• Make at least 8 blog posts during May.
• Complete the 10.1 story content in World of Warcraft.
• Play and write about at least one game for #MetroidvaniaMay.
• Play and write about one title purchased in April 2023.
• Participate in the group review of the May Humble Choice.
• Spend at least 10 hours gaming on the Steam Deck in May.
• Read / listen to at least four books.
• Watch at least one new-to-me movie.
• Watch at least one new-to-me series, mini-series or season.
• Do 5000 stitches during the month of May.

The only miss I’m somewhat annoyed with myself about is the blog posts, otherwise, I did far better than I actually expected I would this month.

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GAMING

This was another really weird month for me gaming-wise. A little light on total hours and still not a huge amount of variety. Sun Haven still took the top spot this month, but I’ve hit the point where I only have really tedious things to finish up in my solo game, so it’s less appealing than it had been. My World of Warcraft play felt like a more acceptable level for a game I’m paying to play every month, although I’m still finding myself a bit overwhelmed by how much is available to do, even if it’s not all necessary or even useful.

I’m still playing Tumblebugs pretty compulsively on the Steam Deck, and I’m pretty regularly reaching about the 75% mark of the game before losing all my lives. I might be skill-capped as far as playing this one using trackpads, but I’m not yet frustrated, so I keep plugging along.

Everything else this month was pretty much a dabble, and I’m still hoping to find the next game I want to sink a whole bunch of hours into, but I have no idea at this point what that might be.

Gaming Related Spending

I grabbed the Easy Going Games: Whitethorn Showcase from Humble for $12. There were a handful of duplicates, but in the end, it averaged out to about $2 per game I was keeping, so it seemed worth it. I bought the mid-tier of the Build Your Own Breakout Bundle on Fanatical for another $7, and then picked up a few wish list titles that were on sale on Steam. I also replaced my fading-fast keyboard this month, and when I add all that to my subscription spending, the total for May was $93. Not too bad, considering that included a hardware purchase.

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OTHER NERDSTUFF

Reading

It was another all audiobooks month, and honestly, I made some less than stellar choices for myself this month. Three of the titles I read were via Scribd, and four I borrowed digitally from my local library. While I didn’t actively dislike any of the books I listened to this month, several of them felt like they dragged on, and I found myself less motivated to keep listening than usual. Still, that leaves me ahead on my annual goal at 28/48 books completed this year.

Watching

The highlight of my TV watching this month came at the very end. I’d been (very impatiently) waiting for the end of the second season of Yellowjackets, and then spent a whole day curled up in bed watching all nine episodes. Despite the fact that it wasn’t as good as the first season, and had some outrageously difficult to watch scenes, I’m still a big fan of the show, and am not looking forward to having to wait a year or more for the next season.

The prior week, I rewatched the first season as well. I also finished up watching the most recent season of Next Level Chef and filled in the gaps with a season of Top Chef I hadn’t seen yet.

I didn’t watch a single movie during May, new-to-me or otherwise. I’m not sure why, but movies still feel like a commitment, even though I can sometimes sit and watch episode after episode of a show.

Stitchcraft

I’m glad that I went with my gut and didn’t double my stitching goal. Even though May still felt very productive. I ended the month having done just shy of 6,800 stitches, which is still a pretty respectable amount.

I did have a couple of things that might have contributed to less time spent stitching. The first is that my computer chair finally got to the point where it was too broken to comfortably use, so for the last half of the month, every time I wanted to change between using my computer and sitting at my craft desk, I had to move chairs around. I just recently moved the broken chair out, which makes chair switching a whole lot less irritating, and I’m hoping to have my computer chair replaced within the next couple of weeks.

The second was that I chose a couple of books mid-month that dragged on a bit. Sometimes, I think I sit down to stitch just so I have something to do with my hands while I listen, and during those less compelling books, I was far less likely to even start stitching on a given day, and quicker to set it aside.

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This is the first month all year that I feel like I was myself again. Sure, I always want to do more, always think I could be doing more, but I feel pretty good about May and hopefully this will mark the end of what felt like an eternal slump.

Work is into summer hours now, and while I have plenty of other stuff that happens this time of year, I’m hoping I’ll start feeling a bit less pressure, and a bit less tired as a result. I’ve been kind of robot-walking through things the past few months, but I’m determined to find more space for recharging my batteries going forward.

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GAMING

World of Warcraft

I’m slowly increasing my World of Warcraft time, and although I think I’ve accepted that I’m never going to be doing as much as I would like to be – and am likely too far behind the curve right now for it to be fully successful – I’m feeling less overwhelmed with the prospect of keeping up with at least my weeklies and raid on my main character.

