dailyrandomwriter

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 907

One of the hard lessons I had to learn, two years into Covid, was the necessity of keeping backup medical supplies. The lockdowns had caused a delay in the supply chain which had resulted in some of my supplies being on backorder for about two months or so.

It’s actually a surprise that this wasn’t a lesson learnt earlier because this was not the first backorder of supplies I’ve had. About two years previous to that a single piece of plastic that was required to make one of my supplies seal tightly for at least a week had gone on backorder. And had gone on backorder for over four months. Probably the reason why it hadn’t been as serious was because I had found a substitute.

That had adhesive that I was allergic to.

Fun fact, I am allergic to most adhesive meant for medical use, including most hospital tapes (especially the waterproof ones) and those old school brands of bandaids that were cloth based.

But seeing as I didn’t have a choice, I bought a barrier wipe for my skin to try and lower the amount of allergic reaction. I don’t know how well it worked, but it did mean having to do a medical change twice a week instead of once a week. It was especially wretched because it was a hot and humid summer (like now) and the sweat was not doing me any favours.

And to this day, that has been the longest backorder I’ve ever experienced. Even as backorders have become more common since Covid, with at least one item every year going on backorder for at least a month, I’ve never had a backorder go for that long.

Except it’s happened again, the piece of plastic is again on backorder and it’s been over two months. Fortunately, I had learnt my lesson from Covid and I have the luxury of being able to stock a backup set of supplies. I also, due to a weird ordering mishap at the end of the last backorder for that piece, had an extra five in storage, on top of the backups I already had. 

This is the reason why I managed to make it to the two-month mark without having to order it, but it’s become clear this is going to be another long haul backlog. Fortunately, somehow, someone found two more boxes, and provided I don’t get sick, they will last me another two and a half months.

I say… like I haven’t historically been on strong antibiotics at least three times a year for the past several years.

It is a reminder that I have to find a substitute, but unlike the catheters that had gone on backorder during Covid, it’s much harder to find a substitute. In large part because I would rather not be out in public if the substitute fails. In fact I am going to make a call to another brand to see if they’ll send me samples to try while I am on holidays for two weeks since I don’t have to go out as much during my time off.

Still, of all of my supplies, I don’t know why a single piece of plastic is the thing that goes on backorder the longest.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 906

This past weekend I finally got around to playing True Fear Part 1. Shout out to @wereah for being my body double for that game, I don’t think I would have finished it otherwise. Though she did make watching me play it as our together time activity, probably because I told her there was a non-zero chance I would scream.

I don’t normally like horror games, but I tend to find hidden object games more doable because running for your life is not an aspect of that genre. Hidden object games and creepy-borderline-horror themes tend to go hand in hand. You can blame the creators of Mystery Case Files, the first breakout hidden object game for that trend, but it’s also just visually easier to do. There’s a reason why hidden object games tend towards mystery, fantasy, supernatural or horror (or all of them). It is much easier to make visually interesting scenes and backgrounds. 

The horror aspect is also really great, because the player is often focused on observing the scene, and that focus can allow you to do some creepy or heartstopping things. Especially if the transition between the scene and the cutscene is seamless, Mystery Trackers was actually really good at that.

The reason why I bought the first True Fear game was because the hidden object side of Tumblr was really excited about the release of True Fear 3. And if a lot of people are excited about a hidden object game, it generally means the series is pretty good. Unfortunately in the past several years this genre has been hit hardest by sloppy development, developers taking shortcuts and (horrifyingly enough) AI art. It is hard to find out if you’re going to get a good game because it is a very niche genre so it’s never going to get a lot of reviews on Steam.

Since it was on sale, I thought why not? I already played and did not finish the Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden because of the stupid amount of jumpscares that came at me without warning. I figured it could not be worse when it comes to jumpscares.

