Promiseland

[Fetian]

So I got ash to pick me up some toothpaste -- not my preferred kind, which is annoyingly difficult to find now, but it'll work until I can get my butt over to someplace that carries it. I did still get out of the house, though, I walked to the ATM on the corner and put some savings back in my debit account. On the way back I took a little detour to check out the neighborhood little library but there wasn't anything in there that interested me enough to take. I do think I want to bring some of the books I don't want to keep over to it and give those away -- I've been thinking thrift store but maybe someone local would enjoy finding them for free

It was a nice walk despite the forecast, it only started sprinkling well after I got back home and was helping ash bring groceries inside. Tonight we watched a couple youtubes, including the season finale of Taskmaster, and then finished Amanda the Adventurer 3, and then we talked about that latter for a bit before ash went to bed. Tomorrow we're going to go grocery shopping early to try to catch the really good soda deal (6-for-3) before they run out

Hopefully the action camera arrives tomorrow afternoon, in which case I'll mess with that, but I also need to work on Japanese homework (again and always). And the quiz

But yeah, so we're trying bed early again tonight and hopefully this time it will stick. I didn't go back to sleep today after Cael breakfast even though I'd decided I wasn't going to dad's, so! A bit sleepy already. Fingers crossed

[Fetian]

Sun woke me up at about 8:30, which was not terrible. I think I can manage an 8:30 wakeup, earlier than that and history suggests I will be Sad. That miiiiight mean I can't listen to podcasts before bed anymore, which would be unfortunate, we'll see how that shakes out. There is only so far I can push my bedtime back without interfering with other things, like cat feeding/pilling times

ash and I went grocery shopping, which meant I got to ride in the new truck for the first time! I do not have much to say about the experience, though, it's a truck. There's no notable negatives about it, aside from like, the cultural forces that have resulted in what should be a medium or large truck being considered small-ish. It's also bumpier than a car, but as said, it's a truck

We did get there before they sold out of all the mountain dew, so I got six packs and that'll last me a bit (I drink two a day, so a little over a month). Picked up some other stuff with coupons and ended up spending, once again, Too Goddamn Much on groceries.

When we got home I watched youtube for a while and had a snack, and then ash and I hung another shelf. While I was out there the new camera arrived! So I went back into my room to fiddle with that, and ended up troubleshooting livestreaming with it for probably an hour or so. However it ended up working great and I think this will suit my needs very nicely. I just need to mount it to the bike, or myself, and give it a test ride before I fully commit

I still! Need to do homework. I'm going to work on the flashcards tonight and if I have time write out the answers to the workbook problems, then finish everything up tomorrow. I have decided that I'm going to wait a year to enroll in 412, I really need a break after this semester. Maybe I'll take a summer class between now and then, but not a spring class.

Alright! If I'm going to be going to bed earlier then I need to adjust my routine to get stuff done earlier, as well. So I'm going to go do things

[erikavonkaiser]

Groceries are so expensive, I did a pick-up order recently and somehow spent almost $100 on what I swear was just a pack of energy drinks, bread, and deli meat

[Fetian]

Busy day! I did some more streaming troubleshooting, and set up a new twitch account for it. I took my Japanese quiz and actually got 100% on it -- I also spent longer than I should have had to trying to get japanese input to work on the steamdeck to take it on it, and ultimately failed. I took it on my phone instead

Got homework done, got the flashcards made and a picture of them uploaded.

We had dumplings for dinner, and ash and I watched Let's Game It Out, a couple Worst Cooks, and then a Let's Game It Out archived stream. Today felt very long, so ash and I wrapped up and went to bed early, which is wild considering how much we did.

Oz got a dumpling somehow after everyone had gone to bed, ate part of it and then threw up, so that's great. She's also been refusing her real food all night, so that's also great

Woke up at 6:30 this morning and couldn't fall back asleep, so I put my eyemask on and slept until 11. Going to continue trying to adjust to waking up with the sun, so I'll be going to bed in about 45 minutes. Before that I'll do yet more streaming troubleshooting -- as of right now the setup works but there are things I want to do that will require a different set-up. So messing with that, and then bed. Probably more food at some point, too

[Fetian]

So two months ago, I woke up with my eyes super inflamed, super light-sensitive, felt like they were full of sand. It was awful, but I flushed them out with clean water and went back to sleep to let them rest, and when I woke up again they were mostly fine. Figured I'd gotten something in my eyes that scratched my corneas while I was asleep, since I'd been doing yard-work that day and spraying dirt off of things with a hose. Didn't think too deeply about it after it was over.

