My fiancée and I attended a dinner party last weekend where we actually had an almost totally vegan dinner. It was SO GOOD but my favorite dish we had was "mac and shews," which is a vegan mac and cheese made with cashews. Y'ALL. You NEED to make this recipe immediately- it's so easy and you won't miss cheese at all. Insane. I said it was like magic with how good it tasted! Link to the official recipe website here.
Welcome to your wellness session. I will now read you some facts about your outie. These facts are not to be shared outside this room. Please try to enjoy all facts equally.
**No Spoilers**
If you haven't watched Severance yet, you HAVE to. Without getting into details so as not to spoil anything for anyone who has not yet seen season 2, I wanted to give my informal review of the series. The whole idea is that we follow Mark S, an employee at Lumon, where he has "the ultimate work-life balance" by undergoing a procedure called Severance, which inserts a chip into the person's brain and activates when they entered the "severed floor," leaving them with no memories of who they re on the outside, and vice versa, creating an "innie" version and an "outie" version. From the genius of all the music, to the set design, to the casting, this show is a total mindf*ck. It reminds me a bit of Lost when they discover the Dharma Initiative- it's an eerie combination of tech we don't have yet and the set looking like it is from the 60s or 70s. It's delightful. Tons of interesting commentary on what work-life balance really means. I know if any real-life company had this technology they'd absolutely be abusing it to it's fullest extent. Overall, just a super intersting show that I've allowed myself to get obsessed with.
The main draw of reality TV for me is twofold- the drama, and the fact that such shows make me feel better about myself as a human being. I love watching people put themselves in situations I would never willingly be a part of, and pretending I'm an expert on people I don't personally know. Well, here I am again- I can shamefully say I've watched 8 full seasons of this BS show and I still keep coming back for more. I'll be going over what I thought of each couple (with my admittedly very critical eye) and sharing my hot takes on everyone. Full disclosure these photos belong to Netflix, and all opinions belong to me.
Overall, I really had high hopes for this season, but honestly, by the end it was really disappointing.
Dave and Lauren
First red flag for me was that he goes by "Dave," honestly. The whole bit about "I'm around medical aesthetics and plastic surgery all day so I don't know what a real woman looks like" was so weird but I guess I could possibly understand. The whole "secret boyfriend" plotline was crazy, people have had entire partners when they've come on this show, and I hardly think what Lauren said about her FWB she had BEFORE she came on the show was the same. I could tell from the beginning they wouldn't work and I'm honestly glad for both of them they didn't. Dave was weird. Like, stop talking about what your sister thinks.
Mason and Meg
This was a pairing I thought was so crazy it just might work. Their love for conspiracy theories and the movie Her was interesting to say the least. Dude couldn't commit to one person which ended up being his downfall. He really seemed kind of like a dud to me. They walked in holding hands in one of the later episodes but ultimately decided to just stay friends.
Alex and Madison
Good lord, this pairing should be called "Run to Therapy." While I loved the Bearlien storyline (I even have one myself- shoutout to Build-A-Bear), it was extremely clear these two were never going to be compatible. The whole conversation on attachment styles was in my opinion what did them in. He got SUPER scared by her saying she was avoidant attached. To be clear this is a great thing to be aware of, but clearly you both need help to deal with the other style before getting into a relationship. We love a love triangle/square/polygon but this was another couple who was destined to crash and burn.
Monica and Joey
Okay, I was VERY DISAPPOINTED that these two didn't work out. Right from the beginning I had such high hopes for the two of them, they seemed like they matched each other's energies so well. Looking back from the wedding, it's clear now that Joey was not romantically interested in Monica. I started to be scared for them when Monica expressed he was not touchy-feely and how she needed that from him. The love languages thing can really be a big deal-breaker for some people. Monica's sister really pissed me off with her attitude as well, I thought she was extremely rude to Joey. I'm disappointed they didn't work out but I think they'd be better off being friends instead.
Sara and Ben
This pairing was one of the two that really touched on politics this season. Sara expressed in the pods that she has a sister who is gay and wanted to know if Ben was okay with that. This idea really colored the entirety of their on-screen relationship after that. It was ABUNDANTLY clear through Sara's questioning about this that Ben's views made her uncomfortable, even though he said he was supportive. I can understand it from both of their perspectives in this case- he's trying his best to not be like other major religions who are not welcoming to the LGBTQ community, and she was needing reassurance that his faith would never be a problem for her and her sister. The scene where she attended a church service with him told me everything I needed to know, homegirl looked SO uncomfy the entire time. I do not blame her at all. When you have been hurt by religion, it's very difficult for you to trust in that kind of institution again. With religious views being one of the top reasons couples break up or divorce, it was no surprise to me that Sara said no at the altar. I felt sorry for Ben, he seemed like he was kind of willing to put in the effort. I'll admit I did not look further into the whole "some girl I knew from before made a TikTok saying I was a shitty man" so maybe I have a biased opinion of him. Overall, smart choice not getting married.
