No, you-da-cots!

Not sure what it means but I presume a compliment of some kind!

Nah I think you got it. Veiling art as hostile architecture is fairly common so I think the artist lead took over and they forgot the intent of ruining someone’s ability to sleep haha

I see what you’re digging at, I was confused by them too. Hostile architecture meets just plain terrible design?

This may have missed the point of your asking, but I wrote it so I’m posting it lol my apologies if it’s not what your looking for:

I’m gonna advise a thought on what I had to do. I love being informed. But I reached such a level of depression and anxiety of the future that I had to do something.

So I stopped. I told myself it doesn’t have to be forever, just a break. Took about 2 weeks of much less news consumption, forced myself to be brain-dead as much as possible. It led to a few conclusions:

The world turns. No matter what you do, ppl do insane shit. Taking a break for you doesn’t mean stupid shit stops happening, but it makes it less the center of your world. You don’t have to own it.

Life is about a lot more than what’s going on in the news cycle. I have friends who never look at a newspaper, and they’re far happier than I am overall. Just a thought.

The kicker - I still knew what was going on. The media milks a big story over days and weeks, so you can easily come back to your favorite website and pick it up quickly. Haven’t missed anything that I could have changed regardless haha.

A great comment I saw a while back: put down the phone for a few days, and you realize it’s still 2005 outside. The world is boring, but blessedly so. For your health, let it be 2005 for a bit.

Now, I just read the headlines unless something really grabs my attn. Reading the news makes many problems that aren’t yours a you problem. Overall, I’ve realised it’s the little things that make life better. Do the little stuff - help in your community, give the homeless guy a fiver, call your mom, ask the cashier how her day is (and genuinely care about her answer). If you’re up for it, maybe then undertake some of the actions other ppl are suggesting about political action, volunteering, etc.

You can’t pour from an empty cup, my friend. Take care of you first and the world becomes a little better ☺️

I would even argue the controversy about it is the point. It’s art. It’s meant to make you think about things you might not ever consider, and in the case of No Russian, it’s the horror of committing a terrorist attack. Imo, it’s an intentional but valuable (both financially and ethically) lesson in what art can do

What I didn’t see coming was mountain dew becoming the drink of the ppl

I’ll piggy back on your comment, I was gonna say something similar (and I fully agree with it 😊)

With only the information you provided, it sounds like you’re potentially navigating some high functioning depression, maybe some meaninglessness. They can go hand in hand, and much of the joy of life is lost when/if you’re depressed with no personally meaningful direction.

Therapy is a good starting point, or even just some gentle self analysis of what may have led you to these feelings (as opposed to the symptoms of it, which it looks to me like what you described).

It’s a process, and it can take a very long time to learn how to be gentle enough to listen to yourself without judgement. So in addition to therapy, I’d add meditation to allow yourself space and journaling with personally directed questions (e.g., what do I feel, what may have led me to feel this way) that might grant you insights. Dig for what means something to you, and find a way to make it your reality.

One final thought - do try getting out there and connecting. It’s hard, irritating, and exhausting. But sometimes we spend so much time in our own space/heads that we ruminate ourselves into a quagmire. Ppl and activities corner that rumination to fewer hours of the day, and gives us a break from our own thoughts.

As poster above said, you’re not even 40 - lots of years of beauty, hope and meaning to be found and loved, though it can take time to really get there :)

All the best, OP

Yup, second on this one. Exact same change made, and the gf and I love it. We even walk when it’s minus 20 (though after that we’ll drive). Many days afterwards we’re both too beat for much more of a hard workout, so I’ll hammer out some pushups to failure or smtg

So it’s safe for my takeaway from this to be that I CAN get a modern crystal decanter? This conversation had me leaning away hard until your comment 😂

I think this is the most accurate answer. Trump and Musk have a direct impact on ppls’ day to day, and has the impact of the countries politics to be considered. Putin is just the big bad guy that’s always been there for Americans, so maybe a bit of a novelty affect for the other two too.

I also fully support this boundary!

In the wordle world, this is almost a big enough deal to make an x, formerly known as twitter, burner account and post on the NYT page. Just a little jab in the stomach that other ppl will see

This was an excellent breakdown of the American elections system, thank you

This turned into a Bond-esque naming of Game Pass

Shitty company tries to justify its existence

Sheer sex appeal

There’s a subset of drinkers that would aspire to it though - some ppl’s passion is booze, and will spend the same price as a nice car on it and sip it over a decade. Whether or not it’s sane is up to you though lol

I’ve been lucky enough to try some, truly a flavour worth experiencing at least once if you can and like cognac. I still babble about it happily to strangers all the time…

Don’t be silly. If one should get double tapped, you have a progressively smaller gun. For emergencies

Yeah this is my experience as well. I don’t have much technical knowledge about it, but Firefox with ublock seems to be the enemy of captcha and CloudFlare