Hello and happy belated 2021. Totally had this post sitting in my drafts and had forgotten to publish it in early January. Whoops. Here is a video compilation of clips from 2020. For obvious reasons, not a whole lot happened and the video as a whole turned into a complication of cat clip and socially distant hiking/walking places. Perhaps we will get to travel soon. Who knows!
Page 2 of 6
New Damn Computer Time
Specifically, it’s new damn computer time for both my husband and I. The last time I had upgraded my system, was with a new video card in 2014; Which, for the past couple of years, hasn’t mattered too much as most games that I have played are either on the iPad, console games, optimized old-system friendly Blizzard games (WoW, Overwatch, and friends), or indie titles that will run on literally anything with a screen.
Unsurprisingly, the game that we are building a PC for is Cyberpunk 2077. Unfortunately, literally everyone on the planet is also trying to build a computer for Cyberpunk 2077 with the exact same parts. We managed to snag one R5 5600x and one RTX 3070 for my husband’s computer, but mine will have to wait until more parts are in stock (his machine no longer boots, so his rig has priority). Until then, I am satisfied with being a console peasant and enjoying Cyberpunk from the comforts out our couch. This also gives me more time I guess to look into a decent KVM Switch to switch between my work machines and gaming machine.
Here is the build. Parts are subject to change depending on availability and when I actually build the damn thing. I haven’t 100% decided on the case that I want:
| Component | Current | New |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-2600 | AMD Ryzen R5 5600X |
| Motherboard | Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 ATX LGA1155 | MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk |
| Video Card | Radeon R9 280 | Nvidia RTX 3070 |
| Memory | Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 | 2x G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3600 |
| Storage | OS is on an SSD, data is on a large ass HDD | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB M2.-2280 SSD |
| PSU | Corsair 850W ATX12V | Corsair HXi 850W |
| Case | Antec P280 | Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C |
| Cooling | Cooler Master Hyper 212 | Noctua NH-U12S |
2020 Analog System
I figured that now would be a good time to post about the various notebooks that I have used this year and why they did or did not work for me.
Traveler’s Notebook Passport
My Traveler’s Notebook Passport setup hasn’t changed much since I had made this post. This notebook is used as my daily planner. I have 3 inserts: A weekly planner insert, a monthly planner insert, and a blank notebook. I had considered moving over to a TN regular or A5 sized planner, but the passport size really works for me because it is modular and is the perfect size for my bags and purses.
Traveler’s NoteBook Regular
This notebook is mostly a creative outlet. The layout is almost the same as I had posted, with the exception that the dot grid Notebook has been swapped out with a Baum-Kuchen GRID notebook. I like the idea of having a notebook dedicated to entries that are neatly penned with one of my fountain pens. I do take this notebook along when I travel as it is actually used as a traveler’s notebook. When I do so, I will only take one insert and the canvas organizer so that it is not overly thick. When in “travel mode” it fit perfectly into the sling that I use so long as I don’t have it overloaded with stuff.
Kokuhodo Black Notebook
This journal came in one of The Stationery Selection boxes last year. I really like matte black so naturally, I chose this as my journal for 2020. I really like the paper quality, but it is a little frustrating that this notebook doesn’t fold flat. This notebook started off as a fairly traditional journal and has turned into somewhat of a hybrid between a brain dump and a bullet journal. Basically, if I need to get something random off of my mind I’ll write in this notebook. If I feel like writing but can’t think of anything to write about because it was a boring day, I will just write about the cats or literally anything and everything that comes to mind.
At the beginning or end of the day I will try to write down literally every single thing that I need to do. Anything that doesn’t get done gets migrated over to the next day and so forth. I find that the physical act of writing something down helps me to remember and process things; That is why, despite being a very technology oriented person, I use an analog planner instead of my phone.
Random Drawings
Here are a few random out-of-context items that were quickly drawn on the iPad and then texted over to my husband for one reason or another. As you can all now see, I have posted not just once, but twice in the month of October. Yay!
