all made up with nowhere to go

Well, now I know I am a Real Adult, because I had to buy a new washing machine last night.

I'd put the current one on a cleaning cycle and it decided it wasn't going to drain any water! In fairness, I should have suspected something was up, as it made some horrible noises during the spin cycle when I last did actual washing, which came out wetter than it should have. But this washing machine has never been the greatest, and I honestly thought I'd just overloaded it/put too many towels in.

Anyway, I had empty the water myself, which was the opposite of what I wanted to do at 5:30pm. I also checked the filter to make sure that wasn't blocked, and it wasn't.

I've kind of been expecting this for some time now. It's sixteen years old, or possibly older, and the guy who came to look at it in 2018 was amazed it was in such good condition and still working. So. Yeah. I figured it made more sense to get a new one, because new parts might cost as much as a new one.

I didn't get a massively expensive one, but the thought of all that money going out still made me wince (especially since I'd also paid my rent earlier in the day). Part of the cost is the delivery guys taking out the old machine, putting in the new one, and taking the old one for recycling but ughhhhhhh. I really would have preferred not to have to do this at all. But like I say, I guess it's how I know I'm a Real Adult.

Edit: it won't be coming till Friday, as I couldn't guarantee I'd be in on Thursday when they could have brought it, and there was no way I was paying £50 for the privilege of knowing they'd come in the afternoon (say). As long as they don't come at 7am with no warning like the delivery guys did when we got the new fridge, it should be fine. [/edit]

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.

I said on twitter about a week ago that I think DA:I gave me the brainworms back in 2015, because now it's installed on the PS4, and now I am playing it, I cannot stop thinking about it. So much so that, when I found out DAII (my favourite of the three) was on sale on Steam, I immediately went and checked the specs to see if it was playable on my PC (it is! And I added it to my wishlist, so I'll know when it goes on sale again).

I spent the bus ride home from my x-ray appointment thinking about Certain Things in DA:I. I started thinking about music videos again, for the first time in YEARS. I wouldn't make any, but certainly being able to capture footage directly from your console (say) would make some of that ninety percent easier? (Don't answer that, it's not something I'm seriously thinking about).

I may even be close to remembering the idea I had while listening to I'd Do Anything For Love that one time - I'm beginning to suspect it may have been a DA fic, which would absolutely make sense, give what remnants of the idea I did remember. (Although given that I was possibly thinking about paladins, it could have been knights in general, but I strongly doubt it, even though knights in general is a Thing™, even if I don't talk about it, which I don't).

So anyway, I am playing the glitchiest version of DA:I ever, I swear. I do not remember it being this bad on the 360, but maybe I just blanked that out, or straight up decided I didn't need to remember it. But yeah, it's mostly pathfinding errors (everyone in my team finds it impossible to stand still at points, lol).

I am currently about 15 hours in. I'm not saying exactly where, because I am aware I have friends on here who would still like to avoid spoilers. Which is why everything else is going under a cut!

( spoilers under here! )

And that's basically that, for now. I probably had other stuff to say, but I have since forgotten it because I didn't tweet it, because spoilers!

~

In other news, as I mentioned, I had my hand and foot x-rays, and now I know how feet are x-rayed! Also I thought I'd get lost in the hospital, since it is a Maze of Epic Proportions, only to end up finding the corridor leading to the x-ray dept very familiar*, and turning up for my appointment around forty minutes early. Although that lead to me getting seen earlier, which meant I got back into town sooner, and home sooner than I expected (although unfortunately I ended up back in my town at school letting out time, which meant annoying teenagers on the bus, sighs).

Then I had the dentist yesterday, and he was relatively pleased with the state of my mouth, so yay!

However, my shopping trolley that I use to carry heavy stuff in decided one of the wheels ought to break, while I was legging it for the bus home, so that was a fun time! I don't know if they're replaceable, or if I will have buy a whole new trolley, but ugh. Mind you, the whole thing has lasted me nearly four years, which is longer than I thought it might (as it was cheap), so that's the only positive I'm seeing about it right now.

[Edit from the future]: the wheels are not replaceable - I tried to get both covers off the bit that attaches to the axle with no luck, so new trolley it is, sighs [/eta]

~

*I've spent a lot of time in said hospital (but not for health reasons, apart from when I had my wisdom teeth out).

