Wednesday: 6:50

This is an online record for Wednesday and even beats my online Tuesday best. It was made super-easy by making all the theme answers Saturday Night Live references, right in my Gen-X wheelhouse. Even some non-Xers will get some of these easily because they've become memes in their own right. Props to the Times for letting Schweddy Balls in there.

 Thursday: 9:19

9:19 isn't a record, but it's pretty darn fast (PB is 8:59), and the best I've done since the crossword moved to exclusively online. The Times records my averages and best times. I hope I can get some actual records on there so I don't have to keep refinding that one post where I list my best times, but I'm not too hopeful on getting a sub-10:02 Saturday any time soon), On the other hand, the averages can get skewed if I'm multitasking, or early on, my Mom would try and solve a little (c'mon, Mom, you get the paper version!) and balloon my time (and a lot of her answers were wrong and misleading).

We do team up on the Spelling Bee puzzle, though, and we make a pretty good pair, although I jump in right at midnight and sometimes solve the whole thing by myself in one go. But it usually takes another look, and a second pair of eyes can really help. Even though most of the words are somewhat common, you can't always see the obvious.

Perhaps a bigger post in the near future. My life, personal shit, Grateful Dead, I don't know.

 Friday: 11:03

New Friday record! (Since last updated, the Times has stopped letting you download the puzzle to play offline. The online app is almost as good. One nice feature is that it will save my stats. It will also record a streak, but games only count if you get all the right answers and never check for errors (Only if you specifically check which. The game will tell you once all the boxes are filled if you're correct, but not what's wrong, so that doesn't count against you. (I might have been ~10 seconds faster if I had checked. I had some messiness in the northeast that I didn't notice because I was going so fast.) My current streak is 21 days)). I got 1-Across right off the bat, even though I initially guessed ASKEW for 1-Down. Gettin' all hip with KEGSTANDS and SEXTOY. Lots of alcohol-related things: MARTINI, TANKARD, WINE SNOB, DOS (clued as ___ Equis), and the opposition, MADD.

Wednesday: 12:05
Thursday: 13:04
Friday: 13:17

Gotta give it up for 40-Across "Cheap cab, perhaps." I saw "House Red," but couldn't square it with the clue. Is there some word "housered" that I don't know? Ah, cabernet. I'm more a white wine guy.

So I found something more fun than Zelda Randomizer: Final Fantasy 3(6) Randomizer! You star with 2 random characters and the airship with access to the World of Ruin, as well as 3 Moogle Charms modified to equip to anyone. All enemies and bosses (except final Kefka) are randomized, as is every item in every chest. Also random are the spells that epsers teach (and at what rate). Innate skills, such as Steal, are assigned randomly, as is the gear each character can use. In one seed, I got Terra with General Leo's Shock Ability! Enemies give jacked up Exp and AP. Basically each battle nets a minimum of 3-5 AP regardless of difficulty, but a Legendary Dragon gives you 50!

You really can find almost ANYTHING in a chest, and obtain items they only expect you get rarely or not at all, like Economizer or the Ilumina (Lightbringer) Sword (normally only obtained by betting the unique Ragnorak Sword at the Colisseum, which you almost never do because you generally take the Ragnorak esper instead of the sword). The combo of Fixed Dice and Offering are well known, but if you get TWO Fixed Dice? The current seed I'm on has this nonsense, but I never found an esper that teaches Ultima, Flare, or Life 2. I also never got a Ribbon so I can't easily uncurse my shield (though the Cursed Shield is faster to uncurse in this hack, the Paladin Shield doesn't necessarily teach Ultima). I expect I can still win, but I do feel a little naked without Ultima.

Monday: 6:46

Wednesday: 13:04

Thursday: ??? Forgot to save it. A print version would have worked faster, since there was some grid weirdness which didn't translate to digital very well.

Friday: 17:13 
Saturday: 10:03 (new record, crusht)

Wow, was this an easy one. Totally wrecked my previous Saturday record (and is still a couple of minutes faster than my Friday best). This is especially nice, because I hated that my prior Saturday record was on a non-standard 15x16 grid (technically, that should take longer with more squares, but it beat my previous 15x15 time, (not mention that my Friday best was in between those two Saturday  times, so there were asterisks in a record list. Now everything is clean.)). I had a small error with OVERSTATES instead of OVERSHARES (Clue: Says too much), but that happens when you're moving so fast. I was fortunate to know all three proper names in the grid (21-, 41-, 42-Across) but none of them are obscure at all. My large coffee might have helped, but like I said, very very easy.

 Saturday: 47:14 (3 Google)

Brutal. Some things seemed obvious at the end but seemed completely obscure during the solve. I don't know if I was unfocused or just unlucky with the stuff I knew and the stuff I didn't. Even with some cheating, which I haven't needed in a while, it took forever. I'm not expecting <20 minute times all the time, but I do try and keep it under 35.

Context

 

Sunday: 27:29

I could have gone a minute or two faster, but for some reason, AcrossLite (the app I use to solve) isn't saving my preferences, so I have to redo them at the start of a puzzle. Another program that's giving me trouble since I migrated machines is my SNES emulator. I got my old one to use 8-directional input, which makes Zelda much more manageable, since movement in just 4 directions is stunted as heck, but I can't seem to find that toggle in the one I'm using now, although I could swear it's the same program.

I can solve a lot of this, probably, if I just take the half hour or so to power up my old behemoth and flash drive over some stuff. In fact, I bought a big flash drive solely for this kind of thing. I want to transfer some media and documents too. But my flash drive sits unused.

So much context, I can't bear it. I took today off (did I mention I have a new job? Census 2020 enumerator) and I'm still lying in bed, watching old Star Trek, despite the fact that there are at least 2 movies out on Netflix and HBO that I want to see (but apparently not enough to actually do so).

Did I mention my father died in March? March!

Have I talked about my roommate?

Biden securing the nomination and picking a running mate? (And I have quite a bit to say about all that.)

I haven't once mentioned the global pandemic that has basically upended every aspect of life all over the world and has been going on for six months.

What is personal blog worth if you don't talk about the world and your place in it? All my writing is chats online, or Facebook comments.

Part of it is the apocalyptic mindset that goes on during the pandemic, and certainly a helping of depression that goes along with it (and all the other shit I mentioned). I just can't tell if I'm clinically depressed or just lazy and unmotivated as fuck to do anything. Well, the job pays, at least. I don't love the work, but it isn't too boring either.

Sigh... well, time for a bowl.

I need a hug.