The good news is, the game followed audio horror conventions which meant I had a pretty good guess of when I was going to see something that would make me jump out of my skin. The bad (yet good) news is that it really leaned into the horror of it all. It felt like you were in a horror movie, complete with dumb white woman trope (because the main character was so dumb). And gameplay was not the traditional find the object scene, instead making a seamless mini-puzzle where you use objects in the scene to solve the scene.

Taking into account this was released in 2016, this was an amazing game for the time it was published. I understand why those who like this genre, really were excited for this game. This is not a series I would personally continue playing because my heart can’t take it, but it is a very well done game.

Glitches and narrative issues aside. The in-game journal was trying to be ambitious by only releasing narrative information once the player came across an object or piece of information. At some point in the second half of the game the journal began to release information too early. Information about the mysterious Dahlia was put into the journal when it shouldn’t have been, which would lead to confusion in some players. I think part of it was that it was conflicting with the collectable figures. I do wonder if there is missing narrative text as flavour text from the collectable figures were put into the journal on top of whatever system allowed you to see what figures you collected.

There is also a second glitch involving the quick travel system. Normally in hidden object games you didn’t gain access to an area until you stepped through the threshold, and then the area would be added to your map. However, the game opened up that area when you completed a puzzle to ‘unlock’ the area, rather than step into it yourself. This was a problem when you’re using that map to figure out what puzzles you still had to solve. Allowing the player to get into a room that they’re not sure how they got into, in the first place.

The final issue is the narrative. The narrative was very tight in the first act but by the third act it was falling apart. I don’t know how stories are written for hidden object games, if they are written as the game is being developed or beforehand, but there were a lot of narrative holes. Now, I do have a suspicion that the story had been changed at the last minute, but I am not going to talk about that here, because that requires content warnings.

But I will say there are parts of the game that clearly were designed to make a creepy scene, and didn’t really think about the implications of what that meant for the story. Especially if they were trying to make the main character’s mother someone you could emphasize with. Or the main character for that matter, the main character seems to be a few points short on their emotional intelligence.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 905

In an unexpected turn of events I had my hair just trimmed, layered and thinned out yesterday with the encouragement of my mom. Unexpected because for nearly 15 years, I have had my hair cut to chin length. Largely because I got fed up in my 20s with my mother complaining about my hair. 

Though to be fair, knowing what I know now, I was probably (definitely) a hot mess in my 20s, and my hair texture was not doing me any favours at the time. I have mildly curly thick hair, which most of the year is fine, except for summer when it becomes fluffy.

It didn’t help that I moved from my single house childhood home, to a building that housed several homes, which meant that the building’s water softener was working over to try and deal with the local hard water. This would force me to change how I looked after my hair, which I probably wasn’t doing a very good job at the time anyhow.

This resulted in me looking like I never took a brush to my head first thing in the morning, especially during the summer months. A look that was even more noticeable when I put up my hair because the (even curler) top layer of my hair would start to escape from whatever updo I had put it into. It drove my mother nuts, and caused her to often question if I had brushed my hair.

Fed up, I chopped it off to my chin. I would have gotten it shorter, but western hairstyling sensibilities state that you want the end hairstyle look like it’s full of volume, which on thick hair like mine makes my head look like a fucking mushroom. I was already traumatized as a child when I had my hair really short, and was not going to do that again.

And so it remained for 15 years, until recently.

It’s really hard to find a hairstylist that knows how to style Asian hair, or at least style it with Asian sensibilities in mind. When my last hairstylist retired, my mom found a nice Chinese lady who worked out of her home, but this meant going into a suburban neighbourhood that you could only get to by car. I don’t drive, it meant that I depended on my mom for a ride. Complicating matters was that my mom had decided one day out of the blue to take me to this person and I never got around to getting their contacts. My mom never gave me her contacts, if I ever needed a haircut, she would make the appointment herself.

In fact this last appointment, I asked mom specifically for the contact information, and she said… let me book the appointment. So, I still don’t have this lady’s contact information.

But as a result, by the time I gotten around to making an appointment, I was already five months overdue for a haircut and on top of having thick hair, my hair grows at a very decent pace. By the time the end of May had come around, I had bought a package of the claw hair clips because my old ones that I never threw out broke on me.

