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™. 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.

Meshtastic long range radio systems. Off grid, user created, low bit rate but stupid long range.

I really like how far third party nerf blasters have come (worker, monkey mods XYL etc.) and really want to get into it, but I’m too old to play with kids and there’s no adult community here that would pick it up (as opposed to airsoft or paintball).

So I’m left with a nice ass blaster I spent $130 assembling, and can only plink around a small apartment with it

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 superbowl@lemmy.world community. Did you know there are owls in the desert and owls in Jamaica? Come over to the community where @anon6789@lemmy.world makes the most amazing educational posts. It’s a lot of fun.

Mapping on open street map, with camouflage as a close second.

I use lemmy

There’s this really small niche game called Warhammer 40k that I’m in to… but no one else had heard of it… :(

Also, small objects that are over-designed that have purpose or function that go largely unnoticed. Japanese style toothpicks immediately spring to mind.

Gestures broadly to about half of Lemmy

Qwerty fucking sucks. This guy Sholes who invented the typewriter put no thought into the actual letter arrangement and doomed us to this disaster.

Dvorak exists and there’s a new one called Colemak (now on windows) but they both have fundamental mistakes too. There are dozens of us on the other site debating keyboard layout design.

And for some education qwerty was originally alphabetical with the vowels on top. https://youtu.be/blRn9U9Fapg?t=625s Pause the video. *Jamming was not an issue and was not a design point. That’s common myth.

Rabbits. Rabbits are fuckin’ awesome. Did you know they don’t have paw pads like cats and dogs? There’s just fur there, which means they have less traction on slick surfaces. They can be taught to use a litterbox, too !

They also have such different personalities from cats and dogs. Netherland dwarf bunnies are twenty pounds of bunny in a 2 pound body. They’re crazy energetic and need plenty of space even though they’re tiny. The bigger a bunny gets the more chill they generally are, but the bigger the bun the more likely there will be issues with their back or other joints as they get older.

I’m a fake white supremacist on Facebook and have befriended thousands of Nazis. I report all their shitty racist posts and get their accounts banned, again and again and again.

I am in friggin love with Pathfinder 2e right now. I love how flexible the system is and yet how solid it feels. Problem is I have few people to talk to about it, because it’s basically seen as Dungeons and Dragons for people who hate the company behind Dungeons and Dragons.

I FUCKING LOVE SPACE STATION 13/14. I LOVE THE LEVEL OF DETAIL AND FREEDOM ACHIEVED WITH JUST 2D PIXELS. I LOVE BEING AN OVERWHELMED DOCTOR ON A CARELESS CAPITALIST SPACESHIP JUST TRYING TO HAVE NO ONE DIE BEFORE HIS SHIFT ENDS.

I’ve been teaching myself to make cheesecake.

I’m generally proficient in the kitchen but never bake or work with sweet things.

I’ve started with mini cheesecake and after a couple failed attempts, they’ve come out so good as to share with coworkers who tell me to make more.

One of these days, I’ll graduate to full sized.

Bonus: I’ve learned to make lemon curd from scratch. Did lime curd as an experiment once I got the lemon down.

I enjoy kitchen undertakings that are far beyond my capabilities and actually enjoy the initial fuckups because they represent progress toward getting it right.

I also tend to listen to a mix of eighties alternative and sixties jazz while I’m doing it because why wouldn’t those two genres go together?

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.