You should all be aware that among certain peer groups, I am considered a damn traitor for being a Dodgers fan. No hate for any other team other than The Cheaters, it’s a family thing; If you scratch deep enough, we all bleed Dodger blue over here. Also, carne asada fries are the correct thing to eat while watching the World Series. No toilets were actually destroyed.
The Little Cat has a minor ouchie on one of her paws and is thus destined to wear a cone for the next couple of days. Whatever it is that happened to her paw thankfully does not seem to hurt, but irritates her just enough where she wants to picks at it so that it doesn’t heal. Naturally, no animal enjoys the cone so alas, she was sulk napping in a sunny spot in one of the cat trees this morning with her cone-laden head drooped down like a sad sad sunflower.
Here is an obligatory picture of Ms. Sad Sunflower herself. I would like to think that the Big Cat was following her around the house out of loving concern for her wellbeing, but I am pretty certain that was just either trying to satisfy his things licking fetish or well, be a cat.
Mt. Misen Hike
I found an app that makes neat videos and visualizations of hikes from GPS data. Here is a video of our hike up Mount Misen when we had visited Miyajima Island during our last visit to Japan.
I have been obsessively playing two games to fill the void between now and the time that Cyberpunk 2077 is released: No Man’s Sky and Hades.
September 2020 Things
The picture isn’t related to anything in this post. I made a salad for lunch today and it was really good so I took a picture of it. The tomatoes are from my parents’ garden.
September. Just when you start to think, “Hey the summer is almost over. We should start hitting Fall weather soon” you remember that you live in Southern California and that mid August/September is the beginning of our third season: Fire season (the other two seasons being kinda warm and kinda cold). Honestly though, it’s not really that bad so long as it is a dry heat. Lately however, we have been getting periods of fairly high humidity (or us, we’re desert folk out here) and that is quite unpleasant. Yay for hiding in the AC.
I don’t really have a whole lot that I feel like posting about, but it would be a shame to buck the trend of posting here once a month so. You know. Media that we have been consuming recently:
- The Boys season 2: Karl Urban is 🔥
- 約束のネバーランド (Promised Neverland): Decent anime, have been watching this series on Netflix. The problem that I have with watching anime, as someone who is learning Japanese but does not yet fluently understand Japanese is that I feel caught between wanting to read the subtitles to fully understand what I am watching and wanting to watch something without reading the subtitles to both practice listening and see how much I understand.
- Bill and Ted Face the Music: What an absolutely delightful movie lol. Exactly what I was looking for in Bill and Ted 3. Really fun.
- Mulan: My best recommendation would be to think of this film as a movie different from well, Disney’s Mulan. I enjoyed it, but it was average at best in my opinion. The chi magic thing basically replacing Mulan’s hard work and effort was a load of shit though.
I’ve jumped back on the fitness train after slothing out for about half of the quarantine period. We are big on walking and hiking and it kind of sucks when all of the places that you usually visit are either closed or unsafe. However, it is what it is. The general goal this month is to complete all of my Apple Watch rings Every day in September. At least 3 days a week have to be some form of fairly strenuous exercise. I used to run every day, but that gets really boring so I ended up getting Ring Fit Adventure for our Switch and alternating between that and running. Pretty fun game.
I would like to get back into biking more whenever a fire isn’t blowing out gross amounts of smoke into the air (thank goodness for air filters). “Smoke” isn’t supposed to be a weather condition. I mean, I guess we can just take the bikes somewhere not-gross and ride but we don’t have a bike rack yet so taking both bikes involves taking two cars which is a mild pain in the ass.
Bonus picture of the cats snuggling up against each other on the window blanket bed that we made them.
