ive been to a few dolmen and places like those, a lot of them were already desecrated thousands of years ago and then desecrated again 2000 years ago etc. id much rather have those bones and artifacts dug up and placed somewhere they wont be destroyed and the symbolism of the structure can still remain to be appreciated.
but often the fantasy does help shape your reality and identity. an author finding a way to vocalize and make a concept or feeling tangible like its coming out of the mouth of someone that you can respect or despise with such strong emotion is extremely powerful. and sure you can get that from nonfiction (which i also do love some of the driest science texts lol) but there is something amazing about seeing how something could play out, or how it would be to experience this reality. maybe you just havent found what clicks for you yet or what perfectly speaks to you and maybe you never will, but its not worth writing it ALL off. for me at least it's the emotional resonance you can find with fiction that makes it all the more worth it. Do i agree with Char Aznable no, do i agree with Amuro Ray? yes. do i find merit and incompatibilities in both of their ideologies? yes. has it helped me see the kind of world that the creator wishes to envision and wants to make us question for ourselves? yes. its the connection. i just love it.
and dont write off comics either, there is some genuine phenomenally emotional works in that medium.
yeah where i am that is definitely skirting the line haha. i am plenty happy that i can just go to the store and buy the spores and its a very nice gray area that no one is looking really looking at. Sadly we did have a proposal fail on the 2024 elections for legalizing a few forms of psychedelics, but also the interest is there which is nice.
mhm where i live you can go to a hydro grow store and buy the spores that you definitely SHOULD NOT inject into the aio grow bag conveniently placed nearby lol
lol i always wondered how actuary ever crossed the radar of my partner in college and this must have been it. hey they just finished up their FCAS cert and they are riding quite high and quite comfy. but it is for sure a very small pool of people just due to the immense work needed to get that point.
my wife is an actuary, and we always joke that you know climate change has real cause and effect because the actuaries are specifically monitoring and modeling for it lol
should check out the Legacy line of romhacks, ie Crystal Legacy, Emerald Legacy. if youre ever in the mood for vanilla+. very very high quality releases made with intention and care for the base games.
For absolutely crazy releases, Pokemon Unbound is an absolutely next level romhack
i play both! there is a sort of comfort in pokemon, like watching your favorite movie or eating junkfood, but i also love me a gourmet meal too. room for both! who doesnt wanna play a game with their favorite little doods, getting see what others can become favorites and then ya know everyone else playing so its a fun community thing. i also do love the grinding especially in the older games, and the RNG is fun to me. love when that 1% encounter rate hits after 30 mins of searching.
i mean overall the core pokemon experience has never changed, G/R/B, HGSS, Scarlet and Violet. Core gameplay is the exact thing you said, only paid differences are that now a days they do include some expansions (in the oldschool vein) that are often better than the current base games lol. But overall, outside of stuff like pokemongo, the CORE game franchise has largely been unaffected by a lot of the trends of modern gaming. And great choice, HGSS are a highpoint of the series. Might i also suggest Black and White and Black and White 2. the first time IMO they really tried to make the games more story heavy and they succeeded. The music and pixel art in BW is unmatched as well.
even stuff like the maya codices, priests just burned up almost every bit of text and historical text that the culture kept so were just missing SO much on them
you can get a lot of good resources here (https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/recommended-books) specifically "The Botanic Age" is about this, challenges the stone based representation and goes into how it was probably a lot of wood and other materials that would rot away etc.
Milo is great! Stefan Milo is also a great resource on youtube, i also really enjoy a youtuber called Fig Tree. there is a lot of good educational stuff on early humanity and early civilizations out there!