Crash Site

Welcome to my Now Page, my thoughts and what I’ve been up to lately. Loosely inspired by my friend Jack Grimes’ format. You’re reading the 9/30/24 version of this page. When it’s gone, it’s (probably) gone.

Making

Yeah still not much. This page, mostly. I’m trying to get back into playing guitar again. The one time I’ve picked up my guitar since getting on my ADHD meds was like “holy shit, I can actually kinda focus on practicing”, so I think that bodes well.

Doing

I’ve been on that homework grind lately. After the ADHD meds have kicked in, it’s amazing to me that I can actually focus for once! You’re telling me neurotypical people can just… do this? and have been able to do this their whole life??? It’s so wild.

My college’s YDSA chapter has been trying to bring ourselves back to life, currently our leadership is just the org president and me. We’ve held a handful of events and meetings and gotten a fairly good turnout, which is awesome. We’re working closely with other YDSA chapters in Milwaukee to try and figure out how to get more people involved on our small, not particularly political campus. As much as it’s a pain in the ass, figuring out how to radicalize the engineers and techies is actually a pretty cool problem to solve.

Thinking

Another social media thought this time. (no way!) As I write this, it’s the last day before Cohost goes read-only. I’m really gonna fuckin miss that place. Bluesky just ain’t the same, there’s just something fundamentally different about it. It might be how it’s structured as Twitter 2, it might be that there’s a wider audience, probably a combo of all those things. Again, I really wonder if Twitter is the best social media concept that we can come up with.

A friend of mine who’s big on fedi stuff mentioned that Mastodon feels more like Cohost to them than Bluesky, so I’m thinking I might give Mastodon a more serious try. I really just want a site that feels like it’s designed for humans and good posts, not Blowing Up and Going Viral with any good interactions as a side effect. Admittedly, something I liked about Cohost was the kinda niche audience, so maybe finding the right instance would replicate that.

Listening

Well, I thought my SiriusXM subscription auto-cancelled once my student discount ran out, but apparently not? So it’s been like a month since I’ve listened to it because I thought it cancelled. Kinda nice though, I absolutely love SiriusXMU. Like I said last time, my college’s radio station is fantastic, but XMU is my go-to when I’m not feeling what’s being played on 91.7 WMSE. Blog Radio is a fantastic show too, it always seems to have just the right vibes for a late-night drive or study session.

Playing

Balatro. Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro. Balatro. Balatro? Balatro. It came out on mobile on the 26th and I have played 10 hours of it already. Seeing a big number go up is just way too satisfying. I’ve hit ante 10 with the gold deck, how the hell am I supposed to beat a 7 million chip small blind?!

Also been playing Monster Hunter Rise. I’ve been playing MH since MH4 Ultimate in middle school, tried Rise on Game Pass a while back, and finally actually bought it because it was 10 bucks with Sunbreak included in a Fanatical sale. I don’t think I’ve played any other game that joins the “job fantasy”, to use a FFXIV term, with the moment-to-moment mechanical feel quite as well as Monster Hunter. Foraging for resources and spiribirds before taking on a monster, getting caught out by a tail sweep, finally countering that attack that’s been getting your ass the whole hunt… it’s all so perfect.