#NoNostalgiaCriticNovember

Starting last year, I reminisced about simpler, sillier times (where worrying about being cringey didn't matter), and thus decided to "partake" in a barely-existing-but-amusing (to me) thing called #NoNostalgiaCriticNovember, intentionally watching The Nostalgia Critic (whom I normally don't watch), to "fail" the challenge, then using him as an icon all month. I decided that I will make this a tradition for myself, so I perused his recent videos and decided to watch his Minecraft Movie review. He still has that annoying upward inflection to this day... I also watched his video on Chronic Fatigue (which he has, as of two years ago, post-Shingles), and that was enlightening (and he talked normally, which is way better).

The rest of my family (middle sister included) went to Harper's Ferry, Virginia today, on a day trip, but I'm in the office. I'll presume I'll be making my own dinner. Hmm, pierogies or one of those cheesy noodles...

Art Fight

Read-only mode should be removed soon, and I can finally update my profile. I don't have too much I want to do, but it'll be nice to finally be able to edit/comment again, after around two months of not being able to do anything. One friend is no longer friends with someone they had put onto their page with an icon and everything, so it'll be great for them to finally be able to remove them.

But as of noon, it's still read-only. Art Fight runs two hours behind me, so maybe they'll stop it at 2 PM, just like the game itself starts and stops at that time. Probably.

...Or it'll be late, because Art Fight is very skilled at being tardy.

Update: They were late. Go figure. (Granted, they never gave a clear time, so they're not technically late. It was the correct day.

Midnight Power Outage: Over an hour

It was a very windy day, and the power went out around 9 PM for about three minutes. My dad had the worst timing and arrived home about a minute after the power went out, and thus, couldn't put his car in the garage. Then, maybe thirty seconds after he entered the house, it came back on.

Now it's slightly past midnight, and thet power went out again. It's probably been out for ten minutes already, but everyone else is asleep. The battery backups were beeping every few seconds, but now one is beeping nonstop. Beep beep beep beep beep beep. I do not know what I'm supposed to do. Normally, my family turns off the backups, but looking online (I still have internet due to the backup), it seems that's not advised? I don't know. I also worry that I'd hit the wrong button and mess everything up.

12:49: It stopped. ...And then beep beep beep beeped for two seconds, then stopped. I guess it's dying. And back, and gone. 12:50 now. I should brush my teeth, and MAYBE try to go to bed.

1:12 AM: I did brush my teeth, but then ventured downstairs to check on the cats, wondering how they were doing while being assailed by constant beeping from what I believe is three different sources in three different rooms. They were wandering around, but that might just be because they heard me come downstairs. I turned off the one computer, at least. As for the backups, I'll leave them on. Dad made a fire today, so I'll assume that'll be partially wasted without the fans to grow the flames, but I suppose it SHOULD be safe?

I went through 2-3 dead flashlights before I found one that worked, but it was nice and bright. I walked around the house, and just took in the atmosphere of darkness and BEEPING. I enjoy power outages, simply because it's a change of pace from the norm, similar to how I like being sick for the same reason (though nothing threatening, please; a stomach flu will suffice). The consant beeping is back, and has been back for quite some time.

It's also funny that this is the day of the full moon (thank you for making me more aware of these, Pokemon Sleep), so looking outside, everything is perfectly visible, despite my hallway being nigh pitch-black. It's a super moon, at that (and the "Beaver Moon," also known as the "Deer Rutting Moon"). I wonder how the deer are doing. They tend to come to our house and drink out of the bird bath (and now a bucket of water we put out especially for them) most days, then also wander into neighbor's yards. I have yet to mention it, but it's been happening for weeks, if not months. A few months ago, they even chewed mom's Penn State flag, at least TWICE. Now I think my mom put out an "ugly" flag she doesn't care about. I forget what it is. Or maybe there's no flag.

Digimon Rewatch

As for another update, I watched the first season of Digimon (in Japanese) over the past two or so weeks, and started 02 about three days ago. I'm enjoying 02 more than I thought I would. As a kid, of course, I loved them all to bits, but I thought I'd be less impressed with 02 as an adult, but so far, I enjoy portions of it better than the original. The original probably has better character development, what with covering topics like divorce, being adopted, and familial obligations, and the whole "trapped in the Digital World" thing is fun and compelling, but I'm really liking 02's mix between both worlds too. They're both good, for different reasons, and it's a nice change of pace. But the biggest thing for me is that I feel the emotional beats hit at least a little harder in 02 so far. While I think the actual problems were better in Adventure, I simply found the pacing off (too quick), while 02 seems to let things simmer at least a moment longer. Basically, I think the "direction" is better? And while it's not top tier writing (and I wish these kids weren't elementary schoolers), I like a fellow kid from nearby being the villain a lot, and then meeting in the human world (even if just once). It's nice. I wish they did more with that.

