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! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

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

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

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

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

After deciding to get back into the gym after a long hiatus, I was shopping around my area and trying to decide between Crunch or LA Fitness, each for about $40/mo, plus steep initiation fees and annual fees. Searching for a way to get a discounted rate, I stumbled across One Pass Select, offered by my health insurer, United Healthcare. While I was fully prepared to dunk on United, because of how often Dr. Glaucomflecken does, this particular member benefit turned out to be pretty great.

One Pass Select essentially functions as a gym aggregator, offering multiple memberships for one flat rate. So rather than paying Crunch or LA Fitness $40/mo and being subjected to their terms/conditions, I pay One Pass Select $36/mo and get access to:

• Crunch
• LA Fitness
• Anytime Fitness
• Workout Anytime

And a handful of other gyms I haven't signed up for, because they're not convenient to me. Four gym memberships for $36/mo is pretty cool. Plus if I ever want to cancel, I just cancel my One Pass Select membership from their website, instead of having to sacrifice a squirrel on the 8th day of the sabbath under a blood moon while chanting gregorian monk (the level of difficulty it felt like the last time I wanted to cancel a gym membership).

A quick Google indicates that other insurers offer similar programs:

• UHC has One Pass Select
• Cigna/BCBS/Kaiser have Active&Fit Direct
• BCBS also has Fitness Your Way
• Aetna has GlobalFit

This was a great find for me, that I'd never even heard of before. Sharing it to hopefully benefit someone else, as well!

Previously Tildes have had a few discussions on good quality Youtube channels one, two, but I couldn’t find a recent discussion.
I would be interested in peoples recommendations!
Personally I would like to get recommendations for intermediate/harder science or engineering videos. Most are too basic, or very dry lecture based. I know a few good ones like:

• 3blue1brown
• Smarter every day
• Looking Glass Universe

But I would like to know other people’s favourites (including non science ones)!

I’m a software engineer. I graduated in 2021 so I’ve only been one for around 4.5 years and definitely still feel fairly entry-level (at least, any time I look at jobs, the number of years of experience required for “senior” positions seems to have increased by one) and it feels like companies don’t particularly want anyone without a lot of experience anymore (and every time I do look at new jobs, the number of years required for “senior” positions seems to have increased by one). Meanwhile, I think it has its uses but I don’t actually enjoy using it. I want to solve problems and think and write code, not talk to an AI and become a full-time code-reviewer. My company is rebranding to have AI in the name shortly and, since early December, have been forcing us into 2+ hour long AI trainings once or twice a week. A lot of my coworkers seem like they’ve drank the Kool-Aid and are talking about new models and shit all the time and I just don’t get it.

I guess I’m kind of rambling but I just feel weird about all of it. I want to program but I don’t just want to use (or be forced to use) LLMs for everything, yet it seems like companies are just trying to get rid of actually human software engineers as fast as they can. I’ll even admit, Claude is way better than I expected, but I don’t actually enjoy sitting there typing “do this for me” and then having to just spend time reviewing code. I don’t know. I don’t think this is really even me asking for advice, just a rant, but yeah, just felt like I had to get something out there, I guess.

I’m a highly creative person with strong execution skills on the makers side of things, design, fabrication, ideation, problem-solving. Where I consistently fall down is follow-through when working solo: logistics, setup, listings, shipping, scheduling, the last-mile admin that turns finished work into something that actually exists in the world.

I have a lot of very good monetizable ideas and skills, and I LOVE the creative part, but I just flounder at the rest.

I've joked in the past about needing a manager, someone who tells me what to make and how much of it, and I just make the deadlines and they ship, but more and more recently I've realized that might be exactly what I need.

Recently I've been doing some free design and branding work for a local indigenous restaurant and despite not getting paid for it, I LOVED doing it. And I've been getting asked about why I don't do it for other businesses too, as I have the experience and skills to, and it's like I would but the freelance aspect of having to find my own clients and stuff is just daunting.

