Iesus Non Amat Me

I've been waiting for Nintendo to come out with their Year in Review so I can make my Wrapped post and they finally have!  So let's see what 2025 held in store for me:

Spotify:

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It's my birthday and I am the Answer!  The Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything!  Yes, I am 42!  

And it's my first birthday in my new house!  

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I didn't get a chance to come online and make a post on my actual birthday cos I was doing birthday things, so I'm going to post about it now...

First things first, presents!

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After not posting about my New Year's Resolutions at the beginning of the month I did consider just leaving it all until next year, but I feel like I actually accomplished a few things in 2023 that I want to celebrate so I'm going to do it now. It's still January after all!

So, let's see...

1. Post more 2019 photos. I'm not allowing myself to give up on this, even if it takes a decade. Ok, so first one out of the gate is still a fail. Maybe I should just set myself the target of posting them all by the end of 2029!

2. Finish at least one book. (Keeping the bar low here, I know.) Um, I'm not sure. I know I read more of a few books but I don't think I actually finished any of them.

3. POST YOUR FIC. Also, start reviewing other people's fics. Be more involved in the fandom and stop being a creepy lurker. Right! Here's my time to shine! I mean, technically I failed the first part cos I didn't post the fic I was talking about here, but I did get involved in the Rumbelle fandom. I participated in the Showdown and got far enough that I ended up writing three fics for it! I also wrote a Secret Santa fic. All my works were well received and have been nominated for the fandom awards that are currently being voted on. So I feel pretty good about myself for that. And I've been reviewing other people's fics too, which is important.

4. Score 1/6 on Wordle. I know this is more luck than skill, but I still want it to happen. Close, but no cigar. A few more 2/6s and one particularly annoying day where I was choosing between starter words and one of the ones I considered but didn't use was the answer.

5. Get your eyes tested. Stop putting it off cos you're anxious about the appointment. Done! I now know that I have astigmatism in both eyes and am the proud owner of a pair of glasses that I choose to believe make me look cool and sexy.

6. Declutter more. Do a bit every week and get into the habit of regularly clearing things out (thinking about my handbag stuffed with old shopping lists and bus tickets!) Still chugging away at this. I did slack off a bit during the year, which is a shame, but I'm trying to make up for that now. I've been throwing away or donating so much stuff and I really hope I can continue and that we can move with only the stuff we actually want and need.

And now, my resolutions for this year:

1. Post more 2019 photos. (I know I could give up on this. I refuse to.)

2. Finish at least one book. (Might as well carry this one over as well.)

3. Post a fic that's not part of a fandom event but just a fic you've written. (Maybe even the Mentalist fic you spent so long on...)

4. Score 1/6 on Wordle. (Hey, it could happen!)

5. Move house. (It's a big one, I know, but something I really want to happen this year.)

I have a random urge to play Repton again. I don't know why. Maybe my brain wants to take me back to a simpler time in my life.

Happy October, everyone! Ok, we're nearly two weeks into the month so I probably should have said that earlier but whatever. I'm saying it now. Although it does feel unseasonably warm. I want to enjoy the crisp autumn air but it's so sunny that I haven't even touched my big coat yet!

I did my now-usual walk into town on Friday and got a cinnamon roll from H&H. It was delicious but almost certainly negated any benefit I got from the walk!

On Monday we went up the woods again for the first time in over a month. The car has been out of action since early September and we've been walking Tormund down the rec. The rec is a nice place in itself, and Tormund certainly enjoys the space to run around in, but I hate the walk down and back. At one point the pavement gets really narrow on a bend with a house right up close so there's hardly any room. Tormund hates being close to the house and tries to pull out into the road, which is obviously not safe, so I have to pull him in or wait for a break in traffic so I can go on the road and keep him on my inside. I tried to find another path down, but there doesn't seem to be one unfortunately.

But, as I said, the rec itself is nice. And quite pretty at sunrise:



And of course I took photos of the woods when we went back there. We went for an afternoon walk on Monday so it was lovely and unseasonably sunny:

( Back to the Woods )

Speaking of woods, I'm trying to get into the autumn spirit as much as possible so I've started playing Night in the Woods. It's a very pretty game with an interesting storyline but there's not much gameplay involved. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it's quite nice to have a game that's nice and relaxing. Well, apart from the Guitar Hero minigame, that is!

I'm also being seasonal with my drinks:



Pumpkin Spice Coffee Liqueur, Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cream Liqueur, and Blackberry Gin. And Ginny claiming them all for herself! So far I've only tried the coffee liqueur, but I'm looking forward to sampling them all.

And, finally, let's end this entry with a random picture of pretty leaves growing on my patio:

I've just watched a couple of YouTube videos about speedrunning the Monkey Island games and I'm kinda tempted to try it myself. I know I'll get nowhere near the times these people have achieved but it could be fun to give it a go.

I have completed the Resident Evil 4 Remake! Now I need to play it again on Standard difficulty. And maybe see if I can do some of the achievements and challenges. I took my time on my first playthrough and explored everything I could find so I only got a B rank (which sounds good until you realise it's the lowest rank possible!) Maybe next time I'll try and be a bit quicker and see if I can get a better rank and unlock some cool accessories. I also want to get all the treasures and complete all the requests, which I'll probably have to do on a different playthrough cos I think that'll take some time!

I'm also making progress on BOTW. I have now completed all the main quests and have a shiny Master Cycle Zero. And I've been taking more photos for the Compendium. I have not attempted the Trial of the Sword again though. I know that it's going to give me trouble and I'm going to have to take my time with it so I'm putting it off until I have more free time to play!

