I wouldn’t say friends exactly but we have a pair of ravens that live in our yard. They have a symbiotic relationship with the cats. The cats catch mice and voles and then leave them in the front yard for the ravens, who are more than happy to gobble them up. There’s a whole unkindness of ravens that live in our woods but these two hang out around the house. In the spring there is constant squawking and chatter from them, it’s so cool to hear.
We also have a permanent resident hummingbird somewhere near the house. He loves the deck and will hover quite close to you when you’re sitting out.
And I can’t forget the flock of wild turkeys that roam the neighborhood. Every afternoon they stroll through the yard and last summer a mama and her babies were roosting in the trees out front. Around seven years ago there was a pair of albino babies born and now that flock has white feathers throughout. I have a video somewhere I should post.
I love playing video games, especially open world ones like Skyrim, BG3, AC, and the EE versions of Neverwinter and such. Or Divinity 2 couch coop with my husband. I cannot stand watching tv or movies on the other hand. I always feel like there’s something else I should be doing, whereas with games I am doing something. Tv is also like coffee to me, it wakes my brain up and I can’t sleep. All that being said I don’t play that often. Usually in bursts and then a different hobby takes my attention for a few days/weeks/months. I don’t mind the repetitive tasks/quests generally, it’s nice to have a set, familiar goal sometimes and then back to the storyline. I never play games online, I don’t want to be pressured or heaven forbid yelled at. I just want to wander about, pick some flowers, kill some dragons. You know? I am a bit of a completionist for maps and loot, don’t really care about the achievements though.
I do agree with you on the gamification thing. It does nothing for me and just annoys me. Glad that it works for others though!
I have the same keychain from when I was 15, so over 30 years. My buddy had a party at his house and someone left their keys. After about two weeks and no one claiming them I switched my crappy keychain for it and left the keys with him. It’s a fork that the tines have been made into curls, lays flat though. It makes me happy to look at.
I had a friend named Violet that went by Vi, pronounced like vie. That might work for you? Aside from that I quite like Nika. I don’t think anyone would associate that with a slur.
Yeah nicknames are kinda picked for you, but I think you should always be allowed to say “my name is Veronika, but I go by ….”.
Oh my god, someone else on Lemmy that’s heard of Jimmys Chicken shack!! Loved their music. They hung out in the same circles as me back in the 90s, though they were a bit older.
I went to summer camp with a girl that was an extra in Godfather 3, Jacobs Ladder, and some other movies. She was awesome, we were pen pals for years after
Oh, and I worked in a bar with the wife of a B tier country music star. Whose name absolutely escapes me right now as I don’t listen to country music.
Edit!: I just remembered my best one. A local restaurant was featured on You Gotta Eat Here and I was one of the people interviewed for the show. Best part was our very small village had two very small newspapers at that time and I ended up on the cover of both that week!
I’ve also been looking at this as an alternative! I need to make a proposal for my boss with our objectives and how the different options compare.