Sorry for the lapse in response, we're on vacation and my response time will be pretty abysmal for the next week or so.
I just mean you have the whole 2 monitors set up, a PC meant for gaming, probably a Steam account. You seem to post here at the Compendium about gaming a lot. You have a very busy lifes but still get time in to game each day by way of scheduling/time management.
Creating the perfect gaming setup with the PC and swapping out parts is part of the fun. Like, I enjoy that part of it just as much as playing the actual video games. I'm not one of those guys that has an incredible PC with the very best graphics cards (far from it); but I still enjoy putting a PC together: making sure to get the right parts, doing proper cable management, ensuring good air flow, etc. There's a lot of it that is all about optimization. But again, that's part of the hobby for me and many people who are into PC gaming -- but obviously not everyone finds that element fun. Same with modding - I like twiddling with the game files and trying to increase the graphics on the game through mods.
As for time management, I just have very little free time. I work and am in transit anywhere between 10 and 12 hours a day, five days a week, and then I come home and have to be a dad and cook dinner, help with homework, clean and do chores, handle the animals, etc... I enjoy gaming and it's a good stress reliever, so if I want to do it, I sort of have to force it in and be very intentional about it. I simply have very little free time, even on weekends, but I guess I somehow find a way to make it all work.
After all, I'm a project manager at work. I literally optimize processes, manage budgets / schedules / resources. My job is to ensure that are able to estimate targets and then hit them... every single day. So I'd like to think I'm good at bringing those skills home with me. After doing it for fifteen years, I'd like to think I'm a good steward of my time.
I just use a laptop to post on messageboards about Survivor I actually shied away from public forums about JRPGs when I was younger because I was annoyed there were other people out there who were better at the games than me and that made me feel disappointment in myself as a gamer, I only went on GameFAQs but still I was disappointed in myself as a teenager cause I could never fit in time to create a FAQ and instead I focused on homework and school, I don't think I have the mind or body to sit down and game for 17 hour marathons anymore.
Bah, you were just being too hard on yourself!
I also think some of that is just getting older. I remember when
Kingdom Hearts 2 came out I literally binged it and did nothing but play it for like 4 or 5 days. I finished it at 100%, including all of the optional side quests. Nowadays I couldn't do that even if I did happen to have the free time. My attention span won't allow me to put that amount of time into something, and my body will be screaming at me for being stationary for too long, haha! After about two hours of gaming my brain turns to mush and I have to move on to a different task.
I was just wondering if you believe, say Star Trek is on every Thursday night at 8:00 P.M. and all the fans sit down together at home to watch at that time. Group-Think. Do you think everyone that watches the show has the same thoughts or reactions to it?
Ah, as for group-think -- I think we all react differently. Keeping the example on Star Trek, Star Trek Discovery has a black female captain and several gay and non-binary characters. Some people consider it "too woke" or "too action-packed" (since it's no longer episodic). Opinions all are over the place and reactions to episodes are equally diverse. Some love it, some hate it. I don't really think group think would apply here, but...
Group-think is definitely a real thing, though.
It's sort of... like attracts like. Most people are drawn to others like them; people that look the same, people that think the same or hold the same belief-systems. Take incels, for example. They tend to find each other and form communities online, and that sort of echo chamber of belief just amplified because they're all taking unconscious comfort in people who think and act the same way as themselves. Same with the MAGA crowd. It's all just group-think, they're all stuck in an echo-chamber and think that
everyone thinks the same way because they only surround themselves with other people who think the same way.
That's why I think it's important to embrace differences and just stay open-minded. Differences can be bad, but they're more likely to be cool and unique.
Telepathy.--I never had any brothers or sisters, I don't have a twin. But they say twins can read each other's minds sometimes. I'm sure it's not exactly verbatim but say a certain facial reaction or nuance can give away what a person's thinking? I was also wondering if people who are deeply in love can read ea. other's minds, like do you and your wife send each other love messages through thought while you're both at work? LOL
I've always heard that about twins, too. Normally it's moreso with identical twins (but not limited to them), which would make sense -- they spawned from the same zygote and are quite literally formed from the same DNA. They might end up being very different people, but on a genetic level, they're still (nearly) identical. Genetics also plays a role in our behaviors and manner of thinking (although so does upbringing and environment), so I could see how twins would think alike - it's at least partially-influenced by their genetics to be similar!
