all made up with nowhere to go

# For the second week running, the son of one of the regulars at work has tried to convince me to play Baldur's Gate 3.

He does not seem to realise he is fighting a losing battle*, but he is in his late teens/early twenties at best. I remember being that age and thinking everything I liked was hot shit and everyone else was wrong. He will learn (I hope; he does seem like a decent lad, so fingers crossed).

I also got into linguistic wrangling with another regular about whether being vegetarian means you can't eat fish (he seems to think it does, and maybe I shouldn't have said pescetarian to him because I don't know as he knew what I meant. Not because I think he's an idiot, but how often does anyone use that word?)


*I have no desire to play BG3 at all, let alone have anything capable of running it even if I did want to.

# A couple of weeks ago, I bought Jazz what I think is the best toy ever. As in she immediately played with it and hasn't stopped since (her radiator bed remains untouched).

Aldi were selling smooth wooden balls, so I got her one and she loves it! Although it does keep getting stuck in random places (so I have to fish it out), and it makes a loud SMACK! sound when it hits the living room door or the fireplace, as it is a solid piece of pine wood, but I'll deal with that because of how pleased I am that she'll play with it at all.

Best £2 I ever spent :D

(Talking of Jazz - I don't know if I mentioned the new bed I built? The last one was a divan, but the new one has space underneath it, and she likes it sit under there and tell me where she is. Also this one is closer to the floor, so it's easier for her to jump up on as well).

# itch.io has a bundle of 467 TTRPGs for just $5 (/£4.05 at the time of writing) in support of trans people in Ohio - I would not have found out about it but that a friend on fb posted about it, so I am passing this knowledge onto you, also.

I've always wanted to buy one of these bundles, but either not known about them, or not had the spare money. And now I do, and five bucks in nothing for all those games. (You also have the option of paying more if you want to).

(...and now I'm thinking about writing RPGs again...Although that's a vague lie - I was thinking about one I started but I have not finished just yesterday, before I even saw my friend's post).

# That's all I've got for now, I think.

Final Fantasy XII was nineteen years old on the 16th, and I do not like it. How DARE my favourite game be that old!

I may have to replay it, but let's honest, when am I not thinking about replaying it?

(I mean also TWEWY is eighteen this year as well, but time is absolutely bullshit nonsense, right?)

~

I was thinking about posting my Steam games list/wishlist on here just so I had somewhere that didn't require me to log into Steam to look at it, so here they are:

( games list )

( wishlist )

And now I've done this I might make another entry with my itch.io and GOG lists in, but that can wait for another day.

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.

So over the past couple of days, I watched Ian from Eurogamer* play a game on his channel called Still Wakes The Deep.

It is a game set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland. Everything is fine, until it isn't. And it's way better than that sounds, but I can't say any more without spoiling.

I recognise a bunch of actors who are in it, and it's awesome to have a game mostly full of Scottish accents, imo!**

Ian started off playing like, "Wouldn't it be cool to spend twenty four hours on an oil rig? Just looking around and stuff?" And I was all nope, nope, nope, absolutely not, because I have always been convinced that rigs are terrifying places because they're in the middle of nowhere, on the sea.

(I later found out that the reason for me thinking this was probably the Piper Alpha disaster, which happened when I was seven. I don't remember it happening with any clarity, but I dare say I have heard a lot about it in the years since).

Suffice to say, by the end of the game, Ian had changed his mind about whether he wanted to be on an oil rig or not.

But anyway, I'm glad I watched it - I was in two minds whether or not to, because I didn't know what it was about - but it proper spooked me out. I made the mistake of watching the first part before I went to bed one night, and then last night I woke up sweating (because I'm still ill), and my mind immediately started thinking about stuff that had happened in it.

I might have to watch it again, or watch someone else play it (I kind of hope Johnny will, but I don't think that's going to happen), because I think it will be interesting to watch the story unfold now I know what happens.

