Wear, Watch, Want #216: The Nighttime Replacement Cube Edition
Wear: Replacement Purse Strap
I was at Costco last week, minding my business, and the crossbody strap on my purse just broke. Luckily, the bag has another handle, and I caught it before my bag fell into the slushy parking lot and my day was completely ruined. However, the other handle is so small. I can kinda-but-not-really put it over my shoulder, but I only really use the crossbody strap, which was now unusable.
Pictured: The bag. Circled: The part that broke
It’s a Marc by Marc Jacobs bag, which is a brand that doesn’t even exist anymore, plus who knows what they would charge for a purse strap even if they DID sell them. After a lot of Googling, I just got one on Amazon. Returns are easy, and despite it looking and being cheap online, maybe it would be nice!
It’s PERFECT. It’s exactly the same width (length is adjustable, but it’s the same length as well) and it doesn’t look that different from the bag. It’s a pebbled leather, which covers a multitude of cheap sins, and the only part that really looked like I paid $14 on Amazon was the little tassel they included, which I wasn’t going to use anyway. The hardware is a different shade of gold, and it’s not as hefty as the previous straps, but I don’t think you can look at me wearing this bag and say, “THAT’S NOT THE ORIGINAL STRAP!!” It’s fine, and now my purse is usable again.
Play: Rusty Lake Cube Escape
The past two years have made my brain weird. I can watch TikTok forever, I can scroll through Twitter for two hours, but I can’t read one page of a book without my mind wandering. I can’t even watch TV for more than one episode. I can’t just watch TikToks and read Twitter (I mean I can, I just don’t want to), so I’ve been playing games on my iPad. Some games I play while listening to audiobooks, which is a nice way to read without reading. Rusty Lake’s series of Cube Escape games came out years and years ago, but the package of 9 Cube Escape Games was only released on iOS in 2021. You get 9 games (many of which have multiple parts, making it more like 12-15 games. It’s completely free, but if you want a hint you have to watch a 30 second video ad (walkthroughs are available online if you’re really stuck/don’t want to watch an ad).
The games are moody and somewhat dark, but there is no timer (one part of one game is timed, but you get infinite tries to figure it out). You are in a room (a cube), and you have to solve puzzles to get out. There is a through line involving a detective and a murder, but it’s not vital that you follow that part to be able to play the games. Also, it’s the same woman being murdered over and over (and the same detective working the case), so you do see a woman get her throat slit multiple times. It’s not gory or scary, but it’s not NOT those things? It’s rated 12+ on the app store and I’d say that’s pretty correct. It’s also kind of cerebral, metaphorical violence. At one point a man shoots himself in the head, then you travel into his brain through the gunshot wound and solve puzzles in the brain. Basically, if you want JUST puzzles, no story or spooky scary stuff (including animals and people getting killed and bloody, but in a cartoon way), this is not for you. If you want to use your brain, but not too hard, and also get a Twin Peaks-y story with your puzzles, download Cube Escape immediately.
(I also played Cube Escape: Paradox and liked it enough I paid for part 2)
Want: Outdoor Light Fixture
I recently replaced by porch light with a dusk to dawn bulb, and it is a total game changer. Every year that I’ve lived here, I’ve thought about getting a dusk to dawn bulb in the winter so I don’t leave the mail carrier/UPS driver/various pedestrians in the pitch dark at 4:30pm. It works perfectly and I never have to wonder if I turned the light on or if I need to get up and turn the light on or if it’s even dark enough or if I should just turn it on now so that I don’t have to do it later… you get the idea.
BUT. I have TWO outdoor lights that are on the same switch. One is my porch light, but the other is a light over my house numbers, which are not next to the door but on another part of the house where they can be seen a bit better. THAT light is proving to be annoying. The fixture and the bulb are all one unit, so I can’t just replace the light bulb with a dusk to dawn one. And even if I did, the glass on the fixture is frosted, so the sensor in the dusk to dawn bulb might not even work. I need to get a new fixture, preferably one that’s not all-in-one, and a bulb. But it is virtually impossible to find a PLAIN outdoor light fixture with clear glass. The one pictured above is one of maybe 5 options I’ve found that might work? Why is no one making simple fixtures with clear glass? I feel like I’m asking for so little here, and yet retailers are making me feel like it’s a ridiculous request.
