Treats

1. Media

Visual media is riskier to reccommend than food or music. Awful experiences take up two senses rather than one, so bad media is more memorably bad than bad food or music. Visual media tends to be much longer than the average experience eating or listening to a song, and one cannot do anything else, whereas they can e.g. go for walks while listening to a new album or socialize while eating at a new restaraunt. Adding to this, two different individuals can watch the same thing and have the opposite experience for reasons ranging from cultural background to enjoyment of intentionally esoteric media. If one has had poor experiences with media genres like speculative fiction with the wrong author, they may leave with a permanent a negative association that flares up when they encounter similar media in the future. Most people do not like to be challanged at the movie theater or on the couch, and for valid reasons: without the time or energy to investigate further, a confusing movie or show has oppurtunity cost in personal satisfaction. Why spend money to go to the theater when one could, for instance, read Gwern's article on catnip resistant cats for free, a gauranteed positive experience?

For this reason, I will give my reccomendations as pairs or sequences of media to consume in specific orders. You may be completely confused during the process of completing any list item, but you will ultimately experience gratification for your effort.

• Read "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang thoroughly, not skimming it or skipping past paragraphs. As I clarified, it's not going to make immediate sense, and you may be left entirely confused with no rewarding takeaway by the end. Sit with this feeling for a few days, and then read Gwern Branwen's interpretation.
• Watch the Spiderverse movies and then listen to Camp by Donald Glover. The protagonist in the animated Spiderverse movies is loosely inspired by Donald Glover (in both appearance and personality). Glover's album is a much darker, more concentrated version of the mood explored in Spiderverse, and the two will always be associated to me for Glover's line in Outside for the verse:

  Workin' two jobs so I can get into that white school
  And I hate it there
  They all make fun of my clothes and wanna touch my hair

  Note how Into the Spiderverse begins.

2. Food

• Starbucks "protien boxes" – especially dried apricot & cheese
• Starbucks tomato mozzarella panini sandwhich
• Kirkland brand low fat Greek Yogurt – always goes well with blueberries
• Paul Graham's rice and beans – scroll down to the first footnote on the linked article for recipie reproduced below:
  to-do: reproduce below in nice recipie formattting

3. Cats

Expand section: cat reccomendations

Cat accessories

Cat maintenance

• Veternarian cat nail clipping – some animal clinics or pet salons will clip your cat's nails for free or an inexpensive price, tending to be much gentler than amateur human cat handlers, which can double as an exciting and regular outing for a bored house cat
• Ubbi litter disposal bags – superior alternative to polythene grocery bags for litter
• Self-cleaning pet hair brush – great for cats that shed, minimal clean-up required and satisfying ergonomic design