all made up with nowhere to go

My mental and physical health have taken a nosedive recently, so THAT'S FUN. Usually I can handle when it's one or the other, but both of them decided to tag team me, wheeeeee!

I'm not going to go into more detail than that for the moment, as I have some plate spinning that I need to deal with first, but I am going to go to the doctor about both things, so I am working on getting it sorted.

~

In other news, have a meme!

lassarina did a meme whereby someone had chosen three interests off her profile page for her to talk about, and anyone else was welcome to comment and let her pick three interests off their page, for them to talk about. So I did. And if anyone wants me to pick three for them, let me know in the comments!

Rina picked: Digital Devil Saga; Yume Nikki; Ancient Egypt

( blather under here )



I hope those were adequate explanations; if anyone wants more details/clarifications, feel free to ask!

I have done some weaving! I have a loom from a box kit my mum bought me when I was a kid, and I dug it out and have been using that. And for the first time in, well, ever, it didn't feel tedious! (Okay, maybe just a little bit, but not as bad as I remember). I put on one of Oxboxtra's Among us streams from last year, and wove while I rewatched that, and it was great!

I think part of the problem I used to have is that I need something else to keep my brain going while I'm working? I've found this with other things I thought were boring in the past, and it's worked out well for me.

I also finished the "sewing across a canvas" thing (this is essentially what I did, but this isn't the tutorial I took the idea from, nor what I did). It took way less time than I thought, once I got going, and it wasn't too bad in the end. I don't know what I'll do with the finished product, but that's typical of a lot of my experiences with crafts, let's be honest.

~

Meanwhile, here's some more memery! I might as well finish this off, as leaving the last question till I'm on the internet next seems a bit daft! (Also I've got another video game meme I'm itching to do).

25. Dragon Quest is Enix's original big franchise. Have you played any of the DQ series?

Yes, I played Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2, and I did not like it. As I said in a previous entry, I don't particularly like Akira Toriyama's art style, and I felt that losing half your gold when you died was unfair. Oh, also Jessica has jiggle physics and Do Not Want, thank you very much.

I do like some of the monster designs, though, but not enough to ever play another one.

26. Final Fantasy is Square's original big franchise. Have you played any of the FF series?

Yes, absolutely I have! Like lassarina said, though, it's probably quicker to list what I haven't played, thus:

FFIV: The After Years, VII Remake, XI (because MMO), XIV (because also MMO), and XV. I also haven't played the original Crystal Chronicles game, nor any Chocobo's Dungeon (although I want to). Or World of Final Fantasy, and I think there's some mobile games, but I'm not 100% on that right now (I guess Mobius counts, because I didn't get very far into it before I gave up, and now you can't play it at all!)

27. Eidos brings series like Tomb Raider with it. Have you played any Eidos games?

Yes, the original Tomb Raider, and possibly 2, as well as one of the later ones for the PSX that I can't remember the title of.

28. Taito offers all sorts of different games, including the Darius series. Have you played any Taito games?

As mentioned every time Taito has come up: Bust A Move. Matching games and cute character designs, what's not to love?

29. Square-Enix also owns Gangan Comics. Are you familiar with any of that catalog?

Apart from the FF, KH, DQ, Fire Emblem and Star Ocean manga, I have actually heard of Soul Eater! (I own the anime on DVD; I haven't watched it yet). I have also heard of Black Butler and Space Dandy, but I haven't read either of them.

30. Free Space! Talk about anything else Square-Enix that wasn't asked.

FFXII is really good and you should play it! (lol, jk, I've already said this about 900% times while doing this meme).

I don't know as I have anything else to say, which is terrible! And, as is usual, I'll think of several things after I've logged off, sigh.

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.

Today is my penultimate day of holiday!

And, hilariously, my boss texted me saying that the area manager was asking people to book their remaining holidays before the end of the year (ours reset in January, as opposed to in the financial year). Apparently, I had ten days left, and I don't even know how I managed that! So most of it is sorted now - I'm using the majority of it in November, and then a few other days here and there!