As for my wife and I... we are very, very different. We think very differently and have very different beliefs. BUT! We have been together so long we are pretty good about predicting how the other will respond or what the other is thinking. That just comes with knowing someone really, really well. At least for us.
Take for example a burger place we went to recently. I think I mentioned it another post. It wasn't very good, and as we were sitting there eating it (I just know my wife's tastes and likes/dislikes), I knew she probably wasn't enjoying her food very much. Lo and behold, when we left the restaurant I told her I didn't think she enjoyed it very much, and she confirmed that it was exactly as I thought, hahaha!
I'm not talking straight-up verbatim communication thru minds but just like do you think facial expressions or certain looks can give away what a person is thinking?
Oh definitely!!! Non-verbal communication is probably more prevalent than actual communication. That's why online communication can be tricky sometimes. Sarcasm and nuance doesn't always come across well. Lord knows I've pissed people off online trying to be funny, but the intended humor went over their head (at no fault of their own) and they thought I was being rude or serious.
You're getting through the Epilogue much faster than I am, that's for sure! I don't know how you do it you seem to get through dungeons and towns lickity-split! You run through your sessions.
For the epilogue, I simply used a walkthrough so I knew exactly where to go. If it makes you feel any better, I'm still at the prologue dungeon and haven't played in a few days!
You mentioned living minimally and I have nothing against that but since we both come from the richest most blessed nation in the world, I was just concerned why you would do that in the first place?
Probably simple-living would be a more apt term for my desires, but I do think minimal living is an ideal. Americans - and much of the first-world - take things for granted, and quite frankly, are so freaking wasteful. We produce insane amounts of waste, we take-take-take from the environment without thinking through the costs. Minimalistic living tends to be a better state of equilibrium. Eating less meet, using less electricity (which is largely derived from burning fossil-fuel), recycling -- they're all ideals that benefit everyone on the planet. After all, we're simply borrowing the planet from the children of tomorrow. My children will inherit the mess we make, so if I can lessen that impact even a little bit, why not? First world or third world, it won't make much of a difference when things get really dire.
Americans always think their way is the best, the only way, and everyone else is weird for doing things how they do it. (Like how everybody made fun of the Japanese and Michael Jackson for wearing masks but look where everybody is now.)
I don't think that's an American thing. Not at all. Most cultures tend to be a little uncomfortable by the nuance and habits of other cultures that are different. Different is different.
Although there's definitely an American "pride" in doing things the best way. Obviously not all Americans are that way, and the Americans that are actually exposed to other cultures tend to be much more open-minded. I think many of the Americans that are so obsessed with "America's the best" and all that nonsense are rural Americans who haven't really such much outside of their small town and seen the rest of the country, let alone the world.
I mean, if we're being honest, even the United States is made up of dozens of unique regional sub-cultures: even the Southeast where I am has very different cultures. The rednecks of Alabama are different from the rednecks of Tennessee, let alone the differences in Appalachian hillbillies versus NC mountain folk. So on and so forth. All of that demographic tends to be grouped together, when in fact, they're all very different sub-cultures that only look the same when looking at at a glance.
Sorry/My bad if I seem like I'm interrogating you but I'M JUST SO CURIOUS what you think. I've never really had a white friend before.
I don't mind at all! Obviously I'm an open book, and I don't mind fielding questions. I probably am not the true typical American, as I'm much more open-minded than most people. I try (and generally succeed) at not being judgmental and open-minded about most things. As long as they aren't hurting anyone, anyway.
As for being the token white friend, I don't mind. One of my friends is a gay dude, and he always joked that I was his only straight guy friend. He generally hung out exclusively with others in the LGBTQ+ community, but he said none of them liked jRPGs and video games. That just so happened to be what we bonded over, so I was the only person in his life he could talk to about video games and stuff. It was just a funny friendship. We've sort of fallen out of touch since I moved a few years ago, so I'm going to reach out to him and see how he is!
It does suck that you had such a bad experience growing up here in the United States, though. That experience is obviously not exclusive to you. We've talked about it before, but the Asian-American demographic really doesn't have much representation anywhere here. It's really unfortunate.
