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Recent Obsessions

Thursday March 7, 2024

I will usually get hooked on one game and play only that game for weeks. Usually I end up dropping it for no reason. Third Strike is the exception. I play Third Strike very often regardless of whatever else I’m putting time into. Anyway, the game I’ve been playing a lot recently is StepMania.

StepMania

It’s Dance Dance Revolution on the computer. I don’t know what the “normal” control layout is, but I’ve been playing with the arrow keys. Now that I think about it, I guess it would make more sense to set the 4 arrows to keys that are in a straight line, like H, J, K, and L. I’ll have to try that some time. When playing real DDR, I do most songs on normal and some on hard if the number is low enough. I forget what that number is because it’s been a while since I played DDR. I am better at finger DDR than I am at foot DDR. In StepMaina there’s a pretty hard cut off for me at “8” songs. I have cleared a few “9” songs, but I was fighting for my life by the end. I have barely explored song packs. I only have one, and it’s all DDR songs, so this really is just DDR for my fingers. I downloaded a Kirby pack but every song was only expert difficulty. If you know of any good packs, leave a comment. These are the songs that I’ve been playing over and over again:

I’ve been working on a drawing of Naomi that will eventually become a sticker. It has not been going well. I posted WIP screenshots online and asked for advice, and two people (politely) suggested dropping it until I improve. When I start to get pissed at my own drawing abilities, I play StepMania for a little bit before picking the pen up again.

Some previous game obsessions from recent memory:

Makinations Dreams

I found Makinations Dreams on the front page of Bandcamp. I was hooked right away, and it’s basically been the only thing I’ve listened to for like a week straight. I listened to some other stuff on the MAD BREAKS Bandcamp, but I didn’t really like any of it. The other mixes were a little too chaotic or just annoying to me. I quickly returned to just playing Makinations Dreams on repeat. For some reason I enjoy really hard and fast electronic music the most when it’s cold outside. Before this album, it was Chaser by Femtanyl. Super repetitive music really gets me in the zone when I’m focusing on something like drawing, writing, or playing Third Strike. There was a time when I’d put on The Dripping Tap by King Gizzard whenever I started doing the line art for a drawing. I called it the line art song.

I think Makinations Dreams is on the way out for me. Not because it’s getting warm outside, but because I’ve played it to death. Saying “on the way out” sounds too extreme, it’s not like I’ll never listen to it again. I’ll just listen to it… a normal amount. Also, this album made me want to play DDR, which is why I started playing StepMania

Photography

I’ve always liked taking pictures but this recent endeavor snowballed very fast. Here’s how it went down:

  1. My girlfriend took this picture with her Instax Mini camera, which I cropped into a square.
  2. I thought “hey these little things are pretty cool” and then found out Fujifilm made one that prints squares. Instant purchase. I love square pictures.
  3. I wanted to get a printer so I can scan the square prints at home because doing it at work would suck. I went to Micro Center for a cheap Brother black and white laser printer, but left the store with a $600 Epson EcoTank printer and some 13x19 inch photo paper.

Now I’m constantly going through the pictures taken on my nice digital camera looking for ones that are worthy of being on giant prints, and I keep my eyes peeled for cool shots to take on the little Instax. My gallery page is about to be sick. Keep an eye out.

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