I’m not a native English speaker, but I always thought an expression like “oh boy” was more self-reflective. Like you say it more to yourself than to whoever you’re talking to.
In which case, the other’s gender shouldn’t really matter?
In any case, I personally don’t feel insulted or misgendered if someone uses it in a conversation with me.

I got into Stardew Valley literally by accident. As in, I twisted my ankle during a winter vacation and got stuck indoors for a week while my family was having fun outside. All I had to entertain myself was my laptop and this farming game I recently bought on a whim.

I didn’t see the fun in it at first, but I liked the music and eventually the grind kind of clicked for me. Wake up, water plants, sell stuff, explore a bit, go to bed, repeat. It helped that my other choices for entertainment were a bit limited at the time :) But once the daily tasks become routine, you kind of zone out during that part and think ahead of what you want to do for the rest of the day. Maybe explore that cave a little more, or go fishing for that fish you need for the community center, etc.

But I can totally understand if it’s not your thing. I might not have enjoyed it so much if I wasn’t chair bound for an entire week with nothing else to do…
Erm…
That’s not the most glowing of endorsements when I write it out loud :)

What I’m trying to say is, for me it was a bit of a barrier to get through, but after that it’s such a cozy game to spend some time in. And it kind of has this nice reward cycle that makes me go “just one more day” a LOT of days :)

For a moment there I thought I was looking at a [email protected] post and was taking this seriously :)

Taking a kayak out into one of the local waterways on an early morning. We have a few canals that run through a nature area on the outskirts of the city. Around that time no one is yet on the water and I can just glide peacefully past the water lilies and other plants. The silence is so soothing. Everything just seems to live and breathe all around me.

It’s great until about an hour later, when some of the locals use their motor boat to put-put-put down the canal, stinking up the place with their exhausts :P

Oh I love raspberries as well, it’s just that mangoes are more chewy when frozen.
Raspberries tend to be very hard and not as nice to bite down on when they’re straight from the freezer. But the flavor is great, no argument here :)

Frozen mango pieces. I love eating those whenever I’m in the mood for something to snack.

Not sure if it counts as junk food, but it’s something I always try to keep at home. Though lately they’ve been sold out at the supermarket. So I’m forced to fall back on my 2nd choice, frozen raspberries.

Wow, I really admire their bravery. That must’ve been terrifying to attend.

I don’t know if this can be darned, the threads are very very thin. I might give it a try if one of those holes becomes too big.
When I do, I’ll definitely use different colors. I like your idea :)

I have an old light green neck Buff made from bamboo fiber. It’s like three times the normal size so you have to wrap it multiple times around your neck which is great in cold weather.
And it’s so soft! I love wearing it the moment autumn turns cooler.
It’s getting a few holes so I hope it’ll still last a couple more years. They don’t sell this design anymore 😞

My partner stresses too much with work and I wish I could help more. But all I can do is give comfort and urge to at least let things go when at home.
Any practical advice is always brushed off, which I can understand. Sometimes you just need to vent and I don’t mind listening about what happened this time. I just hate seeing them like this, it does make me worry a bit about their health.

PICO-8, though it’s more of an on-and-off again project of trying to teach myself to program again.
But I like the limitations you have to work with, and even I can create some crude 8x8 sprites :)

Being appreciated… either by my kids, my partner, co-workers or anyone else really…

If I feel like I’ve made someone happy or helped them out somehow and they give a heartfelt “thanks” or even just a big smile, well that always makes my day.

I’m blocking a couple of bots but no actual people.
Though I guess I would block someone if they were being persistently trying to harass me. I can take offensive internet behavior, but not if you’re coming after me as a person.

Traffic lights were hand operated.
The small town where I grew up had one pedestrian traffic light for crossing the main road. There was a small brick shed next to that traffic light with no windows and a little door. When I was little I was convinced that was an operation’s center where someone worked to turn the lights red or green.
In reality it was a power substation for the neighborhood, but I was seriously convinced that behind that door was a man looking at a TV screen and operating the traffic light at the right moment.
When we went to a larger town nearby, where there were traffic lights without a convenient mysterious building nearby, I told myself that the traffic light people were most likely working under ground, peeping through the drains.

I… was good at making up answers for myself instead of just asking my parents.

The first house in my city is from 1976, the entire city is built on reclaimed land. It went from 100 residents back then to more than 220,000 now.

A fun fact is that they still find stuff in the ground from old shipwrecks to crashed WW2 bombers.

I have two ways of explaining. The first one is just saying “I work with data” followed by some hand waving and shrugging.
The other is where I really go into detail and explain everything. Going gaga over some minute aspect that I find awesome but couldn’t even interest one of my coworkers.
Neither seems to really work, but I don’t get follow up questions which suits me just fine :)

Maps and compass. I like the reliability of finding my way no matter where I am. Plus it’s fun!
Especially the trick of using two landmarks to pinpoint my location on a map makes me feel like an old-fashioned navigator :)

This really creepy Czech Alice in Wonderland movie. It used stop motion with animal skeletons, fish heads, and tons of other things.

My mom put it on when I was little in an attempt to keep me occupied.
“Would you like to watch Alice in Wonderland, Thelsim?” She’d ask.
“Yea!” I would shout enthusiastically, thinking she meant the Disney movie.
Half an hour later I’m crying and hiding under the blankets.

I never did watch that movie again. Maybe it’s not so bad now, but the screenshots still make feel very queasy.

A slipknot works great! It’s done in a second and easily undone as well.