All of this may become irrelevant if Lockdown 4.0: The Return: The Revenge happens in October, but at least I made the effort?

(I had thought about holidays earlier in the year, but didn't know how much I had left, and kept meaning to ask someone. And then it got to now, and I still hadn't asked, but now I know the answer!)

~

Bought myself a red Lamy Safari with a fine nib as a present to myself for making it through those two weeks at work without collapsing. (I'm not joking when I say I slept a lot until the weather got hotter again - it must've really taken it out of me). I bought it with a converter, as I am trying to get converters for all my pens now, with having so much ink, but also trying not to buy so many cartridges*. I got it from the same site as I bought the Kaweco from and, because they were running a 10% discount at the time I bought it, I got it for less than the Kaweco! \o/

Yes, as usual, I do not need more pens, but it doesn't mean I don't want them. Also this is the first one I bought since I got a Platinum Preppy back in April, and both my Jinhaos are broken (one on the screw to screw the nib to the body, the other is cracked because I keep dropping it. The cracked one still works, but it's only a matter of time before it starts leaking ink all over my hand when I write with it. But they were extremely cheap pens, so I am not surprised in the slightest. Apparently I can get spare parts for the cracked one, but IDK that I will).


*This has not gone well, as I bought two different blues in Kaweco cartridges to see which is the default blue you get as a cartridge with a new pen. So then I can buy a bottle of it to use, as I really liked the colour of it!

~

Also HOLY SHIT I JUST SAW THE TRAILER FOR THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS AND OMFG. I did not want this film, but if it turns out to be as awesome and/or batshit as the trailer's implying, I am 100% on board.

(side note: I didn't want Reloaded, either, and we all know how that turned out!)

~

More meme? Sure, why not!

8. Are there any upcoming Square-Enix games you're excited about?

Nope! FFXVI has failed to make me interested but, as I've noted before, trailers for games I end up liking generally fail to get me interested in anything, anyway.

9. What consoles have you played Square-Enix games on?

Nintendo DS, Nintendo 2DS, PSX, PS2, and PS4! Oh, and Gamecube, because apparently Squeenix own Taito now? and I played a LOT of Bust-A-Move on that Back In T'Day™.

EDIT: I forgot about the 360 COMPLETELY because what is my brain! [/edit]

I keep thinking about getting the PS1 releases on my PS4, just so I can have them in a more convenient format rather than lugging my PS2 back upstairs, but it hasn't happened yet. Also I am unfond of buying games I already own (but it doesn't stop me, especially where Final Fantasy is concerned, especially if it turns out to be a better translation, say, or an entirely new version, or just my favourite game but with knobs on).

10. Do you have a Square-Enix Wishlist? (i.e. game you'd like a sequel to, a remaster of, etc.)

I still sort of wish Fortress had happened, even though I don't think I would have liked the gameplay. But I wanted Basch as a main character, dang it!

As for remasters or sequels, I don't think there is anything I want those to happen to. I think pretty much everything I'd want remastered has been (or has been remade), and sequels happened to games I didn't think needed them anyway.

Thought I could get a super early upgrade on my phone, but it turns out this is only the case if I renew my contract to be paying the same amount or more. Since I want to be paying significantly less, this will not be happening, boooooo.

Also I really don't know what phone I want. I'm looking at Oppo, since they have the best bargains contract-wise, but I don't know anything about them otherwise, so I don't know if they're good phones or not.

~

I put Monster Hunter: World into the PS4 as a break from NEO: TWEWY, and it downloaded me 46Gb of updates, which (only) took three hours, holy moly, and now I kind of feel obligated to play it? And to think I was worried about the size of all the FFXV updates!

(It's to include the updates that came with Iceborne, which I have no intention of playing, but here they are on my PS4 anyway).

