Wanted to learn a 4a combo for a change. So here we go.

These just landed from Japan this morning. I had my expectations they were going to be a gigantic waste of money and play like total crap… but I’ve gotta say. The really aren’t all that bad. Obviously they’re not super practical but they fit easily in my pocket and get the job done. With more practice they’ll be a lot of fun. I will admit that they are somewhat scary but I keep the strings short enough to wear even if I cast one out the wrong way and it sleeps it just does a full inside around the world and barely misses my face. They are tiny metal weapons for sure. Only thing that’s got me bummed is they require an extremely thin string to play properly and I only got one each so now I gotta figure that out so I can mess around and find the best string length to get them to be even more playable. At the end of the day were they worth the $175 shipped… Ive purchased dumber things 😅

It felt good to finally get it down after like a week and some change screwing it up.

This one feels good

I know it’s weird, but I just miss hearing from him, I hope he’s doing good.

I’m having a rough patch with SAD and need a podcast to binge on - an intriguing story that occupies my mind this weekend. I mostly listen to “serious” podcasts right now - think business, psychology, self help, health so I’m looking for something not in this realm.

The last podcast that captivated me was Stop Rewind: Lost Boy. Open to multiple topics but No true crime that is too gory or involves abuse.

I love the kind of journalism/social commentary where the podcaster either is or becomes very much a character in their own story, or immerse themselves fully in the subject matter. Often there’s something a bit ethically dicey that they have to address at some point (though not always).

Stuff like:

Cement City - where they buy and live in a house in the town they’re reporting on

Embedded: Alternate Realities - making a bet with his dad about the veracity of his conspiracy theory beliefs and their impact on the family

Your Own Backyard - reporting on a crime from his part of the states and generating enough evidence to be a big part of later proceedings

Ghost Story - investigating in-law family secrets much to their general ire

Other examples: Heavyweight, Finding Richard Simmons, S-Town, The Dream, Mystery Show, Shell Game…

Any more people can think of?

Edit: there’s nothing better than going on a break at work and seeing so many podcast recommendations! Thank you all. Gonna …

Like John Coffey said in the Green Mile…, “I’m tired, boss. Mostly I’m tired of people being ugly to each other.”

My usual podcasts have been listening to survival stories and true crime. Now I need podcast recommendations of people being nice, being kind. I need something that is pleasant and lovely and light.

I’ve loved certain episodes of Heavyweight for that reason, but would love recommendations. Preferably at least 45 minutes to an hour in length.

Pineapple Street Studios was my favorite production company. Sooo many great investigative style short series came out of their shop.

I’ve been looking for another good one to listen to so looked them up and found this article..

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/narrative-podcasts-gone-serial-over-my-dead-body-1235409945/

I’m kind of devastated as this is literally my favorite genre. Are there other studios still making this style??

Edit - folks were asking for some of my faves from this studio:

The Headlong series with Dan Taberski: Finding Richard Simmons, Running from Cops, Surviving Y2K

Hysterical with Dan Taberski

⁹⁄₁₂ with Dan Taberski (unfortunately behind a paywall now)

Classy with Jonathan Menjivar

Stay Away from Matthew McGill

Love Thy Neighbor: four days in Crown Heights that changed New York

Ghost Story

Wind of Change

I thought there were more from this studio because I listened to alot of this style….but it just may …

My 10 yo and I are going to be in a car for 6 or 7 hours and I would like to find a podcast we’d both enjoy. I am looking for something non-fiction and engaging, he’s very into science and space, but is a curious kid and would definitely be interested in various other topics like history for example. It can be in English or French. Thanks!

I’m in a reading slump and i’m looking for something to get me out of it. I figured a good old spicy book might do the trick.

I’m looking for something that is gloriously smutty. i’m talking about my toes curling already in chapter 1. i’m open to men, minotaurs and even krakens. I have ZERO triggers. I just want to have a good smutty time.

But the problem with some of these (like fanfic) that I’ve tried reading is that they are full of typos and there aren’t many books written well. It’s just repetitive smut and I end up not getting into it.

