Categories
personal

One Thousand Days of Duolingo

A few weeks ago, I reached a streak of 1000 days of Duolingo. After almost three years of consistently studying Mandarin every day (except for the stray streak freezes), I then quit with no intention of continuing. Here’s my story with Duolingo.

Categories
personal

Birdwatching

I never really understood birdwatching. There are plenty of birds out there, and it never really struck me that there was anything special to seeing one in particular. It’s there, you see it, it’s gone, and that’s apparently a successful outing. However, birds have cropped up as a point of interest recently for a few […]

Categories
parenting tabletop games

Forced Fun

Currently, the only game that I’m running is at the local teen community center. It’s an after-school drop-in space for teens to play games, do homework, have a snack, and otherwise hang out. Although I have mostly been running for a consistent set of players, I always have to be ready for a teen to […]

Categories
personal

Recent TV Roundup (August 2022)

Since the beginning of the year, we have watched a few TV shows. I don’t have in-depth critique or reviews of most of them, but perhaps all of them in some will amount to one good blog post. Of course, there are lots of spoilers, so skip around. Star Trek: Discovery Season 4

Categories
D&D

My Hot Take on One D&D

Big news from Wizards: there’s not a new edition of D&D. There’s just One D&D. More info here. Before I dive into my hot take, I want to disclaim my extreme ignorance. I honestly haven’t kept up with either a broader D&D community nor have I even really incorporated more recent rulebooks into my game. […]

Categories
technology

Upgrading a Decade-Old MacBook Pro

Just over ten years ago, I wrote about upgrading to the first generation retina 15″ MacBook Pro. It would replace my five year old college laptop with a slimmer, more powerful computer with a state-of-the-art display. Today, I’m tapping out this blog post on the same mid-2012 retina MacBook Pro. It has lasted me twice […]

Categories
parenting

A Toddler’s Social Calendar

I have had a difficult time explaining to my coworkers and friends without children how becoming a parent changed my life. In most ways, I’m the same person: I still like the same foods, have the same day job, and dress the same way. On the other hand, I now take a lot more photos, […]

Categories
tabletop games

Running My First Solo Adventure

Normally when I know I only have one player available, I just cancel the session and pick up next time. Last week, however, I made an exception for a few reasons. The player was behind on experience from the rest of the group We had already skipped a few weeks beforehand We were between major […]

Categories
food

A Tale of Two Taste Tests

Recently, a coworker mentioned that growing up, he had blue ketchup. It didn’t taste different. It wasn’t some other type of tomato. Heinz just thought it would be fun to put blue food coloring into ketchup. Although it’s no longer available, this product wasn’t the end of Heinz’s innovations in ketchup. In fact, in our […]

Categories
parenting personal video games

Changed My Mind: 2021 Edition Part 2

This post is a followup to Part 1 where I reflect specifically on cases where I have learned, grown up, or adapted to new circumstances. Physical Books This one is a cop-out because I still actually prefer reading ebooks for myself. However, I have a new reason to want to have physical books around. I […]