Covid and the following permacrisis broke the perception of time and reality. Months feel like weeks, weeks feel like days, it's a blur now. And it's not just getting old, young people are noticing it too.
I swear just the other day it was early 2020 and I was out dining with a large group of friends, most of whom turned into rabid commies during Covid so we don't talk much anymore. Five years used to be a long time.
I noticed it years ago when my Goodreads book recommendations were suddenly 80% women - for science fiction that's dominated by male authors. I've missed the release of several good novels because male writers are being actively suppressed.
I was once murdered in Runescape by Alq, an infamous PK. Still my greatest achievement. I also saw Bluerose13x forge the best items in the game. I made a lifelong friend in Conquer Online and remember many people I played Guild Wars and vanilla WoW with.
Then matchmaking and realm phasing arrived and I never talked to anyone again, nor do I remember anyone.
The annoyance of planning for travel is enough to tip the scales towards indefinite procrastination.
I've thought this for as long as I can remember. Traveling is an annoying job you get to pay for, the most overrated waste of money and time ever.
Oh great, the weather, food and plantlife are a bit different. Traffic, parking, payment systems, public transport, mobile internet, wall sockets, laws and customs are different too so have fun learning everything from scratch without speaking the language. You'll also enjoy paying quadruple for everything because you're a filthy gringo or farang or gweilo who gets a special price for you my friend. That'll be $8,000, six months of planning and being treated like an inmate every step of the way.
Driving for a few hours is not the same as international travel but it's still enough to destroy friendships. I've had friends move a few hours away and we never talked again. Out of sight, out of mind.
competency
I'm not a native speaker but is this a Mandela effect where the word "competence" doesn't exist anymore? Same for "relevancy", the -y sounds like some weird zoomer slang to me. I'm waiting for "performancy" to show up next.
According to NYT it's Kursk only at this point.