Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Heat And I Are Not Friends

I could not sleep at all last night. Between the heat and how hard it was for me to find my collection of tank tops, I was exhausted. I got up at 4:30AM to go to the bathroom and just... gave up. The sun was rising, the birds were singing, the cat was curious.

I got some coffee and went back to bed. The second time I got up, I went down for a second hefty mug of coffee and curled up on the couch while my head sloshed. It honestly felt like my skull was filled with hot water, I was so tired. Eventually I dozed until around noon, then I got my day started.

Today's temperatures were about the same as yesterday, but we had about 20% more humidity so it really just sucked.

I'm sleepy, I'm annoyed at how little I've done on the crocheted pouch, and I'm creatively washed out. It's hard to write when all you can think about is the way your armpits are sticking to themselves or the way you can feel steam building under your spine where you lay on your bed.

It's hard to draw, too - holding a pencil makes my fingers hot, and frankly, I just can't think of something to draw.

I'll figure it out by the end of tomorrow, but yeesh.

I'm pooped.

And we are not getting relief until Sunday. Our daily highs are 80℉ (26,7℃) and up, power rates just increased by apparently enough to double our bill, and we already had a brownout yesterday so it's just gonna be a really crummy summer, I think.

I hope they don't jack up the water bill, too, because I foresee a plentitude of cool showers in my future.

We'll see what the rest of the week brings, but I'm not going to fight through a heat headache to do art. If I make art, I make art.

Meanwhile, I've just dug up a bunch of old black pants that don't fit me anymore (and won't unless I drop an unreasonable amount of weight - one pair is from middle school, when I was about 13), which I might turn into various projects, I've got a pair of shorts to repair the waistband of, a winter coat in need of a zipper.

I've got work to do, in short, and I don't think this is the week it will happen.

In fact, I think tonight is just going to be for watching videos and relaxing until the glowing hate ball (the sun) rises again.

I'll do my best to keep posting.

Go Enjoy Something (maybe the beach if it's hot where you are, too),

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Today Was HOT.

I am a delicate alpine bloom at the best of times, despising any temperature above 75℉(23,9℃) and melting in high humidity like so much cotton candy.

Today was absolutely not the best of times.

Today never actually got above 80℉(26,7℃), but between the sun and the mugginess, it felt like around 92℉(33,3℃).

Needless to say today sucked.

But I wasn't about to melt into the living room rug and let the vortex of the ceiling fan whisk away my consciousness like a massive hypnotic aide, no.

I decided, soon after waking up to an oven of a bedroom, that it was time to collect the air conditioning unit from the basement and put it in the kitchen so it wouldn't be disgusting anymore.

Now, I'm not an overly burly individual. I used to be able to do a lot more than I can now, but now I'm woefully weakened.

This is not a small AC unit. This is not a gainly AC unit.

It's not a window AC unit.

No, folks, we have one of those cabinet ones that you stick the hose out the window. The ones that are almost counter-height and weigh as much as an obstinate middle schooler and have handles that are only an inch deep and are about 3/4 as wide as the stairs while being a good 4" deeper than the treads.

So it's not an easy task.

At all.

We're talking a decent logistical undertaking for someone who has been awake for 20 minutes and has only just remembered how coffee works.

Needless to say, it must've been hilarious to watch me heave that stupid thing up the stairs. I had to go up backwards, butt first. I was literally sitting 3-4 stairs above the AC, desperately trying to hold it in place while the wheels debated sliding it away from me, struggling to get my feet halfway between the AC and my butt, and once I reached the top of the stairs, I had to practically lay on my back and scoot it into the kitchen. It nearly crushed me at least once. I nearly dropped it several times.

But I succeeded in putting it where it belonged.

I hooked it up and re-duct-taped the hose (the clips broke because of course everything is plastic and everything plastic breaks in this house), and cranked it to 75℉(23,9℃) before finally collapsing in an exhausted heap in the living room.

