Baby on the Waybe
Speaking of nine months, Felicia and I are having a baby! Our due date is in September. We know the gender and we have a name we like, but for now it’s our little secret. We’re both a little nervous and a lot excited to start this next chapter. I doubt we’ll have a baby shower because of the pandemic, but if you want to celebrate with us then send a nice message :)
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| Thanks Auntie Mama for the baby swag |
COVID-19
We read about the first US COVID-19 death when we were boarding a plane to Hawaii. This virus on the other side of the world wasn’t a factor in our lives, and then all of a sudden it was infecting people in our neighborhood. We had a blast exploring the big island, but we didn’t exactly find peace and relaxation there because whenever we checked our phones there was more news about the deadly breakout back home. When we started our vacation on February 29th there were two announced cases, both fatal, from Life Care Center of Kirkland. By the time our vacation ended on March 8th, Life Care had announced 48 cases and 22 deaths, and an unknown number of staff and residents had yet to be tested. We tossed around the idea of staying in Hawaii until we had more clarity on the outbreak, but ultimately we decided to take our scheduled flight home.
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The Kirkland we came back to seems a lot quieter than the one we left, not that we get out of the house much. The extent of our activities is basically my weekly grocery run and our evening walks around the neighborhood. Thankfully I’m an introvert and I have plenty of hobbies at home so I’m comfortable. Microsoft was ahead of the government issuing work from home orders, so Felicia hasn’t been into the office since February, and by the time she’s done with maternity leave the total gap will be over a year and life will be totally different.
I want to give a shoutout to my friends and family members who had wedding and graduation plans cancelled, and of course pay respects to the families that have been directly impacted by the pandemic. When this is over I hope we can all live with a greater sense of urgency and purpose, because today’s opportunities might not be there tomorrow.
Fitness
Before the breakout I was as fit as I’ve ever been. I had a different routine every day of the week involving weights, running, and pickup basketball. I’ve been able to touch the bottom of the rim throughout my adult life, but in February I could get about three inches above and pull it down. If I kept at it then the sky was the limit. Unfortunately the gym is closed and I haven’t adapted to a new routine, so the buffness is gone.
Having a nice bod was fun because I got a lot of compliments on my appearance, and that was a new experience for me. I was working out to improve athletic performance, but positive feedback became a new motivation. I never understood Instagram culture until I realized that I just wasn’t attractive enough for it. Praise is addictive! I’ve come back down to earth now, for better or worse. But when I was working out I had a lot of confidence, so I joined a baseball team for the first time in 15 years. When the virus canceled those plans it felt like my teenage years again, when a broken hand derailed my career at its peak. Maybe I’m just not meant to be on the diamond.
The good news about being sidelined is that my feet are back to normal. They were overworked and nasty, and I’ve always defined myself as someone who has nice feet, so that’s a pretty big deal. Slide into the DMs if you want to exchange feet pics. Just kidding...unless??
Projects
Instead of working out I’ve been spending time on hobbies at home. I started this solar-powered greenhouse project over a year ago, but then forgot about it when we went to the Galapagos Islands. I picked it back up a few weeks ago, and it felt really good to tie up all the loose ends I left for myself. You can check it out at https://smartgreen.house/
Just before the outbreak I finished up a demo for my game, Salary Man. The vision I have in my head for this game is amazing, and it’s been a lot of fun bringing it to life. The incarnation that you see here is nowhere near the final version. Everything in this video was an educational experience for me, and I plan to apply the lessons I learned from it. Hopefully you can still grasp what it’s about. Wu Tang!
Video Games
Video games are following the same path as the movie industry; the biggest studios are milking the same franchises over and over again because it’s the best bet financially. Meanwhile the purist content, the media from independent studios, rarely reaches a mass audience. I haven’t bothered with recent installments of Pokemon or World of Warcraft, two franchises I grew up on, because commercialization-forwardness is an affront to game design. Maybe someday in the distant future, after Salary Man DLC has made me rich, I'll re-read this paragraph and cry at my loss of innocence while wiping my tears with hundred dollar bills.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Super Smash Bros is one franchise that’s trended way up for me. I’m part of an eight-player league that competes in olympics-style tournaments whenever somebody has a birthday. It’s fast paced and there’s something at stake every match, so it’s a good burst of adrenaline for a couple hours. I need to shout out my dudes Link and King K. Rool for making me champions, and also my friend Marlene who made an app to help us manage the events. You can check it out at https://flammcon.github.io/smash/
For a more prolonged social gaming experience, six of us play an asynchronous online game of Civilization VI. Civ is a crazy complicated strategy game where you have to juggle resource management and relationships to take over the world. For us it’s basically a Game of Thrones simulator. Each person spends maybe 10 minutes a day logged into the game, but the plotting and scheming between turns never stops.
My favorite game in recent memory is Cuphead. It’s perfectly difficult and the artwork is amazing. Plus it’s co-op, and like I said earlier, playing games socially is a whole different level of fun. Props to my man
I also just finished playing the new Final Fantasy VII Remake. I never played the original FFVII, so right now I have more questions than answers, but I thought the visuals and music were amazing. The characters and story are also well written. The only part of the game I didn’t like was the side quests.
Holidays
- For Halloween we dressed as chefs from Overcooked
- We spent Thanksgiving with a bunch of friends at home. Gotta shout out Jan and Lauren for hosting their Friendsgiving every year.
- We were in Tucson for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. For us that’s like a no brainer because both of our families gather there and the weather is great. They had a lot of rain just before we arrived, so the water features in Catalina State Park and Sabino Canyon made for awesome hiking.
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Miscellaneous Highlights
- I saw Logic live for the first time in October. He’s got such a positive energy it felt like a Christian rock concert.
- I got a flu shot for the first time. I’ve always had good health so it’s never seemed important, but I got my ass kicked by the flu last year and vowed to never let it happen again.
- I saw the ‘Cats hoops team beat UW in Seattle. Last time I was there in 2018 they lost on a buzzer beater, so payback was nice.
- We rented a house on the Olympic peninsula with some friends for a weekend in November. Lots of food, drink, and Cuphead until 4 AM.
- We spent a weekend in Vancouver with the in-laws. Always a good time with them. The only bummer was the border line on the way home. Felicia and I were motivated enough to get Nexus status (which include Global Entry and TSA precheck), but with this outbreak I doubt we’ll use them any time soon.
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| Bear Down! |
TGIB