DDevin and Virginia
Ohhhhh boy. This one was interesting. This was the second couple who touched on politics over the course of the show. From the get-go I could tell Devin was immature. Virginia was so far out of his league it wasn't even funny. When we meet Devin's family it becomes very clear why he's immature. He's basically mommy's special little boy, which was real uncomfortable for me, especially watching the whole prenup storyline. This is my opinion entrely, but EVERYONE has a prenup before they get married, either you write it or the government writes it. It's just smart to have documentation in order before you get married. The whole thing about his family freaking out about the prenup was super uncomfortable, because it was so super clear that Virginia had zero ill intent, she was trying to ensure everyone would walk away with exactly what they came with should the worst happen, which is totally how it should be. Like, nobody (well, some people do) writes a will with the intention of dying immediately, a prenup is the same thing to me. It's really protection from the government telling you what happens to your assets upon possible divorce. Oh well, I know people feel some type of way about this, which is fine. It was so cringe how Devin said he had his mom look over the prenup (and also the family lawyer) and only THEN did he understand and agree. Ugh! Also, the conversation about politics with him and Virgina was so telling. He grew up in a conservative household, and "doesn't have any real opinions" on politics one way or the other, which reeks of privilige. I read a great Time article on how politics colored this season, and I think the quote that was most telling was this: "It’s one thing to be undereducated or repulsed by the nuances of our complex (and broken) two-party system, but to actively avoid information on the biggest social issues (AKA human rights) so that you can pretend everything is chill, like it’s a cleaning reminder from your dentist, is the literal definition of privilege. This entire season is proof that women are constantly doing the work." IT IS SO TRUE.
At the altar, Virgina said no to Devin, and he was totally blindsided, with his mom making some kind of statement like "what's with these girls," implying her special little guy is not a factor in why he can't get a woman. Cringe!
Taylor and Daniel
I don't have a ton of super strong feelings about these two. Like, she thought he had followed her before on Instagram, it turns out he didn't (so that plot point was a big nothing burger), they both like Christmas, she has kind of a scary mom who was ready to fight because she wasn't involved in the engagement and doesn't have full control over her adult daughter. They both seem nice enough, if not a little more low-key. I'm glad at least ONE COUPLE worked out this season, and I will say Daniel getting a tattoo of Taylor's eyes on his chest is badass.
Final Thoughts
This season was a flop for me. I truly expected to have more couples get married, and not have such loser-y men. There's a huge maturity problem with the men they bring on the show, but I guess that makes for good tv, and we wouldn't be here if it wasn't good reality tv. We can successfully say ONCE AGAIN that love is not blind.
Well, Rusty had quite the ordeal yesterday! We started noticing his appetite decreasing and vomiting occuring this month. It really ramped up in frequency just in the last week, and two nights ago he had diarrhea, and vomited eight times. Poor baby! We called the vet right away who advised us to drop him off the next morning. He was not happy to be at the vet, they had to administer gabapentin so he would be cooperative for the exam. They noticed his abdomen was a little painful as he was tensing/guarding a bit, so they did x-rays. When I called for an update during the day I was very nervous to hear they did x-rays, I was hoping they wouldn't find anything bad.
The vet called later to give us the full picture- there was no evidence of blockage or anything severely wrong with his GI tract or internal organs, and his bloodwork is perfect. She said he got started off on a "gastroenteritis journey" with these new joint supplement treats we had been giving him. 
He had lots of gas in his little intestines 
and also hypermotility, meaning his digestive system was moving too quickly, causing the diarrhea. He received an anti-nausea injection and subcutaneous fluids, plus medicine to take home. They also let us know his knees seemed "pretty ouchy" on the x-ray, indicating arthritis, which is pretty much inevitable for older cats. You can really see the bone-on-bone action going on in his knees. We decided to jump right in and get his first injection of Solensia last night while we were there! 