So of course, I scrapped the random sketches I did yesterday and instead scribbled out an homage to the effort of moving the stupid AC lol:

"The Struggle Is Real"; watercolore pencil & ink on watercolor paper; 2023
[DEDBERT]

I was tiredly chuckling the entire time I drew that lol.

I hope you guys are all holding up well during this trying time.

For now, I'm gonna go listen to some music and rest. I advise all of y'all to do the same!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am A Melty Birb

Well, summer has well and truly hit my hometown. It's HHH - Hazy, Hot, and Humid today, and I cannot believe how awful it is out there. Anyone from the US South can make fun of me all I want, but I'm a Yankee tubbins who can theoretically walk into the sea from my house in an hour or less, so I'm never going to be accustomed to such a wretched triple threat.

For reference, today's high was 90℉/32℃ with about 58% humidity. It feels like about 92℉/33,3℃ in the sun, but I'm not going outside. You couldn't pay me to be out there today. I'd die.

I'm not being dramatic, I know enough about the way my body traps heat to know that this is deadly weather for me. Pathetic? Eh, it's just life for me. I'm not 12 anymore. I can't just melt in the sun without consequences.

So what am I up to today?

I've... not been doing much. Most of my efforts are focused on not exhausting myself and not overheating. Water has been chugged, coffee has been drank, a shower was taken, and the massive AC we bought a few years ago has been dragged out of the basement and set up downstairs.

Which is great for my mom and the cat, who are downstairs, but upstairs is a good 10-20 degrees warmer!

I try to stay upstairs, even on hot days like this. It's not just my stubborn, hermitlike nature, though. I like to watch videos and read and write, and those are not easy to do when the tv is on and playing Price is Right reruns lol.

Popping downstairs every hour or so for more water, a bathroom break, a light snack, etc is how I tend to survive hot days like this. No one is expecting me to be silent and hidden in my room tonight, thankfully, so I'll be roaming the house after the sun goes down, pulling the shade in my room, switching the window fan from exhaust to intake, and again, seeking water.

For the most part, today has been alright. I've reached my limit a couple of times and had to retreat downstairs, but mostly I've been able to stay up here and blog, wind some yarn balls to get them out of the tangle, and listen to some N64 tunes.

The tentative plan for this week (in spite of the heat wave) is thus:

• Art on Thursday - I've had no suggestions yet, so if you're interested in buying me a coffee with your choice of category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Geometric, Word) please do!
• If the weather is good on Saturday, I'll talk about a game I've been playing!
• Next Monday should involve some more updates on the Secret Project, but if not, I've got other things I could talk about (like this massive yarn tangle I've been working on...)
• Next Tuesday I'll be back to blather and probably whine and cry about the heat lol

I'm excited to see where this sweaty week takes me, but hopefully if you're also enduring heat, you're taking care of yourself, so here are a few words of advice from one wilting wallflower to others:

• Your home should be as cavelike as possible during the day. Hide from the sun like a vampire. The sun is your worst enemy now. Close all blinds and shades and curtains!
• If you open a window for ventilation, find another window to open as well because otherwise it will do nothing - you must cross-ventilate!
• There are many instructions for a "swamp cooler" available on the internet. If you don't have an AC unit or any other kind of aircon, please build one. Heat kills.
• Hydrate or diedrate. I'm not even being funny - you must replace your fluids. Constantly be sipping clean water. If you bought bottled water, freeze some of them and use them as ice packs. You can also drink from them as they melt and refill them to replace the water you drank.
• If you have frozen treats, enjoy them. Slowly. Don't give yourself brain freeze!
• Damp washcloths on the back of the neck, forearms, and feet can help you cool off, too, if you're in front of or underneath a fan. This is evaporative cooling. Take advantage.
• Don't move if you don't have to.
• Stay out of the kitchen and block it and any room you won't be spending much time in off from the rest of the house, if possible. Believe it or not, your toilet can help keep your bathroom cooler than it otherwise might be, but your kitchen will always be hotter because of your refrigerator.

