10 Years Self-Employed

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of me quitting my job at Moneytree — the last and final time I was anyone's employee!

This was unsurprisingly a special moment for me. Poor execution on my part and a bumpy ride for awhile afterward, but one regret I most definitely don't have is taking control of my schedule. I didn't know what the future would hold or that I would be so settled and comfortably self-employed a decade on, but this was the moment I got my freedom from the "9 to 5" (I was actually working graveyard shift, but that's details), and I have never looked back.

Guinness World Records™ Most users to complete a remote 10 km in 24 hours 9/19/21

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean." — Ryunosuke Satoro

On September 19, 2021, tens of thousands of runners participated in a remote 10k in pursuit of the Guinness World Records™ "Most users to complete a remote 10 km in 24 hours" record. Sean, a handful or friends, and I were among them. Many of our times weren't much to sniff at, but all together, we got to be a part of something kind of special. Oh yeah! And we broke the record. 🙂

As for Sean and me, we just did our part running our miles up and down Las Vegas Blvd that hot, fall morning.

For those who might otherwise ask, though a lot of participants wound up buying medals and other items to commemorate the achievement, this was a free event to partake in, and the digital certificates we received for successfully breaking the record were more than sufficient mementos for us. This didn't feel fractionally as personally significant to Sean and me as breaking the rhythm game marathon record back in 2013 or as any number of other personal accomplishments felt at the time, and most things we do feel more trivial after the fact anyway (or to me, anyway), so I never got around to posting about this at the time (it's actually January 2022 as I'm typing this), but I'm learning to appreciate and value the power of teamwork and recognize that what we can achieve together is at least as worthy of celebrating as each of our individual contributions, so yay! 🎉 

Stamina RPG 5: Done!

SRPG5 ended last night! It went roughly like SRPG4 did for me but with a one or so difficulty improvement. I'm still working on the not going all out every session thing. Other than that, I mostly just played everything I could, had a peek at the quests when I started finding myself low on goals and direction, and otherwise hoped for the best. 😄

In addition to tons of unlocks and the 20s and 21 I did, I'm pretty sure I finished all the base pack 19s and below. I didn't think to keep track of milestones and achievements as I went along, but I was happy to get Stamina Nation Rank 3 and master or grandmaster every bpm tier up to 200. I also didn't know where I stood as far as the other ranking stats almost at all until the very end, aside from occasionally checking out the TP + LP ranking. (Actually, I didn't even realize most of the ranking sorts existed til really recently.) Kinda cool to see how all the effort came together after the fact though!

My results for 2021:
Level: 86
Highest pass: 21
Rankings:
•TP/LP: 31/483
•TP/LP (female): 1/51 (Amy didn't enter this year)
•Experience: 21/484
•Experience (female): 1/52
•Marathon (BB): 13/349
•Marathon (BB) (female): 1/33
•Timing (Gold): 10/459
•Timing (Gold) (female): 1/50
•Footspeed (JP): 56/68
•Footspeed (JP) (female): 2/3 (1st place: lolipo)
•Stamina Nation accolades: 8/349
•Stamina Nation accolades (female): 1/33
•Democratic People's Republic of Timing accolades: 14/415
•Democratic People's Republic of Timing accolades (female): 2/44 (1st place: Freyja)
•Footspeed Empire accolades: 19/304
•Footspeed Empire accolades (female): 1/28
•Pass count: 8/484
•Pass count (female): 1/52

By contrast, in 2020:
Level: 78
Highest pass: 20
Rankings:
•TP/LP: 44/493
•TP/LP (female): 2/56
•Experience: 31/504
(The rest was N/A for last year, or I didn't check.)

As always, I'm massively grateful for all the effort put into this event by organizers as well as fellow competitors, Urza for motivating me, and Sean for putting up with me. ❤ Thank you once again! 🙏

As for what's next, like I've heard a number of others confess, I'm feeling pretty burnt out and ready for the off season. I played through last year's and think some downtime is LONG overdue. I'll be tapering down now but sticking it out enough through ECS10 in a couple of weeks to see the end result of the past few months' effort. Gotta bring it on home! 😜 I'll still be aiming to maintain and even work toward gains after that too but definitely planning to cut down a bit, mix in some running and other activities, and catch up on some much-needed R&R. 😴

My Facebook posts from this year vs last:

SRPG5 (2021): https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157794409372024&id=550422023&sfnsn=mo

SRPG4 (2020): https://www.facebook.com/550422023/posts/10157067784587024/

Player 1 Video Game Bar with Friends 8/21/21

With our friends Gordon Louie and Nick Coltor in town, we had Team BBC at 50% the other night! The other 5 of us live too far or couldn't make it, but half's not bad. 😛 We got a couple of our other good friends out too. As life hasn't been the easiest for everyone lately, we decided to limit the get together to a couple of close mutuals only, but it was a great time catching up nonetheless. Always SUCH a treat to spend time with these folks. ❤ Thanks again to Nick, Gordon, Sharon, Remy, Natalie, Danny and the husband Sean for yet another memorable night!