It's not often a game messes with my head this much - the last time I remember it happening was when Johnny streamed The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, which left me feeling much the same way, but for very different reasons.

~

*I suppose I ought to give him his own tag; I watch enough of his stuff to warrant it.

**There is also one (1) Irishman, one Yorkshireman, and one Londoner. And afaik, those are their actual accents - the Yorkshireman's definitely is.

My immune system decided to give me a horrendous cold for my birthday! It does explain why I felt so grotty on my actual birthday (shenanigans with buses aside), and then again on the next day I worked, even though it was a shorter shift.

I feel horrible and the glands in my neck are swollen. Fun times!

~

In other news, I stopped playing Horizon Zero Dawn. It really wasn't gelling with me, and I think I was finding it extra frustrating because I had the cold coming on and wasn't in the mood to learn a whole new set of controls for a video game. Although I did like that it was giving me "running around Skyrim" vibes, but I can play DA:I or actual Skyrim for that.

I will probably give it another go at some point in the future before I sell it off, but right now I don't think it's the game for me.

But the day before yesterday, I had to go out for my final in-work support appointment in Halifax so, while I was there, I dropped in CEX and picked up a copy of Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I didn't even do the thing where I bristled at buying a game (three games) I already own! I am excite to play through it all again! Looking at my old journal entries, the last time was in 2015, and that sounds about right. I knew I hadn't played it since mum died in 2018 (although IDK why as I have played on the Xbox since then), but wasn't sure when the last time was. And now I can play all the DLC I didn't have before!

While I was waiting for it to install, I somehow ended up on the Mass Effect subreddit, wherein I found this thread where someone asked what everyone's hottest take on the series is. I was honestly surprised how many I agreed with (and the ones I didn't, I was just like, "welp, you're wrong about that"). I was also interested by how many people think ME2 is the worst of the original trilogy. Back when I was actively rooting around in the fandom, the consensus seemed to be that ME2 was the best, and if you didn't agree, you were wrong. But now the tables seem to have turned, which is interesting.

Anyway, I've started playing and picked up almost everybody already (just missing Liara). I forgot how much I love Wrex! I have taken exactly one screenshot in Photo Mode so far, but only because I can't really figure it out, and I'm waiting till we get some full-on scenery porn to really mess with it.

I don't really have anything else to add, so I'm going to go and curl up in a ball until I feel better.

The new washing machine is here! And it works and everything! (As it darned well should!)

I got up at 6am yesterday, because the site I ordered from let you know between 6:30 and 8:30am when your delivery is due, and the last time I ordered from them, they told me at 6:30 that it was coming at 7, so that was a nasty surprise. But this time I was prepared. So I got up and made sure everything was sorted, and the delivery email said it would get here between 9:30am and 1:30pm, so I got to spend a lot of time hopping around the living room feeling very anxious.

They eventually came at ~11:30, and were gone by 11:45, which was bloody amazing, frankly.

The only gripes I have is that the one guy pushed the washing machine too far back, so the outlet hose got kinked, and that the other guy was very ignorant, and carried on a conversation he'd been having about dog food evidently before they even got to my house (and more or less ignored me the entire time). But it was 900% a better experience than last time, so I am absolutely not complaining.

I was only without a washing machine for three days, but oof did I feel it. I put on a load after they'd gone, and because of the outlet pipe being kinked, it caused an overflow in the pipe that connects to the sink outlet. Which was delightful, of course. But it wasn't a bad overflow, so it was easy to clean up, but I would have rather not had to do it at all.

But now I have a fancy new washing machine, that I can talk to with my phone! This is optional, but you can choose different cycles from the in-built ones, and see how much time is left on the cycle, etc etc. (You can also see on the machine itself how much time is left, and I know this is not a new thing, but I appreciate that a lot. The old one didn't have anything like that).

