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.

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 supreme court.us, liberalism and kei cars. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was a nosey parker.

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!

Flesh and Blood is a trading card game (think Yugioh, Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon, etc) which only launched in 2020 but has been rapidly gaining popularity across the world.

If you’re familiar with other trading card games, this has some key differences in the pace of the games. Usually, players have limited resources to begin with, and build up resources throughout the game. In FaB, however, players start at their strongest with the most access to resources, and slowly exhaust these resources as the game goes on.

I played MtG casually for a bit over a decade, and I have a number of friends who all enjoy the Commander format. I never had the skills or budget to play in tournaments, but that’s never been my thing anyway.

I’m just curious if there are many other players here on Tildes.

If you play, which classes or heroes to you prefer? What do you think of the way the game has been managed so far? Do you play casually or are you more ambitious than that? Do you play online or do you stick to exclusively in-person games? How did you get into the game, did you play other TCGs before or is FaB your first foray?

Those urban activists who hate cars must be nuts.

Today, rather than drive my not terribly fuel efficient vehicle from my relative's house back to mine, normally an easy 2 hour 20 minute drive on divided highway, I decided to try using alternative transport.

I started out with a 45 minute walk to the highway bus station. Of course that meant carrying a fairly heavy back pack and being an old fart after awhile that got to be a pain. I spotted a Bird electric bike on my route so I rented it for the final leg of my walk saving considerable time but it cost me $8.99.

I got to the station half an hour early which meant I had the pleasure of standing beside a guy who was either drunk or just unstable. He had "All My Ex's Live in Texas" playing at full volume on his phone and was singing his lungs out. Fortunately most everyone else seemed somewhat normal.

The bus ride wasn't bad, a fairly new FLixBus with decent seats, and fortunately I didnt have to sit beside Mr. Texas. Everyone just put on their headphones or earbuds and zoned out on their phones.

But then arriving at my city, I could either Uber, which would have cost me $35, which was as much as the two hour bus ride or take public transit. After a 10 block walk to the right stop, I found the 'express' bus to my area and then had to find somewhere to buy a ticket.

Once onboard the ride was less than comfortable. The bus was not only incredibly loud and hot but the driver thought he was in Formula 1. He was pretty excitable, going hard then jamming on the brakes whenever he had the chance. 20 minutes on that bus was plenty, I can live without that pain.

Then it was another 15 minute walk to my house.

Was it fast? Definitely not. The trip took four and a half hours, almost DOUBLE the time I normally drive it in my vehicle.

Was it comfortable? Not really, no. It ranged from the hard seat of the suspension less Bird bike, to the very uncomfortable transit bus to a respite in the FlixBus and a somewhat enjoyable walk. But compared to my own car, my own music, and my own personal space, it was definitely not even close to a definition of comfortable.

Was it cheap? With the bus fare and the Bird e-bike it was about 2/3 of what my vehicle would've cost me in fuel but without the licensing, registration and maintenance, so maybe half the cost.

Was it convenient? Absolutely not. What a pain trying to figure out locations, fares, tickets and worst of all, needing a bathroom before I got on the transit bus but no place to go because every shop is locked up because of the vagrants. In a vehicle I just drive to the nearest coffee shop and buy a java to use the washroom.

Would I do it again to save money? Not a chance in hell. What an absolute pain in the ass. Slow, inconvenient, with some odd characters in my space, and not even that cheap. Never again.

Those people who hate cars must be masochists or just love hearing country songs sung badly. Ill take my vehicle every time from now on, thank you.

So I'm kind of terrified by recent political news. What can I do to help?

Options include:

• Donating
• Phone banking
• Text banking
• Postcarding
• Door knocking
• Volunteering as an election worker

Does anyone have an informed opinion about which of these will actually move the needle and which ones just make you feel like you're doing something?

Basically the title. I think I've come to accept that as basic as it sounds, this is one of my favorite genres.

The issue I frequently run into is that so many of them are designed around PvP and / or Co-Op. Like ARK, I love the idea, but most of the mechanics are for PvP servers, which I have zero interest in.

Funny enough I'm not too into true survival games (Green Hell, The Forest), as I kinda enjoy the whole "Combine iron with two sticks and make an automatic weapon" progression of other games in the genre.

Obviously I've played Minecraft & Terraria, but also Subnautica, Palworld, Satisfactory (sort of counts), and NMS and enjoyed all of those.

Project Zomboid seems like it has too steep of a learning curve for me to get into.

I tried Astroneer, but the utter lack of base building and organization drove me up the wall.

EDIT: Forgot V Rising, which I also enjoyed solo, but it's definitely built with a PvP server in mind, which kind of makes progression in solo feel like you're aiming for a goal that doesn't exist.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions, I think I may give Raft or Project Zomboid a go.

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 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?

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?

Has anyone else read this book? Without spoilers (or hiding them) what did you think?

The closest I have read to this is Gaiman's American Gods but the pace is much faster and more intense. I want to reread the first half to see what I missed because I didn't know what was going on.

Carli Lloyd & Alexi Lalas react
I've can't with the USMNT anymore. I have been so invested with the team over the years but US Soccer has one consistent failure after another. Yesterday after the failed Copa America campaign to tune back into what others are saying and once again I hear the same thing: US Soccer isn't going to change and stay the course! So there you have it everyone! Wondering what folks outside the USA think about our situation, what do you recommend or change if you could?

Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.

It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...

Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!

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.