I think that'll do it for my advice. Hopefully you're already doing a bunch of this, but if I've given you any ideas that help you, that makes me happy.

Go Enjoy Something, fellow Toasted Marshmallows!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

It's too hot

I'm not a summer person. I don't like heat, I don't like humidity, and I don't like the sun.

Unfortunately, like a lot of folks right now, I'm experiencing Summer with a capital S. It's not anywhere close to as hot as it is in the PNW right now, we're only at about 90℉ (32.2℃). With humidity it feels around 97℉ (36.1℃), and it's slowly rolling between partly cloudy and sunnier than an optimist's disposition and twice as obnoxious to my pessimistic tush.

I've drank 2 liters of water today, had a bowl of cereal, ate a handful of cold, wet baby carrots (they were from a leftover veggie tray and still pretty good), and of course had my morning coffee (which was probably a mistake since hot beverages are a bad idea lol). I also took a cool shower (cold showers can cause shock! Just pick a temperature that's juuuust warm enough to be comfortable and don't go any higher!) and dressed in all breathable clothing. Natural fibers like cotton and linen are your friends!

You may have guessed already, but blogs will be slow to appear in hot weather. My laptop heats up quickly and uncomfortably in this heat, and my phone just hates the blog format. My bedroom has no AC, so I'm just cycling the warm updrafts from downstairs and across the hall as opposed to actually cooling down. It's 76℉ (24.4℃) downstairs, but up here has to be at least 82℉ (27.8℃). Thankfully, due to the downstairs AC, the air up here is nowhere near as humid as it could be, so I'm fairly comfortable so long as I take breaks from the laptop and spread out my limbs every so often lol!

But yes, tis very toasty this week. Looking forward to whenever it breaks and hoping it's not a traumatic event like a wind storm or something. It'll totally be a massive weather event, though. It always is.

Three days of light to moderate rain with thunder wouldn't be so bad, though. It'd give me a major chance to focus on my writing, which always goes better with consistent precipitation, weirdly enough.

This week will probably consist of a lot of research into how different people handle different elements in watercolor. I'll watch people make neon signs seem to glow, how they make shadows deeper or lighter, how they approach foggy landscapes or rain, etc.

It's been years since I took a class, and those classes mostly consisted of color theory and avoiding unintentional focal points.

No schedule this week because I have no idea what I'll be up for or when - there's a lot going on.

I will try to keep working on things, though, and I hope you do, too (within reason - don't exhaust yourselves!)

Keep an eye out for the following symptoms as you endure the heat:

• dizziness
• sudden chills
• you were sweating hard but now you suddenly aren't
• muscle cramps/weakness
• lethargy
• diarrhea
• nausea
• sudden/severe headache

If you feel any of that - if you feel off at all - get to shade, get something cool to drink and sip it slowly, place cool cloths or bottles against your lower back, the bottoms of your feet (if you're not diabetic and don't have Reynauds - don't do things that will physically hurt you!), under your arms, etc. You are overheating and if you can't get these symptoms under control in say 30 minutes you should probably go to Urgent Care or (if your symptoms are bad) get to the ER. Heat exhaustion is no joke and since you're probably not a ham, you should not bake yourself.

If you don't have AC/access to AC, make sure you have airflow through your whole living space - one open window on either end helps especially when you run a lot of fans. Block as much sunlight as possible with shades/curtains/tacked up towels or pillowcases/etc. Find cool tile, vinyl, or wood floors to put your bare feet on. Take a cool bath once a day and dip your feet in cool water. Anywhere you can feel a pulse, you can press a cool cloth for some relief.

Please, please, please take care of yourselves, and don't let your pets or kids outside without you - they can burn themselves on sidewalks, cement, fences, etc and none of them can really recognize the signs/symptoms of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

If you develop little clear bumps on your skin, that's heat rash. Yes, it's usually red bumps, but it's still heat rash. Go cool down.

