Easing frustration with games & web design
My company laid off 230 people and closed 6 radio stations Tuesday morning. Tuesday and Wednesday were understandably frustrating days; first was shock (Tuesday) then frustration came (Wednesday). But I'm not here to talk about that.
I've been trying to find ways to keep calm amidst the chaos and rapid change in my day-to-day work duties, and I found a couple of things. They're mostly distractions but as other people who've been in similar situations might attest, they're necessary. It might come at the expense of putting my full attention into my job, but if it's keeping me sane, it's worth it.
A new idle game
I've been playing this neat game called Arrows. It's not a difficult game, even when you get a "nightmare" level; it's a game designed for concentration, but not too much concentration.
At first there were too many ads—you have to sit through an extended "game app" ad that is difficult to skip, because the "X" button doesn't show up quickly—but I found a way around that by setting a Private ad-blocking DNS in my data settings. The trade-off of getting zero ads means I also can't click on the "hint" button if I'm stuck, but I find that to add to the challenge and makes me think a little more.
I'm at level 191 now; the easy levels are easy and take maybe 10 seconds, so I play those until I get to a Hard, Super Hard, or Nightmare level and then take a break.
Changing up the blog stylesheet
I thought a bit about how my site has a harsh colour scheme. I loved it when mgx released the "abzug" theme I really liked it. I still do, but lately I've been thinking about something a bit more minimal, maybe softer. But I didn't want to lose the various styles that fit the theme.
So I started a chat with Claude; I decided I wanted to base my colours around some Prince Edward Island-related colours so I did some consultation. Here's the colours it came up with. (The colour boxes may not show in an RSS reader so you'll have to visit the post URL directly.)
Light mode:
Dark mode:
I prefer the softer look. I still have the grid-line background but I think I might drop that for a more unified look, make it simpler. For now I'll leave it the way it is.
Anyway, that's how my week is going.