Last time I did one of these no one responded — probably because I shared it on a Saturday morning while everyone was enjoying their weekends lol — so let’s go again!
The days are getting cloudier, the teens are back in school, and a familiar doom is perched on every doorway or whatever. What have you been enjoying lately? If you need ideas:
What’s the thing you keep doing every time you try to do something else?
What are you muscling towards the end of, even though everything gets worse past season five?
What’s the newest news in a niche/hobby/fandom that no one else you know cares about?
If you haven’t said hey before, say hey now! I’ll drop my favorite answers into Thursday’s WIHFL.
1. Running. My feet hurt like hell and I feel like I’m going to die running in 90+ degree weather, but holy cow I feel so powerful at the beginning and at the end. Runner’s high is real. And now I have two races to look forward to - a half marathon (first ever) in October and a triathlon (first ever) in May. The only records I’m trying to break are my own, and firsts are a great way to do that 😆
2. TikTok recipes! Sarah sends me things that look delicious, and then I get to figure out how to make it. It’s fun, because it takes the decision of what we are going to eat off my shoulders, and I get to try a lot of new things. I recently made a spicy Tuscan pasta with blistered tomatoes and white wine, and I knocked it out of the park!
Looks like I missed the boat on this one, but I'll add that I've been trying out Frostgrave, which is a wargame for people who don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on Warhammer stuff. You're wizards with some hired mercenaries, and you're trying to extract treasure out of frozen ruins, except the ruins are cereal boxes, books, cardboard tubes and whatever else you can find laying around to build with. You don't have to buy anything to play, the rules are relatively simple, and it's essentially the adult version of playing pretend with action figures. It's a very beginner friendly wargame where I get to launch magic grenades from behind my magic robot squad and recover magic treasure, everything I've ever wanted.
I've been trying to get back into philosophy work but every time I open my computer, somehow Dance Moms starts to play... of all the trashy TV out there, this show is close to the pinnacle. I started watching clips of the show just for the outrageousness and quotable moments, but that slowly turned into genuine engagement---I'm tense when the girls perform, and I find myself actually smiling when they win. After reading your post about criticism, I can conjure up an analogy: Dance Moms is to Kim what French fries are to Dayten. I can't really explain why, but I like it. But, I wouldn't recommend it.
Some things I *would* recommend: Make Some Noise on Dropout and Noel Miller's Company Lot, both of which have gotten me to laugh out loud. These are super different projects, but they both feel infused with passion and creative energy----the Dropout cast and staff, and Noel Miller, are making things they seem truly excited about.
Oh, and Kinds of Kindness, the new Yorgos Lanthimos movie. I saw it this past June, and I find myself still thinking about it. Watching it feels like reading a series of Chuck Palahniuk short stories, but also not, because there's a weird tenderness to Kinds of Kindness that I haven't felt in a lot of Chuck Palahniuk's work.
Omg you're so right, french fries are my dance moms. I'm linking a short essay from this aesthetics blog about "ironic appreciation," which you'll love, but tl;dr ironic appreciation creates distance by "[presupposing] some level of superiority and inferiority." We are no better than the Dance Moms! We are the Dance Moms! (And now this counts as philosophy work!)
anyway, you're choosing favorites and there's no submission limit? alright here goes nothing:
1. playing vibeo games. as such, i have set a (arguably generous) limit of no more than 20 hours/week for myself using steam's "hours played in the last two weeks" feature. i've actually been getting more done in terms of reading stuff, practicing art stuff, and reading through the entirety of the call of cthuhlu rulebook
2. nothing. but we did just finish the bear and are watching the latest (final?) season of umbrella academy. oh and we have to watch the last season of the crown which we've been putting off so ig that's an answer
3. a music composition jam that i submitted an entry to about a month ago (https://itch.io/jam/ost-composing-jam-7) finally announced that they have the results and will be announcing them tomorrow. with 657 participants and 20 winners, i know i didn't win the thing, but i'm just hype to see who won and how my entry was rated
others since you didn't give me a category to post them under:
- i have purchased my last carton of coffee creamer and am weaning myself off of it. once it's gone i will be a black coffee drinker (aka a Man).
