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personal

How I’m Adapting My GMing Style

A few days ago, I realized my current Dungeon World game wasn’t working. My players frequently were completely stuck about what to do next. I would follow through on the natural consequence of the players’ actions, and it often felt really harsh. I presented quest hooks, and my players would just move on. In short, […]

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personal

My Potted Garden Graveyard

I have struggled tremendously to keep plants alive. Despite the power of nature to thrive in all sorts of environments, I am consistently able to take them out. I’m not alone in this. The internet is filled with house plant memes. I don’t quite identify with the obsessive streak, but I do know how difficult […]

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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.

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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 […]

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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

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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 […]

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personal

Retaining What I Learn Revisited

In 2019, I set a goal to retain more of what I learned. I enjoy consuming a variety of educational media in books, newsletters, podcasts, and more, but I had difficulty retaining it much of it. By the end of that year, I called it a mixed success with a few takeaways: Mental reviews immediately […]

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personal

Daylight Saving Time Listicle

Twice a year, we all ask ourselves, “So what was the point of this in the first place?” Well, I thought I knew why we change our clocks, but apparently I was wrong. Here’s assorted list of Daylight Saving Time facts. Some of these are easily picked out of the Wikipedia article, but a few […]

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parenting personal technology

Changed My Mind: 2021 Edition Part 1

I always find it interesting when I change my mind about something. It can happen at any time for any reason, and I might not become conscious of it for awhile. However, when I actually realize it, it’s an interesting moment. It’s hard to remember my previous mindset and reconcile why it happened. Some amount […]

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New Year's Goals parenting personal

2021 Goals Review

At the beginning of the year, I set three goals. I already wrote about baking 52 batches of cookies, so I’ll only cover the other two goals here. Re-establish Routines Before 2021, I had been trying to develop better habits and routines. At the beginning of the year, I was a new parent, and my […]