And same thing with a couple ideas I've had that utilize 3D Printing and 3D design. I have a product idea that would fit a perfect niche that isn't currently being filled by any big players, as well as a monetization and resale license plan, but it's the execution.

When left to my own devices I kind of just fizzle out.

And I have a lot of designs and artwork that can absolutely translate to clothing and apparel, and I used to have a very active redbubble / society6 presence.

Like I know body-doubling is a really good ADHD hack that works, but I'm not sure how to body double something like this, but I would if I could.

So I guess I'm asking if anyone else has had to deal with this or if anyone has had to hire a creative partner/assistant/manager, and if so how'd that go and what is that like? Also where do I even go to find a person like that?

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

Recently I bought a mp3 player and I want to know the best place to buy mp3s (or similar). Biggest priority is things that are in Swedish and stories for kids . Maybe the things I want there counts as audio books, some of it, but not all I think? All input is good :).

Thought I'd share, especially while many of us are still waiting for Formula 1.

Schedule, starting grid, and other info.

Starts today at 1:40p EST (18:40 UTC). Literally just started as of this post.

In the US, I think it's on Peacock and NBC. Internationally (or with a VPN...) it can be viewed on YouTube.

I don't watch a lot of endurance racing, but I do try to watch the 24hr races like Spa and Le Mans. I've yet to stay up a whole 24hrs, and I doubt this year's Rolex 24 will be different for me, but it's a fun little challenge!

This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

I’m reading Stephen Kings The Dark Tower series and I’m on Wizard and Glass, and I absolutely hate it. I’m half way through now and I’m wondering if I should skip the book and read the Wikipedia page because it’s just making me angry.

I like the rest of the series and really want to see where it ends up but this book is awful, it started out good with the riddle contest but the flashback with Susan I hate every single part of and it’s making me shout at the book angry. I’m halfway through now and I can tell there is a lot being set up for a big battle and a crazy ending, but I can’t stand whatever you want to call what’s happening with Susan, her aunt, and the mayor. Should I power through or call it?

EDIT: Just called it, got to Part 3: Chapter 3. Really needed a good editor, if they cut out the sexual stuff, it could’ve been a good book, but I’m getting to physically angry to keep reading this. It’s awful. I’m going to tell myself it has a Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ending where everyone gets tormented.

Has anybody tried these? I just ordered a Silent Mammoth... which is essentially a coat hanger bent all fancy. It arrives in a few days.

Anyway, anybody have any experience with these sorts of things? I went with this one purely because its metal and I don't want to have some ten-use plastic to recycle if this whole thing leads to improvement.

I don't have sleep apnea but I do think my cute button nose could use a little opening. :)

What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

Despite vaccination, it seems I got the 'flu (not terrible so far).

I have my own non-prescription comforts and remedies for the sore throat, cough, upset stomach, fever, aches, and so on:

• Ginger, lemon, and honey tea
• Ricola cough drops, zinc lozenges
• PeptoBismol or TheraFlu (if I want to be knocked out)
• Scorching hot shower with eucalyptus or lavender oil
• Chicken broth with rice and thyme
• Electric heated mattress pad cranked up to high

There's little peer-reviewed evidence that any of these make a difference in the course of illness. There's marginal data on the effectiveness of ginger as an antinausea remedy, zinc as an immune booster in people who aren't deficient, and eucalyptus, lavender, and thyme oil components as antiseptics/antibiotics/topical anesthetics/cough suppressants. I'll be the first to concede that I practice all these remedies to give me the illusion of control of suffering, and comforting self-care.

I'm curious as to what home remedies others have tried, why, and how effective or comforting you think they've been.

Has a medical professional ever recommended a non-prescription remedy (not counting Tylenol/acetaminophen) or activity to you for a viral or bacterial infection, or told you to stop a home remedy? Did they give a reason why?

Is there a family, folklore, or alternative medicine tradition that you're following?

