My parents may disagree, but as a child, I was pretty obedient. Their instructions were mostly sensible. Or I followed without questioning. Or I was oblivious to what was actually going on. However, some things never quite made sense to me. Some were probably just quirks of my parents as humans. Others now make a […]
Category: personal
I intended to write a post about the Olympics, but on the day of the closing ceremony, one of my children tested positive for COVID. And in a few days, we all had it. Thankfully, we are all previously vaccinated and have no other notable risk factors. We were never actually worried and didn’t have […]
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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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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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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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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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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
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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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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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 […]