Petting the Big Cat
When his ears are in neutral, you can pretty much do whatever you want within reason: Scratch his belly, brush him, clip all the nails. He just doesn’t give a fuck, especially if his eyes are in sleepy mode or closed. So in reality, a more accurate chart would be a Cartesian graph with “Ear degree” one one axis and “Eye degree” on the other (“neutral sleepy eyes” being on the origin, “angry slant eyes” being at the end of the negative axis, “wide open eyes” being on the end of the positive access.” I just don’t feel like drawing that now.
The Little Cat only really has one mode: “I’m the Little Cat.” The rule of thumb in our household regarding cat needs and cat emotions is that the Big Cat makes faces and the Little Cat makes noises. The Little cat really only has one face that she makes and that face is:
I promise that this whole thing makes sense if you have met them.
My EDC
I made a post on my other blog 6+ years about my work EDC (Every Day Carry) and have been meaning to post an updated picture for while.
This isn’t my work bag though, this is my “I am leaving the house to do something on a weekend or after work” bag. Although unused for months because of Covid, I will take a picture of my work bag whenever I feel like sorting through and knolling out a mountain of cables and what not.
The Cat:
- This is Mr. Harvey. I swear that this isn’t a fabricated cat picture; He came over and plopped himself down against the wall while I was laying everything out on the carpet. He is not an actual part of my leave-the-house EDC, but he is apart of my work from home EDC.
The Bag:
- Aer Day Sling 2: I am partial to sling bags for day tripping because we walk a lot and I like bags that fit securely against my body without swinging around. I also like being able to access the contents of the bag without having to take it off. The downside of this bag is that it’s designed to only sit on one of your shoulders. Because of this however, the bag part sits parallel with the ground when I pull it around the front, making it generally easier to use in this position. I can also comfortablY ride my bike with it on my back.
Essentials:
- Watch: Apple Watch 3 with a random leather watch band that was purchased off of Amazon for like, $15. I wear the sports band most of the time though because it is more comfortable.
- Fossil Wallet: I like smaller men’s wallets because they fit in the front pocket of my chick jeans. If I go out for a short errand or to grab food at work, I don’t bring a bag, just wallet/keys/phone.
- Keys: The Totoro charm was a souvenir from Japan trip number 1 and the leather key strap is from the Traveler’s Factory from Japan trip number 2.
- Phone: iPhone 11 Pro with leather case.
- Prescription Sunglasses: I don’t wear contacts anymore because they dry out my eyes and transition lenses are hot garbage.
Everything Else:
- Coin Purse: Purchased this Traveler’s Factory as a souvenir to hold the mountain of loose change that we gather while traveling. It’s also useful for holding miscellaneous small items that I do not want to lose. I don’t use it much on a daily basis, I just haven’t taken it out of my bag. I think it still has around ¥100 worth of random coins in it.
- Hand Sanitizer: Because Covid
- Tissues: Allergies yo
- Mask: Purchased from Mystery Ranch. It’s quite comfortable and does not fog my glasses.
- Moist Towelette: Emergency hygiene wipe because at some point someone will need one.
- Hand Lotion: Costco sells an 8 pack of purse sized Crab Tree & Evelyn hand cream. It’s lightly scented and not greasy.
- Pen: Other people’s pens are gross. Also, there never seems to be a pen when you really need a pen.
- Bag of adhesive backed googly eyes: Reasons.
- Lip Balm: Dry lips sink ships.
- Emergency Tampon: Better to have and not need than to need and not have.
Aliens
This is what I did during my lunch break the other day instead of napping or playing games on my phone.
Sleeping Cats
I have decided that if I can’t think of anything else to draw, I am going to doodle comics about the cats on the iPad.
The big orange cat is huge. We have plenty of huge cat sized cat furniture and beds for him to sleep on but alas, he will almost always pick the smallest kitty bowl in the house, stuff his giant furry body into it, and tuck his head in so that he looks like a giant fur circle.
I am convinced that the black cat has some level of self-awareness in regards to her fur color as she seems to enjoy sleeping on like colored items. (Note to self: Check black surfaces before sitting down).