Guilty pleasures are a great way to learn more about who a person really is, and today I’ll be showing you some of mine, just so that you begin to know me better. This blog isn’t some application for me to be your friend, unless you want it to be. Anyways, here are my guilty pleasures:
Minesweeper
Ever since I was a middle school chap, I’ve been an avid minesweeperer. Something about flagging the mines just tickled my dopamine receptors in the right way. For those of you who are uninitiated, read the following:
Minesweeper rules are very simple. The board is divided into cells, with mines randomly distributed. To win, you need to open all the cells. The number on a cell shows the number of mines adjacent to it. Using this information, you can determine cells that are safe, and cells that contain mines. Cells suspected of being mines can be marked with a flag using the right mouse button. (credit)
In my earlier minesweeping days, it would be a competition between me and my friends to see who could get the lowest time in a one-hundred-mine board. Obviously, I crushed them all and eventually they stopped playing because it would have been a herculean feat to match my speed. Since I had beaten my friends, I had had my minesweeper fill and chose to retire for a number of years, only sporadically playing games whenever I didn’t have anything else to do.
An example of a completed one-hundred-mine board.
Sometime in the past month I stumbled upon a website called “minesweeper.online”. You would be surprised how deep the minesweeper rabbit hole goes; since creating an account, I’ve discovered that you can create custom games with your own dimensions and number of mines, complete daily/monthly quests, and partake in a number of different playing styles. I present to you a quick synopsis on minesweeper playing styles:
- Speed: You complete a board as quickly as possible.
- Efficiency: You complete a board with as few clicks as possible.
- No Flags: You complete a board without using flags.
- Difficulty: You complete a board with an extremely high difficulty, greatly increasing mines and size of the board.
As you can see, minesweeper is quite complex. This complexity attracts me, and I wish someday that I will become bored with it so I stop wasting time. If you want to view my minesweeper profile, visit https://minesweeper.online/player/11675600.
Drain Gang
Drain Gang (henceforth referred to as DG) is a musical collective of Swedish rappers Bladee, Ecco2k, Thaiboy Digital and a couple of producers. Their style is characterized by excessive autotune, high-pitched singing, and intricate beats. Many of the fans (including me) describe the music as ethereal. Additionally, their aesthetic is… feminine?
Ecco2k (left) and Bladee (right)
I guess it is. Ecco2k (left) is handsome. Just look at him. That’s not why I like DG, though.
Ecco2k, a musician from Stokholm
I don’t listen to music like most people, finding new music and creating new playlists; I become obsessed with artists and will exclusively listen to them for extended periods of time. In middle school/freshman/sophomore year, it was Edgar Meyer, a bass player. Now, it is DG, and I have been exclusively (and I seriously mean exclusively) listening to them for the past year now. It’s hard telling when I’ll stop.
If you listen to some of their songs, you won’t like them, I’m telling you that right now. Excessive autotune and high-pitched singing does not sound good to normal people. Apparently, I am not normal. DG has degenerated my music taste.
If you are interested in DG, I’d recommend you listen to Crest, E (it’s an album by Ecco2k), or Icedancer.
Stalking People on Instagram
SOUL versus SOULESS
I like stalking people on Instagram. Whenever a new story from a person who I’ve never talked to pops up in my feed, I love viewing it and then subsequently looking through their entire profile. As for me personally, I don’t have much on my instagram because I don’t want people to stalk me. It’s just interesting to see what people are up to, although I don’t want them to know what I’m up to.
I’ve had a couple awkward moments when stalking, for example, when I’ve accidentally liked someone’s old post. This gives the person an indication that you were stalking them, so in this instance I’d block them. If you are acquainted with them, just try to laugh it off as a joke: “haha, oh yeah I was totally stalking you haha, no I was just [make up an excuse].”
Now, I don’t stalk people as often because I don’t want to subconsciously compare my life to other people’s. Perhaps I have run out of people to stalk. In any case, I don’t do it anymore because it is creepy, and you shouldn’t either.
People are too afraid to share their niche interests and strange habits. There are no “normal” people. We all do odd things, so please, if you have guilty pleasures, share them in the comments because we’d all love to hear them.
Hey Ian, I love this blog post it is so interesting. Yes, everyone has their own guilty pleasures that help them realize who they really are. Wow, I have never heard about minesweeper, it is really cool that this hobby has stayed with you since middle school. Why did you start playing it one day, and why do you think you are still playing it? Also, since you mentioned falling in a rabbit hole…how long have you stayed playing it? Can you play this game with friends or just alone? I have never heard of Drain Gang, but I should listen to them since you recommend it. I am guessing they are an indie band, do they play any other music? I totally get listening to one artist on repeat instead of making a playlist. When Taylor Swifts new album came out I only listened to her for a straight month! Well, I hope this swedish band goes on tour and you can go see them! HAHA, the stalking instagram one. I think its so funny you don’t have a lot of personal images on your instagram so people don’t have the option to stalk you. I totally get what you mean about wanting to know what others are up to, without them knowing what you are up to. However, it’s important to know that someone posts what they want the world to know.
Ian King, we all have our guilty pleasures, but I do love yours. Your guilty pleasure of minesweeper is so similar to how I can’t stop playing Baseball 9. Baseball 9 is basically just like any other baseball game where you assemble a team of batters and pitchers. However, what is so unique is that you can use your tickets and buy new players and upgrade them. They have these tiers that are just amazing. Then you can bat and pitch in a game vs the AI. The feeling of hitting a home run is like no other. As you said in your blog, it just tickles my dopamine receptors in the right way. Then when you talk about your unique taste for Drain Gang, I was extremely surprised. I thought that no one else knew of the band. Although I don’t listen to them myself, my cousin always talks about them to me as he loves Swedish music. What’s funny about you stalking people’s instagram. I remember sitting next to you once and you were just looking at a random person’s profile. But this was a long time ago, so no harm now. Also, I like how you have almost no pictures on your insta, but you like to look at others to see how they are doing.