But who knows. Maybe post-Ken, I'll be less impressed. I remember liking Arukenimon and Mummymon a lot, but after that, I frankly don't remember much, except they went to a bunch of different countries, which I found neat as a kid, but I can't say I remember anything being memorable plot beats except it being so different. And then I liked the weird sad guy at the end, but mostly because for some reason I memed on him with my cousins and/or friends. I don't even remember his name. Maybe it started with an o. "Oikawa" rings a bell. Maybe that. We'll see later.

I'm liking I DON'T REMEMBER HER JAPANESE NAME, BUT IT WAS YOLEI IN ENGLISH a lot more than I thought I would. She might be my favorite of the new gang. Surprising. (Well, no, Ken is the best, but I think she's my favorite out of the Main 5. I think part of what turned me off of her originally was her design, which still isn't my favorite, but maybe even that is growing on me, for being different.)

Anyway, the power is still out...

...and I should go to bed. It's 1:35. I wonder if I'll be able to sleep without my noise machine, and also perhaps with the soft droning of beeps I might still be able to hear through my door. I will assume not, at least for quite some time, but I've been sleeping poorly and I'm very tired, so maybe a miracle will happen. Good job, backup, keeping the internet on for over an hour now. Laptop battery at 49%.

1:41: IT SHUT OFF AGAIN. Then on. Then off. I swear, it's multiple batteries, so why are they going off at the same time? And I still have internet, for now. Hm. (Though I will try to sleep any minute now, even though I WANT to know how long the power stays out.)

Update: Shortly after I tried to go to bed, my dad woke up (randomly) and noticed the power was out, and handled more of the beeping backups, along with hooking up some special fancy battery from the garage to the fire, to make the fans work. Huh. So I got back up and talked to him for maybe 20-30 minutes, then tried to go back to sleep. The power came back at 2:55, before I was able to fall asleep.

The Residence

After weeks (maybe a month) of not watching it at all, Void and I finally finished The Residence, some Netflix show Void heard was bad. It ended up being better than I was expecting, but that's an incredibly low bar. It wasn't good, but it also wasn't the worst thing ever. As per usual, we talked a lot afterwards. I ended up staying up until around 3:40, so it's good it was a Sunday into Monday. Void shared a song that she said fit Teobaldo really well, and man, she's right. It's nigh perfect, and it made me want to relate him to Don Quixote, whom I never actually looked into before now (I just knew he was some famous fable, but knew nothing of his story, despite it potentialy being "the first modern novel").

November 12

I researched further on November 12th (hello from the future), and made a new "Inspiration" page for Teobaldo to keep my notes in one place. It's nice to finally think about characters again, if even just for a day or two. For the first time in literal years, I haven't really been thinking about my characters much. Instead, I go to bed mostly thinking about death and degeneration of me and the people around me. ...Definitely better to think about dumb character scenarios while trying to fall asleep. I miss it. It hasn't fully come back (I'd say it hasn't even come back for half my attempts), but it's come back a little, at least.

EDIT: Aw, they blocked the video now and you have to watch on YouTube. Shame. It's this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUjiGmLVC2E.

The Sopranos

Mom and my sister watched Wicked at my sister's house, to prepare for watching Part 2 in theaters on my mom's birthday, so I said maybe my dad and I should watch a movie too. My dad offered this animated cat movie (Flow?), but in the end, I mentioned wanting to watch The Sopranos sometime, since it's supposed to be really good, so we ended up watching that instead. As of November 21, we finished the second episode of season 2. That terrible grandma might be getting some rather sad comeuppance soon. She's a really well-done character: aggravating, but in a good and believable way; the type of "love to hate" kind of character, done right. I like the uncle a lot too.

Mom's Birthday Party

Since a month or more ago, my middle sister was planning a not-surprise (my mom doesn't like surprises) birthday party for my mom, and today was the day. My little sister worked until 12:30, so that's how long I was at work, renting a unit to a lady I talked to on the phone earlier this week; she was really sweet. I was picked up at work (mom drove me over today for this reason), and then we waited at my little sister's house until she returned home.

All my aunts and uncles attended the party (which started officially at 2:30), which was nice. None had ever seen my sister's house, so they took a little tour. Maui was surprisingly okay with everyone, on my sister's bed the whole time. We had a "linner," with snacks, macaroni & cheese, scalloped potatoes, and some meat thing with noodles. I just had macaroni & cheese and some of the snacks, the snacks being the highlight (though the mac & cheese was fine too). There was this nice spinach & artichoke dip that I never had before that was pretty good, which was atop this (presumed) "naan" bread triangles, along with Chex Mix, and pretzels with a little spice to them. Very good. My mom hoped for no presents, but my one aunt got her some kind of "sassy" 60s gifts (a candle saying "smells like your 50s are over," a mug that I forget, and a throw with a bunch of 60 year old jokes on it), and she got two Olive Garden giftcards and an Amazon giftcard too, from various others. The cake was really good, and the highlight of the food for me. It was some Costco thing that was mostly mousse or something. Very rich and chocolatey. Another aunt made my mom's favorite raspberry pie, and made a second for her to take home, which was sweet.