If you don't think you're thirsty, take a sip of water anyway.

Take care of yourselves out there,

And Stay Inside and Enjoy Something!

Fiber Monday: Filet And Blather

In Which I Am Working On A Thing

I am a sleepy potato. It's been about 90℉ (32.2℃) and about 50% humidity all day. If you live in certain parts of the world, I'm sure you're laughing at me, and believe me, I do the same thing to you in January when you're complaining that it's half this temp and you're bundled up while I'm still walking outside in short sleeves, but please remember: in the cold months, you can add clothes to keep you warm. I cannot strip my skin off when it's hot, no matter how much I'd like to.

Gotta admit, too, that I'm not really crocheting today. I just wanted to show you the progress I've made on this design I'm making for my mom's new bread bowl.

Don't let the zoom fool you, this sucker is LONG!

Around 19" long (48.26cm)!

And it's not even half finished

so it could be about an inch or two wider before I'm done!

As things stand, though, it'll be just the right length

So I hope my mom likes it for her bread tray

I really enjoy doing filet crochet, to be honest.

Even if my tired monkey brain has a hard time counting the right amounts, and even though I seem to drop a block once every couple of rows, and yes, even though that means frogging for ages before I can hook back to where I was when I noticed the error...

But it's just a lot of fun, yeah? I love seeing the design take shape, block by block, in a way that I can't really get with colorwork. There's no extra ends to tie in (though if I ever find myself brave enough to take on the Godzilla Shawl, that will not be the case...), I have an easier time counting out multiples of 3 than multiples of 2 for some reason, and I really enjoy practicing my foundation double crochet stitches! This project has been a blast so far.

Yeah, I also had to take a break last Wednesday because I got my second jab, and boy was I sore afterwards. I'll try to remember to tell y'all about that tomorrow, but for now, I'm just gonna go enter some contests and go to bed because it is exhausting to be this overheated. Yes I'm wearing a tank top. Yes I'm wearing ridiculously tiny shorts. No it's not cool enough. No I don't have AC.

I may also be a wee bit cranky due to the heat :P

However this blog may find you, I hope you're able to get comfy and!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk - Hot Town Summer in the Yarn Cave

In Which It's STILL HOT

I am but a wilting desert flower. Or dessert flower. Not sure which.

What I do know is that I love drawing Dedbert!

"Breakfast En Plein Air" sketch; 2020

"Breakfast En Plein Air" colors, wax crayon and graphite on printer paper; 2020

Yes, that's Dedbert in the shade of a pink and blue umbrella, frying eggs on the road. I might not live in Petaluma, CA but since it's currently 85℉ (29.4℃) with 50% humidity, it feels like it wouldn't be hard to fry an egg outside. 

Some morons are outside racing around with terrible engines on what sounds like a couple of dirt bikes, and I can't help but hope that when they get home, they discover they've blown something vital and cannot bike again this month. What can I say, engine sounds annoy me.

Anyway, this morning I was awakened by Quackageddon - the neighbors' ducks were furiously quacking at the wild Mallards who eat under our bird feeder sometimes, which the Mallards were heartily ignoring as they chowed down. It was deafening, but since it's freaking ducks, I also couldn't take it seriously, so I woke up overheated yet smirking because it was hilarious. Then I had to hustle outside and breakup a brawl among the four squirrels who are currently stuffing their faces under our feeder. If it's just a pair of squirrels throwing down, I leave them be, but when you have multiples, their tail fur can actually tangle and they get stuck together and it's really sad. It happens with rats, too, and that's nightmarish.

Imagine a ball of rats. Yikes. And I like rats!

So yeah, today's been a day (I also actually called for a hair appointment, so go me!), and I've only now gotten a chance to really settle in and post my artwork, but that's life, y'know? Sometimes there's other stuff we have to take care of before we can get the real work done.

