December 6, 2020 7:25 PM
Educated
I've been trying to read more lately. Like, read things on paper, not on the internet. I wanted something to do during my weekend breakfasts that didn't involve staring at a screen, since I don't think it's good for me to look at a screen so early in the day if I don't have to.
I've been keeping a list of "books to read" and Educated by Tara Westover was on the top of it. I don't really remember when I added that book to my list, but I have a feeling I saw it at a hipster book store and it looked interesting. Plus it was on the New York Times Bestseller list and had pretty high reviews on Goodreads.
/\ ## /##\ Can you tell this is a pencil? `#*` ...No? Neither can I. / \ . o . / ,^~. \ |`' `'| | | | |
Educated is a memoir, and I like reading memoirs. It's like reading about a celebrity in a magazine, but it's in the form of a chapter book, so you feel like you're doing something productive.
This book wasn't quite what I expected. I thought I would learn more about her education, but it was really about her family issues. It's actually kind of disturbing, especially because it's a true story. But overall, this was a gripping tale. Very enjoyable read.
November 17, 2020 10:03 PM
My DDR quarantine goal
Back when the pandemic first started, I gave myself a quarantine goal of getting an A in every single song in Dance Dance Revolution Konamix. Now I love DDR, and I guess I'm decent at it, but not amazing. But this is a really old version of DDR for the PS1. Getting an A in Konamix means getting a FULL COMBO--nothing but Greats and Perfects. (Marvelous didn't exist in this version)
,=. .*. ,'. ,=. ,+ ,+ . | | . ,+ +. +. +. ,+ -----. + `.| |.' + ,+ +. .===== +. + =====' `+ ` ` +' + .'| |`. + '----- + `+ '+ `+ +' `' | | `' +' +' `=' `-' '-' `=' These arrows were a lot of work to type out.
All of the songs in Konamix have a level from 1-9, 1 being easy and 9 being the hardest. Nowadays, the highest level is 20. The hardest songs in Konamix miiight be a 13 in today's scale. So, getting a full combo on all of them? Totally doable.
EXCEPT, I'm in a second floor apartment and all I have are crappy foam dance pads. Each one seems to have a different arrow that's at least a little broken. Konamix also didn't have a lot of options. Pretty much everyone speeds up the arrows now, but you have to read everything at 1x in Konamix. And on top of all that the backgrounds are suuuuper trippy.
Anyway, this was a really silly quarantine goal, and to be honest, I didn't actually think I was going to finish this because of my pads misfiring ALL. THE. TIME. But! I was determined! And on Sunday I finally achieved my goal. It only took many months and many, many attempts at playing Drop Out.
August 2, 2020 7:56 AM
Rakuen
Earlier this year, one of my friends showed me a game called Rakuen, which tells the story of a boy and his mom going on adventures while in a hospital. It's an interactive novel with cute pixel art graphics, so I was immediately sold. You know, once the game went on sale in Steam.
, .~. /\ .~. /\ /{ \ /\ ,.-~'*/*'~-., <,.-~'*`*'~-.,> (| @ @ o) : .___, ,' `-._.-' This is my drawing (typing?) of the main character in the story.
My sister and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. It gets super emotional, in a good way. I am very slow at video games and I think I spent 9 hours total on this game, so it's quick. 5/5 stars.
July 6, 2020 7:36 PM
15 years in the making
When I was about 12 years old (okay, I don't really remember how old I was since it was so long ago) I received a cross stitch kit from my aunt (at least I think that's who gave it to me) for my birthday (once again, maybe it wasn't my birthday. maybe it was Christmas, who knows). But anyway, it was a long time ago, and I had never done cross stitch before. Turns out 12 year old self did not have the attention capacity to do a cross stitch. This was also a kind of complicated cross stitch. Definitely not a my-first-cross-stitch cross stitch. It said WELCOME with a bunch of flowers around it. I think I got the WELCOME part done at 12 years old.
X X X XXX X XX XX X X XXX X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X XXX X X X X X X X XXX X X X X X X X X X X X X X X XXX XXX XX XX X X X XXX A very very simplistic picture of what I was able to do at 12 years old. The actual cross stitch has more crosses than this.
At some point, I got bored, and the cross stitch kit sat in storage. Years later I would take it out and add more cross stitches to it. But I still didn't get very far. I did this again years later. And again. I probably had 4 or 5 attempts to actually finish the dumb thing. But I always got bored. So bored. My eyes would glaze over the crosses and I couldn't focus...
Until now! Because staying at home this much means I now have time to finish all the things that I've started years ago. And this cross stitch is the oldest of those things, so I was determined to get this done. And somehow, I've finally been able to get into the right mindset. And it's done. I FINALLY FINISHED MY CROSS STITCH.
15 years in the making.
Next up, cleaning it, ironing it, mounting it, framing it, and putting it on a nice spot on my wall.
July 5, 2020 9:39 AM
Vacation
I'm on vacation! I've been super super busy at work lately, so I'm taking a much needed break before work gets even busier than before. It's fourth of July weekend, which means seafood is on sale. I had lobster two days ago and crab legs yesterday, so I am all shellfished out.
--------------------- ----------------------------------. |` . ` . ` . ` . ` . `|----------------------------------' |` . ` . ` . ` . ` . `|----------------------------------' |` . ` . ` . ` . ` . `|----------------------------------' |` . ` . ` . ` . ` . `|----------------------------------' |` . ` . ` . ` . ` . `|----------------------------------' |` ` ` ` ` `|----------------------------------' '--------------------------------------------------------' '--------------------------------------------------------' '--------------------------------------------------------' '--------------------------------------------------------' '--------------------------------------------------------' '--------------------------------------------------------' `--------------------------------------------------------' I made an ascii art flag! The dimensions might be off, but I have the right number of stars and stripes! Also, this was a pain in the butt to color.
During this vacation, I'm just trying to relax and work on some fun little projects. I'm very close to finishing a cross stitch I started over 15 years ago (!!) and I've even gone back to editing some code for my Teochew website. So hey, you might be seeing an update sometime soon.
<< More Recent