I want there to be a plot and romance too, so I feel satisfied when I reach the end of the book.

Let me know. What’s the smuttiest book that you’ve read, that’s also written well?

UPDATE OF BEST RECOMMENDATIONS IN THIS THREAD:

Thanks so much for the specific suggestions! After scrolling through the comments and reading the sample chapters on Amazon, these are what I LOVE where …

I’m looking for recs of meaningful books that I can relate to in my current chapter of life where I’m no longer a 20-something. Specifically, focusing on women 35+ years old. I want to read other women’s stories, see how they navigate life.

But I want this to be great writing. Captivating plot that pulls you in. Can be funny. Or serious. And anything in between.

I just rewatched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and it ruined me again. Usually, romances follow the “chase” or the “happily ever after” formula. This one starts at the end of the relationship and deconstructs it while still being a heart-wrenching love story.

That’s why I love it. I feels so original. I want to read a romance book where I can actually be surprised, which doesn’t go into the ACT 3 miscommunication trope yet again.

• I don’t mind subverted archetypes. I’d love to find a story where the MMC is actually the “sunshine” character and the FMC is the “grumpy” one.
• I don’t care if it’s Fantasy, Contemporary or even Monster Romance.
• I don’t mind books that are unhinged but please, no romancing doors or forks, that is where i draw the line.
• I don’t care if it’s excessively smutty or sentimental, written by a horny human or one that you know had actually had their heart broken. …

!…explained any of the mystery. That’s the book rec I need. I would give my left arm for a sequel, where Jacqueline Harpman gave us all the answers and ideally shook us to the core. I want a mystery rec where the clues make no sense but it all comes together with a plot twist or ending that leaves the reader speechless. Please and thank you.!<

Y’all, don’t laugh but, charlottes web DESTROYED ME as a child. Recently re read it and it’s still sad as hell. I was never the same after that book. I hadn’t experienced that level of sadness in my every day life, and up until that point the books I read had happy endings.

I’m curious to know if other people have books that you were just not the same after reading

I’ve started a book club with my friend and our aim is to read the most terrible, unhinged, cringey books we can find. So far we’ve done Morning Glory Milking Farm, Ice Planet Barbarians and Belinda Blinked. Not looking for any particular genre!

https://backloggd.com/u/mjf314/list/if-you-like-this-game-play-these-similar-games/

For each of 100 games, I searched for Reddit threads where people ask for recommendations of similar games. Then I checked 4-6 of the threads to see what games were most frequently recommended, and I listed the top 6 recommendations.

Some newer games might be under-recommended because they didn’t exist at the time the threads were created. For example, Mario is the #1 recommendation for Astro Bot, but Astro Bot isn’t recommended for Mario, because some of those threads were created before Astro Bot existed.

I hope someone finds the list useful!

(I asked the mods, and they said it was ok to make this post)

Example:

- Firewatch

- Gone Home (theres nothing really happening but it gives that vibe)

I’m getting fed up with all the GTA V rampages, the CoD killing sprees and even the Red Dead Redemption shootouts.

I’m looking for a game where resorting to violence means something. It has to be your last resort, it should mean something to put a bullet in someone. You have to feel the consequences and you’ll think twice about taking someone out.

Any suggestions?

Hello,

Yes, you read that right. Yes, you probably partook in fantasy racism as well if you like dwarves and dislikes elves. Middle-Earth is full of it. Probably the most heated race war with many different IPs integrating it in some way or another.

I’m looking for games that integrate some sort of fantasy racism in it for world building. The Elder Scrolls did a great job with it. You know it’s there, you see examples, you might even be the victim of it, but it’s not in your face. The racism is used to better shape the world, not to actively promote racism.

Dungeons & Dragons also does this. Drows get it, Duergar get it, Tieflings get it, Half Elves get it from Elves and Humans for being a hybrid, etc. D&D games however, tend to not integrate the racism as world building, or maybe not mention it at all. Playing the Baldur’s Gate trilogy, can’t say it was that noticeable, especially in the 3rd game.