Which leaves the question of whether or not I even want additional goals here. Part of me wants to set yet another leveling goal, part of me wants to take some time and chase some old content goals, and yet another part of me says I should use this month to get my hoarding issues under control.

In the end, I decided the goal that would serve me best would be to just increase my total playtime during June, so I’m going to task myself with putting at least 25 hours in World of Warcraft this month.

Community Game-Along

I’m hoping to play at least three wildly different roguelike games during the month of June and write about them. If I manage more, great. If I bounce off even more than that, it won’t surprise me.

Other Gaming

Sun Haven still has a lot of life left in it for co-op gaming. I plan on keeping up with the Humble Choice group review and playing and writing about something purchased in May.

OTHER NERDSTUFF

Organization

I’d like to dedicate a bit of time this month to making lists for myself in an attempt to combat my current inability to make a decision when it comes to what to read and what to watch. I’m still not 100% sold on randomizing from said lists, but what I’m doing now isn’t working for me, so it’s time to try something new.

I also want to create a more manageable blogging flow so that I stop taking half a month off every month and then scrambling to cover everything I want to. While I normally set a “posts per month” goal, I’m going to amend that this month to at least two posts per week.

Reading

I’m still mostly content with my reading progress. Sure, I’d like to get back to more text reading rather than audio, because I’ve been dipping into and out of the same anthology of short stories for well over a month now. Still, four books is very doable, and keeps me from letting it fall completely by the wayside.

Watching

While I normally just set a goal of “new to me”, I have a specific show I want to watch in June, since I picked up AMC+ again on a deal for two month. The new season of Slasher is out, and I don’t want to it to slip my mind. I’d like to get in at least one new to me movie as well.

Stitchcraft

I’m right around the midpoint of the large project I’m working on, and I’m hoping to have it finished by the intended recipient’s birthday this year, so that gives me approximately 12 weeks to do the other half. That means I have to up my goals just a bit; I’ll need to complete just under 2000 stitches per week. Now, that’s doable, but will require me to maintain focus. I’m going to set my goal for June at 7,500 stitches.

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IN SUMMARY

• Post at least twice a week during June.
• Play at least 25 hours of World of Warcraft.
• Play and write about at least three games for #RoguelikeJune.
• Play and write about a game purchased in May 2023.
• Participate in the group review of the June Humble Choice.
• Play some demos and post about them during the June 2023 Steam Next Fest.
• Spend at least 10 hours gaming on the Steam Deck in June.
• Make up some lists of things to watch and things to read and actually use them.
• Read / listen to any four books.
• Watch Slasher (S5) on AMC+.
• Watch at least one new-to-me movie.
• Do at least 7,500 stitches on my current WiP.

• Make at least 8 blog posts during April.
• Level at least one more character to 70 in World of Warcraft.
• Participate in #PlatforMonth
• Play and write about one title purchased in March 2023.
• Participate in the group review of the April 2023 Humble Choice.
• Read or listen to at least four books.

Every single one of my goals this month should have been an easy win, and I still didn’t get through them all. Which is to say, it’s hard sometimes to guess where your whims are going to take you.

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GAMING

This month wasn’t so much about the drop in gaming hours (although they’re a bit lower than usual), but in the gaming variety. Three of those games were entirely on the Steam Deck (LIMBO, Here Comes Niko! and Tumblebugs), but even the allure of gaming in bed didn’t motivate me much during April. Doubling up on Sun Haven as both my co-op and main solo game of the month meant it blew away all the competition for time spent playing. Clearly, I’m a cozy phase.

I’m not at all surprised I’m in a cozy phase.

I didn’t get back to either of March’s Deck games-in-progress (Potion Permit and Aurora Bound Deluxe), and I wasn’t really terribly excited to start much new this month.

World of Warcraft

I really feel like I wasted my sub this month. I managed to log on for one whole and one partial raid, and then was scrambling to finish up my monthly Trading Post activities just under the wire. The only other times I logged in all month long was for a few minutes here and there to do crafting orders for guildies. I was uninterested in the Forbidden Reach, I didn’t want to do any leveling or gearing or world quests or anything the whole month. I even missed the Darkmoon Faire, and I never miss the Darkmoon Faire if I have an active sub.

I’m not sure yet if this is end-of-tier slump, or if I’m getting ready to take another break from the game.

Gaming-Related Spending

Not being terribly interested in playing games certainly didn’t stop me from buying games this month. I picked up two newish releases in Moviehouse and Homestead Arcana, and I was gifted a copy of Dredge, which I had been really excited about but didn’t buy myself. Everything else was either bundles from Fanatical, or impulse purchases (mostly from the just-about-to-end Steam Puzzlefest sale).