April has felt like it's been a colossally shit month. Nothing bad has happened, but my brain has just been all over the place for at least a third of it, and it's kind of ruined how good I felt at the beginning of the month. I'm starting to feel better now, but for whatever reason, the last couple of weekends at work have absolutely wiped me out.

I've got an extra day off this week, so hopefully that will help a bit *cautiously crosses fingers*

~

Vidya game updates:

# I was doing A Thing in P5S, but I have abandoned it because, frankly, it was pretty danged tedious, and I couldn't be bothered. But then I couldn't decide what game to play instead. More on that in a minute.

# I have watched both Aoife and Johnny play a game (but not together) called Weird West. It should be exactly up my alley, but for some reason I don't think I'll ever want to play it. But it was interesting to have a look at.

# I also watched Aoife play a game called Cat Cafe Manager, which looks cute a f, and is set in video game Wales! (The main character's grandma is called Nain, which is the North Walian for, uh, grandmother, and also there's characters called Gruff and Arwel).

The controls seem very finicky, however, and I'm not great at resource management games, so I would probably not play that, either.

# And then I watched my new favourite streamer play a point and click game called Later, Alligator, which is HECKING ADORABLE I LOVE IT. It's about an alligator called Pat, who is basically scared of everything, and isn't the sharpest tool in the box. He's ADORABLE. I MEAN LOOK AT HIMB!

(OMG and the track titles on the soundtrack are AWESOME!)

# Also I mentioned it on one of lassarina's What Are You Playing? Wednesday posts, but didn't mention it here, but I also watched the same person play Buddy Simulator 1984, and oh wow, that was An Experience.

# So yeah, I left the house yesterday, intending to play Okami in the evening when I got home, because I've never beaten it (and I have the HD version for my PS4). Except I went in CEX to look for DA:I, since I knew they had a copy in there and IDK, I just wanted to play it but not lug out the 360 to do so*. Also the PS4 has the better graphics and more save slots, and also I could play Trespasser if I wanted to**.

Anyway, for whatever reason, DA:I was not there, so I bought Slay the Spire instead. I've seen it mentioned with regard to Inscryption, so figured it was a card game (it is), but wasn't 100% sure if I wanted to play it or not. But I got a second hand physical copy, so thought if I didn't like it, I could get rid again.

Except.

I do like it. I can see why it's so addictive as a format. And I find it passes the time without me wondering what time it is (something that was happening on the regular with P5S once I'd beaten it - I wasn't bored as such, but I wasn't as engaged as I had been).

I like that it's easy to get the hang of, and you don't feel like you're bashing your head against a brick wall. I got past the first boss on my first run, which I didn't think would happen, but then was killed by random enemies on the second (I think), but it didn't feel like the game had it in for me. The furthest I've got so far is the second boss, and I got him to under half health before he did me in, and I'm pretty pleased with that!

So I'll probably be playing that for the foreseeable, or until I decide to play something else!

~

*Also I don't know if they ever patched that crash that happens when you talk to Cullen, but also I don't want that. I don't like it when my console crashes *side eyes Bethesda*

**I know it's been exty years, but I am STILL fucked off that Bioware did that. EDIT FOR CLARITY: I mean that they didn't release all the DLC on the 360/PS3. Which wouldn't have annoyed me so much if they'd stuck to their original plan of just releasing DA:I on PS4/Xbone. I'm glad I got to play it on my 360 but also *shakes tiny fists at Bioware* [/edit]

So this afternoon, I watched The Matrix: Resurrections.

And you know what? I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot.

I agree with honigfrosch's assessment that a lot of it is Lana Wachowski Having Opinions. She does have Opinions, and I agree with them.

Also my friend Chris said (rightly or wrongly, idk) that Lana wrote the film (in part) because WB threatened to make a reboot, and she didn't want that. Which makes sense. I wouldn't want that if it were me. (I mean, I wouldn't anyway, and especially not if it were a film trilogy I'd previously worked extremely hard on).

I went into to it bearing those two things in mind, and I was not disappointed. I also see why there were people who disliked it or found it average at best. Tonally, it reminds me a lot of Reloaded, and I think that's where the problem is for the folks who disliked it, imo. Me, I love Reloaded (as I think we all know), so this was more of the same, and I ate it up.

