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From: Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere>
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Quit Shopping For Fun
Date: 19 May 2024 20:04:23 -0300
Organization: Bridgewater Institute for Advanced Study - Blacksmith Shop
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Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> writes:

> Quit Shopping For Fun
> =====================
> A zine with ideas to entertain yourself and others for free
> 
> Created by the FrugalGamer
> <https://thefrugalgamer.net>
> 
> [snip]
>
> Writing & Journaling
> ====================
> This doesn't work for everyone, and that's fine. But if you like, you
> can create worlds and characters, people, and events entirely in your
> head, for free. Creativity is a wonderful gift, and what most people
> don't realize it's like a muscle. Once you practice, it gets easier!

Indeed it doesn't work for everyone.  I have several friends whom I
see f2f infrequently for various reasons.  They're all university
educated, some with advanced degrees, one with a PhD in English
literature.

And I can't get them to write me letters.  They all have and use email
but the best I can evoke from them is a short paragraph, more usually
a couple of lines.  "What do you think about [whatever]?"  "What've
you been thinking about?"  More generally, "What's happenin'?" fail to
provoke a couple of dozen sentences of reflective text, let alone a
long reflection/discursion on a topic.

I admit that when I sometimes take a notion to fire off email to the one
exception to the above who lives on the opposite coast, I discover
that I'm just coming to a conclusion and it's two hours later.  It's
very pleasing to get similar email from him but he's the exception.

Now that I think of it, the same thing used to happen when I was
posting a mailing list populated similarly well educated and informed
subscribers.  Sadly, most of those subscribers have drifted away,
leaving a couple of people who post stuff from the web by hitting the
"Send this page as email" button on a web page.  Hard to work up
enthusiasm for a reply to that sort of thing but when I do, put my
thoughts in order, check that I haven't casually asserted something
that is verifiably false etc. the response from the remaining
subscribers is, once again, one-liners.

And it can't be blamed on the younger generation with a generational
slant or karoshi careers so busy that there's no time for reflection.
All my correspondents are near or past retirement age.

This post is in the way of being self-referential as it digresses on a
mentioned topic where I could have fired off a one-liner.

Well, as you say, doesn't work for everyone.

> Make Board Games
> ================
> Did you know there's an entire category of board games called
> "print and play"? Many board games can get expensive, but decades ago
> people would just make them from scratch. Check out boardgamegeek.com
> for a list of new and old DIY board games:
> 
> <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamecategory/1120/print-and-play>

One of those sites that is all js, devoid of text.  But here's a
contribution that may or may not be listed there: Spinglasses: The game

    https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.1839

-- 
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada