“thinks the Japanese are evil” needs to be a lot bigger…

Wear a face mask at the airport, and you’ll never get a surprise facial recognition photo again.

Have you never heard of a “career change”?

Certainly not the studio’s best work but far from bad

I haven’t seen a TV ad in years; who’s out there talking about Pueblo?

Aspen has been experiencing a deep housing crisis for years. They have to bus in most of their workers from nearby towns because no one who has to work for a living can afford to live in Aspen. Now there’s a worker shortage because no one can afford to live in the outlying towns either.

For NM I’d say Roswell; 5th largest city (48k population) but well known b/c aliens

I think Seville and Pamplona are well known, for the Barber of Seville and the running of the bulls respectively.

Unfortunately Idaho has really incredible geology and ecology. The panhandle is nestled in a beautiful mountain range with lush pines and scenic towns like Wallace and Sandpoint. The southern regions have their gems too: Craters of the Moon for instance is one of the best western parks you’ve never heard of. Idaho is a gorgeous state, and it’s a complete shame how insane “libertarian” politics have turned it into a horror show.

Crazy thought, but what if it differed by industry? Something like blue collar jobs get Monday off, white collar gets Friday off. That way office workers can for example more easily stay home to get their cable serviced and plumbers can more easily meet with a mortgage agent. Obviously because of overlap it’s not perfect (office workers can’t meet with mortgage agent, plumbers can’t get their cable serviced), but there’s a huge issue currently with people working 9-5 M-F being unable to access services that are also only available 9-5 M-F, so this would at least distribute things a little more. (This kind of thing already exists for some industries like restaurants, where W-Su workweeks are common)

Hence why the members of c/fuckcars are so intense (I include myself in this).

The only practical way to avoid exposure to society’s car dominance in your everyday life is to live far from society… Which ironically forces you to own a car and drive to get literally anywhere.

To your “edit” point: Don’t take a handful of downvotes personally; it’s pretty easy to do accidentally on mobile so they may have been unintentional

A reason that everyone should get behind:

AI = increased carbon emissions for a product that won’t even be useful because AI is really unreliable.

Agree with everyone else that this isn’t normal for someone your age and get a second opinion.

However addressing your other questions: you’re at an age where lifestyle starts to really matter. Diet, exercise, ergonomics, environmental exposure to pollution/toxins, alcohol/drug use, sleep habits: these are all things that many healthy young adults can avoid having to worry about… until suddenly they can’t anymore. It is common, especially starting around age 30, to find there’s unhealthy behaviors from your teens and 20s that you just can’t do or do to excess anymore. It’s different for everyone; for some people it’s that they can’t sleep on a crappy mattress anymore, or drink certain types of liquor, or pull all nighters, or eat garbage, etc etc.

So while it sounds like you have some personal health issues outside of what’s “normal,” you still are at an age where the cumulative effects of a poor lifestyle can start to catch up to you. I think a lot of people greatly underestimate how sedentary their lifestyles are in particular, and of all the behaviors to change for the better as you age, going from sedentary to active is probably the hardest, given that our world is built to keep us sitting: sitting in our cars, sitting at our desks, sitting on our couches, basically sitting from the moment we wake until we go to sleep. Humans never lived like this until very recently: basically every decade since the personal automobile became the standard mode of transportation it’s steadily gotten worse. So yes, definitely do some doctor shopping, but now is also a great age to take stock in your lifestyle and how you’re treating your body. Because yes, it does get a little harder each year, but the speed of which it gets harder is at least partially up to you.

Seconds 1-6: oh no, OP doesn’t know what “oddly satisfying” means

Seconds 7-19: scratch that

No sugar. It’s important to start with good coffee (freshly ground beans of decent quality), then I will often add milk. While I do enjoy black coffee the milk makes it even better, and more importantly it helps temper the caffeine (especially if I’m drinking it on an empty stomach). I picked it up in Japan where “milk coffee” and “milk tea” are popular (although they often add sweeteners, but I find the milk is sweet enough).

Have you tried exploring the wonderful world of tea? There are SO many kinds and varieties, so maybe that’s more your thing than coffee. My advice is to go to a local tea shop rather than buy from the grocery store; the quality difference is astounding, and don’t be afraid of looseleaf tea. Same thing with tea as coffee, you can add milk for a richer, creamier taste; because there’s so many varieties of tea out there milk won’t taste good with many of them (clashing flavors, or the milk overpowers the subtle tea flavor), but I’ve also tried some where the milk made the flavor of the tea stronger somehow. Milk + Jasmine/English Breakfast are great starting points.

(Edit to add: poor-quality and oversteeped tea will taste bitter and you’ll be tempted to add sugar; I used to be lazy and drink my tea out of the same mug I was steeping it in but I now am diligent about keeping steeping time to 3-4 minutes.)

I don’t abuse coffee because it’s a stimulant, I abuse coffee because it’s fucking delicious.

I think Costco glasses are a good deal, even if you have to buy a one-year membership to get them. Don’t know if they’re available online, but don’t you want to try glasses on in person to make sure they fit and are comfortable?

Audiences aren’t sick of superhero movies, they’re sick of BAD superhero movies.

Societal pressure to have children is a huge factor for sure. I’ve heard from previous generations in my family that during the baby boom era, rumors would circulate in their community if you didn’t have enough children, like “something must be wrong with the Johnsons down the street because they only ever had two kids” (and this was in upper-middle class WASP America).

Obviously this attitude continues today in certain communities (Mormons, small rural towns, etc), but it’s no longer as prevalent.