This is a great way to think about it... as much as I would love to completely drop the companies I hate like Microsoft or Google or Twitter, sometimes you have to use it for school/work/etc. (Good God I hate Teams.) Like food conglomerates it's just far too hard for the majority of people to live off the big tech grid.

The first time I ever heard of 15-minute cities was through conspircy theories (I like learning about them) and you're right that it is actually crazy. It's the exact same anti-vaxx crowd, who also believe 5G is harmful and similar "theories", lead by right-wing pundits and grifters whipping up outrage over nothing.

I just bought Subnautica and Cities Skylines, so I'm looking forward to playing them both.

Wow, thank you! <3 Hal is a masculine name (and I pretty much go by it all the time) but if I say my name is Halley, people just tend to assume I'm a girl. I really thought it was a gender neutral name... I'm autistic so I can't tell as easily as other people lol. I guess my advice is: when you've picked your name, ask other people whether it reads as fem or masc! I know you're cis but it can still be really annoying for people to assume you're a gender you're not because of your name.

I wanted a science-based name because I'm a little nerd lol. I considered Kelvin at some point. In the end, (and I really can't remember why I specifically chose it) I named myself after Edmond Halley -- Hal as a nickname, as a reference to HAL 9000 of course.

Honestly, I sort of regret it, because Halley isn't as gender neutral as I thought and everyone considers it a girl name. I wish I'd been more out there and straight up decided to call myself Truck or Brick or something.