all made up with nowhere to go

In which this has been a week:

~ I rode my bike to work on New Year's Day, as there were no buses. I did not ride it all the way, and I could not ride it home (because gentle yet deceptive gradient, boo). So I had to walk with it almost all the way. Also it was raining.

~ I injured my right ring fingertip on some metalwork while cleaning on Friday evening, and it obviously hasn't healed properly yet because it's on a fingertip of my dominant hand, so I keep catching it on stuff and setting it off bleeding again. Fun times!

~ And then! It snowed on Saturday night. Which, again, meant no buses because although the main roads were clear, because of the diversions, nothing could get into town (or drivers, probably, depending on where they live).

I checked to see if I had messages from anyone else about whether they were going in. I did not. So foolishly, I set off walking. In three inches of snow. For three miles. While it was still snowing.

Anyway, tl;dr version: nobody else in my dept had come in, so it was open, but it was extremely bare bones because there was only me.

And then I had to walk home because there were still no buses, and I didn't know if taxis were running, and I couldn't be arsed to find out. Also it was raining. But I was going home, so I didn't mind so much.

It was so weird, though, because there were so few people/not a lot of traffic around, it felt like being in some strange, post-apocalyptic environment. Like, there were signs there'd been life here, but there wasn't much evidence of it. (Work was, well, work. Just with less people than usual - both coworkers and customers).

I'm glad I've got today and tomorrow off, though, because although I don't feel as shit as I was expecting to, I don't feel great, so at least I can just bimble around the house and not do too much.

#

In other news:

~ I rewatched all of Oxventure Wyrdwood, and now I want to rewatch it again, heh. It's given me a mighty craving for all things folk horror-y (I mean, it had already but now it's really intense). I am currently watching Golden Rodent play Balatro, however.

~ Me and Sarah hung out for a bit last week and got spooked by a goat just staring at us (I mean, of all the farm animals it could have been, and while I was telling her about Wyrdwood as well!)

~ I bought an air fryer instead of a new microwave. I figured I didn't use the micro that much, whereas I use my oven/stove more, and would like to cut down on my (frankly ludicrous) gas bill.

I have next to no idea what I can do with it (yet), but I am looking forward to maybe getting back into baking again, and also perhaps making slightly more complex dishes than I do currently.

~ I bought and started playing Persona 5 Tactica. I am about three hours in and have few thoughts beyond "art style is cool", "I like Erina (and her costume design)" and "Toshiro needs a good slap upside the head because he is, in part, a predictable Japanese male character".

#

I think that is everything for now. I can't be arsed doing a post summing up 2024. It was pretty shit for the most part. I'm glad to see the back of it. Hopefully 2025 might be better, but honestly who knows.

Five things make a post?

1. It was -7°C when I woke up this morning at 6am. Do not want!

2. I had to cave and buy a cheap pair of bluetooth headphones for my phone with the remainder of my xmas money, because I keep breaking 3.5mm jack to usb c converters (well, the first one was duff anyway, but the second one only lasted a month, and at five quid each I'm not doing this repeatedly).

They're okay, sound-wise (I will admit I am a headphones/speaker snob, although I can't afford the sort of stuff I'd really like). They'll do, anyway. I do like that I can wander round my entire house, though, and the bluetooth signal doesn't drop out at all.

3. Talking of my phone, a friend was asking on facebook for phone recs as they needed a new one, and almost every single comment on the post was "I've got a Pixel and I LOVE IT". I refrained from adding that I had one and I hated it, because maybe it's just me, IDK.

4. I have been deconstructing some clothes to reclaim the fabric. Some of them were ones my mum made, and it's fascinating seeing how she put them together, and how lazy she was feeling about finishing them off properly.

I feel a bit weird about it, but I wouldn't wear them anyway, and the majority would be too big for me even if I wanted to. I think mum would approve of me recycling them. I hope she would.

(It doesn't stop me wanting to buy more fabric though - I've been looking at batik fabric lately and omg it's gorgeous).

