I’m sitting in the hospital room I’ve been in since Tuesday and can’t even begin to explain how bored I am. Let’s chat about anything except politics, I could use some distraction.
I collect hobbies and may even know something about your hobbies. What do you like to do?
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Does your hospital room have one of those 0-10 pain scales? I hate those!! I’m so bad at them! I need something more objective so now i use 4 wakes you up and 7 makes you teary/cry. For 10 they say ‘worst pain imaginable’ so i always think it’s like my arm was ripped off and I’m in a car fire with shards of glass. Nothing has ever been a 10.
I have experience some of what I’m told is the worst pain possible. Kidney stones, migraines that hit like cluster headaches. I wouldn’t rate any of them a 10 because I’m always like… I could definitely feel more pain. Kidney stones are unmanageable pain, but it’s not sheer agony shrieking through every nerve constantly.
Like you could rip off my arm and that would fucking hurt unimaginably, but then you could always pour salt on it after.
Basically you don’t rate pain at 9 or 10. At that point you are unintelligible and someone rates it for you.
I rated it at 9 once, “Wanna know the difference between 9 and 10? I can still control the swearing at 9!”
I had a kidney stone get stuck and infected, the pain was so severe I vomited in the doctors office. “OK, surgery at 5, 5 work for you?”
I get debilitating migraines also, so I can relate.
I’ve heard stories about kidney stones and it sounds absolutely horrible.
This one may be more to your liking.
Bear or ninjas! 🤣🤣
Mine:
It does! It’s especially difficult when they wake you up at 2am to ask.
That is a really good system, it’s going into effect immediately :)
Shattered my thigh once. Didn’t hurt too much. Until they moved me. That’s my 10 now.
Nothing else has gone above a 7 since.
Out of interest, how does one “collect hobbies”? What does that involve/look like?
Basically, I get into a hobby and I do it until it is all encompassing. Then right about the time I get to where you really have to grind to the next level, I lose interest.
Cool. If you would, can you give an example?
Geocaching is one and Ingress another.
I was a hardcore geocacher for about 3 years until I realized I just wasn’t into it anymore. I played Ingress for a few years as well and just kinda burned out.
Ooh I used to love Ingress. Back around 2013–2015 I played a heap of it. Jumped on briefly a few times in the time since. It was a much more well-crafted game than Pokémon Go.
Resistance or Enlightened?
Enlightened. Initially it was just because I looked around my immediate local area and everything was blue, so I figured there’d be more to do with Enlightened. Then I came to realise my city outside my neighbourhood was overwhelmingly green, but we had a really great friendly local Enlightened community. When they moved away from Hangouts and G+ into Telegram I mostly lost touch.
In retrospect, the not-so-subtle political allegory with Enlightened being progressive and Resistance conservative is not lost on me either lol. Not that the meta-plot was especially important anyway.
How about you?
I was also Enlightened. I had a great time, but found myself feeling less and less involved with the community until finally just wasn’t into it. I got to level 15 and then had 0 interest in grinding to 16.
I’m sitting in the airport lounge in Accra after spending a week here in Ghana.
I’ve taken so many pictures and I think this has been a life-changing journey. Before this, I used to write daily, but whether from aging or just fading desires, I’d all but stopped writing anything in the last few years. This trip has renewed my fervor for writing again, so I’m just excited to pursue my lifelong hobby writing just because I can once again.
If you’ve got nothing else better to do, I made some daily posts in an old-fashioned blog I’ve kept for a while: https://kaitco.wordpress.com/ (Maybe skip the post where I wallow in depression from Tuesday… 😅).
Tell me about the jollof rice!
I am in love with jollof rice!! I feel like that’s all I ever want to eat for the rest of my life! Haha!
Try a Cajun dirty rice sometime, it’s the only real competitor.
A week is such a short time! I love to travel, but I have to admit, Ghana wasn’t really on my radar. What’s the story behind the trip (if you don’t mind sharing)?
About 20 years ago, my grandmother built a house in Ghana near Cape Coast as a sort of legacy for her children, grands, and great-grands. It’s been on the list to visit while she was still here and also while my dad was still here, so this has been a very emotional journey. My grandmother used to spend about 9 months out of the year in travelling particularly in Africa because she always felt that it was our “true” home.
My aunt goes every other year, and I finally had the time and the means to go. It was a very fulfilling trip because this was our family home, and I was with some of my cousins, too. A week is a short time, but there is so much to see and to do, that even 3 months wouldn’t be enough time. I got a wealth of experiences though even in this short time, and now I can plan better for the next time I come here. ☺️
That’s a great story! Do you travel often?
