What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[Note]

I've had a good week, with a lot to smile about. Last night, I went out with my brother-in-law to one of the newer highly acclaimed pizzerias here in New York, called Scarr's. They're the only pizzeria that puts in the effort to mill their own flour. Needless to say, it was a pretty great meal. And we chatted a good amount about video games, which was a lot of fun.

Also, tonight, my friend invited us over for a movie night. I think we're going to watch Tai-Chi Master (1993). I hadn't had a chance to hang out regularly with friends since the pandemic started, so it'll be nice to reconnect.

Lastly, after a pest control issue in our building, it seems like the problem has finally been eradicated. We had to pack up all of our belongings during the treatment process, which lasted for about two months, but we can finally unpack. We've got the living room (mostly) in order, and this weekend we're hoping to finally put our bedroom back in order, where I have all my video game stuff and CRT hooked up, so I'm hoping to finally return to my favored setup and hop back into some old games again!

[marurun]

Wow, congrats on getting to go back home! Sounds like quite an extensive pest eradication plan.

[o.pwuaioc]

My theory is the folks who get really deep into physical activity are trying a post-hoc justification of the fact that they are bored from having a good life and have not reached the state of mental acceptance of "yes, it's ok for me to have things great compared to a few thousand years ago". This also leads to such things as camping, trying to find areas they can walk to everywhere even though the distances are 5-10 minutes more than is really comfortable, and jumping out of perfectly good planes with the thin promise of some nylon saving you from a terminal ending.

Or like trying to beat the turbo tunnel in Battletoads.
Or like trying to beat Super Mario Bros. in under five minutes.
Or like trying to beat your high score in Asteroids.
Or like trying to beat The Secret of Monkey Island without looking at a walkthrough...

Or spending 15k+ on a dumb video game.

[MrPopo]

Hey now, I only spent 10k that one time.

[marurun]

Today is our neighborhood block party. Good for the kid to socialize but I’m pretty flat on the whole thing. The entire street will be blocked off so any errands that involve lugging stuff like groceries need to happen early and I’ll need to park the car outside the barricades in case something comes up. Apparently a lot of folks have social energy to spend. I don’t understand it a bit.

[MrPopo]

The thing that gets me is social events based around proximity. Like, I only have really spoken to one of my neighbors, since we share ownership of some trees planted right on the property line and split the cost when trimming time comes up.

[SamuraiMegas]

I was friends with pretty much all my neighbors, and I'd totally go to a block party. I just like having an excuse to party.

[Markies]

For some odd reason, I have been finding it difficult to fall asleep the last couple of days. Normally, I don't have any issues with sleeping except for the rare occurrences and nothing in my life has changed drastically to affect my mental or emotional state.

Since I wasn't tired late last night, I did about two hours of mindless grinding in Breath of Fire III while listening to classic 80s music videos on YouTube. It felt great not to be out of it for a little bit and kept my mind at ease. It still took a bit to fall asleep, but I know I slept for a good five hours last night and that was more than I had been getting recently.

[REPO Man]

I personally take two Advil PM around 9-9:30 and it's probably the only way I can fall asleep before midnight. The downside is that if I have to work my morning job I'll usually end up getting 6-6½ hours sleep and barely have the energy to get ready for work. If I'm off from my morning job I'll either set my alarm for 9-10am if I have work in the afternoon or just sleep for 11-12 hours.

[Ziggy]

For some odd reason, I have been finding it difficult to fall asleep the last couple of days. Normally, I don't have any issues with sleeping except for the rare occurrences and nothing in my life has changed drastically to affect my mental or emotional state.

There's some easy things you can try first. No caffeine after X o'clock. A lot of sources say 2 or 3 PM, but maybe be more drastic and say 12 Noon for now. Also, no light sources of any kind in your room. Even little red stand by power lights. Try and block all light sources. A sleep mask actually really helps, I have found. More for me in the morning than at night, but still. And keep your cell phone off or away from you will you sleep. If you want it on and in the same room, try keeping it as far away from where you sleep as possible. No electronic devices should be near you while you sleep, says some sources. There's some more natural supplements you can take to aid in sleep, like melatonin, but I've found that ZzzQuil works pretty good. But I'm a fan of figuring out the route cause, or a more natural way to fix it, rather than relying on a crutch the rest of my life. Still, my biggest suggestion would be to do what you have to do to make sure you're sleeping. Lack of sleep leads to many problems. I wouldn't recommend taking ZzzQuil, or anything, every night for the rest of your life. But it will do good in the meantime.

Since I wasn't tired late last night, I did about two hours of mindless grinding in Breath of Fire III while listening to classic 80s music videos on YouTube.

That sounds fucking awesome!