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17: Staying In

I''m not gonna lie, I think i'm doing fairly well during quarantine. But I still want it to end. Why you may ask? It's because my friends aren't handling it so well.

One of my friends is someone who was always at rehearsals for theater either in school or his community theater. Band was also something he was attending a lot and took up much of his day. The problem for him is that all of the activities and things he would've been preoccupied with are now gone. Someone who is busy for most of their life and suddenly get stuck inside their house doing nothing probably suffers a lot.

My other friend who I talk to all the time really wants this quarantine to end too. He misses seeing his friends and being outside of the house. Don't get me wrong, he isn't the type of person who always wants to be outside. But he's someone who doesn't like being alone. Going to someone else's house every weekend or going to school are stuff that he misses.

Quarantine has been bad for so many more people, so I really do wish it ends soon. And when I say "ends soon", I mean it in a safe way, not in a "let's protest against the government because we hate staying at home, let us go to the beach!" kind of way.

5/5/2020

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16: Exercise???

I'm not gonna lie, I haven't worked out in a while. It's even worse in this quarantine because none of the activities outside that I did for clubs are still going on. During these weeks, I have usually been sitting down and doing not much exercise, but I have finally found a motivation to start exercising more.

Competition.

My friend and I started a bet yesterday. Whoever will be the strongest will win. There's some consequences to losing too so it's even more of a motivation to win.

In my opinion, competition with others is a really good motivation. It's really the only way that I can stay motivated for a very long period of time. I remember in the beginning of the school year that I was competing with my friend in 8th grade to see who will get the better grades (In the end, he did win, but we are continuing our competition anyways for high school). The idea of competing with people you know and seeing how far everyone can push themselves.

Other forms of motivation is still needed, but for now competition is my main source of it. Hopefully I can find more "motivations" to have.

4/30/2020

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15: Friends

Since this quarantine started, not many people have been able to meet with their friends. Now you may have been wondering how I have been able to cope with not being able to see my friends. Or maybe you haven't. But anyways, I'm able to cope through being in calls with my friends and talking to some of them every day.

In earlier years, I was almost always on a call with someone on either skype or discord. Being in calls with my friends, mostly online friends and people I played games with. Basically I've been used to just being in calls with people and not really seeing them in real life.

During highschool, I still talk to many of my classmates online, but I started actually seeing people after school and over the weekends way more often than before. While I still do miss hanging out with them, I'm pretty used to it. And on the bright side, I still talk to them a lot online and through calls.

While it may be bearable for me not being able to see my friends in real life, others may be having more of a problem. Just remember that through all the technology we've made all these years, you are still able to talk and have fun with yours friends.

4/26/2020

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14: Surfing

On the game called CSGO, there is a few little servers that people are able to join on the community browser. My favorites are the surfing servers.

When I say surfing, I don't mean the real life surfing like on a board in the water. No. CSGO surfing is basically gliding on diagonal platforms and making jumps across maps. Maybe when they chose the word surfing they meant it as "surfing through the air." Though I think swimming would've made a better term for it.

Anyways, I started surfing when one of my online friends, gren, showed me and another person the server. It was called speed surf kitsune, and I've actually seen it before in some commentary videos with game footage in the background. At first I did pretty decent, but then I kind of sucked towards the end and gave up for a few weeks.

Flash forward many weeks later, where I decided to show my friend the surfing servers and teach him how to play. Honestly, I was pretty jealous of how good he as at it. Eight levels that took me hours to figure out took him only an hour. The last level though, was the hardest one. I haven't completed it yet, and he didn’t either. We decided to compete to see who would get to the end...

Flash FLASH forward to yesterday, where I actually completed the level in between class times. I was pretty proud. Really proud actually. I won. Hahaha.

4/24/2020

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13: Valorant

On one of my earlier blog posts, I talked about a game called Valorant. Well, i finally got into the beta! It was fairly easy though, since I made a whole new twitch account and riot games account. I then started playing the game.

