Something that has always been tough for me is embracing incremental progress. I get bursts of productivity followed by time periods of inactivity. When I think about my shortcomings, they sometimes seem too large to overcome with this strategy, so I know I need incremental progress to get there. Reflecting on examples of incremental progress that I've made, they have all happened with a good amount of outside influence. For instance in sports and in school growing up, I was forced to go to practice or do homework by parents, etc.

Are there strategies for gaining motivation for big projects like getting in shape or completing a coding project--especially now that I don't have things like deadlines or authority figures forcing me to do these things? Or does it more come down to discipline?

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts!

I'm a big fan of Peter Watts (Blindsight, Echopraxia) and Greg Egan (Schild's Ladder, Diaspora) and always looking for more to read. That said I find myself a little bit difficult sometimes as I'm not really a fan of massive scope stuff like operas or anything too dated. Granted I really haven't given either of the latter much of a chance as I think I just prefer tight, focused stories with a small cast of characters.

I recently started The Quantum Thief and am liking certain aspects of it but you're really thrown into a blizzard with that one.

I started gambling on sports at the start of the 2016 NFL season. Using a popular offshore site that takes bitcoin for wagers, I managed to get around the stringent US laws against sports betting. I got very lucky early on, and I thought I had a knack for picking teams. Obviously, that luck doesn't last forever (a tale as old as time) and now I have to watch games for "fun" instead of relying on the outcome to make money.

I still throw money on playoff games from time to time. That said, there really isn't a thrill like watching a fuzzy stream of two high school football teams halfway across the country, hoping for a safety to cover the spread. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Or does anyone have an edge on the BIG3 summer league they wanna share?

If so, what build are you going to use at the start?

I'm relatively new to PoE so really looking forward to this new league. Thinking I may start with Molten Strike or something like that. Still undecided, like usual :)

I saw that the 2nd thread by @vibe was dying so I decided to post a new one.

Howdy, my name is Odin, or /u/alibyte. I go by alibyte on absolutely everything (except here). I moved here because I was sick of the blatant political bias on Reddit and the massive echo chamber it became. I'm looking forward to the future of this place :)

It looks like it's been about a week since the last one, so I'll go ahead and post another! @Whom, your post description was great so I'll just borrow that :)

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

I'm a civil litigator in Texas, just curious if anyone else on here practices law! When the site opens up, I see value in creating something akin to the /r/lawyers subreddit where access is restricted to licensed attorneys, and I'd be happy to jump in on setting that up when it does.

Anyone who listened to the new Kanye album stream (or, if this thread is still going whenever it's released elsewhere, that), what are your thoughts?

Personally this hurt me to listen to. Not like it hurt my ears, but it's so far below any other Kanye album that I can't help but just be sad.

I don't mind reading a fast book with lots of action or a twisting plot, but over the years have discovered authors that seem to have a style unique to them apart from what's going on:

Richard Powers seems to play with the sounds and meanings of words strung together like pearls on a necklace(The Echo Maker, Orfeo).

John Banville (Athena) creates descriptions that sound poetic and deep while remaining clear and visual.

Donna Tartt (The Goldfinch) puts you into a scene so that you feel the emotion of being there.

Don Delillo (The Names) makes a continental paradise seem like a dense forest of scholars and bright sunlight all at the same time.

Those are a few of mine, what are your favorites?

Hello ~games

Do any of you have experience finding D&D groups who still play traditional table-top, IRL, Minis-inclusive, dice obsessive D&D in Toronto? I have never played outside of Roll20 and I can never figure out where/what to look for in a group (preferably one that's just starting out like me). Having grown up watching the likes of Acquisitions Incorporated and Critical Role, I've always wanted to experience that sort of camaraderie :(

Who here plays Dwarf Fortress? It is such an amazing game that I only got back to playing last night after a weeks-long hiatus while focusing on my job.

I prefer playing Adventurer mode with some crafting mods, and exploring the land - socializing, having fun, making NPC pals, and being a hero.

