It's true. When I posted this I was basically at that point, but it still took me a few months to pull the plug. I ended up leaving my partner of 5 years towards the end of 2023 and it was absolutely the right call. It's made my daily life more challenging in some respects, but the peace of mind that came from not needing to deliberate anymore was SO worth it.

Conversation logs (for the games where they make sense). I loved having this available in Dragon Age: Origins and it helped me remember my rationale for doing specific things. Also was just fun to read back through.

I recently listened to Daisy Jones and the Six and the audiobook was incredible. The book was written as a series of interviews, which worked great as an audiobook. There were definitely times I got a bit distracted but it didn't impede my understanding too much. It does take a bit to absorb all the characters, so you'd probably want to listen uninterrupted for the first ~hour.

Killers of a Certain Age is another good one. Written about mature women assassins. It's a fun thriller and an easy listen.

Final rec is any of Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series as read by John Lee. They're long as hell, but straightforwardly told. There's something I just love about how John read them, too.

Absolutely. Good shoes, a good rain jacket, and switching from glasses to contacts made a world of difference for me!

Blundstones. I live in a coastal city that's wet (but rarely snowy) the vast majority of the year. Having rain-resistant shoes that are comfortable AND durable has been a game changer.

And if I can mention a second: A proper, long raincoat. Combined with good shoes, I'm able to tolerate the weather here much better than when I'd first moved to this city and relied on sneakers + regular jackets.

I love to see this moment mentioned. It was so moving. Even thinking about it now, I have chills.

I'm thinking of Jira right now. October 1 rolls around and a comment from yesterday is suddenly "last month". Very often not helpful. I just want to see when it was made!

One I haven't seen mentioned here is familiarize yourself with tenancy laws in the place you want to move to. It is always good to know your rights, and with landlords these days, you have to be as savvy as you can. A lot will come from experience, but knowing what they're allowed to do or not do is priceless.

Steel cut oats boiled with fruit, sweetened with maple syrup, and served with some type of dairy. I always use cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ground ginger!

Fruit is either:

• Cut apples
• Frozen blueberries or strawberries

Dairy is either:

• A drizzle of milk
• A couple tablespoons of plain greek yogurt

I have regular ole bipolar disorder but I find that I tend to have depressive mood episodes more often in the depths of winter, when it's darkest and coldest. Before I was medicated, I routinely blanked out basically from December to February.

What are your thoughts on semi-colons? Not the ideal for organs, I'm sure, but for punctuation... ?

Does anyone have recommendations on how to block ads on Android without rooting? I've tried AdAway but it doesn't seem to be terribly effective. I'm pretty tied into Chrome and would prefer not to change browsers but I understand I might have to.

• Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition are both games I've played through and loved multiple times over
• Skyrim lol but it's infrequent for me now
• Civ (I've only played 6)

Thank you for such a thorough write-up! This was SO helpful. Genuinely appreciated :)

It's sad that music UX is adopting these principles, tbh. Music is inherently a long(er) form experience. It deserves separate treatment. The last thing I personally want is for music apps to try to suck my attention as much as text- and video-based apps do. I know I'm fighting against the app economy headwinds in that desire, but I still dare to dream...

I'll have to check it out. How is Tidal for music discovery? I found that GPM was great for helping me find artists with the "I'm feeling lucky" feature. YTM hasn't scratched that itch.

Part of what's kept me on YTM is that I'm still grandfathered into the GPM pricing, and I really like the ad-free feature for the rare occasions I am on YouTube. But—I could deal with giving that up!

I definitely don't want to see how many people like a song I'm listening to or what they have to say about it. I want my music experience to be more personal. I will just go to normal YouTube if I want to discuss something.

Ugh, I still miss GPM so much. YTM is worse to me in just about every way.

Me too. I suppose I was too optimistic about what Lemmy could be, eh. :( Then again, maybe these are just some additional growing pains. Time will tell!

I have bipolar disorder lmao

I'm learning that second point right now and it is tough.

cries in SaaS

Lol I say that first one to my cat too!

Corporate CEOs have taken the adage of shooting for the stars way too literally. At this point I believe they are trying to find the maximum possible price point people will pay for their products. Like seemingly everyone else in this country, they want their pound of flesh $$$.

