One Track Mind | Fr 12/16

The morning was pretty lax. Stand-up was even smaller with some people starting vacation, but the others wanted me to ask for help with the automation utility. I didn't want to do anything since I was lazy, but I also felt unprepared to work on it given how much Java 8 I know, so I didn't think it would've helped to ask anyways.

I spent most of the morning messing around with all of the new stuff I got, namely trying on the volleyball pads and new shoes. I didn't realize how much pink there was on the shoes, but I bought them for function and they're growing on me. With camo, cheetah print, and pink accents, I feel like they would fit a baddie, but I guess I can be a baddie too. Having them on and walking around the house made me excited, like a kid trying on their brand new Halloween costume.

I also enjoyed trying to hook up the TV to the sound bar only to realize that I have nothing to play on it to test. The sound bar's power cord is also very loose and it seems to shut off after a few minutes of playing audio, but I can't tell if it's due to some kind of timeout feature or the cord shifting.

Other than that the day was uneventful. Of course this involved some more Left 4 Dead, but my game is starting to get less stable (sometimes crashing when connecting to Ascension, randomly when alt-tabbing, or when a campaign ends) and I'm remembering the bad parts of modding. Eventually during a finale I realized I was tired of all the campaigns when voting for the next one, which also made me realized that I may be sinking too much time into it.

Just like any other day working remotely I napped too, from about 5 - 7 PM. After waking up I hurried to make dinner and booked it to volleyball with the new gear. I thought it'd be strange playing without the Haikyuu group there, but I still recognized most of the faces. Now that I think about it, that situation is nothing new anyway.

My first team was both fun and stacked and I felt like the worst player besides a newbie we had. It felt strange winning by such a large margin every time, which was especially nice since the group was big tonight and we only had 2 courts to start. Eventually open gym started and we switched a few players, but we struggled to run 5-1 and didn't get much competition anyways.

It was nice chatting with people, but a few of them were frustrated playing with complete newbies and not getting many chances to touch the ball, which I understand. We played pretty late, maybe until like 11 PM, until we didn't have enough people willing to continue and switched to hitting lines. It was nice getting to hit plenty of 5's with such a short line, and I even got to film a few. I loved getting to chill with a small group of friendly people even if some of them were strangers.

Sherry was also considering going to the party after volleyball, but then another group asked us (Sherry, Andrew, Jaxon, and a girl on my team during open gym Chichi) to play since we were the only other ones still there. The games were tough since the other group was clearly more experienced, but we fought hard in deuce on the second and I had a blast. Afterwards both of our groups chatted and exchanged contact info since we're all trying to find people to play with. I saw some of their group (Johnny, Dan) playing there before, but it was nice finally getting to play and speak with them.

I had a great time chatting with Jaxon and Chichi and it's clear everyone there loves the game with how we chatted until after 1 AM. Jaxon shared about having played for 4 years before taking a break and rejoining with the Friday group this year, and Chichi coached Middle school girls for some time. We talked about DIVA, trying to find new groups to play with, and Chichi even offered herself to set up drills which excited me.

Afterwards we all filed out, but I continued to chat with Jaxon in the parking lot. We talked about the struggle of finding competitive groups to play with and learn from, the woes of playing middle, and how we're hungry to get better. Eventually a truck pulled into the parking lot which terrified us, but it was an employee who works for the company across from the gym. Jaxon and I called it a little before 3, but I was loving talking about the game and making friends.

Afterwards a few people asked about the party and where I was, but I also saw people messaging the Haikyuu group that they got home safely so I knew things were over. It was sad having to miss the party, especially since some of the people who came would've gone to volleyball, but I had a great time being in my element tonight so it's hard to say I missed out. I guess it was partially because we didn't get kicked out of volleyball by the gym employees, but I do love the game and I'm not sure how fun a huge crowd would've been at the party. This whole thing reminds me of the joke about skipping prom to grind video games, but I sort of agree with it.