5. I have been thinking about doing the 100 day art challenge, but I don't know what I would do for it. I've seen various things, most recently quilting/applique, but also gel printing, and drawing. I also don't know that I can actually commit to 100 days of anything, given I used to get burnt out after fifteen on Inktober.

But there's no start or end date on it, so it's something I can just think about for the future maybe.

I've got another Bluesky invite code if anyone needs or wants one!

Edit: it's gone, but I'm sure I'll have another one soon.

~

It is hellishly hot here again, blergh. The temp topped out at 28°C yesterday, and it's not likely to cool down again until the start of next week.

...I mean, I'm mostly mad because it had been feeling really autumnal and I loved it and now it just feels like gack again. I am not amused.

~

In other news, I am ~22ish hours into Persona 5 Royal!

Kasumi is not annoying me as much as she originally did, though I do roll my eyes at the way she's described as being special, and I get this "not like the other girls UwU " vibe from her, and that's kind of grating. But I find it funny how every time she shows up, I'm just like, "oh, okay," and yet every time Akechi is on screen, I hiss at him (I mean, I have valid reasons for doing so! I also just don't like him!)

Also I don't know if it's my imagination or not, but it feels really easy playing it? Like the vanilla version wasn't that difficult* (except for where it was - looking at you, third Palace), but there seem to be so many bells and whistles added (like the skills the Personae have to make things easier, for example), and especially with the Legacy DLC which basically has a bunch of gamebreaking items/Personae in it.

It feels easier to play, anyway.

I don't have much else to say about it at the moment, really. I'm just chugging along with it before I go to sleep each night.

~

Other than that, I've not really been up to much, aside from the usual to-ing and fro-ing and all the rest of it which, as noted before is really boring to talk about, so I won't.

~

*Certainly not by Atlus standards, anyway.

Just a small post to say that I did not melt in the heat (thankfully), and that the worst of it has passed (for the time being, because it will come back, uuuuggggghhhhh).

Okay, so the most exciting(?) thing that has happened since I last posted was that on Thursday night, it snowed really heavily. There must have been, like, a foot of snow in the deepest parts, I think.

Anyway, the roads were clear, but the buses weren't running on my route, presumably because the drivers couldn't get in (I live in a very hilly area, and when we get weather like this, the roads that aren't at the bottom on the valleys aren't gritted or cleared).

I was supposed to be working 9am to 1pm, because I had a Thing™ in the afternoon. The first thing that happened was that the Thing™ got cancelled because the person I was supposed to be seeing couldn't leave their house due to the aforementioned snow. The second one is that I didn't see a bus go past my house till midday. Also I didn't have a contact number for work, so I couldn't ring to let them know I couldn't get in, so I decided I'd catch that bus on the way back and work the afternoon.

Which is what I did.

And it was a good job I did, because it turned out there were only three other staff working the floor (not including my supervisor), as well as two people on the tills. There are usually way more people in than this.

Anyway, most of the snow has gone now, for which I am grateful, as I have to go to Halifax tomorrow, and I've been there in bad snow in the past, and it is unfun.

~

In other news, by a strange chain of events, I ended up listening to Natwest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds by the Manic Street Preachers the other day, and I really enjoyed it, and then I was like, "I should listen to all of Generation Terrorists some time soon!" Except that I put it off for a couple of weeks, and only ended up listening to it and Gold Against the Soul yesterday.

But I really enjoyed it! I forget how much I like their early stuff because, for whatever reason, Everything Must Go is the only album I have fully ripped. I mean, I don't like everything on the first four albums (and The Holy Bible is A Trial at the best of times), but I don't know why I don't have them ripped already. Presumably because I am fool who forgets what their favourite music is, IDK.

(Also yes, I am one of those jerks who barely likes anything past Everything Must Go. Fight me).

~

In other other news, I saw the end credits of World of Final Fantasy, though I don't feel like I beat the game.