At this point, I probably should have booked a hair appointment. However, for the past several years I had finally gotten a decent hair care routine that involved leaving the conditioner in my hair for longer before washing it out. This made my hair much more manageable, and since the humidity hadn’t hit t yet, I couldn’t be bothered.

In fact even when the humidity started up over two weeks ago, I couldn’t be bothered.

The only reason why I figured it was time was because my hair had grown so long that I could fill the tips sticking out of the claw clip while it was in an updo. A sign that it was getting quite long.

But it appears that the several-month procrastination on getting my hair cut had allowed my mother to see how I was caring for longer hair. She also saw how the extra weight of having longer hair was making my hair (weirdly enough) more manageable style wise. As shorter hair causes the ends of my hair to flip outwards. If I want to look a bit more presentable, that requires water and a lot of brushing. Whereas having longer hair just makes my hair look like it has slightly soft wavy curls.

Which was why we ended up having a debate in the car on whether or not I was going to cut my hair back to the usual length. In the end, I decided to have it trimmed, and then layered and thinned out to make it more manageable in the humid weather. 

By the time summer ends (and the humidity leaves), I will probably forget to get it cut again before the year ends. It is anyone’s guess how long I will actually allow my hair to be. Hopefully not down to my back because I am too old to deal with that bullshit.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 904

Under the category of things I would like to teach my brain to do is to move on if I am not going to do what I planned to do. I’m told this is actually not surprising among those with ADHD, that if you think you are supposed to do something, and don’t do it, instead of moving on like a fucking normal person you just kind of sit?

I haven’t had this happen in a long while, but I think I may have mildly burnt myself out while trying to get things done at work for the past two days. Which is weird, because I thought I was making great progress. There wasn’t anything piling up (except maybe my emails) and everything was going according to schedule.

A part of myself would like to file a formal complaint with my brain. Sure, I would have liked to have done one more movement session to get in more exercise, and I did wander around my room daydreaming (so at least I was moving). However, once 30 minutes without doing shit passes I really should have just moved on.

Even when I decided it was time to move on, it took me a bit to move on.

In the end, in order to not lose more of my day, I decided to get pizza while I went on a grocery run. This meant I got to eat right away instead of the potential eating late at night that was threatening to come my way.

The most annoying part about it is that there were things I wanted to do. Not in a chore sense, but things that I enjoy doing, and now I have less time to do them.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 903

As I write this, I am technically procrastinating on something else. The funny thing is, it’s not something I have to do, but rather something I promised I would not do.

You’d think that putting a note to yourself to spend some amount of time outside to just exist would be easy. To most people, what I have written to myself is to take a fucking break, but it’s not break. At least… not in the typical sense. I’m supposed to, boot my ass outside and just chill for as long as I can personally stand it.

When I first started, I personally thought it was kind of dumb. This is because I am the person who will get stuck in my own brain. Being idle is generally not an issue as I am my own entertainment. In fact, sometimes I am idle too much, as I will zone out and do nothing on particularly bad days.

Despite it being frankly dumb, I continued to try and do this, anyways. Even if I didn’t get from this, what I had originally intended (that is resetting my brain to be a bit less dumb), at least I would have gotten some much needed sunlight and fresh air.

But when I began to drag my feet on taking a don’t-do-anything-not-even-read chill break, I had to reflect as to why this was becoming a chore. Primarily because that is what you’re supposed to do when you use journaling as a method of getting your life in order. Reflect and regroup.

And I realized, I’m not teaching myself to become comfortable with being idle. I’m teaching myself to be comfortable with the act of stepping away from what I’m working on. And there’s nothing harder at times than taking a moment to do absolutely nothing while you have something you want to do. 

This is almost in the same vein as me teaching myself to not always answer my emails right away, or to transition from one task to another, even if the other task is not completely done. 