Maybe we can do a Tildes DF succession game!

In advance of (I hope) ~gaming.tabletop.StarWars.Xwing :) Any other X wing players here. I was falling out of love with it, but the relaunch for second edition really gets me excited to play again, which is great as i have maaaanay tiny plastic spaceships to push about.

If you don't know, info here https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/x-wing-second-edition/ and it is a pretty fast and dynamic tabletop space fighter skirmish games. Plays in 75 mins (you stop after that) and very much streamlined versus other tabletop miniature games.

Norse Mythology by Niel Gaiman is really well narrated and just sucked me into the world and myths. But now that I've finished that; I wanna give some other ones a chance before diving into any other Gaiman or Harari stuff.

Sapiens by Yuval Harari is a book I was really interested in reading after seeing a TED talk online by this guy. But even though my library had it, I just couldn't digest any of it without re-reading the page eleventy times over. Then I used the free audible book on it and I'm so glad that I did. If you've ever wanted to feel both insignificant and special at the same time, then this is the (audio)book for you!

Hello fellow tildetesters,

I was just wondering how many racing fans we have onboard already. I saw a couple of F1 posts, and that's good, but I was wondering if there are more fans and different interests.

Mine are F1, MotoGP, Endurance (WEC and IMSA - and Le Mans is coming soon), so I was hoping to find some links minded people around here.

Cheers

Me and a few buddies have recently picked up Guild Wars 2 (playing on Stormbluff Isle) and we haven't really done much WvW. We all enjoy Open World PvP, and I believe there is a lot of potential there, but we need a larger group to really get into it. Anyone on ~ that plays GW2 on SB Isle that has a group to roam WvW?

I want to hear stories about your beloved characters that you've created. What's their backstory, their style, their hooks, their interesting achievements, etc. Got a pic? Post it! Wrote a lengthy history? Share it!

I'll post mine too in a bit. After a character death in Curse of Strahd, my DM and I decided to reveal Rictavio's secret identity as my new character, a Water Genasi Tempest Cleric :)

On that note, no Strahd spoilers please!

Just wondering if there are a lot of Warframe players on here?

Anyone want to team up and play together? If so, what missions do you mostly play? Personally, I enjoy playing any endless fissures in the Void for as long as I can, long Kuva Fortress for a lot of Kuva, Eidolons, farming things for Plat, and helping other players in recruit chat.

My In game name is KalleDemos, just like my username. Feel free to hit me up on here or send me a request and message in game! I play on the PC version.

I'm curious how many other furries (if any) have came here so far, and have a couple questions:

1. Which furry communities did you participate in the most on Reddit?
2. Which of those communities, if any, do you think would work well on Tildes?

Personally, I'm very partial to furry_irl, since there's a lot of friendly discussion in the comments, but I'm not sure the post content would fit very well here, unless fluff content was allowed.

To anyone confused, this and this are very brief introductions to what a furry is.

Just wondering if anyone else around here plays Factorio. I got it a few weeks ago and am having a wonderful time of wasting hours upon hours building massive spaghetti factories :)

I'd swear that I'm not completely addicted but that would be a lie.

For those not familiar with Stardew Valley: Developed by ConcernedApe, Stardew Valley is a farming simulation RPG that can be compared to Harvest Moon. Quite enjoyable solo, even more fun as a multiplayer game with the new update. Available on the Switch as well as other consoles. Currently the MP is only available on Steam/GOG.

Are any other Tildes playing? Have you tried modding (on PC)? Who's your waifu/husbando?

I thought it might be a good idea to make a thread for people to find other people to game with. Remember to put what console you're playing on, or if you're PC, and what games you're looking to play! Best of luck to all!

I work overnight so I usually play around 1 pm to 4 pm weekdays (I know, weird hours). Anyway my. Xbox gamertag is TreeBone. I have been playing a lot of fortnite lately but I also get into Halo 5, Overwatch, and on steam I've been playing Don't Starve Together. I'm up for anything though! Drop me a line.

