When I started out on this site a couple weeks ago, I was definitely still spending more time on Reddit than Tildes. But gradually it shifted, and I got more confident about commenting/posting, getting involved in the community and content generation, and now Tildes makes up the majority of my social media time. So just keep using both and don't be afraid to get involved, if Tildes is for you, I think you'll naturally gravitate. :)

That depends on whether Rammstein counts as Eurobeat.

I don’t have access to my computer right now so I can’t post my mod list but here are a few highlights...

• Wildcat

• Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul

• Immersive Armors & Immersive Weapons

Can I share my meditation metaphor?

Imagine your mind as a clear glass of water, with some part of it also containing sand.

When you have stress, the glass swirls around and the water becomes cloudy with sand. Every time you dwell on the stress, or make attempts to avoid it, your mind continues to swirl with sand.

When you actively seek stillness and perspective, the glass stops swirling. The sand slowly settles on the bottom – allowing you to watch each sediment closely as it floats downward – until finally the water above becomes clear.

If you practice often, the stress doesn't go anywhere, but over time the glass doesn't swirl as much or as strongly.

Reminds me of the classic Minecraft from years ago when servers were pretty much just free-for-all creative (with some moderation so people didn’t grief). It was incredible what some people built, especially back then before there were tools to help build larger structures.

This is a reason why I enjoy modded Minecraft, and right now Sky Factory 3 specifically, I just put The Office on one monitor, and play on another. If I want I can just do simple farming or building, or I can work more actively towards a goal. It’s super relaxing, I love getting sidetracked and grinding to craft stuff, forgetting what it’s for, and coming back to it later. It’s super chill, and I love how much stuff there is to do.

raises hand

4chan definitely deserves its reputation, it's filled with nazis, misogynists, racists, etc. It's not a good place by any means, the total anonymity and largely non-existent moderation ensure that. But that anonymity also allows a level of truthfulness and openness that I don't think exists anywhere else on the web. Amongst the muck there are some truly sensitive, caring individuals there. There's a reason the site birthed the "feels" meme. I'd speculate that part of the reason 4chan is so toxic is that it's home to many sad, deeply hurt people.

I think some books are certainly more relaxing than others. Like, I know a lot of people like them, but if you can't get into them, the Lord of the Rings trilogy is dense. It may sound kinda silly, but one book I've liked recently is "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up." Honestly, you don't even have to follow the advice in the book for it to relax you, because I find her prose charming, and the way she appreciates things makes for a nice read. I also like "Daily Rituals," which is a book that basically explains the daily habits of many famous authors, artists, scientists, etc. which is both interesting and relaxing, as I think seeing people's habits like that both gives you some insight into their personality, and also humanizes them (we tend not to focus on how repetitive work is when other people do it!). "Letters of Note" also fits into this "relaxing book" category, with a collection of interesting letters and a backstory to the letter. Many are letters to friends or relatives with advice from famous authors, some are carefully responded-to fan mail, and some are well-written or noteworthy letters about important events.

Another option I like is a "microhistory" book—a book on a very small (so likely something you don't know a lot about, making learning about them more enjoyable) aspect of history. One I'm reading right now is a gorgeous book called "Bitten by the Witch Fever" which is about the history of the use of arsenic in wallpapers in Victorian homes, even though they knew the dangers of arsenic! Chapters discussing the knowledge of use of arsenic as a murder tool, as a dye material, and it falling out of favor, are interspersed with gorgeous full color prints of samples of wallpaper. Another one I like is called "The Cheater's Guide to Baseball," which discusses the history of baseball and cheating, from relatively innocuous and legal things that might be seen as unsportsmanlike to those unfamiliar with baseball (players faking the tag, the hidden ball trick, tricky groundskeeping) through the illegal but not banworthy (throwing spitballs, corking bats) to the things that resulted in bans (the Black Sox scandal).

Finally, I do find that even some books not seen as relaxing can be still good for avoiding other stresses, as you become engrossed in the book and forget about whatever the problem was. I don't think Dan Brown is a good writer, and I don't think his books are very good. However, they are page-turners, and "Angels and Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code" can certainly keep you hooked if you don't get turned off by his writing (some people do). Harder to get into, but certainly fascinating is "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's very experimental in parts (you'll see what I mean), but it involves a documentary that may or may not exist about a house that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside, and the house becomes more labyrinthine as time goes on.

I don't particularly recommend "heavy" books for relaxing, nor much horror (House of Leaves is horror, but not in the same way that "It" is horror) because these tend to cause stress in my experience.

What I did as I'm really into EDM was I tried to mimic my favourite artists, then from there I would go about to creating my own versions and eventually my own original music from the tools and knowledge I've learned along the way. I'd recommend just going down a trip on YouTube to see how to work with your DAW and what plugins and tools that may come handy.