If you were wondering about my bruises from the fall I took the other day, the one on my right knee is fading nicely into greens and yellows as it should. The one on my left thigh, however, still looks like a plum in the middle, fading out to navy and taupe at the edges. I'm actually photographing them and I might try to use some of the colors as a pallet in the future. I am, in fact, weird.

I'm also feeling a nap coming on (this weather, it promotes semi-mandatory naptimes), so I may take a break from the sketching and just... rest for a bit.

I hope all of you have a chance to rest and relax at some point today, too.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday - Wow, Summer Really Is Here Isn't It

In Which Today Was Toasty As Heck

So remember how I was whining about the heat? What a wimp! It reached a Real Feel of about 100℉ (~38℃). Yes, the ambient was in the low 90s, but that's not much of a difference is it?! It was so hot that bringing the temperature down to 82℉ (~28℃) felt like heaven, and it was a good thing I got to borrow the small AC for that. I will try not to abuse the privilege (though man, do I miss it - it's so much stickier in here without it).

If you're from an arid climate, you may be snickering to yourself about how week I am, but boy, living on the coast? Heat is never the issue.

It's that humidity.

You should not feel like you're drowning when you go to pick up a pizza or get the mail.

This week I'm going to continue working on my book (I'm on page 12 of Part 2!) and on my art. I've begun trawling YouTube for videos teaching me how to use Paint.Net, since it's not entirely intuitive if digital art is foreign to you. I hope to learn how to make a bunch of cool pixel art, soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Speaking of the pixel art!

I'd love to experiment with some restricted pallets so if you find a specific pallet you really like, feel free to comment it or something! I know there are some pretty famous pallets relating to 8-, 16-, and 32-bit video games, but feel free to send me any of those you find either on Twitter or in the comments! I'm really looking forward to these experiments as I slowly peck my way through the fog background I'm slowly creating for that Noir project...

But yeah, aside from discovering by accident today that I can crochet, there's not a lot to update you with. It's hot. It's sticky. I'm constantly drowsy from the heat, so I'm constantly consuming caffeine to offset that. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty good about my work, and I hope to share more cool stuff with you soon!

Heck, this might even be the year I figure out how to animate sprites...

Who knows?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday: STILL TOO HOT

In Which It's Super Freakin Hot

Uggggggggghhhhhhhhh.

I've had 2 liters of water and I'm still fighting dehydration. It's stupid hot today. I was right. It felt like it was in the 90s today - that's Fahrenheit. It wasn't 10 degrees below boiling.

Sure felt like it, though.

Today has been unproductive, so far, though I did get to witness my partner catching an irate hornet the size of his thumb in a Prongles can. No, that's not a typo. My partner has one of the Prongles cans from the Cards Against Humanity fundraiser a while back. To those who are concerned for the wellbeing of the stinging, window-chewing pollinator, yes, it was released, furious, into the world once more. No one objects to the creature living. It just can't live in the house.

Meanwhile, back in the Yarn Cave, today was a comedy of errors. Comedy in the sense that, if you weren't the one living through it all, it was hilarious. 

• I got up too early after sleeping too little
• I tried to take a shower, only to discover the laundry going at the same time, resulting in a very unpleasant shower that barely washed the soap off of me. Ick.
• I had a floof of cat hair in my breakfast coffee and the cat followed this up with trying to steal my toast.
• It was officially too hot to see my partner face-to-face today which sucked, but we'll make up for it tomorrow lol.
• I made coffee and a snack to bring upstairs while I work, but I must've been on autopilot and now I am filled with regret, caffeine, and insomnia.
• why? The snack was chocolate covered espresso beans. With coffee. After 6:30. Oops.

So today has not been the most cooperative, if you ask me (which no one did, but I'm a blabbermouth, so here ya go).

