all made up with nowhere to go

Keanu Reeves is going to be sixty tomorrow, and I am fully unprepared for this!

~

My hands are really painful at the moment, and I wonder if it is a stress response.

I have worked A LOT over the last two weeks, with just two days off in the middle (and not together). I also have not been sleeping well. Anyway, tl:dr version: I ended up accidentally burning myself out on Friday by doing more than I thought I was capable of as well as a 6.5 hour shift at work.

I noticed that my hands started hurting partway through the shift. It got to the point where I couldn't get into a bottle of tomato sauce and had ask someone else to do it for me, because I couldn't grip tightly enough. And, as I say, my hands are still hurting and feel very stiff, two days later.

But I'm totally capable of doing a full time job, am I? [/sarcasm] (sorry, I am still very bitter about this).

Anyway, I've got a few days off, one tiny shift tomorrow, and then next week I am on holiday for a week! \o/ So hopefully I can recover well.

~

In other, more exciting, news, my new headphones are here, and they are delightful!

Why I didn't just buy these in the first place, I have no idea, but at least I have them now, and they are providing an excellent aural experience!

I did manage to get a refund on the old ones, which was nice, so that covers some of the cost of these. And I ended up getting a partial refund from some clothes I bought (one of the items was out of stock), so that will cover a little bit more, so I can feel a bit less guilty about how much I spent on these ones.

(Who am I kidding, I will never stop feeling guilty).

# 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?

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!

1. I now have a copy of Kingsglaive. I haven't watched it yet, but I thought about taking notes while I did, but I honestly think it will mostly consist of "WHY WASN'T THIS IN THE GAME????"

2. I bought myself a new tablet on Sunday, somewhat impulsively. It is allegedly arriving at some point before 3PM today (the Royal Mail at least say on their website/tracking page that delays are possible for a variety of reasons, so if it doesn't arrive on a given date, apologies because they're trying their best).

I do need one, because my old one is slow and horrible (it's an Acer and, while they make decent laptops, their tablets are horrible. Or, at least, this one is. I have no desire to ever try another one again). I felt bad about it, because I always do, but I also realised it will work out to my benefit.

It has a decent amount of space on it (32Gb), which can be expanded with a memory card to up to 1Tb!

The reason it will work to my benefit is that I can use it for uploading WiPs to my ko-fi gallery, which is what I'd planned to do for subscribers. I will post about it when it happens, in case you are interested in subscribing (but, as always, no obligation!) That's not the only thing I can use it for, but it'll also save having to transfer pics to my computer and then upload them from there.

3. I finished watching the LP of Chocobo's Dungeon and it is delightful! I love Chocobo, and I'm pretty sure Squeenix do a plush of him, and you bet I want one.

Update: YES THEY DO.

4. I thought I had more things to say than this, but apparently not! I guess my brain is too full with the possibility of my tablet arriving at any given moment!

My phone line is still not working properly. It's two weeks since I last contacted my provider about it, and they said it was due to be fixed the day after I spoke to them.

Yeah. 'Cause that happened, didn't it?

It's been like, six weeks in total. I wouldn't mind, since I don't tend to get a lot of phone calls anyway (and most of those are spam), but I have relatives who only know my landline number. If they need to get in touch with me, they can't.

Also: this is the second time this year! We are not even in June yet!

I stg if it didn't feel so overwhelming AND I hadn't just renewed my contract, I'd switch to somewhere else.

~

As I suspected, I don't like normal Roiboos. It tastes, smells, and looks too much like ordinary black tea for my liking. Which is kind of weird, given I know Roiboos and the black tea plant aren't related. But I can't stand black tea, which is why I don't drink it.

So the other day, I found myself in Holland & Barrett, looking at their range of fruit teas, and ended up buying one that has spearmint in it*. It's mostly fruit, but has the mint as a tangy note. Not sure I'm sold on it yet, but I've only drunk it twice.

Anyway, I discovered as well, that Holland & Barrett do a massive range of gluten-free stuff! Which is amazing, since I have not been managing so well at being gluten-free since I went back to work. I did think about getting food deliveries, since the bigger supermarkets also have gluten-free stuff, but I literally pass by H&B on my way to work/on the way back home, so it's nice to have another option (although I've said it before and I'll say it again: HOLY FUCK GLUTEN-FREE STUFF IS EXPENSIVE).