I think it is worth discussing what "empathetic" means to both of you, as I get the impression that you have differing perspectives. For example, I noticed you said that you listen to her problems and try to find solutions. Some folks find that "problem-solving" behaviour invalidating rather than empathetic, while others actually prefer that approach. It is hard to know which camp your girlfriend falls into without having a frank discussion. I would also consider what behaviours or attitudes she would need to display for it to come across as empathetic to you. Maybe she also feels like she's appropriately listening, even though that's not been your experience. It is hard to pin these things down and have these discussions, but if you can manage it, it will greatly enhance your communication with each other.

Also: don't let it being a tough time become a reason to shelve your feelings. I say this as someone who did that for four years because my partner was always going through some hard time or another. All that bottling up has almost ruined my relationship, so don't be me. But do be tactful and sensitive. Ask her what she needs from you in this tough time, be willing to give what you can, and let her know you feel like you two have some communication issues and you want to be really clear on what's working well and what isn't in your relationship. Give her space to share her feelings, share your own, and then try your best to figure out how to approach the problems as a team.

If therapy is accessible to you and you can find a competent therapist who has a good approach for you, then consider making an appointment. It can be good to talk to a third party about your burnout and feelings of depression (which is what this low motivation sounds like to me). Your gf may not be able to give you the emotional nurturing and assurance that it sounds like you're seeking right now, but you can find tools and help elsewhere too.

Good luck!!

Typically <10 minutes, but under <5 quite frequently. If I get woken up in the middle of the night or very early morning, good luck. I have such a hard time falling back asleep as I get older.

Card almost exclusively, but I keep small amounts of cash on hand just in case. Usually end up using it at farmer's market or maker mart type situations.

I love that! I may look into this as something fun to try out. Thanks for the inspiration :D

I don't generally feel as connected to what I type as to what I write, probably because my entire job involves typing all day. Writing by hand takes longer and therefore requires me to slow down and think more.

That's cool! Is it a cipher you developed yourself? How long did it take you to become proficient?

Ah yeah, I don't see a way to do that from Jerboa either. I use the mobile interface for lemmy.ca, so if you're able to do that temporarily, you can:

1. Open the hamburger menu and tap your username.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Go to the Blocks tab and make your changes.

The lack of this feature sounds like a good issue to raise with the Jerboa dev(s), if it hasn't been yet.

What app or interface are you using?

I hope so too! The irritability is brutal. Especially when you know why you're feeling/behaving the way you are, but you still can't do anything about it and are expected to just keep chugging along "as usual."

Do you find that any modifying any behaviours/patterns (like sleep schedule, regularity of eating) helps? Sometimes I'm able to lessen the emotional impact by paying more attention to those areas. But much easier said than done when you're operating on really low energy.

I am in a similar spot myself. Try to hold strong—I always try to remind myself that "this (episode) too shall pass," but unfortunately the consequences of decisions made during episodes often linger. If you can take some time off, even just a few days, maybe that will help a bit. Wishing you lots of luck.

Why does that irk you? /genuine

Man, fuck our landlord ruling class. Things keep getting tougher and tougher in NS. I know it's the case everywhere, but this is where I live and where I see it most up close. It makes me furious. Our provincial politicians don't care and we're only going to be facing worse problems as they continue to bury their heads in the sand about our affordability crisis.

Edit: Expanded on my point.

I broke that figure down a bit further, to help anyone else who's struggling to conceptualize what hours worked per month really looks like.

Assuming a stereotypical 40-hour, 5-day work week:

• In BC, 5.5 hours of your 8 hour work day goes toward generating rental income for your landlord.

• In ON, it's "only" (lol) 5 hours.

That leaves you with 2.5 or 3 hours left of work to generate income for your utilities, debt repayment, food, and anything else you need to live.

Pretty grim.

Hard no for me. People feel way too entitled to bring their dogs everywhere. Your being a pet owner doesn't mean everyone else also has to love and want to be around your dog. I'm afraid of most big dogs and if I had to routinely encounter them at work, I'd be looking for a different job. I'm also very allergic to them and despite taking allergy meds every day, I'd be miserable with dogs in a shared space I couldn't escape.

What's your favourite quality about yourself?

Got it, thanks!

It's a little funny to me that you asked this question because a few years ago, I remarked to my partner that I don't like orange cats (in general) and she jokingly called me a cat racist. I felt so guilty about it that I was like I HAVE TO START LOVING ALL CAT APPEARANCES EQUALLY. I still feel a little guilty about it tbh 😂

Anyway, my actual answer is that black and white cats are my favourite. But I can now accept that orange cats have an allure for some folks 😆 I did know an orange cat who was lovely and I liked him a lot. Just if faced with the choice of multiple cats with personalities suited to mine, I'd pick the black and white one first.