Warhammer is a franchise that really …

Hello. I’m sad at the world at the moment and feeling a bit hopeless, so I have the urge to try and create a utopian society. Please suggest me a management, or building, or strategy game or anything where I can build a better world.

Just like the title said, any game recommendations where you played as a normal villager and got an opportunity to become a knight or a servant of the king? i prefer it to have a story, but it’s optional. Trying to find game like this, I can’t really find a game that scratches the itch, maybe like kingdom come deliverence or bannerlord franchises cause i rlly like those to, just tryna find other games like those

edit : yo guys pls read the whole line 😭🙏 (sorry if the paragraph abit hard to understand english isnt my birth language)

My version of the shortcut:

• Checks current app. If photos, youtube or safari, Toggle Orientation
• Then Get Current Focus
  • If Focus = Sleep, Toggle Flashlight ( If Im getting ready for bed or woke up, or went to check on my kids, the flashlight is probably what I want )
  • If Focus = Grocery ( Created based on location ), open my shopping list, shared with my family
  • If Focus = Work ( Again, based on work location to mute non-work notifications ), creates a menu to choose which Microsoft app I want to open. I used to use “Office” but they turned that into this crappy Copilot app
  • If Focus = Personal, Open my home security app
• Otherwise, do nothing

So basically, itll toggle orientation as needed and do location-relevant things elsewhere.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/44067e89d49748dfb168ab116d53a76c

If you are familiar with the Shortcuts app, it should take about 30 seconds to set up, but if unfamiliar with the Shortcuts app, detailed steps are provided for setup found [here](https://ibanks.craft.me/fdaLQURYbNjYwS).

Download [Widget for Messages](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/widget-for-messages/id6748969237) from the App Store.

What’s changed…

- Fixed blank text in Live Activities on CarPlay

- Made the contact photo on the CarPlay’s Live Activity slightly smaller

- Fixed contact images and unread count badges displaying as all white on widgets when tinting/accent color is applied to Home Screen

- Optimized contact matching for regional formatting

- Fix for unread badge not respecting toggle on lock screen widgets. (Thanks Jarrett for the bug report)

- Live Activities on CarPlay supports 2 lines of text

Features

- Small, medium, and large widgets.

- Open directly to a chat conversation within the Messages app just by tapping on the conversation in the …

Been building automations obsessively for the past month. The main ones:

∙	**Morning routine** that fires when alarm is dismissed: shows daily intention, weather, top 3 tasks

∙	**Auto focus mode** when I open Notion or my calendar

∙	One-tap **detox mode**: greyscale + DND + hides social apps from home screen

∙	**Evening** wind-down: disables email and social notifications after 9pm automatically

∙	**Financial logger** that prompts me to log a transaction and appends it to Google 

Honestly transformed how I use my phone. Went from checking it constantly to it feeling like a tool again.

Would people here actually want this as a downloadable pack? Or is half the value in building it yourself? Really invested in this, please give me feedback!!!

I’m building a small Shortcuts project called MIX Actions.

The idea is simple: open one panel and run useful actions instantly.

Current actions:

• Music On

• Count days

• Translate text

• Flip a coin

• Search password

• Quick note

I removed categories after feedback and made everything a direct action.

Still experimenting and open to ideas.

Wassup guys. Made a full AI agent entirely out of Shortcuts, with function calls and skills. This project includes 19 parts:

Sometimes I’ll be looking at something and I just want to remind myself of it later but I am also extremely lazy. This shortcut works best if put in your control center to launch. It takes a screenshot, OCRs, passes to a model (I just use the Apple cloud one), turns the ocr into a reminder (like with an appropriate title) then puts it in my reminders. I include the screenshot in the notes portion of the reminder as a fallback if I can’t remember what I was trying to remind myself of. Feel free to tweak the prompt, reminder times, etc to meet your needs. I actually use this pretty often and the utility is pretty high. Enjoy!