ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠

yisss I was also jamming on the C64, a hand-me-down from a cousin

Eventually I had read all the books I was interested in at the local library, and the second nearest library, and the downtown library, and I was riding eight miles each way to get to the far side of town. As long as I was back by dinnertime!

We read Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the Guinness Book of World Records instead of Wikipedia. Urban legends were rampant. Everyone lived in constant fear of “the gum disease gingivitis”.

90s kid introvert here.

I would hop on my bike of a Saturday morning, explore the town for an hour, hit the library, come home a few hours later with as many books as I could fit in my backpack.

I’d stay up late learning to code from paperback manuals, save my games to floppies and swap them with friends at school or make my brothers play them.

I ran a year-long pen-and-paper fantasy wargame with my friends from the Scouts, I’d spend an hour every week tabulating the results of everyone’s orders and updating the map.

What do you mean by “feigned happiness”? Cheerfulness?

Because I know unpleasant people that are happy that way, and depressed people who are very cheerful. Happiness is something you have, cheerfulness is something you do.

Though in my experience, being cheerful tends to help other people feel better and helping others makes me happy.

IIRC that is a synonym already; and Factor » Product isn’t a pun, just the what the words literally mean.

The challenge makes it all the sweeter a victory.