Tahoe Trip 2017, other updates

Well, I was =going= to do a lot of things last night, but had some changes of plans, hahaha.  Ran into a coworker on the train ride and ended up having a nice chat with them instead of blogging like I was intending to.  And then besides meeting Audrey for a short chat, Brett came over for a melee session which ended up being aweeeesome.  I was super on top of my game and definitely felt like I had leveled up.  My edgeguarding definitely still needs work though; I still have trouble recognizing when I need to jump out off-stage and go out there for an edgeguard -- right now I either stay on-stage or grab ledge but a lot of times the correct thing to do is jump out.  We captured a handful of our sets on video, including some pretty great moments like clutch ledgetechs, and even a mew2king-esque 0 to death that I did on FD as Marth (woot!).

This past weekend was our Tahoe snow trip!  It was super awesome and filled with many fun adventures, as well as some silly mistakes that were made, haha.  Snowboarding felt amazing and I had definitely improved since the last time.  Our last run was super duper sweet and was the perfect way to cap off the trip (though I also wish we could have done more).  Was even starting to get the hang of turns at the end (though I also ate it once), and I felt like I had a lot of control as I was leafing down the mountain and navigating around other people.  Would definitely go again sometime.

Me and Kat were in charge of food for the trip, which was quite fun and seemed to turn out successfully (though with one or two notable setbacks).  It was actually super awesome that we stayed at a place with a full kitchen, and I realized again just how much I enjoy cooking, haha.  It was a mild challenge being in charge of food for 6 people (definitely the most food I have ever made), but the proportions seemed to actually work out pretty nicely as well.

Other highlights included some crazy shenanigans that both cars ran into due to closed roads on the way to Tahoe, a pretty epic 6-person Spaceteam session, as well as my first time actually (like actually) playing D&D, in which I played a snarky, socially inept wizard who always knew the exact time due to being raised in the Geffen Clock Tower (lololol).  Tahoe itself was beautiful and seeing all the white snow everywhere was quite something.  And yeah, boarding was awesome.

Work is going okay!  I have been trying to cook myself one lunch per week at the office, though honestly it would probably be more often if I had more groceries on hand to bring and cook (things are still slightly a mess at home from having brought a bunch of kitchen stuff on the trip, though at least I spent some time putting up my fallen-down room posters).  Have been feeling a little less stressed lately and am trying to integrate myself into the team and in general just feel more comfortable.  I think it will take time (as it always does), but I can feel it getting there, slowly.

Went to Mission City Swing for the past 3 weeks in a row!  It's been fun, though I'm ready to take a break and am not going tonight.  Cautiously looking forward to Jammix this Friday though!

In other news, I'm working on a remix of my favorite A-zu-ra tune, which I've gotten off to a great start and hope to finish sometime this week to submit to his remix album.  It's going to be pretty sweet!

That's about it for now, I guess.  Unfortunately I don't really have progress to report on Rhythm Quest -- right now I'm stuck trying to figure out the most elegant way to handle sloped collisions in a general way for my platformer physics system, which admittedly is not 100% related to Rhythm Quest entirely, but I hope to use it for some sloped paths in some of the levels.  Continuing to watch Chihayafuru here and there, and I don't know if I mentioned it but I started a playthrough of Earthbound, hoping to actually finish it properly this time around.  Also played through Gamma Bros, which was a cute little twin-stick shooter.

To close off, I'm going to repost this little snippet from Kelly Casanova on (de)gendered dancing.  I know I've posted this before, but really it deserves more mention:

"I see only positive results from encouraging ALL my students to learn both lead and follow roles as soon as they feel grounded in their traditional role basics. Men and women who both lead and follow learn to have more empathy and compassion for their partners. Women who know how to lead can now dance all night long where in the past the ratio of men to women would normally dictate that many women would sit out most of the evening. Men who can follow can directly "steal" moves and advanced techniques from some of the more experienced leaders making both themselves and their subsequent followers happier. Men and women alike get to stretch themselves in skills of leading and following in a relationship and perhaps discover skills and preferences they didn’t even know they had. In the traditional role of male lead, female follow, many men only get acquainted with women, and many women only get to know men. This breeds a sense of competition for partners, which is not always healthy to a good, friendly social environment. When everyone knows both parts, men develop more friendships with other men and women with other women. Win-win for everyone as far as I can tell."