Because I recognize I don’t have an issue with being idle, my brain does not stop enough for that to be an issue. I have an issue with stopping what I am doing so I can do other things. I have an issue of stepping away, because sometimes I feel like there’s always something to do. 

I mean… There is always something to do, but all my chores are done, another page in my journal is set up and I have about 20 minutes before it’s time to make dinner. Sure, I have Chimera Academy stuff to work on, but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t do it right this second.

Which means… It is time to chill.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 902

So my kettle died yesterday.

I wish I could say it was unexpected, but it was a reminder of the passage of time. Fun thing about Covid is that it has become a really good time marker when judging how long ago something happened.

Originally I had one of those large family size water heaters on my kitchen counter, but my parents made me change it as the inside wasn’t all metal, and they were worried about plastic chemicals leaching into the water. It didn’t help that the water heater was second hand from my parents, who replaced their own water heater with a normal electric kettle.

It made sense, it was just the two of them. Just like it made sense for me to change to an electric kettle since I’m the only person living in my home. Even more so, since at the time I was still drinking cold water, and only having hot water for tea. 

Except at some point I had gotten really sick, and this was before Covid. Before the whole work from home thing, and way before I stopped working while terribly sick. The thought boggles my mind now, but there was a time in my working career where I would carry around a box of kleenex while going from meeting to meeting on site.

The worst of it was when I had a sore throat so bad that I was having cough drops like candy and the really strong ones that make your mouth numb. I probably had at least three in a day (which you should not do). At one point I was gargling warm salt water in the staff room. I’m not sure why I thought this was a good idea, but it was a different time before Covid.

That particular incident was the reason why I began to drink hot water, because it would soothe my throat. It had lasted for so long that by the time I got better, I just preferred to drink hot or lukewarm water, and rarely cold. 

But it also meant that I went from boiling water in that kettle once a day to twice a day when I was working on site, and when working from home became a thing, I would end up boiling water three times a day.

This meant my poor kettle for the past 5 years would be boiling water three times a day, and it was probably closer to 8 years old at this point. Not a surprise then it decided to simply not turn one day. I’m not even sure at what point it died, because I had used it the morning of perfectly fine.

The funniest part about this, is that I told my mom and my mom texted me back saying she would get me a cheap kettle from Costco. That cheap kettle has more bells and whistles than my last kettle. It has a digital temperature reader on the handle with a touch button to start it, and the ability to change the heating temperature.

I’m not sure if this means electric kettle technology has changed, or that kettle was just very much on sale. Still, nice to have another kettle, because I am not nuking my water.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 901

Probably what I enjoy more in Infinity Nikki than the pretty clothes and fancy things is the chance to go through all the updates with @wereah over Discord.

I am actually kind of tired, because Infinity Nikki updates happen at 11 p.m. my time, the night before I have to be on-site for work.This often means I am in bed later than usual, and up earlier than usual.

That doesn’t even account for the fact I don’t sleep right away unless I’m particularly tired (or sick). Though at least my habit of not sleeping right away has gotten better since the medication, a weird by-product of not having my brain go on mental jaunts that often due to daily usage.

However, it doesn’t remove the fact I go to bed late on an update day, especially lately. Infold has slowly been focusing on releasing more items that can be bought straight up from the cash shop. On one sense, it can be kind of frustrating to have more things that have to be bought from the cash shop. However, if you’re like me, and do not like the idea of buying crystals solely to gamble them away in the gacha banner, shop items can be a better alternative.

Now, if it was just clothes that were in the cash shop, I probably wouldn’t have spent nearly an hour looking through things with Were-Ah, but Infold has also been leaning more towards poses, accessories and makeup for their cash shop items. And that is important because Were-Ah and I will play around with those items far more than just the outfits.

And by play around, I mean go through the animation frames on a pose bit by bit and comment on what is happening. Noting which animation frame could be used for what, or what could be done to achieve a particular effect. Honestly, if I hadn’t had to go to bed, we probably would have gone on for a bit longer in that regard. 

