deadmoscow

So the last two Orioles games have been canceled due to the ongoing situation in Baltimore. Today's game will be played at 2PM as scheduled, but won't be open to the public. Not to discount what's going on in Baltimore, but I am really weirdly excited to watch a game with no fans in the stands.

Seriously, seeing this makes me want to get some of those Copic markers. I've been trying my hand at some more serious art than notebook doodles lately and that looks hella fun.

I'm totally nuts about iamamiwhoami. This track has been on repeat for most of the last 24 hours.

Gotta love when five-year old threads get bumped up from the absolute depths of the forums.

I live in Indianapolis, Indiana. The city has a population of about 820,000, with many more in the larger metropolitan area. We're known for a few things, notably the Indianapolis 500, which is the largest single-day sporting event in the world. We've got an NFL and an NBA team, as well as a AAA baseball team. There's not a huge amount of unique culture here, which is unfortunate. We have the third most fast food restaurants per capita in the US, which probably contributes to our high obesity rates.

There are a couple of neat things about the city. We've hosted GenCon since 2003, which is the largest tabletop / card / RPG game convention in the country. Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, is from Indianapolis. Cost of living is super cheap here - the median rental price is only $692, far below the national average.

Unfortunately, the weather is completely bonkers for some reason. The winters are brutally cold - we had a four day span of -50° weather this January, and the summers can be extremely hot as well. I'd like to move somewhere with a more temperate climate once I finish my master's degree.

The only place I had any issue with it was in the Black Gulch. What a horrible, nasty place.

I wish more people knew the difference between gender and sex.

Sex refers to a set of biological and physiological characteristics.

Gender is a set of socially constructed behaviors, roles, and activities that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

Once you separate these two concepts you can see the extremely wide variety of human sexual and gender expressions that make us all so neat. There was an interesting article on Polygon recently about using the Oculus Rift to see yourself with different sex characteristics than you're used to. It's an incredible way of building empathy, and understanding the sensation that the body you experience physically is not the one you possess mentally.

My fiancee and I recently made the pretty huge step of getting a joint checking account. Having transparency in money matters is really, really important for me. I work hard and live within my means and I expect a significant other to do the same. Getting through some lean years (70 hour work weeks between 3 jobs, ecchh) and struggling to make rent sometimes has been a significant test of our relationship, but getting through that together has built a lot of good habits and cooperation that we'll certainly enjoy as we move on to grad school and more lucrative careers.

That said, I think responsibility and economic smarts are way more important than just pulling down a healthy cashflow. Although the cash certainly doesn't hurt.

I've been using tons of summons, and it's been rad. It definitely makes the boss fights easier, but I figure any advantage Dark Souls gives you is worth taking. As a whole, I've had an easier time with this game so far, but I think it's because I'm more attuned to how you're expected to play and not just smashing the attack button constantly like a doofus.

Do people get freaked out by the potential intrusion-into-privacy thing? You've basically got a video camera ready at a moment's notice every time you wear this thing, I can't imagine everyone being totally okay with that.

The only way to get better at driving is to drive a whole hell of a lot for a long time. Most people tend to be total idiots in cars until they've had something like five years of experience driving.

Anyways, uh, don't be a dick to pedestrians. That's important!