7/25/25, Planets in the Ocean at Tim's Tavern

Fun night at Tim's last night. Left the house around 5:55 for a 6:30 arrival time and pretty much arrived right on time. Best part of these early arrivals is the ample parking. I was backlining my amp for the other two bands, Full Life Crisis and the Riffbrokers, so I wanted to be there early enough. I brought the Orange and the 212, as well as the butter P and the SB2 as a backup.

Robb and Cass showed up shortly and we had a good time chopping it up, getting caught up on the past couple weeks. Cass's son Beckett broke his leg in San Diego last week playing soccer, so that was good to get caught up on. He's gonna be rehabbing and recovering for the next several months but should be OK.

I got to chat with Brian and Tom from Full Life Crisis for a bit, then with Heather and Nick of the Riffbrokers. I've played shows with them for the past 20 years or so. We aren't close necessarily, but we are always friendly when we see each other at shows. Great to get caught up with them, albeit briefly.

Last time we played Tim's, the stage was outdoors, but evidently some adjacent businesses have been less then neighborly when it came to the outdoor music after 10pm. They would complain and raised enough of a stink to force Tim's to move the stage indoors, where the sound could be better controlled. They took out half of their dining room and reconfigured the layout of the entire property to support it and it was actually really cool. They included a green room this time around!

Tim's Tavern: Together In Music!

New stage setup

The new green room

After some pre-game chit chat, Full Life Crisis took the stage. With 2/3rds of the band made up of 1/2 of the Rallies (Lee on drums, Brian on guitar), they hit the ground running. Tom on bass played a beautiful Rickenbacker and held it down quite admirably. He played with a pick and sang leads on some songs. All three of the guys sang great together and they had a nice solid set. Lee is great at laying down a beat and Brian is a nice guitarist, he plays great leads and solos. Overall, very well done!

Full Life Crisis

Before they started, I was surprised by my friend Chelsea, her husband, Brendan, and their friends, Breann and July (pronounced Julie). I've known Chelsea through work and I used to work with Brendan as well. They are huge music fans and I was really happy to see them and have some new friends to meet as well.

Friends new and old

After a quick set change, we started off. It was business as usual, but due to a conflict (had to pick Marci up at the airport) we bailed on practice the night before. As I started "Unraveled" with the band, I had that horrible realization that maybe we shouldn't have skipped. I missed notes, I felt out of sorts. It took about 3-4 songs before I felt better. I think part of it was also the monitors. Though the new Tim's setup is great, I couldn't hear much beyond Robb's vocals and guitar. I was right next to my amp so the bass sounded weird and I was futzing around with it all night. I had a camera set up on a nearby table and though my backing vox were loud in the mains, I was pitchy all over. Ugh. Overall, though, as they say, I am my worst critic, so I have to look at it through the crowd's eyes.

As far as the bass is concerned, I played the yellow P and maybe it's been too long since I've played it. The past several shows I've played the gold L1K and I figured I'd hit up the P. Something about the action I think was also throwing me off. The action is super low and picking at the strings, I kept missing notes and generally being uncomfortable. Or maybe I should've practiced the songs once or twice this week.

Anyway, all three of us slogged through mistakes and errors. There were stick drops, there were missed choruses, it was pretty funny. But on video, we looked and sounded good, so there's that. Our little fanclub at the table was vocal and gave us great energy. The people overall were quite enthusiastic, despite our self-inflicted wounds. Here's a screen capture of the video.

Nice bright stage at Tim's!

After us were the Riffbrokers. Married folks, Nick and Heather, have been in the Seattle music scene for decades and their obvious familiarity and comfort comes through beautifully. Nick has this low-key clever stage banter, and Heather plays great bass lines and adds so much with her pretty backing vocals. It was her first time playing this Guild bass, which belongs to her pal Scott Sutherland.

The Riffbrokers

During the RBs set, Nick kept shouting me out, going on about "GWON CHANG" this and "GWON CHANG" that. It was pretty funny. I think he realized that Robb was Robb Benson and he was amazed at how young he looked (Robb and Cass's band, Dear John Letters, had played with the RBs a lot in the past). Nick also called out the Lund Bros, since we played with them a lot in the '10s.

After the show, it was high-fives and hugs all around. I sat with the table and chatted via text and shouting in ears, enjoying the Riffbrokers and the company. It was great catching up with Chelsea and her hubs, hanging with Cass and Robb and talking with the other bands.