Details: This was at Player 1 Video Game Bar here in Vegas the other night. I had no idea Vegas had opened up a barcade this cool! (It actually turns out there are others in town we still need to check out.) They even have a DDR SuperNova machine in not the worst ever condition and a Guitar Hero too! Drinks are pricey, but the gaming cost is pretty decent: cover charge of $5 for locals or $8 for everyone else, and all games are on freeplay!

I Won a LELO SONA 2 Cruise! (Plus Other Vibrator Talk)

NO. FREAKIN. WAY. I won a LELO SONA 2 Cruise and it really showed up in my mailbox. 😲 When I saw a giveaway for it online a couple months back, I thought "lol whatever, might as well try." When they emailed me in June to tell me I'd won and get my info, I thought "riiiiight. I'm never getting this." but put my address in just in case. IT'S HERE. 

No joke, this toy in this color (black) have been the at the top of my sex toy shopping list — an actual list on my phone — since around the time it came out. In fact, when I logged into LELO to register this one for warranty protection today, it was still in my shopping cart. 😂 

I still love my Soraya (the other black and gold LELO toy in these pics), but am obviously VERY excited to ummm...go on this Cruise, probably right after I finish posting this. 

Some tl;dr some of you may also find interesting:

-I feel like Sean and I win things fairly often these days just by putting ourselves out there a lot. Though you should still do your best to weigh your odds before investing too much into an opportunity, I've learned that people who dismiss thoughts of not being likely to achieve or win and just try anyway tend to find themselves "lucky" much more of the time than you'd expect.

-I can already tell that the SONA Cruise I just received is by far the most convenient vibrator I've ever owned with USB charging (no AAs needed), a fairly compact size that fits perfectly in hand, and very little sound. Assuming it's as toe-curling as the reviews promise and as it feels to the touch, I have a good feeling about it becoming my new go-to travel toy — and possibly even my main!

-I bought my original LELO Soraya back in 2009 or so, give or take a year, for around $200. That was by far the most I've ever spent on a vibrator, but I was sick of wasting money on crap toys that gobbled batteries and broke within weeks, and I definitely ended up getting my money's worth. (See pic of my well-worn toy in 2018.) When it finally died in 2018, it was still juuuuust within the 10-year warranty, and LELO actually sent me a brand new replacement 100% free of charge (even free shipping). I just had to send them my old one. 😬

-I've actually been picking up old school "massagers" here and there from thrift stores, swap meets, etc. for several years now, usually for $1 and never for more than $8. I just sanitize them. (Yes, I'm nasty. Oh well. If it feels good, idgaf.) Though they're always wired and therefore no substitute for my wireless LELO and other toys in that regard, they're actually often at least as mind-blowing as any expensive toy I've tried. Turns out you don't always get what you pay for.

-Although I'm suuuuper excited to see whether my new SONA Cruise will make me eat my words, BY FAR the best vibrator I've EVER used is the ancient, red and black Vibra Queen I picked up at a swap meet in Oklahoma, I believe it was, for $1. (See pic above.) OH MY GOD. If I don't find anything that can keep up before this one kicks the bucket, expect to start seeing me very grumpy. 😡 Counting on you, SONA Cruise!

Earrings: Little Plugs, New Look in Progress

Small change. Since working out with heavy earrings in for years as a teen, my earlobes have never been the same. For the most part, two small hoops in each ear has been my go-to look since then and is probably how you'll have seen me over 99% of the time in the recent half of my life. I've rarely thought twice about it, but it felt like time to try something new. It was $1 on eBay for this little pair of black plugs. I switched my nicer hoops to the back for now but could use some ideas for hypoallergenic (I'm allergic to nickel) studs or earrings that would work better with the plugs, given my look. (See pics. Yes, I slept in my makeup but wasn't about to stress over that to post about my earrings. 😂) I'm partial to stainless steel and black for a low maintenance, durable, goes-with-everything look. 🤔

Hiten Trivedi, Game Nest, and Ichiza 7/15/21

A couple of nights back, Sean, our friend Jewel Rodriguez, and I had the pleasure of getting to meet a fellow dance gamer named Hiten Trivedi! He's been driving cross country, moving from Boston, MA to San Jose, CA, so it only seemed right to try and give him a warm west coast welcome as he made his way down through Las Vegas. ☺ We met up at a local arcade called Game Nest — which, amazingly, Sean and I had still never been to til now, despite it haven't tons of rhythm games, including DDR and PIU — and then got dinner at Ichiza.

Jewel & Sean: thank you so much for coming out with me. I always appreciate your efforts, and it was good getting out with you both again. ❤

Boston: I'm sorry for your loss, but we'll do our best to take care of this guy for you. 😁

Hiten: Welcome to the wild west, and I hope it lives up to your every expectation. Give our love to the bay area homies 😛🥰, and we'll be looking forward to hearing all the details of Cali life for you when we catch you at some arcade or dance game event in the near future!