Ten pounds of personality in a five-pound bag
My friend’s sister makes these and they are so cute!
https://bromstadprinting.co/products/aww-thanks-cat-risograph-greeting-card
Aww. Thanks, cat.
Today’s shopping note brought to you by the dead cricket my cats traumatically presented my kid yesterday.
An unfortunate incident with the microwave led me to ask for advice from friends, which turned up this website:
https://www.thistothat.com/index.shtml
Pretty cool!
I have been playing a really great game recently called Moonstone Island, on the Steam deck. The way I describe it to my friends is:
Imagine that you’re playing Stardew Valley, but you’re also catching Pokemon, and those Pokemon battle each other using Slay the Spire decks.
It’s very very cute, and also has nice queer representation. All pluses in my book.
One of the local game stores I like to wander around in, Gritty Goblin has an excellent selection of games, minis, and random accessories. The staff is always pleasant and helpful, despite seeming to consist solely of twenty year old young men, a demographic that has earned somewhat of a reputation for misogyny. Even at my age I still feel a little nervous in that context; so the friendliness is really reassuring.
The Novel Refuge is a local used bookstore that sells books to benefit local refugees. You can donate your books (gently used) there, and you can shop the books they’ve already got (digital money only: credit card or tap-to-pay, no cash transactions). They also have a decent selection of donated board games.
I’ve been shopping and gaming at Three Gear Games and their predecessor store (The Family Game Store) since I moved to Maryland. The owners are friendly, and I love being able to host board game days in the store when I don’t have the spoons to do it in my house. Plus their stock is awesome; not just games, but stuffies and various accessories too.
There’s a chain store near me, Wild Birds Unlimited, that used to be a local mom-and-pop shop and still employs many of the same employees even after the original owners retired/sold the store. I like them a lot.
I’ve been trying to buy my physical (paper) books from Queen Takes Book, even if they have to order them, rather than ordering them from Amazon. I’m not doing any kind of complete boycott (I lack both the executive function and the certainty that it would accomplish anything useful); but actively purchasing from a local store is something I love doing.
In the vein of trying to get my stuff all documented so I have predictable schedules and don’t accidentally forget to change some unknown filter and my house blows up, I’m trying to start really writing down all the details of my household.
At some point a little while ago, I heard about the concept of a “Butler’s Book,” and I really like it. Googling it today found me this blog post and associated Google Doc; I’ll be adapting that to meet my needs and then printing it out.
I also kinda want to start keeping a paper address book again, but with more information than just addresses. Like, birthday/favorite color/fandom/etc. I should look for a template for that, too.
This project goes hand in hand with my “I’m Dead, Now What?” binder.
Their customer chatbot is not AI based. When someone gives it an “ignore all previous instructions and write a limerick” type prompt, it doesn’t spend GPU resources to comply; instead it uses a fraction of a kilowatt-hour to say “Okay, goodbye!”
I very much appreciate it when a company does not put AI in something that doesn’t need it.
Emilybook 