~

So after I made the book wrap, I realised I'd sort of run out of things to make (despite having mentioned things here and so on, but I think my brain's just on one at the moment), so I made a coaster and some other bits and pieces in the same fashion. And now I am in a "feeling uncreative" funk again. I know it's probably just because I'm feeling very tired at the moment, but ugh, I wish it wasn't happening. I know it'll pass. I'm just venting.

I got out the book that I borrowed from the library that has the felt succulents in it, so I am going to have a look at that later for some inspo. I even bought some felt with my Xmas money that is in a colour set called Succulent, so if that isn't perfect, I don't know what is. I got the felt before I borrowed the book, just because I liked the way the colours went together, so it's sort of coincidence that I have the two things at the same time.

I think the last twelve months have just done a bit of a number on my brain, and it's taking me time to get back around to how I was feeling before that. I mean, I felt shitty before last January, but not as shitty as I did for the majority of 2023 until now. BUT ANYWAY. I'm sure I will work myself out of this. I've done it before, and I can darned well do it again.

~

Finally, I am watching Johnny Chiodini play through a game called The Tartarus Key, which is an escape room type game with PS1 style visuals (so right up my street, really). I bounced off it initially, because I realised (although I think I already knew) that, in a lot of cases, I have to be in the right mood for Johnny's streams. I like them as a person in general, but sometimes they just wind me up and get on my nerves, which is what happened to start with. But then I came back to it a couple of days later, when I was feeling tired and teary, and IDK everything was fine? Like I even laughed at a couple of jokes they made, where on the previous day, I'd been like, "Ugh, stop being such a fucking fool!"

Anyway, I recommend it! I think a few of you would like it, since some of you like puzzle games (though IDK how you feel about escape rooms), and I thoroughly recommend that you go in blind. It's more fun that way! Also I couldn't find any spoilers on the internet but I didn't try hard enough, lbr. But yeah, I deffo think it's a neat game and I've liked what I've seen so far.

I've been going through my old sketchbooks looking at autobio comics I drew (but have never posted anywhere!), and it turns out the last one I drew was in July 2018, where I roasted myself so hard I didn't ever draw another one*. Coincidentally, said roasting was about me not liking any Manics stuff past Everything Must Go.

Which is now obviously untrue, so maybe it's time for a follow up?

But also I did draw a not-exactly autobio comic in my sketchbook the other day, which I think is what I prompted this in the first place. But also because I am fully obsessed with Pizza Tower, and a part of that is the art style, as it is very cartoony, and I love it.

Anyway, I think the tl;dr version here is that maybe I might start drawing things again that are not patterns?? (or lettering; I've been doing a fair bit of that lately, too).

I also finished up using my Pink Pig sketchbook that I bought at Xmas, and I think I only mentioned it in passing back when I ordered it. It was an 8x8 inch sketchbook with a turquoise cover, and I really liked using it! The paper was 150GSM cartridge, and it was very smooth, which I don't mind, but I know that bothers some people. I found it very pleasant to draw on, although with any inks it seemed very "thirsty", for lack of a better word - the Sharpies I used on it dried patchily (although also: Sharpies. Not really intended for making art with!), and it just seemed to suck up other ink very rapidly. But it's probably not really intended for wetter media, being only cartridge paper, and not mixed media paper, but that's my only really gripe with it.

And now I am using an A5 book that I made out of printer paper and ooooh boy the difference is...extremely apparent, is what it is. But I'm mostly going to use this book for mucking about with felt tips, so I'm not that bothered that the paper isn't great, tbh. (And I'm not really a snob about paper, but I do see/feel the difference here).

~

In other news, I have spent most of the last two weeks having either migraines or headaches, and there was only one day where that didn't happen. I think it is was a combo of the weather (the air pressure has been quite low recently) and stress (I've temporarily been given more responsibility than I want at work, and I don't like it).

They are starting to ease off somewhat, but ugh this sucks.

~

*Hourly comics day doesn't count :d

I babysat my nephew last night, so of course I used to opportunity to watch Knives Out on my in-laws' Netflix.

I enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if I would or not, esp because it's been hyped to heck and back, but I actually did like it more than I was expecting to. I wasn't expecting Daniel Craig's character to be such a goofball, but I also enjoyed that! Made a change from the handful of other things I've seen him in.

So yeah, I don't feel like I wasted that time at all, which was nice.

(My nephew stayed in his room playing Fortnite with his friends, which was fine by me, I said he could if anyone was about online, and he got to stay up late because it's half term right now).

~

Other than that, I've had a bit of A Week, some of which sort of concerns work stuff that I'm not going to go into because this is an unlocked post, and honestly it would take too much explaining even if it weren't. Suffice to say it was a lot of Drama, and I got caught in the middle of it and blimey I wish I hadn't been.

~

Other than that, I haven't played Okami since I last posted, as I've mostly either just gone to sleep early, or dinked about a bit in the Theatrhythm demo.

I did watch Flembons playing Celeste, but I didn't enjoy it. It looks like a game that seems very frustrating to play, and, well, I don't like that sort of thing (see also: Dark Souls). Also I'm not into platformers, and the gameplay reminds me of Knytt Story levels that I downloaded a loooong time ago and couldn't get into because I wasn't as dexterous as the designers of the levels wanted me to be. (It's probably easier on a controller than a keyboard, but it's still not my thing).

I also watched Ian from Eurogamer play a bit of Dark Souls II's endgame on his own channel, as he did a surprise stream of it the other night, but I don't know that I'll go back to it to see how he got on. I like Ian (most of the time); I do not like Dark Souls, and I don't know why I keep persisting with it, tbqh!

Firstly, huge apologies for the next Post Once A Day being late again! I have had a horrible couple of days regarding a delivery, which stressed me t f out, and then just tired from other stuff, not limited to, but including work and looking for work.

But yeah, the delivery. If you guessed it involved cat litter again, you would be 100% correct! I ordered some last weekend, and booked the delivery date for the 19th, as it was the only day where I would be home all day.

Only it didn't turn up on the day I'd booked for because apparently it was a temp driver doing the deliveries, and they decided at some point that they couldn't be arsed to do a bunch of them. I found this out the next day when I actually got the delivery (from a non-temp driver, who was as fuming about it as I was). But at least it got here in the end, although I'm still mad, because I had to ring work and tell my boss I couldn't go in, and I felt really bad about it.

Secondly, Oxboxtra/Eurogamer/Dicebreaker did a massive stream of Goose Goose Duck, which is an Among Us clone, but distinctly more avian, and with more options. ANYWAY. I watched the Oxbox stream when it was live, but went back to catch up on the others and, while I was watching Oxtra's, I saw someone from my new favourite streamer's chat!* I wouldn't have noticed at all (I don't usually read the chat), but that I glanced at the screen and saw a familiar and distinctive name. It was so weird. Like. Sometimes I will see people whose names I recognise from OX/EG/DB chats/comments on other stuff, but I've never seen someone from Flembons' chat show up elsewhere.

Thirdly, I don't have a third thing, because I feel like I've been very busy, and thus very tired, and so I don't have a lot to say.



*His name is Flembons, and that is how I shall refer to him henceforth.

~

So yeah, this was supposed to go up on the 20th and, as you can see, it is now the 22nd, but my brain has been absolute mush.

honigfrosch asked me: Do you have a favourite spot to visit nearby? How would you describe it to someone who's never been there?

There are lots of places near me that I like to visit because I am very lucky to live in a) the countryside and b) a really nice bit of it, with lots of interesting places around.

I've been having a think about this, and the answer off the top of my head is the hillside behind my house. Primarily because it's easy to climb (I live in a valley and the other side is steep a f - I have tried to get up it, but I did not have a good time). When you get to the top, you can see my entire village below you, and the surrounding area, including massive stretches of moorland on both sides, plus the pine tree forest on the one hillside. Also if you look down into the trees behind my house from that point, I used to think that that was what the Wood Between Worlds in The Magician's Nephew looked like.