I think I made the right decision handing in my notice. I felt awful today, like I was completely worn out and I just wanted to collapse and cry. I made stupid mistakes, which made me feel even worse, and I felt completely hopeless. I think I'm burnt out, which also makes me feel guilty cos I know that other people are having a much harder time than I am and there's no reason I should be this way. But the fact is that the way things are is clearly not working for me and I need to make a change. I just hope it's a change for the better.

On a more upbeat note, I have been meaning to make a post about the games I've been playing for a while. So here it is:

Games:

Breath of the Wild

I'm trying to 100% this game before Tears of the Kingdom comes out in May. And by 100% I mean:

1. Complete All Quests (I know Defeat Ganon never marks as completed, but I've done it so I'm counting it.)
2. Find all Korok seeds
3. Complete the map to 100%
4. Complete the Hyrule Compendium
5. Get all monster medals from Kilton

I think this should be doable. I'm not going to worry about things like fully upgrading all the armour or cooking every possible meal. My main issue is going to be completing the Trial of the Sword side quest. I've attempted it a few times but never even finished the Beginning Trials.

Resident Evil 4 Remake

The remake came out a couple of weeks ago, which I was very excited about cos I remember loving the original RE4. I'm slowly making my way through it. I tried to do it on Standard difficulty but kept dying in the same place and the game was like "Hey, you suck at this. Why not go down to Assisted?" so I did and had a much better time. I do plan to try Standard again though cos while I am enjoying Assisted, there are some parts that I know should be more challenging than they are.

I think a big part of the problem is that the Switch and the PS5 have completely different controls so when I first started playing I kept getting confused about which button I was supposed to be pressing cos I was so used to playing BOTW. It only gets worse during fights when I need to do things quickly! But I think I'm getting used to it so I should be better next time around.

Disney Dreamlight Valley

I started playing this game last year and loved it. I have slowed down recently cos I'd done pretty much everything and was just going around collecting stuff for the sake of it, which got a bit boring, but a new update has just been released so I'm looking forward to getting back to the Valley and meeting Simba and Nala. I'm not going to rush back though. I don't want to do it all too quickly!

I have completed Return to Monkey Island! Actually I completed it on Saturday morning, so it took me just under a week. According to Steam I spent a total of 10.5 hours on it, which sounds reasonable. I'm glad I didn't zoom through it all in one day (which was my original plan) and made it last. I'd been looking forward to it for months, so it would have been silly to binge play it!

My thoughts about the game:

I enjoyed playing it but I do think that it was a lot easier than previous Monkey Island games. Certainly more straightforward. One of my worries going into it was whether or not I'd have the patience to be stuck for ages, like I used to be when I played the early games, without resorting to cheating. But that never really happened. I made that post on Friday about being stuck and unsure of what I was supposed to do, but then I went back to it the next morning and found what I was looking for. That was the most I was held up in the entire game. There was another moment later on that was a bit frustrating too cos I was overthinking the puzzle and it turned out to be a lot simpler than I was trying to make it, but I still managed to get past it pretty quickly. At no point did I look up answers online or use the in-game hint book. (And I was kinda disappointed that there was no achievement for completing the game without the hint book!) And yes, I was playing it on hard mode.

The early parts of the game felt very linear and it was always pretty clear what you had to do. It branched out a bit when you had to get the keys, cos there were multiple islands to go to and various puzzles you had to solve but no set order you had to do them in, and that felt more like classic Monkey Island. But even then, there wasn't a huge amount to explore on any of the islands, which was a bit disappointing.

I did luck out on at least one puzzle though. There's a bit where you have to walk through twisty, almost identical caves and pick up pieces of paper which you have to use to help you work out which path to take. I'd picked up two pieces of paper and then wandered into where I was supposed to be going completely by accident! I didn't even realise what the papers were for until I was helping Mum with her game and saw she had five!

The ending was a bit weird and I honestly can't decide if it was a clever call-back or the writers being too lazy to come up with something good. It also felt a bit like they were trolling us. They knew so many people hated the ending of LeChuck's Revenge, so they wrote this game with the promise of finally fixing it, and then ended this game in almost the exact same way. I suppose it was inevitable cos nothing they came up with for the Secret would have lived up to everyone's expectations and this way at least tied in to previous games. I didn't realise that you could end it different ways though. Apparently what you say to Boybrush affects what you get as the post-credits scene. And whether or not you open the chest can get you different endings. There's also the option to go back into the caves and deny what you've seen, which is pretty cool. I suppose I'll just have to play it again and see all the different options for myself.

Speaking of playing it again, they've done a good job building replayability into the game. As well as the multiple endings there are quite a few achievements that you can get, lots of which require doing things at a specific time or you miss your chance, and there are trivia cards in the game which you collect as you go around and a lot of the answers can be found as you play. So while I have completed the game, I'm not done with it just yet. Those achievements and trivia cards will be mine!

I do have to say that I found Elaine's character to be a bit odd. She acted more like Guybrush's carer than his wife. There were a lot of cut scenes where she follows his trail of destruction and it felt like it was building up to a confrontation between them but then that... never happened. They talk and she kinda verbally pats him on the head like a small child whose fantasy she's indulging. She's lost all the spark she had in the early games, and that's a shame.

When it comes to the new art style I must admit that I wasn't a fan to start with, but it ended up growing on me.

Overall I'd say it was a good game and definitely one made for fans. There were so many in-jokes and references to things gone by that it felt like a love letter to the previous games. I do wonder what it would have been like to play this without having played any other Monkey Island games before. I suppose it would still be fun cos it is a solid puzzle adventure game, but so much would go over your head that I'd definitely recommend starting at the beginning.

Speaking of which, I did manage to complete both Secret and LeChuck's Revenge before embarking on Return. I didn't manage to squeeze Curse in as well, but I've just started my replay of that anyway. It's still a fun game!