Entries tagged with videogames

Current Mood: calm

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Feeling reanimated

The end of September was swallowed by a sinus infection that knocked me on my ass for all of the last week and the first few days of October. ‘Tis the season it seems, as the folks around the library have been in and out due to different bugs. I masked, slept a lot, and took sick time which helped, John didn’t get sick thankfully and I’m pretty much back to normal now. Well, as normal as I ever was.

While I was resting, I blew through a stack of Christopher Pike books I bought from a used book sale a while ago. One book, Witch, was an old favourite I used to have and stupidly purged back in the mistake-filled book purge of 2018-2019. Witch was fun to revisit and review through adult eyes.

Most of the other books were ones I had not read before and boy, what a trip it was. I still like Pike for his weird twists, bizarre spiritualism, and the fact he wasn’t afraid to have the young adults & teens in his books behave “badly” but boy, some of it is pretty dated.

A bit late but here's my September book summary:

( More book talk, video games, and television chatter )

Catching up & comments coming soon!

Current Mood: relaxed

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Lousy Smarch weather: 2023 edition

Another weekend, another snowstorm but I've got my fingers crossed that this weekend will be our last snowstorm of the year. It started Friday late afternoon, just as I got home from work thankfully and ended Saturday afternoon so we didn't do much this weekend except clean up and relax. I cleaned our long ass driveway with the snowblower on Saturday which took two hours and then spent an hour making it wider this afternoon. I think I've said this before but I am so, so happy we own a snow blower. Also very grateful I am way more comfortable using now compared to 2020. So much faster and easier than shovelling by hand.

Aside from that, I've been relaxing this weekend. Stormy weather can kind of spike my anxiety so to counteract that spike I make a point of only doing easy chores and letting myself game/read/watch as much as I want to. So this weekend I spent my time reading Paris Daillencourt is about to crumble by Alexis Hall, the second book in the Winner Bakes All series, playing a lot of Mortal Kombat 11, and watching Dead Meat's Scream series Kill Counts. I assume most horror fans are familiar with Dead Meat but if you're not, I'd highly recommend their YouTube channel

Storygraph review here if you're curious but the coles notes version is that the main plot is more about Paris Daillencourt's anxiety and mental health journey. The romance is there and it's an important part of the book but I think self-discovery is the larger plot. I liked it, it made me laugh out loud, and I gave it 3 stars.

As for Mortal Kombat 11, it reminds me why I stick to relaxing simulation-style games most of the time. I actually am enjoying it, I've been a big fan of Mortal Kombat since I was pre-teen but it's been a while since I've played a fighting game and I am very rusty. Thankfully it has tutorials, very different from the old SNES games I used to play growing up where you either discovered moves by accident or repeatedly read the manual. It's been fun getting back into an old fandom and catching up on all the new lore and characters.

Current Mood: happy

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Yay for finishing projects

I finished my knitted gauntlets and I'm very please with how they turned out. It's given me a lot more confidence to make more pieces with stripes/different colours. Here's a picture:

( Some more pictures )

I decided to stick close to home this weekend and I'm glad I did, I got to catch up on a couple of chores, finish my knitting project above, play some video games, and get the Christmas tree up. It's not decorated yet but at least it's up and the lights are all working this year. I am hoping to get started on the decorating tonight and will probably have a picture for my next post.

Other highlights
+ I picked up two new games on Steam thanks to the Black Friday sales: Mortal Kombat 11 & Disney Dreamlight Valley. MK11 was a really good price and I've been getting back into the MK fandom recently thanks to some fics & listening to Mortal Podkast. I always loved the games growing up but I am not good at them, it was more about lore/characters. Plus, MK and Street Fighter were among the few games I could play with female characters which younger me was all about. The Dreamlight Valley was a little more of a whim because one of the YouTubers I watch has been playing it, I've read some reviews comparing it to Animal Crossing, and I was curious. So far, it's pretty cute.

