all made up with nowhere to go

Today I should be in work, but I am not, because I asked for the day off as holiday, so I am consequently sitting here feeling weird. I shouldn't, really, because I usually work every other Tuesday anyway, but I suppose it's because I know I should be and I'm not.

Anyway, I asked for the day off, as tomorrow will be my birthday, and I wanted maximum chill for that day, which means today is for doing boring chores, for example. I will probably end up doing a few chores tomorrow (like a clothes wash) because I need to, but I'm going to try to do the majority today.

Or Thursday.

Doesn't matter! Birthdays are for lounging around the house and doing as little as possible!

I was going to buy myself some nice food from Iceland on the way home from work yesterday (having failed to find anything that took my fancy when I did my Big Shop last week). Except Iceland was mysteriously closed (the main shutters were down, so I couldn't go in!), so I went in CEX and bought the PS3 version of FFXIII-2 instead.

Which is obviously not food, but it is a thing I had literally been thinking about buying (despite already owning it on the 360), because I am now very close to the end of FFXIII.

I beat the boss in Oerba who, as you may remember, is not one I was looking forward to. But I took them down in two goes. The first was for lols to see how well I could do, and I whittled their 3 million HP down to quarter of a million before the Doom timer ran out. And I was pretty pleased about that.

Then I did some grinding, which didn't even feel like grinding, to get Vanille Curaja, and I bought Fang the current best accessory to improve her already massive strength stat, and I tried again. And it took me less time, and I didn't get Doom cast on me!

And then I've failed miserably at every major fight since, so wheeeeee! Business as usual! I'm currently stuck on the Adamanchelid in Eden, which I remember being a PITA last time.

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In other news, I started doing some digital art on my new computer, and I really enjoyed it! I've been thinking off and on about how I can't wait to get back to it to see how it turns out. It's nothing special and it doesn't look amazing (imo), but I also haven't done digital in three and a half years, especially not with a tablet.

(I was using a mouse last time because I was doing pixel art - as far as I remember - and placing pixels very deliberately, and a mouse is easier for that).

I also have had some ideas for things I can do once I get back into the swing of it. I've been wanting to make things with lettering for literal years - I think I may have mentioned this before, it's one of the reasons I wanted to learn brush lettering/improve my calligraphy - and I've seen some pixel examples on my timeline on twitter recently. And then, of course, I was all, "I can do that now!"

Not that I would pixel them, I don't think, but I would certainly have a go at doing something digitally. Especially because I'll be able to do faux calligraphy; turns out my tablet is sensing some pen pressure, yay! I didn't think it would, even though I'd installed the drivers, but it seems that it is.

And then, on a semi-related note, I fell into a fonts hole on pinterest, because there are some really nice calligraphy/handwriting style fonts!

I absolutely love fonts, and I always have, and I cannot tell you why*. I have a massive collection of free to use fonts that I haven't looked at in years in part, because I didn't know how to view or install them on Linux. But I know how to do it on Windows! And I just looked in the font folder on my C: Drive, and it shows you previews without even clicking on them!

(I realise this is probably old news to everyone else but this is my first Windows PC in ten years. The last OS I used personally was XP; I used Win7 at my scanning job, but I wasn't allowed to muck around with fonts there so IDK if it did that then).

Anyway, I have now fallen into a font shaped hole on here, so it is probably time that I post this entry, because I don't think I have anything else to say!

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*You know when there's something you look at, and it just pleases your brain? I am like that with colours, fonts, stationery, and cats.

It's currently very windy outside, and Do Not Want. I guess at least it's not raining as well, but ugh.

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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.

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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.

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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!