This is how my #sublimesunday ended off for a bit of putting the cart before the horse. Along this field on the edge of town, I have snapped a few #beautifulsunday sunset shots on the way home. I like Sundays because I try to book nothing remotely resembling work, get outside as much as possible, have some sort of issue pop up but not ruin plans, and let the day be what it needs to be.
The day started out nice and slow with some fresh-ground coffee from https://stratfordcoffee.com/ and a gaming session after a few business emails. I have had 'Gamer' in my description since day 1 but don't feel I have plugged into the fantastic Hive gaming community as much as I should.
A great group of gamer friends made up of some of the original LANfesters of decades gone by still game nightly to this day. This one is New World https://www.newworld.com/en-us/ which is an Amazon game that has been out since 2021 and I remember buying in so that I could play the beta well before that. The PvP guild I played with back then pulled out of the game when they put the ability to unflag for PvP. I forgot I even owned it when friends started playing again after a LANfest. It has been a while since I properly played an MMO and the most recent is Classic World of Warcraft so we are talking huge technology upgrade since then.
Distress Beacon!
The literal fun & games ended shortly after as I received a call from a restaurant client. Seems some changes were made to the point of sale system and our attention was necessary. It was a neat vantage point to observe the operation of a 6-week pop-up form the big city in action. Coffee was great too.
Vinyl Time!
The only item I had on the agenda beforehand was hitting the first annual vinyl show at one of my favourite restaurants, https://revival.house A little later than planned but here nonetheless.
Inside the cathedral venue was various stations selling thousands of records. With one good friend as the owner of this place, and another spinning the soundtrack on the turntables, it would have been rude not to check in. I didn't arrive intending to build upon my record collection but had a feeling it might happen. I think I have to be a proper vinyl nerd and show you what I picked up & why in a post of its own.
On the way back home, I popped into another unique locally-owned food emporium https://www.whatever75.com/ with my little one for a milkshake. We were going to take it to go but opted to dine in so that I could have a nice local afternoon beer from https://www.jobsitebrewing.ca/ There were a few Boozy Milkshakes on the menu but this is a #beerologist's idea of a boozy milkshake.
You might notice how I link the websites of locally-owned businesses. That is because I run one myself at https://towncriermarketing.ca and know the value of backlinks from numerous Hive front ends to our page with key words such as digital marketing, e-commerce, social media, SEO, and all of the other services we provide. Primarily to hometown businesses so that we can keep as much money in town as possible. You should consider doing the same if you are a blockchain blogger.
As the afternoon waned, it was time to take Muddy the Doggie to the local monster truck mudpit AKA the local dog park. It looks more like a college football field after an autumn playoff game than the field I like to visit.
Most of the cars who looked like they might visit kept on driving when the saw the state of the park, and how mud-covered my little guy was. While he generally shows up for the wrestling and chasing of other dogs, having the park to ourselves didn't stop him from running happily everywhere.
Deceivingly blue skies hinted at warmer and drier conditions but the path in the back told a different tale. It appears more swampy than it was at this angle. I was simply trying to capture a reflection image of the stump bench feature someone had added recently.
Maybe it is the ability to disconnect from the digital world a bit and breathe some fresh air, but there seems to be so many interesting perspectives during this walk I try and take daily. These alien-looking spiky things were fun and show you how far smartphone cameras have come. I would have shot a whole roll of film on my old Minolta camera, had it developed and shuffled through the whole envelope in hopes of finding a neat shot like this. The automatic depth of field and the resolution to capture the lines and contrast, even when being a novice, are impressive.
Back home, it was let's make something from the cookbook night and the selection was a tex-mex rice bowl thing with plenty of veggies and beans. I unapologetically topped it liberally with salsa, jalapeno Monterey jack, lime crema and habanero sauce. What a symphony of flavour to cap off a big weekend and sublime Sunday.
Eventually, I managed to get back to what I started earlier in the day with the guys. Turns out Diablo 4 was in open beta and a few of the guys were going to give it a whirl. Having played every Diablo game from back in the 90s, and the numerous hours blown crawling dungeons in Diablo 3, I was looking forward to seeing what was new.
It will likely be a while til I play this one again as I can think of better ways to spend $80. Still, the depth of story was impressive, cutscenes were worth watching in their entirety, and gameplay was both familiar and new at once. Fun game to check out and I will come play with you at launch if you have an extra 80 HBD you would like to slide my way. Otherwise, I am waiting for a sale...which always happens over time.
Here we are back at the sunset where we began. This Sunday turned out to have a lot going on but it unfolded as it should. Safe and happy at home and energized for the coming week.
