Just ordered myself a new phone, partly as a graduation gift to myself (thank you, aunt who sent me a check for $100!), and partly because, after more than four-and-a-half years, my current phone is getting a bit buggy. I went super-ultra-budget and got a model that's effectively two years out of date, so I saved a fair amount of money there while still getting a product I'm fairly certain I can be happy with.

My current phone still works reasonably well, but it has a tendency to freeze up from time to time that requires a hard restart to fix—a tendency that's becoming more frequent. The Otter Box phone case I got at the same time is also starting to deteriorate, whereas the area over the power button has been pressed so often that you can barely tell there was ever a button representation there in the first place. So I think it might be time anyway 😅 (I'm about four months short of five years with my current phone, I'm pretty sure I beat the average phone trade-in time with room to spare.)

A part of me is still a bit freaked out, because my phone isn't actually broken yet, and also $129 plus other expenses for a new phone case and screen protector aren't exactly a drop in the bucket for me at the moment, but like. I'm still pretty sure it's time.

I need to get working on more fics; my AO3 dashboard is currently all Gen, No Pairing, No Archive Warnings Apply works! That's hardly representative of the majority of my writing!

Because I talked about this on Discord, but not here: Dad broke his ankle last Friday 😬 After slipping on some ice, he initially thought it was a sprain, but Mom talked him into visiting Urgent Care where they got the correct diagnosis. On Monday, I took him to the hospital for an update, where they said that on this coming Tuesday, they'll need to surgically put a pin in the broken bone. After that, he'll be in a cast or boot for about six weeks.

Since Dad also has some Santa Claus gigs, he's been going in his boot and, at Mom's suggestion, telling people that Dancer stepped on his foot while trying out some new moves. I took him to a couple of Santa gigs today, where he was very well received; his final gig of the year is tomorrow afternoon, and then after that he's done being Santa for the year (and his leg should be better well before next December 😛)


In other news, I'm not really on the Book of Faces, but I have been communicating a bit more with the aunt I went to visit last March. I told her that I went back to school and expected to graduate this semester, and she apparently spread the news herself, because today I got a congratulatory card from a different aunt—with a check in it 😮 I've already got a thank-you note for her written and waiting in the mail box, though I don't know if I'll have the chance to deposit the check before Monday; I've got work tomorrow and Sunday.


I think that's about it for now; will blog more later ✌

A keystone can only work if all of the other stones in the arch hold it up.

Social Problems final was today, and this was my project: A short, chutes-and-ladders-style game about information security online.

( Game board under here )

Only one final paper left, and it's not due until early Friday afternoon. I think I'll probably try and get it written tomorrow, when I'm not working on laundry 😂