slightly stifling

小暑。

Summer school started less than a week after the last day of school for elementary students. I went to help out on Thursday and Friday, which was pretty fun and chill for the most part. The fans and AC in the portable were broken so Thursday afternoon was absolutely ridiculous. I was sweating salt and the air was thick and gloopy. Friday was significantly better, probably also because it was windier. Overall, it’s still really hot. The freshly-out-of-kindergarten students are still big fans of me, though they display it in different ways. Some of them will hold my hand and give hugs, and the others will stick sticky notes onto my shirt and pretend to be grumpy at me. It’s cute.

Between the heat, being available to my family when they need help or a chore done, and the weakness of my physical form at baseline, I’ve been having difficulty trying to think about Art. Which, yes, I did say I was going to stay away from for a while post-grad, but is that even right? Is that even possible?

I want to draw, though. Silly self-indulgent stuff. And hopefully get a good night’s sleep soon. My lower back hurts when I lay down for too long, which sucks. Even if I stretch and crack things beforehand (and afterwards)…

Anyway. Here’s a game recommendation.

Chinatris! It’s a puzzle game. Once you get the hang of it (stroke order matters so placement is important, carefully soft-drop pieces, radicals are Real), the puzzle levels are okay. Infinite mode is fun to zone out to, and the BGM is amusing.

I think I just like games with squares. It’s a very satisfying shape and sometimes they look cute. I played a lot of LUMINES in fourth year, which kept me mostly in mental shape. Tetris was my life from 2019-2020, and also so was Yume Nikki. Fitting stuff, in hindsight.