I have (mostly) recovered from a medium-severe illness 
With the illness I had lots of time and enjoyed watching movies, playing lots of computer games and reading.
According to meteorologists the severe storm rain (putting whole cities and houses under water and even killing a man with flying fence parts) are OVER!
Been having a cold Sprite. I usually don’t have soda, it’s in the same bracket as having an icecream cone, but it’s the holidays! Fantastic right out of the fridge, and it’s nice not to worry about ice diluting it, since it’s in the can.
We played Uno with the little meow, and he had a blast. He won both times, and I came in second place twice.
I cheat at Uno. Slipping cards in my sleeves, sliding them under the table cloth, playing two cards at the same time, handing cards to my secret accomplice behind my back…
Of course, if/when I get caught, I cheerfully accept any penalty my fellow players wish to dole out, be it picking 10 cards from the deck, getting fresh drinks for all, or running 5 laps around the house.
I suspect that when we were kids my brother cheated ar Monopoly. He was never caught, it’s just a suspicion…
I decided to compile a list of some of my favourite choice based games after some of the recent posts around here. Mostly cult favourites, kind of obscure games, with a few more well known ones tossed into the mix. Primarily horror and romance games. Omitting my close friends’ games, as you can just assume I’d wholeheartedly demand you play Manon or Jinx’s entire catalogue.
Historical Romance
First Draft of the Revolution - Emily Short
Florence - Anamika
Body Horror
Vesp: A History of Sapphic Scaphism - Porpentine
Singing from the Far Side of the Hill - Miranda Rain
You’re Going To Make A Great Mother One Day - Wally Ntagonistic
Her Pound of Flesh - Liz England
Martyr Me - Charm Cochran
Out of Memory - Wing
Erostasis - Domino Club
New Eyes - Zorkie
Build A Monster - Zorkie
Victim Doll - Domino Club
Survival Horror
The Second Floor - Litrouke
Return - Maxine Sophia Wolff
All You Have To Do Is Survive - Lila Lapidese
If I Die, Consume Me - Fiddles
Robert’s Last Letters - Andrew Watt
Melt Down - A Chernobyl Story - David Winstein-Hibbs
Romance
Sweeter Kind of Fire - Kawa
Structural Integrity - Tabitha O’Connell
House - Canmom (Bryn)
Get One Final Twist In Baby You Do It Better Than Anyone Else - DeCoster
A Letter for J - Alix Nyden
Please Tell Me You Love Me - Ellis Dex
The Livid Emissary - Grim Baccaris
Autobiographical
c ya laterrrr - Dan Hett
Vanitas - Sweetfish
Coming Out Simulator 2014 - Nicky Case
Remembering Ramayana - Sean Shaant LeBlanc
Poetry
Phenomena - Dawn Sueoka
Modern Horror
Taxi Bargain - 98Cicadas
Creak, Creak - Chandler Groover
Conversations with Deleted NPCs - Josh Labelle
Black Stars, Clear Liquor - Briar Ripley Page
A Spirit’s Guide for Post-Death Activities - Emmett Nahil
Consensual - ThatsGreatAlex
Incoming Call - Liv Bono
Bi Lines - Bez
Ghost Story - Volition Newlove
Let Me Tell You Who You Are - Kit Riemer
Science Fiction
Successor - 30x30 (Brigid)
SSSM: In The Shadow of Jupiter - Domino Club
A Bunch of You in a Room - Caeth
Gothic Horror
Babyface - SampleReality
Something Blue - E. Joyce
The Lady’s Book of Decency - Sean Shaant LeBlanc
Modern Realism
差异 // Disconnect - Kelly Weng
Death. By Powerpoint. - Dhaka Jack
Fantasy
Venus is a Liar - JazzTap
Greenteeth - Bertilak
Confessions of an NPC - Charles H. Huang
This is great! I’m bookmarking this for future reference.
Glad to hear it! These games basically run along my preferences- which tend to be bite sized, usually horror or romantic, games that you can dig into in a single sitting. Few are over 30 minutes of playtime.
A few can be abstractly connected -I find games that deal with NPCs, feminist horror, epistolary works, modern folklore/urban legends, body horror and abusive relationships particularly interesting to dig into- but while some could be clustered to focus around a theme, pretty much any of these is a good spin to take solo.