Does your home remedy make you feel like you're more comfortable and/or in greater control of your health?

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like bubbles.ai, transgender and world economic forum. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was befuddled.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

My special interest of late has been something called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrated_objective_reduction the TL;DR is:

1. One of, if not the, most missing piece of quantum mechanics is answering the question "what is measurement"? You've probably heard of things like the double slit experiment which lead to weird things like quantum erasure where one can seemingly cause a photon to retroactively determine which path to take. Spooky stuff! However, these experiments all follow the basic idea of "when something is entangled, it follows probabilistic rules defined by the schrodinger equation, then a 'measurement' happens, and the entanglement 'collapses' and only a single, 'real' value is well defined"
2. Roger Penrose, a nobel prize winning physicist, has, since the 1980s been arguing that because entanglement implies that a particle exists in two places at once prior to measure that this places gravitational pressure on the fabric of spacetime in two places at once and that measurement is a gravitational event where spacetime "heals" itself by collapsing the wave form, and making it so the particle is finally only in one place.
   Penrose further expanded this, to enormous controversy, that consciousess itself is a measurement event. He wrote a book, "The Emperor's New Mind" then a follow-up "Shadows of the Mind", neither of which I've read, but have had summarized to further develop these arguments.
3. This was, for lack of a better term, a crackpot theory. There wasn't anything testable or falsifiable so it was brushed aside. Crucially, to the point it gets its own paragraph,
   The overwhelming opinion of the physics community, to this day, believes that quantum coherence is not possible in "wet, warm, noisy" environments like the brain.
   It is, to this day, believed that, the quantum world is a thing that happens only at extremely small scales, and that's why quantum computers all start with the assumption of cooling the material to near absolute zero with as few additional perturbations as possible.
4. However, there were 2 findings I find extremely motivating to combat this assertion. First, leaves. Leaves are quantum objects and photosynthesis is too efficient to be explained by classical mechanics alone: https://berkeleysciencereview.com/article/2021/11/30/plants-do-the-wave/ Second, birds. Birds that use the magnetosphere for orientation do so by becoming quantumly coherent with the ions in the magnetophere using a protein in their eyes so they literally see the earth's magnetic field using the blue cones of their eyes https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/birds-are-real-and-so-is-quantum-physics/
5. Enter Stuart Hameroff. Hameroff was a working anesthesiology for some 20 odd years. He read The Emperor's New Mind and reached out to Penrose. He, of course, was very intimately aware of the deep biological processes that make the different between a conscious, aware, thinking human being, and a piece of meat that can be safely operated on. He believed that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtubule structures in the neurons were responsible for consciousness.
   After further research, they both began to believe that these microtubule structures in human neurons were capable of what others believed were impossible.
   Quantum coherence in a wet, warm, noisy environment.
6. This was still crackpottery until quite literally (IMO) last year. A group of biological researchers showed experimentally that the exact networks of tryptophan microtubule structures in neurons do exhibit super radiance (the same kind of quantum coherence leaves show) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c07936

To me, this is the most exciting piece of science I think I've seen in my life. The implication is that human (and other) consciousnesses are literally a byproduct of our ability to maintain and calculate quantum states in a wet, warm, noisy environment. It feels like a genuine push for us to finally move past the age of information, past the age of computation, and into the age of consciousness.

Another aspect of this is I really, deeply, believe that the substrate necessary for AGI is either necessarily biological, or, at the very least, can only be done efficiently in a biological substrate. Notably, a human brain takes 20 watts to exhibit generalized intelligence. No nuclear reactors running data centers, just a Twix bar. This last bit I honestly leave mostly as a point of discussion, because there's an enormous amount of interesting implications and avenues thereof.

What y'all Tildeans make of this? Anyone else been thinking about this kind of stuff?

Just curious if anyone other Tildes users out there are fans of the Dresden Files novels and might have read the latest, Twelve Months. It just released a few days ago and I just couldn't put it down.

