Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like psychology.social, adhd and words. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was documenting these.

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!

Top eidt: Thread is four hours old and already seems to have support. I'll create the first actual thread tomorrow. So please, your feedback is desired on anything you'd lke to see in the initial topic text. Also, I'm thinking fortnightly (every two weeks) might be good to start, but feedback will always be desired. Original thread follows:

https://tildes.net/~life/1o92/how_my_life_changed_with_adhd_medication#comments

That thread brought so many with ADHD out of the woodwork.

I wonder if there might be a use for a recurring (weekly? monthly?) thread for ADHD support?

I'd envision it for:

1. Venting
2. Mutual support, i.e. responsibility coaching, i.e. post what you're trying to work on so the rest of us can gently pester (check up on you) to try and help make sure You Did The Thing
3. General discussion as a hub for interesting ADHD-related articles/info/etc

Sort of like an ADHD club on Tildes that might help us all.

I know I am in love with the thread I linked just having so many of us there talking about this stuff. Reading others struggle with the same things I struggle with is comforting; reading others talking about conquering problems is lovely. And I know my "walking thread" is related to this idea - I started it to try and get folks from the community help keep me on track, so maybe that sort of thing would help others, too. (At least for some of us who aren't medicated! But even for medicated folks who could use that support)

So this is intended as a meta thread on the topic to see if the idea might have merit.

I think recurring threads are made manually, so I do volunteer to do that; but if the idea is a go and someone else would prefer to do it, I will certainly bow to that :)

(Also, it's my humble opinion that any autistic-related subjects would be quite welcome - I feel ADHD and autism are sibling diagnoses, even when they don't both apply to one person. Adn for that matter, anyone dealign with ADHD-adjacent issues - like how anxiety can sometimes present with ADHD-like symptoms - the venting and help-with-accomplishing-things should not be limited to JUST adhd folks, but I envision this as primarily and ADHD space that welcomes all. But my vision is up for discussion, IF the idea even has merit)

Hello Tildes!

I've been trying out a lot of open-source apps these past few months but I've always hosted them on a VPS. It's been great and educational so far. However, I started considering to host my very own server on-prem so that my data is absolutely physically with me and nowhere else.

With that short intro, I'd like to say I'm in the market for a home server. I can install OS's, docker containers, etc. And that's how I managed to install Jellyfin, Immich, Paperless, Portainer, etc on my VPS right now.

What out-of-the-box miniPC can be good for someone dipping their toes in the home server scene? I feel like I might need the storage to be extendable somehow? And it must be able to stream music and video through Jellyfin.

The choices in YouTube videos are overwhelming that I keep jumping from saying "ooh I'll get that" to "oh wait maybe I'll get that other one".

I also am not very handy in terms of hardware so I would prefer something out-of-the-box (if possible). Maybe a max budget of 500? But around 400 euros would be preferred. (Edit: In EU also, if possible)

Thanks for reading! Hope to hear from you guys!

I've been slowly transitioning my diet away from meat and dairy products. Cutting meat out has not really been an issue for me, and most dairy has been easy (I find the idea of milk gross anyway, never liked sour cream much, and butter substitutes are plentiful), but so far the idea of cutting out cheese seems like it will be my biggest hurdle. It's a central ingredient in many things I enjoy (mac and cheese, pizza, grilled cheese, sprinkling it on pasta, queso with chips and salsa, cottage cheese with jam, pretty much any Mexican dish). One of my sons is allergic to dairy so I've had plenty opportunities to try some of the small selection of vegan cheeses (mostly wheat based, I believe) we can get around here and they just don't do it for me at all--I find the texture and taste of every one I've tried actively repulsive (Daiya and Violife are the two that spring to mind).

Has anyone had better luck with vegan cheese--maybe brands or styles that I'm unaware of that come closer to replacing the real thing? Any tips on how to make cheeseless pizza that doesn't taste like sadness and despair? Or will there be a cheese-shaped hole in my soul I'm going to have to live with when I finally give it up?

Between Meta announcing that its AI, Meta AI, reached 1 billion users[1] and Google saying that AI Overviews are used by 1.5 billion[2], I’m curious to know how many of these people intentionally use the feature, or prefer it to what the AI replaces.

AI Overviews appear at the top of searches, with no option to turn them off. Meta AI, I suspect many people trigger accidentally by tapping that horrible button in WhatsApp, in search results across its three core apps, or when trying to tag someone in a group by typing an @ symbol.