First game I played I was the character Jett. Se's pretty agile, but since I just started and didn't really know how to play, we can just say that I sucked. I got a decent amount of kills though, but that was without using any of my abilities. I really wasn't used to using my abilities, so when I got in a game with my friends who had the game many days before me, I felt a little discouraged.

When I play games, I really hate being on the bottom. I know that I just got the game literally two hours before playing with my friends, but I hated being in last place for kills and always dying. So I decided to learn how to play by myself until I figured the game out, aka I would just play online with random people.

There was one match that I played that really made me click. I was playing as Sage, a sort of healing character, and my teammates were telling me what to do. That's when I got the gist of things. Over the last two days I'd say that I got a lot better.

4/23/2020

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12: Playing Divinity!

Since we started playing Divinity, me and my friends have been on together for 72 hours! And keep in mind that we started playing around April 3rd. Wow, that sounds like a lot of playing!

So far, we have established our characters really well. One player, Mork, is a dwarf who is the rogue. He can do massive amounts of damage, and he usually moves first and rushes into battle. He played through the game two other times, but I'm glad that he said the play through with us is super fun.

Fred (I know, pretty generic name), is a battle mage. He does a lot of damage with his two-handed weapons, and I think he is the strongest one in the group. He has a wide variety of attacks and spells. One could call him a "jack of all trades".

And finally there's my character. As stated before, I'm a cleric. I'd say I specialize in healing, but I also do tons of fire damage and magical damage! I can also summon a bone widow, which is a spider made out of bones! I think me and Fred work greatly as a duo, because he can do most of the heavy damage while I support him and deal magic damage.

We all agreed that I should be the one who should become divine, because it was my first time playing while they both have already played the game.

4/20/2020

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11: CS:GO

A game that I started playing for the last few months is CS:GO. It is the first first-person shooter game that I actually got (unless you count pubg mobile on my ipad). I love it. Since getting it I've also made some friends and became part of a group too.

Before I became friends with some people on CSGO, I only played with two people; One guy introduced me to the game and the other I talk to a lot. The first time I actually played it was on a laggy laptop, but I started playing better and more often once I got my PC. At first we just did deathmatch, but after a month or so of practicing I started some casual. It was weird since I didn't really know what was going on, but people talking in chat sometimes gave me some clues on what to do... or they traumatized me.

Another thing on CSGO is surfing servers. My friend gren, who I met on the game, showed me a surfing server "speed_surf kitsune". I find it very enjoyable, though it took a while till i was used to all the mechanics.

CSGO is definitely a great game to play, and hopefully I'll get better at it.

4/19/2020

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10: It Didn’t Work...

In some previous days, my friends who I played Divinity Sins 2 with were trying to convince me to get a new game that is in it's beta. It's called Valorant, by Riot Games. Right now it is in it's beta phase, and the only way to access the game is by watching streams until you get a drop from one of the streamers.

So I linked my twitch account and riot account, and waited for days. I think that it took around two days of watching streams until I got the beta key. I was so happy! We were all planning to play Valorant the next day. Since we were gonna play, I decided to download and game. The only problem was that I apparently didn't have it. I made a mistake when linking the two accounts together. I accidentally typed my gmail instead of my icloud, causing the beta key to go to a random person! I was really sad, and I tried to find support on the website, but so far they haven't responded.

I decided that I just don't want to get the game...

And then I was convinced again to try to get the key. I made another riot account and a brand new twitch account, so hopefully it works this time!

4/19/2020

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9: CAT

When my mom came back from her night shift, she brought home the usual stuff. She got some food, cooking supplies, and most importantly, a cat laser. This made me really excited. We haven't had one for years! I was so excited to show it to my cats. After a few minutes of just setting up the laser and clearing out the area, I finally started playing.

Charlie was the first to play with the laser. He is a very fluffy cat, white with black spots. He's pretty fast, and the first day we played he was instantly hooked. I wish I could've taken a video, but sadly I was too engrossed in making my cat run around the entire lower level of our house.

Snikey wasn't able to play the first day, since he is somewhat defensive of Charlie, although he is the older one. He is a chubby big guy, grey with some white spots on his face, and white socks. Although he is a big guy, he can run fast. He chased the laser like the champ I knew he was.

