Learn to be bored.

I don’t know about that. Many artists are too preoccupied trying to figure out how to conceptualize their experience, which is exactly the opposite of seeing reality.

Opinion of an expert is worth more than the opinions of non-experts.

The struggle is real.

I’m going to try to finish Dark Souls for the first time ever. PTD edition because I just have had it so long - and yes the DSFix still works without issue on Win10 at least. I’ve cleared Nito and Seath. I did semi-blindly. Many years ago when I tried it for the first time, I just couldn’t get into it. Too obscure mechanics and stat systems, too detached world and with combat that just didn’t feel fun for me. I cleared Taurus demon by luck (he fell) and then met with the Drake and just didn’t have it in me to continue. Too many hurdles to get over at once so I never got into soulslikes and I just started to call them “dodgewanking” games. My friends however persuaded me to play Elden Ring (reforged+seamless) and I was able to learn the game logic and stat systems through that. Also could learn the game as suits me as one friend is playing a tank and the other is a sorcerer - leaving me to just bumble about with a fun jack-of-all-trades build without it being an issue since I’m being carried anyway. Also learned to play with a controller for the first time in my life. So I started to feel like giving Dark Souls another go as this time I’d be able to mostly focus on the game itself, without having to learn everything from scratch. Granted I had heard that the “easy” build was STR+Sword so I did go with that. I am the type of player that does like to systematically go through everything so I did get Zweihander almost immediately, which served me until I got the Black Knight Sword and… well that’s about that for my weapons. Now I’m just messing around with other weapons because thanks to being thorough, I have a ton of crafting materials (and I’m lvl75) and I just wanna see what they do but I only really needed the now-Divine Zweihander for Nito. Else the BKS gets the job done a bit too effectively to not use. I did pump up my other stats so I can wield Greatsword of Artorias for when I go back to New Londo. Though that’s more on principle than out of any real need. I just don’t like depending on consumables. And I do use some heal miracles for out of combat and some utility spells like Light and Hidden Body (makes running from the bonfire to the boss slightly smoother). For armor I’m just using Thief+Wanderer for looks unless the situation really feels better with something else (like Favor set for Seath).

For favorite area… In Dark Souls I guess Darkroot. And Caelid in Elden Ring. Mainly for visuals, not so much for the gameplay. In terms of gameplay i think I actually like Anor Lando because I prefer a few tough enemies to a ton of weak ones. Plus exploration that’s easy to make systematic.

To repeat the exact point of your comment, you don’t know that the person you’re responding to actually thinks this or deserves this characterization.

Which is why I said “you may”. I didn’t claim that he does. But if he does, it’s okay to do so. However, most people appreciate some kind of validation. You seem to think that entertaining this characterization is “uncharitable”. This wasn’t my intention, quite the opposite.

And yet not a single response can be seen in this vein on comment after comment from the clear majority repeating over and over that the woman is protecting herself from bodily harm by speaking this way. Nobody seems to be telling them that they’re making assumptions. Only this guy gets this response.

Why didn’t you either?

In conclusion, as naive and simple as it sounds, let’s just be fucking nice to each other. Even to those you imagine deserve no respect or ‘special treatment’ (which is usually code for respect).

Internalizing that last bit is something I really wish more worked very hard to do. And it is very hard. I’m probably screwing it up here. But I’m trying. For what that’s worth.

Thank you, I can tell you’re trying.

You don’t know that anyone who responds this way actually thinks this. There are a limited amount of ways to communicate that they’re not interested and over-explaining and hedging their niceness would also just backfire. They gave exactly as much explanation as needed. It may come off a bit stiff because the tone is neutral (and they only use “I” sentences - speaking only what they know to be true instead of projecting with “you” sentences).

You may want more validation and that’s fine. But nobody owes it to you. You say “they just immediately assume I’m some kind of monster” - but you could be doing the same thing in assuming their motivations when they only speak neutrally.

No, do not give into Chromium. Letting Google dominate web rendering standards is a bigger problem.

I’m just surprised that it seems relatively cheap. Not to me personally, mind you, but I would expect something like this that’s actually decent quality to cost somewhere more like 100k.