I like exploring, and OF COURSE I like my Palico - that was the entire reason I wanted to play. I do not like that every mainline quest feels like a boss fight. I also do not like that, in a very similar manner to Dark Souls, the camera is your worst enemy. I think you can get it to lock, but I haven't discovered how, yet. Your second worst enemy is the monsters clipping right into the scenery, because apparently collision detection is not a thing (also nine times out of ten your Palico will clip into your legs if you stand still anywhere). And for about ten hours or so of the game, your worst enemy is also the Anjanth. Which is my next main quest, and I don't wanna do it! (Let's be real, I'm not really invested in this beyond my cat friend)

Anyway, when I was making my character, I tried making my Palico look like my previous cat Charlie, and it worked too freaking well, and then I got upset and teary, which is why I've now got a generic ginger instead. He's called Bean because I'm not very imaginative. I've called all my cats that I've had as an adult some variation of name+bean for extremely daft reasons.

Also I totally forgot that character levels aren't a thing in Capcom games, lol. I kind of like it, because it's different, but also it feels like there's no progression, because I don't have a visual representation of it. But that's a minor gripe, really.

~

Might as well do the next question on the meme since I'm here! (all questions here)

4. Do you have any Square-Enix related books? (e.g. artbooks, references, guides)

I have a book of Yoshitaka Amano's concept art for the first four Final Fantasies, which is called Dawn. I also have strategy guides for FFX, FFXIII, and XIII-2. And that's it, because books cost money! And are not easily accessible when you live in the middle of nowhere!

5. Do you collect any Square-Enix merchandise?

Yes? I have several action figures (Auron, Balthier, Gabranth, Ifrit, Gilgamesh, and Bahamut SIN); a Moogle plush; a Cactuar one; and also a tote bag that was made for Final Fantasy's 30th anniversary. The Moogle plush was from a convention in Milton Keynes in ~2008 (I squealed when I saw it), and the Cactuar plush and the bag were from the Squeenix store. Whereas the action figures were from various trips to Forbidden Planet in Manchester, if memory serves. Apart from Gabranth, who was one of the last birthday presents my dad ever bought me.

(Talking of imaginative names for things, the Moogle's name is Mog. The Cactuar doesn't even have one).

6. What's your favorite Square-Enix mascot character?

MOOGLES.

I mean, if you know anything about me, this is pretty obvious, right? What's not to love about a cat-bat-thing?

I like all versions of them, but I think my favourites are either the Crystal Chronicles ones, where they look like barrels (also Artemicion is stripy love!), or the FFXII version where they look more anthropomorphic and less cat-like.

We are having a heat wave! YAY! (not)

Since the 17th, the daily temps have been above 25°C, and my living room is currently 23° and it's not even dinner time! It's supposed to clear Friday/Saturday, but I hope it doesn't rain so much that town floods. Just enough to cool the air and make it less humid would be nice.

(Also it made me ill and I woke up drenched in sweat last night after only being asleep for two hours, so that was fun as well!)

~

Yesterday, I bought some Stabilo fineliners that I absolutely do not need, but they are in pastel colours! And I got £2 off the set of six, by pure coincidence! I've had the matching set of Pen 68s for a few years now, so it's nice to have the fineliners to go with it.

(I didn't get them from Cult Pens, btw, so please don't click that link expecting to get money off; that's just so you know what I'm talking about. Although, postage excepted, that's the cheapest price I've seen them for).

I also got a hoodie with skelly bones on it from work, so I am EXTREMELY happy about that! Especially since I can wear it at Hallowe'en without having to put extra layers underneath my skelly t-shirt, as I have had to do for the last two years. No promises, but I will try to upload a picture of it somewhere once I've given it a wash, because it's awesome, and y'all should see it!

