Reading: Constituent Services by John Scalzi
The things I did Saturday instead of blogging: did laundry, played a video game, visited my parents, and did some craft assembly. I did think about writing a blog entry then I would think, “Just one more square/building..” and promptly forget about it.
Ordinarily laundry would not make the list of conscious things I did, however, my dryer stopped working two weeks ago. The heating element has literally burned out! Over an eight-hour period, I did three loads of clothes plus our bed quilt. The quilt got washed as a result of a damp dog having slept on it 😁 I use the “commercial break method” of doing laundry. This meant I jumped up every half hour or so paused my computer game, put clothes into either the washer or dryer, carried the dried clothes to my computer chair (or loveseat depending on where I am camped), added more water or more flavor to my emotional support tumbler, and folded clothes while playing my game. This method of productivity has served me very well from my teen years through college until now.
I am currently very into playing the computer game Banished. Not sure the backstory of the game; you build a village mostly from scratch depending on the level of difficulty you choose. This is an ideal game for me because I loved, loved The Sims 2. The only thing I miss is being able to name the villagers myself. I loved that aspect of the Sims franchise. I would and have been recommending this game to my computer gaming friends. I would classify the game as a resource management game – you have villagers which are farming/hunting/fishing to have enough food, villagers cutting trees to both build additional buildings and keep from freezing to death and building a variety of businesses to improve the villagers’ lives and expand your town. I had a bad harvest on year three of Saturday’s game and, despite four different restarts from a saved version, eleven villagers died of starvation! It was intense.
I played Banished on slow mode, in order to fold clothes and sew together squares for the afghan I am making for my oldest niece. The afghan is composed of 5 inch by 5 inch squares I have either crocheted or knitted. Then each square is given a crochet trim in the unifying color which bumps the block size to 6in. by 6in. It is intended to be eight squares wide and 10 squares in length to make a throw sized afghan. The strip of eight squares I sewed together on Saturday was the seventh horizontal row. As a result of this project, I have learned a new method for connecting crocheted squares and discovered at least four new knit patterns I enjoyed knitting. I can see the end in sight but I need to get a hustle on! I also have three baby blankets to crochet in the next couple of months and afghans for my other nieces and nephews. There will be pictures of each blanket and afghan once they are given to their intended recipient, I promise.