sunday morning coffee.
sunday, october 27th, 2024.
Autumn has been so good to us so far! Our little one recently celebrated her eighth birthday and got a fancy new bicycle from her dad. So we broke it in a little bit and she rode 3.8 miles back and forth on a trail near our house. I think she likes it! 🥰
The Macon Mayhem had their season opener last weekend, so we also got to go watch some hockey! It was exciting rooting for them, even if they lost the game and are circling the drain at the bottom of the standings as the league gets started. Oh well! It's still a blast to watch 'em play.
Election Day is a week from Tuesday and I'm so friggin' ready for these elections to be over. My wife and I voted early— I think it took us maybe 15 minutes to wait in line. I recall standing in line for hours during the 2020 elections and I was so happy to do so. I'll be frank: I'd drag my loins through broken glass to vote in these presidential elections. I hope the turnout is colossal. Still, I'm ready for the spam phone calls and text messages to stop already!
a little bit o' gaming.
I've been enjoying a little handheld gaming on my Miyoo Mini Plus lately. It's so nice to be able to cuddle on the couch with my wife and the cats and get my retrogaming on. Two PlayStation games that are in my rotation right now: Final Fantasy IX and Panzer General, as seen in the screenshot above.
Final Fantasy IX was recommended to me by the fellow that runs the local game store during our Flesh & Blood nights as his favorite RPG of all time. I've played a good part of the series, but somehow I've missed this one! Rectifying that now. It's definitely got a cozy vibe to it so far— it's like the Final Fantasy formula mixed with a nice warm blanket? I guess Square was trying to pull back the "edgy teen"ness of Final Fantasy VII and VIII.
My computer gaming has been all over the place lately. Forza Horizon 4 is still in the regular rotation, but I've also been playing a little bit of Diablo III since Season 33 went live a few days ago. I picked up the Castlevania Dominus Collection for $20 on a little bit of a discount. It's a collection of the three Castlevania games that made it to the Nintendo DS, of which I've only played Dawn of Sorrow.
I think the developer did a good job on this collection adding value over just playing these games on a Nintendo DS emulator. They moved the bottom screen to the side and made both the map and inventory & stats screen visible while you play, taking full advantage of running the DS games on a widescreen aspect ratio. I'm currently playing through Order of Ecclesia and enjoying it quite a bit!
upcoming plans.
Halloween is, of course, coming up on Thursday. I've got my hot dog suit ready to go trick or treating with the little one! Friday, I'll be volunteering as a ride marshal for the Macon Big Bike Ride. Our own organization hosted a ride last Thursday which had fair-to-middling attendance, despite over 130 "interested" or "going" RSVPs on Facebook. It was a bit cold that day, so I'm not entirely surprised by the lack of turnout.
The city's grant writer got in touch with me late last week— it looks like I'm going to be meeting up with her to volunteer my services in helping to write a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant application for the city! I'm super pumped about that. I've been trying to encourage our city to actually hold its hand out for that federal funding and it finally looks like it's piqued the city's interest! The fiscal year 2025 notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) won't be released until early next year, so now is the perfect time to start thinking about writing that grant application.
I'm not sure how much time the grant writing is going to take in the next few months— I've never actually written a grant application but it's close enough to my professional work as an embedded software engineer that I'm not intimidated by the process. I want to do this well because the SS4A program only has two more years left on it. If I want to see the city start to change for the better, this is certainly a good avenue to do just that!
the donut run.
This morning, I decided to take the little one on the back of our e-bike and go pick up some donuts from a local shop. A little treat for my second cup of coffee! Our kiddo enjoyed the sprinkled one and had a big ol' smile on her face for the entire ride. The weather is perfect for an excursion to the baker!
Plus, I've got to keep my nine-day bicycling streak going! Daily habits and all of that fun stuff. :)
Naturally, we weren't the only one with the idea for some Sunday morning donuts. The place was absolutely packed and the parking lot was crowded! I'm going to bet that our e-bike is a lot more fun and economical than the typical truck whose bill of lading included sweet treats this morning. 🤣
Anyhoo, the donuts are fresh, the kiddo's been sugared, and my second cup of coffee is ready for a sweet accompaniment. A pumpkin spice donut is calling my name!
Until next time, be well! :)