The Game Boy line of handheld consoles revolutionized the gaming industry and were fascinating devices, even if they had some absolutely bizarre models and accessories at times. Did you know there existed (but was never used) a Game Boy Color accessory used to anesthetize children before surgery? True story.

Youtube Poops, when done well, are the best example of modern punk art. DaThings is a true genius when it comes to turning commercials and narrated content into pro-communist, anti-capitalist, anti-police state propaganda and I fucking love it. It’s true art and I wish it not only had a bigger following, but was respected as an art medium.

sunsets not lasting long enough. fuck. I need more time for my brain to enjoy my favorite cosmic thing before going back to "screen and need more food" mode.

Actually my self esteem increased this past few years but I won't pass up an ADHD infodump opportunity. DDR is, IMO, the most efficient path for videogamer enthusiasts to transition to healthy exercise.

DanceDanceRevolution (DDR) is an arcade rhythm game that is certainly not dead, much to your surprise perhaps. The Japanese arcade scene is a whole, far more in depth iceberg to chip at, but trust me when I say Konami focusing on machines did not (only) mean pachinko machines, it also meant their multiple arcade rhythm games under the Bemani brand.

I am not kidding when I say there was a DDR setup in my middle school in southern USA. I started a bit there, but I never got real dedicated gameplay until there was a new DDR cabinet installed at both Dave and Busters and a local arcade joint. Having access to a machine can be substituted by a home pad. Please, buy the L-TEK pad without the bar. Cheapest exercise equipment out there at 250 + shipping from Poland.

You start off just browsing the songs in the roster until you find ones you like. There's some token English licensed songs, but the bulk come from Konami original songs and a selection from the massive library that is the Rhythm Game Song Genre(TM). Most weebs get their beginnings from anime OPs and TouHou and Vocaloid, so if you have early YouTube nostalgia jump right into Bad Apple and Night of Nights. Later on you get addicted to the super high BPM (400+) techno mixes of the "Boss" songs (more on that later).

So how is gameplay? Visually, four lanes of arrows travel from the bottom to the top, indicating when you have to step and in what direction on the four directional pads at your feet. You should learn quickly that keeping your feet on the arrows and never stepping in the center is the key to actual gameplay. The song's patterns are designed to lead one into another. It's far from dancing, but you transition from paying attention to each arrow to just stepping to the beat. You internalize patterns and you get better, right?

But then, there's a hurdle. Some songs demand you turn your hips and move your right foot on the left pad and vice versa. Difficulty is based on number 1 to 19, so you keep track that you can pass 11s, but not 12s. Each new song introduces new patterns in ordering and timing. Your old highest level becomes your warmups as you get better and better. You start to take a liking to faster, more complex rhythms like triplets, syncopated notes, and more sounds that a drummer doing prog rock would grok. One particular song has you galloping like a horse to Japanese festival music. If you know, you know.

But there's a catch, a limitation: your own body. Nearing difficulty 12 and 13, you're doing the equivalent of a decent jog for around two minutes, right? You might start needing some time between songs to take a break and drink some water. At 14 and 15, you're going for something called High Intensity Interval Training. That is, you go at your MAXIMUM SPEED for as long as the song demands you go. You don't give up because that means losing and you paid for this arcade game, right? You push and push and sometimes fall over, but eventually you're running ragged at 600 steps per minute begging that your life bar doesn't sink anymore. You need more training. The next song is 440 BPM with 880 steps per minute.

You want it. You want to play the harder songs in the difficulty ranking. You start to jog outside of the game on treadmills and otherwise. You put on the same heartrending songs and you find yourself sprinting desperately for 2 minute bursts because it's impossible to stop while the song is playing. I'm running for almost an hour straight, and I get a head start at running progress because of my DDR experience! It pays off and you can play up to 15s, but there's still 4 more levels until you get to 19. Over 4 years (at college, see?) I bike to the arcade, I play my heart out, I bike back. My blood pressure decreases, I breathe slower and deeper, and my snacking habits are at least counteracted. Best videogame of my life.

Only downside? I can't convince anyone outside of the rhythm gamers at the arcade that the music is good. The rhythms of those "Boss" songs are etched into your soul by the end. I can namedrop MAX 300 and everyone in the scene can practically play the song out in their heads. It's literally a lifestyle hobby, and a rather healthy one at that.

The US telecom industry bothers me so much. ISPs and carriers are basically allowed to do whatever they want and charge whatever price they see fit. There's little competition and any attempt to open the market is shot down as anti-competitive by Republicans, which makes no sense to me.

I'm the only person I know who speaks any toki pona or esperanto lol. I'm not very good at either of them (still learning) but still.

Wetshaving.

It's actually a pretty common way of shaving, but I'm enthusiastic enough about it to post stuff online.

Bad cult movies and documentaries.

Birds. I guess it doesn't feel that niche because I know lots of people are into bird watching, but it's my thing.

There's this app called Merlin that I swear to god is magic. You can just open your mic and it'll listen to and identify all of the birds you're hearing.

And it really works! For the longest time, it kept identifying a Carolina Wren in my yard, and I thought it was just wrong. I'll be damned if I didn't eventually see that wren, and now it frequents the bird feeder I set up on my deck. It's just my shyest bird. But the app knew it was out there.

I've learned so much about birds and identifying them from using the app. And I've gotten really into how, when, and what to feed birds because I want to find more different kinds, and I just love watching them on the deck interacting. I call it my cat TV haha

I'm also learning a ton about owls specifically over on the [email protected] community. Did you know there are owls in the desert and owls in Jamaica? Come over to the community where @[email protected] makes the most amazing educational posts. It's a lot of fun.

Moonshell 2 was a better multimedia software than any current proprietary or FOSS software available.

Supported every popular audio codec, the proprietary DS mpeg video codec, MOD and chiptune formats, various picture formats, text files, and music playlists.

The audio player had a builtin equalizer, would automatically turn off the screen for battery, and could very easily be controlled by the DS's trigger buttons when closed.

I can actually name several android music players that don't support playlist files, it's actually absurd. VLC doesn't even generate relative path M3Us.

No one cares about my opinion because no one uses the DS anymore, let alone as a multimedia device.

I turned my teenage hobby into my career. I see a lot of content against that kind of thing (don't ruin your hobby), but I love it.

It has also skyrocketed my upward mobility because I don't see my work as work, for the most part, and I didn't enter the job market with only a degree to prove my competence in the field (also experience). After ~10 years working, maybe I will change my mind in another 10 years.

There's nothing more satisfying than sticking a reverse pre.

I like lore dumping on people who have some understanding of what I'm talking about.

I don't have much interest in explaining everything to someone who knows *nothingď about it, but if they have a vague understanding/interest in the topic, enough that I know they can understand what I'm talking about, I could talk for hours. And have.

Once while playing Halo, a friend of a friend asked the group why something was the way it was. I told him I can give him the short answer in about 30 seconds, or the long answer which will be very long. He wanted long answer.

Three hours later only two other people were still listening, he knew the entire context of his answer, and he knew never to ask for the long answer again.

I've done tye same for star trek multiple times.

But give me someone who doesn't know the first thing about either and they would have to be super interested to learn for me to keep going. I don't do well with blank stares.

The funny thing is it isn't any specific thing either. It's not just halo or star trek or even Sci fi or games. Its anything I have interest in and know a lot about.

It's that a "weird niche thing" or just a "weird quirk about weird niche things"?

I like to 3D print, mostly functional things like shelving and hose coupling for venting.