- ren faire hosted by a local meadery where (for those who aren't dayten) jenn and i won second and third place in the costume contest respectively
- regular nights of arkham horror LCG at my local (read: 20 minutes away) game store
- i am officially 50% finished with data analysis for my current study
- we're having my cousin over for dinner tomorrow. for an appetizer i will be making shrimp cocktail (made from scratch, we even bought an actual horseradish), for the main dish i'm doing grilled tuna steak and hawaiian roasted vegetables (needed an easy side and figured everything else is a little tropical, plus it'll add color to the plating with the tuna steak), and then for dessert i'm making mango sticky rice (i kept the other dishes simple because this is the annoying one, and not just in the cooking - i have to stop by an asian grocery today after work because wegman's apparently has every type of rice except for sticky/glutinous rice and according to the internet there really is no substitute for it)
- chappell roan (don't tell jenn) (current top pick is Femininomenon)
- when i came into work last friday there was a large wet spot on the carpet outside of my office. apparently when my coworker came in earlier that morning (our offices are in one suite thing), she noticed the suite door was locked (which is unusual), and while she fumbled with the key she heard scrambling inside. once she got the door open, a woman described as "appearing homeless" pushed past my coworker and ran off after gathering the little picnic she was having in the office suite. so now we have to lock the suite door when we leave. although the lady did leave behind a stray oreo in front of said coworker's office door, so i choose to believe that she was a fey creature. or something.
HOLY CRAP what a line up — so much to address but congrats again on the ren faire, DOUBLE congrats on the music jam, and 50% congrats on the data analysis!
Zillowing 2 million dollar homes that I pretend I can buy, then narrowing the search back down to what I can actually afford. It's a terrible form of torture, yet I continue.
speaking of, i just bought pandemic and it is good game. we've also been having great fun with quacks of quad... quadeline.... hang on let me check the spelling
You play as quack potion makers. You have a bag of ingredients which each do different things, including cherry bombs, and you buy additional ingredients after each round. On your turn, pull at random and put as many ingredients in cauldron as you like, but if you get too many cherry bombs then your cauldron explodes. Fun for the whole family.
1. Running. My feet hurt like hell and I feel like I’m going to die running in 90+ degree weather, but holy cow I feel so powerful at the beginning and at the end. Runner’s high is real. And now I have two races to look forward to - a half marathon (first ever) in October and a triathlon (first ever) in May. The only records I’m trying to break are my own, and firsts are a great way to do that 😆
2. TikTok recipes! Sarah sends me things that look delicious, and then I get to figure out how to make it. It’s fun, because it takes the decision of what we are going to eat off my shoulders, and I get to try a lot of new things. I recently made a spicy Tuscan pasta with blistered tomatoes and white wine, and I knocked it out of the park!
Blistered toes and blistered tomatoes, got it.
(Actually huge ups on the marathon(s), you'll knock it out!)
Looks like I missed the boat on this one, but I'll add that I've been trying out Frostgrave, which is a wargame for people who don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on Warhammer stuff. You're wizards with some hired mercenaries, and you're trying to extract treasure out of frozen ruins, except the ruins are cereal boxes, books, cardboard tubes and whatever else you can find laying around to build with. You don't have to buy anything to play, the rules are relatively simple, and it's essentially the adult version of playing pretend with action figures. It's a very beginner friendly wargame where I get to launch magic grenades from behind my magic robot squad and recover magic treasure, everything I've ever wanted.
This looks sick! “Warhammer but you don’t have to buy stuff”’is also the strongest imaginable pitch
I've been trying to get back into philosophy work but every time I open my computer, somehow Dance Moms starts to play... of all the trashy TV out there, this show is close to the pinnacle. I started watching clips of the show just for the outrageousness and quotable moments, but that slowly turned into genuine engagement---I'm tense when the girls perform, and I find myself actually smiling when they win. After reading your post about criticism, I can conjure up an analogy: Dance Moms is to Kim what French fries are to Dayten. I can't really explain why, but I like it. But, I wouldn't recommend it.
Some things I *would* recommend: Make Some Noise on Dropout and Noel Miller's Company Lot, both of which have gotten me to laugh out loud. These are super different projects, but they both feel infused with passion and creative energy----the Dropout cast and staff, and Noel Miller, are making things they seem truly excited about.