I laughed and seal clapped a lot, and I don't really have a lot else to say, except ( these three spoilers )

So yeah, I'm not going to gush all over everywhere saying everyone should watch this, I'm not that person any more. It's up to you what you watch, and I get that this isn't for everyone, and y'all might not like it. And that's fine.

EDIT: I missed my evil twin's (John Gaeta's) cameo, primarily because I wasn't expecting it, and also HOW IN HECKINS IS NEIL PATRICK HARRIS ONLY EIGHT YEARS OLDER THAN ME???? [/edit]

# I bought babby's first ever pair of wireless earphones this Saturday just gone.

Youtube decided to randomly rec me some bloke I'd never heard of, reviewing Poundland's* current tech range. Which included said in-ear bluetooth earphones. He was so positive about them, I decided to go out and get a pair. So I did.

And honestly, he's right. They're WAY better quality sounding than they have any right to be (they're not perfect, though. There's too much bass, and I'm someone who likes the bass to be apparent in things). The bluetooth connection is a bit choppy, however, if you, like me, like to wander away from the device you're using. Which is the reason I bought them, but I guess if I mostly stay in the same room, I'll be okay.

I've currently mostly used them for listening to music on my commute and it's been a delight.


# I also bought some pens for EXTREMELY CHEAP as my local Clinton's seem to be doing away with their stationery range, and thus all the pens are 20p each. Which basically meant I got three Pilot pens and two Stabilo ones for an entire quid, and I am very happy :D


# I saw a white deer, and it was bloody amazing! I've never seen a white one before, so it was really cool! I am not going to say where or when, because it feels special, and also I remember what happened to that one that innocently went wandering about in Liverpool a few months back.


# hmpf bought some more mugs from my Redbubble shop, as I have updated it a couple of times recently and I had some designs in that she liked!

EDIT: I'm not going to mention every time someone buys something from me, but right now it just seemed like a convenient way of reminding me that I updated, and I meant to tell y'all. [/edit]

Also a reminder that anything that's available there is available as a print directly from me, and likely for cheaper (although only in A6/A5 format at the moment), if you fancy buying one!

# And that's all I've got for now!


~

*It's called Poundland because everything used to cost £1 (one pound). Anyway, now most things cost £1, some things are slightly cheaper, some are more expensive. Apparently it's roughly equivalent to Dollar Tree?

I had to take Jazz to the vet for her six month check up yesterday, so obviously I am The Worst.

She is absolutely fine, for the most part, and was very well behaved, even when she had her claws clipped! Which is something none of the vets have attempted before, I don't think, and she won't even let me do it (I have tried holding her feet very gently and putting a claw out (but not clipping) and sometimes she'll let me do this and other times she knifes me, and that's fair).

The only thing that is a bit of a problem is that she has gained some more weight. In spite of me giving her less food since last time when I was told she needed to lose some weight! Both me and the vet think it's likely down to her dry food, so I have to switch that out for a healthier one. Which I can do, but it wil irk me because I just bought brand new dry food last week.

After we got back, I thought Jazz would run off and hide, but she actually spent a couple of hours hanging out with me in the living room. I mostly ignored her, and just gave her little fusses here and there, and when she went off upstairs, I left her to it. And now we are friends again, so yay!

~

So, since getting this new computer, I have actually got excited about doing stuff on it again. Like, I was thinking how I could do digital art (nothing fancy, just messing around in Paint to start with), and I got really hyped up thinking about it.

I haven't done any digital art in nearly four years (summer 2018 was the last time I tried, iirc). Partly because I never got that into it, and partly because it's just not something I've thought about doing much recently*. But the other night, I was sitting in bed with the new laptop, having played X amount of games of Solitaire, and I thought, I have enough room to sit here with my tablet and do art if I want to! (My downstairs set up is not conducive to this, even sitting at a desk). But then I was like, "My graphics tab, though it be a Wacom, is circa ten years old! Will Windows even recognise it???"

And the answer is yes, Windows does, although it runs it on a generic driver, so it's good job I don't want to do anything fancy.

Then I realised I can also do other stuff as well. Like write (hahaha**). Or talk to my friends, because you bet I downloaded the Discord app, even though I am chronically bad at remembering to sign into it! or talking to people on it! But I've always kind of been like that with IMs. (I'm open to recs for other IM programs, though. Discord kind of scares me a bit because there's just SO MUCH of it, and I still don't know what to do with my server, lol).

