That’s interesting to know, thanks! Most coffee shops where I live would probably never get busy enough to use a spare shot. Perhaps they change out to a single shot portafilter, but I’ve never noticed.

Follow-up question - each portafilter is two shots right? So if you end up adding an third shot to a coffee, what do you do with the leftover fourth one?

(Or do you have a smaller, single shot portafilter?)

It’s possible I saw it but just forgot, with the number of games currently on my radar. Hearing about it again has reignited my interest though! Will keep an eye on it

First I’ve heard of this game. Looks interesting & the art style is neat!

Wait I’m confused… You’re asking for a fan-made mod to be added to the Switch version of Stardew? 🤔

I like the sound of this! The Starfield coffee article was funny. $7 a month miiiight be a little bit much for me - but I’ll keep an eye on this and if the journalism is decent and they put out a fair number of articles I’ll definitely consider it. I guess I used to spend around that amount on gaming magazines…

There’s a German term for nostalgia for a place you’ve never been, fernweh. Perhaps that has some connection?

Path of the Wind from My Neighbour Totoro gives me a similar feeling.

I finished TOTK yesterday! What a great game. How do you think it compares to BOTW? At some points while playing it I felt like it didn’t have the same magic as BOTW (but that’s nothing wrong with the game itself, it’s just that BOTW was such a unique experience the first time I played it). But having finished TOTK, I can really appreciate how much they changed. The sky islands, depths and all the new ultrahand mechanics are perfect additions to the formula.

There aren’t many games that can release such a stunning trailer, and then live up to that hype.

I felt like a couple of the dungeons were a bit average - the Gerudo one in particular. The Divine Beasts were a lot more memorable in my opinion. Then again, each of TOTKs dungeons felt very distinct which was nice.

Overall though, easily one of the best games on Switch and I’d probably rank it on par with BOTW.

Yeah I guess that’s my take on ‘gamifying things’, but there’s probably a few different ways to do it. I’ve heard that in psychology, rewards are a lot more effective than punishments - so maybe frame it slightly differently. Personally I wouldn’t base things on how well you do in the game, because that could get frustrating - in the worst scenario you’ll already be annoyed at doing poorly in the game, and that’s followed by having to do more work. Instead I’d spin it, so if you do all the tidying reward yourself with an hour of gaming. If you get all your chores done, you get 2 hours of gaming etc.

I agree with what others have said about gamifying life. For example, ‘oh it’s 5pm, I need to spend 30 minutes doing some tidying before I can play a game again’. And for games with no clear end point, set yourself goals so you know when to take a break. ‘Once I’ve built this factory, I need to take an hour’s break before I can play again’.

What sort of things would you try to gain knowledge in?

I hadn’t heard of that before - looks like they have some clubs in the UK so I’ll investigate. Thanks!

What do you mean by active listening exactly?

Thanks for the insight - I hadn’t considered that announcing the silence in that way could be useful, but I see what you mean.

Yes I think you’re right - sometimes I’ll feel like I need to fill a silence, and end up spewing out nonsense. Then I’ll feel embarrassed and struggle with the rest of the conversation. It’s quite hard to un-learn that feeling of silence being uncomfortable, but it would definitely give time to help me think.

I think I’m quite good at asking questions, but when it comes back the other way my mind often goes blank. It could be that I don’t perform well under pressure, so maybe I need more practice with that. Speaking slowly is a good suggestion - I find myself speaking way too fast when I want to get a point out.

I’ve had a quick look into that, and yes that does provide some good pointers for general questions to get a conversation going. What should I do if I’m the one being asked those questions and I’m floundering though?

Thanks for the heads up :) The same brand does a conditioner that is silicone free, so I’ll try that out

I ended up getting a Safari fountain pen and wow! It’s so smooth. Way better than any I’ve used in the past. I’ve been writing stuff for the hell of it just to try it out. I’m so used to pressing down with some force whilst using a ballpoint (especially the first time you use it each day) so this makes a nice change.

Thinking back to when we were made to use them at school, we were told that the nib would wear down to fit our writing style… which I think was nonsense. Pretty sure I used to use more pressure than was necessary back then, to try and get the pen to ‘mould’ faster. If I’d been taught to use them correctly maybe I’d have enjoyed it more back then.

Thanks for this! Do you reckon a product like this (Sukin Natural Balance Shampoo) would be ok? It claims to be sulfate and paraben free