I do want to keep my review spoiler free, but I think this is the best book in the series in awhile.

Wondering if anyone else had thoughts!

Inspired by @Fiachra's question in this post, I wanted to asked the broader tildes community: What are some of your favourite historic anecdotes or stories? The original question is more narrow, but I'm honestly curious to hear any fun or intriguing ones from any period of history.

Re-posting what I responded there:
OH man, time to share my favourite example of how one person being an asshole changed history: Shah Muhammad II of Khwarazm. The Khwarazmian Empire was roughly the Persian/Iranian Empire from 1077–1231. A massive, rich, culturally leading Empire at the centre of the Silk Road.

Genghis Khan, seeking to increase trade in preparation for his invasion of China, sent envoys to Khwarazm to ask to open trade. The Shah, in his supreme arrogance, decided these smelly Mongols insulted him by their very presence, and had them executed. Genghis, who very famously established the Imperial Mongol tradition of absolute protection for envoys, was furious. And yet, focused on his goal, he sent a SECOND group of envoys to demand an explanation and try to smooth things over. And the Shah executed them too. This pissed Genghis and his leadership off so much they paused the invasion of China, and launched a punitive expedition to conquer Persia/Khwarazm. I want to stress again that the records we have make it clear that the Mongols at this point had no interest in going further West. They were very focused on achieving victory over their arch-nemeses in China.

Within two years the entire Empire had fallen, the Shah was dead, and its fabulously rich cities torched and massacred. Following this, the Mongols realized they could continue to press on and ended up invading the rest of the Islamic world, famously including the destruction of Baghdad, the world's finest city of learning and culture at that point. The fall of Baghdad is widely considered to be the end of the Islamic Golden Age. Estimates of deaths in the Islamic World vary widely, but it is undeniable that many of the most populous and prosperous cities from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea were totally destroyed and depopulated. All because one jackass decided he couldn't be bothered to take some smelly Mongols seriously.

Also, I have no idea what to tag this, sorry lol.

Hello,

I want to pick your brains for recommendations for good, cheap e-book bundles. I buy a lot of my e-books the old fashioned way, one at a time, but Humble Bundle book bundles has scored me a ton of great reading for cheap, including the entire Wheel of Time series, the entirety of Discworld, lots of Comic and Manga bundles, and such, usually for $18 a bundle which is a crazy discount. I'm very happy with them and will continue to refresh their bundles regularly, but my desire to hoard books is great and I'd love to know if there's any similar sites out there regularly offering those kinds of sales.

My only strict requirement is said books have to be either DRM-Free or (the very trivially-cracked) Adobe DRM. I'm also looking specifically to purchase books, I know libraries etc are really cool (and also easy to crack) but I get a lot of enjoyment from owning the books I own (and don't feel good about cracking library copies, I don't judge anyone else for doing so but I'm privileged to have the ability to easily afford my books and figure I should do my part, even if my part is heavily discounted ha).

As an aside, for anyone who doesn't already know, humble bundle normally has at least half a dozen book bundles at any given time, and there's some crazy value on occasion (see above), would highly recommend if you're into ebooks!

Do you ever get that FOMO feeling that all your friends and family use insert-social-media-app name? That you are the outcast fighting the uphill battle of avoiding those horrible apps and the forced advertising they shove into your eyeballs every minute? Well, I did, and decided to give Instagram a shot to see how things are.

Well, you will not be surprised to hear that it is as awful as you probably imagine. It did not get better since I left maybe 5 years ago. It got worse. The only way it's better is, funny enough, the technical creative element. You can do a lot more. The video editor for the reels is surprisingly good and easy to use. Far better than iMovie (on iOS). Aaaand that's about it! Everything else is worse. More ads, more content that I just don't care about, etc.

