What's one positive/neutral thing that's happened today?

Good luck Joey!! Mew can do it. :3

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My son went to the toy store and bought a “Perplexus” maze ball with his birthday money. That thing is one of the greatest pieces of challenge-teetering-on-the-edge-of-frustration genius I have ever seen.

It’s become our family’s (grandparents included) toy, trying to beat each other to the 100-mark. It’s been a week now. My son got to 99 (!) while the rest of us are stuck somewhere below 50.

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Ohhhh…now I really want one too, lol.

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Welcome to the other side! :slight_smile:

#FckCvd

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Had a super busy weekend - on Saturday, attended a march for trans rights in Boston followed by a date where we went to this adorable craft place and decorated a mirror with decoden cream and a bunch of little baubles, bought some very early birthday/Christmas gifts for family (I like to be way ahead), and grabbed lunch. This morning my tattoo appointment got cancelled, so we spent the entire day cleaning and reorganizing our apartment. We made it through two rooms, but they look amazing. Feeling very accomplished.

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Background

In this topic, https://intfiction.org/t/informal-poll-use-of-hints/55856/17, back on 09-May-2022, I wrote:

I did it! I finished So Far!

After almost 17 years, I finally got out of Caught in Metal. Breakthrough: I discovered I could break the ceramic square to create a light source. After that, it was a relatively quick trip to the end.

What an amazing feeling. For the ensuing 15 minutes, I felt like I could do pretty much anything I set my mind to. :partying_face:

Then I thought, hmm, 17 years, maybe I shouldn’t be celebrating this. Not when there are probably players who solved the puzzle in 17 minutes. :roll_eyes:

Oh well, I’ll take my successes where I can get 'em.

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Manon said something really lovely today, and it’s stuck with me.

The Goncharov Girlies is the silly little nickname for our TTRPG group- and they’ve been a bright spot in my week. I always look forward to playing around our table. We initially started playing after some pestering on my part about ‘hey, if it would be fun or something we’re all individually interested in, how about we play as a group together then?’ with regards to one of the TTRPG submissions to the Goncharov gamejam that Autumn ran.

I’ve often been in the position of being the person who starts things. Someone has to, right? The one to organize shared calendars, set up campaigns, make supplemental materials, reach out with advice or recommendations for new hobbies or just useful information that I wish someone had told me about, that sort of thing. It’s embarrassing, sometimes- to put yourself into the position (and to be the recipient) of potential ridicule, and exhausting, as an introvert with a severe need for leadtime and recovery after the fact. But it’s worth it, to make the people that I care about happy- and to have fun, too, since I do enjoy getting into silly bo billy kitty shenanigans. Unfortunately, it hasn’t always been reciprocal. I’ve had a bad run of things sometimes.

So I’m that much more thankful that I’ve had an excellent experience with the gals. It feels like the energy and effort is mutual, that everyone is as eager to have fun and play as I am- I don’t feel like the irritating try hard or the cheerleader for a lost cause. I’ve had the pleasure of being amazed by their improvisation skills and to meet their characters, and we have a blast cobbling together plots in a ‘yes, and?’ way. It’s great!

It’s so refreshing to have the space for ‘girl talk’ and to chat about stuff outside of our campaign, too- it’s really warmed my heart when we have moments of like ‘oh you too???’ for favourite childhood snacks with some of the similar cultural backgrounds in the mix. It’s a fun, supportive, girly space in the best possible way: the sort of light hearted friendship that makes me nostalgic. Like, you know how in chick lit novels there’s a girl bestfriend who’s cheering her bestie on and is genuinely happy for her at the end of the book? It’s kind of like that. (Anyone who knows me knows that I love chick lit.) Women supporting and uplifting women.

Today Manon mentioned in an aside that I had her hubby’s thanks too, since he thinks that she’s looked happier since we started playing as a group. I was thrilled. Absolutely delighted that she’s been having as good of an experience as I have- but also deeply touched, to be able to be a part of bringing that sort of joy to someone else’s life. I’m still thinking about it. Just perfectly lovely.