I must be really bored to be so excited about a laser toy for my cats, but honestly it's really fun spending time with your pets.

4/18/2020

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8: Chilling

The entire time I’ve been at home, I’ve usually been sitting in my family room. I’d either go to the TV or just be at my computer looking at stuff and playing games. What I hate the most is how the weather outside looks so nice, so calming, and I'm stuck inside my house for most of the day.

My desk for my PC is right next to the window to our yard, so every time I turn to my right, I can see birds outside, the bright green hue of the grass, and people walking on the sidewalk. It makes me sad when I look outside. I always think about me and my friends just hanging out in the yard or playing something in the park. I miss bringing my cats outside and having to watch their every move because they won't stop getting out of my line of vision.

But there are some nice things about not going outside, but still looking from the window. There's a lot of animals outside that I couldn't have seen if I was out there. They would've avoided me then. From just observing, I have seen many birds outside (mostly because of the bird seeds I put out there) and I have also seen a rabbit! I would've never seen that if I wasn't inside.

Just gotta look on the bright side sometimes.

4/16/2020

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7: Birthday!

To anyone who is an Aries or a Taurus, we all share the same fate this year. We have our birthdays during this quarantine period. Mine was just recently, and contrary to some memes online, my birthday didn’t feel as lonely as I thought it would be.

When I woke up, I took a nice shower, and I came downstairs to some breakfast and cake. Honestly, the worst part was posing for pictures that my parents take. The cake itself was decent (although honestly, I like cupcakes better than cakes). That cake is going to last a long time, since there is only three people in the house.

Afterwards I went on to my computer and talked to one of my friends. The whole day we talked and watched a series online! It is called “Pinocchio”, and no, it is not a Disney film. It’s actually a really good K-drama that everyone should totally watch. It’s about someone with a pinocchio syndrome, which makes it so they are not allowed to lie. I think we got through around eight episodes. I see that as an accomplishment, since each episodes is around an hour long.

I'd say my birthday was great. I got lots of messages from people too (some who I don't know....), but it was still lovely.

4/15/2020

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6: Divinity

A game that I recently got is called Divinity Sins 2.

One of my friends recommended we play it together. I bought the game when it was on sale and so far, It is a very interesting game. 

The Divinity Sins games are very similar to Dungeons & Dragons. It is a turn based fighting style, which includes your initiative. You can also customize you character, although there are only 4 races you can choose from for Divinity. There are also lots of classes, so you can be a support character, a tank, or an attacker. 

The story in the game is also fantastic so far. There are a lot of characters we have to talk to, and the dialogue is a bit boring when there are three people in your party, but the game gets so much better when we get to the fighting. 

The character I chose to be is a humanoid lizard named Fenetra. I’m a cleric, so I specialize in healing. I also have some moves that deal lots of damage though, so that is very useful. The friend who recommended the game to me chose to be a dwarf named Mork. His class is a rogue, and he has all the knifes and stuff. My other friend who just got the game too is a human named Fred. Very creative. I believe he is a battle mage (could be wrong), and has some really good attacks and such.

As we started out in Fort Joy, the beginning of the game, we are able to explore the fort and fight many character. I may have been caught stealing from a vendor and caused most of the main characters to attack me, but that’s besides the point (we reloaded our save, no main characters were harmed).

4/6/2020

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5: Morning YouTube Searches

I’m kind of proud of myself. Woke up at eight o’clock. Too bad it wasn’t a school day; I just woke up early for nothing. I may have woken up at eight, but I didn’t get out of bed until ten o’clock. For around two hours, I was just laying down watching youtube, and I found a lot of interesting stuff.

One channel that I found to be very interesting is named red55taiko. They make videos of themselves playing a popular arcade game in japan, known as Taiko no Tatsujin. I watched a few of his videos; he was really good. It made me consider getting the game on my Nintendo switch, but the price was just too high. I’ll be satisfied just watching his videos.