Hopefully, tomorrow is cooler, nicer, and more productive. I'll try to do some art tonight, maybe some writing.

Currently, it's getting dark in here, but if I turn on the lights, I'll be inundated with gnats from outside (they fly towards the light and get sucked into my fan, it's gross).

So this week (and the rest of the summer) is going to be based on an if-the-weather-is-okay basis lol. I still plan on posting art on Thursday, but aside from that, who knows lol.

Alright, that's all the blog-focus I have for right now - I'm gonna go refill my water bottle, flush the caffeine from my system, and try to do some real work on my book. I'm going to finish this thing before 2021, even if it kills me.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday: Heat Wave

In Which It's Too Toasty for this Dorkbread.

I am of Northern stock.

My ancestors lived on the seas and in the foothills of foggy mountains.

I was not, therefore, designed to withstand 80+℉ (27+℃) weather with 80+% humidity. I am melting and it's not fun.

It's been this toasty for a while.

I started work on a new project. I have paused until I can put my arms down without my armpits sticking to themselves again.

I wanted to do more work on my shawl and my shrug - again, too sticky and hot. Ew.

Even the Cat has had it. No More! Make it stop!

So no real updates today. Hopefully tomorrow is cooler. If I had to guess, though, probably not :(

Yeah, no, tomorrow will be 81℉ (27℃) with 49% humidity, which means it'll feel like 89℉ (32℃).

Ugggggggggghhhhhhhhh.

I'll blather more tomorrow I think. Perhaps some time spent in the only AC in the house will help. It doesn't reach up to the Yarn Cave, though.

Go Enjoy Something (if you can lol)

FC

Survival Sunday 235: Noodles and Rice

Spicy noodles and tasty salmon rice courtesy of Umai Crate

I think that Umai crate has been one of the coolest things introduced to the world since pre-sliced bread. I know that, for those of you living in larger metropolitan areas, the allure of multiple types of instant noodles and side-dishes is less impressive, but I live in a Maruchan town. Seriously. It's hard to find different kinds of noodle around here. Like - nearly impossible...

So to have noodles from Japanese stores appear on my doorstep every month is a blessing.

The closest legit Asian grocery stores are about... 80 miles away. And I cannot drive. And I have no money. This is the best way for me to get good noodz!

Inadvertent advertisement aside, however, here are two different dishes I tried from Umai Crate this month... uh... last month, technically. Happy September?

(ooh, I'm gonna have to start planning for Falloween 2019!)

I'm not 100% sure what this one was called, but it's Nongshim.
They make the blast-your-face-off spicy Shin Cups.
I knew what I was getting into.

Look, I like spicy food. I really enjoy having that fiery heat toasting my lips and draining my sinuses for hours afterwards. Nongshim foods have tended to hit the extreme upper limit of my capacity for capsaicin. That being said, I had a good feeling about this interesting setup:

You don't cook the noodles in the tray - it's not sturdy enough for boiling water.

Red can be very alarming color to see in foods. In meat, it tends to mean that it's improperly prepared. In vegetables, that means beets (which I don't really like, sorry). In noodles, it means you're going to lose some tastebuds to the heat. And boy, was this a red dish.

I don't know exactly what this says, but... I'm guessing it says "liquid fire".
Because that's what was in it.
Culinary plasma.

The noodles were fairly unassuming - dried and nestled together in their pretty little puck.

A faint, brown rice-y smell rose from them that I found incredibly pleasant.

After preparing (and cooling) the noodles, I was left with a decent tangle of noodz in the bottom of my enormous dish.

They were so slippery that I almost lost them down the sink while rinsing them!

And of course, then it was time to apply the death sauce. I say this because these noodles, man...

I mean, look at how red that sauce is in there. You know that's some prime peppery hotness.

