A gamer, and some other things I guess...

Howdy Stranger, glad you could stop by.

[reasonsforhope]

By the way, you can improve your executive function. You can literally build it like a muscle.

Yes, even if you're neurodivergent. I don't have ADHD, but it is allegedly a thing with ADHD as well. And I am autistic, and after a bunch of nerve damage (severe enough that I was basically housebound for 6 months), I had to completely rebuild my ability to get my brain to Do Things from what felt like nearly scratch.

This is specifically from ADDitude magazine, so written specifically for ADHD (and while focused in large part on kids, also definitely includes adults and adult activities):

How to Sharpen Executive Functions: Activities to Hone Brain Skills

Executive functioning skills range from working memory to cognitive flexibility to inhibitory control, and beyond. They power our daily func

Here's a link on this for autism (though as an editor wow did that title need an editor lol):

Enhancing Executive Functioning Difficulties in Adults with Autism

Practical Strategies for Enhancing Executive Functioning Difficulties in Adults With Autism - Living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as

Resources on this aren't great because they're mainly aimed at neurotypical therapists or parents of neurdivergent children. There's worksheets you can do that help a lot too or thought work you can do to sort of build the neuro-infrastructure for tasks.

But a lot of the stuff is just like. fun. Pulling from both the first article and my own experience:

Play games or video games where you have to make a lot of decisions. Literally go make a ton of picrews or do online dress-up dolls if you like. It helped me.

Art, especially forms of art that require patience, planning ahead, or in contrast improvisation

Listening to longform storytelling without visuals, e.g. just listening regularly to audiobooks or narrative podcasts, etc.

Meditation

Martial arts

Sports in general

Board games like chess or Catan (I actually found a big list of what board games are good for building what executive functioning skills here)

Woodworking

Cooking

If you're bad at time management play games or video games with a bunch of timers

Things can be easier. You might always have a disability around this (I certainly always will), but it can be easier. You do not have to be this stuck forever.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[wandererriha]

@copperbadge I am reminded of your sandwich theory.

[copperbadge]

True facts, I was young enough when the original Far Side run was happening that this comic was my introduction to the concept of Carmen Miranda. I had to ask my parents what the hell was going on with this comic and get them to explain to me that there once was a very famous woman who was partly famous for wearing a bunch of fruit on her head.

Reading Far Side as a young child was very formative for me in terms of how I viewed the mutability of reality, and it is kind of funny that looking back it also illustrates my theory of gendered sandwiches.

Also as a child I desperately wanted a hat with a slice of pie stuck to it.

[risingphoenix87]

Wind catchers: Is ancient technology better than modern air conditioning?

Air conditioning may keep a room cool, but using it is heating up the planet. It is time for something new — or old, like "wind catchers."

From 2021:

87% of all U.S. homes are equipped with air conditioners, and air conditioning accounts for 12% of residential energy use. Besides the fossil fuels that power them, many use refrigerants to cool the air, which can be potent greenhouse gasses if released.  In addition, air conditioners cool us down by capturing heat from the interior of buildings, but they expel that heat outside, directly warming the environment and contributing to the urban heat island effect.

And ironically, the warmer it gets, the more cool air we blast and the more electricity we consume. The solution: Innovators are working hard to find ways to cope with the new normal — extreme heat and rising temperatures. The creativity is high, from apps that help pedestrians find cool walks and shady spots to next-generation technologies like cooling paper that lowers the temperature inside homes.  .... In the hot, arid Iranian Plateau, ancient structures, called “wind catchers,” are attracting academics, engineers, and architects who want to find creative new (and old) ways to cool off.  The wind catchers, or bâdgir in Persian, are common structures that extend above the rooftops in rectangular towers, reports BBC. They made life livable. And, because they cool a building without using electricity or fuel, they are an attractive green solution.  ..... Wind catchers are designed differently based on the prevailing winds and temperatures in a local region. The most uncomplicated design faces the tower opening toward the prevailing wind to create natural ventilation. But local climates are complicated, and often wind catchers had many features: filters, passive cooling systems (by passing hot air over cool water), or multiple openings to account for varied wind directions. 

[ouroborosorder]

”there’s no glory in suffering” and “sometimes the effort is the point” are two ideas that co-exist but god damn if I can ever tell when’s the time for which

[i-point-at-things]

👇👇👇

[arra-tech]

"Xyz isn't a political movement, its an aesthetic trend"

Aesthetic trends can be political movements.

You just have to be smart enough to understand what is being said through the aesthetics.

Too many of you are unable to do even basic media analysis, that is why you fail to see aesthetic movements as political.

[effiecalvin]

I have this idea for a video game called Are You Out There? where two players control two different alien civilizations and the goal of the game is to invent spaceflight and then manage to find one another in a ginormous universe. You can try to leave signs for each other to find, or send out probes and radio waves, or colonize many systems so you're a bigger target, but its hard because the universe is really big.

Idk just a thought.