~

In Persona 5 news, you will possibly be pleased to hear that I am almost at the end of the game! I am in the final dungeon, and I have some things to say!

The first of which is not a spoiler, but that I genuinely think Shoji Meguro is one of my favourite composers, and oh boy, does he know how to write a tune that gets stuck in your head! I woke up yesterday morning with the boss fight theme in my head for no apparent reason (although mostly it's been either Last Surprise (the battle theme) or Beneath the Mask, since they're the two tracks I've heard the most).

I mean, I have liked his stuff for a long time at this point, but something about this game's soundtrack and Strange Journey's just absolutely nailed it for me.

So, onto the spoilers, for they are here! And also large!

( Read more... )

I think that's all I have to say for now? I will probably remember five hundred things after I've hit post (as is always the way).

Also I decided at some point that I'm going to watch a Let's Play of Persona Q, and PQ:2, since I doubt I'll ever play them.

~

*I avoid mint tea also because as a concept it just feels wrong and, while I like mint stuff, I have strong not good feelings about minted peas, mint ice cream, and mint tea.

The phone engineer came on Thursday morning out to sort my landline and now everything is REALLY fixed, for reals this time. Phew.

He even updated the box inside my house so that I don't have to use a splitter, and the phone and router just plug straight into the wall! AMAZING.

While that was going on (because he had to do more work outside my house at the junction box), I saw that Aoife from Eurogamer was streaming The Medium, so I decided to have a look at it. I'd already watched Oxbox's gameplay video of it, and decided it wasn't too scary, and I told myself could always switch the stream off if it was. Well, folks, it was so not scary, that I decided to watch the follow up stream the next day and by god I wish I hadn't. Not because it suddenly became scary, but because the story's treatment of several sensitive issues made me extremely angry. It's two days later and I'm still fuming about it.

I debated whether to make a key smashy entry, but decided against it (for now). I'm still tossing up whether to write a full blown entry about it or not as, to some degree, I won't have much to add to what's already been said about it by other people. Although possibly I could do it for the purposes of being cathartic. We'll see. No promises.

Other than that, nothing interesting has happened, except that my second hand copies of the Matrix soundtracks came. I haven't listened to them yet, but they all seem to be in pretty good nick, which is what you'd hope for.

I won't bore you with the details, but I had no internet for an entire day because my router went kaput! I didn't know that was a thing that really happened, given the previous one had been repeatedly knocked over by cats/me, and had been Really Old, and yet somehow kept on working.

Anyway, I rang my ISP customer service, and they said the problem was the router, and would send me a new one, free of charge! The lady I spoke to said it would be with me within two to three days, so I was anticipating a long three days.

It arrived while I was out of the house yesterday. I plugged everything in, and it all works, and we're all good again, yaaaaaay!

While my internet was out, however, I played some more FFV Advance, and I only have Exdeath/Neo Exdeath left to beat! I came really close to it last night - I managed to kill 3/4 of the parts, and got the fourth one so low it started doing desperation attacks (which suck ass, btw). And then I tried it again and failed miserably, so eh.

I think I may have to grind some job levels (*eye roll*). I already did an EXP grinding run to get Lenna to the same level as everyone else (41). I don't know if it helped much, and she always levels last.

I guess the thing to do next is finish up Diablo III, since I am similarly close to the end of that. I thought about playing Dark Souls II, after, because IDK I hate myself? ;) (Fandom will have you believe it is The Worst Souls Game EVER™ but we'll see).

Finally, IDK if anyone is interested, but yesterday afternoon/evening, I finally got around to watching Johnny and Wheels livestream playing The Thousand Year Old Vampire, which is a solo RPG, but can be played as a communal game (which is sort of what they did here - they did the writing, and threw open decisions to the livestream chat). Part two is here.

I can only think the reason I didn't watch it live was because Luke was streaming Demon's Souls at the time, and it's taken me this long to catch up on it again because reasons??? (Probably me forgetting I wanted to watch it and it not coming up in my yt recs, I should think).

