bafflingjerboa

Hi! I'm Jaiden, I've returned after a couple-years-long hiatus and I am excited to be swapping again!

I am a software engineer in Ohio, but that's sucking the life out of me so I am back here to add some meaning/joy to my life. BTW does anyone know the meaning to life? Looking for answers... (that's what your twenties are for anyways, right?)

Outside of work, I enjoy crocheting, sketching, writing, reading fiction/fantasy/sci-fi, and catching up on my shows ❤

I am also super passionate about video games, both making/designing and playing! I don't do many traditional first person shooters or even third person 3D games, like COD or Minecraft, because while I love those games I get really motion sick after a couple minutes and am prone to migraines. This has helped me explore more niche/non-traditional games that I might not have discovered otherwise :) I am always looking for more niche video game recs, so please feel free to share any of your favorites!

⭐ Kawaii washi tape/stickers

🐻 Animals, especially: axolotls, mantis shrimp, dogs, jellyfish

🌿 Nature themes

🎮 Indie Video Games

📖 Books

🎥 Renaissance era Disney/Pixar & Studio Ghibli

🦸‍♀️ Marvel (Tony Stark, Loki, & Spiderman are my favs!)

🚀 Space

🐇 Alice in Wonderland

🎧 Musicals!!

📖 My favorite book of all time is Ender's Shadow, but I love almost any sci-fi/fantasy. I love nostalgic YA books from my childhood, including Divergent, The Selection series, Steelheart, Cinder, Red Rising, Splintered, Heart of Iron, Warcross, Uglies/Pretties/Specials, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, Gilded, etc. (I recognize many of these are objectively bad but the nostalgia keeps me coming back!)

📖 I also enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing and A Gentleman in Moscow, but those are more serious so they are outliers.

📖 I also love graphic novels, like Nimona and The Shadow Hero!

🎬 I am always down to watch a classic Disney/Pixar movie!

🎥 My favs include Beauty and the Beast, Nemo, Lilo & Stitch, Enchanted, and Monster's Inc.

💮 I am also a HUGE Studio Ghibli fan, I love every Ghibli movie I've seen!! (Shoutout Spirited Away & Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)

🎬 My non-animated favorites include Knives Out & Glass Onion, Inception, Men in Black, The Matrix, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Hobbit & The Lord of The Rings movies, The Princess Bride, Clue, & You've Got Mail.

🎥 My favorite tv shows are Adults (I have mixed feelings on it, but the funny parts are so funny), Crashing, Fleabag, GBBO, Psych, Vampire Diaries, The Good Place, Adventure Time, and Gravity Falls :D

🎵 My fav musicals include Beetlejuice, Hadestown (Original Cast Recording, NOT the Broadway version!), Phantom of the Opera, BMC, DEH, Hairspray, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables, Legally Blonde, Chicago, The Greatest Showman, Heathers, Mama Mia, Mean Girls, SIX, Something Rotten, Wicked, Waitress, In the Heights, 21 Chump Street, and (the one that started it all for me) Hamilton!

🎶

🎮 My fiancé has helped me get into video games more, since I did not grow up playing them, so some of these are more niche but some are definitely mainstream!

• Hades 2
• Cult of the Lamb
• Crypt of the NecroDancer
• Slay the Spire 2 (all my characters are at Ascension 10!)
• Shroom and Gloom
• Mario Kart World
• Don't Starve Together
• Little Nightmares (admittedly only seen playthroughs, but I love the aesthetic)

If you've made it this far, then you have to look at my dog Frieda!

Please do NOT send anything:

• religious (I went through religion before and all I got was this stupid trauma :/ If it's working for you that's great, it's not working for me tyyy)

• that's it