely to already own it. Sincerely, world's biggest Don't Touch That Dial fan.

Hello best friend anon! I'm not sure what kind of vibe you're going for/what type of SFF your roommate leans towards, so here's a variety of vibes

The list got long, so here's a read more!

Cozy/Domestic

Kaiju Preservation Society (Domestic Sci-Fi 100%! Kaiju like Godzilla are kinda real and their gigantic interdimensional creatures most of the characters study like secret zoologistis. Except the MC. They lift boxes.) 🌈friendly

Legends & Lattes* (I know little about this book beyond sapphic fantasy running a coffee shop. If he likes cozy fantasy and is in bookish spaces, h knows about this. If not, but he seems like he’d dig it, he’ll love that you go it for him!) 🌈

We Could Be Heroes (Slightly older, but not well known. Very down to earth superhero/supervillain friendship where tone of them saw their mind powers and was like oh geez um I guess I’m supposed to rob a bank? and the other saw their super speed and went sweet I’m gonna get all the delivery tips) 🌈ish

Even Though I Knew the End (Magical noir. I’m counting this as domestic because a lot of the plot revolves around the MC’s partner and their shared life, as well as her motivations towards keeping her brother save and thriving. This would also fit under “mystery” though) 🌈

Weird and/or Unhinged

The Atlas Six* (Underground government picks taps someone to join per each division, but 5 of them are 100% gonna die) 🌈

Anything by Jason Pargin (AKA JDATE or Zoey Ashe*. JDATE books can be read as standalones and the newest one is about a gamified kids toy that’s demanding human body parts so a cult can summon something to end the world)

City of Nightmares (Gotham atmosphere, if you fall asleep you might turn into your literal nightmare. MC’s sister turned into a giant spider and ate her father, MC is both afraid of everything and willing to threaten people with violence in order to get what she wants, which is, namely, not in terrifying positions like being kicked out onto the street) 🌈friendly

Hell Followed With Us (If he’s horror leaning, and/or into trans people embracing the monstrous and destroying evangelical cults! Though if he is and he spends time in bookish spaces, he may already know of/have read this one) 🌈

The Sky is Yours (Not a new book, but not one ever talked about so probably safe. Basically a Jetsons future, except they can’t use most of their cool technology or thrive because they’ve been being tormented by dragons for like 80 years that won’t stop burning their city down. This one is also kinda satire styled.)

Mystery

Self Portrait With Nothing (Magical portraits, lost mothers, off beat and kinda weirdly emotional while also having a bit of a mystery plot. Extra points if he’s into The Raven Cycle or The Dreamer Trilogy at all.) 🌈friendly

The Library of the Dead* (Edinburgh based urban fantasy with an amateur detective tapping into the occult. Also, ghosts!)

The Bruising of Qilwa (A novella about immigration/xenophobia and a also mysterious, fatal illness that may be murder.) 🌈friendly

Witness of the Dead* (Came out about a year and a half ago. This is a mystery set against politics in a steampunk fantasy world, and is sure to be a bit dense in spots. It's a companion novel to The Goblin Emperor) 🌈

Questy

Last Exit (Plays out like the end of an epic. Former friends from college have to reunite and cross world again as darkness slips out and they try to reach their long lost leader, left to the other side.)🌈

Soulswift (A little older, but not by much. Girl gets semi possessed by the god of another culture’s religion AKA the Lilith figure in her own religion that she’s a nun in. Forced allyship & forced proximity leading to a lot of cultural understanding and romance, on the way to make sure she doesn’t actually die.)

Lost in the Moment and Found (In a series of novellas, but works as a standalone. Girl finds a door to the place lost things go, and enjoys adventure- but things aren’t as they seem. Big content warning for grooming & attempted SA!)

The Stardust Thief* (A thief, a Djinn, and a prince have to go on a quest for a legendary magical lamp! Based on 1001 Nights.)

Gay!

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance (Treaty based marriage with an assassination plot ramping up the tension. Big big content warning for SA and PTSD!)

A Marvellous Light (Murder mystery with magic and forced allyship/coworkers to lovers between a magician and a regular Londoner who accidentally got the job.)

Light From Uncommon Stars (This could also passably go under the Weird category, but it’s just so inherently queer it needed to be here. Women takes souls of violin prodigies to win back hr own soul. The other main character a formerly homeless transwoman sex worker who suffered abuse, and the teacher’s love interest is an alien with kids including an AI daughter, who’s super into running her donut shop. It’s also very diaspora and Asian centric!)

*have not read yet