I'm proper getting into the idea of solo RPGs, which I didn't know were a thing that existed until Dicebreaker mentioned them. There's a few I want to play (I specifically want to play The Machine and then pass it on to my friend Chris, but I think both of us are going to need to not be in a bad mindset before playing it, because it isn't cheerful). I don't know that I want to play The Thousand Year Old Vampire (esp if it's as depressing as the prompts make out. Though teenage me would've eaten it up because ANGST). But it's nice to know there are options out there for someone who can't or doesn't want to play with other people.

As usual, I have no idea how to end this post, so I'm just going to stop here and hit "post".

The other day, I discovered the PS4 controller has motion controls??? I did not know this! (It flicked on by accident while I was making an account for my nephew to use next time he plays something on the console). Apparently the PS3 has them as well???

I don't know that there's a whole lot you can use it for, because I think for motion stuff, Sony want you to use the Move controller.

But this is why consoles should still have proper manuals, GDI! I have had this console for nearly a year, and only just discovered this, w t f

~

I think I might like playing action games, y'all.

I decided to check on my Dark Souls save from 2017, and discovered I did not get very far at all. I actually wondered if it was because I didn't know how to level or something daft like that.

And...then I continued on playing, beat the Asylum Demon extremely easily in one go, and got as far as the Undead Burg. Which admittedly is not far, but I did take a detour to New Londo Ruins by accident. I also got mushed by the skellies in the graveyard near the Firelink Shrine because I didn't know which way to go to start.

MAPS, FROM SOFTWARE! THEY WOULD BE USEFUL!

(Here I hear Aoife from Eurogamer in my head saying that she likes that From games don't have maps, because then you have to explore and. Well, yeah, but also you have to explore when you have a map, because you don't necessarily know where any of it leads to. The same things could well have happened to me had I not had a map).

Also I kept wasting estus because I kept hitting X/square for attack instead of R1 (I think that's because X/square is attack in Kingdoms of Amalur, and that's the last console game I played). So I kept having to truck it back to a bonfire to reload, so to speak.

I don't know that I will continue playing, but it's given me confidence that I might be all right with Sekiro (if I ever get a copy) and has even piqued my interest in Nioh, which I had next to no interest in before, because it was inspired by Dark Souls.

I have also been watching Aoife play Ghost of Tsushima, and I like the idea in principle, but something about it makes me feel uneasy (maybe I'll be able to tap into why better when I watch Ellen play it?) The character models are a bit uncanny valley for me - they don't look in proportion, and the faces don't look right, imo (though I had this problem with ME:A, so maybe it'll pass once I get used to it). However, I do like that the majority of the English speaking cast is Asian, even if they aren't all Japanese or of Japanese descent (I imagine the pool of Japanese-American actors is small, and that of voice actors is even smaller). I'm glad Sucker Punch didn't cop out on the English voice track just being American accents regardless of time period (or a bunch of white actors doing offensive accents, for that matter).

And then finally on the "maybe I like action games" thing, my hand slipped and I bought the HD version of Okami for my PS4, when I already own the PS2 version. I shouldn't have looked up how much secondhand copies of the original are, admittedly, but I was doing it out of curiosity, and of course, the HD version came up in the results. I do want more games for my PS4, but I shouldn't be spending money I don't have on games I don't need (which why I'm still holding off FFXV and Horizon Zero Dawn, and definitely Sekiro, plus a whole other bunch of games I want).

So yeah. It's possible I only like action games with certain themes or settings, like Mass Effect is the only shooter I'll probably ever play. I guess we will see!

~

Outside Xbox, Dicebreaker, and Eurogamer did ANOTHER multi channel Among Us Stream!

(I'm linking these because I find them hilarious, and I will never play Among Us because I don't have enough friends to play with :( and I would find it super stressful).

I just had to order a new scanner.

My old one, which I have had for just under three years, at some point between July last year and...whenever I last scanned stuff (a couple of months ago, I think), developed a judder when the scanner head got to a certain point in the scan. I didn't think anything of it at first, except that when I went to image edit today, I discovered that that judder makes a smeary looking jerk in the image.

Some of this stuff was intended for printing, so that's no good.