An important realization about the content itself, reels and stories. We all know it's one-sided, that you often see only one side of a person. That's not new. What I did feel this time around is that, coming from zero FB/Insta/X/TikTok for over 5 years, being exposed to this kind of content suddenly starts inserting a vast amount of self-doubt in one's daily life. I'll use a mild example: fitness! I am an active person, I exercise more or less regularly, I walk my dogs, I do some outdoor activities, light sports, etc. Well, I start seeing content on this topic, and initially think "Oh, this guy has some good tips!" But then I see 10 other content creators with 10 different ideas of what is "right" and I end up so confused, doubting whether I am doing things right. Now take this example and think about other topics: mental health is a big one! All of a sudden I see these ads and accounts targeting me and making me feel like I'm not happy enough, or not investing enough time in whatever thing they are selling. I have a pretty strong radar for this stuff, I am conscious of how this works and on alert. It didn't get to me because I spotted the trend early. But I am wondering how many people are aware of this? Here on Tildes, probably most. Outside, in the wild? People glued to FB/Insta/X all the time? Probably very few.

A family member is constantly on Instagram, consuming this "mental health" content. When you get 10 different types of advice, how are you to know what to prioritize, what actually works. I think it does more harm than good. Zero advice may be preferable, in a way that lets your own psyche figure it out versus being bombarded by these "helpful" content creators.

I did go back to Instagram primarily to get back in touch with friends and family who I lost track of, or who use Instagram as a way of creative expression. Sadly, I realized few people actually do that, and most are just lurking, or watching reels and sharing reels. This gets old fast. Yes, some reels are funny and it's fun to laugh with the person next to you. But they are also addictive and I found myself defaulting to scrolling over other activities that are far healthier for the brain and for the heart.

What do you think? Am I way off the mark here? Did you have a similar experience with these platforms?

Over a year ago, I had my heart broken pretty bad. I lost most of my appetite for the week or two after that, and felt a lot of that emotion "in my stomach" for a couple months. And, to be honest, I'm still working through the whole thing.

Coincidentally, I've noticed that my hunger signals have gotten a lot worse since. I used to just listen to my stomach to regulate my eating and that was perfectly fine, but now I find myself fairly regularly eating until I think I'm full then waking up from hunger pangs in the middle of the night or feeling hunger pangs as soon as my head hits the pillow when I try to go to sleep. Albeit, my eating habits aren't super great in general. I'll often eat less out of laziness of not wanting to make extra food or I'll skip a meal every now and then because I'm busy. But I've had those habits for a while and it didn't cause me much trouble before.

I'm wondering if these two things might be related or not. Has anyone perhaps experienced something similar?

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like business, comics.newspaper and hacktivism. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was curious.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

I've been using Google Keep (check boxes mode) for my work and personal to-do lists for a while now, and it's almost perfect for my use case. I love the simplicity and lack of options gumming up my process, and specifically I like the UI of having nested subtasks that all move with their head task when you reorder the top level tasks. That is to say, when you drag a headline task, all of its subtasks "roll up" inside it and "unfurl" when you drop the task into its new location. The fact that it syncs across devices is also really great, but not necessarily a deal breaker.

What is becoming a deal breaker is that you can only have 2 levels: top level or nested. I want more nesting levels, but with the simple touch-and-drag UI to which I've become accustomed.

Have any of you heard of/used an app such as I've described? I have issues using bigger, more fleshed-out apps because all the features distract my goblin brain, and the friction of having to use various touch menus or the keyboard on my phone to adjust indent levels keeps me from getting crap done.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: for now, I have settled on Workflowy. It seems to offer the most similar functionality with an acceptable number of interactions to do the things I want to do. Thank you to everyone who offered their experience!

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for recommendations of your favorite “comfort” movies. Movies, I don’t have to take too seriously and can be watched over and over and can fall asleep to.

As an example a few of mine would be:

MoneyBall
Jesse Stone movies
Dave
Avengers Infinity War and Endgame
Star Trek Generations
Major League
Clear and Present Danger
Ghostbusters Afterlife
Batman Begins
Batman Returns
Grinch animated movie
Indiana jones dial of destiny
Rocky balboa
Moonfall
Goldeneye
X-men 1 & 2, Days of Futures Past
Rainmaker
Runaway Jury

I need a German phone number, so I need a German SIM.

