It really is just a small, efficient convection oven, it's less that you can cook new things and more that a bunch of recipes become faster and easier. But that has made a pretty big difference, to us as people who spent a lot of time thinking "I WOULD cook that in the oven but ehhh... too much effort".
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Cam and I both have a cold. A superstitious part of me feels like if I say "we're pretty sure it's not covid" we will both have a sudden turn and DIE, especially since it turned out our RAT tests were out of date and I can't get new ones til tomorrow. But the expired test was negative at least, and I like knowing that people know why I'm replying to emails etc even less than usual.

I think this is our first respiratory infection of any kind since the pandemic started, and man, that extra worry just adds an extra layer on top of the general unpleasantness of having a cold. I don't do as badly with colds as some people with cfs, and thus far this one is relatively mild, but it still sucks, and even after the symptoms clear I'm always knocked out for a bit. At least I don't have any plans coming up, I had once again vaguely pondered flopping outside Swancon if I was having an especially good day but I won't be having any of those for a while :/

I've seen people talk about their cats comforting them when they're sick but ours just sit at the opposite end of the room staring wide eyed with a mixture of fear and resentment every time we cough or sneeze.

The symptoms were so mild at first we didn't even realise it was a cold, which is mostly good, but does mean we missed the window for antivirals without even realising let alone deciding if we wanted to go that route. Ah well, this has been a reminder to have all that stuff better organised!

Currently hanging out in the mod making channels of the Stardew Valley discord waiting for version 1.6 to launch. It's a major update, affecting both the story and the underlying code.

I haven't felt this sort of group vibe of "Ooh what will the new content be" enthusiasm mixed with "oh god what will this break" trepidation and "But WHEN WILL IT UPDATE" uncertainty since waiting for Homestuck updates back in the day.

Players have nothing to worry about (except for mods maybe breaking), and mod makers had access to a coding alpha, but until we see the new story content a lot of us don't know exactly how much editing we're going to have to do to make our existing mods compatible with the new content.

But also, new content! Exciting!

It's like 5am in much of the US, many people have stayed up waiting for ConcernedApe (the creator and primary dev) to wake up in California and press the button. It's approaching 11pm here but I don't feel like going to sleep just yet.

The discord mods have been making increasingly unhinged posts in the bulletin board channel that THEY WILL PING US WHEN IT UPDATES. Apparently so many people joined the server at once that discord flagged it as suspicious lol. Meanwhile the 1.6 alpha channel is everyone waving goodbye before it gets archived.

And then of course once it DOES come out... hoo boy.

*bounces quietly*

From alaterdate. I am as always too awkward to actually ask 9 people, but if it looks fun, consider yourself tagged!
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I have finally achieved my goal, after many years: I ate a mooncake! It was a tiny goal but feels good to have achieved it.

I never ate them when I was younger on the assumption they would be as full of butter as most other Delicious Looking Asian Pastries, and by the time I discovered that they're traditional enough not to be made from dairy I wasn't in a position to easily get one (I could order large expensive boxes online, but I just wanted one). Even once I finally found a local Asian supermarket which delivers I kept forgetting to buy a mooncake during the limited time window.

This frustrated me, because (a) they sounded like something I'd enjoy and (b) it would feel nice to participate in such a big global celebration in my own small way.

AND THIS YEAR I DID IT. The moment people started talking about the mid-Autumn festival I got Cam to organise a joint order with me from the Asian supermarket.

Including a lotus paste mooncake with egg yolk! Which I just cut into pieces and ate some of! It was delicious :) I was dubious about having a whole egg yolk in the middle of a pastry but it worked pretty well, all salty and creamy.

They're supposed to be shared but Cam doesn't like lotus paste. So I shall share it with you all digitally. So an early happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all of you, including those of you for whom it is also actually mid-Spring. And happy Djilba to everyone else in the local Nyoongar country!

EDIT: For anyone else in Perth: Kai Supermarket, I know ubereats is evil but there's not a lot of local options.

From anghraine. Consider yourself tagged if you want to be!

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isabel_lunnen/ isabelpsaroslunnen tagged me in a "getting to know you via five drinks" meme. So, off the top of my head, five drinks I have illustrative things to say about.
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I've started being able to (a) figure out and (b) tell people when I am having a Bad Words moment that makes it hard to express myself. It's really great! My natural tendency is to just sit there feeling paralysed and guilty and self conscious, having a simple script/phrase I can say without having to come up with something original really helps and half the time helps unblock me enough to think of words to express what I wanted to say in the first place, or at least a gesture towards it, with less worry that the other person will take any simpleness/curtness as rudeness or indifference etc.

I am having a moderately bad word day today, but not to the extent of being totally inarticulate, I just have to express myself more simply (at least it feels simpler in my head, I'm not sure how it comes across from the outside). It's very weird to know I don't always feel this way but still be unable to access the parts of my brain which add humourous/articulate flourishes etc. But I don't need those for this post.

I'm not even that fatigued today, just overwhelmed by a bunch of stressful things I have made the considered decision to avoid thinking about until I have had a few days without new stressful things.

Anyway. Hooray for self knowledge and expression, including expressing my inability to express myself.

(haa...ok, I was able to write this post without too much trouble, but thinking about tags is hurting my brain. This'll do)

5 question meme from hokuton_punch. I am going to be terrible and not offer 5 questions to people who ask, because I know my brain would have trouble with it. Though if you like these questions and want to use them that would be fine! (With me, at least. hokuton_punch might sue for mis-use of their bespoke questions ;))

1) What are your favorite parts of a drawing/other piece of art to work on?
2) Where would you go for a vacation/holiday if there were no financial or other considerations?
3) What are some of your favorite character types or traits?
4) What's the most recent video game you've completed?
5) Do you have a current favorite poem?

content note: the poem I quote contains child harm
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I was going to make this a health filter post but since there's nothing super private/TMI and I've been so quiet lately, I might as well make it public since no better update is likely to come up any time soon.

( Meds, mods, moods )