I've slowly been chugging through it since I got it, and I think I enjoyed it? The plot is wholly an excuse up to a certain point (where then everything gets dumped upon you, and I mean everything), but that's okay? I think. I guess I don't mind FF characters getting dumped out of context, since I've already played some Kingdom Hearts, and everyone who's an FF character in that is completely contextless. So at least that didn't bug me.

( SPOILERS UNDER HERE! )

I don't really think I have much else to say about it right now, but that's okay.

We're having another heatwave! The temps could get to 29°C!

I went out shopping yesterday thinking I'd go while it was cool, and it was 22° by the time I was waiting to come home at 10:30am. UGH.

I could have - and should have, really - gone shopping on Monday, but I didn't in part because I had to take the cat to the vet for her yearly boosters, and that drained me. I don't like putting her in the carrier, and I know she doesn't like being in there (she made some of the saddest MOWs while we were on the bus both going and coming back). But she went in probably the easiest she ever has, and I almost cried from the relief*.

We got seen early, which was nice! (I was legit the only person in the surgery who wasn't staff) And the vet weighed Jazz, and she has finally lost some weight! \o/ So now she's closer to 5.5kg than 6. Which is good news for my arms!

So because that stressed me out so much, I didn't think about going back into town in the afternoon to pick up food/library books. Which, as I say, I should have, because Monday was the coolest day of the week.

ANYWAY. It's done now. I ain't going out for the rest of the week if I can help it.

~

In Ni no Kuni, I am chugging along, although I was having difficulty with a boss, so now I've had to go back to an earlier save and do some grinding, ugh.

I was saving to one file only because I wasn't finding it that difficult, but then I read a post on the subreddit for the game, where someone had (somehow!) got further than me at way lower of a level, and was now stuck, unable to grind, and only had the one save file.

So I'm glad I did that. I think I could've still gone back from where the boss fight was, but it just felt better going back to the previous save, even though it lost me a few hours of gameplay and a forced stealth section.

(Turns out a lot of people have trouble with this boss on their first encounter, even if they've played the game before, so I'm glad it's not just me).

~

And finally, I got my first member on ko-fi! \o/ I got the email notif last night, just before I went to sleep, and assumed it was one pinging me to say someone I follow had uploaded something (because it usually is), but nope!

As with redbubble sales, I'm not going to post every time this happens, as I can imagine it's annoying, but my first ever member is something to be celebrated!

~

*I keep thinking my mood has levelled out, and then something like this happens. See also: me telling Oliver in Ni no Kuni not to cry or he'll set me off.

I'm going to start with the bad stuff, because then we can only go upwards from there, right?

So. As I mentioned previously, the UK is undergoing a heatwave. Now, as the temps have been, where I am (~17 miles NE of Manchester), it's not been too bad*. We hit 27°C last Monday, which is unusually hot. It's meant to get to 28° today.

Tomorrow, and Tuesday, we are due temps in the low to mid thirties.

I do not want because hot weather makes me ill (always has), but also I do not want because of all the environmental implications. I hate that we can see this happening, and the people who can fix it are sitting back on their hands going, "Nope, nowt we can do about it."

Fuckers.

I'm staying in, and trying to stay as cool and hydrated as possible.

~

In happier news, I bought some new paints!

I've been wanting to get some new acrylics since Xmas, but have been putting it off because I wasn't painting at all. But I've been inspired by some youtube videos I've been watching, and have been picking up the watercolours recently (well, when it's not been too hot to paint, that is). And one of the people I've been watching often uses acrylics like watercolours, which is a thing I like doing, and it's been inspiring me.

So I decided to buy myself some new ones as a reward for doing something I found difficult. I finished the thing yesterday, so now I get to play with the paints when it is cooler!

I went for student quality ones, which are better than the ones I had been buying. They cost the same price as the cheap ones, but you get less paint because they're better quality. But as it happens, I don't use a lot of acrylic paint when I do paint anyway (less so if I use it watered down), so I don't need 200ml tubes of paint. Also these ones come in a way nicer colour range!

