August 3, 2025

We were about to leave the supermarket when we were stopped by someone conducting a survey. He showed me a piece of paper with connect-the-dot images for a cartoon wedge of cheese, broccoli, and a carrot. Underneath each image was a label with scrambled letters. And beneath that were a few basic questions about vegetables that we had to answer in pencil. Somehow I kept starting with the wrong letter and misspelling everything. I suspected it this was a part of the experimental design. The experience made me feel old.

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There was a crowd of people watching an improv performance on stage. The actors were dressed as Fire Emblem characters. There was a short intermission that was filled with inviting someone from backstage to juggle a bunch of empty cans. The can juggler was surprisingly popular based on the cheering from the audience. Next up was someone singing a song from Guilty Gear Strive. The instrumental was playing from someone in the crowd pulling it up on YouTube on their laptop. I tried and failed to recall Bridget’s theme from the earlier games.

Someone asked about Monty Oum’s blog only to be informed that .pss website was no longer online. The person was in shock, saying that it was still there just a couple weeks ago. “At least we were there [for that brief moment in history]," someone consoled.