April/May 2026 Recap

Wow, only half way through the year and I'm already having to play catch-up with my recap posts!

To keep it brief; I've been really overwhelmed with my work and personal health lately. Sometimes even engaging in hobbies, like this site, feels like work. It's also been really nice outside lately and sometimes I prefer going out and touching grass over looking at a screen for hours.

Still, I love having a website, I didn't want to have all the stuff I wanted to talk about in my recap posts pile up. So, here are some things I did over the past couple months.

Crafting

Here's some photos of those fingerless gloves I mentioned in my last monthly recap. Don't know why I didn't bother just showing the photos the first time around. I really love this yarn and I think these gloves came out pretty good.

Since it's been so nice out, I've been able to get back into making resin pieces. Working with epoxy resin is much more intensive than crocheting, but the results can be very rewarding.

Puzzles

4x4 Rubik's Cube

Me and some friends took a trip to our local mall towards the beginning of April. We stopped at Barnes and Noble's, and they had a whole section dedicated to twisty puzzles! I bought myself a 4x4 Rubik's Cube since I've gotten kind of bored with my 3x3. I also got myself a cute taba squishy from Claire's.

I got so excited that I immediately started scrambling and solving it at the restaurant we were at. I was able to solve the white side the way you would a 3x3, but couldn't for the life of me figure out the other sides. I especially struggled with keeping things organized on the opposite side of whatever side I was working on.

I really wanted to figure it out without a guide, but after weeks of messing around with no progress, I eventually looked up a tutorial. After reading a tutorial that uses the reduction method, I felt silly for not thinking of that method before. It's not as hard as I thought it'd be. It's basically just solving a 3x3 with a few extra steps. The hardest part for me is memorizing the algorithms.

I probably should've taken a photo of the cube while it was scrambled because these photos back-to-back make it look like all I did was take it out of the box. Oh well.

Online Puzzles

I'm also still doing my online puzzles. At one point I had a 75 day streak on Tiled Words. I've broken it since, but I still play it nearly every day.

I've also been getting much better at Clues by Sam. I've had a few perfect (or near perfect) solves!

Similar to Wordle and other online games, Clues by Sam gives you a little thing you can copy and paste to share with others, so feel free to take a look at that if you're interested.

Nature

It's finally getting nice outside. Here's some photos I've taken of animals recently.

Food

Shifting into "Instagram mode" where I show you some aesthetically pleasing meals I've had lately.

My dad made me some very nice pasta with garlic butter sauce for Memorial day.

My job also gave me a voucher for a free frozen custard from Culver's. Their flavor of the day just so happened to be dark chocolate peanut butter, yum!

Plants

My plant collection has doubled! My cactus is doing well and I've acquired a jade plant. My friend has named him Peter. I wanted to get a nice window box for them, but the ones I see for sale online are pretty expensive, so I guess I'll have to make do with what I have.

Site Stuff

Join my Balatro Fanlisting!!!

I know I already talked about this in my last post, but fuck it! It's my blog and I can self-promote myself as much as I want! I made a fanlisting for the game Balatro and right now there's only two members (including myself), so...

Ooooohhhh 🌀🌀🌀 You love Balatro 🌀🌀🌀 You wanna join my fanlisting sooooooo bad 🌀🌀🌀 You want to email other Balatro fans and visit their websites 🌀🌀🌀 Ooooohhhh

Media

Watching

I've been watching a lot of Family Guy recently. Do I actually like it? I don't know. I guess I just need something on in the background while I do other things, and Family Guy makes good background noise. The YouTube videos I'm about to link are probably a lot more interesting.

The Fun Stuff

• Grading YouTube Essays #6 | Why Sigma Males Are More Attractive Than Alpha Males - Genuinely the hardest I've laughed at a video in a long time, but also a couple nuggets of wisdom in there.
• Object Shows - YouTube’s Most Confusing Community - I've never watched any of these series or been part of this fandom, but I find this video fascinating as an outsider looking in. Might have to write more about it later.
• I am the worst chef on youtube
• 737 Down Over ABQ - Wayfarer Flight 515 - (This one includes spoilers for Breaking Bad)
• What Color is Every Phoneme?
• The Surreal Minecraft Iceberg
• Where's the cheese?
• I'm only playing Garten of Banban because I need the money lowkey
• The Worst and Weirdest of The Game Of LIFE
• Proper Opossum PSA

YTPs

• Sneakers O'Toole but I'm messing with it
• Flashing Fishbulbs
• Doin’ Your Mom
• School-Grade Nothing
• The Beyond
• common squidward w

The Serious Stuff

• Why do fascists love AI slop?
• Why was I invited to Beast Studios?
• We Call It Discipline. It's Violence
• When People Already Hate You, They’ll Believe Anything.
• those are NOT intrusive thoughts
• Pluribus Is Not About AI
• Whose order?
• The No Kings Protests and the History of Activism in the US
• Was Kevin Really a Sociopath?

Listening To

Olivia Rodrigo - The Cure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B402rKl4bUg

Olivia Rodrigo's releasing a new album later this month and I've enjoyed both singles she's put out so far. I especially enjoy her latest release, The Cure. I love how the song builds as it goes on, especially how the drums kick in on the bridge.

I also find the lyrics to be pretty relatable and layered. I can strongly relate to the feeling of wanting someone to swoop in and "fix you", but feeling guilty when they can't, or having things in your life technically be going well but still being absolutely miserable.

PinkPantheress - Girl Like Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRAJowgHqxA

PinkPantheress also come out with a new single a little while ago, Girl Like Me.

I adore the music video, I can't help but smile every time I watch it. Not only does it capture the era so accurately, but it expands on it in a fun and interesting way. PinkPantheress is doing more than just going "hey, remember 2007? That sure was cool right?" like so many other people using the "Y2K aesthetic" do.

Some people in the comments have mentioned her being inspired by the Rhythm Heaven series, one of my favorite video game series. I'm not a big enough PinkPantheress fan to know if this is true or not, but it wouldn't surprise me. The part with the guy waving his tennis racket around reminds me of Rhythm Rally.

Other Songs on My Rotation

• Hayley Williams - Over Yet
• 3OH!3 - LONELY MACHINES
• Jane Remover - Professional Vengeance
• Lady Gaga & Doechii - RUNWAY
• Slayyyter & Judy Garland - CRANK GOES THE TROLLEY

What I’m Looking Forward to in June

Well, we're already a week into June. That week as been pretty overwhelming for me but I'm trying to stay positive.

With work I'm more so excited for things scheduled for July. A part of me kind of wants to get June over with, but I've also been trying to live in the moment more, so I guess those goals kind of conflict, huh?

Father's day and several relatives Birthdays are in June. I don't have anything planned yet, but I should probably get started on gifts soon.

Also, happy pride month!!! Shout out to all my fellow LGBTQ+ webweavers and bloggers! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Overall

I'm exhausted and overwhelmed, but still trying to make time for things that make me happy. I'm trying to stay positive about work. I love my job, but it's hard to pour from an empty cup, and when you're disabled it feels like your cup is empty a lot more often than it should be. I've been trying to enjoy the weather outside as much as possible too.