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June 8th is the day Mask of the Rose is releasing, June 10th is a celebration (with cake!) and June 11th is Autumn’s Goncharov talk! That week is gonna kick ass. Delightful to have something to look forward to.

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Had coffee :coffee: for the first time in a while today. Woke the senses right up. :smiley:

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I was sick today which isn’t good, but it meant I could sit in a recliner all day and doze and play Anchorhead. Which I finished, so yay.

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Love the understated way you mention that as an aside.

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I mentioned this in the what’re you listening to thread, but I ran across a Hinder song recently that my da really liked when I was small, and it was a nice nostalgic listen. It also coincidentally fits one of my characters, Enoch, quite well- which made me kind of smile because Enoch (and most of my characters who are dads, really) shares a few traits with him.

There’s this one drabble I wrote recently for our Butterfly Court campaign, where Enoch is playfully teaching Andrey’s adopted daughter, Aurora, how to dance the waltz, and she’s like, standing on top of his feet as he goes through the motions.

That’s something I did with my da, when I was a little kittycrumb, and I remember laughing hysterically at the dissonance of us dancing to like, whatever his mixtapes spat up contrasted to the seriousness with which he undertook the movements- and sometimes if I laughed until I couldn’t catch my breath anymore or stand up properly because of the giggles, he’d scoop me up like you pick up a cat (a bit like holding onto a subway sandwich with both hands, if that helps you visualize) and then give me a kiss on the top of my head and that’d be the end of the lessons. I never did learn how to dance, but that was a really lovely memory that bubbled to mind with the Hinder song.

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Been pretty busy to be able to work on anything lately but… I have a working demo for the SpringThing (:crossed_fingers:)!!
Also heard from a friend that kinda went MIA for a few months. I was getting really worried about them, but I ended up getting some news today that they are ok :partying_face:

And I got myself some fancy chocolates and apple cookies for tomorrow. Good good good :smiley:

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Well, it’s looking like I may not finish my Spring Thing game in time this year, but the silver lining is that the lifted pressure of working on it has now taken a weight off my chest.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to release it sometime this summer! :^D

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I keep opening my game up, only to remember that there’s nothing I want to change about it. It’s just habit. This is my general dislike of writing fiction, taken to a ridiculous extreme: it’s too open, and there’s too much of it. It is hard to say with certainty that it is complete. Some problem or incompleteness could slip through.

I think I was drawn to (my kind of) poetry because it has distinct edges.

Oh, where was I? This particular instance of opening my game was occasioned by a cat stake-out I am having. It’s a long story, but we’ve been feeding some stray cats. At least one of them is related to two of our own inside cats, and we sometimes think one of our cats (Moxie) has escaped when we see them. We call them “daddy” or “sister” or “aunt sister” because we aren’t sure what the relation is.

Anyway, they are a black locket cat, and they have a friend named Carrots, who is an orange tabby. We may adopt Carrots and Aunt Sister, so I’m sitting out here on the patio with a plate of food. I’m just trying to get to know them. Right now, I can see Aunt Sister and Uncle Tux, a–you guessed it–tuxedo cat out front.

I’m replaying some good choice games on my laptop, and the weather is pleasant. 72F right now. Pretty good!

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At this point, you might want to just give yourself the luxury of 6 more months of polish and enter it in IFComp possibly?

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That sounds like a better idea.

Might make that a plan, thanks!

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I’ve been collecting some sleepy kitten reaction images to send Manon when she heads off to bed and added a bunch more to my collection recently, which I’m very happy about. Here’s one:

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me

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There was a sale, so I got a little white cream cake with rainbow confetti and a box of cheesy pizzabreads. Some girl said that she loved my nails in the bathroom and a boy told me to ‘have a good day’ while holding the door open for me.

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