Nerd Girl Thoughts

• At least 31 posts during the month of August & get the Blaugust 2022 Rainbow Diamond Award
• Obtain the Blaugcheivement Platinum Trophy
• Write at least 12 #JustOnePercent Project posts
• Write at least 2 game-specific non-project posts
• Do not forget this is all for fun and do not burn myself out
• Read / listen to at least four books

Well, there’s another Blaugust in the rearview mirror, and what might be my first full crossed off list since I started using this format. I’m not going to say that I low-balled my goals for the month, but they were pretty focused, so I feel like this month was almost more of a pass-or-fail system than usual for me. I do think I got more of a feeling of satisfaction out of writing and scheduling ahead than I would have if I actually made it a daily practice, so I think that’s likely to influence how I put things together going forward.

Being a procrastinator in recovery is really weird sometimes.

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GAMING

I toyed with the idea of dropping the chart entirely until I wrapped up the #JustOnePercent project, as jumping around to as many different games as I do right now makes the whole thing kind of meaningless. But with only three more months in the project, I think I’m going to just stick to it, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was really looking forward to seeing what these look like from December on.

#JustOnePercent

By some metrics, this may have been my most successful project month yet. Sure, there were a few games this month I didn’t much care for, but overall, I think I chose well for myself this month. I did scramble my schedule a bit to get my post out on In Sound Mind considerable earlier to participate in UnwiseOwl’s group Humble Choice review, but I felt like I had made and stuck to my schedule better than in previous months.

I saw credits on two games this month – Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery, and The Big Con – but most of the games I don’t feel like I need to go back to.

Non-Project Gaming

My non-project gaming also felt more focused this month, with only three additional games played on the Steam Deck (Zuma Deluxe, Going Under, and Magicmaker), and three on PC, including Card Hunter, which has been our co-op game night choice all throughout August. I feel like I’ve about exhausted the available content in Clanfolk; I have successfully unlocked almost the entire tech tree and managed to get through a winter well set-up for continued success. I expect this is a title I’ll revisit as it comes further along in its development.

The real wild card this month was Saint’s Row: The Third. This is a game I’ve played to completion in the past, as well as dabbled in a few times. A bit past the midpoint of the month, I found myself just really craving something chaotic and silly and brainless. While I considered a handful of titles, Saint’s Row ended up winning out, and I played it obsessively for a couple of days until the craving was satiated.

Gaming Related Spending

While August was an incredibly spendy month for me, very little of that was for gaming-related expenses. In fact, other than my regular subscriptions (Humble Choice and XBox Game Pass), I only made one other gaming related purchase. I picked up a couple of build your own bundles on Fanatical, where I nabbed a bunch of stuff that looked interesting at really good prices, but mostly, I wanted Aquarium Designer from one set and Unmemory from the other, and added other things that looked good to fill out the bundles. Total gaming related spending for August was only $35.

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EVERYTHING ELSE

READING: I got through four more books in the 87th Precinct series, but this wasn’t a heavy reading month, at least not as far as books go, but I probably made up some of it in the sheer quantity of blog posts read. These audiobooks have been averaging about 5 hours, and this month, I found myself listening more often while cooking or baking as well as while crafting in order to meet my goals.

BLAUGUST: I managed to put out 31 posts during August (and only a couple of them were absolutely fluff). I also systematically worked my way through the Blaugcheivements, earning my first ever platinum trophy! No, seriously. While there are many nerdpoints to be had on PC, I think that Platinum Trophies are pretty much a console exclusive, and since that’s never been my jam this is my very first. I also think I did a better job of reading, Discord participation, and general networking this time around, so I am overall pleased with how I tacked this event this year.

That said, I don’t know how many more days I have in me for this streak; I’m perfectly happy with my 3-5 per week posting schedule, with occasional periods of less activity, for the other 11 months out of the year.