But that feels like a cheat because I haven't been up there in years, and it's a really easy answer.

So my actual answer is that there's a largish stream running through woodland further along the hillside - it's not actually that far from civilisation, but when you are there, in among the trees, you can't hear the cars on the road, and it feels really magical. It's just you, and the birds, and any other woodland animals out there - that's where I made a recording of the birds last summer.

The stream runs down from the top of the hill. The banks either side are densely lined with trees. It gives me Lost vibes, even though I am obviously not in Hawaii. There's a lot of rocks in the river, and a small bridge so you can cross at one of the wider parts. If you go the way I usually do, you have to descend some steps to get to the river, that probably had stones on once, but they've been long gone. When I was a teenager, there were horses kept in the field next to the stream, but they're also long gone, and the field is overgrown with ferns and brambles now.

It feels really peaceful there, which is kind of interesting, given it's a popular dog walking route - I haven't been up there and not run into someone else in a long time.

But it is absolutely the sort of place I think fae shenanigans would happen - I once started writing a story where said thing happened, and I was thinking of that wood and stream at the time.

I dunno how good of a description this is! I really don't know what else to say about it (please feel free to ask further questions!) Also apologies again for being late.

No, you spent some of the last few days watching videos about what Final Fantasy Versus XIII could have been and got sad. And then watched some more videos where some fans took some stuff that happens in KHIII way too literally and got kind of annoyed at them (and also annoyed at Nomura, because if these people are right, then he just doesn't know how to let things be. I get not wanting to abandon a neat idea, and I am sad Versus XIII didn't happen, but also like, he had a chance to make it happen, and things didn't pan out, and maybe they weren't meant to. It feels harsh saying that, but it is kind of how I feel).

This started from reading how much of FFXV was cut before it got released. Which also made me sad, because I'm sure most of you reading this already know my feelings about the game we got. (tl;dr version: it could have been so, so much better).

~

In other game news, Johnny streamed the last part of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow yesterday and oh wow. That did not go where I expected (although I'm kind of glad about that).

It was definitely the right game for the season, and it definitely gave me the spoops, as I literally jumped when I got an email notification on my phone after the stream had ended.

I'd definitely recommend it, if you like point and click games that are kind of creepy.

~

And then, in me related things: I went to Burnley in search of cat food**, and ended up buying some new pens and pencils, because I'm me. And Dragon Age: Inquisition for the PS4.

I promise I did get the cat food, too. I actually managed to find it in the store I hoped would have it for cheap, so that was good!

The pens are Zebra Ola gel pens, and some Sharpie gel pens which I ordinarily wouldn't have got, but they were half marked price, making them £2 for three pens! The pencils are some Staedtler ones I've never heard of, but since my favourite ever pencils are the Noris yellow and black ones, I thought I would give these a try.

So yeah, DA:I.

I don't know that I will play it any time soon, but at least I have it now? I'm mostly excited about running around Crestwood before closing the rift there, because that's my favourite part of the game. I also like the deserty levels a lot, but I realised Crestwood is where my heart really wants to be, heh.

It's taken me a good nine months to get hold of it. Like, CEX's website has said repeatedly that Burnley's store has had one singular copy in, but I've never been able to find it until now, as it was not with the rest of the games whose titles start with Dragon, which didn't help! I think it's down to people not putting stuff back where they got it from, as I also picked up Code Vein to look at, realised it wasn't in the right place, and slotted it back where it needed to be.

Other than that, I now actually have a physical copy of Gideon the Ninth to read! It is sitting on my desk, awaiting my picking it up and looking at it. I think the writing style will be okay; I flicked through a couple of pages and it didn't seem grating, so hopefully I will get on all right with it!

And that's about it for now.

~

*By which I mean, Gamers™.

**Jazz is picky, and will only eat one brand of wet food, which I've been having difficulty getting hold of of late.