Oryaw

Suspended my account on this site for well beyond 5 years after disagreeing with the banning of one of KYM's most infamous negative karma whores. Peak pettiness, lads.

The latest news update for Gmod requests users to remove all Nintendo content

Very unfortunate update considering how long the content has been allowed to exist for the game, as far back as the website that was used to hold downloadable mods.

For the last seven or so years, much of what you have said was why I didn't feel the emotional enjoyment that comes from celebrating the holidays. As a child you generally carry a greater sense of optimism about life and thus a different set of expectations about Christmas that gradually whittled down once the worries and burdens of adulthood take hold. In this case, I had been working a job that wasn't particularly fun around the end of the year. While it's true you will see more deeds of kindness and compassion, you REALLY see the worst in people at the same time. That constant barrage of seeing negativity while being unable to have nearly any day off except Christmas was mentally and physically draining to the point where enjoyment in doing things for the holiday felt oddly hollow.

I don't feel the same enjoyment getting gifts because I feel that I can take care of myself without having to accept things for free. I realize the emotional tie to gift giving makes it not the same as charity, but when someone does that I've this moral obligation to give something back. In most cases neither do I have many great ideas on what to give nor do I typically have a great deal of money to use towards getting that gift. I appreciate the thought but I'm content without gifts.

One of the big defining events that used to take place around this time of year was the huge family gathering. Parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, relatives, etc. would all come together and spend a day socializing and exchanging gifts while enjoying the delicious holiday food. It was difficult to get the full enjoyment from these due to my introverted nature, but I understood its overall importance. Unfortunately, what I didn't realize back then was how one family member was instrumental in bringing everybody together like that. When they passed away there has been no real effort to make this gathering happen. Don't feel too sad about this point, but that was one of the things to expect from Christmas time.

A huge factor that probably doesn't help is Christmas' strong ties towards being religious holiday. My family remains strongly tied to tradition and had spent years attempting to instill those beliefs into me, but I was unable to accept it as truth. I've seen too many contradictions in those teachings to find the ordeal believable. At most I do what I can to maintain some of the positive moralities they teach, but my mind is much too focused on what can be proven with science.

In conclusion it remains somewhat difficult to experience the "Christmas Spirit," but there have been positive steps made in the hopes of breaking away from the most negative aspects. The biggest step made so far is getting a new job that is much more enjoyable and allows me to participate in festivities more often. The decision to work towards losing weight has also been a great help in physically feeling better than what was experienced for years. I could be wrong, but I think when life around you changes you have to change yourself in order to be able to better enjoy what comes your way. That said, I hope everybody is able to enjoy Christmas this year and in the years ahead.

I'm not entirely certain I know what you're trying to describe but there are a great many opportunities for things to do that don't necessarily involve internet, which could bring a level of inner satisfaction in real life. Have you considered joining any local clubs to indulge in activities such as board games or card games? Perhaps you want something more, so does fishing or hiking fancy your interests? Maybe you'd want to be near home, and in that case have you any personal hobbies of interest that you can engage in? (E.g. wood crafting, painting, crochet, gardening, etc.)

I realize internet and media are big factors in most lives but you have to put in the effort to find something that stands out from the specific subjects you've described to have a problem with and then roll with it for a while. That might require having to do a little bit of research to discover something you had no knowledge about that might present that inner satisfaction. For me personally, I get my fill of fun by heading out to practice at the shooting range every few months. Another thing I love to do is outdoor photography, experimenting with different types of lens and seeing what works. Sure, these things aren't a part of my daily routine, but it's enough to keep me distracted from the problems to rejuvenate my positive energy.

That being said, I hope this helps give you some ideas to consider. The only other recommendation I'd give is it might be wise to take a break from non-essential internet. I don't think there's many people who can be consistently online for 1-2 decades and not feel burnt out from it.

This isn't too much of a loss imo. From everything I've seen, the game has tons of content and is most likely not going to be losing out on much from a lack of DLC.

I wish we could embrace a point where all you need to play your online games is a stable internet connection and not have to pay for some subscription. Sony already proved that they could offer this during the PS2 and PS3 days, and I know what PS Plus offers but $150 isn't worth it.