I love to see this moment mentioned. It was so moving. Even thinking about it now, I have chills.

It's sad that music UX is adopting these principles, tbh. Music is inherently a long(er) form experience. It deserves separate treatment. The last thing I personally want is for music apps to try to suck my attention as much as text- and video-based apps do. I know I'm fighting against the app economy headwinds in that desire, but I still dare to dream...

I'll have to check it out. How is Tidal for music discovery? I found that GPM was great for helping me find artists with the "I'm feeling lucky" feature. YTM hasn't scratched that itch.

Part of what's kept me on YTM is that I'm still grandfathered into the GPM pricing, and I really like the ad-free feature for the rare occasions I am on YouTube. But—I could deal with giving that up!

I'm learning that second point right now and it is tough.

I love that! I may look into this as something fun to try out. Thanks for the inspiration :D

I don't generally feel as connected to what I type as to what I write, probably because my entire job involves typing all day. Writing by hand takes longer and therefore requires me to slow down and think more.

It's a little funny to me that you asked this question because a few years ago, I remarked to my partner that I don't like orange cats (in general) and she jokingly called me a cat racist. I felt so guilty about it that I was like I HAVE TO START LOVING ALL CAT APPEARANCES EQUALLY. I still feel a little guilty about it tbh 😂

Anyway, my actual answer is that black and white cats are my favourite. But I can now accept that orange cats have an allure for some folks 😆 I did know an orange cat who was lovely and I liked him a lot. Just if faced with the choice of multiple cats with personalities suited to mine, I'd pick the black and white one first.

I like gesture controls on my Pixel. It took me a bit to adjust, too, but now I can't go back. My biggest gripe is that swiping from the right side of the screen will go back or exit an app instead of letting me go forward (thinking of Chrome specifically). Also, it can be hard to crop images because the gesture area conflicts with the edge of a lot of images.

edit: typo

I'd recommend playing in release order if you're someone who tends to enjoy delving into lore. (And man, is there a LOT of lore.) I did them in reverse order originally, and although I enjoyed DAI a lot, I didn't quite get why the stakes were so high for the protag. I felt way more connected to the storyline when I returned to Inquisition after having Origins and DA2 under my belt.

My other reason for recommending chronological order is that Origins is one of the best games I've ever played. I still fire up my Xbox 360 to give it a play now and again.

Origins struck a good balance between player autonomy and the required storyline. You can pick your character's race, gender, and class at the start of the game and get a unique back story that informs how you can approach later conflicts and circumstances. Then you find out the central conflict and are presented with the different factions you need to draw together. From there, it's up to you to decide who you'll support and how you'll make it happen. You can be a true asshole to all your companions, or a Lothario, or BFFs. And the combat system is pretty good overall, despite being dated and a touch clunky. The party mechanics are fun when you get used to them.

DA2 is a perfectly serviceable game, but not one I personally enjoy replaying. Humans are the least interesting race in Thedas to me, and I'm sure that contributes.

DAI is definitely an Open World Game and therefore plagued by all the struggles these games tend to have, but I still found it really fun. Jaws of Hakkon is a great DLC for the world building element. Trespasser is basically the real ending of the game, so hopefully you'll have access to that DLC as well!

I hope you have a great experience playing these games for the first time! DA is my favourite series ever, and I love seeing folks give it a go. :)

I've interpreted your question as, "How important is it to become cultured as individual people rather than to rely on our broader cultures to provide us with values and knowledge?" I hope that's similar to what you meant.

My perspective is that individual cultivation is very important for many, although not all, people. Each person's learning and development eventually comes full circle and makes up the collective. When you engage with some cultural artefact and walk away with a new thought or perspective, it may start to inform your actions, and/or you could discuss it with those in your circle. They might think it over and share it with people they know. Even if they don't, it might plant the seeds for them to do their own reflection and seek out new avenues of learning. I think that on a general level, this is how cultural change can materialize.

So, developing one's own mind and perspective is important because doing so can and will impact broader society eventually. It also has a lot of personal benefits and IMO is good practice for its own sake.

edits: clarity

YES, this is such a peeve for me!!! I've developed an aversion to viewing video content unless it's for something I truly need to see done. And even then, I'm more likely to check wikihow and endure their gifs than I am to watch someone's video. It's just so overdone.

I guess it depends on what I'm at my breaking point about. In prior times, it would have been my spouse. Now that I'm considering leaving them, it's been my handful of close friends from school. I trust their judgement and advice, and they've always been a supportive presence despite the many stressors of the past few years. I know if things got really bad, they'd take me in temporarily or try to help however was in their means.