January 5, 2025 3:07 PM
Baba Is You
I played Baba Is You for the first time a few years ago with Dan. He's really into The Witness and some people had recommended Baba Is You to him because it's also a fun puzzle game. I think I like puzzle games well enough. Unlike The Witness, I liked that the Baba Is You puzzles were just presented to you. I didn't have to go looking for them. The first several puzzles were easy enough and it was a nice, fun game, but it quickly got pretty hard. At some point, I think it was too much for Dan and he wanted to stop. But I didn't. I started a puzzle and I wanted to solve it.
I ended up buying Baba Is You for my own laptop, and then later I bought it again so I had something to play on my phone during plane rides.
_ _ | \ | \ __,....' \_' \_ .' _`. / _ (_) \ | (_) | ' ; \ / '. _ _____ _ .' / / | | | | \ \ ,,,,,,'_',,'_',,,,,'_',,'_',,,,,
Just a warning that this is incredibly long (well, not as long as the last entry) and there are potential spoilers ahead, but please continue if you want to read about my journey
November 10, 2024 7:43 PM
I'm in my granny phase
On February 25, I went into a Half Priced Books store with my sister, and I impulsively bought the Unofficial Make Your Own Harry Styles crochet kit. I looked at it thinking, this would be a great white elephant gift! And it was half off! I had never crocheted before, but by the time we walked out of the store I had decided that I was going to make Harry Styles. My sister had been going through a tough time, so I told her "If you're ever feeling sad, just remember, Harry Styles is waiting for you".
When I finally opened the box, I realized that this crochet kit was absolutely NOT for beginners. It was like reading a whole different language. Everything is abbreviated! sc, dc2tog, blo, right side, wrong side, magic circle??? But I had already made the silly decision to buy a crochet kit, so I was going to learn how to crochet. I knew about this thing called The Woobles because my aunt had done it, so I looked it up, and I ordered the absolute easiest wooble possible: Kiki the chick. It was $35, which is more than twice the amount I paid for soon-to-be-Harry Styles.
The label on the Woobles bag said that this was estimated to take 3-8 hours to crochet. It took me weeks. Crocheting is all about counting. If you lose count, you end up with the wrong number of stitches and your amigurumi ends up looking real wonky. So I would try to stitch one row of stitches, and I would check my work and realize I counted wrong, and then I would start all over, and I would do this over and over. But I did it, and Kiki did not turn out too bad at all. Kiki is the easiest wooble to make though, so I figured I would try something a little harder and I ordered a shark kit along with some accessories.
Somewhere along in this process, things just clicked and I was really enjoying myself. I ended up buying even more woobles! I must have spent like $200 on these Woobles! But I needed to graduate from buying really expensive crochet kits. I wanted to take the next step in my crocheting journey, and I bought my own yarn. I paid like, $2 for the cheapest skein of yarn that I could get at Michael's. And then I made an octopus from it. Turns out this crocheting hobby is actually pretty affordable if you buy your own yarn. I also made a strawberry and a uterus, which was a special request from my sister!
I was finally at the point where I had learned a few different crochet techniques and I could read patterns on my own. So a few weeks ago, I finally opened the Harry Styles box. Harry Styles was definitely much harder than all the other things I crocheted. And the yarn that came in this kit was pretty terrible and the colors didn't match the picture. I didn't have very high hopes for myself, especially after looking at other peoples' attempts at this on Tiktok.
But I just took this one piece at a time. First the arms, then the legs, then stitching the legs together, then the torso...it was coming along! I would sit on the couch and crochet Harry Styles while also listening to Harry Styles. And I did it! Yeah, I messed up a few times. One of the shoes is coming loose and the top of the pants is a little janky and the butterfly tattoo is...not great. But I'm pretty freaking proud of myself. I thought this was going to be this huge project that I would slog over for months, but I actually just made steady progress over the course of a few weeks.
And now that I'm finally done with Harry Styles, I don't want to stop crocheting. I've got lots of ideas in my head for more things I want to try and make (from patterns. I don't know how to create my own patterns, but maybe one day). I didn't expect to have such a life changing moment from going into a Half Priced Books store, but I'm so glad for Harry Styles and so excited about my new hobby.
December 30, 2021 5:07 PM
I want to make a mobile app: 4
I think this finally does enough
October 23, 2021 9:18 PM
10 miles
I probably gained about 20 pounds over the course of the pandemic. Maybe only 5 lbs or so during 2020, but once travel started opening back up again, and I was visiting home, I just ballooned really quickly. I gained about 15 lbs between February and June this year, and it was enough to make my doctor ask me about it.
You weigh 140? Is that right? You were 126 earlier this year.
Uhhh, yep, that's right. I told her it was due to stress.
So I had to do something about it. Stop eating so much fried chicken. Stop drinking soda. Start cooking again. Oh, and exercise.
But I felt like a blob. I could feel the tightness in my clothes and the heaviness all over my body. But I've been there before. If I can recover from a freshman 30, I can revert this quarantine 15.
So I did what I did eight years ago when I was overweight and terribly out of shape. I started running. And man, was it a struggle. How the hell did I manage to do 5 mile runs no problem pre-pandemic? For months I was barely able to run 2 miles non-stop. And I was running slow. 11 minute mile pace.
But something changed a few weeks ago. I don't know what it was. I felt lighter? I started being able to run 5Ks again. I ran 5 miles with my partner and I felt...fine. And then last week, I went out for a run on my own, with no real expectations. I ran three miles, and it felt so comfortable, so I kept going. I was at five miles, six miles, seven miles. I started running faster. I thought, "I think I can hit 10 miles". So I kept going. My feet started hurting, but I was determined. And suddenly, there it was.
I really thought I was going to have a few more #in-progress posts before getting to this point, but I guess I just unlocked something within me.
May 28, 2021 6:32 PM
Elite Beat Agents
Because one silly rhythm game quarantine goal wasn't enough, I decided that I would turn on my Nintendo DS for the first time in years and play some Elite Beat Agents. And the battery on that thing is amazing. I hadn't charged it in over 5 years and it still turned on and had plenty of battery left.
I've heard the gameplay is similar to osu! but what makes it unique is that each song you can play has a story. Each one has a similar structure: the main character has some sort of ordeal they need to get through, and they call for help from the agents, and the agents dance their way to success. How well you do on the rhythm game determines the outcome of the story.
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I first played this game...14 years ago? I remembered it being a lot of fun, but once I got to the Hard Rock! level I struggled a lot, and I was never able to beat the whole game. But this time, I was determined to finish it. And because I like to make things harder for myself, I also decided to try and get a full combo on every single song on all 4 levels.
Yeah, I don't know why I insist on full combo-ing everything. That definitely made this take way longer than I wanted it to, and I think I hate the song Survivor now.
But I did it! And I only had to charge my DS twice this whole time! This is a fun game. I definitely recommend, but I don't think I'll ever play this again in my life.
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