It's a newer drug made for cats with OA that targets and neutralizes nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein that stimulates pain in cats with arthritis. We're so excited for his joints to feel better! We got to bring him home after his big ordeal, he was very happy for us to bust him out of there! So purry! He was real zonked on the gabapentin still when we got home, but he was hungry and thirsty, so he ate and drank a lot and walked around a bit before settling into his heated bed, where I put on some cat tv for him. He's feeling much much better and will continue to feel better with rest over the coming days! Thank you so much to everyone who wished him well!
His little insides! Gassy 
Little ouchy knees!
Rescued!
Resting and recovering at home
Playing: Pokémon TCGP
I've been playing the new TCG app since it was released and I'm pretty happy with it! The battling is fun even though it turns out I'm terrible at it and there's a few really OP cards that people spam. But the collecting aspect is pretty fun, it's fun to "open" your packs every day. Here's some of the neat cardds I've pulled from this newest release of Space-Time Smackdown.
Listening: Drum and Bass Mixes on Youtube
This kind of music has definitely been helping me focus on work lately- I'm someone who can't listen to music that I'm even really familiar with because I'll start singing along in my head and it's distracting. The mixes that I've highlighted in Rusty's Picks are just fresh enough to keep me focused!
Reading: The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell
I've been enjoying this book as I've casually read it. It's essentially about cognitive biases that are rampant in our society, like those that come into play in celebrity worship, for example. It's interesting and I think a good commentary on how our animal lizard brains interact with the media and the frenzy that is modern day society in the internet age.
Drinking: Iced Coffee
This is self-explanatory. I make my own iced coffee at home because it's cheaper and I like to be able to control the taste. I make my own creamer with half and half and condensed milk, I highly recommend!
Watching: Financial Audit on Youtube
If you're into personal finance and/or reality tv, this is the series for you. Caleb has his flaws but I think he's a lot more relatable for today's society over Dave Ramsey. His show has kind of devolved into reality tv content almost but if you're not there strictly to learn about money, you'll have a good time. Videos drop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!
Feeling: Ready for a Day Off
Yup.
Learning: Software Engineering, Theory of Computability
These are my two classes I'm taking this semester, I've actualy been really enjoying them so far. Theory of Computability is kind of heady but it's interesting. Software Engingeering has us getting into C# a little. I've never used DotNET before but it's been nice to learn!
Inspired By: Creativity and Passion
In times like these where we're living through a turbulent political landscape, it's important to purposely seek out things to be inspired by. Right now I'm inspired by people's ability to create art and beautiful things!
Rusty's Mood: Sleepy
Happy 2 5 2 5!! Here's a page from my Strange Planet calendar I wanted to share.
Rusty's belly is always some degree of bald and always has been, but his vet wanted to try and assess if he has food allergies and if that was the reason for his baldness. So for the past 9ish weeks Rusty has exclusively been eating a special kind of food. It is a "hydrolyzed protein" diet which means the proteins in the food have been broken down to a point where they are not recognizable by the cat's immune system, so theoretically they should not have an allergy to it. All has been well since he likes eating the food and his hair has been growing back on his belly!
However, last week, my fiancée said "....does Rusty seem a little fatter to you?" I literally laughed it off. But then I looked closer and he certainly seemed more... round. Before he was on this special diet, he was getting wet food, which he liked well enough, but would almost NEVER eat all of it. There would always be some amount of food we would toss out every day. With this hydrolyzed food, he LOVES IT and has been eating every little piece of it, so that's why he's been gaining weight.😆 Additionally, I think he's been burping because he's gobbling up his food so quickly. We ended up emailing his vet who recommended a slow feeder and said, and I quote, "I LOVE slow feeders for kitties, especially the big boys who love their food," which is the funniest thing in the world to me right now. We ordered him a couple slow feeder bowls, which you can see the results of below.🤭 This plus adjusting the amount he's getting should help him shed the extra poundage!
It's time for another installment of my Kingdom Hearts playthrough. I've never played any of the games before and I know they have a huge cult following. I'm also not a person that's played RPGs before, as I mostly played things like Nintendogs and Super Mario and Rollercoaster Tycoon growing up. So keep that in mind. 😂
In Wonderland, the Queen is basically looking to behead Alice, who insists she is innocent. Of course, our trusty heros go and try to help her out. You basically go on a puzzle-esque journey through the world to find pieces of evidence to prove she is innocent, while the Cheshire Cat says weird and cryptic things and is generally not helpful. After bringing your evidence to the Queen, she is still mad and decided to attack you anyway (shocker). You have to fight her card soldiers and also a tower that pops up (I really still do not understand why I fought a tower). After you win, it turns out Alice was kidnapped by the Heartless according to the Cheshire Cat, so you're left wondering exactly what the point of all that was.
