The Cracked Mug v 2.0

[erikakaiser]

Computer set up yayyyyy

[erikakaiser]

okay!

A week at the new place, now, and I like it a lot!

The area itself is a lot quieter -- I was living, before, in Uptown Chicago, and while living in the city certainly has genuine appeal, and I enjoyed most of my time there, it was getting tiresome in a few ways. Post-pandemic a lot of beachgoers and tourism picked back up, and Chicago Police love a clumsy effort to control beach traffic/teen takeovers (it's a whole thing), so it was getting more frequent I would simply be trying to drive home from work and literally every exit was blocked off by unmanned city vehicles. I lived near two major party beaches and enjoyed being able to go on lakeside runs, but the trade-off was becoming not worth it in terms of crowds and chaos.

(to be clear I love to see a bustling park district, from a former Parks/Rec employee perspective and a humans-should-enjoy-their-nature perspective, but also I'm from Appalachia and there's too many god damned people)

Another issue was becoming parking and like, that was always an issue, but I paid ($180/mo, by the end of it) to use a nearby parking garage and that worked well for several years. Unfortunately, last year-ish, the hospital attached to that parking garage got into legal/licensure issues because it's privately owned and US Healthcare is a nightmare for allowing that in the first place, so it's basically completely shut down and the parking garage has become a nightmare. Literally none of the elevators work (there's signs all over them both from angry people doing graffiti and 311 workers leaving the orange notices saying it's not ADA compliant, but obviously that hasn't done anything because it's been that way for ages) and it was just becoming gross and piss-smelling and hazardous, all for the same egregious monthly fee. The alternatives would be unassigned street parking (genuinely not doable in that area; when I was moving I would try to find a spot just to pack things up easier and even that was impossible most of the time) or another parking garage further away, which adds to my morning commute.

The apartment itself I was done with because the passenger princess from hell got her demon cooties all over it, plus it was extremely expensive for just one person ($2,400/mo, which I paid almost entirely by myself because, see aforementioned passenger princess from hell issues), and I just didn't love it overall. The other apartment I had in that same building was fine, but the new one was hard to put window units into, faced a very loud and busy park + a very loud and busy street, and had an annoying kitchen and a bunch of other stuff that didn't vibe with me (especially for the cost).

My new space is a much more reasonable $1,900/mo, is closer to work, has a bunch of trees and more quiet neighborhood vibes, and enough space for me to have a tiny office (I've always had to put my desk + computer in my bedroom), a crafting area, and even a little reading area in the living room. Parking is still not the best thing in the world but I have a specific permit to park in a specific zone overnight and so far that's been fine even on busy days.

And, most importantly, I can get a dog whenever I want and not have to look at the constant reminders of a person who hurt me very badly.

I like it!

I do need to uhhhhh get a bunch of stuff done today though so let me put shoes on and get to it

[Fetian]

That's very exciting, I'm glad you like the new place!

[erikakaiser]

Got my outside errands done early to dodge the heat (gas station, post office, grocery store) and then managed a good bit of unpacking before I decided I was done for the day. Then it was storming so I enjoyed the storm vibes and read most of The Bachelor's Valet, which was nice and soothing.

Tomorrow I have a big tattoo appointment and also a game I've been super looking forward to (new Rogue Trader DLC) comes out, so I'm excited!

Tonight I think I'm just gonna relax and Dave maybe wanted to hang out, I will have to check. I may see if I can convince him to stream something to be my television while I draw, I'm working on a picture of Merillian swimming!

[erikakaiser]

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[erikakaiser]

idk if anyone has been following the Tupac/Stranger than Heaven controversy but the director clarified some points and weirdly made the situation almost, more ghoulish for me

https://www.ign.com/articles/stranger-than-heaven-director-addresses-concerns-over-tupacs-inclusion

tl;dr the initial news was "Tupac is in Stranger than Heaven" which isn't incorrect, but left a lot of icky assumptions (AI ghost, Tupac's estate is notably not owned by his actual family but by what used to be his record label so who is okaying this decision, why is Tupac even in a game about the Japanese yakuza, etc)

The director has come out to say both the family and the estate have okayed this, the character is not Tupac himself but someone named Amaru who just deliberately looks and acts exactly like Tupac, AND it's not AI, it's voiced and acted by real people

like, okay, I guess from an ethical development point you're above board but now my question is simply

why??????

you're just using a dead man as a puppet for attention. gross. pay a living black actor to mocap this character, at this point????

[erikakaiser]

I have seen some suggestions that Snoop Dogg, who is also in the game and involved with the franchise, may have suggested it, but I don't think "your friend from when you were alive 30 years ago thinks it's neat" is necessarily an all-inclusive pass

[erikakaiser]

Yesterday I took in a call from an ER nurse and heard the Mission Impossible theme in the background and couldn't help but ask why, she said that was the ringtone they had for when an ambo is on the way

[erikakaiser]

Screenshot 2026-06-18 103902.png

Hey look it's a perfect description of my shitty ex