Brian from FLC came up and mentioned that he had played with the Lunds at the Skylark but I thought I wasn't in the band by then. However... after checking my info today, it turns out we did play together in 2010. Pretty cool stuff, just no recording of that one, other than a quick blog entry up in here somewhere.

Packed it up after that, drove home and in bed. The 4 gigs in July are over! Up next, 8/16 in Everett with the Sunset Grooves. Stay tuned.

7/19/25, Sunset Grooves at Lisa's 45th birthday party

This party popped up fairly recently, like within the last month or so. A woman wanted us to play her party, having found us on Gigsalad or something that we post on. She wanted 70s and disco but after seeing our set list, she decided to give us a try. All we knew was that she lived in a huge house and the party would be in her backyard.

Lucky for me, it was a rare local gig, being only 6 miles or so from home. I made the 15-minute drive and got there first. After doing some Zillow snooping earlier in the week, we saw that the client's house was valued at $6 million, after having purchased it for $3 million a few years earlier. Not a bad increase, I suppose! It definitely was very nice, with a nice sized yard, but not my style, who cares?

I brought the same gear as the night before, Goldie and the Hog, same pedal, all of it but wardrobe. As this was a disco themed party and I don't have any disco gear, I brought my flamingo suit and would play it by ear. Lisa showed me to our "green room," which was their guest bedroom with en suite and we were ready to get ready.

Back of the house, view from the "stage"

The rest of the crew showed up and we did the thankless job of loading our gear again. Luckily, they had a cart and a relatively direct way to the backyard that wasn't too obnoxious. We were told they had a food truck on the way and to me, that was the most exciting part of the night. And the weather, it was perfect, definitely less cool than the night before.

We had Isku, the sound guy who ran our show at the Central last week, and he was great. Personable, super helpful in all ways (setup, sound, teardown) and wasn't weird about anything. We'll be using him again.

Setup was fine, we had a quick soundcheck. My main issue with where we were staged was the uneven lawn. I mean, I could stand fine, but it was a little lumpy in spots; it just made it awkward at times. Not a big deal. IEMs were the MVP again, as the mix was untouched from the night before. We really should bring our rig with us. It makes it so much easier and more efficient.

Still getting ready.

Following setup, it was time to get some grub. The food truck was there and we were helped by a wonderful order taker. No picture of her, but she was super kind and friendly. I ordered the quesabirria plate and vowed to return for churros after our first set.

Thank you Isidiro's!

Eric with the burrito stank face.

Dinner conquered, it was onto getting dressed and then on with the show. The set was a three-pager, pretty daunting. My fingers were still a little tender from the night before, but what are you gonna do?

Fortunately for us, we didn't do them all. We were a little concerned going in as the party was disco themed, even with the words "DISCO FEVER" spelled out in huge letters on the lawn. We are not a disco band and though we did a few, we were left to present the songs we know. That being said, this truly was more of us simply being background noise as the partygoers were just on the lawn talking, drinking and partying. We never had more than 2-3 dancers at a time and for the second time (the first time being last night), we had people from the crowd join us to sing some songs. Both nights, it was "My Life." At Sand Point, the guy was pretty good, could keep a melody at least. Last night, it was more comedic; no melodies were kept but the effort and energy was an A+. Highly entertaining.

DISCO FEVER

Earlier in the party, guest of honor on the right

It was a long night. Being pretty close to the lake, any of our bags and cases on the grass were a little damp by load out time. No lighting made it awkward too. Everyone not in the band was pretty well toasted. I was walking into the house and I hear someone say, "Steve Aoki." I looked over at a woman who then says, "You look just like Steve Aoki... That's a cool thing, he's awesome." I wasn't sure how to react. I'm not one to get offended, and I her intent wasn't to offend, but it was just weird. Plus, I'm not that great with small talk in a party situation. My bro came by and he talked to her, so I bounced.

Sound-wise, I watched a video back of what we did. Instrumentally, Isku had us dialed pretty good. Vocally, I was really down in the mix. I like to hear how I do overall, good or bad, but it seemed pretty quiet to me. From what I could hear at nearly 1AM after I got home, it was ok. I'm putting it on the PC now to take a closer look and listen.

