Saturday Casual Gaming 320

In Which I Have Been Gaming!

So, this month, I've been gaming a lot! It's just... not free stuff :| Mostly.

Here's a list of games I've played this month and some notes on said games:

• Resident Evil 2 (N64)
• I am so glad I used Infinite Health and Infinite Ammo, because I couldn't figure out how to walk, much less run, away from the zimzams, resulting in my just... slowly circling as zombies chewed on me for about ten minutes
• Graphics? Not great, but holy crap I'm impressed at what they crammed onto an N64 cartridge, since... uh... it was not designed for a cartridge-based system but a cd-based one!!!
• Music: Gorgeous, eerie, some of my fav music.
• This was especially poignant due to Paul Haddad, voice of Leon S Kennedy, unfortunately passing away. Yes, he had cancer, but his surgery had to be postponed because of COVID, so we can thank the 21st century plague for us not having this absolute treasure of a man any longer :(
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
• I love this game, even though it kicks my ass.
• Seriously, this game is kicking my ass.
• Maybe I overestimated my abilities with Master Mode?
• Yet! I totally killed three Hinox yesterday, a feat that was... much harder in the regular mode, especially with Black Hinox...
• I'm using way more two-handed weapons this go-round, but I haven't yet mastered the dodges.
• I... think I'm experiencing some pretty annoying Drift, because sometimes, my POV will just shoot straight down, so I'm in a top-down view, and sometimes I can't look up.
• I think I have more Star Fragments in this run than in my previous three regular modes combined...
• Watching so many speedruns has made me... not better at the game, but perhaps a little braver. But I still hate any of the falling hazard shrines (like the Synced Swing shrine - ugh)
• DOGS!
• My horses are murder machines in this runthrough - they won't stop running over all of the wildlife. On the plus side, I have so much food.
• I am hoarding arrows like a madbeast because I desire vast quantities of Ancient Arrows in the future...
• Coloring Pixels (Steam)
• What can I say? I like filling in boxes, and that's all this game is.
• Seriously, it's a paint-by-number.
• I like it. It's free.
• Escape Room Computer Office Escape (Kongregate)
• This game was fun!
• It was short, but only once I figured out the logic behind the puzzles. At first I was in chicken-with-no-head mode, running around and clicking everything. Thankfully, if you keep a level head, all of the puzzles give you their solutions... eventually.
• You should give it a go if you like escape room puzzles!

And that's my gaming updates for this week :)

Go Enjoy Something, guys!

FC

Filmic Friday 320: Watching The Internet

The Internet: A Huge Resource For Movies And Entertainment

Let's be real, y'all already know what the internet is all about, what's on it, and what you like to look at. I won't bore you with an in-depth history of New Media and social networking and all that.

Instead, let me bombard you with a few YouTube channels I've been watching this week:

• NintendoBlackCrisis - I've been playing more Breath of the Wild, so it makes sense that I'm watching a lot of Zelda Theory videos. NBC provides some pretty nifty theories, and they're easy jumping off points for your own theories on the deep, confusing lore of a series that only recently became interconnected in more than name and theme.
• 2Can TV - a man with toucans. What more can I say? I like birds.
• Rachel Maksy - a delightful young lady with a penchant for vintage dress and creative costuming (including a feminized Creature from the Black Lagoon).
• PointCrow - Another Zelda guy, though he's more known for being a very quirky speedrunner. Ever wanted to see someone beat Breath of the Wild without ever turning Left? He's done it. Feed all the dogs? Done it. No Stamina, ever? Did it. Never getting the Sheika Slate?! DID IT.
• Chunk the Groundhog - Exactly what it says on the tin. A cute groundhog. He has a girlfriend. They're cute.

I'll try and give you guys some more recommendations next week :) For now, just stay in if you can, wear a mask, wash your hands, and know that I love you all.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Attempt 320

In Which I *TRIED* To Make Art

So you haven't seen many examples, but one of my favorite art forms is watercolor. I love painting with watercolors. I find it very relaxing, I love how dreamy the colors can be, and I really enjoy the process.