I loved these noodz to death. They nearly killed me, since I was an idiot and ate them in the middle of a week-long acid reflux attack that kept me up for several nights, but they were delicious. The heat felt cold going down my throat. It was like swallowing dry ice (which I DO NOT RECOMMEND). Then the heat would blossom up and set my lips on fire. I think it may have actually given me chemical burns on my tongue, because there are some smoothed-out patches now that weren't there before... 10/10 would eat again. Perfect on a toasty day.


About a week after the noodles, however, I had some leftover rice at home. It was just some long grain white rice that had been boiled and buttered and left in the fridge for a couple days, but that didn't matter to me. I had plans.

Plans that only used one of those bags. The one with the scale/wave pattern.

Umai Crate occasionally sends more than just noodles, after all. Sometimes you'll get a cute kitchen sponge or egg ring. Sometimes it's a spoon or chopsticks. Sometimes you'll get spices or furikake or things you can add to rice!

This time, we had a bag with dried salmon, seaweed, and green tea. I wasn't sure how I'd like it, since I'm not really into green tea (I love the smell, but sometimes I can't handle the flavor). I also wasn't sure how it would go with the butter on the rice.

We were also going to attempt to add the shiso furikake in the smaller purple bag,
but we decided at the last minute to stick with the salmon stuff alone.

I boiled up some water in a kettle, then sprinkled the salmon furikake stuff all over the bowl of rice. I didn't even heat the rice up. I figured boiling water would do the trick.

I wasn't wrong, either.
It warmed up perfectly.

You can't really see the salmon in that shot, but it reconstituted really well. The overall effect of the topping and the buttered rice mixing with the water was marvelous - the rice became more tender, the salty flavor of the butter and the salmon and the furikake seaweed was evened out by the creaminess of the butter, and everything tasted wonderful. There was a faint green tea undertone that was actually addictive, even for me, a tea-hater.

10/10 would eat again. Can't wait for more leftover rice!!!

So that's all from me this week. Sadly, I haven't made a video this week, so we'll have to hope that I get on that for next week :P

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Talk About Tuesday 231

It's another edition of "The Filthy Casual Talks About the Weather"!

Well, fancy folks, it's hot out and muggy and I couldn't sleep very well last night, so please forgive me if I'm faintly incoherent :)

Today is sunny and hazy, and while we do seem to have a breeze slowly swaying the treetops like some sort of washed-out-chartreuse ocean's waves, it's not doing much to hide the fact that it's 84℉ (~29℃) and about 56% humidity. That makes it feel like 87℉ (~30℃)... and it's getting hotter. I predict we'll hit about 88℉/31℃ or so by 2PM, which will suck.

This week is going to be hard for me, not just because of the heat uptick but also because tomorrow begins the weekend from Hell in this little burb. See, my hometown is on the coast, and there's this obsession with eating everything the ocean vomits into a metal box thrown over the side of a boat. Crustacean celebrations are about to commence, and it's a terrible time to be a local. If you own a business, you get to watch the tourists climb into their cars and go to more glamorous towns to buy things that are overpriced even compared to our inflated values. If you're a local, you can no longer go to work on time because every available cab is catering to out-of-towners who can't find the bar they want to day drink at without someone literally driving them up to the door. You cannot escape the stench of boiled sea bugs. It permeates the soggy air with an undertone of unwashed carnie as the fairgrounds are set up and the Zipper and Ferris Wheel dominate the downtown skyline.

I'll admit, it can be a beautiful sight as the fog rolls in and begins to bloom the lights - neon and incandescence flooding the night - but it's murder to walk near. Public drunkenness laws go out the window, no one can follow the plentiful and clearly made One Way Only signs, and as a pedestrian, it's the worst. If you're going to go eat seafood at a fair in a small town, please take the locals into consideration and be on your best behavior. I'd do the same for you at a sushi festival or a taco extravaganza. Then again, I wouldn't be driving...

Complaints aside, though, I'm kind of looking forward to the coming week. I've got three great movies I can talk about, I've got more crochet to do, I've got art to create, I've got stories to write, I've got wrestling to watch, and I've got games to play... I also need to cook at some point...

