nafzib

The “without being signed in” part of YouTube is now no longer completely true. I tried to watch a video tutorial at work the other day and it wouldn’t play because I wasn’t signed in and so “they couldn’t be sure I wasn’t a bot”. I’m not signing into any personal stuff on my work computer, or wasting time creating a “work” Google account, so I guess YT can no longer be a place where I can get helpful programming info.

Dice.

Aside from some of the other things people have already mentioned, going to or volunteering for various festivals and conventions can be a great way to meet random people and get out of the house. If you’re volunteering you’re more likely to end up meeting more local-ish people (like from whatever nearest Metro area the event is occurring in since you said you’re super rural).

Even if you don’t meet any cool new friends you want to stay in touch with, they can be a ton of fun and are a great reason to get out of the house. I’ve ended up having some really amazing experiences that I absolutely never thought possible just because I got out and went to Conventions (mostly anime or game conventions for me, but there are all kinds).

I had a conversation with a friend about this exact kind of thing awhile back. We realized we had opposite expectations. She was under the assumption that people just kept stuff she told them secret unless specifically told that they could share it. I operate under the opposite assumption: that nothing is a secret unless the person sharing it specifically says not to share it (that applies to myself as well).

Regardless of which assumption one operates on currently, it’s much safer to operate under the latter one (I highly recommend it).

Family can be even more complicated, because in my experience even if you tell a family member to keep something a secret, that usually means, to most people, “keep it a secret from strangers” and you can bet that your other family members will find out about whatever it is you told that person.

I finally bought a Razer mouse just a couple years ago since it was one of the few I could find that was a USB receiver + Bluetooth wireless gaming mouse I could use with my desktop and steam deck. Still works great, thankfully. But otherwise I learned the hard way many years ago to just buy Logitech after purchasing a stupid expensive gaming mouse from a brand I’ve forgotten whose left click died in less than a year. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Logitech product actually die on me; I just eventually replace them with a newer Logitech product.

With Valve pumping all that development money and effort into proton, I will finally be able to go full Linux before Windows 10 ends it’s life. I only needed it for gaming, but those days are finally gone! Thanks Valve! ^_