Unfortunately, I forgot to close my door today.

So I ended up with a "helper"

Evie cannot be around the watercolors when they're out, since they're not pet-safe, so I had to wait for her to decide to leave my room.

Guys, that was three. Hours. Ago.

She's still in here, wandering around, giving me death glares when things aren't to her liking. My allergies are acting up. I won't be able to finish this piece today :( BUT! I did get an undersketch done. Check back next week to see if I managed to finish this watercolor of a cityscape!

Now, a few extra wrinkles:

• I haven't used this kind of watercolor paper before. I haven't had much luck with the paper tablets you can get at most stores, because I tend to work very wet, and that just... mushes the paper up. I prefer a good cotton paper like Arches or something. Still, this is what I found, and as far as practice goes, this should help.
• It's been over a year since I painted anything. Hopefully I've still got it.
• I don't know what colors to make this. It's a four-layer image: background of the sky, mountains, cityscape, and foreground of a park. I usually just do two layers (sky and city), so I'm not sure what colors to make things. Mostly, I need help with the foreground (do I just do darkened shades of what the actual park colors would be or should I go with a monochrome effect?) and the background (I know the top is black, but what should it fade down to? Is this black-to-purple, black-to-red, black-to-green?!)
• I don't 100% remember how to watercolor paint properly, so if this comes out looking like garbage, we'll blame my poor practicing, right?

Regardless, I'm looking forward to getting back into watercolor again :)

What are you guys up to, art-wise?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Wednesdaymania 320 lol

In Which Wait... This Isn't The Right Image?!

I can explain.

So... Tuesday. I'm writing this (technically) on Tuesday.

It's Taco Tuesday.

It's also Cinco de Mayo.

I'm not Mexican, but I do love an excuse to load up on beef & cheese in a taco shell...

But that's not the reason it's my Saturday image on a Wednesday while I talk about Tuesday!

Simply put, time lacks meaning right now.

So since it was/is Cinco de Mayo, we watched some AAA matches and some WWF Super Astros. Don't know what Super Astros is? It's the Spanish-language version of Superstars, basically. One of the episodes we saw was right after Over the Edge, so they were discussing Owen Hart and his unfortunate end constantly.

The matches on Super Astros were incredible. Lots of Super Loco, El Merenguero, Papi Chulo, and most fascinating of all: Tons of Minis. I have nothing but admiration and respect for the Minis of WWF. They put on insanely good matches with greater consistency than any of the other talent, and at the end of the day, they worked so much harder than they had to. I wish they'd have put Minis back into the mix, because while Hornswoggle was fun, he wasn't enough. Not when Max Mini and Mini Nova and El Torito were all running around.

Love me some crazy wrestling!

The AAA Matches are on their YouTube channel, so if you want to watch a clown and a dragon totally wreck the Lucha Bros in style, you go find that! There's also an intense, bloody match with Blue Demon Jr involving blading, bleeding, and a ball-peen hammer. It was a bit hard to watch in places, but insanely good. Seriously, go check out the AAA YouTube page!

So that explains the Wednesdaymania, right? And it happened on a Tuesday, so that's Talk About Tuesday... why video games?

Because I set up the N64 in my room today and set up my laptop so that I could have my partner watch me play through Resident Evil 2 on the N64... because I don't have a streaming setup and I don't have any way of streaming a legit N64 game via the internet.

It was a blast, so if you have a loved one who you like to play video games near, definitely set something like that up. We used the Facebook video chat feature, and it took a bit of fiddling with my overhead light, the window shade, and the angle of my laptop's camera to get everything to work. Then we worked on my unfamiliarity with N64 controls.

I used to play N64 games over at my cousins' place in the 90s and early 00s. We played a lot of the original Smash Bros, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Snap, and... actually, yeah that's it.

I played fifteen seconds of the demo for Ocarina of Time in a store once?

