Last night I went to a hockey game with some friends. I had thought about getting something to eat there for dinner, but ended up just waiting until after the game. On my way home, I stopped at one of my favorite Mexican restaurant’s here and as I was completing my order is when it happened.
The person at the register asked if I wanted anything else right as I was looking to my right at the case with the desserts. I’m a sucker for Tres Leches, and that’s what caught my eye and made me hesitate. I was super tempted to get some, I paused for a solid few seconds, looking between the order preview screen and the dessert case. The temptation was definitely real in that moment, but I held strong and didn’t give in.
I honestly have no idea what I should put down for this writing prompt. I’m sure given enough time to focus on the question, I could figure out an appropriate response, but I’m just not up for it and it’s been a long day already.
Instead, I’ll give a bit of a twist.
I wouldn’t buy excessively/disgustingly expensive Magic: The Gathering cards for myself, but only on the grounds that I can’t afford them. I definitely wouldn’t mind receiving them as a present, though. If someone wants to buy me a few thousand dollars of cards off the Reserve List that have market values in the range of several hundred dollars or more, I won’t say no.
This is a tough question, I think, because as I’ve gotten older I’m realizing there are so many places to live and explore just here in the United States. When I was younger I might have said something like Paris or Rome, because of the history and some kind of weird “prestige” I could lord over my friends. These days, though, I’m not as concerned with that, I just want to explore and experience the sights, try all the foods, and so on.
Spending a week in Savannah gave me a taste of what life would be like if I lived somewhere with decent public transportation and plenty of things to do within walking distance. This gives me the idea that maybe I could step it up and try living somewhere where the people heavily rely on that kind of lifestyle, like New York City. Although, I wouldn’t mind trying to live in Austin, Texas for a couple years, either. One of them gets snow, which I already live with so that’s not a problem, and the other gets plenty of warm weather almost year round, which could elevate the experience of getting around on foot.
I think I’d probably try my luck in NYC, if only because it’s older and has so much more to offer. I could pack a lot of activities into two years there.
The whole trip I took just a few short weeks ago. The good and the bad of it all makes for a fun little story (when told right) and I’d like to think I’ll remember all the important details so I can reminisce with my friends about it.
Like Billy the cryptid cockroach from the Airbnb. That sneaky shit. Shows up the night I arrive in Savannah, but then doesn’t show up again the rest of the time we’re there. Which, I mean, that’s actually a GOOD thing for the experience of being there visiting friends and such, but there’s a certain lack of satisfaction that comes with the inability to say “see, I told you there was one!”
If you throw an argument at me about when the best time of day to shower is, I’ll just agree!
Why? Because the most common arguments all make sense, regardless of scientific proof.
Morning showers are my go-to because that’s how I start my day. They help me wake up. I also don’t usually do anything too strenuous during the day and wash my hands (and arms, if needed) regularly, so I don’t usually feel gross getting into bed at night.
That being said, I do enjoy a good evening shower to help me relax after a particularly stressful (or humid) day. I hate feeling sticky from sweat before bed, so I actually took evening showers while I was on vacation in Savannah.
Aside from those two standard preferences, I don’t often see people talk about consistently showering at any other time of day for any reason, other than maybe they just worked out over lunch or got really dirty somehow (like if they just got done mudding on four-wheelers.)
I know I didn’t cover ALL the arguments, but you get the idea. There’s no wrong answer, personally.
The world needs people to be more understanding, compassionate, empathetic, and patient. It needs people to be less selfish and greedy.
We don’t have Mars, or even the moon. We just have Earth, and we all share it. The same land. The same sky. While there may be finite resources, we still have plenty to go around.
The world just needs us, ALL of us, to be better and actually care and be kind.
Why? Because for starters, I don’t much care for parties at all.
Also, in the case of a surprise party, there’s a good chance that too many people will be invited, and some of those people might not be on my usual list of invitees because I like to keep things low-key.
In general, I don’t like to brag about myself or the things I do that make me out to be a good person.
However, I have a straightforward example just from last night of how I’m a good friend.
It was around dinner time, and I knew what I wanted to eat. A local burger joint is doing daily specials, and I saw online they were doing one that I really wanted. I had a fully punched card for a free meal that had been sitting in my wallet for several months, so it was a no-brainer what I was going to do. So I suited up against the cold and was getting ready to walk out the door when I crossed paths with my roommate.
We chatted for a moment and he asked if I remember having an extra cable (USB type A, typically a printer cable) for this piece of microphone equipment he uses with his computer. I thought I did have one, and I knew where most of my spare cables were, so I decided to go see if I could find it quick before heading out.
They’re not commonly used outside of printers, so it’s not like I keep a few on hand, but I figured I had at least one laying around. Sadly, I didn’t find one, which means we probably already used it for something and forgot about it.
When I couldn’t find one I took a look online to see if Walmart would have any in stock. The burger place I was going to was just across the street, so it just made sense for me to make the extra stop. I told my roommate that since I was already going by there that I would just pick one up quick before I grabbed my dinner.
Thanks to the stores app it was relatively easy to find. It hardly took much extra time out of my evening, I was in and out in a couple minutes, and finished my dinner excursion as quickly as could be managed because I didn’t place my order ahead of time. Dinner and cable in hand, I returned home.
For me, it wasn’t much effort. I knew exactly how I could help, and I simply did it without thinking too hard. That’s all it really takes sometimes to be a good friend.
This is hard for me to envision. So many things have changed in the last few decades that I don’t even know where to start!
I’d say a safe bet, though, might be dating expectations. How they’ll change from what they are today I have no idea, but those seem to be something that changes frequently enough. Right now, I’m seeing people hitting each other up on Threads and other social media platforms, and it seems like it’s replacing dating apps.
Maybe that’s what will change to be socially unacceptable in 10 years. Using social media platforms as substitutes for dating apps.
Although, who knows, maybe I’ve got it all wrong and misunderstood what is actually happening today.
It’s been a fair few years since I built my gaming PC, and a couple since I upgraded the GPU. Thankfully, the GPU is still in a good competitive position for the current market, so I don’t feel the need to upgrade it again (because that would be expensive enough as it is.)
Thinking on how long it had been since I built my PC, and watching my roommate go through the motions of upgrading his, I decided to follow suit (the FOMO was real.) So, I ordered all new parts, including a case, and I started a ground up new PC build using the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D that hit the market almost two months ago.
I had ordered all the parts prior to my vacation, and got most of them before I even left, so I put together everything I could while I waited for the new SSD and the CPU itself. Both were on back order and I wasn’t expecting them to arrive before my trip, which meant I wasn’t going to be missing out on playing with it while I was gone. The SSD was supposed to arrive the day after I left, but it showed up the day before, so that was alright. I just installed it right away and went back to waiting for the last part. The CPU.
I wasn’t expecting the CPU to show up until mid-January, but for some reason it managed to ship early. I got the notification while I was gone and had to have my roommate keep an eye out for it. I’m still surprised that it showed up as early as it did, because I was also planning on cleaning and reorganizing my gaming and hobby desk setup when I got back. Unfortunately, in that area, I haven’t done that yet, which means I haven’t finished setting up the new PC. On the bright side, though, my roommate and I did install the CPU and made sure that everything worked after getting the OS installed (he had a heck of a time getting everything working when he did his build, which I’m grateful for because it meant I could tap into that knowledge if I ran into similar issues.)
So, now I’m just kind of taking my time to get caught up on my cleaning and then I can get to gaming again. Maybe I’ll even do a couple of streams in the near future!
The Dragon's Grove 