Mandatory Breaks
I'm currently taking another week off mainly because I have vacation days that I need to take (firstworldproblems). We're not really doing anything except bringing Alfie to parks or generally just being lazy at home. But it's a nice little break.
Halloween
Normally, I'm pretty into Halloween, but this year, I didn't even realize it was Halloween eve on Friday. I'm not sure if it's because I was pretty busy at work or if it was the pandemic. But on Halloween, we didn't dress up (like boring people), but put out a table with some candy spaced out on it. We'd routinely refill the table, which wasn't bad since my fear was that the first jerk would just take all our candy.
From our house, I saw that many of our neighbors were handing out candy normally and generally treating Halloween like a normal year. But when we walked Alfie, I did see that it looked like the many houses were having some sort of socially distanced trick or treat. So that made me feel (slightly) better for humanity.
Another positive, is that I felt like the costumes were much more diverse this year. Normally, I'd say most costumes are based on the latest movies and such. But I was positively surprised that many costumes were more creative and unique this year. Although I really can't think of an example right now =P
Election
I'm a Republican against Trump. So I voted third party this election (and four years ago). I also live in NJ so my vote really doesn't matter. But I obviously have been rooting for Biden, just because Trump is so offensively bad. So this election is actually pretty exciting, with ups and downs. Before the election, it seemed like Biden was going to win. Then on Election Night, it seemed like it was going to be tough for Biden. Now, it looks like it's going to be Biden. So it's kind of like a back and forth sporting event. So we'll see how it goes.
But it's kind of funny how this election is being reported as such amazing turnout and shows how America's democracy is great, but I think the estimated turnout will be something around 65%? That's still pretty sad. Just as a thought experiment, if 35% of people (non-voters) just voted for some random person, they'd win the election (35% v 50x65%~33% v ~33%). So even if you hate both candidates, just vote. They won't win; let's be real, but if the landscape contained something like 15% libertarian, 10% green, 5% etc, that'd definitely affect policy in the future. For example, say the Republicans lose and they see the Libertarians had a significant percentage, I'm sure they'd try to incorporate more of their policies in the future. And that would be the same case for other third parties.
Games
A positive of this break is that I've been playing more Bravely Default again. I definitely am very up and down with how much I play this game but overall, it's a very good game. It's just very long. I'm around 95 or so hours and I'm like chapter 3 or 4 out of 6. So hopefully it'll go a bit faster later on. But I'd definitely recommend it to fans of traditional RPGs, especially older Final Fantasy games.
I've also been very interested in Slay the Spire even since I read that it's a mix between a rogue-like game and a deck building game. I was thinking of just going and getting it, but I'll just add it to my wishlist since the holidays are close. I have tons of games to play anyway, so I really shouldn't just buy stuff on my own =P
Books
I finished The Three Body Problem and thought it was pretty compelling. I'm about halfway through it's sequel, The Dark Forest, which is significantly worse, but not terrible. Angie says the third and final book is better, so I'll work my way through the series. There was some talk about a space elevator in this series, which reminds me that I should read Fountains of Paradise and for some reason, I keep getting LOTRs articles on my feeds, which makes me want to read The Silmarillion again. I guess there's just way too many things to read!
Halloween
Normally, I'm pretty into Halloween, but this year, I didn't even realize it was Halloween eve on Friday. I'm not sure if it's because I was pretty busy at work or if it was the pandemic. But on Halloween, we didn't dress up (like boring people), but put out a table with some candy spaced out on it. We'd routinely refill the table, which wasn't bad since my fear was that the first jerk would just take all our candy.
From our house, I saw that many of our neighbors were handing out candy normally and generally treating Halloween like a normal year. But when we walked Alfie, I did see that it looked like the many houses were having some sort of socially distanced trick or treat. So that made me feel (slightly) better for humanity.
Another positive, is that I felt like the costumes were much more diverse this year. Normally, I'd say most costumes are based on the latest movies and such. But I was positively surprised that many costumes were more creative and unique this year. Although I really can't think of an example right now =P
Election
I'm a Republican against Trump. So I voted third party this election (and four years ago). I also live in NJ so my vote really doesn't matter. But I obviously have been rooting for Biden, just because Trump is so offensively bad. So this election is actually pretty exciting, with ups and downs. Before the election, it seemed like Biden was going to win. Then on Election Night, it seemed like it was going to be tough for Biden. Now, it looks like it's going to be Biden. So it's kind of like a back and forth sporting event. So we'll see how it goes.
But it's kind of funny how this election is being reported as such amazing turnout and shows how America's democracy is great, but I think the estimated turnout will be something around 65%? That's still pretty sad. Just as a thought experiment, if 35% of people (non-voters) just voted for some random person, they'd win the election (35% v 50x65%~33% v ~33%). So even if you hate both candidates, just vote. They won't win; let's be real, but if the landscape contained something like 15% libertarian, 10% green, 5% etc, that'd definitely affect policy in the future. For example, say the Republicans lose and they see the Libertarians had a significant percentage, I'm sure they'd try to incorporate more of their policies in the future. And that would be the same case for other third parties.
Games
A positive of this break is that I've been playing more Bravely Default again. I definitely am very up and down with how much I play this game but overall, it's a very good game. It's just very long. I'm around 95 or so hours and I'm like chapter 3 or 4 out of 6. So hopefully it'll go a bit faster later on. But I'd definitely recommend it to fans of traditional RPGs, especially older Final Fantasy games.
I've also been very interested in Slay the Spire even since I read that it's a mix between a rogue-like game and a deck building game. I was thinking of just going and getting it, but I'll just add it to my wishlist since the holidays are close. I have tons of games to play anyway, so I really shouldn't just buy stuff on my own =P
Books
I finished The Three Body Problem and thought it was pretty compelling. I'm about halfway through it's sequel, The Dark Forest, which is significantly worse, but not terrible. Angie says the third and final book is better, so I'll work my way through the series. There was some talk about a space elevator in this series, which reminds me that I should read Fountains of Paradise and for some reason, I keep getting LOTRs articles on my feeds, which makes me want to read The Silmarillion again. I guess there's just way too many things to read!