But yeah, I have very very little experience with any other N64 games.  And Resident Evil 2 has Tank Controls. Thank goodness I had put in both the invincibility cheat and the infinite ammo cheat, because I was running in circles constantly in the beginning. See, I couldn't figure out how the Tank Controls worked. I suuuuuuuuucked at first. And then my partner patiently walked me through the panic that was setting in (I was afraid I'd broken either the game or controller) and we made it all the way past the Spade Key! I'm lowkey not looking forward to the dogs...

But yeah, today was spend mostly clearing out space for me to play the game (I should get a chair...) and then playing the game! Then I went downstairs and ate tacos, and then I came back up to watch a bunch of great wrestling.

So that was today/yesterday.

I hope you guys are having a productive and/or safe Corona Season.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday 320

In Which I Am Very Sleepy But I Did Do Some Work

It's another gray day here at the homestead, and everyone is in a nappish mood. The cat has claimed my mother's lap for a snooze, my mother has claimed her recliner and is yawning loudly downstairs. I'm curled up on my bed debating whether or not I'm tired enough to sleep in jeans. I think I may be.

I did a bunch of squats last night - 5 reps of 20!

My thighs hurt. Imagine.

I did my laundry this morning.

I added about 1" to the Downton Abbey Lady Sibyl Shawl I've been working on forever. I started a pair of shorts that might be too big. I started a bag that might be too small. I've started work on some lace that might be too complicated. I am making an amigurumi that might be too cute.

It's been a busy month.

It's only the 4th.

Tomorrow is the 5th, and I'm excited because it's both Cinco de Mayo and Taco Tuesday, and while I have 0 Mexican heritage, like most basic white bitches, I do love me some Mexican culture. I'll see if I can catch some lucha matches online tomorrow...

I moved about 30lbs of random boxes of crap to a different part of my room and I've been slowly organizing. I need to move things out of the way of my TV, but more on that tomorrow, lol.

Today is about the fiber arts. And I am still working hard. I hope you guys are all working on your projects too! I hear that there are new requirements for masks - 1 to 2 layers of tightly-woven cotton for the fronts, a layer of tightly-woven natural silk for the inside layer, try to include a filter pocket for either some HEPA filter bag bits from a vacuum cleaner bag or fold up some paper towel if you can. I added the Dinorar design to my Redbubble shop if you guys want to buy a mask from there with a lil dinosaur on it.

As for the projects I'm working on, I have to say, they're all going real slowly except for the amigurumi. Those tend to work up really fast, even if the patterns are more complicated than the one for the shrug. It's literally a 4 row repeat on the shrug. It should be so much faster than it is...

And don't even get me started on the blanket I set out on. It's going slowly because I can't read the chart very well. It's supposed to be a bobble chart, but I'm doing it in single crochet... so I have to translate while I work. And my math brain is broken.

But that's enough white whine. I want to hear how your guys' projects are going! Are you making masks for your family and friends? Are you making blankets? Vintage-style dresses? Potholders with inappropriate anatomy on them? Wall-hangings of famous artists mashed-up with famous monsters? Actually, I should do that some time.... Fright-a Kahlo (as the Bride of Frankenstein?) sounds like a fun piece to work on...

That'll do it for me today.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Weekend Whimsey!

In Which I Forgot To Post Yesterday, so Have Some Noms &; Blather

Guess what guys? Yesterday was taken up largely by me trying out my new bicycle.

Ain't she purty?

So, yeah, that happened yesterday. It has a bell, a reflector, a back board for strapping stuff onto, and a front basket (not pictured). It's been 20 years since I last rode a bicycle with any regularity, so I'm having to relearn how to use it. Also, I'm maybe 1 inch too short for it, so mounting the saddle is a littttttle difficult. It's probably the best time to get a bike here, because all of the high-traffic events have been canceled, and we've closed our harbors to cruise ships with more than 50 passengers.

I'm excited that I'll get to be more mobile. I'll need a bike lock, but other than that (and some practice) I'm ready for this! I'm stoked!

