My diet growing up was trash. I ate sugary cereals or pop-tarts for breakfast, which shifted to ramen when I entered high school; sandwiches on white bread for lunch; and a whole slew of fatty dinners from over-cooked steak to fried chicken to boiled hot dogs to frozen pizzas and more. Oh, but let's not forget dessert. We kept a shelf in our pantry dedicated to fudge rounds and cosmic brownies and oatmeal cream pies, and we had boxes of Mt. Dew cans sitting on the floor. Tech

The imitation sun rises daily at 6:30, accompanied by humming wind chimes meant to stir you from slumber. Yet your eyes fluttered open sixty minutes before, when the artificial dawn first lifted night's curtain. You sigh that quintessential sigh of someone waking into lethargy for the fifth, sixth, eighth consecutive day. Turn away from the sunrise with its looming orange glow instead of reaching over to press the button that would see your room darken again. Fifty-four min

On March 13, 2024, my partner surprised me by ordering a pull-up bar for me to hook onto the top of the office door's frame. I'd been hem-hawing on whether to buy one immediately or wait until I could invest in the bench I wanted, so he made the decision for me. I didn't order resistance bands for another 2 and 1/2 months. What can I say? From computers to simple rice containers I fall into a research loop death trap that lasts weeks, sometimes months, all because I need to f

I have been listening to this piece on repeat since ~18:00 yesterday. I'll admit, the first time I listened to it, I thought it was alright but wasn't overly impressed. The buildup toward the end sounded muddied to me and removed me from the experience. However, shortly after that first listen through, I received a message from my father, which got me thinking about Teyr'loch Delter Pach and wondering how I'm going to up the ante for Cael's next (final?) performance. It can't

During 2020's lockdown period, I bought Gary Chapman's, "The Five Love Languages," on my Kindle to better understand how I myself feel most loved. Up until that point in my life, I never had a solid understanding of what it meant to truly feel or express "love." As a teenager, I had closed myself off to most others except for a very small circle of teachers, friends, and one or two family members, because I quickly learned that most of the people with whom I interacted feigne

(No blog post next week, seeing as how it's the 13th week.) Statblocks When I first downloaded Obsidian and began using the ITS Theme, I avoided one of the primary features that makes it a powerhouse for TTRPGs: the statblocks callout. First, many of its elements centered around D&D mechanics, which Daggerheart renders irrelevant, such as the Initiative and Death Saves. Second, the code block intimidated me: > [!statblocks] > ![Char Image|cover right circle htiny wtiny lp]()

You know how some people thrive(d) in school while others struggle(d)? I was one of the former. I graduated near the top of my class in high school and graduated Summa Cum Laude for my Bachelor's Degree. Post-graduation was where I struggled, suddenly finding myself standing amidst the collapsed walls where structure had once existed and not eager to rack up even more student debt by aiming for Master's or Doctorate degrees. Certainly, such pursuits would have given me the st

I currently have 41 plug-ins installed in Obsidian. We'll be lucky if I make it through this post without installing another. I can't help it. I get bored and start wondering, "What other cool plug-ins do people use? How can I optimize my setup further?" Then, within minutes, I find myself browsing articles or Reddit and installing new plug-ins to tinker with, which, to be fair, is a much better pastime than doom scrolling. You've seen the Theme already, but look! Look at how

Humble Beginnings Roughly 9 or 10 years ago, I played a session or two of D&D online with some people I knew. I couldn't tell you what edition, but I created a Warforged Wizard who was on an adventure to search for their creator, who had gone missing. Brand spankin' new to the concept of TTRPGs, and my giddy little nerd brain was thrilled at the idea of being able to cast magic. My giddy little nerd brain also could not grasp how to properly use magic. The descriptions were v

Forget the lemonade! The universe has enough derelict lemonade stands! *Tosses beverage over shoulder.* No, no, no, establish an entirely new delectable lemony lineup, like the layers of a tantalizing lemon mille-feuille that tingles every last taste bud with pleasurable little shivers. ASMR for the tongue. Better yet! Transmute those lemons into melons as an affront to karma's mockery and smear its pigment across the maker of your misery in boisterous remonstrance. To make s

