Monday: it feels like I'm barely scratching the surface on my reworks from last week, but that's mainly a consequence of how many HQ groups had piled up in the background. I walked to the halal cart to pick up lunch, mostly since I hadn't bothered to take out the office trash yet, and I could do so immediately after finishing my meal. When Julie got home, she complained that she's had an ongoing headache for the past week; it might be the rainy weather and her predisposition to migraines, or it might be exposure to mildewy space above the ceiling that's now filling the south end of the apartment with deadly miasma, to hear her tell it. We were a little slow to get out the door to trivia, which turned out to be a mistake: while there weren't any major games going on today, it seems several big groups were monopolizing the space such that the place was completely packed. We did manage to get seated at a table by the bathrooms before the trivia started, though we missed our opportunity to get Happy Hour pricing since the current wait staff don't factor in the time we spent waiting in the entryway the way that previous waiters did. Julie decided to get a hamburger this week, but we forgot how it always seems to take forever for burgers to come out of the kitchen. (This time around, it turned out that they were waiting on my stromboli to bring them out together, somehow missing the fact that they brought my stromboli already.) During the trivia, we had a couple of brutal rounds, particularly during the "cover songs" sixth round, and we ended up in 4th or 5th place. We came back home, I treated the cats, and I watched an animation analysis of an episode from The Amazing Digital Circus while I wrote this update. (The video is radicalizing me against motion blur.)
Third Quarter, 2025
This summer felt longer than any I can remember. Part of this might be the lack of major recreational events, like trips to a water park or similar distractions. We did have a couple of concerts, but for the most part, the past three months have been focused on the routine. Still taking on more hours than I technically need to, but perhaps not to the same degree as during the spring. We had big plumbing issues this season, and while I continued the streaming tradition I started six months ago, I ahd more interruptions than expected, and things got a lot less consistent. My Blue Prince fixation fell away, but I got back into Tears of the Kingdom and Unicorn Overlord, and we watched through all of Star Trek: Enterprise. I went really hard on podcasts when working on projects, but I did a pretty bad job of finishing anything. Lots of good ideas; not a lot of resolution. I'm starting to feel the limits of my wardrobe: I have a lot of clothes, but only have a couple pairs of shorts and jeans that I like to wear, and that number has been diminishing; I lost a good pair of jeans a couple weeks back, and my belt buckle snapped off earlier this year. Looking forward, I want to be more deliberate about using my possessions, rather than allowing them to break down despite their disuse.
Sunday: had a sleepy Sunday workshift, but I was at least able to catch up on all my follow-ups and take care of a bunch of trade sanctions emails. Rainy weather was rolling in such that Julie started having a migraine, so we napped for a while in the evening. She'd had plans to make dinner, but due to the weather, we decided to just have the leftovers. I walked to the store before I ate, since I wanted to get more sunflower kernels (and we were out of the Temptations treat-spoons). While we had our soup, we continued watching Buffy, getting through a few early Season 2 episodes. Afterwards, I came into the office to post this update.
Third Quarter, 2024: the Summer of Slow Recovery
Before I started this website, I didn't like how the years seemed to run together without differentiation. My sense of episodic memory was never the strongest, but once I learned how the brain creates and recalls memories, the entire concept of memory started to feel like a subjective illusion. This was a big part of my motivation to start blogging my daily activities, both because I now have a log of exactly when certain events occur, and because I can start to characterize larger periods of my life.
Decades back, I settled on a quarterly schedule of writing big summaries of how life is going. I planned to write these summaries on July 4 (or Independence Day), January 1 (or New Year's), March 29 (my birthday), and September 29 (my half-birthday). I think I only managed a single update on this schedule at that time. Now that I've gotten the (semi)-daily schedule down, I'm adding seasonal updates along those lines, but I thought I'd put them all at the end of months: March 29, June 30, September 29, and December 31.
This summer was one of slow recovery in that I'm finally getting around to addressing some health issues that have gone without attention for too long: trying to get another ADHD diagnosis after blowing off the one I got in 2004, finally getting a local dentist in Philadelphia, resuming a more regular gym schedule, etc. We're also still settling into the new normal of "only" having five cats and ensuring that they're all getting all the care and attention they need, particularly our aging kitties like John and Isabel.
This has also been a season in which I've been very satisfied with the current game releases. I really enjoyed both expansions for FFXIV and WoW, and I've enjoyed a lot of other game releases during this period. Enough so that I haven't really given myself any time to work on my own projects. I think that should change in the winter, though.
Friday: spent too long in bed with various cats catching up with stuff on my phone this morning. Julie was excited to have Emily over to the apartment to meet Cliff, so the whole weekend was a cleaning frenzy. I changed out the litter upstairs, vacuumed in the bedrooms, had a fast food lunch, and went shopping for a very light load of groceries. (I brought back chips and dip as a special treat.)
In Hearthstone, I've been making bad decks using all the Old God cards I can fit together. Terrible synergy, but nobody knows what to expect, so as long as I don't get blown out through early aggression, I usually have the late game under control since people misplay their removal.
While Julie was away with Emily, I had more stir fry since I overlooked the leftover meatloaf by mistake. I watched a live playthrough of (the first half of) Ryan Veeder's The Little Match Girl 2: Annus Evertens. I think LMG3 is a more exciting and impressive game, and LMG4 is my overall favorite, but LMG2 is the funniest. I started a discussion thread on the IF community forums about EarthBound, but since my deadling for FFXIV anniversary content is just days away, I didn't stick around to post much.
Speaking of which, tomestone collection continues, and I both leveled up my Machinist to 80 and continued the "Gods Revel, Lands Tremble" storyline. The highlight was running Rubicante with Pookia and Jiggly, but now I need to finish these updates and go to bed.
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As of today's completion, I am 79/80ths of the way to being 40 years old.
World of Warcraft:
Mythic: Underrot - Completed on: 9/29/2020, 12:26:44 AM
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I loved We Know the Devil, so I was excited to play the sequel, Heaven Will Be Mine. But "wrestling with emotions at a scout camp" is a setting and scenario I recognize and connect with on a personal level; "interpersonal drama between mech pilots" is foreign to me, by comparison. (Unless it's 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, but that's built on familiarity with the science fiction properties it wants to make reference to.) I couldn't get into Heaven Will Be Mine, so I uninstalled it for the moment.
Steam:
Heaven Will Be Mine - Good At Bad Decisions
Heaven Will Be Mine - The Ending We Choose Is...
Heaven Will Be Mine - Sea of Crises
Heaven Will Be Mine - Moving The Decimal Place
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World of Warcraft:
Honorable Medallion - Completed on: 9/29/2016, 11:22:13 PM
World of Warcraft:
Gnomeregan - Completed on: 9/29/2015, 12:34:40 AM
Is Draenor on Fire? - Completed on: 9/29/2015, 1:34:05 AM
Explore Tanaan Jungle - Completed on: 9/29/2015, 1:42:36 AM
World of Warcraft:
Northrend Tamer - Completed on: 9/29/2014, 1:15:00 AM
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World of Warcraft:
The Fishing Diplomat - Completed on: 9/29/2011, 2:27:38 AM
Got My Mind On My Money - Completed on: 9/29/2011, 3:40:48 AM
500 Fish - Completed on: 9/29/2011, 3:24:10 AM
Brewmaster - Completed on: 9/29/2011, 12:58:58 AM
Old Crafty - Completed on: 9/29/2011, 2:57:04 AM
Brew of the Month - Completed on: 9/29/2011, 12:58:58 AM
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Tuesday: one of the cats has a remarkable talent for knocking my contact lens cap into the trash while I'm in the process of getting around in the morning.
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