Here's this week's tentative schedule:

• Tomorrow I'll be talking about some of the G1 matches I've been watching (which should be awesome)
• Thursday will involve art - possibly bread related, possibly sandwich related?
• Friday will be about a silly movie about evil cats, though I'll have to talk about the Wesley Snipes movie I watched at some point, and I also watched a weird nightmarish murder mystery last night...
• Saturday could involve pizza, but I'm not sure yet.
• Sunday is a bit up in the air - I haven't cooked cooked in a while, so there's no recipe currently photographed on my phone. I miiiiiiiight have to fudge things a bit, so I hope you'll forgive me.
• Monday will result in more skull progress, which I can promise is coming to an end soon because the ball of thread is now about the size of a Clementine.
• Next Tuesday, I'll yap at you some more about life and the upcoming week.

So how is everyone else doing today? I'm really doing alright, all complaining aside. The AC is on. I have coffee and water. I'm chilling out with my laptop and watching the temperature go up. I do plan on going out today, so that could be... interesting. Hopefully, I'll be able to snag a ride from someone instead of having to hoof it :P

I think that'll about do it for me today, guys. I need more coffee and I'm probably going to go watch some videos for a bit.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 229: Miner Dash

It's so freaking hot it feels like the Earth's core is squeezing up into my soul...

I know, I know, it's way warmer and muggier than 88℉ (~31℃) with 51% humidity elsewhere in the world on a more consistent basis, but...

I'm a fall person. I prefer the cool, crisp weather of a proper New England autumn, and this gross oilslick weather just will not stand!

I will confess that I was originally going to do something like a "Christmas in July" schtick where I would list a bunch of Kongregate titles that feature snow and ice, but then I found a totally unrelated game and fell down the rabbithole of playing it. Before I knew it, it was lunch time and I hadn't written anything in this blog!!! Oops.

The game, as you may have guessed from the title, is Miner Dash, and it's an offering from Kongregate user "dabontv", who has made 26 games on Kongregate alone, all of which are absolutely bonkers. They have what appears to be an Angry Birds-style slingshot game about mummies, an idle clicker starring poop (with a sequel!) and a game where you set people on fire.

Miner Dash is a relatively simple and straighforward game by comparison, but even here we find some small hint of crazy.

When you click on the Guide, it helpfully informs you of the goal of this game.

Your goal, as this tiny red-bearded miner, is to dig to the center of the Earth. No, seriously, that's the goal. You want to dig down to the Earth's core (and they're very specific that it's Earth, and not some random fantasy world) within 30 in-game days, which are measured in mining time.

See the thermometer at the top of the screen? That's your time.
You have until the whole thing fills up with red to get to the core or as close as possible.

You can use the left and right arrows to move either direction while digging,
but you have to hold and not just tap, because he needs some nudging.

Once you fill your gauge all the way red, your pick explodes, which means you have to go to the crafting screen and make a new one or multiple replacements.

That's why you want to get a bunch of the ore and even trees!

Whenever you breach a new layer of soil, you find a "recipe", though perhaps "blueprints" are a better term. This "recipe" will allow you to make something new. You start out only being able to make wooden pickaxes and cheapo bombs, but so far, after a few hours of fiddling around, I've gotten special items, golden pickaxes, and red bombs that explode way bigger.

And while some experimentation is possible, it's just easier to just wait for the recipe
to show up, and then just click on what you want to craft from your Recipe bar.

Provided you have the materials, crafting is as simple as "click item, click CRAFT"

I love the red bombs, since they can really take you deeper when you're running out of pickaxe power or when you're trying to get large swaths of materials but you don't want to change direction!

Overall, this is a fun, silly little game with great graphics. I think I'll probably be sinking more time into this mining simulator (especially since it's so hot out and I kinda want to stay near fans and AC).

Go Enjoy Something!
FC