This might be the most nonsense filled string of conflicting words I’ve read in months.

I’ve been in a cycle of doom scrolling to educate myself on the current state, anger, panic, depression, distraction, vent to my wife and friends, plan for the worst, and maybe feel a bit better. This cycle seems to repeat at least once a day, sometimes twice.

I can feel it catching up to me though. The constant anxiety and poor sleep are affecting me and I’m not really sure how to improve my mental health except to just disconnect. But then I run the risk of not being informed enough to react or plan.

I recently found out I might be able to get Austrian citizenship for me and my family because my great-grandparents fled the Nazis. Or I can potentially transfer to Australia through work. I also feel angry and cowardly for considering them as viable options. Regardless, my family and I are terrified of the possibility of full-fledged Fascism here or worse, a civil war. It wouldn’t be like our first Civil War, it’d be closer to what Ireland went through, but likely worse. I’d expect neighbors killing neighbors, LGBTQ+, liberals, and minorities targeted. The uninformed and panic-primed centrists panicking and escalating violence. It would be an excuse to exterminate folks opposed to the current regime and remake America into a Christo-Techno-Fascist nation.

But to answer your question, pretty fuckin bummed out.

Oh I totally got that. I was just trying to offer an alternative use of “reason” vs “excuse”. My parents use it too, but, as you’ve explained, in an attempt to establish hierarchy and remind me of my place.

And a shit ton of bosses who’ve done the same. I think it can be a useful tool but it’s almost never used that way.

I second Deep Rock. I’ve recently got back into Destiny 2, which could be an option too. But it’s also a lot more than a simple fps. Plus it’s infuriating and addictive.

I do it with my kids. Not because I don’t want to hear the process, I do, but I want them to think about the root cause of why they do the things they do. Oversimplified example; why didn’t you do your homework? Well, I didn’t think about it. Ok, why didn’t you think about it? I was focused on (x thing). Sure, so why weren’t you able to remember you had homework? Etc, until we find what the reason was.

It’s like a 5 whys or drill down method. The root is the reason, almost everything before it is an excuse. Essentially I’m attempting to teach them to do this on their own to improve their problem solving abilities and, because they’re both ADHD, like me, to teach them to coping skills.

But yes, at work it’s often just an excuse to push an agenda in a demeaning way.

Functionality, ease of use, and longevity taken into account, I’ll have to disagree based on my experience. Shield, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire, Raspberry Pi in that order. But if they’re planning on using it just for streaming, a Roku stick is the simplest, cheapest, and easiest option. And unless they’re already deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem, I’d avoid it too.