loobkoob

Typically around 04:00-12:00 for me. Fortunately, I have a job that fits nicely around that, so I'm in a pretty good place overall, but when I do have to try to shift to more "normal" schedules it really wreaks havoc on my energy levels and mental clarity.

I've tried all sorts in an attempt to make a "normal" schedule work for me, like sleep monitoring, therapy, sleeping pills, and just being really over-the-top about my sleep hygiene (like not allowing screen usage for X hours before bed, no drinking or eating X hours before bed, etc). I can sort of make a "normal" schedule stick but I never feel good for it. And it takes constant work because my body naturally wants to gradually drift back towards a 4am sleep time, and I find going to sleep earlier than previous nights very difficult so once it starts slipping it usually takes an all-nighter to get it back to where I want it.

Like I said, I've generally got things pretty good right now with my job and lifestyle working around my sleep schedule. But it'd certainly be a lot easier if society didn't think I was lazy and was able to accommodate me (and other people with less "normal" sleep schedules) a little more.

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

This one being missing is what stood out to me. I'm admittedly a bit of a fanboy of the series (and the TV adaptation) but it certainly feels like it deserves a spot to me. Like you said, it's good, accessible and fun, but I also think it handles geopolitics (well, solar system politics) in a fantastic and believable way.

I think the series understands human nature on a fundamental level. A lot of sci-fi is great at exploring high-concept ideas but it often tends to falter when it comes down to the personal, more human, individual level, I find. The Expanse series feels like its high-concept, sociological ideas are an extension of the individuals, which really helps to sell the world, I think. It also means the "villains" and the "evil factions" tend to have understandable, if not sometimes even relatable, motives.

It also just handles the science really well; the physics, especially, but also some biology, is integrated into the plot and world-building really nicely, but it never feels like you're reading a dense scientific journal filled with techno-babble. It gets across the concepts really well without getting bogged down with unnecessary details.

It's not only about being tired enough to fall asleep early. If I stick to a 10pm-6am sleep schedule I feel exhausted during the day, and by early afternoon I'll be falling asleep. It's like being jetlagged permanently; my body simply doesn't want to keep to that schedule. It's not just an "oh, you need to stick to the schedule long enough to adapt and get into a proper routine" situation either - it's something I struggled with for years while I was in school and university, despite getting enough sleep.

It's amazing how much better and more energetic I feel - physically and mentally - now I'm able to keep to a sleep schedule that suits me. Obviously exercising is a good thing, but early/delayed sleep phase syndrome are real things.

So my bank balance can go from -£1 to £i - wow, thanks

WhatsApp desktop isn't so bad nowadays, ever since they made it so you can use it without running through your phone. But I agree that Telegram's desktop client is much better.

All they do is hallucinate

I read an article a couple of months ago about AI usage in geolocation (link because it's interesting, even though it's not necessarily relevant). In it, they brought up a quote from a computer scientist / AI specialist who said he preferred the word "confabulate" to describe what happens with AI, rather than "hallucinate"

Confabulation: a type of memory error in which gaps in a person's memory are unconsciously filled with fabricated, misinterpreted, or distorted information.

I agree with the guy that it's a slightly better term for it, but I also just think it's such a fun word that it's too good not to share!

So a few things:

• sorry that's been happening to you, it must suck
• the Reddit admin's response doesn't seem great
• this isn't a relevant place to be posting this
• your tone in the DMs with the admin and in the comments comes off as overly panicked and alarmist. It's going to be hard to win anyone over like that. Take some time, write it up with a more calm and informative tone, add proper context, etc.
• you're not going to get your story out there by spamming it in random, inappropriate fediverse communities. If you've got solid evidence, email a journalist at a place like The Verge or Ars Technica about it. Just don't expect them to care if you don't have evidence - right now, it just mostly reads as "user upset that Reddit admin didn't ban other user". Yes, it sucks, but it largely just reads as a social media drama piece at the moment, and not anything with any real substance to it.
• or just report it directly to law enforcement

Klangkarussell - All Eyes On You - this is probably my favourite music video ever. I'm a sucker for one-takes, and the fact that this one is nine minutes long makes it so impressive on a technical level. But also, the video really feels like an experience. I feel like there are a lot of different ways the characters and situation, and what they represent, can be interpreted; it feels like everyone reads into the video in their own way (and I'm totally down to discuss anyone else's interpretations once they've watched it). Plus the atmosphere of the video really enhances that of the song - I like the song well enough, but combined with the video I find it so hypnotizing and engrossing. (Plus, it doesn't feel cheap by any means but you can see it was made on a shoestring budget, so it gets extra points for that as far as I'm concerned.)

All India Radio - Rippled - long-exposure light stop-motion is so damn cool. It's such a pretty video, and I love how authentic it feels - it obviously took a lot of time, energy and talent to make (over 6 months according to the description) but it has so much personality to it, and you can obviously see the people in the background moving the lights around which makes it feel far less "clinical".

Delta Heavy - Get By - musically, it's a slightly above-average 2012 dubstep track, but the video is so fun (and terrifying, I suppose...). Again, I love the stop motion, but it's also just really fun on a conceptual level.

Anyway, all of these are a decade old, so I guess maybe you're right about modern music videos. I can't say I watch many music videos, though, so there are probably some good ones I miss!

Speak for yourself!

I agree with the OP, but I do somewhat agree with you, too. A lot of the news articles we get now feel like "micro-updates" to the same story: Elon Musk does bad thing that is bad for Twitter, Russia says shitty thing and attacks Ukraine some more, the American right-wing tries to do something else to take away abortion rights, etc. They can sometimes be interesting developments, and I don't want to minimise the importance of any of them because they are important (well, not most of the Musk spam, but the others, certainly), but most of the commentary on topics like those has been played out over the last 12+ months and there's not necessarily much new content to analyse or discuss.

However, OP is right that comment sections here are often disappointing. I find myself commenting here a lot less often than I did on Reddit simply because there are fewer interesting comments to reply to, and because my own comments get fewer interesting replies. Part of that is just the nature of having a smaller userbase, but it doesn't stop it being a little demotivating when it feels like you're commenting into the void, or when no-one really wants to engage in an in-depth discussion.

I think that saga is probably an example of a level of misogyny that wasn't acceptable. There was absolute outrage about it at the time, it became a pretty huge scandal. I agree that misogyny was far too culturally acceptable and mainstream at the time (and still is in some areas) but that is one instance where it certainly wasn't brushed aside.

And it's on Game Pass. In my friend group, 80% of us are playing it via Game Pass rather than on Steam. Obviously that's anecdotal, and other groups of people won't have any Game Pass subscribers among them, but I have to imagine the number of Game Pass players of Starfield is pretty damn high.