Gwaer

I liked the reincarnated as a vending machine one.

And there was one where the guy could shop online in the fantasy world. It was better than expected.

I'll be honest though. I actually enjoy most Isekai even the bad ones. I think they're pretty fun.

Some of the later books might be more your speed if you like sticking with a single Bob. I personally didn’t care for those ones.

I assume the reason things look like other things is cause we have a tendency to describe new things as similar to other things even when they aren’t. Plus there’s probably some scientific evidence behind form and function. See https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=535ce2af5493dab8&hl=en-us&sxsrf=ADLYWILL1F47ohkf2S3ZM119-lKV4yRZmQ:1736139726724&q=carcinization&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDksS9qOCKAxXDkIkEHbiqNCgQkeECKAB6BAgKEAE&biw=393&bih=659&dpr=3

I’m very keen on where the story is going as it stands right now. But I’m impatient for more books. And inevitably will be disappointed in the end I’m sure. Most of the time these situations lead to philosophical cop outs.

The bobiverse books ended up being what I enjoyed most in 2024. Really looking forward to more of those.

Someone already said my true #1. But if I ignore that one.

EverQuest. What a crazy game. So many ideas that are just brilliant but people don't do anymore. The enchanter is my favorite power set on any character in any genre and nothing touches it. I wish the design philosophy didn't move away from systems that enable that kind of game play.

Yep. By far the best game ever made. It's not even close. It's truly an experience. I wish I could play it again. I've watched so many streams of people playing it for the first time just trying to recapture some of the magic for myself.

Awesome I'm glad it's doing something for you, getting better at visualizing at all?

It’s been about a year or so. You shouldn’t have to constantly apply pressure. When I first started I just kind of took whatever was there and tried to pretend it was a specific thing then hold that thought then as it morphed and changed just quickly identified a new thing and held that thing as long as possible. I think the article calls it image streaming. Then when all the sparks fade from pressure maybe do it again.

Welcome to a whole new world where you can’t do some fundamental form of thinking most people can.

Theres also people apparently that don’t have an inner monologue and can’t hear words in their mind either. I truly can’t understand how that works. It’s way more foreign of a concept than not being able to visualize. But maybe that’s just because I’ve never been able to do it so I don’t know what I’m missing.

The people that can’t do either are truly frightening. What’s going on up there?

I had absolutely debilitating insomnia for my entire life. In the last couple of years I discovered something interesting. I’ve got a condition called aphantasia which means that I cannot see any images in my mind. For my whole life I heard the phrase counting sheep and thought it was a metaphor. Just like. Thinking about sheep since visualizing wasn’t something that I thought people could do.

Anyway, in researching about the condition I found an article online for an exercise where you can work on trying to visualize something. Basically you close your eyes and use the flashing remnants of vision to try to force a shape to exist. Sometimes you need to push on your closed eyes and a little pressure will cause some patterns to appear. You’re supposed to do this exercise while talking to someone outloud. Even if it’s just making a recording. The article I read said you must say it out loud or you will fall asleep. Me having never fallen asleep in my life without hours of concerted effort completely ignored this warning and much to my surprise it absolutely made me fall asleep within minutes.

Ever since then I’ve been able to use this technique to fall asleep every night. It’s like my mind finally learned how to do it. Most of the time I don’t even need to do these exercises any more.

That being said I was so pleased with this side effect I never even tried the say it out loud to try to improve mental images and I still can’t see anything in my minds eye. But being able to sleep every night without fail is a freaking miracle. So I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Here is the original instructions I found on it. https://photographyinsider.info/image-streaming-for-photographers/

C

Or be self employed.

Lol. Iphones came out just shy of decades ago in 2007, and there were portable phones even in the 80s. Though admittedly they didn't play audio for you back then. But I had a non smart candybar phone in the late 90s early 2000s with a built in media player I loaded phrases into for various trips.