⛥March Q&A (Patreon)

Hello! It's a beautiful sunny day which means my chances of playing basketball today are sub-0. Instead we're starting the day with progressive rock - the angrier the better. Some of my go-to albums are by Snake River Conspiracy - Sonic Jihad, Vulcan and their unreleased songs. I have them all on my phone for when my neighbors start their parties stupid early. Because every day is a party when you're stuck at home with your brats. This is how we communicate. They play their shit music really loud, then I play my music really loud to let them know I can hear them. Then they stop. Then I turn my music down to a non-offensive level. All is well. I've dedicated this day to home improvement because the one thing I want more than to play basketball in peace is to be on top of my life and housework counts as exercise. I will be doing that until the evening and then I will try to record some voiceover and sfx for my video. Right now I've got some paint drying so I figured I have a minute to answer your question - might kill a fly later idk. The one major flaw in almost all German apartments is the distinct lack of bug screens. And kitchens. And AC. But predominantly bug screens. It's not a big issue on the third floor - but here on the first floor I am practically eye level with all buzzing insects. I therefore have strict window opening times that could compete with German business times! Still waiting for the day when my asshole neighbor quits smoking (or dies mysteriously) so I can actually make use of all my window opening hours. But we're doing the best we can. 

Do you have Discord? Would you consider getting it? I got discord this month as the Hyper tier (and up) reward as I unfortunately decided to discontinue the physical rewards and didn't want to take something away without offering something else. It's pretty fun casually chatting with people and I like coming back to fun conversations after a busy day. It's like being as social as possible while being as non-committal as possible. Works for me at least for now.
 

Things you'll miss when you leave Germany for good? Probably hanging out with the handful of fun people in this country... And walking everywhere. I know the US is not really a pedestrian country - I won't be able to "run down to the bakery real quick" for a coffee and buttered pretzel. And I can't drive. To all my non-German readers, driving is only for the rich here. I've never been wealthy enough to go to driving school and get a license. Driving school is mandatory here and costs upwards of €1.500 (car not included). Most kids' parents pay for their driving school for that reason. My parents probably could have managed to save that amount at some point, but they've been tragically mismanaging their money all life. And because busses are incredibly unhelpful where I live and it's usually faster to walk, I just learned to walk everywhere. I like walking. It keeps me fit and helps my circulation. (*is anemic*) Ok this fly is getting on my nerves now. How is it possible to hate something so much just for existing near me? Brb. Well I don't see anything flying but I also haven't found any bodies. I don't think that strike was hard enough to do lasting damage. We'll see.
 

How does the current global situation affect you (especially the lock down and curfew in Bavaria)? I hope the crotch demon hell spawns aren't too annoying. Well for one, I don't appreciate how people keep stealing my pastimes. Overnight the entire town suddenly took up jogging in the park as a hobby and ever since people saw me playing basketball in the park once, now everytime I go out there the court is occupied. Exercise is the only thing we are allowed to do outdoors and with a lack of leisure activity options, suddenly everyone wants to do what I've been doing to avoid people. Really takes the fun out of being a loner. I hope the curfew is lifted soon so they can go back to smoking weed and BBQing and I can go back to my solitary sports. Secondly, the pool is closed which means no swimming for me. Not a huge lifestyle change as I wasn't going there often in the first place but I miss being in the water. Thirdly, my disability carer is no longer allowed to have contact with me (or anyone else) so I have to do all my errands by myself which actually means I have to go outside more because I can only carry so much on my own. And then of course my neighbors are no longer reserving their parties for the weekends and I have to deal with their noise all the time. I did see a sign that said the playground was closed but never have I ever witnessed such a mass scale reverse psychology effect. Ever since the lockdown, I actually see more people out than before. Almost like when you know you can't have something, you instantly want it more. Where I shop they have this dystopian setup for social distancing where they split the hall in half and have markings all over the floors in all the shops. I've seen a few people with masks but most people are just paranoid about getting close to anyone. It's kinda nice to not have to go out of my way to avoid people so much because now they're avoiding me. (Even though to my knowledge I've never been infected.) Toilet paper is still sold out but bone broth is stocked now! Apparently people don't consider the organic grocery store as 'essential' and don't shop there as often. I only stopped by on the way home from the bank. Every single store is sold out of ginger. Like... give it back? That ginger won't cure your virus, people. I needed some ginger for a video but couldn't get any so had to improvise. The mall is a ghost town. They turned over all the benches to discourage people from sitting inside. Everything except for grocery stores and banks is shut down, lights out and shit. Obviously, no crystal shopping for me anytime soon. Necessity is the mother of invention (or something like that?) so I've been finding ways to use and repurpose and upcycle things I already have at home. I've gotten real good at turning garbage into useful garbage. Just look at the beautiful jewelry hanger I made out of a vodka bottle, sand and a stick I found 

So many useful things are just free. Finish all your honey? Free jar! Discarded sticks & rocks? Free decoration! Don't use that hair product you bought 2 years ago thinking it would actually do shit for you? Free spray bottle for a spiritual cleansing liquid! I never realized just how many things I have around me (this sounds wrong as I literally have way too much shit) that are useful and wonderful and just want to be used to their potential. This crisis has made me more inventive and creative if anything. It definitely made me think twice before I throw something out as soon as I'm done with it since I can't just go out and buy something else for who knows how long. So for my birthday this year I'm treating myself a to a new life. There's no question that I've been stalling some changes for way longer than I should have and really nothing is more self-loving than decluttering (and decorating). For the longest time I've avoided these things between being busy with making videos and being depressed and not wanting to put the work into a place I'm anxious to leave ASAP. But that's not how I want to live at this point. I don't want to live my life like everything I want is in the future. Because the future isn't a thing currently and the now is too depressing to leave it that way. I finally want to have my life together - at least the parts of it I can control. I want that peace of mind of knowing everything is more or less in order. I just don't want to live like I don't care. In order for me to be content with my life, a lot of things I've grown out of have got to go. Lately I've been letting myself get inspired by #aesthetic videos and while I'm not aiming to achieve a certain #aesthetic, I'm more motivated now to surround myself with beauty. after all, I will be spending many more months here and I want to live in style. Seriously, who's dumbass idea was that disgusting paint splatter everywhere? I want to smack myself lol. That being said, I'm gonna go back to my home improvement stuff now. Out with the old - make room for the new. I'm gonna get that fly eventually. 

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and the April Q&A post will be available here in a minute. Stay safe and make life beautiful!