My preference would be a prepaid year because it’s a bit cheaper. Also, I have a physical sim slot and would rather use a physical sim than an eSIM.

Many apps (Mein O2, MeinMagenta for cell services and most of the local transit apps) are region locked. I can’t currently change my Apple ID to Germany and can’t make a new Apple ID for Germany without a German phone number.

Any hot takes on Telekom, Vodafone, O2, etc. or recommendations on getting a physical SIM card?

Note: The Aldi closest to me only had eSIM today or thought they only had eSIM.

Edit: I actually need a phone number for things, e.g. kita being able to call me if one of my kids get sick at daycare.

I cannot recall the last time I devoured a series so quickly. I loved Cradle. The characters were so colourful and endearing, the plot was permanently escalating at a pace the resonated perfectly with me, and honestly, I found the writing style to be spot on.

And now I've left feeling rather empty... (perhaps rather on point!).

Others who have enjoyed this series, what else did you love?

To give a sample of books I've enjoyed recently: Children of Time, Stormlight Archive, Kingkiller Chonicles, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Red Rising.

This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.

Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.

If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.

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! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

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

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

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

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

I may be in the minority on Tildes who still watches cable news. My mom is the one who puts it on and I'll usually ignore/forget about it when I'm home alone, but I find it's a good way to keep track of major headlines. Also, our usual choice of national news, ABC with David Muir, tends to end every broadcast with some feel-good story which is just... really appreciated in these times. (Though tonight they played a soundbite of Martin Luther King Jr.'s final Sunday sermon, and the choice of that particular soundbite feels very pointed.)

A couple months ago YoutubeTV and Disney got into a contract disagreement though, so ABC was removed from the lineup for a bit. For a while we watched CBS News, and... Something about it just genuinely stressed me out. Of course the news is very stressful lately, but usually I can deal with it. At worst, I leave the room for certain stories that make me particularly angry.

Something about CBS just left me really agitated and stressed though. I can't say what it was exactly, maybe the delivery, or a heavy focus on the worst parts of US politics? All I know is every night I was getting increasingly worked up, the way I only ever did with the most absolutely infuriating news stories, until we switched to NBC until ABC returned to air.

This came to mind again after my mom put on CBS last night since ABC was starting late due to some sports program. It agitated me until I just snapped.

So my question: does anyone else find CBS particularly stressful compared to other cable news? If so, does anyone have any ideas on why that is? And are there any regular watchers who've noticed a shift in tone? I never really watched CBS before, but I'm wondering if maybe it's somehow tied to Bari Weiss's influence given the stuff with 60 Minutes.

I always loved magazines. Like, real paper magazines. Lately I realized that I can find digital versions or scans somewhat easily and it sparked a new obsession. I'm weird, I know. But there are so many beautifully designed magazines, such as the Japanese travel-related Transit or the men's lifestyle Brutus. Even their websites are beautiful and worth visiting. There's also this independent Brazilian retro gaming magazine called Jogo Véio that is almost like a love letter to the classic video game magazines.

I think I've been craving creativity lately, in a World of AI slop and "content" creators. So any magazines you like? What do you like about them?

not sure if this is the appropriate sub group for this question or if its even allowed but figured I'd try.

I am curious the demographics of tildes users. You can be as specific as you feel comfortable.

I am in a dude in my 30s in Canada who works in software development.

