One of my many “I guess I’m a grown man now” moments was when I got legitimately excited to buy a ladder.

When I was little, I thought I would grow out of playing video games, as in I have a very specific memory of sitting in my 1st grade math class and just making that observation to myself. I was a 90s kid surrounded by baby boomer adults who largely were not gamers, so I just assumed one day I’d grow out of it.

On the positive side, I learned that you don’t have to give up your imagination when you grow up. I came up with elaborate make-believe worlds as kids are wont to do, and merely started adding lore and continuity and documentation when I got older. You don’t need to be writing a sci-fi novel or DMing a homebrew D&D campaign to do it, either. I worldbuild for the mere joy of pretending, or to dignify it with Tolkien’s words sub-creation.

1. I have a disability that prevents me from driving and makes it difficult to find employment without strong inside connections or outside of a few very specific niches.
2. I live in a very large, pedestrian-hostile city.
3. While my grandfather, who lacked a college education, could afford to buy a house and feed a stay-at-home wife and 8 children, I, who have no dependents and have two college degrees, cannot afford an apartment in a location that fits my needs.

I’m in my 40s and I still don’t get it. I keep asking myself when my life as an independent adult who has my own place to live and access to decent transportation will begin.

I self host a wiki and use Cloudflare as a reverse proxy to protect my IP. If you know of a similarly easy to use solution I’d love to hear it.

I just shrug and say you’re probably right. I can’t find the exact quote but it’s something like “Pacifists only exist because others do violence on their behalf” and I think it’s applicable here as well. But, look, I barely have agency over my own affairs, so I’m not going to waste energy futilely worrying about the affairs of others.

I don’t. I deliberately avoid news of any kind. It’s either too depressing or none of my business. I do not take sides. I neither condemn nor condone, I merely acknowledge that someone or something exists or that some event is occurring.

It’s not necessarily that I don’t have opinions on what I do learn through osmosis, just that I realize they’re futile or unlikely to be convincing so there’s no use discussing them. I merely exist and the rest of the world happens around me whether I like it or not.

Unhealthy? Probably, but this is the only way I have found a measure of peace.

The Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40k. We’re supposed to root for his enlightened rationalism in contrast to what the imperium would become, but he comes across as an expansionist tyrant.

Not actively learning a language, but I have a degree in Spanish, though it’s been years since I used it professionally and I no longer regard myself as proficient. Before that I took Latin throughout high school (a rare treat in a US public school AFAIK), and attempted to learn Mandarin via Duolingo in 2019.

As it happens I also construct artificial languages as a hobby after the manner of Tolkien.

“The trick is to say you’re prejudiced against all races” --Homer Simpson (OK the quote was about getting out of jury duty but I think it fits here)

Just replay: all the epic 80 hour RPGs I no longer have time for as an adult. I bought the Final Fantasy Pixel remaster collection, got a bit through FF 1, and decided I just didn’t have time. Haven’t actually played through them for the first time, but I got both Divinity Original Sin and Baldur’s Gate 3 and also only scratched the surface. I haven’t even left the intro dungeon in BG3.

Play again for the first time: Any game where discovering the mechanics is the game. Minecraft was the first such experience for me, though the discovery aspect I believe is somewhat unintentional. Mojang just didn’t bother including a proper guide or tutorials, so trial and error and/or wiki walking are the norm for new players. I bought the game when it was in beta, back when the player base was made of mostly adults with the means to give a random Swedish guy $20 via PayPal, and I miss the (very relatively) smaller community.

As for games where this self-discovery gameplay loop is intentional, definitely Tunic. I bought the game thinking it was a Zelda clone that could serve as a light-hearted palate cleanser after the bleakness of Hollow Knight and Eldin Ring. Oh, boy was I very, very wrong. I got so obsessed with trying to decipher the in-game writing system that it was effecting my sleep and I had to delete the game for a while. I ended up cheating to get all the manual pages and the good ending, but I replayed it earlier this year via Game Pass and tried to do it again without looking things up. It’s not the same as going in blind even three years later but I did manage to get all the pages and solve the related puzzle without a guide, as well as crack the writing system.

Not a personal story, but a historical confluence I find interesting and rarely have the occasion to share:

There was once a German Calvinist teacher named Joachim Neumann. He was known for his hymns, and would frequent a valley of the river Dussel to seek spiritual retreat. At the time, there was a fad for Hellenizing one’s surname, and so Neumann (New Man) became known as Neander.

The valley (German Thal/Tal) was eventually named after him. Centuries later while excavating a quarry, the remains of an archaic species of human were found and subsequently named after the valley, giving us Neanderthals. Whenever the subject of neanderthal culture comes up, I can’t help but imagine them as Calvinists.

As for a personal story, as the family IT guy, I’m often summoned to troubleshoot issues with printers and streaming boxes. As often as not my mere presence seems to resolve the issue. Now you could say having someone looking over your shoulder would make you subconsciously more careful when entering text, or force you to think through the steps of whatever you’re trying to do, so you’re less likely to mess up. But we all know the real reason, the presence of a powerful tech-adept has appeased the machine spirit.

It’s like the Barbie Museum from Rat Race.