After this I headed to Olympus Coleseum, which is about essentialy proving yourself worthy to be a hero according to Danny DeVito- I mean, Phil. You have to bust up these damn barrels as "trials" to prove yourself first, which was infuriating. Listen, as someone who is not used to the layout of the buttons on a Playstation controller, this was hard. After my fiancée helped me, I mean, after I totally won on the first try, it is revealed that Cloud (who is super Emo) is secretly working for Hades, and you have to fight him. You get absolutely obliterated by Sonic Blade over and over, but when you beat him, you also get the ability. After this, you fight Cerberus, who basically just continuously vomits dark wormholes at you until defeated.
Emo boy
Overall, I'm enjoyng the game, and my fiancée is enjoying me raging at parts of it, even though I'm on easy mode. Stay tuned for more!
Well, it's time for another social media detox. I don't want to talk about politics on here because I need to keep this site a place to actively get away from mainstream media and news and politics but... yeah. Since the Cheeto is back (an insult to Cheetos, really) the insanity that is any type of major news/social media site has been way too much for me to handle mentally. I'm at the point where I just simply cannot think about and care about everything at once, especially news headlines that I know are inflammatory because that's how they reel you in. I think literally everyone needs to get a grip. It would be so great if we would all just collectively take a gigantic deep breath. Also, yes they did that, yes they said that, yes this is really happening, no this will not consume us, yes we will still have hope, yes we will work towards positive change. I just want to get off the ride for a bit please! I am going to focus on learning new things, reading good books, crafting, finding joy, finding magic, finding comfort in every day things, and making art!
I am SO TIRED of connecting, thinking, having opinions on, working, understanding, experiencing, being mindful of, checking myself, being part of, making an effort, going the extra mile, being plugged in, optimizing, correcting, feeling, emoting, aligning with social norms, being interested in, staying up to date on, being informed, logging in, swiping, daily grinding, being perceived, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
I for real do not want to have opinions on things, I'm too TIRED. I don't want to have to think about the nuances of literally ANYTHING, I just want to have no thoughts, head empty. I'm so exhausted of thinking all the time bro. Yes I am a human on this spinning rock and We Live In A Society, but can we all just NOT sometimes??? I think we all just need to return to eating berries in a cave and our only thoughts are rock, food, grass, person. I do not want to experience everything through a damn screen anymore but I also don't want to return to a time where it was terrible for women and literally every minority group. Solution, I think we all need to collectively scream and then just turn into cats???
Edit (based on a comment I got): Let's go back to the primordial soup!!!!1!!!
Rusty wanted to share some of his activities during the first couple weeks of 2025!
Roasting in his heated bed like a dumpling with his Lambchop toy.
Having yummy food and treats.
Sleeping again.
Having a vintage-style pushpin ornament made of him!
Gigantic trucks are dumb. I watched a video from the channel 'Not Just Bikes' this morning about why there's so many oversized trucks on the roads today. I highly recommend watching! Basically at some point, car manufacturers in the US decided they wanted to get around emissions and fuel efficiency regulations (Google CAFE standards) by making giant vehicles that are classified as 'light trucks' and not cars, which would be susceptible to such regulations. So they essentially convinced Americans that they needed these gigantic trucks to haul more stuff and to look cool, even though they quite literally do not have more space (in fact they have LESS space) and do not look cool. They're also big death machines. There's an 'arms race' in vehicle size where people want to be the largest vehicle on the road because they think that's more safe than the alternative. However, there are now MORE pedestrian deaths due to big pickups now than there were in the 90s! This is due a lot to the fact that you simply cannot see over the massive hoods of the cars- they show in the video they put 14 kids in front of one of these trucks and you couldn't see even one of them. The truck manufacturers responded by putting 'proximity sensors' on some models of vehicles which just doesn't work the same as actually I don't know, being able to SEE. Drivers of these vehicles are also more ikely to speed.
Watch this video and become a truck hater like me if you aren't already!
In:
Out:
My fiancée and I have gotten into emulating old games recently! I would highly recommend downloading Delta on the App Store for some high quality emulation for the DS, GBA, GBC, etc. My fiancée was able to get some games on her old PS Vita, which has been super cool. I wanted to talk here about a couple lesser-known dog-related games I was obsessed with as a kid that are not Nintendogs or Dogz on the PC (those deserve their own posts). These are both Game Boy Advance games that I played on the Nintendo DS back then but can both be emulated now.
