In My Write Mind

After starting to play The Witness back in March/April (see my prior blog post here ), I quickly lost momentum and let it fall to the wayside. But I hate not finishing things I start, and the long Memorial Day weekend afforded me the opportunity to pick it back up and see it through to completion. My plan started out with this kind of cheerful enthusiasm: ...But it ended kind of like this: Actual screenshot from the game. This guy looks like he hates his life choices. I feel you, bro. The Witness will do that to you... In my original review, I wasn't bored of the maze puzzles yet. Once you get upwards of about puzzle #300 though... they start to get really old, and there are diminishing returns on the " Aha! " feeling after each successful puzzle completion - especially when you compare it to the frustration each time you feel stumped (which becomes a more and more frequent occurrence). Toward the very end, the puzzles get nutso-crazy hard: You can't see it in this...

I got my COVID vaccine last week on Monday... my Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as a matter of fact. The very next day, use of all J&J vaccines was paused. Now manufacturing has been suspended, and the news is rife with drama (as always). There's two ways of looking at this: my vaccine timing was either perfect, or I have the worst timing in the world. I think it might be the former, and I'll explain why. I was on the fence about getting the vaccine at all. Vaccines absolutely have their uses, but this one felt rushed. All of the vaccines are unapproved; there is no FDA-approved vaccine to prevent COVID-19 right now, and  Moderna , Pfizer , and Johnson & Johnson are all being given under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). They haven't undergone the same type of review as other vaccines (yet). In other words, there is still an unknown factor here, and this is a hurried attempt to stop the COVID bleeding. I don't know how long the vaccine lasts. I can still get...

I watch far fewer films than most of my friends. Movies have always felt like an experience best shared with at least one other person. There's something special about coming together, bonding over food and drinks and art, and discussing what you both saw afterward. So when it comes down to the choice of watching a movie alone, or doing something else alone (like reading a book or playing a video game)... something else usually wins out, for me. Watching alone just isn't the same as watching with someone else. But we live in hard times. If everyone's collectively busy lives aren't keeping us apart, then the pandemic is. So every once in awhile, I convince myself to "take myself on a date" and appreciate the beauty of a movie by myself. This past weekend, that's exactly what I did. By Friday, I was exhausted (I can't ever quite seem to get enough sleep?), but I spontaneously decided to swing by my local Redbox on my way to pick up takeout. I told myself...

Sometimes, I still miss my dad. But it's not as simple as "I wish he was here." My dad was "never wrong," and therefore never apologized. He lacked empathy; whatever complaints you had, he'd had it worse. He skirted depth, and was skilled at keeping conversations surface-level. He exuded self-righteousness. He was particular, self-absorbed, argumentative, and not very relatable. Basically, he could be kind of a prick... especially to his family, the ones who loved him most. For the longest time after my dad passed, I remember being angry with God. Not for taking my dad. Oh no, that was kind of a relief, in a lot of ways. No... I was mad that my dad might never realize he was wrong. "He's no longer here, God... but does he get a chance to reflect on his life and see how much of a d*ck he was? Are you going to make him feel bad for all the pain he inflicted - on me, on my sister, on my mom? When I die someday, will he get a chance to tell me how sorry...

The office I work in has this unique ability to vary wildly in temperature from front to back, side to side, and room to room. One area can be in the balmy lower 80s while another is in the frigid upper 60s. The poor thermostat takes an average, gets 75 degrees, and calls it good. Meanwhile, my coworkers in the back are sweating and swear they're going to die of heat stroke, and I'm holding hot tea while wrapped in a blanket and insist that I'm starting to get frostbite. Every day is its own special mystery: "How miserable is everyone collectively going to be today?" The fluctuating spring temperature outside recently hasn't helped matters. After hours on Friday, my boss brought in a ladder and went around closing vents in order to (hopefully) push more cold air to the back where the heat seems to be more of an issue. I was excited to hear this before I left work, but forgot about it over the weekend. Imagine my surprise, then, when the A/C kicked on this mor...

Last year around this time, Sony/PlayStation launched the "Play At Home" initiative to give people something fun to do while they were staying home to help contain the spread of COVID. They offered two games for free to anyone who wanted to digitally download them: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey . Regrettably, I had already played all of these games (they're excellent!), so I had no need to partake in the initiative - but I truly appreciated Sony's generosity during that tumultuous time. A couple of weeks ago, I was casually scrolling through my Google newsfeed and was pleased to discover that Sony was bringing back the "Play At Home" program this year as well! Not only did they bring it back - they were also offering more games this time, and all games that I've never played. Two in particular caught my eye: Abzû and The Witness . I haven't had a chance to play  Abzû yet, but I started The Witness over the weekend, and I have some thoug...