I also got myself some more Uni Pin fineliners (as you can see in the linked tweet), though they're replacements for ones I already have, rather than treats.

~

I don't know how to end this post, as usual, except to say that it's weird sitting in my living room with the curtains shut (to keep the heat out) and being able to hear the world outside, but not being able to see any of it. Feels kind of creepy.

~

*It's been a lot worse in the South East of England - day temps have been around the high twenties for several weeks now, and it hasn't really dropped at night. Predictions are for the temp to hit FORTY down there, which is terrifying.

I feel like a whiner saying the following, but dang it, this is my g dang journal, and I am going to whine!

On Tuesday, when I went for that lovely walk and recorded the birds, I then had a migraine for the rest of the day! (I suspected this would happen before I went out, as I sometimes get a weird feeling behind my left eye, although I don't always get the migraine the same day that happens). It wasn't as bad as sometimes, but it was still Not Great.

Then on Wednesday and Thursday, I somehow managed to have a food related problem with a type of food that does not usually cause me problems. I scoured the ingredients list several times, looking for something that could have caused it. There was nothing. The food was in date. My digestive system just decided to have a tantrum, I guess!

(And I know it was that, because I stopped eating it/put the remainder in the food recycling, and now I am fine).

Then Friday, one of my teeth decided to start hurting. It didn't interrupt my sleep too much, but combine that with it being a very hot night*, and the teenager up the street who likes to play loud music, and I did not have a good night's rest.

And then I wondered why going food shopping yesterday wore me out!

And you know what the worst part of this is? I HAD PLANS! I was going to be sociable! And work on my ko-fi! And my body essentially went, "LOL NOPE". Thanks, me, that was great.

I did manage to get an idea in motion for a set of two prints, though, and I bound a book, so it's not all bad? The prints were originally going to be the member only ones, but I thought considering the designs (mushrooms), they might sell well, so I will now have to think of something else!

Also my new favourite streamer started playing Deltarune, so obviously I watched that. I'm glad I finished it before he started playing it - though there was only about a week between my finishing and his starting, so that was a weird coincidence.

Other than that, it's mostly been me feeling sorry for myself!

~

*It didn't get quite as hot here as the forecast predicted (24°C actual temp versus 27° predicted), but it was still enough to make my house feel gross.

It's currently very windy outside, and Do Not Want. I guess at least it's not raining as well, but ugh.

~

Anyway, in other news, I bought a new computer and external HD (4Tb)! I've been meaning to for some time, and I could afford a cheap one, so that's what I did!

I got a Dell Inspiron, which is a make I've had before (my first ever computer was Dell, so I know they're good/reliable). It's not the best Dell ever, but it will suffice for how/what I want to use it for.

It came with Windows 11, and I'm surprised to report that, at the moment, I don't hate it! It reminds me more of classic Windows than whatever the nonsense that was 8 did (screensavers are available, and that just threw me right back to 2002, y'all. Honestly surprised the maze and pipes ones aren't in there).

I have downloaded most of the things I think I will need thus far (I don't use my computer very much these days, except to do a bit of internet/image edit). I am about to download the Steam app, because eventually I want to buy Dorfromantik and probably Loop Hero (thanks, Johnny Chiodini!) and I am aware this is a terrible and dangerous thing and also they have a Lunar New Sale on right now oh my frogs.

But anyway, my question is this! What other things (not games) are good to download? I have a video editor/image editor/Libre Office/Firefox/Discord/VLC. What are your recs for antivirus programs? What are good add-ons for Firefox? I have an ad blocker and spell checker, and IDK what else I might need, since it's some time since I've done a fresh install like this (I haven't used Windows in EIGHT YEARS OMG. It will be so nice to see what I'm scanning as I'm scanning it, though).

I don't regret using Linux, but there were definitely a bunch of things I couldn't/didn't do because the means weren't available to me, or were too complicated for me to get my head around. It's great for some things, but not so much for others (imo). I am kind of sorry to see it go, but also I'd like to be able to know what I'm doing if someone asks me for help with their computer, heh.