In the meantime, it was a fun and busy weekend. I hope to be +$800 in my band bank account in the next few days as a result. I love to play, but man, by the end of last night, I was feeling it for sure. Jen did a great job with the limited energy she was getting back from the crowd. She's gotten great at clever segue ways and putting herself out there with her wireless mic. Eric was on night 3 in a row of shows, he had his Dream Commander thing on Thursday night, so he definitely was feeling it. Dennis busted out the slide guitar whilst Dusty sang and played acoustic on a couple songs. Eric moved to drums for those as well. I just wanted to play and sing well and I think I generally accomplished it, as long as the crowd was as inattentive as they were.

The flamingo suit strikes again!

Overall, I'll take it! Next up, Planets at Tim's Tavern on Friday!

7/18/25, Sunset Grooves at Sand Point Country Club

Night 1 of a double header of private parties. We played the Sand Point Country Club a couple summers ago and it was a great time. Beautiful views, awesome weather, energetic crowd, delicious food and a good payday. Last night, it was much of the same, except a little cooler and breezier than expected.

There are better views, but here's what I got.

Traffic took a bit, but once I got there, I loaded in and started helping get set up. That's the worst part of these private parties, setting up the PA, lighting, mics, etc. My actual bass setup takes just a minute or two. At least I don't play drums and own the gear, so I'll gladly do what I can to help.

Partly setup.

Buddha was running sound again, dressed all in black and full of name-dropping stories. It's endearing and long-winded all at the same time. At least he makes us sound good! We got setup and grabbed some grub from the buffet line. We were originally told they'd make to-go boxes for us and deliver to us... right at downbeat. That wasn't gonna work, so we bum rushed the line (there wasn't one) and got to dining. As with last time, the food was very good and I shoulda grabbed more.

I think it's tenderloin, coconut shrimp. tuna poke and rice, pulled pork, pineapple and strawberries and some dessert bits. Very very good!

We got dressed after dinner and got to work. We were going to do an 11-song first set and then a quick break, but decided to play it by ear: if the crowd was jumpin' we were gonna keep going. Starting off, we had one dancer at the opener, which was encouraging. It continued with a few ladies up front for the first few songs, and then more people started coming up. At the set break, we decided to keep going for a few more songs, before taking a break after song 17.

The thing about playing these long sets is that after what feels like a normal set (10-12 songs), I look down and see that, nope, there are 20 songs left! It's pretty crazy. We took a quick break and then jumped back in with "The Tide is High." Dusty does a cool drum intro that reminds me of the drum break in "Everybody Wants Some" by Van Halen. It's pretty fun.

Me and Dusty

The sun started going down during this set, more and more people danced, and the wind started picking up. I got a little chilly, even my fingers getting cold. Earlier in the week, we were in the mid-90s, with the weather cooling a bit on Thursday, and then into yesterday. I at least had pants and a shirt on; some of the ladies were wearing strapless dresses or sundresses. Jen wore short shorts, so she might have been cool as well. But we are pros, are we not?

The rest of the set was pretty uneventful. I had both L1Ks in attendance, playing Goldie the whole time. There's slapping in "Somebody's Baby" and "Peg" and the Hog's thumbrest just gets in the way. Plus I have the de-tuner on Goldie and I like to do the drop-D in "Africa" and also "What a Fool Believes." We play both those songs down a step, so if it was standard tuning, I'd be OK since those Ds would be Es instead. But it works out.

the Wonder Twins

Buddha had us sounding good in our monitors and out front. Bring our own IEMs helps so much, getting them dialed was no different than playing at Jen's house. I put a camera out front and recorded. Lots of people stood in front of it, but we sounded pretty good. I played well, no major trainwrecks, but I need to dust off "My Life" a little. I think I'm too familiar with it or something; I keep getting screwing up some part of the verse, nothing a quick revisit won't fix.

At the end of the set I chatted with an old high school acquaintance of mine, Alan, who has been to a few shows for Planets and Embers. We've gotten friendly in the past few years. He was rockin the Rolex Submariner and he's a member of the SPCC so I think he's doing just fine. A woman came up and asked if I remembered her. It took me by surprise, but after Alan mentioned her name, I recognized her and we all chatted for a bit. After a while, I realized they were both definitely a bit buzzed so the convo was a little repetitive, but all in all, it was a nice chat.

We finally packed up and after about 8 hours, I got home and went to bed. Lots o fun, and we get to do it all again tonight. It might be a little cooler and we're playing an even longer set. Looking forward to it!

7/11/2025, Sunset Grooves at the Central

It was 80s night at the Central with us and the Valley Guys, a five-piece fronted by Fred Speakman. Our pal, Cathy, did backing vocals and badass stage presence with them as well. I left the house around 5:45 because we were supposed to start at 8 and with previous sound checking experiences at the Central being less than awesome, we wanted to have ample time to get ready.

