I first thought “Oreo!” after reading the prompt, and then immediately began to think what actually counted as candy. Surely something like ice cream is more of a generic dessert than candy candy, and I assured myself that my original answer of Oreo suitably answered the question. However, when I shared to my partner that I was going to make a blog post using this response as a springboard into exploring the topic of what makes something candy or not, I was stopped dead in my tracks by her response:

I don’t really consider Oreos a kind of candy…

Oh.

I guess whether or not Oreos count does not really change the direction I intended for this post to take, but I may now need to identify a new candy. I choose Kit Kats, then.

Wikipedia

As retrieved on February 3rd, Wikipedia admits that a precise definition of candy is not so simple, but can be surmised as:

• A confection.
  • A kind of sweet food
• Primarily sugar based.
  • Wikipedia even goes further and says that a candy is a specific kind of sugar confectionary.
  • This is contrast with something primarily flour based.
• Generally small in size.
• Generally an individually consumed item.

I think an Oreo would definitely count here, but even more interesting is that Wikipedia says that ice cream can be considered a candy, but not generally so in the United States (where I am based).

I realize now that this approach of determining if an Oreo fits Wikipedia’s definition of candy by reading the definition of candy requires more work than checking if Wikipedia does or not, directly.¹ They do not. Diving deeper, though, Wikipedia describes Oreo as a type of sandwich cookie, a subcategory of cookie, the latter falling into the baker confectionary category. I suppose this makes sense, but Oreos do not really feel like a real cookie to me, and more of a candy imitation, but I will concede.

Wikipedia does call Kit Kats candy, so I submit that as my answer.

Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster does not have an entry for the Oreo snack itself, but does actually mention it in the etymology of the slang term of the same spelling, which does kind of make sense – the snack refers to the trademark, a proper noun. I find such a cookie and a generic cake somewhat similar, with the cookie far more dense and the cake far more spongy, but I certainly never made this connection before.

Candy, on the other hand, is described as a sugary confection, but the definition of confection leaves a lot to be desired: a combination of varied ingredients. Sure.

The literal trademark

The Oreo trademark itself categorizes itself as a type of biscuit. Whether or not this is interpreted as a type of flour baked good like a bread or a cookie, I suppose neither of those really fit what I would consider a candy, so with this mountain of evidence, I cannot in good conscious maintain that an Oreo can really be seen as a candy, so I retract this answer completely. I admit defeat.

I maintain that Oreos do not really seem like an actual cookie to me, but I think that has more to do with me eating mainly softer cookies, so the harder Oreo is a bit farther away from this conceptually.

1. I cmd+F‘d all instances of “candy” and none of the instances described the default Oreo as one. ↩︎

I only started putting in effort into my appearance in the past couple of years, and my wardrobe still has many artifacts of the time before. As I have experimented with my outfits and solicited feedback, many items now do not see use. New pieces have replaced some of these, executing upon a vision with a new set of fresh eyes, generally for the better.

The outflow of clothing from my wardrobe comes from me leaving a shipment of clothes at my mom’s house each time I visit for her to donate, and I like that it helps with sustainability. However, I could be discarding more clothes. A lot more. Some shirts might not fit my vision of any plausible outfit, some pants don’t cover enough of my legs and show too much of my ankles. Such articles really should go. However, a different factor bottlenecks my wardrobe becoming better.

I need to buy more clothes. Consistently I wish to buy more clothes, that I can wear more often, that I can incorporate into my outfits. Advertisements show me clothes I genuinely take interest in, and I don’t pull the trigger. At the mall, I window shop at clothing stores and don’t make a purchase. The clothing with literal drawbacks remain in my closet because I put off buying clothes that would take their place.

I simply fear the act of buying new clothes and not liking it. The well adjusted adult, I feel, would get it right, and if not, just return it. However, I feel the defeat always feels so bad. I admit defeat when I rid myself of an article of clothing. A shopping spree tops my todo list all the time and I never feel like it is a good time to do it.

I yearn for a friend that drags me out for a makeover, really.

Up there in my most frequently complained about things is definitely when people ask a question that is very easily answerable by a web search. Similarly, people making claims that are easily disproven by a web search annoy me.

I grew up in south Jersey, closer to Philadelphia than to New York, so there was lots of Eagles support around. However, my immediate family now all lives in California, so I wanted to know if they were going to support the Eagles in this years Super Bowl¹ or if they had no allegiance one way or another. I was then asked:

• When is the Super Bowl happening?
• Where is the Super Bowl happening
• Who are the Eagles were playing against?

All of which could be answered by a simple web search. I was a little annoyed.

I was then asked if our family wanted to go watch it, in-person. That question is a little different, though 😊. (No.)

1. I just learned while typing this that it’s two words and not “Superbowl”! ↩︎

I will say that in general, so long as I am with a group of people that are emotionally invested, I have yet to encounter a game that is completely off the table for me to watch, and I will defer to friends who want to watch sports for my general consumption.