Today I woke up with one of my eyes super inflamed. No idea what I could have done to irritate it, this time, possibly both incidences have been allergies, though it would be weird for it to just be the one eye. It actually feels like the inside of the eyelid got cut or scratched and that's the issue, but I flushed it out when I woke up, went back to sleep hoping it would be better again, and then woke up and it was better but then rapidly got worse. Flushed it again, went back to sleep, and now I'm in the same position again -- felt better, getting worse. I think I'll need to keep it closed and covered until whatever's wrong with it is healed, and of course doctor if it keeps being an issue

Unfortunately there was an Arcadia recording scheduled today, and part of it is recordings that have needed to be rescheduled already, which is annoying. But I can't read fluidly with just one eye, and keeping using the other one is probably making things worse. Also, obviously, missed the torah study

Okay, I have finangled my eye-mask to be an eye-patch, I'm going to, go figure out something to do with myself that doesn't involve too much seeing.

This happened again this morning (currently at 'woke up feeling better, possibly getting worse again?)

It is allergy season again, but it's still weird for it to happen in just one eye, and I was only outside long enough yesterday to water one of the roses, I've definitely spent more time outside in more pollen on different days

I cleaned and refilled the cat's litterbox yesterday, but don't remember doing that in specific before either of the other two incidences, and obviously have done that between the last incidence and now without issue. Same with laundry

I did put lotion on my face before bed last night and remember doing that before the last incidence if not the first - this is my best guess, that the lotion is getting into my eye in my sleep. I'll have to be more careful about it, and hopefully it doesn't happen again

But if it does, that's a list of possible triggers, off the top of my head. I didn't do anything else yesterday but hang out with ash in the living room and play video games in mine. It's the right eye again, which I believe it also was the second time

Going to mention 'pinkeye' to make this easy to search for in future

Been a while since this happened but it's happened again. Right eye, feels like there's something sharp in it and it's gone super watery. I did not lotion my face last night. I have flushed it out, and now I'm going to try going back to sleep and hoping it feels better when I wake up again

(I also did not do laundry or clean the litterboxes, I was outside for a bit to walk back and forth from my room to the back patio but it was raining-ish all day so I doubt it was pollen)

[Fetian]

Hm, Cael apparently also got at a dumpling somehow, and threw it up this morning. I especially have no idea how he got it - it must have been at the same time as Oz but that's a long time for it to have been in his stomach

I brought my food in to my room shortly after hanging out in the living room. An hour or two later, Oz threw up dough and I went out to the kitchen where I found a partially eaten dumpling on the floor. The leftover dumplings in the containers were still there. Between 12 and 12:30 I ate all of my dumplings, then locked the cats in my room, and now eleven hours later Cael has thrown up dough

It is a mystery. I am concerned.

[Fetian]

I did not go back to sleep, but I did lay in the dark with my eye closed for a while and then with my eye open for a while. It feels pretty fine now but not 100% and I'm worried about opening my curtains

[Fetian]

Up late last night playing Smallands with Dave, so while I woke up at like 7 this morning I also went back to sleep until 12:30. I did want to take today mostly down anyway, though, so that's alright.