What are your go to workout songs? For me it's usually a toss up between the Doom 2016 soundtrack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm932Sqwf5E) and The Lifa album from Heilung (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BsKIP4uYM). Both get me super pumped and make me want to get active.

I've been really enjoying Sea of Thieves lately, and I'm pretty enthusiastic about the new update coming on Tuesday. Anyone else feeling the same?
I've only got a couple people who I play with from time to time, so if anyone would like to crew up, just add me. My Xbox tag is the same as my Tildes username.

I've recently started exercising pretty much every day for health & mental-health reasons. I've been running 3 times a week (I'm doing a couch-to-5K plan, which I would highly recommend), hiking once or twice a week, and usually taking walks the other days. Overall its really improved my mood and energy levels.

What does everyone else do to stay active?

I always love asking this question because the answers are always so unique to each person.

I love a lot of music, but a lot of my favorite albums or songs often have a few recurring themes or are in a certain genre, and I personally like analyzing my taste and asking myself stuff like "why do I like this so much?" As I've done this, I've noted that my favorites often fall into one or more of these:

Shoegaze and/or Dream Pop
I like warmth in music, and a lot of shoegaze is very good at having a warm atmosphere like in Citrus. Other times I a noisy assault on my ears with an emphasis on wall of sound, and stuff like Grandeur of Hair is perfect for that need. I love the feeling of a wall of sound washing over me and just enveloping me, and sometimes a dream pop edge is also a great addition.

Space
This is mainly space rock, but I love a lot of space-y feeling things and I always have. I have a really big attraction to it, and I can't really explain why, but the idea of a cold vacuum of space just gets to me and makes me go "Wow, this sounds so cool and expansive and distant and I want to be there." Whether it's something sappy like Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, something a little more depressing and slow like Stratosphere, or something infectiously repetitive like Orion Awakes, it never fails to make me happy.

Southern and/or soulful hip-hop
I like vocal harmonies, soulful sounding stuff, and the accent is very familiar to me so it makes some of the rhymes feel a bit closer or special or familiar? Something like that. Anyway, things like Rodeo, Soul Food, and ATLiens fit into this and make me smile with the southern rhymes or the souls-y love.

Plunderphonics/Sound Collage
I LOVE plunderphonics to death. I love the idea of taking little things out of pieces of other stuff and molding it into a totally new project with a new feel and theme and sound. Some of my favorites are Since I Left You (full album wasn't on Youtube) and Wildflower (also not on Youtube), Pharma, and Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 199999.

You don't have to type out some big thing like I did, just tell me some of your favorite things in music!

I feel that the mobile user interfaces has been developed and changed immensly compared to desktops, when it comes iOS and Android. While Windows has pushed some controversial but interesting features, macOS and Linux DEs has been kind of stagnant. Has desktop interfaces reached its peak form? Or is there more developments to come?

Any fellow Tildes playing this? I picked it up yesterday with the steam release and it interests me enough to probably keep playing. Although I do think I'm going to need a different guild(nothing against the one I'm in just I'm NA and they're EU).

For those who want a quick idea of the game I would say it's a mix of EVE and Runescape. While there are traditional skills you level up based on a mix of these two. You gain "fame" based on certain tasks. But unlike runescape mining copper ore forever won't allow you to max out your mining skill set. You actually need to mine higher quality stuff.

For eve like stuff I would say look at banking and how PVP is handles. Banking is all local so if you want to move a lot of stuff it will probably take a long time(I just started but imagine they'll eventually offer something like contracts(or at least hope they do)). Then PVP has different levels like safe, red(where you can enable PVP and attack others), or black where PVP is always an option with no consequence other than other players.

Like I said I'm a noob but will try to answer any questions I can for those wondering about it. Links below for whatever else you may want to know.

https://albiononline.com/en/news
https://store.steampowered.com/app/761890/Albion_Online/
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/albion-online (not the best rating :( )