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Title: Arm Warmers
Date: March 24, 2024
Song Pick: "Fossil's Oasis" by LulzA and Level 99[0]

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  Tonight, I sit at my writing desk, with my MacBook plugged in while I do a
bit of gaming. The arm warmers I've started wearing make things a lot comfier
than I'm used to, but I /can/ definitely get used to it.

  Things have gotten a lot quieter since I stopped using social media. And by
quieter, I mean in my own head. I've not been having as many "worst case
scenario" thoughts going through there, and my anxiety has been steadily coming
under control again. That also has the boon of a vastly decreased IBS trigger
rate[^0], and better sleep. I'm actually waking up after about five hours now,
instead of every two hours.

  I've even made headway into my backlog of reading materials. About 35 short
stories and two books ("The Phantom Tollbooth" and a re-read of "A Furry Faux
Paw") got moved to the /Finished/ folder on my iPad, though I've got plenty
more to go. Currently fighting myself over whether I want to start Kat Cho's
"Wicked Fox", or start breaking into Sarah Sutton's "Love in Fenton County"
or "Most Likely To" series. Either way, I've been wanting to give YA romance
a legit try, at the least.[^1]

  I did make one change to my habits tonight, though. I switched from my usual
(old) Chrome + Netscape 9 combo for the web and gopher, to just using InterWeb
with some custom-built add-ons (including OverbiteFF)[1]. There's plenty of
compatibility with sites I use (I can even use GitHub when needed), and it's
UXP-based, so I can still make my own add-ons and themes and such if I want to.
Plus open source, blah blah blah... There's plenty of good things about this
for my needs.

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  On the other side of the equation, I get to deal with finally spraying things
to get rid of the bed bugs that've been haunting us for the last few months. We
found The Good Stuff(tm)[^2], and I've just had to wait until I can deal with
the incoming sleep loss once I spray both my futon and my PC chair, as I'll
need to let them air off after spraying before I can use them again. That'll
probably be tomorrow, since I can try and keep myself awake long enough to
sleep in the night for a bit before I do it.[^3]

  Still, it'll be nice to get rid of them again. I just hope my extended family
won't go for a fourpeat and bring them back... All three rounds have been due
to cousins and uncles visiting. It's all they need to spread, and that's scary.

  For now, I can get ready to relax again, and listen to some music while I go
through some Zelda 1 Randomizer seeds[^4],or probably just keep playing through
Pokémon TCG for a while longer.

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[^0]: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which had been making me ill for multiple 
      months thanks to the stress triggers it has for me.

[^1]: I follow both Sarah Mae Sutton and Kat Cho on YouTube, which is why I
      have some interest in their works. Young Adult romance isn't normally my
      thing, as I prefer fantasy, sci-fi, and sci-fantasy.

[^2]: "Alpine Bed Bug Spray", in a white can. Got it at the local farm co-op.

[^3]: I'm /very/ much a night owl, so flipping my schedule isn't something I
      really want to do all that often.

[^4]: I blame the Z1R races on the /SpeedGaming/ Twitch channels for getting me
      into playing them. They've been a lot of fun to watch.


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[0]: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02008

[1]: https://github.com/Jazzzny/basilisk55-snowleopard