Picture

• One Battle After Another
• Sinners
• Hamnet
• Sentimental Value
• Marty Supreme
• Frankenstein
• Train Dreams
• Bugonia
• F1
• The Secret Agent

Director

• Paul Thomas Anderson - One Battle After Another
• Ryan Coogler - Sinners
• Josh Safdie - Marty Supreme
• Joachim Trier - Sentimental Value
• Guillermo del Toro - Frankenstein

Original Screenplay

• Sinners
• Sentimental Value
• Marty Supreme
• Weapons
• The Secret Agent

Adapted Screenplay

• One Battle After Another
• Hamnet
• Bugonia
• Frankenstein
• Train Dreams

Lead Actress

• Jessie Buckley - Hamnet
• Rose Byrne - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
• Renate Reinsve - Sentimental Value
• Chase Infiniti - One Battle After Another
• Emma Stone - Bugonia

Lead Actor

• Timothee Chalamet - Marty Supreme
• Leonardo DiCaprio - One Battle After Another
• Michael B Jordan - Sinners
• Wagner Moura - The Secret Agent
• Jesse Plemons - Bugonia

Supporting Actress

• Teyana Taylor - One Battle After Another
• Amy Madigan - Weapons
• Odessa A'zion - Marty Supreme
• Wumni Mosaku - Sinners
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas - Sentimental Value

Supporting Actor

• Benicio Del Toro - One Battle After Another
• Stellan Skarsgard - Sentimental Value
• Jacob Elordi - Frankenstein
• Sean Penn - One Battle After Another
• Paul Mescal - Hamnet

Casting

• Sinners
• One Battle After Another
• Hamnet
• Marty Supreme
• Frankenstein

Cinematography

• Sinners
• One Battle After Another
• Frankenstein
• Marty Supreme
• Train Dreams

Costume Design

• Frankenstein
• Sinners
• Wicked: For Good
• Hamnet
• Marty Supreme

Film Editing

• One Battle After Another
• Sinners
• Marty Supreme
• F1
• Frankenstein

Makeup and Hairstyling

• Frankenstein
• Wicked: For Good
• Sinners
• The Smashing Machine
• One Battle After Another

Production Design

• Frankenstein
• Wicked: For Good
• Sinners
• Hamnet
• Marty Supreme

Original Score

• Sinners
• One Battle After Another
• Frankenstein
• Marty Supreme
• F1

Original Song

• "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters
• "I Lied To You" from Sinners
• "The Girl in the Bubble" from Wicked: For Good
• "Dear Me" from Diane Warren: Relentless
• "Drive" from F1

Sound

• F1
• Sinners
• Avatar: Fire and Ash
• One Battle After Another
• Frankenstein

Visual Effects

• Avatar: Fire and Ash
• Frankenstein
• Superman
• F1
• The Lost Bus

Animated Feature

• KPop Demon Hunters
• Zootopia 2
• Arco
• Elio
• Little Amelie or the Character of Rain

Documentary Feature

• The Perfect Neighbor
• 2000 Meters to Andriivka
• The Alabama Solution
• Cover-Up
• Apocalypse in the Tropics

International Film

• The Secret Agent
• Sentimental Value
• It Was Just an Accident
• No Other Choice
• Sirat

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

With CES 2026 coming to a close, I figured that like last year, I should make a thread to see what people are excited (or not excited) for.

I honestly wasn't that excited (see recent state of US economy) but I want to your thoughts!

Previous Topics:

Dell's CES 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in maybe five years
I didn't post in the thread as I didn't have much to add, the top post by @Oxalis basically sums up my thoughts

Nice to see them be honest about how this isn't really panning out. Everyone wants AI except the consumer.

Clicks Communicator: the ultimate communication companion
Again didn't post in here but I'm glad there is a still a market for niche phone.

What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

NOTE: I do not want comments bemoaning the current state of US politics on this post. Rest assured that I am well aware of all that. Focusing on that will not help me in my current situation and will only serve to depress me. Please respect my wishes on this.

So others here might remember that about a year ago I posted about how I was getting divorced. While nothing's happened on paper yet, my ex and I have lived separately since then. Between taking in-person German language classes and making new online friends, I've been doing a lot of work on myself in the interim, and my mental health has been mostly doing a lot better than it was while I was married, barring a few short-term dips.