But enough about a bicycle...

Usually on Sundays I've been posting food, right? So where's it at? It's on YouTube :P I made me some more Nissin Demmai Black Garlic Oil Tonkotsu Ramen after it was requested by a fan who purchased me a couple of Ko-Fi's. This was someone who knows me first-hand, so they knew I had the ramen to test. I probably won't be able to do stuff like this all the time, but it's fun to be able to do it once in a while.

Alright! There's the video!

And hey, if you guys like it, give me a like and hit subscribe on the ol' YT.

That's all from me today - got me some crochet to work on and people to watch videos with!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Filmic Friday 319: Pandemic Presentations

In Which I'm Back on Daily Blogs and Blather About Movies In Seclusion

So you've finished Netflix. You're binged out on the newest and best. You're looking for cinematic comfort food. You don't know what to watch because you're bored and you're months into your quarantine.

What are you watching?

I know almost everyone has seen the big Netflix and Hulu features, we're all talking about tigers and meth (though you do not want to talk to me about that particular flick, I promise), and reality tv and maybe you've seen CATS too many times, but...

I promise, there are things out there to watch!

The first advice I have for your viewing-pleasure is this: pay attention to your feelings!

If you're feeling very stressed out right now, perhaps Night of the Hunter should wait for when your resting heartrate doesn't resemble that of an Olympic sprinter mid-race. If you're looking for ways to stay up at night to finish that project you've been putting off, then you might want to skip the Bob Ross marathon. Maybe you're trying to stop overeating - stop watching Chopped or Eat, Drink, Man, Woman.

How you feel is very important to finding something you'll enjoy watching. If you're in the wrong mood, even a beautiful film will be the wrong fit! If you're feeling like schlocky horror, then that's what you should watch - don't force yourself to watch Forrest Gump or Shakespeare in Love.

The second thing you should pay attention to is who you're watching the movie or show with. Are you surrounded by children? Maybe hold off on Raiders of the Lost Ark (though I saw that as a wee lil baby and I loved it, so gauge your kids' hardcore-levels). Is your partner a romantic? Maybe don't watch anything by Eli Roth... Does your mom hate horror movies? Try to avoid The Thing or Aliens.

But if you're alone, then anything is game, right?

Maybe.

Like I said - pay attention to your mood. Don't just throw something on and think you'll react the same no matter what. Especially now. I've found that paranoid viewing right now is a major no-go. No one should stay up with their heart in their throat, jumping at every noise (unless that's what you find to be a good time, you wild person, you). You may find that your tolerance for childhood classics has dropped to shockingly low levels, and when you throw on that copy of Beauty and the Beast or Bambi, you are inexplicably angry. There's nothing wrong with you. You're living through something that hasn't been part of daily life in about a century. You're coping the best you can.

So if your usual comfort-watches aren't working, try to find something else! Maybe you remember a movie you kind of enjoyed but haven't seen in a while? Try that one! You may find that the weird noir movie you saw that one time at a library event is just what the doctor ordered, or maybe you usually only watch crappy action movies when you wash dishes and now you're craving them like a pregnant person craves fishsticks? That's fine! Watch what you feel like you're watching.

And finally: TURN IT OFF if it's bothering you! You are under absolutely zero obligation to finish any movie, show, episode, or video you embark on. You might go through thirty YouTube videos to find the right one. That's okay. You're not doing anything wrong.

Everyone's going to go through this differently, everyone will cope in their own way. Just make sure you're taking care of yourself and not letting yourself get overwhelmed (which is its own challenge).

If you're looking for a way to watch things with a partner, there's a website called watch2gether.com where you can share videos with each other in a chatroom - just keep it legal, folks lol.

I hope you guys are doing okay out there right now, and I hope to see you all back here once in a while as I begin to write daily blogs again. Don't be alarmed if I miss a day here or there - I might have nothing to say on a particular day, or I might be busy (like many people are right now).

Welcome back to the blog!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC