Sunday: another day in a row with no composition, thanks to another late night. The reason for the late night deserves explanation, but it's complicated.
How do I talk about this? I'm the sort of person whose natural inclinations lead me toward comfort, stability, and stasis. Analysis paralysis is my companion. It takes me forever to start a project, and even once it begins, I can go for months making no progress at all. (None of this should be a surprise, if you've been following my May updates.) I can convince myself to move by making it too uncomfortable to remain stationary; one of the easiest ways to do this is through the shame of comparison. I have been wallowing in this shame for a month, which is why I'm putting more effort into writing, why I've dedicated myself to physical fitness, and why I'm going through a bit of a midlife crisis.
I don't struggle to find fuel for the furnace of my discomfort. This is a skill I've sharpened since I was a teenager, and by spending years in a state of deliberate obliviousness, the material to collect proliferated farther than I guessed. My supply overwhelms me, yet last night I found such a windfall that I could not move for several hours.
(All of which is to say: I guess I have a TikTok account now.)
I started the morning with my first banana breakfast, and once we were both dressed for our day, we set out on our Washington walk. For lunch, we stopped into Chick's, a sports bar near PetSmart. Despite the prices, we had a Bloody Mary and a Pink Lady and split a La Viva pizza (mozzarella, provolone, ricotta, caramelized onion, and oregano). Not enough flavor for Julie, but the volume of food was adequate.
After lunch, we ended up strolling through an open house. I couldn't tell from the adjoining street how nice the unit was, so it was only once we were looking down at the city from the roof deck that Julie pulled up the listing and saw that it was a million-dollar home. The realtor was still eager to make a connection for more affordable units in the future, but as I told my parents later, it doesn't make a lot of sense to move at the moment. We proceeded with our cat treat pickup and returned home.
I wanted to make some progress on my library books, so I dampened a paper towel to wipe off the arms of the lawn chairs on our porch. With a couple of old towels from the basement draped over the fabric, it was a very pleasant afternoon of Perry Mason's investigations. The neighbor was out as well to rake the yard; the kids roughhoused in the street. I didn't find it too much of a distraction, but I was glad Julie had her headphones in. After we came in, we went through as much of the "8 Minutes" suite of exercise routines as we could stomach. (I realize I've probably missed the window in which this was a possibility, but I'd like to improve my flexibility to the point that I can do the splits.) Exercises complete, we got cleaned up for the evening.
At 6 PM, part 3 of the Moondrop Isle stream started on youtube. I had some of the beef stew for dinner, though the reheating process made it necessary to clean out the microwave. At 8, our "Prestigious Online Conference" started in Ryan's discord. Ryan gave a keynote speech; Sarah gave a presentation on Korean "Brain Shows" as an unusual take on reality TV. I presented my sample source code and some of the rationale behind it. (It was a bad showing. Next time we do this, I want to be a more dynamic presenter.) Zach talked about how wild it is that Super Mario Bros wasn't released until 2 years (!) after the release of the Famicom itself. Ryan did a talk about the geometric formulae inherent to scriptwriting's 3-act structure, and Carl M. introduced an extensive overview of conlangs as used in video games and interactive fiction. We had a pretty good time!
Then I tried to write this update and spent an hour watching old videos on TikTok instead. Don't like that the computer is capitalizing that automatically, but I don't quite care enough to override the behavior.
Saturday: I had a late night last night. I felt like I'd slept in a lot, but I ended up getting up at 10:30.
We got outside just in time for the neighbor's parents to wave over the Verizon guy who'd be installing her internet. Julie was concerned I'd hit the Verizon truck when pulling out of our parking space, but I cleared it without issue. At Taco Bell, we had our usual; I drafted a new Arena deck in Hearthstone, since I'd like to try to get 12 wins before the big Arena update makes the old achievements unavailable, though I probably won't try very hard, as I've got too much other stuff on my plate.
After bringing our groceries home, I got the litter and one of the trash bags, while Julie cleaned the bathroom and living room. We wanted to vacuum, but something was up with the stick vac; the motor kept cutting out. Julie looked into it while I dusted off the heavy duty Dyson and hit the bedrooms. I ended up joining her in the living room so we could both try to get the hair out of various rollers, though it turned out that the problem was a clogged filter. We still took the opportunity to run the big vacuum over the rug in the living room. (Whatever issue it had been having when we last used it has apparently vanished in the ensuing years, as Julie had no issues with either the hose or the roller.) Finally, we taped a shower liner along the walls and floor of the bedroom closet to hopefully simplify cleaning up after John's urinary indiscretions.
We were going to get cleaned up once we'd finished with the apartment chores, but Julie realized that she forgot to get a tomato for her dinner recipe. We took the opportunity to walk up to the little Acme. The weather was very pleasant in my new jeans, and the lingering smell of distant restaurants was very enticing. While we walked, we discussed the plausibility of buying a new residence and the peculiarities of the units available for sale in the area. Once we got home, Julie started preparing dinner.
I had been looking forward to some time on the computer, though I hadn't decided whether to finally play the Occult Crescent update in Final Fantasy XIV or to try working on an interactive fiction project. Julie suggested we watch TV instead, so I ate in the living room, while bouncing between Hearthstone, Bombe, and a picross game on Steam. We got through a bunch of Enterprise episodes, concluding with the LeVar Burton-directed "Cogenitor".
As we were finishing up with the TV, I saw that Ryan was streaming a test-run of the prototype for his roguelike Little Match Girl game-in-development, but he had to leave unexpectedly. I would have liked to start working on my own project at that point, but I realied I should post this update before I do.
Friday: it's the last day of my weekend. I got out the house again to drop off the comforter to be cleaned by the dry cleaners on the corner. Afterwards, I was going to drive to Blaze Pizza, but I was momentarily trapped by the construction crew that had blocked my street. It was only a wait of ten minutes or so. At Blaze Pizza, they've done away with parts of their menu such that I couldn't remember the type of pizzas I'd ordered in Wichita, so I got a margherita instead. This proved to be a mistake: while I like thin-crust pizzas, the margherita's characteristics are a poor match for this crust type. It was also really redundant to order a Caesar side salad when I'd just had a similar salad the night before. It was also freezing in the seating area, so I didn't stick around any longer than I had to.
After lunch, I had a long talk with David on the phone, after which I hit up PetSmart to get new scratching platforms for the cats, as the ones they've got now are falling apart. By the time I got home, the construction had finished for the day, so I was able to park back on the cross street, where I won't need to move for another week. I made my orzo for dinner, but I didn't get much done around the house, so that's got to be my priority after work tomorrow. I did at least finally start the Yo-Kai Watch event in FFXIV.
Wednesday: I've been waking up with Koop under my arm the last couple of days, so I've been getting up later and taking my shower/getting dressed on my first break from work. Calls are improving, but nowhere close to what I want to see.
Phil came over to watch the new season of I Think You Should Leave with Julie. I caught the new episodes after my shift ended while eating more of Friday's leftovers. I still can't stomach the secondhand embarrassment, but I'm curious to see whether any of the sketches from this season provide as much lasting amusement to Julie and Phil as the Tables sketch did.
After finishing the six new episodes, I played more Zelda, mostly focusing on the Dueling Peaks stables and the area around (and under) the mountains. Afterwards I saw that Reddit is going to charge fees for API access, meaning that the RIF Is Fun app I've been using for years to access that site will probably stop working July 1. That left a bad taste in my mouth, and not knowing how else to deal with it, I played a few games of Hearthstone as the Audiopocalypse update went live today.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
This was my last day at The Home Depot.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
@familyjules727 on twitter:
Our hairless cat is a hot mess 99.9% of the time. The other 1% is complete and utter perfection. Purrfection? Yeah, that's the ticket...
George Costanza has a vulva on his face in this episode of Voyager.
It's amazing how much more enjoyable Neelix and Naomi Wildman are the 2nd time through.
It's the juggernaut, bitch!
Tuesday: our A/C went out over the weekend. Today, our closet doors had swollen from the heat such that they couldn't be moved.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
Five tweets from Julie today. She laments the state of sports reporting on ESPN (too much basketball, not enough hockey, and the commentary is weak). This must have been when Dr. Tiller was murdered, as that topic takes over for the rest of the day. She also had a big LJ update in the morning, which I'm just going to copy + paste in its entirety, typos and all:
I officially will be staying in Wichita for the next year as none of the doctoral programs accepted me. Out of all of us, Evan was the only one who actually got into a program and he was accepted into 1 out of 8 - the rest of us had no such luck. Part of it is the economy - actually it's probably a larger part than any of us realize - as school's cannot afford to take on more doctoral students and especially can't afford to fully fund them. I'm thinking about how I want to proceed from here. I really hate to go through the application process all over again and spend all that money when there could be nothing to show for it. I guess I don't have much choice.
We have reverted to a one cat apartment quite easily. At first Jason and I couldn't even remember what it was like before Gus bounded into our lives. Angel went back to her old self almost immediately. She clearly doesn't miss him, which doesn't surprise me at all. We have decided to let her get used to being the only cat and then get another kitty. We have to keep her on her toes. I want another cat for my birthday.
Tomorrow officially starts my two months of hell. Two full time jobs, hurrah! I will be TAing in the anatomy lab all morning and then working at the store from about 3-10. It will be stressful and not terribly relaxing, but the money at the end of all of this will be worth it and helpful as my loan repayments start in July, ugh. Plus I get to spend more time dissecting cadavers. Kristen and I are working on one male and one female. The differences between the two are astounding really. The male has such GORGEOUS muscles that nice and red and clearly defined from the fat. Her muscles, on the other hand, are basically the same color as her fat. She is definitely more tricky to work on. Her back already is kind of mangled as the superficial back muscles on her one side are completely gone. Oops. I am still looking forward to this and we get to do every dissection whereas in the class we only did half of them. And I get to show up to work afterwards with the smell of death in my hair. :)
I realistically won't have time to properly update this so the twitter updates will predominate. Even those may be sporadic as my time will be pretty crunched. I will even be working both Saturday and Sunday. Joy.
Jason and I celebrated our last day of both of us being off from work by going to zoo and seeing the new tiger exhibit. It was quite nice and I was more impressed by that than the penguin one two years ago. The gorillas were striking all kinds of poses and being very playful. They were the most active I had seen them be in all the times I'd been there. We got there as soon as the zoo opened to help avoid the crowds and the heat, so that was probably part of it. It was also nice going with Jason since we had never gone together at that point. After we had lunch at Red Lobster since I had a coupon and then we were pretty exhausted from all the walking and stuffing our faces that we napped. It was glorious. We went grocery shopping, he made dinner and then watched Wall-E (which I admit, it was cute but still kind of depressing) and played cards.
While playing pool Friday night I went into a zone where I sunk every ball I went after. From that point on I was terrible once again. Pool is such a tease.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.