I quit Reddit a long time ago but yes, especially during an election year, the internet just cyclically becomes nearly non-functional for about 6 months before the metrics dip and temporarily self-correct.

I remember even during 2008 when bots weren’t nearly as bad and the internet was more than just 6 megasites, there was a pattern of infighting and political discourse that would always just run right up to the edge of destroying communities and then back off a little.

I figure there’s some very human nature element to it and it’s pretty depressing but I always manage to find new hobbies and people during these tumes because everyone if getting sick of their comfort zones being raided and trying to find where the sane people are. Just hang in there, until there’s some sort of regulation or the technocracy that runs the internet is somehow broken you just have to tread water and keep true to your own sense of ‘normal’.

Or go camping. Camping is good.

Wrecker ass post

https://youtu.be/9Q9WGTCFwzY

The vid was posted 10 years ago but it’s much older than that. I remember watching it on Google videos right around Burning Crusade coming out.

Anyway, gl next time you’re in Goldshire.

I think it’s pretty clear that you’re just creating a space for you to exercise your own defeatism. You can either change your frame of reference or you can wallow in your own suffering. Up to you. Everything sucks and there’s no way out but all around you are people doing just fine figuring out how to be good in their own little world.

I want you to realize that you are choosing this and maybe filtering it through the lense of romantic relationships is just the easiest way for you to externalize this. I guarantee you can meet the love of your life tomorrow and you’d make all the excuses as to why you deserve punishment instead and how the love of your life is a normie romantic concept anyway eith no real value.

Get a hobby. Not one in front of a screen.

Aro/ace 40 something here, I think giving up isn’t the right sentiment here. I haven’t been in a meaningful relationship since 35ish either and it’s less that I’ve given up and more that I realized my priorities are different. I have a regular rotation of friends that I spend time with, and there’s been a few I’ve entertained the idea of being sexual with, but ultimately, the shine is off sex for me, the novelty isn’t there to push me into the arms of just anyone who offers, I feel like this is relatively normal but I also know that I have a significant ace bent that is a little outside the norm.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely miss the oxytocin and the sense of security and the sort of weird sense of success you get from finding a companion on that kind of level, but this isn’t just the raw excitement of bringing someone home from the bar when you’re 22, it’s not the same game.

I second a lot of the sentiment that maybe trying dating apps is good. If you don’t have a lot of meeting places then you gotta alter your net, I imagine you are not alone in your current state where you are, and if you want to just spaghetti method the hunt for companionship that’s probably the way to go. You don’t have to have sex with everyone you meet, you get to choose, but you can’t ever know if you’re interested if you don’t put yourself in a position to meet people.

Or, yeah, you find something else to do for a while. I haven’t been with anyone for over half a decade. I’ve had a broad range of experiences with different types of relationships and I just realized that the standard options don’t work for me. Probably some sort of poorly managed neurodivergence on my part but it also doesn’t feel wrong or like I’m giving up. It’s just where I am. I made my own socks. It’s a unique kind of decadence I didn’t know I wanted. Maybe find something like that and work it out of your system then see what you feel like.

That’s true, I’m amazed by what people are able to do with custom brushes but depending on your art app you can start with drag weight and opacity, and in some cases even textures and that was always a fun start if nothing else.

It was a little bit of a block for me but custom brushes seemed to be the next major step in digital painting.

Oh, it’s digital, I didn’t register that at first so that’s something. I like the composition and it doesn’t feel repititious or forced so you got a good result from the tedious bits.

If you have the physical means, unironically follow along with a Bob Ross video. You don’t have to crib the entirety of his techniques but it’s an incredible exercise in what kinds of strokes and adjustments can create some wild illusions of details that don’t make sense until you stop and go ‘what the fuck how did that haplen’

If not I would still try and study how painters work on things like grass and the like. Taking a lot of time on details isn’t bad, until you get tendonitis and hate grass forever. It’s okay to take shortcuts in appropriate contexts.

https://youtu.be/tETJK4EG1aY

Just for fun I ran the Mario 3 release price through the Bureau of Labor and Statistics inflation calculator and it came back with $127 today for what 50 bucks was worth in 1990.

I’m not saying $100 for Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 is good and correct but I will say I always find people wanking on about game prices to be a bit short sighted. Gamers are the most spoiled price point consumers on the planet.

Man Cody/Katie/Wormbo from Even More News look like they got put through the early 90’s prime time TV show filter.

Yeah baby I’m a scorpanceitarius