Despite the fact Were-Ah and I are still wary about Infold’s marketing tactics, when they do purely cash shop items, they really do make it a good deal. This season’s poses have very long and complex animations, if you’re into picture taking in the game it’s well worth the price. In fact, we were kind of surprised the price wasn’t higher on those poses.

Last night was a lot of fun, but now I’m kind of suffering for it.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 900

One of the more recent games that was released and I decided to play (instead of my backlog) was Trash Goblin. I am not sure if there had been a themed game jam a few years back but there have been a number of merchant themed games that have been released recently or are in the works to be released.

As far as I know, there hasn’t been a very memorable game within that genre that would have caused a spike in that game type, but I’m not complaining.

Trash Goblin has a number of features that gives it a tight gameplay loop. You’re a little goblin who receives shipments of items from a place known as the Chasm where items are lost and then found by people who dive into the Chasm to find said items. You chip away at the gunk revealing those items, clean them up and then sell them. The money you earn can be used to upgrade and decorate your shop.

And the game loop comes in two forms, the first is the usual, you earn a thing to upgrade a thing, and the second comes with the chipping away of the gunk. You don’t know what item you’re going to get until you chip all the gunk away. So there is a sense of surprise or expectation. Especially if you like to build new objects out of the items you get and then decorate your place with them.

But what really made Trash Goblin shine were the characters. It’s kind of funny, the storyline isn’t some big overarching plot, and your character is more of an NPC caught in the crossfire than the protagonist, but you are still swept up in the events. And the lives of the other people in the city.

What I enjoyed most were the characters who had their own storylines. Like the ballerina figure from a music box that came to life and will be going out on a music tour for the first time. Or the adventuring rabbit cleric who uses necromancy (but assures you he did his necromancy outside of city limits where it was perfectly legal). I would have liked to continue to see these characters even after their stories or quests have been resolved, and hope that might be an update in the future. 

Overall, I had a lot of fun with the game. Though I’m a bit sad that for some reason the usual buttons for making a screenshot don't work in the game. I had wanted to take a picture of the goblin’s little sleeping nook to show off, but alas both methods of taking screenshots do not work in this game.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 899

Due to weather issues, the last two board game meetups were missed. And by weather issues, I mean it has just been really hot. The weekdays are more bearable due to the occasional rain that helps cool everything down, but by the time the weekend comes around it’s very hot again.

A heat that causes the rain, which will cool everything down by the day.

However, I didn’t want to fall too much out of routine, as I find falling out of routine makes it harder to jump back into a routine. I figured since the public transit stop was close to the meet-up that I could make it there and be at least a bit cool.

But, it was also very busy, and the AC at the cafe barely kept up with all the bodies. I managed to play one short game of cards before having to leave again. By the time I got off the train, I decided that cooking was not going to be a thing tonight.

Not even reheating food.

So one takeout set of sushi, and a milkshake later I headed home. It’s actually too early for dinner as I am writing this, so I shoved both into the fridge for now and probably will  spend the afternoon journaling while I try to cool down again.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 898

Last year, when I set myself the goal of getting my home (and myself) in order, one of the mini goals that I had completed throughout the year was to declutter the numerous drawers and cupboards. It’s a thing that anyone who has lived in one location for many years knows, if you aren’t careful, the clutter just grows in those drawers and cupboards.

For reasons unknown, one of the places I forgot to note down were the cupboards underneath the bathroom sinks. Both in the guest bathroom and my own. The guest bathroom, I sort of understand though. It has a number of old cleaning products from the previous owner and myself that need to be disposed of properly. This will probably be a far flung future me problem as deposing of those cleaning products will take research and then probably a ride somewhere.

However, I am not completely sure why I forgot about my bathroom cupboard. Especially since I had cleaned out the cupboards on either side of the sink last year.

But for the past several months I had been fighting my clogged bathroom sink, in which no amount of drain cleaner was getting to behave fully. It would get a bit better, but a bit better meant that it would get worse pretty quickly. By the end of June it was becoming clear…

I was going to have to be a fucking adult and remove the sink’s drain stopper.

