Being of use to someone else - something as simple as opening a door or something as hard as helping someone change a tire on the road. That karma is like a hit of the stuff I don’t do anymore.

Mushrooms - I once puked them up on the table when my mom made me eat them…canned mushrooms FTW! I now, of course, can not get enough of them - sautéed, baked, sliced/raw on a salad…gimme some fungus already!!

For a number of years when I was younger I would go find a sub-$1000 vehicle that was current on registration and just drive it into the ground then go get another one. With nothing but oil, gas, tires and occasional DIY repairs I could generally get a couple years out of them. What I saved on car payments went into a fund for the next one. Then I grew up.

I join exactly at start time, down to the second. Once everyone has been counted or noticed and the droning idiot starts presenting I bug right TF out. Nothing will happen that matters because its a freakin’ meeting - if something important was going on it would be an email.

I have read and worked through most of the O’Reilly animal books - perhaps this is before your time. Perl, C, C++, Java, etc… Yak, Camel, animals galore. I still have most of them buried in a closet somewhere.

This was before you could just google or (gasp, CGPT) your answer. You had to read and learn how to do something then try, practice and refine until you had a solution.

To this day I really prefer to enter a new language with a manual that has an index and examples. I could not have learned shit with nothing but Discord and (today’s) google to help.

If I dig down into the drawer with several layers of old iPhones I can find my palm pilot at the bottom right next to the Treo that replaced it.

I am embarrassed about how often I do this just because I can. My love of advanced cheese polymers with spicy/crunchy has surely packed the nooks and crannies of my gut with wads of micro-plastics but I just can’t help myself around queso.

Single serving crock pot is (to me) otherwise known as the queso pot!

Get a bag of tortilla chips

Throw a block of velveeta in the pot and cover it with Ro-Tel

Turn it on and get all melty

Stir until combined

Open your bag of chips and put yourself into a cheese-coma.

You’re going to have to get out of the house and interact with people, whether that is at work or some other group function. Some people use bars/clubs for that, others use church. Some engage in sports or gym, some join a book club. Seek out situations that force interaction with others and be open to it without making it weird by seeming needy.

I’m. sorry for your thread but in actual fact there is no older tech that is cooler than any modern tech - we get better tech because we get at the same tech as time goes by. Sorry, but your premise is flawed.

I quit smoking by switching to vape about 12 years ago. I had smoked a pack and a half of Marlboro reds a day for 30 years prior to that. After 30+ years of being hooked on the coffin nails I found a way out and I (and my family) are so grateful.

I still have my nicotine fix, obviously, but I am so much less a slave to it. It used to be that I could not imagine being without a box of Marlboros and a lighter if I was leaving the house. Now, I don’t think twice about heading out for a few hours with no vape (nicotine) with me…it’s just not that important.

I will probably always ingest nicotine in one form or another (vape, gum, patch), as I do caffeine. I no longer feel like I am controlled by it thanks to vaping.

Give alternatives a try.

Download Xcode and build a couple of small projects to get your feet wet. It is a really intuitive environment to code in. You don’t need to pay anything to learn.

My wife and friends think I am nuts, but when I’m feeling digestively challenged I go for the “burn it out” philosophy. I go to my local tex-mex place and wolf a couple bowls of spicy salsa. Follow up with a chile relleno covered in queso and I’m normally right as rain (after a quick stop in the quiet, tiled room of requirement).

The cheap-as-dirt meross does, it has an open/closed sensor.

Most openers have a dumb switch interface. A simple close-to-change circuit - I’ve never had one that wasn’t that way. If MyQ is so complicated (serial interface!?) then it needs to go anyway.

lol, just get a dumb opener and a shelly relay or use a meross unit. Super cheap and flawless local control that is cloud-connected if you want it.

I’m glad you have someone to lean on - that’s what makes the difference for me. I also don’t do bro - hate sports, don’t like pranks. I don’t have many friends but the ones I have are solid and dependable. I see my best friend less than monthly but we talk several times a day to share work complaints, discuss food or what we’re currently binging on TV.

After reading the other replies I went back and re-read your post to check…you don’t mention a partner or any significant other. I think you might be focusing too hard inward (bad mood, cynical, walls up) and not focusing outward (cherishing interactions with others, forming or maintaining bonds with others). Perhaps you’re feeling lonely?

I am a grump but my wife won’t let me get away with it for long. I am cynical but my friends call me on it because I force myself to share. My work puts me in contact with new people every day and I actively seek an understanding of them and have to let them see who I am in order to be good at my job.

Another respondent said “put yourself out there”. I agree but would also add seek out interactions with others and be a participant not an observer.