~

Thanks to that bullet journalling video I linked the other day, I got out my Stabilo highlighters, and colour coded the days in my planner and...it's like a magic trick. Suddenly, everything stands out where it had all kind of blurred together before.

But because I only had six highlighters, and there are seven days in a week, I decided I needed more, so I went and bought six more, oops? Although now I have 12/14 of the current pastel range so yay? And I'll use them for other things besides highlighting, as that's the thing I use them for the least.

I also rearranged how the journal's laid out, as my current way wasn't cutting it, and it's nice to have a space to write any notes if I need to at the bottom right. Not that I write notes all that often, but it's nice to have the option?

I also sorted out all my stickers, in the hopes I will use them more. A lot of the videos about journalling/collaging I've been watching use stickers quite a lot, and ofc I want some of them (wouldn't be addicted to stationery if I didn't!), but I thought I should use up some of the ones I have. I thought it would be an absolute mission since there's a lot of stickers, but it only took around an hour to sort everything out into broad categories, so that wasn't so bad at all.

~

And that's everything I have for now! I'm still playing FXIII, but I might make a separate entry about that at a later date!

This past weekend can get in the fucking bin.

I had planned to do a whole bunch of stuff on Saturday, that mostly involved my computer/the internet. The universe, it seems had other plans.

For whatever reason, I now get texts to tell me when there's been a power cut in the area. Sometimes that's hilarious, because I'm out of the house, and I get a text telling me it's been fixed ten minutes later. Sometimes, however, I get them during the night. As I did in the early hours of Saturday morning.

I eventually decided to be awake after the second one, as I was worried perhaps it was someone trying to get in touch with me for something urgent. Not that a power cut isn't important, but there's not much I can do, you know?

So there'd been a storm on Friday night/Saturday morning, and there was thunder, lightning, and whole shed load of snow overnight. And it had knocked the power out through various means. Okay fine.

The power hiccuped around six am, on and off, and then, dear reader, it was off till almost 4pm that day. Which meant I couldn't do anything I'd planned to do, and I had no heating, and it was not a warm day. My phone battery was running out, so I didn't dare use that more than I needed to (although I discovered my portable charger had some remaining charge in it, so I could have at least used that, if I'd needed to). All in all, it was a very stressful and tiring day.

And then Sunday was okay, to start with. I got the bus to work okay, except it was bloody freezing because it was minus temps (in °C) even at 9am.

And then it started snowing later in the morning, and it snowed quite heavily. Eventually I rang my area manager and told him I was going to have to go home because I didn't know how clear the roads were, and whether the buses would still be running come home time proper. He okayed it, but I felt (and still feel) really guilty about it.

There is about two inches of snow where I live, which I realise is not a lot by some countries' standards, but it's enough to mess up public transport in the UK.

I was supposed to do my food shop today, but I'm going to stay home instead, and I'm going to go Wednesday instead, when it will be warmer and the snow will have gone (allegedly).

~

In happier news! I've been watching other people playing video games instead of playing them myself.

For some reason I can't fathom, I am still watching Ian play Sekiro. I'm not even that interested any more. I said to lassarina in a comment on one of her posts that I now find From Soft games very samey when I watch them, and they are. Sure there's elements in Sekiro that aren't in Dark Souls, but the basic everything is the same, and it's a bit boring, tbh [/hot take]

I also watched Aoife play Unpacking - she played the whole game in two sessions, and this link is to the first one. It was interesting to see how she organised things versus how Jane did it in her stream.

And then, I haven't quite finished it, but I watched Johnny playing Let's Build A Zoo on their channel. It feels very Two Point Hospital, but with zoo elements instead. (I know it's a sim game, and there's only so much you can do with that, but certain things just feel exactly like TPH and it's a bit weird). But it's enjoyable to watch. I don't know if I would enjoy playing it because I find most sim games stressful.

~

And that is all I've got for now. Hopefully the coming week will be an improvement.