I like Sleep as Android. I have had it for so many years though, I apologize that I cannot remember if it is part of the premium upgrade. Has tons of custom sleep and wake settings.
I am a light sleeper and really like that I can set it to just vibrate for a time. If that didn’t wake me up it will start a random song and increase in volume.
All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing are beautiful western novels by Cormac McCarthy. Both are very much “a boy and his horse” kind of stories about learning to be yourself. They’re loosely related and there’s a third book that brings the boys together and concludes their stories
The Jungle and Oil! by Upton Sinclair are novelizations of Sinclair’s investigative journalism work in the meat packing industry and the nascent workers rights movement respectively. Oil! was very loosely adapted into the film There Will Be Blood (the film covers maybe the first 3-4 chapters by greatly expanding upon the material
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was a very impactful book for me as a child. It’s a YA novel, but still worth a read. The main character Brian survives a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness and is forced to find a way to survive on his own
A few more recent novels that I enjoyed:
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. Won the 2024 Booker Prize (best English language novel) about an authoritarian government taking power in Ireland and how that unfolds from the perspective of a mother with young children. It’s a hard read, but very well written
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. Translated into English. A friend described it as “sexy witches in South America deal with authoritarian rule.” And that’s pretty close…
Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park. A semi-fictionalized history of the Korean Peninsula and the desire to have a unified identity. Many people come to the peninsula (same bed) with very different goals for its use (different dreams). Really fascinating book and engaging
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Follows a trio of friends as they explore the world of video game design. Starts in the early 80s and runs through the 2000s. Reminder me very much of the show Halt and Catch Fire.
My Friends by Hisham Matar. Follows a Libyan immigrant living in England in the 80s through 2010s as he wrestles with his identity, his homeland, his friends and family. Khaled’s closest friends serve as foils to his own feelings, reacting to the same circumstances very differently from himself
For literature I find 100 years of Solitude to be without equal. An absolute joy to read.
For nonfiction I have learned so much from 1491. It was recommended to me by a friend though I have never heard of it elsewhere. The premise is that basically everything we think about Native Americans before Columbus arrived is wrong. I could go on but here is one tidbit: we tend to think of Native Americans as peoples without government. Now of course there are so many different groups of peoples all over the Americas and across so many eras it’s foolish to even think of them as being this way or that way because who and when are you referring to? But there were many types of government. In fact the Incas were total bureaucrats! Anyway I’m doing a poor job selling it i know but it’s a great read.
For self-help try How to Win Friends and Influence People. I know the title sounds like it’s a guide to manipulation but it’s really not. It’s 100 years old but still holds up so well. Times change, but people don’t, you know what I mean? People 100 years later still appreciate it when you remember their name and look them in the eye and make time to listen.
May I ask, why did you like 100 years of solitude? Did you read it in Spanish or translated to another language? I read it in Spanish and can appreciate a lot of good things in it, but I always wonder how it feels like for people who don’t have a latin/Spanish background. Perhaps you do, I don’t know. Still curious!
It’s an extremely bizarre suggestion given your request. I do want to defend the game (though not the suggestion) a little though.
It initially presents as you say, but offers you opportunities to fight back in your capacity as border control. Letting in the right people can help the resistance and incite a coup, or enable you and your families escape from the country. It isn’t just Be A Good Tankie Simulator 2013, though you can play it that way too.
The Lenovo clock with Google assistant has the option for “Google impromptu” as the alarm sound. It creates a new melody every day (usually not a good one but at least is different)
new pixel with not ready for prime time gremlins, you don't say, where have i heard that before, except with every single pixel release since the dawn of time. every one.
Well, depending on what VR setup you have I can either help you set it up or it might be impossible.
Portal 2 in VR runs on a PC (a pretty good gaming PC) connected to the headset either through a cable or wirelessly. If that’s the setup you’re using, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.
If you have an Oculus/Meta Quest and only play standalone (that is, no PC is involved, everything runs on the headset), then I’m afraid that’s not good enough for Portal 2 or Half-Life 2, though there is a VR port of the original Half-Life. All you’d need for that is any PC (even potato quality) and a USB cable.
Ah, it is Meta Quest 3. I haven’t used it much. I got to play a couple levels of Portal 2 a very long time ago. It was one of the very few video games I actually enjoyed. I don’t know anything about Half-Life. I’ll ask him if he knows about it first.
Ah, ok. Playing the original Half-Life in VR is great for the nostalgia value, though probably not that great if you’re not familiar with the game itself. There’s a bunch of great VR ports of old games for the standalone Quest by developers calling themselves “Team Beef”. Doom 1, 2 and 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 1, 2, 3 AND 4, Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy… the original Tomb Raider is coming soon too.
The real draw is to see those familiar game worlds from a new perspective.
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