The first game I want to discuss is called Pocket Dogs, from 2005.
Pocket Dogs lets you interact with a dog of your choice, being able to choose from 8 different breeds. The dog is 'animated' through different still photos, which you end up collecting in a photo album.
You interact with your dog through pre-written dialogue, and you can ask for your fortune!
You can play 3 different minigames to earn jewels, which you can use to buy decorations for your dog's home, or 'trip tickets,' where your dog travels to a cute scene like fireworks or a rainbow.
Overall, this game has a lot of replay value, but it's a very short game. In my opinion, it needs more to do, like more minigames. I always enjoyed the cute dialogue from the dog!
Rating: 5/10
The second game is Dogz 2, from 2007.
In this game, you play as a child who is getting their first puppy. You start off by taking a quiz on what preferences you have for a dog, like size, gender, and energy level, although this doesn't really matter from personal experience because you can get pretty much any dog you want. You go to the pet shop with your parents to pick out a puppy. The nice thing is that if you don't see the dog you want, you can keep going back and forth between the two shops until you find exactly the kind you want (you can spend a lot of time on this part haha). You are instructed to start out by taking care of your puppy for 4 weeks.
You build friendship with your puppy by training it, feeding it, and grooming. Eventually you are able to go on walks around town and meet other people and dogs.
This game also has very high replay value, and there are a lot more activities to do in this one as opposed to Pocket Dogs. Overall, I have defintely spent more time on this game just because of that fact, but they are both equally adorable and entertaining.
Rating: 6.5/10
Overall, I highly recommend checking both these games out on your favorite emulator!
Happy New Year's Eve! I hope 2024 has been good to everyone. 2024 was a good year for me personally, save for some issues that came from medication changes. It was really a fun year, my fiancée and I got to do a lot of fun things, including becoming fiancées! Rusty had a good year in terms of his health, and I think he's been really happy. He even made it through an apartment renovation with us without being too traumatized. I think a major goal of mine in 2025 is going to be to interact less with the mainstream net in general. A huge portion of the beginning of my adulthood has been defined by what I'd call an addiction to the internet and the news. I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible for me to interact with inflammatory news headlines in any way, otherwise I get into this spiral of doomscrolling and it's very hard to break out of. When literally the entire world is in the very palm of your hand it's hard for your brain to cope with that, I think. It's a fine line between being informed of news that ACTUALLY matters and just fueing anxiety and hopelessness unnecessarily. I'm sure a lot in this community can relate! I'm sick of being so connected all the time in a way that feels unhealthy. Social media has created a culture of hyper-individualism that's felt really damaging to a lot of communities and social groups. I'd like the next 25 years to change that. Let's make 2025 connected in ways that actually matter!
My fiancée and I started playing the original Kingdom Hearts from the PS2! I have never played it before, but she has. I enjoy the game mechanics, the music, and the story so far, it seems like a game that's going to be not overly frustrating for me to play (unlike Undertale which makes me want to jump out a window). We only just started last night but I already have some thoughts. I was very much under the impression that these chldren were marooned on a deserted tropical island just on their own. Come to find out their parents are there too? But we don't see them or hear from them except when Sora's mom randomly calls him down for dinner in what looks like the middle of the night. That was news to me that they're apparently living in a fully functional society on an island. More to come as we play through!
I wanted to show everyone Rusty's haul for Christmas this year. Santa Paws was very good to him!
He firstly received a litle Lambchop toy in his tiny stocking! He LOVED it and was grooming it like a kitten!
Mad in the Santa hat lol
He also got this adorable llama scratcher. He loves his scratching posts so Santa thought this would be interesting for him!
A 'space blanket' aka an emergency blanket to layer under fluffy ones to reflect his body heat!
He also got lots of different cat toys that he loves, like crinkle balls and mice! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
Welcome everyone to my first blog post! If anyone bothers to read this, I'd like to speak on one of the best beverages, Diet Coke. Specifically canned. It cannot be in a plastic bottle, it's just not as good. You'll notice that the cursor on your screen is in the likeness of this beverage. Now, I'm NOT referring to Coke Zero, or any other variety of Coke product. Again, just not as good. In my humble opinion, the best way to enjoy a nice Diet Coke is either in a glass with lots of ice and a lime, or alternatively, in the can that's been at least refrigerated overnight, PLUS put in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. The cans I'm currently going through have Santa on them which I think makes it more crisp. I may speak on Diet Dr. Pepper in the future 😂