A task I had purposely procrastinated on because my drain stopper was not the simple screw out stopper. Instead, it required the homeowner to go under the bathroom sink to unlatch the metal contraption that allowed the stopper to work but also kept it in place. Unlatching it would not be an issue, the issue was putting it back afterwards. But, this couldn’t be put off for any longer, so I watched the related Youtube Video, got out a battered pillow in a plastic cover for my knees and knelt down in preparation of fixing the drain. 

It was then I realized, I did not know what was under my bathroom sink. I tangentially knew from long ago visits from my mom that there was really old vinegar and baking soda under the sink. However, I didn’t realize there were old medical supplies under the sink.

Why? I don’t know.

It wasn’t the only other thing under that sink, there were old bed pads, an airtight jar of even more baking soda and a toothbrush that was probably meant for cleaning. The most important thing I found though, was a hair clog remover for drains. It is a very thin long piece of plastic with micro hooks (like velcro) at the end. Designed to be shoved into the small opening in a bathroom drain to be swirled around so it would hook onto the hair clump and yank it out.

Seeing as 99% of bathroom clogs are caused by my hair, I assumed my mother bought it for me. I have no recollection of this device, but knowing me it was probably bought during my university years and then forgotten about. Because I was a hot mess in my youth.

With two unused hooks (because once it’s full of gunk and hair there is no saving the hook) I  decided I had nothing to lose.

So I shoved both of them (separately) down the drain and yoinked up hair which was full of gunk. It was gross. There wasn’t actually a huge amount of hair, but what probably happened was that the hair acted as a net catching toothpaste and not fully dissolved soap. This would then end up catching any dirt that went down the drain causing the grossness that was dragged up by the hook.

Good news though, it worked like a dream. Though, I did pour baking soda and vinegar down the drain for good measure, using their chemical reaction and hot water to clean out any leftover bits. Once that was done, I put a few things back, threw out a few other things and took a picture of the hair clog remover packing so I can restock on the hooks later.

And best of all, I didn’t have to remove the drain stopper.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 897

There are a lot of things people don’t tell you about being an adult. Maybe normal people just pick it up from their parents via observation, because I’m well aware I’m not the most observant person. I was the student where the idea of learning via osmosis of my learning environment was just going to cause educational gaps. This is actually the reason my ability to do cursive writing came very late in life.

It’s hard, I get it, no one tells parents what their children should know. Certainly there are the standard things, like how to do your personal accounting or how sex works, but there’s a lot of weird odd and ends that might be good to know as an adult.

Such as knowing the expected price of sanitary pads.

To be fair to my mother, my lack of knowledge is more due to her wanting to save me money, and the fact due to my medical condition I’m always wearing them. It sucks and I miss my youth before mother nature came calling.

We have an agreement, my mother and I (sort of). She buys me staples of what I need because she has a car and the patience to find them on sale and I will pay her back. I say this is a sort of agreement, because my mom procrastinates on doing her own accounting to give me the bill, and I’m pretty sure she is shortchanging herself on purpose.

But it does mean I don’t know the general ballpark cost of sanitary pads. A fact that isn’t normally a problem except I do have the common sense to buy non-perishable, commonly used things when they are on sale. The problem is, just because a shop claims that something is on sale, doesn’t mean it is actually a sale.

So I found myself while out grocery shopping, staring at a shelf display claiming that boxes of pads were on sale. The price did look good, but I was also aware from past conversations with my mom that sometimes I don’t really know what is a good deal. I mean, it’s a good deal for me when I don’t drive, but if you drive there is probably a better place to get said item.

After much forethought, and a bit of groaning, I called my mother while staring at the shelf full of pads. Which led to the awkward conversation of assuring her I didn’t need pads right this minute. My mom is also the person who I have to remind that I don’t need something right away when I ask for help getting anything.