[tlirsgender]

What is up with lefty types pushing to learn practical skills (sewing/gardening/etc whatever) as like "you'll need to know this after The Revolution:tm:" and not, like, "this is a useful skill to help yourself & others in your communities Right Now". You all sound like doomsday preppers and it's weirding me out. We don't have to prep for communist rapture maybe thee revolution starts with helping your neighbors

[tlirsgender]

YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN LIKE....... it's weird. It's a subtle distinction but it's weird. People wanna be protagonists in post apocalypse movies so bad & when you're like "well that's not going to fucking happen innit" they call you a counterrevolutionary. Like yeah no I'm on board with dismantling the establishment etc etc I'm just saying you're being fucking weird about it. This is an action movie hero fantasy in a gen z aesthetic trenchcoat. You can just repair your clothes and feed people Right Now

[thisisalovestry]

file -> phrases that are going to shift something in me forever

[insomniparty]

[mossworm]

I accidentally went to the craft store dressed entirely like a fabric store mascot. They didn't have the thing I wanted, and when I tried to just buy some cheap novelty fabric, the registers were all broken. I miss JoAnn's

[starlightxraven]

Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against Google

Google AI Overview court loss in Germany could spell doom for AI search industry.

[appalachian-werewolf]

"Google AI Overview court loss in Germany could spell doom for AI search industry."

It fucking better.

[mrsjdavis]

Like to charge, reblog to cast?

[mossworm]

original species for the ocean game called a forktail

[mollyjames]

There are a lot of people who start creative projects with no business or financial plan, because "who cares, it isn't important, we'll figure that out later". And you can't let yourself become that person. Not because I'm a sneering finance bro who thinks your woke animated youtube series wont make money, but because if you don't you'll wind up financially exploiting your friends for years

[eroscestlavie]

I need to stop replying to “how do you make friends in your 30s?” threads because all my answers boil down to “you have to want to know people instead of have friends” and I don’t think people wanna hear that

[briannyssey]

some people read an awful lot, but don't read very well. deep reading is itself a skill. being able to untangle the threads of theme, subtext, characterization, narrative style, and more are all things that it takes time and intentional engagement to learn.

if you've ever watched a movie with your film buff friend and chatted about it afterwards, that friend might have pulled hours more of conversation out of the same 90 minutes of screentime, and wondered how the fuck they did that - it's not raw intelligence, it's a skill that's been honed. And I learned a lot about film from talking to friends who knew about film, and reading critique by film scholars

literature works exactly the same. so if you want to get more out of your reading, there are things you can do to train that. Find a book or short story you think you've got a pretty good grasp on, preferably from a widely read & respected author like Ursula K Le Guin or Ray Bradbury (if you're new at this don't swing for the Toni Morrison or the Samuel Beckett yet unless you feel very comfortable with the complexity of the text - the point is to develop a complicated new skill on good foundations). Then go to JSTOR, create a free account, and look up criticism on the story you've chosen. Find something that looks readable to you and at least somewhat interesting. Read that article, and look at what that writer got out of the same story you've read that you didn't get. Do you see the critic's points? Did they teach you something about the text? Go reread that story and see if the criticism has changed how you read it. Are you seeing more? Are you thinking about the implications of a line that you hadn't noticed before? Does the story feel richer now?

there are other more involved ways of finding criticism. Learning to use academic databases, going to your local library to do interlibrary loans, finding critical voices you appreciate; these are all useful subskills. Literacy isn't just being able to read words, it's being able to read words in context and think about what they tell you about the text, the author, or the time and culture in which the text was produced. Literacy is the skill of being able to look at the world with open eyes and think clearly about how its parts are connected. It'll change your life

[baddyzarc]

If you wanna know the state of Yugioh TCG collecting in the wake of Overframes in the core game…

[baddyzarc]

The situation is so funny man

Basically, Mr grifter announced that he might be getting into the collecting side of yugioh, which would lead to the scalping hell that now plagues the Pokémon and One Piece TCGs

As a joke, MBTYugioh gave them pointers on what to “invest in”, recommending some of the WORST shit products that this game released in the years

He then followed up with a tongue-in-cheek, clearly trolling video recommending shit like Legendary Duelists sets, Duelist of Deep and Synchro Storm, and the Platinum cards, and exclusive COINS before ending the video with “Don’t invest in yugioh. You will lose money due to this game’s reprint policies”

Like, it was very obvious for anyone with half-a-brain cell and is familiar with Yugioh that the video is a joke

BUT a bunch of scalping bots took the video at face value and bought out these doodoo, worthless products immediately after his fuckass video came out

Now they’re sitting on unsellable trash. 100% deserved, I hope everyone whose trying to grift this game like Pokémon loses their money

[themainspoon]

Yu-Gi-Oh fans really saw the scalpers coming and said "You've activated my trap card".

[orpheuslament]

i need (abruptly stops talking & stares at some random fixed point with a vacant expression)

[astrodael]