Traffic wasn't too bad, about 30 minutes, and I found a parking spot a few blocks away, so I'll take it as a win. There was a show at nearby T-Mobile Park, with My Chemical Romance, so there were a lot of people walking through and around Pioneer Square. Made for a fun, quick people watch on the walk to the club.

Nothing beats a great parking spot. Car is back there somewhere.

I got to the legendary Central and all my mates were there already. Dusty was backlining drums, so he was getting setup. It was fairly toasty in there, but we'd be OK. Having played there a million times and never having seen a green room besides the scary bathroom situation, I came dressed for the show: white pants, new vintage-y t-shirt, checkered Vans and a bandana around my neck for some flair. Jen had a little white Levi's jeans jacket turned into a vest with a bunch of patches on it that I wore as well.

We started with sound checking and four of us use IEMs and Eric uses a floor wedge. For whatever reason, despite the ubiquity of IEMs, we seem to have hit or miss luck when it comes to the sound guy dialing us in properly. I suppose it makes sense, since he's got 4 separate signals he has to untangle, as well as the monitor. Though I don't know what difference it makes if he's sending those signals to his in-house monitors vs IEM transmitters. Then again, I am not a sound engineer.

Anyway, despite the early arrival, we were told to chill for a minute on the sound check as (insert reasons here, I don't remember). So we got to see the downstairs, where there's a sort of green room. It was basically a basement/workshop/kitchenette/storage area. There was a water closet and a couch and a giant mirror. At we had a bathroom that wasn't the gen pub one.

Speaking of the stairs, back in the day, bands would load in via the back door, which was at the bottom of said stairs. I do recall lugging my old Trace 410 up and down those stairs. On my way up them last night, it was wild to think that they were the same stairs that I went up and down 25 years ago or so.

Watch yer step!

We continued with setup and sound check and it was just an exercise in patience. We had troubles getting Dusty's IEMs to get signal. The sound guy would say something into his mic and I would hear it but not Dusty. Sound guy had the transmitters mixed up. Or maybe we did? I have no idea. Then we did line checks and got sounds, but getting our individual mixes up was challenging. I don't know if we are being too picky or if the SG was having issues. I feel like when wedges are in the mix, as long as I can hear my vocals and some contextual audio from the others, I'm good. I didn't have on-stage bass as I went with my DI, so I needed that in ears. Ultimately, my mix was loud, nasally bass (don't know if that was my fault or the send from the board), super loud Jen's vox, loud keys, no guitar, no Dennis BGV, some Dusty BGV and barely any of my own BGV. It was aggravating, but at the risk of burning out/pissing off the SG, we all settled for what we got.

They pushed the start time back to 9:30 or so, which was a little weird, given we were all there so early, but the manager gave us some nachos and tots and it was fine. We chatted a bit, our friends Mike and Amy showed up, but I got a picture with Mike and Fred instead.

Fred, Mike, and I guess my hand is broken.

We finally got on stage and started our set. Due to the 80s nature of the night, over the past few weeks we learned 5 more 80s tunes/less yacht rock tunes. We started the set with "Tempted" by Squeeze and got the ball rolling. Our second song was Jackson Brown's "Somebody's Baby" and there's that signature guitar lick at the intro of the song. For some reason, there was very little stage lighting and add in sunglasses, well it's hard to see. Luckily for me, I play one note. Unluckily for Dennis, he plays that lick and unfortunately, it was a little rough; off came the glasses.

Setlist, duh.

We got to "Africa" and Dennis has been singing that. We've been playing it great in rehearsal lately, but we control the mixes also. At the club, I could barely hear myself and rather than singing terribly, I tried, but then just backed off the mic. I think one of the boys was singing my part anyway, so I just dropped out.

There were some performance snafus in "Evil Woman" and "What a Fool Believes," but we've all been there with those sorts of brain farts. Going down the set, we also added in some sax tunes, for which we invited up a guy named Rick, who tore those up. It was great having that addition, but I really had to rely on the song structure as I could barely hear him and his cues. "Harden My Heart" and "Baker Street" were both new and went over well. "Heat of the Moment" is also new and we did it pretty well, but with the frenetic drum part at the end and the lack of solid mix, Dusty said he got a little lost, but we eventually got there and made it work.

From stage left.

My side. Red lights are the worst.