It’s a thing, so after some conversation and mom rattling off numbers of the cost of pads at Wally-mart (which I then promptly forgot) she concluded that yes, the cost was a deal. She then asks if I was running out again so soon, and I pointed out, if it’s on sale, I might as well get them.

In which I realized I never told my mom that the big drawer in the work study has become the stocking drawer, but that’s a different conversation.

Mom once asked me what I would do without her, and I think… probably poorer (literally).

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 896

Now that the initial heat wave has long passed (for now), I’ve been able to do what I promised myself… to sit outside.

That’s it, that was the whole thing I’ve been waiting to do since winter.

And I should clarify, when I say, sit outside, I don’t mean, sit outside and read, or scroll through my phone, or do anything. Though, I did take a snack with me because I was hungry. Instead, I sat outside, took a few deep breaths and tried to simply exist.

I enjoyed the fact there was a consistent wind blowing through the trees, ruffling the leaves and making the shade pleasantly cool. It was nice to listen to the leaves rustle. To watch the sunlight filter through spotting the grass in light.

All the while, I internally debated if I was supposed to be doing something or not. Like… I don’t know… meditation?

Though I suppose that was the whole point of the exercise, was to get used to the idea of doing absolutely nothing. Of having no other external stimulation other than what was outside. I didn’t really think about it until I started people watching, but most of us don’t ever stop doing something. 

There was someone who was sitting on the other side of the tiny park I was in, scrolling on her phone. Nothing wrong with that, in fact I supposed to myself that if smartphones weren’t a thing, she’d probably be reading a book outside instead. Or knitting. Or any of the portable hobbies that people do to keep themselves busy.

In the end, I’m not sure if I’m helping my brain learn to chill. I certainly didn’t daydream while I was doing this, but I also have been regularly taking my medication. On the other hand, I know for a fact my brain went for jaunts today, just not so badly as to completely distract me from my work.

At least, I’m pretty sure today was a good working day, and not the result of the fact I have deadlines to meet. 

But I did settle down to write this piece in good time, so surely today must be a good brain day.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 895

Another small game I’ve been playing is Ship Inc, which I find really, really fascinating. It’s by the same people who made Lost but Found, and in fact they have made a good number of small games. They seem to be the kind of developers that are making a number of different games to see what will stick and probably to increase their working knowledge.

In Ship Inc, you’re playing as someone whose job is to pack boxes of orders and ship them out to earn money.

At first glance, the game looks like an asset flip of Lost but Found, because the beginning items are the same items you find in both games. However, as you progress in Ship Inc. it becomes very clear a whole bunch of new art was made specifically for this game.

The other thing I find interesting about this game is my goal. While this game does have a timer on standard, I’d recommend playing a chill mode for a bit before jumping into the standard game play. This is because one of the ways to maximize the amount of money you make is to make sure you don’t waste resources.

This means packing all the items quickly but also into the smallest box possible as ordering another truck for shipping will cost you money. All while remembering which stickers should go onto the box (less you have your pay docked).

Ship Inc is one of those weird games that feels more like a large mini game. I have no idea how to describe it, but I enjoy it all the same. It’s also one of those games where you sort of make your own goals, like seeing how quickly you can finish the final goal of the game (of getting a house).

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 894

So in most places that observe statutory holidays, if there is a stat holiday that lands in the middle of the week it will often get pushed to Friday or Monday (depending on which is closer) to give the employees a long weekend. For reasons unknown though, my place of work made the actual day (today) the day off.

Which confused a lot of people who wondered why I was calling on a Monday.

However, I have to say, there is something to be said about having a day off in the middle of the week. Especially if you already got the weekend. As mentioned previously, my weekends tend to be full of stuff, whether that is Pilates lessons to keep me mobile, housekeeping to keep my place livable or board game meet-ups to keep me socialized. I don’t normally get a full weekend to myself.

And I don’t think a long weekend would solve the problem, because knowing my dumbass brain, I would procrastinate on something because I knew I would be off on Monday. Whereas having a normal weekend forces me to get everything that needs to be done, done, and when Tuesday rolled around it was up to me to decide what I wanted to do.