Oh, and Kinds of Kindness, the new Yorgos Lanthimos movie. I saw it this past June, and I find myself still thinking about it. Watching it feels like reading a series of Chuck Palahniuk short stories, but also not, because there's a weird tenderness to Kinds of Kindness that I haven't felt in a lot of Chuck Palahniuk's work.
Omg you're so right, french fries are my dance moms. I'm linking a short essay from this aesthetics blog about "ironic appreciation," which you'll love, but tl;dr ironic appreciation creates distance by "[presupposing] some level of superiority and inferiority." We are no better than the Dance Moms! We are the Dance Moms! (And now this counts as philosophy work!)
Also loving Dropout, Never Stop Blowing Up is 🔥🔥🔥
https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2023/03/30/taco-bell-and-ironic-appreciation/
> the teens are back in school
it's a little early for that bud
anyway, you're choosing favorites and there's no submission limit? alright here goes nothing:
1. playing vibeo games. as such, i have set a (arguably generous) limit of no more than 20 hours/week for myself using steam's "hours played in the last two weeks" feature. i've actually been getting more done in terms of reading stuff, practicing art stuff, and reading through the entirety of the call of cthuhlu rulebook
2. nothing. but we did just finish the bear and are watching the latest (final?) season of umbrella academy. oh and we have to watch the last season of the crown which we've been putting off so ig that's an answer
3. a music composition jam that i submitted an entry to about a month ago (https://itch.io/jam/ost-composing-jam-7) finally announced that they have the results and will be announcing them tomorrow. with 657 participants and 20 winners, i know i didn't win the thing, but i'm just hype to see who won and how my entry was rated
others since you didn't give me a category to post them under:
- i have purchased my last carton of coffee creamer and am weaning myself off of it. once it's gone i will be a black coffee drinker (aka a Man).
- ren faire hosted by a local meadery where (for those who aren't dayten) jenn and i won second and third place in the costume contest respectively
- regular nights of arkham horror LCG at my local (read: 20 minutes away) game store
- i am officially 50% finished with data analysis for my current study
- we're having my cousin over for dinner tomorrow. for an appetizer i will be making shrimp cocktail (made from scratch, we even bought an actual horseradish), for the main dish i'm doing grilled tuna steak and hawaiian roasted vegetables (needed an easy side and figured everything else is a little tropical, plus it'll add color to the plating with the tuna steak), and then for dessert i'm making mango sticky rice (i kept the other dishes simple because this is the annoying one, and not just in the cooking - i have to stop by an asian grocery today after work because wegman's apparently has every type of rice except for sticky/glutinous rice and according to the internet there really is no substitute for it)
- chappell roan (don't tell jenn) (current top pick is Femininomenon)
- when i came into work last friday there was a large wet spot on the carpet outside of my office. apparently when my coworker came in earlier that morning (our offices are in one suite thing), she noticed the suite door was locked (which is unusual), and while she fumbled with the key she heard scrambling inside. once she got the door open, a woman described as "appearing homeless" pushed past my coworker and ran off after gathering the little picnic she was having in the office suite. so now we have to lock the suite door when we leave. although the lady did leave behind a stray oreo in front of said coworker's office door, so i choose to believe that she was a fey creature. or something.
HOLY CRAP what a line up — so much to address but congrats again on the ren faire, DOUBLE congrats on the music jam, and 50% congrats on the data analysis!
Zillowing 2 million dollar homes that I pretend I can buy, then narrowing the search back down to what I can actually afford. It's a terrible form of torture, yet I continue.
Torturing yourself is so important, i’ve always said this!
Nurturing and hanging out with friends. We’ve been playing more board games, being active, it feels like a chosen family.
Truly no better way to wind down for the fall. Please share some of your fav board games!
speaking of, i just bought pandemic and it is good game. we've also been having great fun with quacks of quad... quadeline.... hang on let me check the spelling
quacks of quedlinburg
What on earth is quacks of quedlinburg
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244521/the-quacks-of-quedlinburg
You play as quack potion makers. You have a bag of ingredients which each do different things, including cherry bombs, and you buy additional ingredients after each round. On your turn, pull at random and put as many ingredients in cauldron as you like, but if you get too many cherry bombs then your cauldron explodes. Fun for the whole family.