When the morning comes.

[hannah]

For well over a decade, my unbroken breakfast choice has been scrambled eggs. If I had to rush, I'd eat a protein bar or some canned beans, but if I had time to cook, it was scrambled eggs. Maybe with some cheese as a low-fi omelet, maybe with some herbs, sometimes served with tomato sauce and sometimes salsa, but always scrambled.

Except this morning, I thought about eggs, I thought about pans, I thought about skillets, I thought about my skillets, and I had fried eggs this morning.

This is a gigantic shift, especially because I think I'll have them again tomorrow. Maybe it was time for a change. Maybe I'll go back to scrambled again after this runs its course.

Whatever brought it on, I'm kind of amazed that I managed to do it, anyway.

Challenge #5

In your own space, promote a canon/talk about a part of canon that you love. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I love that in the game Stardew Valley, you sleep.

Not like in The Sims where it's one of several abstracted measures of quality of life. It's way more stylized than that. You have two bars in Stardew, energy and health, with health only mattering if you're fighting bugs and crabs in mines. Energy gets depleted through the day as you work - planting and watering crops, chopping wood, breaking stones, fishing, all that stuff. The days pass, and night comes, and you get tired.

And you go to sleep.

Because there's always something to do, because there's always a little more that could be done, there's a bit of resistance against it. And because you get to start a new day, with the progressions and changes from the day before kicking in, it's good to go to bed and see what the morning brings.

You get tired, and you go to bed.

It's a necessary mechanic, it's a small thing compared to how much there is to do and how much the recent update added, and compared to the image of harvesting strawberries the size of my head, it's chillingly realistic. And it's one of the parts I love the most, because it works as a reminder for me, in my own days and nights as well.

Comments

[sjh2009]

That's a really interesting observation. It's such an important part of our lives but day after day we play games or watch shows and films where people do not sleep, it's just not important.

I'm not familiar with your game but it sounds peaceful and relaxing, the kind of life I think a lot of us wish we lived, especially in these difficult times.

Thank you for sharing this, it's really made me think.

[spikedluv]

That's very cool. I like that it serves as a reminder for you irl.

[suncani]

I love that, it really made me think! I play stardew valley a lot and I do tend to go between resisting like mad sleeping, and then going to bed really early because I've run out of energy and don't know what else to do.

Hmm sounds a bit too like real life to me lol

[hannah]

You're welcome.

It's a very nice game for practical escapism - the stakes are just low enough it's not stressful, and the long-term planning of things like "how many strawberry seeds do I set aside for next year" is nice when it's not anyone's livelihood at risk. It's a streamlined kind of life, and while there's some sorrow and darkness in characters' backstories, it adds to the depth of the gameplay as you learn about them as people.

[hannah]

"Oh, yeah, sleep, that thing I do to recharge."

[hannah]

I just started a new farm on the beach map, so I'll sometimes stay out late fishing. It's a very low-key fantasy - imagining myself on a beach as the sun sets - and it's about what I can handle, right now.