The Cracked Mug v 2.0

[erikakaiser]

I uninstalled Instagram off my phone a while ago because I was unimpressed with myself re: how often I turned my brain off to scroll reels (it doesn't even have a good algorithm!), and while this was a good decision it has made me realize how ingrained the habit was because I sometimes still mindlessly grab my phone and move my finger to where the icon used to be

[erikakaiser]

why are cops

[Sorcyress]

I just did power hour (which is on Thursdays now, instead of Wednesdays) which was a biiiiiiit half-hearted but I still made progress, and now I'm chilling a bit and making sure I'm ready for bed/work tomorrow/etc.

I am curious what your version/meaning of power hour is?

(mine is "no electronics for an hour after coming home from work --you don't have to be productive but you can't be digitally unproductive")

[erikakaiser]

I just did power hour (which is on Thursdays now, instead of Wednesdays) which was a biiiiiiit half-hearted but I still made progress, and now I'm chilling a bit and making sure I'm ready for bed/work tomorrow/etc.

I am curious what your version/meaning of power hour is?

(mine is "no electronics for an hour after coming home from work --you don't have to be productive but you can't be digitally unproductive")

Mine is a group activity!

I was talking w/ a friend about how writing is important to me but it's just so hard to make time for, etc etc wah wah wah, and finally went "well if I never make the time it's never gonna happen" so I tried out "power hour" and made it a thing in my friend discord server:

Screenshot 2025-10-01 162928.png

So from 7 PM to 8 PM central every Thursday, I have a lo-fi bot that I send into the voice chat and I park myself in there and work on writing for that hour while listening to lo-fi. Everyone is welcome to join and so far several have to work on their own writing, D&D prep, etc. It's explicitly no talking in the voice chat (a bit of side-bar in the text chat or talking about what you're working on is fine) and just being muted in the same space while listening to music and being creative.

Power hour!

It's slow going but I've written more than I've written in years doing it, so I'm pretty happy!

[erikakaiser]

tbh @Sorcyress I may have yoinked "power hour" from you without realizing it, I was combing through my brain to figure out where I heard the specific verbiage and it may just be from you

[erikakaiser]

The Steam sale got me

Screenshot 2025-10-01 074336.png

It's my weekend so after a fairly productive day I may become a slug and try out one of my new bliddy james

[Fetian]

Kabuto Park has been on my wishlist for a while but I'm just not sure if I'll like it -- let me know how it is when you play it?

[erikakaiser]

The terraforming tools in ACNH have some of the worst controls/handling of any terrain tools I've ever used, and as a survival/crafting fan I've used a lot

[erikakaiser]

especially considering it has a special "build mode" tbh, which normally would go alongside things like a visual guide, more precise controls, etc

[erikakaiser]

Kabuto Park has been on my wishlist for a while but I'm just not sure if I'll like it -- let me know how it is when you play it?

I couldn't sleep so I played about 30 minutes of Kabuto Park to check it out!

20251003031554_1.jpg

initial impressions:

• the tutorial is super quick and painless, I am exhausted of games heavily holding my hand so it was honestly really refreshing to have the tutorial NPC go "hi this is a bug-catching game ok go catch bugs byeeeeee"

• I find the art style very cute but I could see how it's not for everyone

• to catch bugs you uhhhh I'm not sure what it's called, it's like a timing puzzle? where you have to click your mouse and have it land on the green part of the bar? so I was offput by that at first glance but as you progress there's a bit of strategy to it and the game did mention you can adjust the difficulty in the settings, which is a nice accessibility feature although one I haven't needed

• the bug battles are actually quite fun! it's sort of tug-of-war or maybe even sumo-wrestling based where the bugs push each other off a mat, and there's a "push" phase and "hold" phase where you use different cards to activate abilities that help those phases. Each bug has different stats and cards, which so far I've found interesting to play with vs. overstimulating/too much information

20251003035043_1.jpg

• tl;dr so far I'd recommend it as a chill-but-not-entirely-turn-brain-off game with cute buggies in it

also, each bug profile has Weird Bug Facts like the fuck you mean they have five eyes????

20251003032635_1.jpg

then I looked it up (not that I didn't believe the bug-catching niche interest game about its bug facts, but we're in our Trust But Verify era) and they DO and it's honestly really creepy when you notice their middle eyes. I cannot unsee the many bee eyes now

► Show Spoiler

Screenshot 2025-10-03 040233.png

(picture under the cut, hidden in case someone understandably does not want to suddenly see a macro bee photo)