I have family in China, I have family in the US, and I live in neither. Your average person just goes about their lives no matter where. You can be a political activist and go about your business in the US but you can’t in China (and some other countries I’ve spent a few years in). Where I’m at, I can get spinal laser surgery and pay absolutely nothing out of pocket and well, US healthcare is memed the world over. Different countries, different worries.

Governments and politics is one thing, but getting by as average people, I feel we all just do our best no matter where we are.

As a former gacha addict I totally agree. Nowadays when I get the urge to play on my phone I’ve been doing Open Sudoku, Fruity Game or Ricochlime. They don’t scratch that same itch quite right but I’m definitely wasting less of my time and money.

Yeah, hard agree with what they’re saying and like the fact that they’re delaying prison architect 2 in light of that.

Lately and because some early access games have caught my eye, I’ve been thinking about how I don’t have as much time for gaming and want the complete experience right away. If I play a game before it’s fixed or before all the content is out, most likely I’ll never play the game at it’s best because I’ve moved on already.

Yeah, exactly. A buzz in my pocket, pull out the phone, see a bunch of different distracting stuff vs glance at my wrist, know it’s a casual message from a friend I can respond to later or in rare cases, something I need to deal with immediately. It’s a lot less mental energy

Cheap but probably won’t work I’m guessing?

If you really want a cheap smart watch there’s a bunch of reliable ones worth looking into rather than getting something random on temu. I haven’t tried the Pine Time but it looks good if you like fiddling with the tech.

If you can put up with Xiaomi they make a ton of different options. I used a Mi Band for a few years and it kinda did what I wanted it to do better than my current Wear OS watch does

For me personally, I want to limit interactions with my phone by reading notifications on my wrist, only allowing certain apps to send notifications through, and maybe sending a quick reply through the watch if needed.

That said, most smart watches now are overcomplicated bloat, it’s all been downhill since the Pebble Time IMO

In this world I suppose we’d start referring to people by last names more often

I feel like they’ve had this for a while but maybe the specific situation is different. I might also be getting confused with Tapas.

Years ago I was reading “Extreme Dog Owner” while it was being released and was blocked out of latest episodes. So when the artist stopped the series it took a while before I realized the last few episodes would never get unlocked for me. Sounds like the same situation? Minus the huge piracy warnings.

Luckily I had a friend who bought it already then just read on their device.

Smart alarms on a smart watch. Set a time window where it’ll wake you up at an optimal time in your sleep cycle. Been using the one built into Sleep as Android for years, which another person also mentioned, but a lot of smart watches have smart alarms built in

I second this, been using it for years.

The smart alarm feature that senses when you’re already moving around a bit is great too, especially when used with a smart watch/fitness band of some kind

If they’re all ganging up at once, coming from all directions, I feel like it wouldn’t take that many to nip you in the nasties and go for the jugular.

Assuming there’s some kinda animal instinct where they know to go for vulnerabilities (some animals know to aim for hamstrings and necks right?) I’m not sure I could handle 10 unarmed and in regular clothes

iirc, there were some statements from companies (Microsoft?) that we won’t have to worry about AI’s effect on climate change because it’ll also come up with the solutions

It’s a style of bidet actually. I had one in a house my family lived in as a kid. Never understood it, installed a hand bidet instead and that one was left unused just sitting next to the toilet

I recommend the style of crutches that don’t go to your armpit, forearm crutches. I was on crutches for months a few years back and that was much more comfortable for me at least.

Not me but I know KPop stans will pay exorbitant amounts of money on albums not really for the CDs they come with but for the added art books, photo cards, etc. I know one young person who bought multiple copies of physical albums with CDs so that they can get access to earlier ticket sales and stuff. Also apparently some songs are CD exclusive and people get really upset when you suggest they just look for pirated rips online.

So yeah, art books, photo cards, light sticks, key chains, lots of stuff that young fans are buying from artists they follow, and some of those things still come with CDs

Introduced by a college friend. Buddy of mine was visiting my home country, we plan to meet up and he randomly and last minute tells me he’s inviting an acquaintance to our meet up. I was a bit annoyed at the sudden change in plans but turns out the rando he invited was a pretty cool lady with a lot of shared interests.

We went to a concert together that weekend, a comic convention the next and the fun kept going.

I’d rather not be specific, people do weird things with comment history and location. But I’ll say at least that I have been to more than a handful of SEA countries. Never seen the region broken down quite like you’re doing though

That’s a good one! Easy enough to just keep a napkin or two in your pocket before a movie, much more realistic than a baggie like a few people commented. Legit probably to most practical suggestion yet

That is one SEA country I haven’t been to

So am I, and I’ve been to multiple SEA countries and I’ve had popcorn in multiple restaurants. I’ll admit, it’s not common, but it’s definitely a thing that exists.