Last night I finally wrote the start of something I’m really pleased with, and I didn’t even hate it when I read it back over this evening! And I slept pretty well, didn’t have much of a nightmare for once.
There is a kind of extremely rare moment in my life, where as I’m talking to someone, a part of my brain lights up, and I get this overwhelming alarm, which screams:
Do not, under any circumstances, let this person go.
You do not yet understand when or how,
but this person is going to have a major impact on your life.
Had one of those the other day.
Off to Paris until New Year’s Eve!
One of my favourite videos on Youtube. I love exotic pets, and blue tongued skinks are so stinkin’ cute, I love the little birthday ghoul song and delicious salad treats for Peperonie.
Squeal. So cute. We have little brown skinks and four-lined skinks running wild out here, and I have to shoo them out of the fenced dog yard all the time so the dog doesn’t mess with them.
Positive today: I finished sewing a badass kimono jacket, which is very fancy. Since I don’t have fancy places to go to very often, I’ll have to dress it down with painty holey jeans and beat-up tank tops. I love making things that fit me just right. I’m too tall to fit into store-bought clothes very often.
I took care of my nails today- cleaned them up, buffed them smooth, and applied a nail hardener in a pretty warm nude tone. I even ate two meals today! And they were delicious, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I didn’t feel miserable shovelling it down because I knew I had to eat. And drank lots of water, and woke up not feeling like crusty dehydrated death warmed over. And had the wherewithal to refill the milk pitcher, and was happy about how tasty my coffee was, too.
Also futzed around with some graphic design and setting up the aesthetics of the Itchio page for a project I’ve been chewing on, and I’m really happy with how it looks. Tried poking at the Twine UI, but that was a damn mess, so I just won’t, it looks fine as is. Thankfully, I had literally just backed up the file, so reverting back before I exploded the CSS was a breeze. Also backed up my writing. Feeling satisfied wth what I’ve accomplished.
I had some pretty good conversations too. Still up, because insomnia’s been nibbling away at me like hungry mice in the pantry. But I had a heart to heart with a good friend, and I’ve just been kind of luxuriating in the small, radiant pleasure of knowing that someone understands you, and cares for you- as you care deeply about them. The soft, sincere joy of being seen, recognized, and loved for who you are, as you are, earnestly. How comforting it is to feel at ease with someone: cut from the same cloth, two silly little kittens bumbling around on the same fleece blanket with entirely different coat patterns.
And I got to babble about fountain pens at great length earlier in the evening, which is always fun.
I haven’t, uh, been able to sleep at all after fitfully rising after about half a hour’s nap. Bit, concerned? I might have to tough it out until this evening.
But I read some fanfic, about Halsin and Astarion and Gale and Tav and that was lovely. Didn’t really help with coaxing any sleepiness, but it’s quite cute how cuddly people write Halsin to be. Also the ‘my heart’ endearment is so darling….
Having friends over today-- my niece-by-friendship, who is a sophomore in college and who I have been close to since the day she was born, and her Mom, my dear old friend, are coming. Tom is making chili, they are bringing homemade sourdough bread, and I of course am making cake. My obsession with key limes has not waned, so today I am making key lime cake. With lime-cream cheese frosting. And strawberries.
I treasure the young folks in my life and am so honored that they still want to come spend time with me. Something happens when you get old and the kids in your life grow up, which is that you stop teaching them and they start teaching you. It’s the most wonderful thing.
Also, it got below freezing last night and the grass was all frosted and glittery this morning. So beautiful. We kept the wood stove going all night and our house was toasty warm. After the last 2 traumatic winters, Texans fear freezing temperatures now because our incompetent state “leadership” can’t manage our electrical grid and people keep dying now that ice storms are a yearly thing instead of a once-in-a-generation thing. But we have managed to get almost completely off the grid, so we’re set.
Edit: The cake was mind-blowingly good, although my electric beater died 3/4 of the way through making the frosting, which is kind of a calamity. So we all had to beat a crapton of butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lime juice by hand.
Just relaxin’ after two separate walks in the rainforest in Malaysia (Borneo area), and experiences with a lot of blood (not mine) caused by leeches.
Yesterday I started a jigsaw puzzle with my partner’s family, and today we’re making lemon/lime sorbet (first time!)
The past few days were pretty bad, nursing a really bad cold, so these were lovely distractions 
