Nerd Girl Thoughts

• Start using my content planning calendar again.
• Make at least 10 blog posts in February.
• Get at least one more character to level 70 in World of Warcraft.
• Max out at least one faction of renown on one character in World of Warcraft.
• Make at least one post related to World of Warcraft.
• Make at least one post for #DatingSiMonth
• Make at least one post for Steam NextFest.
• Play and write about one title purchased in Janaury 2023.
• Participate in the group review of the February Humble Choice.
• Read / listen to at least four books.
• Listen to at least one audiobook.
• Watch at least one new-to-me movie.
• Watch at least one new-to-me series, mini-series or season.
• Do at least 2,500 stitches on a cross-stitch project in progress.
• Finish any non-cross-stitch project in progress.
• Re-organize my craft cabinet.

February this year was the very definition of a not-according-to-plan month, so I was surprised to sit down and see just how much I managed to get done of a perhaps overly ambitious goal list. Between all the challenges of my day-to-day, and the associated demands of my body for more rest, I didn’t want to force anything that didn’t feel right. I guess that means that – for the most part – I set appropriate goals for myself.

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GAMING

Gaming hours were way down this month. Sure, some of it was just a complete lack of focus, and part of it was being much busier with non-nerdery. That said, I probably would have clocked more game time if this hadn’t also been when the small irritations with my Steam Deck escalated into actual problems, and I needed to send it in for repair. On the upside, if this was going to happen, I’m grateful it did so within the warrantee period, but man, the timing was inconvenient. Assuming that it arrives back here on the expected delivery date, I will have been without it for the better part of three weeks, which, as it happens, was most of the month.

World of Warcraft takes the top spot again this month, but it’s not like there was a whole lot of competition. We got nearly 10 hours out of The Survivalists on co-op game night, and we don’t seem to be anywhere close to the end, having just started exploring our fourth (of five) islands. I put a little less than six hours into Changeling for #DatingSiMonth and was surprised by how much I liked it. An impulse purchase as part of Steam’s Mystery Week saw me ending the month playing some older hidden object games; I wasn’t much in the mood for stories, so the Mystery PI series was pretty much perfect for my purposes.

My remaining gaming time this month was a bunch of demos from the Steam Next Fest, with special attention to the Desynced demo, which I kept going back to until it was taken down about a week later, as well as a couple last rounds of Against the Storm.

I did not, unfortunately, get around to playing anything I bought in January – my original plan had been to play something from the Wadjet Eye Bundle on the Steam Deck, but with the Steam Deck taking its little vacation this month, and my reduced time at my PC, it just didn’t come around to be high enough on my priority list.

World of Warcraft

Although I played about 1/3 less this month than last, I felt far more focused when I did log in. I met both of my goals this month, with my hunter reaching 70, and my shaman maxing out her reputation with the Dragonscale Expedition. Most importantly, I’m still enjoying my gameplay time, and I’ve managed to avoid having much of anything that feels like a chore – all of my joking about “doing wizard chores” notwithstanding.

Between now and 10.1, I will likely be mostly focusing on alts and crafting outside of raid nights, although I’ve also been feeling the itch to go and do some old content farms. Although the first couple weeks after an expansion or major patch are my favorite, these lull periods, where I’m not feeling any pressure and can just do whatever tickles my fancy are a close second.

Gaming Related Spending

February had some pretty great bundles on offer. I couldn’t resist the Safe In Our World charity bundle that Fantatical put out (which was 25 items for $12 minimum donation), and I also picked up the Love Is In The Air Humble Bundle for $10. I grabbed four hidden object games on Steam for just over $2, as well as a game for #MusicGameMarch for another $3. When added to my WoW subscription & Humble Choice, my gaming related spending for February was $58. I’m pretty sure I definitely got my money’s worth this month.

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Other Nerdstuff

Reading

I only managed to finish three books this month, and one of those was an audiobook I’d wandered off from awhile back. The Blackstone Chronicles was a re-read, and I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I thought I would based on what I could remember, so I kind of poked at it for a few weeks. Overachieving a bit in January has me still on track for the year, however.

Watching

The rest of the month, I did a lot of mindless re-watching. I got through three seasons of True Blood before I felt like the level of ridiculousness was too much to continue. Then I swapped to Dexter, which I’ve watched the first five seasons of in the past, and got just about caught up to what I’ve seen. I’m considering trying to finish out the series, and then watching the epilogue mini-series, but I haven’t fully made up my mind either way.

Crafting

While I finished the small diamond painting I was working on last month, after that, I was completely scattered. I reorganized my craft cabinet, and after a few frustrating stitching sessions, decided to break down my scroll frame for a bit and work on other things. I started another diamond painting, worked on that for a few days, and then packed it up and took out one of my many paint-by-number kits, which I’ve then poked at a little bit every few days.

I also played with yarn quite a bit. Most of that was progress on my scarf, but I definitely did a substantial amount of crocheting, and then ripping it all out to test out some stitches I haven’t worked with much before. Really, I didn’t have a plan, I just wanted something mindless to do while I laid in bed & watched TV.

The last few days, I’ve really been wanting to get back to the cross-stitch project – finally – so in the next few days, I’ll probably pack up the paint-by number and move the scroll frame back to my desk. Probably.

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Although there absolutely were reasons, February really was a scattered mess for me. Most of what I did manage to accomplish happened either in the first few days, or a kind of frenetic last week. I think I’m starting to get a feel for the pace of things around here now, though, so here’s to a much smoother March.