In Smallands, we unlocked a new area of the map, which is very exciting. We've killed a couple baby birds (in the hopes that doing so would allow us to steal the tree they'd been living in but that didn't work) and found a source for reishi leather, which was our barrier to a lot of new stuff and upgrades. Also! Other tiny people! That want to kill us! It feels like we're leaving the tutorial area, which is crazy considering how much we've done in the game so far

As for today, I needed to be around to meet the guy taking our ruined couches away. We'd put them up on craigslist, and on the corner with a 'FREE' sign, but no one wanted them so they've been sitting out in the rain in the backyard for a couple months. ash hired a guy to come take them to the dump and was supposed to get here about 2, so at 1:30 I dragged them out of the backyard and onto the driveway, partly to be nice to the guy and partly because I didn't want him to damage the gate or our water pipes trying to get the couches past them. And then I hung out in the living room until around 4 when he actually showed up (which is expected behaviour for hiring a guy to come take your furniture to the dump). He was very friendly and we talked about snowboarding while he got the couches into his truck. Apparently he was living in the bay area and moved here not too long ago, which is common since the pandemic and the economy being in a shambles. Then, once here, he couldn't find any work so started his own one-man landscaping/etc business. He pointed out that our gutters are looking a little sketchy, which is a fair assessment and we've been meaning to get someone to come clean them so maybe we'll call him for that. He also offered to trim the enormous tree by our gate, but I don't think the property owners would like that

Meanwhile I'd gotten a package I've been waiting for -- my digimon watch (Vital Bracelet™) looks like this:

Screenshot 2025-11-18 at 22-37-31 vital bracelet be.png

 
The strap is pretty cheap quality, doesn't breathe well, weirdly big despite ostensibly being designed to be worn by Japanese children, it falls off easily due to the bad clasp design, and the holes are spaced in a way that makes it hard to get it to fit well. It's generally just obviously a semi-disposable children's toy, but there's a guy who sells replacement straps on etsy that I have been eyeing for ages and finally pulled the trigger on. I'd been waffling because he was sold out of the colour that I wanted and I was waiting to see if it would ever restock, but I have ended up getting a white strap, and also adapters to make the whole thing a little narrower and fit on my skinny gay ass wrists better

Screenshot 2025-11-18 at 22-43-16 1118252238.png

 
I'm going to reserve full judgement until I've been wearing it for a bit but like, obviously it's nicer than the original strap. It fits better, it's more secure, it's more comfortable, and hopefully my wrist won't sweat as much while I'm training my little man. The better fit means that the watch is reading my heartrate better, too, so it's also working better in general.

So after I got the straps switched out and did a little exercise to test it, I watched youtube for a while, and then when I went out to get dinner I also dug my old goat-horn water bottle out of the garage to wash. I've been meaning to do that for a while but knew that since it's been out in the garage for ages that it might not be in great condition and need some extra TLC to get it usable. Cleaning it was not that difficult, actually, but it is still not usable. It's always had a leak, and it still does but now the rubber (or whatever soft-plastic-material) seal on the lid is, uh, melting. So that's not something that I want to end up in my water, but I discovered that the store that makes them sells replacement lids!

It's supposed to be cloudy tomorrow, but not rainy, so I think I'd like to take the bike out if I can. We'll see

[Fetian]

Time to break out the winter door-curtain

[Fetian]

So the Vision, is that I ride my bike a little ways from the house so I'm not doxxing myself or my housemates (the idea is to be near the light rail station to create the plausible-deniability impression that I'm taking the bike from somewhere further away to here; this is not, like, perfect op-sec but livestreaming yourself out in the real world is inherently not good op-sec), once there I start the action cam live streaming and from my phone start a playlist of animal-crossing-esque royalty-free music. I ride for 30 minutes to an hour to a nice place to stop on the parkway, set up a little picnic, turn the music off, and chat with whoever has shown up to the stream. Do that for a while, then turn the stream off and ride back home

This should be an easy set-up, right? Surely there are ways to inject music into a livestream, and to control that and the stream itself from a phone?? SURELY someone has made a program for that???

They have not. At least not for less than $200 a month and even that I'm not positive would work (I didn't look too deep after seeing the price). What I'm going to have to do is set up a virtual server to host the stream on, that then gets piped into twitch, and that's going to cost money that I don't have right now so setting that up is going to wait a month. In the meantime though I'm going to have to do the stream without music

(I did consider and test out just piping the music through headphones that I attach to the camera in some way, but of course it sounds awful so I gave up on that pretty quick. I could bring a speaker with me, I suppose, but I'm not a complete asshole so I'm not going to be playing music other people can hear while riding my bike through a nature trail)