Mike Mitchell w/the snap.

Mike Mitchell w/the snap.

After we finished, the Valley Guys took the stage. And they took a while to get their audio dialed in, even using the in-house wedges. Anyway, they had a fun set with songs by Dire Straits, Eddie Money, Men at Work, .38 Special, and others. Cathy was great as always and Fred delivers with musicianship and humor. Their bassist, Brent, played uniquely, with pick and fingers during the same song. He'd hook his pick under his pointer and play with his middle and ring fingers, then switch to pick and back. I talked to him after and he said when he plays with pick, his thumb cramps, so he's learning to play with fingers. And then he showed me that he lost a bit of the tip of his pointer finger in the past, so it doesn't quite reach the strings. Pretty interesting! He had a Dee Dee Ramone signature P bass through an Orange OB-1 series amp through the house GK 410. Killer tone, with just enough growl to make it nasty.

Fred and Brent, Troy on drums.

Carrie on keys, Cathy on bgvs.

Due to our late start, the Valley Guys got a late start at 11pm. I felt bad for them, but they got a nice walkup crowd due to the MCR concert getting out. It seemed most people hung out by the bar, though, but there were some dancers and people sang along and enjoyed the music.

We helped load out at the end of the night and I finally got home about 1:30. Rumor has it we'll have made $40/each, unless each band got $392. Though I heard that might be split between all 10 members. We'll see what happens.

Up next: back-to-back private parties. First up, back to the Sand Point Country Club, where we played a few summers ago. And then the next night, a private party at someone's $6m house in Medina. Let's GOOOOO!

Things to get better at

For years and years I've said there are things I need to be better at: taxes and insurance. Taxes have gotten easier. Judy sends me a license every year for H&R Block tax software, I enter the info and bang, money back. It's easy enough.

But then there's health insurance with work. When I started with Synaxis in Jan of 2024, it was easy enough. I signed myself up, Marci and the kids stayed on f'n United Healthcare with her school. At open enrollment for Synaxis, they changed companies or something, also joining UHC. It was easy enough and I think the kids stayed over with Marci.

Then this year when I got hired with Zones, though the healthcare was still with UHC, my dental changed to Delta Dental and vision to Vision Savings Plan. Both of those were better than what Synaxis had offered. And it looked like moving the whole family over to UHC via Zones would save us some good money, so we did that.

Fast forward to yesterday when I picked up some of Marci's prescriptions at Safeway. She said it would be expensive but when I was given a bill for $154 or so, I was a little surprised, but I figured that's what she said. Later at home, when I mentioned the price of the meds was more than the food we bought, she flipped her lid.

After some research and discussion with Judy, it turns out that I did pick the right plan to save the most money per month but... I didn't take into account Marci's needs for MS infusions and treatments, as well as some other medical issues she's managing. When I chose insurance, I did the research and asking around, but since Marci's stuff costs more, it turns out it makes more sense to pick the most expensive PPO plan, which we pay a bunch per month, but her procedures are more covered.

If there's a good thing, it's that her open enrollment is in August and mine is October. Which means we are on the hook for some of the stuff this summer, but come August, she can get back on her work's PPO plan and I can keep the kids over on my plan.

Ultimately, things will be OK and work themselves out. I just wish I could catch these things before they happened! With the increase in pay, we haven't had much in terms of "lifestyle creep," more bill/expenses creep with school (Riley/Marci) and now this insurance snafu.

Meh, first world problems.

General update

It's the 4th of July and our country is in a terrible state. The stupid bill passed and how will that affect us? Probably just cost more to live. It's others that it will affect more, especially around Medicaid and health care, etc, as well as immigration and the color of one's skin. Though I am a "POC," it's not something I will lose sleep over and I hope I am not being naïve about it all.

So, what is new? I just rearranged my desk situation. I got a new monitor recently and decided I wanted to go 3-wide. In theory, it's pretty awesome, but it made me have to change out my table. My old desk was a throwaway from work, a standing model that worked great, but was not wide or deep enough, especially to support 3 monitors. Luckily I had this free dinner table I got off of Buy Nothing a few years ago. It sat behind my desk as a junk/craft/hobby/bass setup table. Most recently, it was just holding crap.

Last night I was inspired to try switching it, so I did it. here's the result.

The plusses? More real estate. I have room for more stuff, not just the monitors. I can run one vertically, like I do at work, which I really like. But at work, I always have Teams on and I ain't doing that here, so TBD on best use case at the moment.