Another YouTube channel I was watching came up because I was watching videos of people using those 3D pens. The thumbnail intrigued me. “Cucumber Zombie Vs. 3D Pen Bow”. The channels name is 3D SANAGO, and they make very cool things with the 3D pens. And apparently they have a thing against cucumbers. I really liked their videos because the commentary was funny in a very serious way.

I also watched some other interesting stuff, but those two newly discovered youtube channels (for me) were something I wished to show to you guys.

4/4/2020

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4: Setting Up

Are your parents just buying a lot of stuff online?

Our front door is covered in boxes full of stuff we have gotten off of amazon. I can say that I have NOT contributed to that mess. Since people don’t want to actually go outside to do shopping for obvious reasons, we go to amazon for help. One of my teachers even acknowledged that they’ve bought a lot of useless stuff.

Well, one not useless thing my dad got was an 

EᒪEᑕTᖇIᑕ TᗩᗷᒪE

We bought two; one for my dad and another for me. In fact I’m using it right now. It was great helping my dad set up the two tables, and I even got to use the electric screw driver. During this quarantine season, building or making something really is a fun thing to do. You know, taking a break from playing games and doing homework.

This desk, not gonna lie, is amazing. I CAN STAND. WHILE TYPING! It is also way bigger than my other desk, which was crowded with papers, spirals, and other nonsense that I have. Now everything can fit on my desk, including my cat. My dad even said the desks we bought were larger than his desks at his office. Amazing, isn’t it?

4/2/2020

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3: Schedule

To be honest, I’m a pretty lazy person.

Surprising, right? sarcasm intended

Homework during this quarantine is a bit troubling for me. It’s easy to do, but It’s hard to actually do it because I get distracted by a lot of things in my house now. Before, when we were still attending school, I had plenty of time to do homework there because I got home around 5 or 6, sometimes 7 o’clock. But now that I am always home, time has just passed by very quickly for me. A goal I have for this online school is to be able to develop a good schedule soon so I am able to actually get stuff done without procrastinating it.

But other than that, online school for most of my classes like math and french have been pretty normal. It would be a bit hard to take tests and such, but those classes in particular don’t feel like they have changed much.

In the end, I feel like the struggle I am having with online school is my own fault, considering my work ethic isn’t that good. Once I get it down, though, I bet I can breeze through the classes easily!

3/30/2020

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2: Playing Games

Ever since break started and we were forced to stay inside of our own homes, I was able to use my new PC more often. Because of school, I wasn’t able to actually play much, but now I can play a lot.

 A game I got in january was called CS:GO. Before I was pretty bad at the game, but since then I think I have gotten a lot better. It’s also fun being able to play with my friends on casual mode. 

Another game that I have been playing often is Minecraft. It came back suddenly because of the new updates, so me and my friends have made a server to play on. One the 1.16 updates comes around, i hope we are all able to make a new server to experiment the new features on. We also play minigames on Minecraft. Bedwars is a huge thing, and I have introduced that minigames to my friends who haven’t played much.

The last games that I have been obsessed with throughout the break is called Stardew Valley. It’s a farming game, and It’s actually rather calming. I have the game on both my switch and my PC. I may have convinced one of my friends to get it, so we have been playing it for a week, and he likes the game very much.

3/30/2020

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1: Situation

Now, many things have happened in 2020 so far. The most significant thing though, and what I am going to be talking about is COVID-19. The virus, which originated from Wuhan, China, has reached many of the countries around the world. From what I’ve seen so far, the world is in total panic. While comedy and jokes may be seen all over the internet, people are struggling. They are being locked in their houses, which has stopped them from going to work and school. Many businesses (especially those who depend on a large crowd of people like restaurants, airports, and other tourist based places) are struggling. Being stuck at home has given me many opportunities to do some stuff that I may have never been able to do in my free time. It gets kind of lonely in my house, though. Because I only live with my mom and dad, there are no siblings to talk to or play with. The internet has connected us all to news about the virus and our friends through calls and messages. The internet is also connecting me with all of you guys, so I'm going to be telling you about my experience at home. I wonder what I'll be doing...

3/26/2020