Moving Along

Okay. Most of you probably know that I had a miscarriage. The fates have given men an enduring heart, etc. I have since watched most of the Adventure Time cartoons and beat Pokemon White. It was painful, but it was also wonderful to see the support everyone gave me.

This might be weird, but I feel like now that I don't have pregnancy as an excuse to be lazy anymore, I'm starting to expect more of myself. This week I dug grass out of the flowerbeds in my backyard every morning (thank you, brainygamer podcasts, for making this process relevant to my aspirations). I worked on my thesis every day, though some days were more productive than others. I sent in an application to be an intern at tofugu.com, and I pitched an idea for an interview with a game composer to the Killscreen. I made a profile on Deseret Connect that I haven't done anything with, but I feel like I can at least keep myself busy with my aspirations to be a freelance writer/blogger.

I also hung out with a new friend and her kids today and biked to her house and back. I feel like I don't really belong in a place unless I've biked there, so it was good to get to know my neighborhood better. And I can bike to the library if I really want to. I started playing Ocarina of Time with the vintage game club. I'm planning to host a Japan party in a month (let me know if you want an invite). And I want to get a puppy (displaced maternal instinct be darned).

Adventure Time!

I love "Adventure Time." It's a cartoon series by Cartoon Network, and it makes me want to give American cartoons another chance. Finn is a 28-year-old dog and Jake is a 12-year-old boy and they have adventures. Sometimes I feel like a 12-year-old for watching it, but sometimes there are nerd jokes or plain funny things. I also like the art style. It's not trying to be anime, or trying to be some edgy artsy thing--it just feels fun and maybe a little silly. The world is similar to the ones I used to imagine with my siblings, minus Orcs and Ents and plus the candy kingdom and an awesome tree house. I think you can watch it streaming over at the Cartoon Network website. Also, am I missing out on other awesome American cartoons? Let me know.

I also love pastime books. I think I have about six I Spy books now, and some of them are really hard! I like that I can say I'm equipped to keep any 4-15 year old occupied for a half hour. I also got my copy of Fun for Boys and Girls that Genuine Draft suggested, and it's kind of hilarious and odd (envelope people, how to speak pig Latin, ransom notes actually called "paste-up" notes, etc.). It was published in the 1940s, and some of the items in the book reveal weird fashion trends. For instance, it appears that the cool thing to do was to wear skull caps and jackets with things people wrote on them embroidered on. Weird!

I think it's because I'm pregnant, but I just feel like a little kid sometimes. I'll be cranky or hungry and not even realize it, and I get all emotional sometimes. I think it's a good reminder that children aren't fully aware of themselves and have less control over their emotions. And, well, maybe pregnant women too.

My gaming blog and links

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention this, although you probably already know. I want to become a game journalist, so I made a new blog called The Ludi Bin at thepretentiousgamer.blogspot.com.

Also, I added some more links to my sidebar, because Google integrated their analytics into blogger and now I have no excuse for not seeing stats about page views and such. I noticed that some of you were referring people to my site and I decided to return the favor. If you're disappointed that I didn't link you, just drop a comment and something might happen.

Biking and Diets

I tried to do some maintenance on my bike today, which I found kind of cool and also frustrating. Armed with this book, I was happy to find that gear-shifting failure is supposedly super easy to fix! Unfortunately, I don't have the same patience with books when I'm hunched over my bike with a screwdriver (it turns out some of the screws on a bike are not supposed to be screwed in all the way).

In other news, I am pregnant, and I have been looking into nutritious diets. The past few weeks I have been just kind of eating as much as I can and hoping the best (and taking folic acid, don't worry Mom!). The book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is a kind of outdated but thorough study in what happened when white flour and other Terrible things were introduced into traditional diets (invariably, tooth decay and tuberculosis set in). I'm intrigued by the benefits of cutting down on white flour and refined sugar, but I haven't been able to find much modern research on the subject (but I have found plenty of people who want to rebel against "politically correct" diets). I'm also not sure if I could give up cereal and white bread; I suppose I could eat oatmeal and rye or wheat bread. Anyway, I've ordered a cookbook of traditional cooking methods, and I hope they are accessible enough to try out in a modern kitchen and good-tasting. It's not just raw foods, it has bread and stuff in it. I'm a big proponent of moderation, but I'm also open to trying out new things.