~

Art youtubers got me super inspired again! Not that I did a lot last time, but the fact that I even felt the inspiration was nice. And not even the same youtuber, which is good. But, like the first person, is someone that is working on a webcomic/comics in general, rather than most of the people I watch on there. I need to find more people like that, as that is Very Much My Jam, though I wouldn't blame you if you didn't know this, because it's not something I've talked about a lot in the past several years.

So hopefully I will get some more noodling done from being inspired by them!

~

Music meme, nicked from sideways:

Without looking things up online, list a song whose title contains each of the following:

A Place: Rock the Casbah - The Clash
A Food: Raspberry Beret - Prince
A Drink: Tequila - Terrorvision
An Animal: Cry Wolf - Aha
A Number: Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
A Colour: Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky - Manic Street Preachers
A Boy's Name: A Message to You, Rudy - The Specials*
A Girl's Name: Jolene - Dolly Parton
Profession: The Hitman - Queen
A Vehicle: The Riverboat Song - Ocean Colour Scene

~

*I mean, I always assumed Rudy was male?

Meme, via forests_of_fire:

1. Comment on this entry saying Rhubarb!, and I'll pick three things from your profile interests. If you don't have any listed, link your intro post or tags, and I'll choose three of your fandoms or other interests you've mentioned.

2. Make a post in your journal or comment here and talk about the words or phrases I picked!

The following things were picked for me: linguistics, crafts, and roleplaying games

( words under here! )

~

And since we're here and doing memes, how about that Post Once A Day meme? I'll do it for January.

Rules:

- You don't have to be following me or ever have commented to request a topic.
- If you're doing the meme, I'll leave topics for you, too! Feel free to link me at any time if you want one.
- Feel free to just leave a topic and no date. I'll fill it in.

( the days! )

I thought about posting the last FFXII entry today, but I might leave that for the weekend (or sometime soon. Definitely NOT in two months' time).

Mainly I want to complain about how I'm supposed to be sociable after work tomorrow but a) I will be tired because I'll have been on the shop floor all afternoon and b) it involves two of my least favourite things: lots of people and a pub.

The reason is that it's Volunteers' Week in the UK, and as I volunteer at work, my boss thought it would be cool if we all went out somewhere together, as the last time we did that was Xmas.

I think I'm going to stay for like, an hour at the most, and then cry off. I really don't want to go, and I know my boss knows it (he's not doing it to be mean; he genuinely wants everyone to get together and hang out but I just don't feel like I can right now).

~

The other day, I was listening to the Persona 2: Innocent Sin soundtrack, and wondering how long it was since I tried to replay it. The answer, according to my past journal entries, is FOUR YEARS AGO.

WHAT NO WAY.

I.

I remember abandoning it last time because it wasn't gripping me as much as it did the first time around, but I didn't think it had been FOUR YEARS AGO.

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE

~

In other video game sterf, althea_valara is doing a Final Fantasy Meme, so I decided to nick it!

( questions and answers! )

Please let me know if any of the yt links are borked?

I finally finished watching that Earthbound LP I started watching back last year! And then I put on an LP of the GBA version of FFV, since lassarina had mentioned that it has a better translation than the PSX version (which is the only version I own).

It has been so long since I played (back before 2010!) that I can't really remember much of anything. So I can't even compare the translation differences, but knowing what the other ones are like (I've also got I, II, IV, and VI for PSX), I can see that this is an improvement.

I did consider getting a copy for myself, but I'd rather buy IV, and I can do art/creative stuff while watching someone else play.

~

Anyway, I'm a day late on the Post Once A Day meme:

thenicochan asks: Who is your favorite FFXII character/ship?

CAPTAIN BASCH FON RONSENBERG OF DALMASCA.

*ahem*

Um, yeah. I've got nothing else on that, really. He is a combination of some tropes I like, and yeah, that's it.

As for ships, I don't really have any any more? I used to ship Basch and Penelo, and also Fran and Balthier, but I just don't now (I don't know why possibly lack of fandom involvement/I got old and boring).

~

The end of the video game meme!

( Read more... )