I took Friday off to celebrate the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5 and played extensively all weekend. Now it’s Monday and I’m sitting in the dark drinking my coffee and trying to ready my mind to go back to work and not play video games all day. While I like my job, I would like another weekend now please.

I wish I was better at conflict, especially with my partner. It gnaws at me constantly if unresolved, gives me horrible anxiety (I’m normally not an anxious person) to the point where I can’t eat or sleep. So, I tend to hold back from conflicts altogether. Not a useful solution. I wish I had better advice to offer but in place of that, please accept my commiseration. Hopefully some time to reflect and cool down will prove useful and perhaps your partner will have fresh ideas for resolution when you readdress it.

My partner and I had fun playing Cat Quest 2 and Spiritfarer as coop games, in addition to It Takes Two which you mentioned. CQ2 is a cute action RPG and Spiritfarer is very chill, lots of sim/management tasks but with really beautiful characters, art, and story. Definitely very unlike Cuphead or Portal 2 but sometimes it’s nice to switch things up a bit.

Yeah except oyster and other shellfish shells should be returned to the ocean to decompose and alkalize the waters from which they were harvested. Surely there are other means of creating white paint for roofs and then two benefits could be gained for the environment.

I put out a birdbath last year and it truly warms my heart how much my local wildlife uses it. Every kind of bird, squirrels, chipmunks, everyone comes to cool down and have a drink. I have to clean it out daily but it’s a small price to pay to see my critters hop up for a drink of fresh cool water on a 90-degree day.

Seriously, I’m pretty disappointed. Just scrolled past a meme about Lizzo (har har she’s fat) and then I find this (har har short-haired bitches be like)… I’ve been finding this community to be overall pretty positive so it bums me out to see that shit infecting this space too.

There’s currently a Douggles (that’s what we call them at my house) on a branch screaming his high-pitched incessant barking scream - this will probably go on for several more minutes. They’re lucky they’re so cute because they can be god-damned annoying. But then they meet me at the feeder and take a peanut from my hand and all is forgiven.

I’ll be 36 next month. I let myself slept in this morning until I woke up. I have a crick in my neck and the left side of my lumbar spine is a dull mass of burning discomfort. I’d rather sleep 6.5 hours every night than wake up feeling like this every day.

I’m looking forward to Season 2. Season 1 wasn’t the most incredible story I’ve ever seen, but I found it compelling, visually very appealing, and the story, performances and characters were strong enough that I’m excited to see how things play out. I’ve not read the books, though.

I think there’s so much mediocre TV out there, it often seems like fantasy/scifi is held to a weird standard where it has to be groundbreakingly innovative and earthshatteringly well-done to get people on board. I’d much rather watch the next season of Wheel of Time than NCIS: Duluth or whatever else is getting pumped out by the police procedural-industrial complex (and believe me, I watch plenty of schlock crime dramas too).

Oh, The Detectorists has such a special place in my heart. Really a one-of-a-kind show. The comedy is so good and you just love everyone (except Simon & Garfunkel of course). The pacing and the reverence for wild spaces and quiet is so meaningful. I think the casting was impeccable. Now I want to go watch it again!

I can always watch an episode of Psych. Probably seen the whole thing 4 times, with various episodes seen much more than that. Like a warm hug.