The first title that jumps to my mind, especially when you contextualize it around “restoring faith”, is Satisfactory. It’s been a very entertaining and challenging game, but also the development team has been exactly what one (typically) wants from a dev team. They’ve been very transparent about issues, their process, etc. Their interactions with the fan-base have been frequent and open throughout the years of development. Good game + good company. Worth consideration if you like a good factory builder.

I’m late to the thread, but just wanted to reiterate what others have said. The “pinch” of the anesthetic injection was probably the worst pain. The process was relatively quick, especially if they’re only doing one tooth. Heck, the real pain was covering the costs that my insurance didn’t cover. :)

My guy did have me use a bite block to hold my mouth open. Very handy, definitely made it easier. When the process was all said and done, my jaw was a bit sore from being in that position for that long. But that past very quickly.

Be sure to communicate with your dentist and be honest. Before, after, and during the procedure. You’re the patient here, and they need to listen to you especially as it pertains to what you’re feeling. If you’re still feeling anxious (and who could blame you), you might ask to have one of those heavy xray blankets. It acts like a “weighted blanket” and can really help with some of those nerves.

Their bit over the end credits with Tom trying to pitch a Finale Sacrifice series absolutely cracks me up every time.

Basically none at this point. Unless it’s recognized as coming from one of the handful of people in my address book, or occasionally if I’m expecting a call (like from a doctor or the mechanic or something). But otherwise there’s no point. No one that would contact me or that I would want to contact me would use the phone - they would text, IM, email, etc. The odds of a phone call being junk or a scam is far too high to bother with.

Something to consider when we talk about disconnecting and “touching grass”… it’s not an immediate thing. You need to be vacation for several days before you can genuinely begin to relax and feel and positive effects. So this idea that we can just nip out for 20 minutes and leave our phone behind for serious benefit is pretty much worthless.

So if you’re “disconnecting” and you spend the first few days just sleeping or staring at the TV, that’s pretty understandable. You’re paying off a fair bit of “rest debt”.

WRT your update: That’s great that you’re getting professional help. Make sure (if you aren’t already) that the feels you’re sharing here are being thoroughly conveyed to your doctor. Medication can be fantastic, but you may benefit more from a different medication. All good things to bring up with your professional.

Good luck!

It’s not exactly what you were asking for, but I’ll say one thing that definitely helped me was to remove the mobile apps to sites like reddit from my phone. It was much easier to break its hold on me when I couldn’t just view it anywhere. Obviously, it was still an issue on the desktop but nudged me in the right direction that made breaking away much easier. And once I could go several days without hitting a site at all, the addictive nature of the site really subsided a lot.

Series:

• Dark: I love this series. It’s complex and smart and isn’t afraid to let the viewer think and not hold our hand. I re-watch this at least once a year, sometimes more. The show runners also made another series, 1899, which I liked - but didn’t love - and Netflix killed it after only one season.
• Alta Mar/High Seas: The first season especially just captured my heart. It’s a fun murder-on-a-cruise-liner scenario with absolutely lavish set dressing, costumes, etc. The cast is a delight. There are a few unnecessary twists and the subsequent seasons didn’t grab me as hard, but this is one I happily come back to periodically.
• Paranormal: This is, in some ways, only an “okay” series if I’m honest. The stories are solid, but mid-tier, the effects are pretty low grade, and the episodes didn’t connect well. But why I still have a fondness for this one: This series wasn’t just set in Egypt, it was an Egyptian production. So you don’t have some of the baggage of Hollywood/the U.S. or even other, major media countries. It’s refreshing to get a different cultural view occasionally.
• Control-z: This was a fun, stylish mystery series set in a Mexican high-school. Not terribly deep and after the first season the quality drops pretty quickly, but it was enjoyable.
• Squid Game: Who doesn’t love a game? :)
• Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes: Not very long series but it was enjoyable if you like the possibly over used trope of someone coming back from the dead and the challenges they encounter.
• Katla: A short Icelandic supernatural series. Creepy vibes aplenty.
• Money Heist: Spanish bank heist series. Good, not great, but good. A little predictable in places, a little unpredictable in places. Went for several seasons and spawned a couple of spin-offs.
• Fallet: An interestingly little series from Sweden. The premise is a stretch, but the characters were kind of endearing. I enjoyed it.

Movies:
I know I’ve watched a lot more foreign films recently that I liked than this, but I’m having a hard time recalling any that stand out. Here’s still a few I felt like mentioning:

Classics: Pan’s Labyrinth, Run Lola Run, Seven Samurai.

A few you might not have heard of:

• Errementari: a stylish, enjoyable fable of a blacksmith and the devil
• The Little Switzerland: A silly little comedy set in Spain. Not a lot of depth, but entertaining.

That, as others have mentioned, is a moderately difficult question for us without knowing what you like or what the specs on your laptop are.

If you install Steam, they have a pretty generous return policy. You just need to act within 2 weeks of the purchase OR before you hit a total of two hours played in that game - whichever comes first. I like Steam because the Proton compatibility layer built in makes gaming on Linux so incredibly easy.

I’m hesitant to do so because you undoubtedly like different things, but here is a short list of some of the games I’ve played that I really enjoyed based on total time played.

Sid Meier’s Civilization (the whole series is good, but 5 is my favorite)
Stellaris
Battletech
Satisfactory
Valheim
Football Manager (think of this title as the complex strategy game to FIFA’s action game)

Another vote being cast here for a both Brother and laser. The nice thing about laser is that you can go without printing for weeks, or even, months, and just pick up right where you left off. My old ink jets, if you left them that long, would have completely dried out and need to be replaced.

Generally speaking, whiskys are Scottish in origin, while whiskeys may come from any country. But there is no hard-and-fast rule about it.

If it helps any, you’re not the first to have feelings like this toward the end of your undergraduate life. You’re not alone.

My advice for the moment would be to focus on making a strong finish in school. Yes, you need/want to start thinking about your future, but you don’t want to get this far only to stumble at the finish line. Don’t tack on a full-time or demanding job unless it’s absolutely necessary. June is going to show up a lot faster than you think it will and you have a lot of research, writing, and revision to go.

It might not be exactly what you’re looking for, and it’s no where as good a movie as Chinatown, but “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065462) definitely ends on a very “down” note. I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago and was kind of blown away by the ending.

Clementine

If you liked Clementine, check out Strawberry. Clementine hasn’t been updated since 2016. Strawberry is a fork of the Clementine code base and essentially picks up where Clementine left off.

https://www.strawberrymusicplayer.org/

A good pair of comfortable shoes for your day-to-day circumstances.

Admittedly, this can easily break the $100 limit depending on where you live, your circumstances, etc. but buy the best pair you can afford.