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Reading novels (or just fiction, in general). Not sure why but I simply lost the ability to do it a few years ago. Still like to read a couple of nonfiction books every month, but feel like I'm missing something lately

Ideally I'd have access to both- i.e., a 'home base' in the city, plus a small place to stay out in the woods somewhere, preferably less than 20 mins on foot from a commuter train. Continuing to avoid driving would be great

No, at least not in countries (e.g., the USA) that rely on the state to micromanage every aspect of zoning, and which therefore allow NIMBYs to derail progress at every possible step.

In a better world we would draft new laws to throw out our entire zoning system, and start over with something much more flexible at the state or national level- ideally based on the approach Japan uses, which defaults to mixed-use for every building and makes NIMBYism structurally impossible.

No. Actors are participating in storytelling, and 'evil' characters are just an exercise in symbolism and mythmaking.

Have been listening to Chihei Hatakeyama's albums a lot while working and studying. Coastal Railroads in Memories is my favorite

There are lots of things I could criticize Japan for, but the country's approach to zoning and land use is just objectively the best. Japan's cities and overall built environment are obviously better than ours (in the US) to such a ridiculous degree, that I'm not sure why we don't send all of our municipal planners over there to just take notes.

Is that an argument in favor of glued-in batteries, though? A lot of users' phones aren't going to make it for six years if it's non-trivial (or impossible) to swap out the battery for a new one.

If you haven't played Riven yet, that game was a huge improvement on every aspect of Myst IMO. Still completely holds up

I'd only set one up if it were fully open-source and self-hosted. It looks like there are a couple of options out there that meet those criteria (like Mycroft), but I haven't looked into it enough yet.

"Freddy Got Fingered". So stupid and obnoxious that it might actually be brilliant. Arguably

Started having the same issue during covid lockdowns. What works for me now is:

• switching often between sitting and standing for work. Getting a sit-stand desk converter like this one really helped with that.
• pretty serious amounts of near-daily exercise (esp. swimming laps and strength training). This pays off in all kinds of ways beyond fixing back pain
• making sure to take enough breaks, even if that just means getting out for a 10-15 minute walk a couple of extra times per day.

I never really 'got' Twitter-style microblogging, and still don't really get Mastodon for the same reason. But I could some use for it if I represented some kind of group or organization that needed to publish regular updates.