Well, it was up to past me to decide.

Ever since I did that holiday where I had to schedule out my day so I would do things in order to see if my ADHD medication worked I have begun doing that even on holidays. It sounds strange, because holidays are meant to relax and do what you enjoy.

Which I do, as part of my schedule.

I spent my Tuesday, alternating between journaling, reading and playing video games with movement breaks in between. I wrote down what journals I wanted to work on, what stories I wanted to read and what video games I wanted to play. It ensured I didn’t spend my day solely on one thing, and I got a relaxing fulfilling day out of it.

Still, it’s kind of a weird thing to do, even if it works.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 893

I’m hoping (like I do every summer) to slowly work through some of the games that I have bought. One of the reasons why I tend to buy a lot of games is because Steam often has sales several times throughout the year, and most of the games I’m into these days do not cost more than 30 dollars. 

 And this is important when my old 3DS games would cost me 60 dollars. There are a lot of games I can get for 60 dollars when on sale. Unfortunately for my games, the games that tend to have been released most recently are the ones most likely to be played first.

Camper Van: Make it Home, was one of those games. It is one of many games that is trying to follow in Unpacking’s footsteps, by providing a narrative (and a puzzle) in the act of unpacking. And it’s very well done. It’s hard to explain why I enjoy games like this and House Flipper, but I enjoy the act of slowly turning something empty into something pretty.

The game does have bugs, but that isn’t a surprise. Where Unpacking was isometric in art style, Camper Van is allowing the player to move within a 3D space. Combined with the amount of interactable objects within the game it’s not a surprise there were a few bugs. Besides, none of the bugs were game breaking for me or prevented me from moving forward in the game.

I’ve heard rumours that there will be a ‘creative mode’ within the game and I look forward to that. Perhaps when that comes out I’ll take time to replay the game again just to see all of the hidden details within this game.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 892

Despite the fact that yesterday was a good cleaning day (as in I got moving without too much of a hassle) and I finally mopped, I decided staying home would be a better idea.

In part because it’s still kind of hot and I didn’t want to be walking to and back from the game meet-up, but also so I could have time to myself. The journal set up was done earlier this week, which meant I could take time taking care of other things.

Such as writing, memory keeping, and a few video games. A bit of tidying, but all at a more slow pace rather than the urgency I feel when things need to get done. Even though I genuinely enjoy the game meet-ups, the routine I have set for myself doesn’t allow for a full day on my own anymore. I should probably be more mindful of that in the future.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 891

As we’re heading into summer, which means my subscription will be up for D&D Beyond, I have been scrambling to transcribe the stats into Campfire for the Chimera characters that have character sheets.

Now to be clear, I technically don’t need the whole of the character sheets because it’s a comic, not a campaign. However, I use the base stats as a grounding point to what the characters can and cannot do. By knowing what level everyone is at, and the max and min of those levels, it helps me put everyone on a line in terms of power.

For the kids, it’s actually really easy because they are all baby wizards. This means starting out they don’t have a lot of power and therefore not a lot of spells. In fact, Emmi and Salron have even less spells (that is to say none), compared to Cael and Dorothea who have had the privilege of early magic tuition.

But I forgot about my professors who are much older and therefore more experienced than my students. Now according to the Dungeon Player’s Handbook, on average most normal wizards should only be around 3 to 5th level, and 5th level is probably on the higher tier of power. 

However, in the Dungeons and Dragons world, experience is the best teacher (provided it doesn’t kill you first), and there are a few teachers whose experience includes going out as an adventurer. This means they have very lengthy character sheets from experience.

Could I maybe just skip them and wing it? Sure, but I don’t want to accidentally give a professor a spell that they could not know due to level limitations. Either because they shouldn’t know that many spells, or they don’t have the power to do so.

It’s also a lot easier in general to write these characters if I limit them to their character sheet so I don’t have to hum and haw later if they should have a spell or not.