There was a weekend in 2006 where I had absolutely nothing to do despite a full schedule for months on either side. I stayed in my apartment and played video games and just existed happily without being molested for three whole days.

I have had children and received promotions and all of that, but all of those experiences are laced with a bit of anxiety. That weekend though was just pure, light joy for three days and it is something I revisit mentally, constantly. Make sure to enjoy those little times too.

As an counter example as something that you may not think of as therapeutically relevant, there are a whole class of Platinum based anti-cancer drugs.

Well I use mine every night and sleep fine. I could also be a robot as you suggest too.

Check out bone conduction headphones.

The audio quality is not the best but it more than enough for podcasts or youtube content. They are much more comfortable for me as long as the volume is relatively low or else the vibration starts to become annoying. I would recommend trying them out if you can from a friend or order some expecting to return them because they aren’t for everyone but if you are like me you won’t want to use anything else.

I went to a John Kerry Rally in 2004. I got there about 30 minutes late and for whatever reason was ushered up to the front corral of people. Inexplicably, Bon Jovi takes the stage and shouts, “You what George Bush’s financial policy is? Bad Medicine!” and launches into the song ‘Bad Medicine’. I started laughing my ass off because it was corny as shit and Bon Jovi and I made eye contact for a brief second.

YMMV

Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball for the SNES.

It’s referencing the final scene of The Graduate (1967). You can watch it here..

I didn’t realize they actually used the exact church. Wayne’s World 2 scene for reference

One day a coworker of mine was walking into our huge office building and thought he saw a mitten on the ground of the lobby. When he picked it up it was actually a pair of lacy women’s underwear. Ostensibly it fell out of someone’s gym bag or got caught in their pant leg in the laundry and dislodged there. He drops it immediately and comes into the office. He doesn’t mention this to anyone.

Two hours later the main receptionist comes in with the underwear in front of our whole group and says she saw him drop these this morning and she wants to return them. He’s denying the whole thing and at this point none of us have the previous context and all locked in to the conversation and silent laughing. She says, “We just want to give these back in case they have sentimental value!” and the the whole group is dying laughing now. He eventually convinces her he isn’t interested in a stranger’s underwear (which she bare handing) to which she says she’ll keep them in case he changes his mind (???).

It’s been 5 years and it gets brought up nearly daily

All I know that if this works intraspecies, dentists would collect all the powers of various people through incidental biting like Megaman.

One of the chillest, good vibe albums I have ever listen to blind was Masayoshi Takanaka’s - All of me.

The youtube comment that was at the top of the video that I listened to years ago summed up the experience nicely, "No one searches for this album, it finds you when you need it.

I wouldn’t be surprised!

Years ago I worked for a healthcare IT company that had its developers, IT administrators, and help desk all reporting to the CTO. The CTO was an MD with a computer science degree from a prestigious university.

I was in a different department entirely but I was invited to a presentation he was giving and came to the conference room a bit early. I walked in to him in a full panic trying to connect his laptop to the projector. I plugged in the HMDI and hit Win + P and he reacted like I had just defused a bomb. Really made it hard to take seriously his five year strategic plan for all of our IT projects.

A year later he took extended leave to travel internationally and came back to work with a full perm and added the word “tree” to his last name. He lasted about 6 more weeks before he announced he was leaving. He is now the CIO of a large university.

Any of the 4x/grand strategy type games (e.g., Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, Civilization). I don’t really enjoy the menu management of some of those games and the density of information and mechanics is anxiety inducing. However the emergent narrative those games provide really interests me so watching someone else play is the best way to access what I enjoy about those games.

Oh yeah, it wouldn’t fit the prompt but it’s a banger of a song is all.

Mute City is amazing but Big Blue is just so good.

I just replayed ALttP again using the Randomizer mod where it changes the location of all the items while making sure the game can be completed. The score of that game is incredible.

The two songs that I remember being awestruck by were:

1. Gerudo Valley from Ocarina of Time on the N64, and
2. Cosmo Canyon from FF7 on the PS1

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I’ll add an experience I had in the inverse.

Friend of mine who works in film and has a great appreciation for interesting movies recommended me the movie Barbarian. He was talking about the major plot points but only got about 20% of the way through before saying there was a twist and I stopped him because it sounded interesting. I downloaded it on my tablet and promptly forgot about it.

About a year later I was on a flight and decided to give it a shot. At exactly 21% of the way through the movie the plot shifts and becomes exactly the type of movie you should not be watching on a flight surrounded by coworkers. I was too engrossed to register that, watched the whole thing, then had the pleasure of explaining to my pearl clutching coworkers what it was.

Great movie by the way.

On my 8th birthday my dad took a couple friends and I out to dinner and we stopped to buy a video game. My friends and I were arguing about what to get and my dad came by a couple times to get us to hurry up. Finally he said we had to make a decision and ushered us up to the cashier.

As soon as the cashier started to talk a truck off the highway that was above the store crashed through the side wall of the shop with enough speed to hit through every aisle and collapse all the shelving to the back as well as ripping down the ceiling. The guy was covered in blood and slumped over the wheel. No one was hurt in the store luckily, but we all would have been killed if we argued any longer in that aisle. My dad just got us into the car and we drove home. Afterward my dad would just downplay it whenever I would bring it up.