2020 Gratitude: Discord

I started using Discord in late summer. One of my friends introduced it as an easier way to configure voice chat while playing games of Among Us.

However, while we first started using it as a way to talk about video games, it has become an invaluable way for me to keep in touch with friends that I was struggling to maintain regular communication with.

I’ve never been great about reaching out to individual people unless I had a specific reason to – and those reasons are few and far between, especially now, when not much is happening, ever! Instead, I leaned a lot on group chats, where I could rely on other people to throw out topics of discussion and participate on an ad-hoc basis. Though this worked out fine for a while, especially when I could still see people in person, it started to become less reliable for me as time went on. I eventually narrowed my range of group chats down to a small amount, which was good for my easily distracted brain, but ultimately bad for actually keeping in touch with a wider range of people about a wider range of topics (as many of those chats were created for specific purposes or discussions about specific things).

However, Discord has allowed me to expand my horizons! Through the different rooms, I still have the structure of focused “group chats”, but with the ability to mute and lurk and and jump in whenever I want, without having to worry about people noticing that I’ve muted a chat, or feeling excluded from conversations. These servers also include friends that I do want to keep in touch with but have never had specific reasons to talk to, giving me a convenient way to have organic conversations with them.

Keeping up with friends has always been an immense source of stress for me – ask my therapist about it! – and while Discord doesn’t solve all of my problems (honestly, it’s created some new ones), I think it’s been a net positive, and I’m looking forward to continuing to use it in the new year!

2020 Gratitude: Brewing Kombucha

In the “before times”, I often treated myself to a bottle of kombucha whenever I needed a pick-me-up. In my head, I likened it to, “basically juice, but it has probiotics, right? so it’s healthy too!” (I wish I could say it more elegantly than that – but it is the truth! Kombucha is Millennial juice! My blood glucose levels are not fooling anyone!!!)

Though I knew it was possible to brew kombucha at home, and even got a kit as a Secret Santa present a few years ago, the convenience of getting right before checking out at the grocery store always won. However, the price started to add up as well. Quarantine gave me a great excuse to finally tear into my Christmas present and try out kombucha brewing for myself.

The process was surprisingly simple – brew some tea, mix in some sugar, add water and starter, and let sit in a cabinet. After my second or third batch, I was pretty comfortable with the process, and was happy that I could now sip some Millennial juice in the comfort of my own home, without having to go to the grocery store to satisfy my cravings.

The next thing I have to experiment with is flavoring – maybe in the new year!

2020 Gratitude: The Amazing Race and Big Brother

I’ve fallen into the rabbit hole of reality TV in quarantine! My love for Survivor (and now The Bachelor/ette!) is much better documented at this point, but I also gave two other shows a try this year: The Amazing Race and Big Brother!

I watched only one season of The Amazing Race before this year – not coincidentally, the one that included Survivor contestants – and while I enjoyed it (spoiler ahead!), I fell off after the last Survivor contestants were eliminated, and didn’t see the rest of the show through. With nothing else to do, I decided to start watching the next season!

Again, not going to spoil any gameplay, but the nice thing about watching The Amazing Race was pseudo-travelling through watching the race. After all of this time spent at home, even watching complete strangers on TV fly to India, South America, and even The Philippines felt like a tiny, little change of pace. It was even fun to jump into The Amazing Race fandom for a bit, if only to look into fan reactions to specific moments!

On the other hand, I also tried following this summer’s season of Big Brother. While I was really excited to give the show a chance, given my well established Survivor fandom, I was not impressed. I even had high hopes because it was an all stars season! Though there were some funny moments and genuinely interesting characters, I couldn’t bring myself to watch three times a week, especially as I grew more and more disinterested in the game.

I can’t talk about why I disliked the season without some spoilers so… spoilers ahead!
I actually had a few favorites early on in the season… and they were promptly eliminated. I stopped following right before some controversial moments happened as well. I actually thought the gameplay had the potential to be super interesting, but I tuned out when it became more obvious that the dominant alliance was going to dominate. In terms of gratitude… I guess I’m glad that I bailed before things got too nasty!

I’m happy that I’ve had the time in quarantine to watch more reality TV competitions, which I’ve kind of relied on throughout this time as a security blanket. Comfortable! Repeating tropes! Manufactured excitement! Now, truly, my concern is how I am going to keep up with all these shows once “real life” starts up again…