• 0 Posts
  • 5 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 5th, 2023

help-circle
  • I've been using Mint as my daily driver and gaming PC for years. Very happy with it.

    If you're really on the fence, and you're building a new system, you might just want to "distro hop" for the first week or so. It's a little work and a bit disruptive, as you'll be re-installing the OS every few days. But just like a car, there's nothing like actually driving it to get a feel for how much you'll like it.


  • Something to consider when we talk about disconnecting and "touching grass"... it's not an immediate thing. You need to be vacation for several days before you can genuinely begin to relax and feel and positive effects. So this idea that we can just nip out for 20 minutes and leave our phone behind for serious benefit is pretty much worthless.

    So if you're "disconnecting" and you spend the first few days just sleeping or staring at the TV, that's pretty understandable. You're paying off a fair bit of "rest debt".

    WRT your update: That's great that you're getting professional help. Make sure (if you aren't already) that the feels you're sharing here are being thoroughly conveyed to your doctor. Medication can be fantastic, but you may benefit more from a different medication. All good things to bring up with your professional.

    Good luck!


  • Series:

    • Dark: I love this series. It's complex and smart and isn't afraid to let the viewer think and not hold our hand. I re-watch this at least once a year, sometimes more. The show runners also made another series, 1899, which I liked - but didn't love - and Netflix killed it after only one season.
    • Alta Mar/High Seas: The first season especially just captured my heart. It's a fun murder-on-a-cruise-liner scenario with absolutely lavish set dressing, costumes, etc. The cast is a delight. There are a few unnecessary twists and the subsequent seasons didn't grab me as hard, but this is one I happily come back to periodically.
    • Paranormal: This is, in some ways, only an "okay" series if I'm honest. The stories are solid, but mid-tier, the effects are pretty low grade, and the episodes didn't connect well. But why I still have a fondness for this one: This series wasn't just set in Egypt, it was an Egyptian production. So you don't have some of the baggage of Hollywood/the U.S. or even other, major media countries. It's refreshing to get a different cultural view occasionally.
    • Control-z: This was a fun, stylish mystery series set in a Mexican high-school. Not terribly deep and after the first season the quality drops pretty quickly, but it was enjoyable.
    • Squid Game: Who doesn't love a game? :)
    • Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes: Not very long series but it was enjoyable if you like the possibly over used trope of someone coming back from the dead and the challenges they encounter.
    • Katla: A short Icelandic supernatural series. Creepy vibes aplenty.
    • Money Heist: Spanish bank heist series. Good, not great, but good. A little predictable in places, a little unpredictable in places. Went for several seasons and spawned a couple of spin-offs.
    • Fallet: An interestingly little series from Sweden. The premise is a stretch, but the characters were kind of endearing. I enjoyed it.

    Movies:
    I know I've watched a lot more foreign films recently that I liked than this, but I'm having a hard time recalling any that stand out. Here's still a few I felt like mentioning:

    Classics: Pan's Labyrinth, Run Lola Run, Seven Samurai.

    A few you might not have heard of:

    • Errementari: a stylish, enjoyable fable of a blacksmith and the devil
    • The Little Switzerland: A silly little comedy set in Spain. Not a lot of depth, but entertaining.

  • That, as others have mentioned, is a moderately difficult question for us without knowing what you like or what the specs on your laptop are.

    If you install Steam, they have a pretty generous return policy. You just need to act within 2 weeks of the purchase OR before you hit a total of two hours played in that game - whichever comes first. I like Steam because the Proton compatibility layer built in makes gaming on Linux so incredibly easy.

    I'm hesitant to do so because you undoubtedly like different things, but here is a short list of some of the games I've played that I really enjoyed based on total time played.

    Sid Meier's Civilization (the whole series is good, but 5 is my favorite)
    Stellaris
    Battletech
    Satisfactory
    Valheim
    Football Manager (think of this title as the complex strategy game to FIFA's action game)


  • If it helps any, you're not the first to have feelings like this toward the end of your undergraduate life. You're not alone.

    My advice for the moment would be to focus on making a strong finish in school. Yes, you need/want to start thinking about your future, but you don't want to get this far only to stumble at the finish line. Don't tack on a full-time or demanding job unless it's absolutely necessary. June is going to show up a lot faster than you think it will and you have a lot of research, writing, and revision to go.