06.29.2026
I had a classic Sean realization this weekend (that I've had many times before) when I spent the entire day being outside with my friends then when I had a spare moment and I checked my phone and went on everyone's favorite social media site Blue Sky I saw something that really made me mad like basically immediately. And of course I was like wtf am I even going on my phone for. Today at work I made a conscious effort to not look at social media and I felt better and got more work done. Crazy.
The ideal social media feed for me would be I scroll and I see things that make me laugh, updates from my friends and Street Fighter fan art. Speaking of Street Fighter this year was the first year in over a decade I didn't watch any Evo when it was airing. The Saudi Sportswashing stuff put a bad taste in my mouth and Evo has just gotten so corporate that its kind of miserable to watch. Last year for top 8 there was so much dead air between matches for just the same 10 commercials over and over again. When I was checking the Street Fighter reddit on the train this morning they said the same guy that won last year won again with the same character so I guess I didn't really miss anything at all. Oh well. They're doing a big-ish tournament in a few weeks here that my friend is going to but I don't know if I want to spend $100 to go 0-2. We'll see!!
Thursday was the last week of the pinball season. I did pretty decent but didn't make it to as many weeks as I wanted so I was just under the top 16 cutoff for finals. Thankfully I am on call for backup though in case someone doesn't show up so I'll at least go to hang out and get my merch for playing 8 sessions. And that's the real motivator - custom swag!! The smaller league was fun so I'm excited to see if they continue doing it.
Saturday I went up to Fitchburg for a brewers fest that was happening downtown. Drank a LOT of beer and listened to some live music and hung out with friends in a hot park. The best beer I had was a Wachusett lemonade brew that was the perfect amount of sweet and was so refreshing. It was better than most of the shandies I've had (including the Del's shandy I have in my fridge right now). When we got too hot we went to check out a new barcade nearby which was fun but I was bummed that their DDR cab was down. Maybe for the best though I had a LOT of beer in me hahah.
Sunday though!! Big birding day. We left the house at 8:30 and got back at 8:30 lol. Spent a lot of time on the north shore which I hadn't really been to yet! We started our day in Rockport, first at Pool Hill where we helped David find an Indigo Bunting after he had been looking for an hour for one lol. Hung out downtown for a bit (really cute town!!) then made our way to Halibut Point State Park which was really cool. We did the loop around the quarry and hung out a lot by the shore which was really rocky and fun to explore. Crazy fog too. Stopped in Ipswitch for lunch and Little Wolf Cafe and finally went to Plum Island for a few hours. Plum Island was where we really saw birds compared to Halibut Point, they had a long boardwalk trail we did and an observation deck. To be honest I think I'm mostly going on these for the hikes but it is fun to spot birds and most importantly actually learn about nature where I live!! I'll actually post some pictures this time but it really was an excellent day spent outside with friends checking out new places and seeing cool things.
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