Unfortunately, my unemployment ran out, and I'm no closer to getting a job in my field, and not for lack of trying. The German job market sucks absolute ass right now, and while my German language skills have improved a huge amount over the past year, they're not good enough to overcome the average German's preference for a native speaker, which in this job market is enough. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I'm broke and there's no clear solution here in Germany for that for me.

Luckily for me, I'm still quite young in the grand scheme of things, and I have parents who love me and are willing to support me in getting back home to the US, alongside letting me live with them in my childhood home until I get a job and can save up enough to get back on my feet and get my own place. The job market in the US is better for me than in Germany (especially given the lack of a language barrier) and I have opportunities for further education and career pivots that wouldn't be possible for me in Germany right now. This, plus the fact that I really want to be there while my sister's young kids grow up, means moving back to the States is probably my best next step, moving forward.

I'm excited to be near my family again and to reconnect with friends in the area, but obviously I'm also pretty anxious about the whole experience. I'd love advice from others who have moved internationally about little things that are easily forgotten or are left out of the usual lists of things to consider during the planning stages. When I first moved to Germany, I was a poor student who just had a few suitcases with me, but now I'm an adult with more stuff I own that I value to some extent. I've already begun the process of slimming down what I plan to bring with me to the essentials and checking which electronics can be safely operated in the US with/without a transformer. But I'm sure there's something I've missed that other people have experience with and I'd love any advice from people who have made similar moves themselves.

Also, any little positives about adult life in the US or bits of advice for once I move back are appreciated. I moved to Germany right after I finished my bachelor's, so I don't have much experience as a "real adult" in the US. So any tips to help smooth along the adjustment process or little bits of advice for someone learning to live as an adult in suburban Ohio would be welcome. And any positivity is extremely appreciated -- it might be a tough ask here on Tildes and I know it can be hard in the current times, but that's exactly why I need what I can get.

The first ep. got its own thread on Tildes and a decent discussion, I figured I'd try to get one going for whole season. Since it finished airing like 2 weeks ago.

I binged S1 yesterday, and am very happy that I waited till all episodes were out, as the pace of the show is glacial and I would've likely lost interest were I not able to skip around a bit. That's one of my two major issues. The other being that I found Carol insufferable at moments in the show. I think it does a good job at humanizing her and explaining why she is the way she is. It's also important to note that a majority of the show plays out days after Carol's wife Helen dies and she's reeling from that loss, as well as losing everyone else too. For me this culminated in ep 6, when she has a conversation with another survivor after having uncovered that they process human corpses into protein powder, and she thinks it's a big reveal that everyone else already knows. She just wasn't told because she's made everyone not like her.

That being said, the premise of this show is excellent and I love the questions it makes me ask and think about. The way it's shot is also fantastic. Yes, all of humanity is in a blissful state, but most of us would also die due to starvation, but there's no murder, no robbings, but it's also clear that this blissful state is more akin to being happy because you're on drugs, not "true happiness". I think this was most evident in the scene when the Peruvian girl turned willingly. Just before she does, she's shown with a lamb on her lap, which she likes and pets. The moment she turns, she just walks off, leaving the lamb behind. Obviously also all expressions of individualism are gone, this means all art, plus the question hasn't been properly answered on what exactly the Others do when they don't have someone around to make happy. I guess work together as a collective on sending the signal onto the next planet.

I think the big answer is going to be when they hopefully break someone out of the hivemind in S2. I just hope that it won't be the season finale, but sooner. I dislike the trend of prestige television being at such a slow pace.

What do you guys think? Both the smart writing and the pacing issues seem to be the main two things i see mentioned online. Anything else you liked or disliked? Any theories on where it'll go?

This is your place to share any and all thoughts on your movie viewing for 2025.

Movies you talk about do NOT have to be limited to this year’s releases.

Feel free to share:

• Favorites
• Disappointments
• Surprises
• Memorable moments
• Self-reflections
• Anything else!

Let us know how your movie watching for 2025 went.