+ John & I had a dinner date with our friends who we haven't seen in a while which was really nice. They've very good cooks and grow a lot (if not all) of their own vegetables so it very yummy. It was good to catch up, especially since I had been feeling a little lonely on the friend front recently. We also got to hang out with their cats which was also lovely. Both John & I grew up with cats so we periodically talk about adopting a cat (or two, I push for two) but we also want to travel some more in the near future so we usually end up shelving the talk. So I enjoy any time I get to hang out with someone else's cats.

Current Mood: tired

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A rundown of the past week

It’s been another busy two weeks, specifically this past weekend so dividing things up into sections.

DeGrassi Last Friday I attended DeGrassi on Da Rock at the LSPU hall for a screening of DeGrassi School’s Out and Q&A with Stacie Mistysyn & Pat Mastroianni aka Caitlyn & Joey from the original series AKA the one I watched growing up. During the latter end of 2020 and throughout 2021 I got into a podcast called Narbos & Broomheads that recaps & discusses DeGrassi, starting with the original series.

That naturally led me to re-watching the older show on YouTube and feeling very nostalgic. When Mastroianni & Mistysyn announced they were coming here I jumped on the impulse to attend. For the most part it was fun though I got stuck sitting next to someone who talked throughout the entire show. Normally I would just ask them to be quiet but my read on the situation was that the man next to me might have been neurodivergent and was just really excited to be at the show so I kept quiet. In retrospect I wish I had moved to the empty seat a few rows back since I’m highly sensitive to noise but these solutions always seem to occur in hindsight.

In-Laws We had some of John’s family visiting the island, specifically his sister in law, his oldest niece, the niece’s boyfriend. They came to visit the house after going out on a local boat tour on Saturday and we took them to our favourite local restaurant, Fork. It was delicious as usual and we were entertained by the chickens that the restaurant owners keep that wander around outside.

On Sunday, John’s family had their flower service and I went along with John, partially because I was curious and partially because he attended my family’s cemetery mass so I figured it was only fair. It was interesting and very different for the services I’ve attended since they don’t have a mass. John’s family is Chinese so they go to the cemetery with flowers & food and it’s a routine of placing the items & bowing. Much faster than a full catholic mass lol. ( More in-law stuff, cut for space )

Gaming I’ve taken a break from Sims and started playing two new games. Well, one is new, one is new to me: Stray aka the cat simulator and Monster Prom. I’ve been enjoying both but I find I can only play Stray for short intervals as I am not used to games that allow you to move the camera so much and I tend to get motion sick. So, not so far with that. Monster Prom is a dating sim/visual novel and I’m currently obsessed with how cute/hilarious it is.

Reading Currently reading Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab which has been useful & informative so far though I have been taking my time with it. I also have way too many graphic novels borrowed from the library but have been too busy to sit down & read.

Current Mood: good

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Bloo bagoo

....is similish for “What’s up?” apparently. I don’t know what’s funnier, that there are defined similish words online or that I went looking for them. This past weekend I re-installed the original Sims game after talking about it on

papertea's journal and talk about a flashback of the past. It’s amazing to think I use to spend hours playing this game when I was a teen. What was even funnier is that while I was re-installing and playing Sims, John was playing Witcher II on his Xbox. Naturally, comparisons were made.
( Witcher versus Sims, plus more Sims talk )

What else has been going on outside the renewed addiction to Sims 2? John and I went to the gym together for the first time. He used to have a Goodlife membership but we realized it was cheaper to add him to my membership with Aquarena Gym which is right next to my work place and part of the university. I’ve used the pool for years but never used the gym before because I’ve always been self conscious about using the machines so it was nice to have someone else with me.

We had a good time and we’re already planning a gym schedule. This is very good as I need to get back on track with exercising. When I lived alone I found it easier because I could just go whenever I wanted but moving in together has thrown off my exercise and eating habits a lot. We’ve improved in our eating habits together in some ways, like including more fruits and veggies, eating less take out so I’m hopeful we’ll be able to figure out how to combine living together with being healthy together.

Last night I tried out a new recipe: Grilled Halloumi tacos with chickpeas & peppers. It was interesting as neither of us had tried halloumi before and found it okay but ultimately we liked the chickpea mixture more so I think the next time we’ll use the chickpeas with grilled chicken or vegetables instead.

I don’t have anything else to add so I’m going to end the post with this: