Autism Community

Today, after work, I played a demo for game on Steam. It's called Tiny Bookshop. Surprisingly, it has a native Linux version, so I didn't even have to turn on Proton for it to run on my computer. It plays well with keyboard/mouse, but it looks like it would do great on the Steam Deck too.

Instead of a little free library (paging threemeninaboat), you manage a tiny for-profit bookstore. Your store is on a trailer behind your car. Each day, you read the newspaper to buy new inventory or items. The events you read about in the newspaper might convince you to visit a different location in town the next day to sell more books. The items you buy can boost or reduce sales of different genres of books, and you decorate both inside and outside your tiny bookshop. There's a journal that automatically records important details for you, which helps you keep track of things like which city locations sell which book genres more frequently.

Visitors to your tiny bookshop sometimes ask for your help to find a book. They describe what they're looking for. You click on each book on your shelf (genres are color-coded, so you don't have to click every book in the store) to find if something matches. If you find a great match and recommend it to them, you can even get a big boost for all sales that day. If not, they'll come back another day, and you can try to stock something overnight that might work better for them.

The free demo version of the game lets you play only 2 game days, then it ends. But that's plenty of time to see some of the mechanics in use in the game. I think the whole thing is nice. I found it enjoyable and... quaint? It's nice to play games that are entirely non-combat. It's 10% off from regular price on Steam right now, thanks to the Wholesome Games sales now through August 14th.

We are still short-handed on the weekend shift, so I continued working Saturday and Sunday. I took vacation time for Monday-Wednesday, though. I intended to do some yard work, but I got almost none of it done. The day that I went outside and tried to clean up the front yard a bit, I came back inside afterward and slept for about 2 hours when I sat down in the living room chair for a few minutes to cool off. I'm just so tired all of the time, it seems. Even today, I laid down in bed around 5pm, thinking I'd take a quick nap. I woke up 3 hours later. Exhausted, after a busy day of doing not much of anything.

I accomplished a few things this week, at least. On Wednesday afternoon, I did the interview for the lead position on my team at work. That night, I got almost no sleep. I went to bed at 10am, and I saw every hour on the clock until 7am except the hours of 1am, 5am, and 6am. My brain just wouldn't shut off, replaying questions and answers from the interview. I dislike interviews so very much.

I also went to another emergency dental appointment on Thursday morning. To review quickly, I busted that tooth a few years ago, then I busted the repair work, and recently I've busted 2 temporary caps on it. Ugh. I get the permanent metal cap in 2 more weeks. Apparently these days, caps are custom fit to molds they took of what remains of this tooth. I hope I can go 2 more weeks without doing any more damage to it.

After the last dental appointment, I rode the bus past my house northward to the Colonial Market to get a burrito bowl to take home for lunch. I walked past 4 police cars at the store entrance, with officers searching the nearby ground for evidence of something. Apparently it wasn't store related, though, just the neighborhood being what it is.

And, finally, this morning I woke up to another dream.

I don't remember the early part of the dream, but I had a "splinter" in my hand that was annoying me. I went to the bathroom in front of the mirror and tried opening up the wound where it was. I saw a dark line of something that was bent in a semi-circular loop. I thought that was weird, a splinter curling around that way instead of just going straight in. I used a needle to pluck at the top of the loop and pull it out of me. It came out thicker than expected. I put aside the needle and used my other hand to pull it out. It became clear that it was not wood or metal but was a worm of some kind. I got about a finger's length out of me, then it started wriggling. My hand was too slippery from the blood/fluid, and I lost my hold as it started worming its way back into my wound. I felt emotions at this experience, and emotions are bad for thinking, so I woke up.

Clearly, that dream was related to the actual splinter that has been bothering me all week. It's in my left foot, though. On the first day, when I couldn't find what was in my foot, I put some medication on it and put an unusually large band-aid on it, thinking it would help stick to that spot as I walked on it. That night, I forgot about the bandage and removed my socks before getting into bed. The next day, I thought, "What is that sensation on my back?" I felt around and removed what turned out to be that band-aid from my foot. That was a rough night's sleep, apparently?

I slept about 10 hours last night. It's nice to catch up on missed sleep.

I've had photos from the neighborhood that I've kept for a few months without posting. Here's that chance finally. There's nothing "major", but plenty of minor things I found of interest.

So... nothing earth-shattering to report at this time. Just the flavor of my Jordan neighborhood of north Minneapolis.