It’s very easy to reach enormous numbers when you already have a giant platform. I don’t think that’s even part of the discussion. The issue is trumpeting these numbers as if they were earned, rather than imposed.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/28/zuckerberg-meta-ai-one-billion-monthly-users.html
[2] https://www.theverge.com/news/655930/google-q1-2025-earnings

I went all out this year, I meant to just grow a couple tomatoes from seed and some basil I had from years ago and it exploded into a whole thing, we’ve got peppers, a rosemary bush, lavender and a fig tree that is a cutting from my friends fig tree.

My tomatoes are just starting to come in!

What have y’all got growing?

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?

Only a few days left!

Post your current bingo cards.
Continue updating us on your games!
Finish your Backlog Burning by June 1st!

Quick links:

• Backlog Bingo Site
• Week 1 Discussion and Event Guidelines
• Week 2 Discussion
• Week 3 Discussion
• Week 4 Discussion

Week 4 Recap

8 participants played 7 bingo cards and moved 29 games out of their backlogs!
There were t̵̳̒h̵̡̫͊r̷̘̼̎é̴̪̕e̶͙̭̓̿ bingo wins!
Congratulations to u/SingedFrostLantern, u/kfwyre, and ų̷̪̭̖͚̮̃̃̃̅̉͒͑̀͊͜/̸͙͇̿͒́̋̽̈̈́ą̷͈̠͍̪̯̩͕͛́̐̈́̾͠p̶͔͕̭͓̫͕͓̬̫̗̉̅̽̈́̇́͘͝ḫ̸̠̤̫̦͖̘̙̣̦͗͜ǫ̴̯̪̣͚̥̝̞̘͊̏͠ȩ̷̛̖̭͕̗̹̹̌͛͌͆̋̈́n̸̯̮͕͂̄̀͗͐̋̈́̿̂͆i̷̱͉̰̻͈̦̗̤͋͌̂̍̋̿͜ͅẋ̶̡̛̘͖͎̰͓̫̼̀͂͗͒̉͑͝͝ͅ

28% of games played this week started with the letter S.

There was a 5 letter stretch of the alphabet for which there were no games played: H-I-J-K-L

At least 2 Linux distributions were installed by participants this week.

Coincidentally, at least 2 bingo cards were deleted by participants this week.

Thus far, a total of 136 games have been played for the May 2025 Backlog Burner.

Game List:

• Against the Storm
• Arcade Paradise
• The Binding of Isaac
• Celeste
• Chef: A Restaurant Tycoon Game
• Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition
• Foundation
• Garshasp: The Monster Slayer
• Goat Simulator 3
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Machinarium
• Neon Noodles
• Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle
• Noita
• OneShot
• PixelJunk Eden
• Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator
• Shadow Warrior (2013)
• Shing!
• Shoot Many Robots
• Spacerat Miner
• Splice
• The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
• The Swapper
• Stray Gods
• Tapeworm Disco Puzzle
• Tau
• Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

From time to time, i think about great solos in music. And when i do i always want to make a compilation playlist with songs featuring these beautiful solos.

Some of the solos that come to mind is the building crescendo of Unforgiven by Metallica, that ends in a beautifully unforgettable cacophony of sound that elevates the song to another level.
Or Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, which have a fantastic wonder-scene that gives great attention to the incredible mastering of the song.

I would love to hear what song featuring what you believe is the most unforgettable solo.
Thank you all in advance, and have a great day!

Hello everyone! I had a realization recently spurred by ongoing work stress that my partner is going through. I don't think I'm really good at providing comfort to people.

For one, I always feel very awkward when people other than close friends or romantic partners open up to me. I never quite know what to say. Something like "there there. I'm sorry you're going through that" feels really trite and rehearsed. However the other mode that I have is problem solving, which most people don't appreciate when they're going through something hard.

Secondly, I have this internal feeling about constantly providing comfort for the same thing over and over forming a sort of codependency. I went through this with a previous long term relationship. She hated her job, she would come home, cry, I'd do my "there there" thing, she'd cheer up just enough to force herself through another day, and the cycle would repeat ad nauseum. At a certain point it began to feel like I was enabling a sort of self-harm, and I was bearing much of the fallout from that self-harm. Her job would make her miserable, she'd make me miserable, eventually I'd bear enough of that misery for her to make herself miserable again. Would it have been better to just put my foot down, say I'm no longer going to comfort you for this job that is stealing all of your joy, and I will help you fix this problem, but I won't continue to soothe the pain it causes you? Maybe, but I don't know if I could bring myself to do that. Also, what happens if it's a problem without a solution? What if it's a problem that most people deal with, and you just need to sort of build emotional resilience to deal with?