This was only my second international trip. I travel on average about once a year for work though and occasionally see family in New York and Atlanta areas.
I love to travel any chance I get and New York is one of my favorites.
What is the plan for the next trip?
Well, I’m buying a house in this hellscape market, so this will likely be the last personal trip for a while outside of anything for work. 😅
I’m trying to get a trip to India done, though, for work, but Romania and Dubai may also be work options.
Oof, good luck with the house hunting!
Those are all on my list to visit already, especially Romania. I visited Prague recently and I can imagine how amazing Romania must be.
I also have a bunch of hobbies. D&D (well, roleplaying in general, mainly Pathfinder 2e these days); video games, primarily the Age of Empires franchise and survival crafters like Raft, DST, and Factorio; triathlon, as well as running and cycling as separate sports; photography; and music (I play piano, clarinet, and saxophone).
But perhaps the most unusual/unorthodox of my hobbies is fencing. I did sport fencing back in high school, but these days it’s HEMA. Historical fencing based on texts & treatises written during the historical periods. Using weapons that are more familiar historically accurate than the weapons you see in modern fencing. But with modern protective equipment for safety. I do mainly rapier in the Spanish and French styles, as well as some sabre.
Wow, it seems we have a lot of hobbies in common! That is, along with the rest of my family lol.
I played D&D for a long time, eventually my (now adult) son got into it also and still plays. My choice of games is Civilization 4 these days.
My SO does triathlons, at least she did before all the health issues. I ran in the military and have come to find I loathe running. So I just tag along for moral support.
I’ve just recently started getting into photography a little more, and I love music. I used to play the sax as well (baritone), but it’s been a long time.
Fencing is great and such a workout! My whole family has done fencing at some point and my kid was in a team in college.
We also surf :)
Oh damn, nice! I basically skipped Civ 4 just by chance. Huge amount of Civ 2: Test of Time when I was younger, touched on Civ 3 for a little while, and then Civ 5 is my 7th most-played game in Steam.
I was on alto. Definitely miss playing in big band.
Civ 4 will always be my fav. Did you see Civ 7 comes out in a few months? I can’t wait to try it!
I did see that it’s coming out soon! The different ages thing seems like a really neat idea.
But tbh I don’t play it a whole lot recently anyway. Never played 6, and haven’t even played 5 since around when 6 came out
5 and 6 both sucked, which is why I still play 4. You aren’t missing anything.
Oh, I really liked 5. The switch to hexes and the removal of death stacks were pretty huge changes, but also excellent for the game. I’m a bit sick of Firaxis’ tendency to release fundamentally unfinished games that only get completed once DLC have come out, though.
Great post !
Thanks! I really needed the distraction :)
I recently went down a tornado rabbit hole on YouTube and holy crap they are wild!! Some of the videos are so beautiful and some take the style of a true crime documentary that tracks the growth and path of destruction. Would recommend lol.
It’s pretty wild seeing the path they leave behind. Just seeing a straight path right through houses, but only hitting the one in the middle is crazy.
How are you doing now?
Hanging in there. I’m literally watching someone sleep. Contemplating a nap here as well.
How’s life treating you?
I’ve been doing good but slow due to the holidays.
Work is slow, you mean? What do you do?
I work in a branch of the local news or town law that registers and highlights peoples’ good deeds and contributions (think criminal records in reverse).
That sounds fun, unless you don’t have many good deeds :)
That’s the nice part about the whole thing, that there is some faith in the idea that there is potential good in everyone, in such a way that counters the intended idea of criminal records that unceasing shame deserves to be applied to those who do wrong. A large percentage of clients are people with quasi-ruined lives and we challenge that.
We need more of this in the world!
Hope you’re doing better now! Sounds like no fun. I’ll send good vibes your way! 🙏
I enjoy gardening, cleaning/tidying things up, vacuuming, basically making everything look neat and fresh! My parents fondly remember that when I was little, I would randomly clean the bathroom and they would always remark how they knew I’d cleaned it because they could see the reflection of their faces on the tiles. I write from time to time, mostly short stories that would fall under the definition of creepypastas or horror short stories.
I also love drawing, here’s some of my work! No AI is used in my process, and you can look at the progress pictures I’ve uploaded to get a gist of my technique!
I’ve used Paint Tool SAI 1 for as long as I’ve been drawing digitally, and I honestly wouldn’t settle for anything else! It’s very lightweight and also old, but it’s a very good app for drawing.
Doing better, thanks, not out of the woods yet.
Your art is pretty amazing!
Glad to hear! Take it easy and be sure to rest up as much as you can! Also thank you so much! I’m glad you like it!
