At least 12 posts for #JustOnePercent.At least 4 posts unrelated to #JustOnePercent.Pick out something and play it just because I want to.- Read at least 4 books.
- Read at least 1 book from My 12 Challenge.
Complete at least half of the stitch-craft project with a June deadline.Move all my stuff into my new room!
There were a lot of other things this month that don’t show up on this sort of checklist – my husband had his third attempt at a spinal fusion, and there were a lot of things that needed to be done around that. We were pushing hard on renovations as well, and trying to contract out some other work that needs to be done around here to folks able-bodied enough to do it. For the first time in awhile, real life was doing it’s damnedest to get in the way of my nerdstuff. Winter is not my favorite season, but it’s by far the quietest, at least once the holidays are over.
I am really happy with where I ended up as far as gaming & blogging was concerned, but some other stuff fell by the wayside while I was doing it. The biggest area that took a hit this month was all things reading-related. Most nights I was exhausted enough that concentration was an issue, so it was just more comfortable to fall into my habit of comfort television re-watching. I blew through the first four seasons of Criminal Minds in the latter half of the month, which meant a lot of hours I might have otherwise spent with audiobooks went there. When I made my goal post, 4 books felt like a no brainer, but I’m like that with reading anyway; either I’m stuffing myself silly or I’m going completely without.
GAMING
Because I clearly lack good sense, I upped my #JustOnePercent coverage to thirteen games this month. I’ve still managed to completely avoid despair, but this is the first month that I’ve had multiple irritating roadblocks on the project.
I ended up swapping out some games from my original list as the month progressed. The first was a free-to-play online game that had, less than a year after release, already been taken offline despite still being available to download on Steam. The second was a game demo that I thought was a full game until I started it up.
This was also the first time I bailed on multiple titles short of hitting the hour mark or end credits. Both games I ducked out early on should have been right up my alley, but both ended up being the wrong kind of challenging for me. I’m just over 1/3 of the way through the project now; I suppose I shouldn’t be too put off by a couple titles that just didn’t work for me.
I really expected this whole project to be … harder than it is turning out to be. Now that I have a workable schedule (and lord knows, I love a schedule), I’m not struggling to keep up. I already have access to the majority of games I plan to play throughout the project, and I’m on track to far exceed my goal of 100 games in a year. I’ve gotten to play a lot of things I probably would have otherwise passed over, and I’m actually making use of my subscription services and the game library I’ve been building up for years now.
Non-project gaming continues to be significantly lighter. Part of that is the heavy focus on #JustOnePercent, part of it is just life in general, and part of it is the fact that I’m actually working steadily on crafting projects.
Other than a quick dip into Rift – and I do mean quick, it took me far longer to re-download the game than the 10ish minutes I had it running – this month was free of MMOs and the only co-op gaming I did was my weekly game date. We finished up the currently available content in Core Keeper, and moved onto Terraria, which is a game I’ve had issues with in the past. Unsurprisingly, it’s a lot easier when you’re playing with someone who has already beaten the game multiple times, and who is perfectly happy to do most of the hard stuff while I look for ore and spend a bit of time fishing.
I did also poke at a few different things in my solo gaming time. I played a good amount of Nanotale: Typing Chronicles before getting frustrated with my lack of map reading skills in the later parts of the game. I am also pretty officially back on my bullshit with Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2, which manages to both scratch a weird itch and fill the niche of a game I can play for a few minutes here and there.
Wrapping things up, no one could possibly be more surprised than me that I am still playing Cozy Grove every day. I still don’t love the real time aspect of it all, but it fits so nicely into most of my days, giving me something low-key to do while waking up and having coffee. It is absolutely 100% a chore-fest, but it’s a comforting chore-fest. I average about 30 minutes a day with it, but almost through my third month and I haven’t missed even a single daily check in.
This was also a slightly less spendy month; my gaming related spending was only $59, which includes my XBox Game Pass subscription and the Humble Choice. I picked up on game on Steam (Overboard) which had been on my wishlist and also happens to be a qualifying game for #JustOnePercent. The rest of it went to Fanatical, where I grabbed a couple of bundles that caught my eye, and the Blackwood Upgrade for Elder Scrolls Online while it was under $10.
I may have also pulled the trigger on my Steam Deck, which does not count against my budget since it’s my (now very very late) 2021 Christmas & birthday present from my husband.
READING
I only managed to finish two books this month, both audio on Scribd. Friends Like These was delightfully twisty, although somewhat short on likeable characters. Desperation was a re-read, but a book I’d read so long ago I’d forgotten just about everything but the biggest plot points, so it was still really enjoyable.
This month I came up against Scribd’s manner of imposing limitations on their supposedly unlimited reading & listening. Once you pass a certain number of titles read in either format – I believe it’s four, but I’m not 100% sure on that – since your last subscription payment, Scribd starts removing things from your search results. You can still find them if you search very specifically, but they’ll have a banner indicating that they’re “temporarily unavailable” until your next payment clears.
This would be outrageously annoying except for one teeny loophole – anything already on your saved list when you hit your soft cap is still available. If, like me, you tend to click “save” on anything that looks remotely interesting, you should never run out of things to listen to or read. Just bear this in mind, if you plan on binging a series, make sure you add all the titles to your saved list at the beginning so you don’t get locked out.
I guess you could say that Scribd is sort of unlimited, but I’m still finding it a better overall value than Audible & Kindle Unlimited.
EVERYTHING ELSE
RENOVATIONS: I can’t quite say that we’re done with my new space, but it’s 100% useable, and I am moved in! Sure, I’m still working around some lingering construction materials, and there’s a few boxes of accumulated junk I need to go through. I’m also planning to incorporate some more storage, and do some decoration, but it’s been lovely to have some actual space and not feel like I’ve been crammed into any available corner.
STITCHCRAFT: Against my own rules (and my better judgement), I am currently working on three different projects at once. The smallest is also the one with the closest deadline, and I’m creeping up on 70% completion. It’s working up fairly fast, and I expect to be finished with that one in the next week or two. I’ve also managed to put a couple percent each on two massive projects. They’re both challenging for different reasons, so I’m hoping getting an early start on them will let me take adequate breaks where I tackle some of the smaller stuff in my queue.
WATCHING: The only new-to-me watch this month was a single episode of Castle Rock, which looks like it’s going to be interesting, and I’m loving the cast so far. I was especially excited to peep Melanie Lynskey, who really impressed me in Yellowjackets. Otherwise, I’ve just been background watching TV series I’ve already seen and the occasional comfort movie.
Nerd Girl Thoughts 