Minuses? The desk is a little lower than I'd like. I can adjust the chair, but it's still sort of low. I also keep banging my legs on the underhang of the table. I might be able to saw/cut it, but we'll see how it goes. Also, the left screen is a little far away. I might be able to pull the arm closer to me, but then that throws off the alignment of the whole setup. We'll see how it goes.

Work is changing. IEC is officially closed and even with my new lofty role of "Immersive Experience Demo Lead," Austin and I are sort of in limbo until we can get over to the EBC/EC One in the near future. We are both studying for the AZ900 Azure Fundamentals cert, as well as the legendary CompTIA A+. It's about time I get some certs.

Financially, the new job is providing once a week, rather than once a month, which is nice. But despite the frequent payments, I was sort of used to once a month. Daresay I preferred that? Maybe I'm still trying to get into the rhythm of it all? Anyway, the greater pay is nice and the hope was to start paying stuff down. That is happening, but now I'm skimming $250 off of each check to help Riley with his summer tuition. And now Marci's starting school to get her Master's degree, which is awesome, but that's going to cost money. And we are paying for her's and Haley's new glasses, Riley's contacts, the list never ends! So much for lifestyle creep!

BUT, I am and we are very fortunate to be in the position we are in. No complaints, just a vent sesh.

Just looking at my calendar for July, it's pretty busy on the music side of things. After a pretty dry first half of the year with only 6 gigs, looks like July may have 5 gigs. First up is next Friday at the Central, with Sunset Grooves. We are opening for Fred Speakman's 80's cover band, the Valley Guys. We've learned some 80s hits and adding a friend on sax for some songs, so that will be fun. The next Friday, we're playing the Sand Point Golf Club again. My old high school acquaintance, Alan K., hooked us up with that. He's seen me play with Embers and Planets in the past few years.

It looks like we have a private party booked as of yesterday the night after Sand Point. It's either on Mercer Island or Medina, we are still waiting on details. The Friday after that, the 25th, Planets is booked at Tim's Tavern with Full Life Crisis and the Riffbrokers. And then the next night we had a tentative, but just heard that they "customer" never responded. So 4 gigs it is, apparently.

With all the music and busy-ness, Marci will be out of town visiting Judy. It's about 2.5 weeks and it will be boring for me. I always like the free time, but I do get lonely. Good news, though, Haley will be here! With graduation and getting her home, she's been chillin here and working. She works a mid-shift most days so I'll have to figure out the dinner thing moving forward until Marci gets back. I'll have to handle the Mom stuff too.

Which is another thorn in my side. Since February/March, I've been trying to get Mom into some sort of assisted living situation, either moving to Aegis Gardens down the street, or having a Kin On caregiver visit a few times a week. AG is the best path forward, but it is so expensive, about $6k a month after the one-time buy-in fee of $10-15k. Crazy. But she agreed to have Lucy, a Kin On caregiver help out this month. It's been going OK, I think. Lucy proposed to do some sort of "under the table" agreement with Mom. I'm not crazy about that, but if Mom gets help a few times a week and gets food and it lightens the load for the rest of us, well, I can live with it.

Been playing the F out of Pacific Drive, something like 50 hours in now. I just finished the main storyline last night. Will do some more exploring. With this new monitor and a new DisplayPort 1.2 cable, I've unlocked greater than 60fps. PD runs great, Division 2 runs about 80-90fps and it's so smooth. Only downside is this monitor maxes out at 1920x1080, but I don't really notice as I'm playing.

I have been trying to save $$ for a TTL payment for a new car, but due to the new expenses noted above, doesn't look like that's gonna happen anytime soon. As it stands, I have about $90 in fun bux and there is a Steam summer sale going on. There are some games I've played before (No Man's Sky, Subnautica, Prey, GTAV) that are all on deep discount, but with games still to be played (Jedi Survivor, Dying Light, Hardspace Shipbreaker), maybe I should try/finish those first. Plus, with a newly acquired Meta Quest 2 VR headset, Hardspace Shipbreaker is supposed to be great. It may scratch the gameplay loop that PD, Div2, NMS and Subnautica scratch as well.

I think that's a good update for now. Time for a run. Which I'm still doing, but I'm still being a pig on non-run days. I don't think I need to lose weight, just stay consistent, which I am (⁓160 give or take). Reading every day, games at night. TV and hangs with Marci in-between. I gotta do some yardwork too, what a drag that is.