Are esports a valid answer? If so, it would probably be competitive League of Legends¹. The next would then be competitive chess. In both of these cases, though, they don’t make for great live entertainment and at the highest level (classical, slow chess), it can be dry to watch from start to finish on their own. Highlights help. I like watching these because I’ve spent a long time playing these games myself and can really appreciate the skill expression at the highest level.

Otherwise I would have to say basketball. It is a fast paced game and the rules are pretty intuitive. In contrast, baseball is a lot slower, and football is both a lot slower and I confess I do not really understand the rules past the basics, which I feel like is necessary to appreciate watching it, though. I did watch the 2024 Superbowl since the SF 49ers were playing (and I call SF a home), and I plan on watching this years Superbowl since the Eagles are playing (and they were the team my town rooted for when growing up). I appreciate the spectacle and the narrative a lot more than the game itself.

1. I don’t play anymore, and I haven’t played in years. Humorously, whenever I suggest the act of reinstalling the game when friends ask to play, they tell me not to. ↩︎

I frequented internet communities that were generally more visited by introverted people than not growing up (like Tumblr). On these, I often saw people expressing their dislike of introducing themselves in group settings, especially by way of answering icebreaker questions.

For the record, I would say I am definitely an extrovert.

I derive significant joy and energy from meeting new people, introducing myself, and getting to know new people in these settings¹ but I do share this dislike for icebreaking questions. For example, when the icebreaker question is “say a fun fact about yourself”, many times I feel like I have to find the “correct” combination of something that isn’t too cocky but is still interesting enough. For this particular question, I resort to simply having a default answer that I feel is reasonably interesting without coming off like I’m trying to win some imaginary game: I can do the splits! In general, though, I am often thinking of how to best read the room in answering these icebreakers, and I hate going early as a result.

“What do you like to do for fun?” is the one I hate the most.

It is not that I dislike answering the question in it of itself – I would love to explain the things I like to do and why they scratch my brain just the right way. Yet, when meeting new people, answering this question has come with an unwelcome degree of judgment. I have seen before how one of the cruelest comments is to criticize someone’s laugh, to call it annoying, or weird, for example. To laugh is to express an almost pure form of positive emotion and joy, and to prescribe such a negative comment almost surely gives the person a second thought – to avoid laughing in the future. Such is the same for negative comments on one’s interests.

Of course, extremes exist, some interests (murder, for a really absurd one) do exist where criticism may be warranted. However, I feel like responding to someone’s interests by saying “oh, everyone else does that too”, even jokingly, isn’t the kindest thing. Of course, it is usually a joke, but to that I say it is a rather mean spirited one. I imagine many people, myself included, do not particularly like being called basic. It is easier said than done to just not care about people’s comments like these, and such a change will not happen over night.

I have even changed which interests I say I have to avoid this.

With all the fluff out of the way:

1. Crafts
2. Video games
3. Weight lifting
4. Rock climbing
5. Going to concerts

1. Despite all this preamble for how much I like meeting new groups of people (and even feel drawn to them), I am not very quick to converse, especially at length. Within a group of new people that are all less on the chatty side, I may take the role of the main conversationalist, but in the company of any number of people that are chatty, I might forget to speak and end up only listening. ↩︎

Over the past year, I’ve gotten into crafts! I started with making bracelets and have since moved onto keychains (and had a brief stint making fuse-bead crafts). Here are some pictures:

I buy the materials for these in packs at a time.

However, as I expand my repertoire of craft styles and palette of materials, I find myself in possession of more and more craft materials. I currently stack my many containers in a cabinet in my apartment living room area, but I am running low on space and already have to organize them specifically to be able to close the cabinet door, as it will not otherwise. When I start a new craft, I take out the heaps of containers at once, and it’s certainly quite messy. It would help to organize these for sure!

Undertaking challenging tasks that would make for an entertaining story!

Until I transferred high schools to Franklin High School in the Sacramento area, I was a rather subpar student. I began excelling in my studies when I thought “would it not be funny if I came back and became a good student?”

I also have really good active recall! I still remember so much of my high school and undergraduate education. This is in stark contrast to my short term memory, which leaves much to be desired. As an extension, I can do math in many different mental states, altered or not.

A pink bracelet from the Manteca Great Wolf Lodge, engraved with the word “lodglings” (portmanteau of lodge and wolf).

Mine’s the left!

No other possession comes close. Though my car, for instance, is worth a nontrivial amount of monetary value, the bracelet is the champion when it comes to sentimental value. My car is just a car. I do like it, but I could always replace it, in theory. The convenience it provides is massive, but its meaning to me is more or less limited to the convenience in transport it offers. The lodglings bracelet, in contrast, reminds me of one of the happiest moments of my life, the people I love and cherish (then and still now), and the emotional rollercoaster of discovery and personal growth that marked my early 20s.

I also think it looks pretty.