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!
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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 😂