Uncle M asked about us celebrating Christmas early this year, so they could make my cousin happy (letting the family go to Disney for an extra week or two in later December), so it seems we'll be celebrating Christmas on Sunday, December 14th instead, at their house. That's a Geist day, but I think the celebrations are happening after noon, so I can probably stay for most of the game, if not all of it. The only disappointment is that I'll have to wake up early for that game, then go out for the Christmas celebrations, which doesn't sound fun for my energy levels. But I'll manage. I doubt I'll succeed, but I should try to go to bed earlier in the next three weeks.

As per usual, the convesations were pretty rowdy and weird, which was nice. Stuff about Uncle M being paid 25 cents per pimple popped on grandpa's back, which was a new story even to my mom, and the usual mention of paying them 25 cents per class of sewer-water-made lemonade that my mom never participated in. Also, how two of them would hide in the bathroom when getting to camp, so they didn't have to pay for extra kids, and how they liked getting that role, since that meant they didn't have to help set stuff up, since they should stay hidden a bit longer.

People slowly started to leave probably between 6 and 7, and we stayed a bit longer, leaving around 7:30. My little sister and mom plan on going to Bath and Body Works and Big Lots tomorrow, and I asked if I could tag along, partially because I just want to get out (especially if there might be Christmas decorations out, since I so rarely get to feel that "Holiday shopping" atmosphere), but also because maybe I should buy a tin of fancy cookies for the early Christmas celebration, so I feel like I'm doing something. I don't want to be part of the "white elephant" gift exchange since that's too stressful, but it'd be nice if I spent money on something, even if it's just an extra snack.

New Phone

A week or two ago, we got on the subject of my phone being old, after I couldn't connect to the internet for multiple days, though in the end, the trusty "turn off and turn back on" fixed it. But before I got to that, dad did check the phone and saw it was from 2019 (I think I got it in 2020?), and updates on it ended in 2021 (what a short amount of updates). With no security updates in so long, my dad still thought it'd be good to get a new phone as a business expense, which is fine by me; free phone. It arrived in the mail today. Dad help me set it up after we got home from the party, around 9:30. It wasn't the easiest, but also wasn't the most perplexing. I did have to attempt the app/data transfer twice, but thankfully, the second time it worked. Pokemon Sleep is so much faster on this phone; I had a feeling it would be, since the app felt overly laggy on my old phone (to the point it'd be considered a failure on the developer's part if the app simply worked that way for everyone).

Snow!

We had the first flurry of the season on Thursday, and had the first snow today, the ground being dusted, though it has already melted by noon (or earlier). I wouldn't have known it snowed if I didn't wake up at 8:30 for a moment and saw it.

Other Updates

Overall, I haven't been doing much (in kind of a slump since October or earlier). I finished Digimon 02 and yeah, the second half was weaker, but still enjoyable. Ah, Black Wargreymon. I was correct in that the weird guy's name was Oikawa. Man, how the brain remembers useless details (it's definitely only because I remember making fun of him). I'm onto Tamers now, and have been since a week or two ago. I binge a lot, then stop for days, then binge again. I'm on episode 20. If anything, I'd say I'm actually less impressed this time around, due to the slow start (give me the Digital World, even though I remember that being kind of empty compared to the other seasons too). It's still very good, and the cast is probably the strongest; I just really like the Digital World aspect of the other seasons, as well as having to hide their Digimon more. Guilmon being in public is way too accepted here.

Geist: The Sin-Eaters has been on an unplanned hiatus for around two months, due to conflicting schedules. The first two (or is it three now?) cancelations (bi-weekly, so four or six weeks) were due to the Storyteller having various interruptions, but this week, it was due to 2-3 people (out of 5) not being able to make it. It's fine, especially since it means I can sleep in on Sundays instead of waking up at 7:50 (the rest of the players are in Europe). We're potentially going to play on a usual off-week for us (next week), if enough can make it, since we've had to cancel so many games in a row.

Back to the slump, I wish I could get out of this slump. I have drawn one day out of two months, and that drawing was just redrawing three old images for Neocities reasons (uploading Vivian and Amun). I've been productive in some form, by working on this site (I made some charts and made a new Art Fight page), but other than that, I haven't been very creative at all this month. Maybe it's due to both of my games being on hiatus and my friend going through her own stuff, since the ideas and motivation simply have not been flowing. I don't even daydream about my characters anymore, which I may have mentioned earlier. Instead, thoughts about deterioration and dying tend to be what I think about when my mind wanders. Whoops. It's probably a slow burn depression, though a "numb" one over a sad one. Lack of motivation and just... nothingness.