I opted for an Epson XP-455 (I think that's the right number???) as it was on offer on PC World's website for £40 instead of one hundred. It's an All-In-One, so it copies, scans, and prints. I was going to spend ~£50 on just a flatbed scanner, so I think I got a bargain? I also bought some ink which should work with it, and got some money off that, too (I can always return it if it turns out it's incompatible, but it shouldn't be). I also paid for next day delivery, since that wasn't really going to make a difference in the price, and I didn't want another fiasco like the art supplies delivery.

Anyway, yeah, one of the things I was hoping to do this year was offer prints of my stuff, sold by me, rather than via somewhere like Redbubble, so hopefully I can do that! Also this new printer/scanner combo is able to print both sides of paper, which is awesome, as I was also planning on making books/zines.

~

Post Once A Day Meme:

lassarina asks: Is there a piece of media you didn't like at first, but grew to love? Why?

I assume we're talking TV/video games/music here, not art supplies? I mean, I can answer that, too (probably), but for now I'll stick to visual stuff.

There's a whole stack of games I didn't like at first but slowly they grew on me. Some of them are Final Fantasies - so V, VI, and probably IX (! which is a surprise, but I didn't like Zidane at first). V and VI, it took replaying them to make me realise that actually they were okay (apart from the Arcaeoaevis in the Ancient Ruins in V, but I think it's That One Boss for that game). I think I may have played them not that long after VII, so the jump backwards in graphics and gameplay was a surprise, probably.

I didn't like The Last Remnant, either, when I first played that - I'm still not good at commanding my units, but I like the story/character stuff more than the actual fighting. I didn't think I was going to like Mass Effect, either, because it was the first shooter I'd ever played and...I can't hit the broad side of a barn on a good day. But it is like every eighties cliché about science fiction, including the soundtrack, and I LOVE.

(There are probably even more games than this, but my mind is drawing a blank).

Again, with music, there's a whole stack of stuff - a lot of times with that, my exasperation is hearing it too much on the radio/adverts, and then maybe I'll come back to it years later, and it won't sound as bad. My most recent "hey I actually like this!" is At The River by Groove Armada, which I hated for almost twenty years. And pretty much everything The Beach Boys ever did - although that started when I watched a thing about how they put together Good Vibrations, and that was really interesting.

I can't really say anything about TV because there's no shows I like where that was the case? I wasn't gripped by Farscape when I first saw it, but I didn't dislike it.

For films, I'd say Bladerunner. The first time I saw it was the original cut, with the voice over and it was...Not Good. Thank frogs for the director's cut, is all I'm saying.

(Sorry if this wasn't the answer you were after. Like I said, I can probably do the alternative).

Still watching Lost. Up to episode six of season six.

( mumblings; potential spoilers )

Relatedly, we had to get a new DVD player because we'd had the old one for years. I think it's lasted well, considering it was a cheap make, and it was a freebie. So we got a Sony one and it's kind of amazing?? If you plug an HDMI cable (which I did, because we don't have the other kind of cable it can take), it will upscale your DVD to HD automatically. The sound quality is great. And it has a USB slot so you can plug in a memory stick and play music or watch videos!! (Though I can do that with the TV anyway, as it also has a USB slot). And it's so small! And light!

Anyway, I'm really impressed with it, because everyone in Lost looks even more awesome than usual. (And nobody sounds like they're mumbling any more, which is great!)

~

I have been writing a lot recently! I'm taking my third stab at attempting to get a finished version of the abominations story which, I suppose, makes it like the third draft or something. Except I've totally gutted everything and started from the ground up. Sort of. The details are the same, it just happens differently.

I'm writing it all out by hand, because the computer offers too many distractions. So I have no idea how many words that is. I'm not putting in too much detail (going to do that on the second pass on the computer) - I'm just trying to get the characters from A to B so that C can happen, and then D. And you know what? I think I actually have a three act story? I'm still in the first at the moment, but C definitely is in the second, and D is in the third.

*horrified gasp*

My characters are being recalcitrant, but that is really no different from the norm, tbh.

~

It's my birthday tomorrow. I'm going to be 36. My birthday really snuck up on me this year. But I kind of don't mind. I said to mum earlier that I'm kind of past the point of caring about them. I just kind of feel now like, "Oh, another year has passed", because I really don't feel any different than I did several years ago. In fact my brain keeps going, "We're thirty six? NO FREAKING WAY, MAN!" because I really don't feel it.