all made up with nowhere to go

Aoife is leaving Eurogamer! :(

I wouldn't have even found out, but I clicked on their stream of FFVII Rebirth because I didn't know what else to watch (and I've mostly given up thinking I will see spoilers because generally the story is the same as OG FFVII. Also no, I do not want to know how it differs. Also I clicked because with it being only on the PS5 my chances of playing it are slim to none).

Anyway, I am sad because I don't know if you've noticed, but she is my favourite person on the team. I hope she does amazingly wherever she's going from here.

~

The rest of this post is some bullet points:

# I just started Virmire in ME1. I have nothing further to add to that, but if you know, you know.

# I have had my bluetooth headphones for about six weeks and, while I am still not the biggest fan of them, I am pleased that I have not had to recharge them yet. I mean, maybe I'm not using them enough (probably not as I don't use them in the house at all), this is a point in their favour.

# My book about Boro came! It is not exactly what I thought it would be, but I am very excited to look through it properly (I haven't had a chance yet as I've been at work) as it looks very interesting anyway!

I'm not saying I'm actually going to make videos, but I didn't realise how happy installing a video editor on my computer would make me.

I actually really like video editing, but I don't do it much because a) Ubuntu doesn't come with a built in editor (unlike Windows and Movie Maker, fr'ex); b) I haven't thought about making videos for years; and c) I did sometimes make fandom videos, but the reason nobody's ever seen them is because they didn't get finished and youtube wasn't really A Thing at the time (or it was, kind of, but I had rubbish upload speeds because dial up).

It was one of the things I learnt to do in college/for my degree, and I didn't know I'd like it that much. I've never pursued it as a job prospect though, because I think it's like animation in that, if I had to do it for work, it would stop being fun.

But I did think about making some sketchbook flip throughs or something, but I'm making NO PROMISES.

~

The other evening, I watched Aoife and Johnny play FFX-2 for a Late to the Party. Watch as Johnny becomes endlessly frustrated with the controls! (I mean, tbf to him, finding the point where you can jump is a pixel hunt, and IS frustrating)

And I sat there the next day, and I thought to myself, "GDI, I am going to play FFX-2, because that game is fun, and it's been well over ten years since I played it!" (it has to be at least twelve, but I suspect it may be even longer ago than that).

(ha ha ha, this means the last three FFs I've played have all been remakes/remasters!)

I have played about four hours? maybe? and am already at the end of Chapter One, because I forgot it's a really short game if you only do what the plot tells you to. I miiiight go back and restart, but I also might not because I don't really want to?

I did finally find the moogle on Luca docks at the beginning, though, so yay? (I think it only counts for 1% of your overall complete percentage, but uggghhh, I didn't even know it was there way back when!)

I am also watching Aoife and Zoe play OG FFVII (this links to the first video in the playlist). I don't know if I will go on to watch them play the remake (I might wait till I've got my own copy and have played it).

Also still absolutely convinced that I am the weird one among Final Fantasy fans, as I like most of the games I've played. (III, I haven't played enough of - I need to fix that. II frustrates me because the levelling system is borked and I don't have the patience to work around it. VIII I also haven't really played enough, but also Junctioning is weird, and I don't think the tutorial explains it too well? Again, I ought to go back and replay it, and see if Junctioning makes any more sense this time around).

I am SO GLAD this summer has not been like last summer. Just yesterday was bad enough. It got to about 28°C where I live, which was not the hottest temperature in Britain yesterday, nor the hottest I have ever borne but omfg no more, please!

(I send all my cooling thoughts and sympathies to those of you in mainland Europe who're having to deal with temps this hot and hotter at the moment. I wish none of us had to deal with this).

I have a cold at the moment, and I had to go shopping yesterday (I didn't go last week, so I was low on a lot of things, so also couldn't avoid it). I did think about getting an online delivery, but knew it would end up being more expensive than nipping into town. So, I thinks, I'll go out before it gets really hot!

It was 19° when I left the house, and for half nine in the morning, that is warm (especially for Britain. For most of my life, that's been a very warm summer temperature). I was out for an hour and a half, by which time it had got to 23° and I was literally dripping with sweat. I had to get changed as soon as I got in because I felt so gross.

I have never been so grateful that my house feels cool right now, y'all. It actually felt cold inside (it was about 19°) compared to the oven that was outside. I suppose I'm lucky in that, while my house is south-facing, in summer the sun's high enough that it doesn't actually come directly through the windows (it's spring and autumn when it's the worst).

Today is around eight to ten degrees cooler and whew am I glad of that (I had to go outside to the garden earlier and I stood there in the breeze like, this is niiiiice).

I hope we don't get any more days like that (although given, well, everything, that is a very unlikely thing, sadly).

~

In other news:

I got Great Gospel for Aeris! I have never done this before! In fact, I'm pretty sure I've never even seen her third level limits before (I have seen Great Gospel, but on a video on youtube, not with my own eyes on my own video game).

I find it funny that I wasn't really committed to it, given how much trouble I've had levelling her limits in the past, and then all of a sudden I was all, "LET'S DO THIS!" and I did!

I gave her the Shiva summon, which helped with the "Kill X amount of monsters to advance limit levels" bit. It also helps that she only has to kill 80 per level (so 160 in total) as opposed to the bigger amounts for everyone else. I think this is a nice touch, actually. I think it decreases per character (Cloud's amount being the biggest, obviously, because he's (almost) always in the party) and depending on when you get them. By which I mean the order you pick them up, not which disc you get them on (I also got Vincent and Yuffie while Killing Stuff/fighting battles for mythril for Aeris, and I think disc one is the earliest I've ever got them????).

So yeah, that was a thing I did! I think everyone is overlevelled now, but that's waaaaay better than being underlevelled (at which I am An Expert). I have picked up everyone it's possible to get, and I am about to go and beat up Dio for the Keystone so I can go and do the Temple of the Ancients (o boy).

I managed to avoid the pub! \o/ I'd been feeling pretty crappy all week, so pretty much used that as an excuse.

It's not so much that I would have minded the people I was with (though there were a lot of us), but it would have been Friday Night In Town, and even at 5pm, there would have been people on the piss already, so it wouldn't have been a great experience.

~

I started playing FFVII again the other night. Currently, I am in the train graveyard. I got there in around two hours, which doesn't seem that long? I always think the whole bit with Wall Market is later on, but it's not.

I don't remember when it was, but the last time I played, I was naming everyone Sephiroth (for the lulz), and I only got two hours in before I abandoned it completely. SIGHS. (a quick search of my twitter says it was September 2015, but I have no memory of doing it; I just know I did. I also have no idea why I abandoned it, either. Presumably I just got bored).

Anyway, I'm enjoying it, because the music! The graphics! (I love low poly PSX renders in p much the same way I love pixels). Also there's a whole lot of nostalgia here. This was my first FF game, and my first RPG. And it got me through part of a year where I was absolutely crippled with depression. I maybe don't feel quite so enthusiastic about it as I once was, but I still do love it a heap.

~

I'm currently listening to a medley of tracks from the FF games, and I totally would not have picked Searching for Friends for VI, but what do I know? (I'd have gone with Terra's Theme).

(I need to make a list of music I've linked to on twitter again. I feel like I haven't done one of those for a while).

~

I don't have anything else to say, so I'm going to awkwardly end this entry here.