I could also, if I wanted to, hook the laptop up to the TV via the HMDI cable. I don't want to, but I totally could.

But it feels nice to be excited about art stuff! I know I've said this a lot over the past few years, but it feels like little bits of me are slowly returning. I don't know where they went, but I'm glad they're coming back. Especially when you consider that I almost stopped doing art altogether. I'm immensely glad that I didn't.

~

ETA: Please enjoy this small video of this extremely smug Pallas' Cat! And also this cat dressed as lion for Lunar New Year![/eta]

~

*Except when I look at stuff by the amazing pixel artists I'm following on twitter, and then I'm like, "DANG".

**My want to write fiction has been slowly declining since ~2013 and I'm at the point now where IDK if I'll ever really pick it back up again.

I bought and started taking glucosamine sulphate because I am sick of my joints hurting for what feels like most of the time. I don't know if it will help, but I thought I'd give it a try, as I can get tablets for relatively cheap, and see what happens.

I have thought over recent months that my joint problems are more tendon/ligament related than arthritis (though some of them defo are arthritis related, yaaaay), and that's what glucosamine is supposed to help with.

I did not expect the tablets to be the size of horse pills, however. You're supposed to take them with food, ideally, and I was feeling lazy when I had my tea last night and was all, "I can dry swallow this!", got one out of the bottle and then was like, "Ha, nope!"

I will go to the doctor eventually, but after being patronised last time I went wrt this problem (I saw a locum and she was Not Good), it kind of put me off. Also I don't know really what they can do for me, except prescribe me painkillers which may or may not work, depending on how my body is feeling at the time!

~

I have been watching a lot of Eurogamer/Oxboxtra Deathloop stuff lately! And also listening to the soundtrack, because it's awesome.

I had never heard of/had absolutely no interest in this game until I watched Ian's stream of it the other day, and now I am totally on board with it! I mean, it's like someone made this game based off things I like! Except for the fact that it's a first-person shooter, but I'll live with that as long as someone else is playing it.

I ended up spoiling myself for the plot, because I don't think anyone is going to do a full playthrough - Ian has been playing some on his personal channel, and I've been watching it, but I think he'll probably do like he did with Returnal, and leave out some of the bigger plot stuff. But I don't think spoiling myself worked out badly? Now I want to know even more than ever how stuff fits together! (I could probably find an LP somewhere, but I want to see what my favourite people on yt are doing first).

~

Here's some more of that Squeenix meme!

19. Is there any Square-Enix game that grew on you?

Oh for sure! Several of them, in fact!

FFXII is the easily the most memorable because, until I played that, I'd only played the turn-based games in the series, so I was unprepared for the live interaction with enemies. I didn't mind not having to wait for a fight to load, but I just. I prefer turn-based!

Also Nier, but that was because although I knew bullet hell games existed, it's not what I was expecting from this game. I don't know what I was expecting, but yeah, bullet hell wasn't it.

FFV! Like, I knew I liked it when I played the PSX version, but that version is just so bad, and the translation is awful (Salsa, anyone?). And then, this past year, I finally played the GBA version, and loved it! I think it was the first one I played with the job system, so that completely threw me for a loop as well.

20. Is there a Square-Enix game that's grown off of you? (i.e. you don't like it as much as you used to, for whatever reason)

Not really? I'm not as fannish about some of the games as I used to be, but I still like all the ones I like with the same level of intensity.

21. What Square-Enix series have you played? (even if you've not played the entire series)

Final Fantasy, obviously. Nier (one day I will play Automata for myself, but today is not that day). I played Dragon Quest VIII, but I didn't like it very much, and that's why I haven't played another one since (also unpopular opinion, but I don't like Akira Toriyama's art, so looking at it the entire time wasn't a fun experience for me).

EDIT: Also Kingdom Hearts, which I keep forgetting about, gdi! [/edit]

If we're talking Taito, then OBVIOUSLY Bust-A-Move!

And as for Eidos, as I mentioned previously, I've played OG Tomb Raider, and also one of the later ones, but I can't remember which (and I no longer own it so I can't check). I also have one of the more recent ones for my PS3 which I'll get to eventually.

Things I have done/will being doing, a list:

1. Bought a cheap glass dip pen, because it was £3 and I am weak. It was random what colour I would get, but they sent me a blue one, so ofc I am very happy (blue is my favourite colour). It also has silver shiny bits on it, and you can see pics on my twitter feed!