Tuesday, May 5th, Evening: Two Days Before the Wipe 'I should back up my Obsidian Vault sometime just in case disaster strikes,' I thought as I deliberated integrating all 300 gigs of audio into my Vault. 'Should I integrate these files into the Vault first though? It'd make sense to keep everything together and not scattered to the four corners of the universe. They could also bolster the Transcript folders, keep the transcripts paired with the appropriate session. That'd be

Okayokayokay, think of a skill you've been building for a long time, perhaps across years or decades, a skill that you've taken for granted because learning it came easily or because you started with a natural talent that you've continued to develop, whatever the case may be. No, really. Play along with me for a moment before you read ahead! What's a skill you're genuinely proud of or have enjoyed practicing or have worked hard to better? Now, go back and find the earliest po

My Vault Graph as of April 29, 2026. I should take more progress screenshots in the future. The Vault My Vault has grown substantially since I started using Obsidian in early October 2025. I only ever intended it to house my Skies Over Aefala (SOA) work, but in late January I decided it was the best location for me to keep track of Fermi's, and eventually the Trio's, development as well. Then, in mid-March it struck me that I could write my blog posts for Fear No More direct

I love TTRPGs. Pathfinder 2e and then Daggerheart have been the vehicles through which my partner and I have been telling our Skies Over Aefala story. However, there's been a sneaky little tax that has kept us from playing consistently in recent months, an insurmountable hurdle that slams like a shutting gate on us when our energy is lowest. I call it the "setup tax." Used to, when we had a full group of players, I controlled Cael, and the two others controlled their charac

Okayokayokay, look at last week's time block scheduler. The Time Block Scheduler Boy, that was lookin' pretty sparse at the time of snapping the picture, wasn't it? Now look at the same page one week later. Isn't it gorgeous ? Taking the time to outline each block after I complete a task consequently encourages me to slow down , keeping one task from bleeding into the next and bleeding into the next until the day is a whitewash of busy-ness, and what did I do at 10 AM again

I have a confession to make. I didn't finish my Intelligent Change quarterly planner. I know! I know. What a waste, am I right? I meant to, I did, even though I wasn't the biggest fan of its constricted layout or its dated calendar or its forward-thinking approach, but life had other plans for me the last couple of weeks, and I decided to just...let the planner reflect the last two weeks through its emptiness. Poetic. Its rigidity kept it from breathing, and I like my structu

I meant to include this in last week's post, but it slipped my mind, and I dislike a lack of transparency and consistency. Being the end of the first quarter, this is my week off as a brief respite before the next set of weekly posts. So, I won't be sharing any accomplishments or exploring any topics. However, I'll still sign off with the obligatory cat pic, because who doesn't love a good cat pic? Cat yin-yang

...I literally just realized this at 13:00 today, Wednesday, March 18th that I can use Obsidian for my blog posts, and that it will work so much better than the method I'd been using: fetch an older blog post → copy-paste the repeating elements → type the post directly in the browser → risk technical difficulties requiring me to refresh the page and lose some progress, minor though it tends to be → edit the post in the browser → publish. I just need to create a Template that

I'm back, bay-bie~ Oh, you have no idea how good it feels to have returned to full capacity. Thursday of last week, the 5th, was the last day of the antibiotic ointment for my eye, hallelujah, but even before that I was experiencing a growing itch to bury myself in my projects, which I couldn't yet scratch. Staring at a screen for long periods of time with my good eye closed was painful, but I already had a plan, a plan that I had concocted Tuesday evening and was eager to i

There's something about using antibacterial eye ointment four times a day from waking to sleeping that takes a lot out of a person. The good news is that my eye is almost back to normal and would appear to be so if you looked at it in isolation. Compared to my right eye, it still has the slightest tinge of pink, but even that will probably fade in the next day or two. Funnily enough, on Sunday, I actually had the opportunity to lean into an echo of my pre-2026 routine. After