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This holiday season we have all been forced to adapt our ordinary routines to fit into the changing landscape of the world. Many of us are unable to travel to go see family members or even have our usual gatherings of family and friends and this can make the holiday break seem more bleak and boring than it has to be. If you find yourself stuck at home either alone or with just your immediate family to spend the time with it can sometimes be difficult to find things to do that will hold everyone’s attention or fill the void we may be experiencing.
As a slight change of pace because everything has been so strange and unpredictable over the year 2020 we thought it might be fun to highlight some lesser known things you can do online either by yourself or with your family to help keep those holiday blues at bay and keep everyone smiling right on through until the new year!
Have You Tried Google Stadia?
If you aren’t the type of person to take an interest in video games or the latest leaps in video game technology then this incredible innovation has likely passed you by entirely. If however you love video games and find yourself on a tight budget there may be a solution for you that you just haven’t heard of yet!
Google Stadia is a cloud based gaming platform which means that you can play their growing library of AAA or indie games in a browser window, on a phone or tablet or using a chromecast device! This means that you can play some incredible games in stunning 4k quality without breaking the bank on a top of the line gaming rig – and then having to update the damn thing every time technology advances and leaves your investment behind.
DIdn’t get a PS5 or Series X under the tree like you hoped you might? Well you may just be surprised by how easy, fun and powerful it feels to use Stadia instead. As long as you have a strong internet connection – and most of us do these days – you can play the games in the Stadia library with absolutely no downloads, no updates, no installs of any kind. It is simply revolutionary.
Many gamers have derided Stadia mostly out of a misunderstanding of how it works or what it actually is and to be fair there are some reasons it falls short of other services. The game library may be expanding with regularity but it is incredibly small compared to traditional consoles or the myriad of games available on a platform like Steam. The titles they do have are solid and show that the future for the platform is bright.
If you have been disappointed by the buggy and disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on older consoles and PC then give it a try on Stadia and find out why people have been flocking to the service since the game came out. It is incredible getting to play such a detailed and visually rich game while using google’s cloud based hardware to make it run flawlessly. Other great standout titles on the platform include Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin’s Creed, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Destiny 2 the last of which is free to play.
Check Out Some Livestreams
Another website you may only be casually familiar with if at all if you are not a regular fan of video games is twitch.tv. If you aren’t aware of the trend of video game livestreaming then feel free to dive on in and discover a world full of gamers eager to win your attention by playing video games and trying – and often failing – at being entertaining.
There are countless thousands of streamers playing video games of all kinds and that is certainly more than enough to keep anyone amused if they have any interest in watching people play video games. If that sounds like a total bore to you however you shouldn’t completely count twitch.tv out as a potential source of entertainment.
No matter your interest you are likely to find a streamer who suits your tastes. If you want to watch people creating art or music there are many streams dedicated to these practices too. Recently the platform has seen an explosion in “Just Chatting” and “Always On” programming. These streams offer programming that can be exciting and fun in new cutting edge ways.
Have a favourite tv program? If you dig deep enough you are likely to find a stream dedicated to 24/7 programming of just that show! From Futurama to Most Extreme Elimination Challenge lots of great underground streams can be found providing unique and fun programming you might not be able to find on traditional streaming platforms.
With 2020 forcing everyone inside there has been an explosion of exciting content to discover on the platform. Some channels we have discovered that we really enjoy include the prive cinema clubs Cathode Cinema and Movie Passed – both of these channels program interesting and unseen movies, television specials and strange bits of cinema you are unlikely to find anywhere else!
There are also many 24/7 streaming music channels available! You may already be familiar with channels on youtube like Music to Relax and Study To but if you would like a little more variety and visual stimulation check out the new and exciting channel ULTRAVIDEOVERFLOW for a non stop stream of unpredictable and exciting music videos spanning every conceivable genre! No matter what you like you are sure to find something you enjoy.
Watch Something Cerebral
We all love good mindless entertainment now and then and there is no shame in getting ripped and settling in for another Lord of the Rings or Star Wars marathon but if you find yourself flipping through all of the possible options and wondering to yourself what to do when you’re high and bored perhaps it is time to challenge yourself with something more complex and exciting to the spirit and mind!
There’s no need to jump headfirst into the deep end and start watching exclusively subtitled foreign films or anything – although a willingness to do so opens your world to a huge range of new cinematic possibilities! There are plenty of amazing, fascinating and thought provoking films which perfectly compliment the state of mind of being extremely high and stuck indoors.
The Studio Ghibli collection has recently been added to Canadian Netflix and is a great option for stoners of all ages to enjoy. If you haven’t dived into the densely imaginative and beautiful world of Miyazaki’s movies yet you are definitely missing out! Don’t let the fact that these are animated features put you off of the possibility of enjoying them as an adult – these are rich and complex stories full of wonder and intrigue that anybody can enjoy. To start out we recommend diving into Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke or Howl’s Moving Castle. All of these movies are available with a stellar english voice cast so there is no need to read subtitles the whole way through either!
If animation just isn’t your cup of tea or maybe you are already very familiar with the films of Miyazaki at the other end of the spectrum (and also available on Canadian netflix) is the vast majority of the collection of Quentin Tarantino films from Reservoir Dogs all the way up to the Hateful Eight. We’re all still waiting for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to make an appearance but hopefully it should be available soon! Any hardcore movie buff should love the films of Quentin Tarantino and once you have seen all his movies you can begin to explore the massive collection of films he has drawn inspiration from through the years as well from blaxploitation movies to western epic sagas.
If Tarantino is a little too obvious of a suggestion for you why not dive into something a little more highbrow? We highly recommend any documentary or feature films by Werner Herzog (Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Even Dwarves Started Small, My Best Fiend), the soviet cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky (Solaris, Stalker, Nostalgia), or the classic movies of Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, Ran). Any of these directors back catalogues could provide you with weeks of entertainment and wonder.
You could also dive into a great and thought provoking documentary series. If you are at a loss wondering what to do while high on weed sometimes there is nothing better than a great mind melting series about psychology or the social sciences. Here at Haute Health we highly recommend the works of BBC documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis who has a distinct and artistic style that lends his weighty documentaries a wholly unique artistic cinematic style and a sharp pop culture sensibility. Explore the reasons why our culture and our politics around the world are the surreal and strange sometime incomprehensible way that they are with incredible films and series like Hypernormalisation, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace or The Century of the Self.
You know what pairs perfectly with all of these great indoor activities? A nice big bag of sunshine from Haute Health! In store currently we have great strains like Skywalker OG, some delightful Afghan Hash for the connoisseurs and 30mg CBD Gummies for those of you just looking to medicate. We’re also featuring some great Grape Ape Small Bud – get stocked up on a great strain for less if you don’t mind the popcorn buds!
