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Date: March 20th, 2020.

Time of Writing: 9:30 PM.

Weather: Nice out. Warm, a little bit of wind.

Mental and Physical Health State: Cough is bad, not any worse just still bad. Less sniffly though. Symptoms continue to recede. I have a Covid test scheduled for tomorrow at noon. Mood is, acceptance of whatever is to happen.

Day Overview: I stayed up incredibly late last night. Call it a force of habit from the weirdness of the Thursday sleep schedule over the last eight weeks of having a radio show, but I only eventually went to bed at 4:30 in the morning. I woke up to the sound of my Dad calling my brother, asking if he wanted anything from Dunkin' Donuts. I was just in time to interject and add that I wanted a Chocolate Frosted donut, which is what I wound up having for breakfast. My Dad had called me first, assuming that I'd be up since I usually wake up early and my brother's the one who'll sleep in late. It was 11:30 AM, so that was pretty close to the middle of the day, I suppose. After I had my donut, I took a shower, threw on some clothes and a face mask, and went outside to sit on the porch.

I had to go back inside to get a hoodie, because the wind was giving me goosebumps. Once I did, though, it was very nice to be able to sit out in the fresh air. My street was absolutely deserted, which wasn't entirely unusual given that it's a dead-end street and not many people drive down, but there weren't many people around - except for this woman that walked by on one side of the street, hit the dead end, and then came back around, which was weird because if she was cutting through then she'd just go around the guardrail keeping us from the main road, but whatever. I saw a bright red cardinal land across the street in a bush. Spring is here, and I'll be spending most of it indoors. Well, maybe once I'm done being sick I'll do schoolwork on the porch. The rest of the day was spent playing video games and watching strange YouTube videos courtesy of The Minute Hour and others.

On My Mind: My Dad found this app on our cable box called PlutoTV. It's not a service we pay for, and it's not one we ever downloaded, but it seems like it has this weird approach to streaming where it has a bunch of pre-recorded content - crappy movies, old TV shows, et cetera - and it airs them on a bunch of channels at certain times. It's an interesting content delivery model, and it gets around the problem everyone's had of looking at Netflix or Hulu or whatever and getting overwhelmed by options. The appeal of the broadcast, channel-based model is that instead of putting the consumer in the mindset of What length of time do I feel like I can commit myself to? it puts them in the space of What is currently being shown? What is going to be on the TV regardless of my input? thus removing Decision Paralysis. It also had an On Demand function, of course, which is important so that the consumer doesn't feel totally hapless and without agency to decide on what they want to watch. Netflix would do well to add a channel system where you can tune in and just see what's going on. It's why browsing through Twitch is so engaging - you can stumble on someone in the middle of a game, or at the start, or at the end. It's a model based on what is happening in the present, not on what is available from the past.

• Lovetheism by Haru Nemuri: Slightly disappointing mini-album from Nemuri here, with a lot of similar sounding songs that don't really evolve her sound at all. Her use of repetition of certain phrases and words in a sort of mantra way is getting tiring for me, as is her rapidfire spoken delivery that just sort of happens in the middle of songs. It's the kind of thing that's fine in moderation, but gets grating the more one has to listen to it. There are some good cuts on here and overall the sound is pretty averagely solid and competent, but it does little to add to her discography. 6/10.
• Kiss My Super Bowl Ring by The Garden: They took the edginess and shock of 100 Gecs, jammed it through a punk rock filter, and lost all of the things that make 100 Gecs memorable and charming. There are some cool ideas here, but most of this falls flat in a way that is just unsatisfying. Resoundingly meh overall. 5/10.
• Circles by Mac Miller: I didn't listen to Mac in middle school or high school at all, so I don't have the same emotional connection to his music that a lot of people who've listened to this do. I didn't grow up with his music. I still haven't heard any other album by him. And to be clear, this isn't a particularly moving album on a personal level. But I do enjoy greatly how the whole thing sounds, with his drowsy vocals over dreamlike beats and chilled out grooves that feel more sedated than relaxed, if that makes sense. It's got an incredibly consistent vibe, expressed in many unique ways. It's not a perfect album, but it's still pretty dang good. 8/10.

• Bioshock: Remastered developed by Blind Squirrel Games: I'm in Arcadia. Getting somewhat annoyed with the game if I'm completely honest.

Works Produced: A few hundred words of creative writing.

Other Thoughts: Thank you for reading my blog. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting post. Apparently they get test results back in like, four hours? So there's a good chance that by the time the post comes out, I'll be able to report whether or not I had the Coronavirus. Stay tuned!