2. I read another book! I reread The Eternal Enemy by Christopher Pike because I think it's my favourite of his. I didn't know if I'd still like it or not as when I last binged a bunch of his books, I wasn't so taken with some of the writing. But this was okay! \o/

3. I sold an item on Redbubble! hmpf bought a mug from me! \o/

4. I had my first migraine in a couple of months on Wednesday and, while it didn't completely wipe me out, it was not a fun time. And I had muscle weakness in my arms afterwards, which I occasionally get, and it is apparently a thing that happens!

5. I set up my table/desk permanently in part so I don't have to worry about it falling on the cat when it's put away (she likes rolling right up against it, and I am anxiety made flesh), but also because setting it up and putting it down is tedious, and I am mildly lazy.

I do already have a table I allegedly use as a desk, but it's uncomfortable to sit at as it's slightly too high for me (also as it's wooden, I worry about wrecking the finish accidentally. And it was my mum's, so of course there's all that to consider). The other one is an ex-computer desk, and is a better height.

As a result, I have been doing a bit more drawing! And, although I want to practice with my dip pens, I don't know what to draw at the moment. But I did use my Pilot drawing pens for the first time in ages, and that was a good time. (They're basically the same as Sakura Microns but more expensive!*)

6. Relatedly, I need to look up some stuff about character design, as I know it's something I'm no good at.

7. I saw some How to Draw Manga sets the other day, and maaaaaaan that took me back. I never had a set, but I have a couple of books (including from the infamous How To Draw Manga series), and it just reminded me of the days when internet tutorials weren't a thing, and especially not manga tutorials. And ooooooh boyyyyyy do I feel old now.

8. I don't think I have an eighth thing, but yay even numbers?

ETA: Actually, I do have an eighth thing! Remember that one artist that I said inspired me to work on a story idea? Their next video was all about how to plan a story and do some worldbuilding (albeit in v broad strokes because they're an art channel, not a writing channel), and I thought that was hilarious! Especially since they've probably been planning this video for weeks, and it was just coincidence that it went up after I said what I said. [/edit]

~

*I just checked prices on Cult Pens between Sakura, Pilot, and the Uni Pin pens, which are all fineliners and they all function the same (and are all archival/waterproof/light resistant). Pilot are the most expensive for a single pen (~£3.50), then Sakura (~£2.70), and the Uni are the cheapest at £1.75! I think once the Pilot pens run out, if I'm still using fineliners, it's time to swap to Uni! I feel like I've said this before, but I'm saying it again!

I've been using Pilot pens since I was a kid, so this feels kind of awful (betraying brand loyalty!!!11!) but if it saves me money, I'm all for it. And Uni are a good make! The only advantage Sakura have is that the Microns come in loads of colours, whereas the Uni Pin pens are only available in four.

So, I, uh, I bought the Nocturne Remaster. It's coming later today, because I can get same day delivery from Argos. With delivery, it cost nearly £50!!

But. I decided on a few things.

One: It's not every year you have a significant birthday and one of your favourite game franchises releases a remaster.

Two: I knew if I didn't buy it, I would kick myself, because the availability of SMT games is scarce anyway*.

Three: I should get it while I can afford it.

Four: I was going to cull some games from my collection to sell to CEX anyway, so anything I get from them can go towards this (it will be very little (unless I sell Dark Souls), I should imagine, but anything is better than nothing).

So that's why I decided to bite the bullet and get it.

~

And since we're here, a small P5 update!

I maxed out Ryuji's link, and we're only in early July! Ann's is fairly close to maxing, although I can't remember what level she's at.

I also started the Strength link and am following it through, this time! For whatever reason last time, I started it, but then completely forgot about it?? I have also started the Hanged Man link, and the Temperance link (which still grosses me out to some degree but also HOLY WHAT is going on!)

Everyone is almost level 30 now (WHAT) and for some reason, Makoto levels up before Akira does (he should level first, being the main character).

EDIT: I have also discovered the fishing pond! That never happened the first time around for reasons I don't know! [/edit]

And that's about all I had to say!

~

*Access to SMT games is worse in Europe because, for example, neither SMT IV nor Apocalypse got a physical release (though they are available on the e-shop), and neither did either Raidou game (I think you can get them on PS3 PS Store, but don't quote me on that). And don't even ask about the DeSu games...