I don't know the answers to these questions, and I'm not sure if anyone really does for sure, but I'm curious how other people feel about comforting people. What strategies have worked for you? Does it feel awkward? Is it something you've consciously worked on? Do you believe there's such a thing as too much comfort? Even for the people you love?

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 long mind dump of my history with D&D, my love of it, etc.

tl;dr - I love D&D. I liked DMing briefly. My group broke apart. I miss D&D.

Around 6 or 7 years ago a friend invited me to play D&D for the first time. I met a bunch of new people through this group and while a lot of people came and went throughout our two campaigns, there was always a core group of 3 of us that were always present.

At first it was very nerve-wracking. Not only because I was still learning the mechanic, but also because there's a certain amount of performance and vulnerability in getting into your character. While at home I'm always dropping into silly voices to make my wife laugh and I've gotten pretty good at doing various accents, cartoony voices, etc., at the table I couldn't do any of it. I had stage fright in front of a group of very accepting and kind friends. And it took me a few sessions (and beers) to push through it and be my authentic, goofy self in-person like that. In a way, it helped me grow as a person.

Eventually our DM moved far away and a bunch of players were left without anyone to lead our games, so we just didn't play for about a year. During that year I began thinking about DMing. My grasp of D&D's mechanics have never been great, but in that year Baldur's Gate 3 came out. And I hear some of you groaning because I know it's not a 1:1 match with 5e's rules. But it helped fill my knowledge gaps enough that I felt sorta okay DMing. So I offered to DM.

My first session was a premade campaign from the Starter Kit. Almost immediately I wanted to tweak the story, insert old characters of mine, throw in a few references my friends might get, stuff like that. I think we made it like 2 sessions in before I announced I'd be making my own damn campaign (with the group's support, mind you). But again, between my friends support and pushing myself, I was able to tackle some of my social anxiety because the challenges of running the entire game are completely different from the challenges of being a player.

I dove head-first into this new campaign. I wanted to do this massive campaign as a love song to puppetry because I grew up around my parents running a puppet ministry at church. So between that and Sesame Street, The Muppets, Lambchop, etc. I have this deep love of puppetry as an art form. And somewhere along the way, someone suggested a pirate theme, so I combined them. Thus I began working on a Muppet Treasure Island inspired D&D campaign.

I don't think I realized my capacity for creativity until I began working on this campaign. I never thought of myself as someone who needed a creative outlet, but holy shit was creating the D&D campaign a wonderful outlet for my creativity. I spent hours during and after work just writing and making maps. It was so fulfilling, even though the story itself was, in retrospect, kind of all over the damn place. Yet again, D&D helped me grow a little bit as a person. It gave me a creative outlet. It gave me fulfillment that I was critically lacking at work.

And then we started running the campaign. Session 0 was via Zoom and we all got excited about it. Session 1 was a pretty standard "you wake up as felt creatures on a mysterious beach and are quickly taken prisoner by King Friday, but let loose by his royal advisor X The Owl to help him solve a global problem because reasons" plot. But it was fun and I felt so alive.

Then session 2 one of the players had to bail...and I was not going to let that prevent the session from happening, so we just worked around it. Then by the time I was scheduling session 3 that player bailed completely. Session 4 was a bit messy/rushed on my part...and then everything just started to fall apart. Weeks went by, then months, now it's been nearly 2 years I think? We never even got off the starting island...all the story I wrote...all the maps I'd created...just completely unused. And it was soul-crushing. I felt like I'd wasted my time. I felt stupid for having put so much effort into something that fell apart so quickly.

But that was a bad attitude on my part, in retrospect. It wasn't a waste. I enjoyed every second of it. It was fulfilling. It was fun. So I'm thinking about returning to it and just fleshing out the rest of the campaign a bit more. I'm hoping to watch a lot of Dimension 20 in the coming weeks to get me back in the mood and take what I learn from it and just get back into D&D. Honestly I don't know that I want to DM again because I think that core group is done for when it comes to D&D. And it's hard to imagine finding another group I feel that comfortable with, but maybe? I think it's okay to just worldbuild for worldbuilding's sake, ya know?

But I do miss playing. I miss being in-character. I miss coming up with silly backstories and goofy premises for a character. I miss talking in funny voices for other adults (my kids get the bulk of it, these days). I miss making people laugh and contributing to them having a good time. And D&D was a perfect outlet for all of that. One of these days I'm going to find the motivation and courage to just find a group of strangers to join and try to quiet the social anxiety enough to enjoy it.

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.

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?