TimesEcho

It can be a bit overwhelming, yes. I purposely did enough of the main story line in ToTK so that I could get the Hero’s Path and the Travel Medallions. And now I’m ignoring the main story and just exploring the world bit-by-bit, like I did with Breath of the Wild. I’m still thoroughly exploring Central Hyrule. I’m racking up side quests and adventures, but only doing them if I want a break from exploring or want to better my gear or something. It takes the pressure off for me to do it this slow, relaxing way. The game feels like it has hundreds of hours in it, which is what I tell myself when I get antsy. I have almost literally all the time in the world.

My favorite thing is that I use mine connected to the dock, but handheld, so that it’s the controller to what is on my TV. It also has an ethernet cable connected to the dock. Not sure if this would work for everyone. I sit on the floor on a tatami mat and the 40-something-inch TV is also on the floor. It is heavy, so my hands tend to rest on my folded legs while playing, or I’ll put a pillow on my lap for it to be a bit higher.

There’s a distinction between child-ish and child-like. So far I haven’t seen anyone say they enjoy anything child-ish (except maybe alternative song lyrics?), but all the lovely child-like responses warm my heart. I eat “sugar cereal” for dessert. Because I’m an adult and I can. Also, I make up silly songs all the time and talk to myself and my cats in silly voices.

If you have an -ism (and some would argue that we all have -isms) there is likely a 12-step group for that. What is needed for friendships to develop:

1. Repeated exposure over time. This means being able to count on seeing someone regularly, like once a week at a thing during which you actually talk to each other (so movie nights don’t work).
2. Trust. This comes either from how an event is structured (like the meeting format and principles found in a 12-step group, or the Unitarians have Small Group Connection Circles that function similarly, but without the -isms) OR from spending enough time together that sharing sensitive stuff is accepted and encouraged.
3. Reciprocity. Both people have to put in the same amount of effort. (And share the same level of sensitive stuff. One can’t overshare about their personal life if together they’ve only ever talked about books.) This means you both commit to being the one to ask to meet up if the other one did it last time, or what have you.

I’ve spent a lot of time in my adult life trying to find ways to bring people together and develop friendships. It isn’t easy and most people aren’t willing to commit to one of the three things above, so you’ll have to go to places where they do.

If you want a community without the religion, I suggest trying out the Unitarians. Each congregation is different, but they don’t have any dogma and each person is free to believe what they like. They have all the good social aspects of belonging to church without any of the toxicity in other religions.

I’m a solid 1! Chat-GPT helped me code validation for a bunch of fields in an Adobe form, the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, I have a potential solution for a different organizational need…I’m feeling energized and excited!