Of course, instead of playing one of the many new-to-me games I bought, instead I immediately installed Tumblebugs, a game I’ve played to death in the past on other platforms, and have been using that to wind down at night on the Steam Deck. At least I’m playing something from my new purchases?

In total, including my Humble Choice and World of Warcraft subscriptions, my gaming-related spending for April 2023 was $111.00. Including the games I immediately activated from Humble Choice, I added 28 new games to my already too-large library.

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OTHER NERDSTUFF

Reading

I finished 8 books – all of them audio – during April. In fact, because I was on a hefty reading kick at the end of March as well, I managed to critically limit my Scribd account before it came up for renewal in April. As much as I love Scribd for what it does offer, I really wish it were a little more transparent about how the limits work. As it turned out, I had to put on series on hold due to the last book going unavailable, and as soon I as I listened to the first title from another, the rest of those books went unavailable as well.

It was at this point that I remembered that I had a library card and could get audiobooks that way as well, so I finished out my month with a couple of library titles. I have holds on a handful of others, so maybe I will do a better job alternating between services in the future. Maybe.

Watching

I also remembered this month that I do – on occasion – enjoy the company of the TV. So in a month that I skipped over this particular goal, I managed to watch one new-to-me movie, in Ratatouille, and two new-to-me seasons or series. I’m not counting the current season of Next Level Chef since it’s still being aired on network TV so I haven’t watched all the episodes, but I did watch the entirety of season 21 of Hell’s Kitchen and all six episodes of Wreck, which is a comedic horror series that originally aired on BBC. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about the whole dark humor / slasher mashup, but it really worked for me and I binged the entire series in one night.

Stitchcraft

By far, the biggest turnaround for me this month was in the category of crafts. After almost two full months of not picking up a needle, I finally – very belatedly – figured out that the probably was not with stitching overall, but with the project I had been working on. Once I decided to pull it off the frame and pull something else from my stack of works-in-progress, it seemed like I was at my craft desk every time I could sneak a few minutes.

All in all, during April, I completed over 10,000 stitches, taking this project from 8% completion to 33% completion. Obviously, I still have a ways to go, but I haven’t really slowed down any, so I expect that I’ll continue to plug along at it without difficulty.

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For anyone interested in the results of the sit down I had with myself earlier in the month, these were the conclusions I came to for what I’d like to work on.

First is that I’m giving myself the month of May to decide if I need an MMO break, or if it was just end-of-season slump. I don’t even mind paying primarily to raid-log if that’s the part of the game that is giving me joy, but I barely even did that this month. So, we’ll see what my play time looks like in May and how I’m feeling about it, and make a decision before my early June subscription renewal.

Second is that I would really like to cut back on how much time I spend mindlessly scrolling the internet, or taking forever to choose my next book / movie / tv show / game. The time that feels wasted as soon as it’s gone. I still have plenty of time to do just about everything I want to, and I’m starting to get closer to having my energy managed, but I am still losing a lot of time to figuring out what I want to and/or can do at any given moment. This might mean even more planning and lists, sure, but at least those things feel constructive when I’m doing them.

So, I’ve tried being kind and generous with myself, and you know what? It’s not working. I mean, it’s not like I don’t know that I feel more secure and accomplish more when I have a lot of structure rather than when I’m left to my own devices.

Although April definitely took me on some unexpected tangents, I am still not feeling great about where I’m at with all things nerdy, so it’s time to buckle down and see if I function better with more focused goals, or if it’s indeed time to reevaluate what activities I want to – and am willing to – prioritize.

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GAMING

World of Warcraft

On May 2, we’ll see the beginning of the second raid tier of Dragonflight, and while I would normally be completely jazzed, I’m instead cautiously interested. Patch 10.0.7 was a big flop for me – instead of being excited about the new content, I found myself unwilling to even keep plugging away at the old content. This past month saw me putting the least hours into World of Warcraft since I reactivated my subscription last fall.

I am looking forward to the new story content, so completing as much of that as time-gating will allow is on my to do list for this month. That said, I may be about ready to step away from MMO’s for a bit again, and how I feel about the new patch will definitely factor into that decision.

Community Game Along

This may be an oversimplification because we’re still outside of my gaming comfort zone, but #MetroidvaniaMay kind of feels like an extension of #PlatforMonth. I realize that metroidvanias are a mostly – but not entirely – a subset of platformers, but since I’m not overly familiar with what exactly makes a game a metroidvania, I’m trusting Steam tags and store page descriptions.

Although I may have lost my mind with these picks, I’ve chosen Owlboy (a flying metroidvania) and Song of the Deep (an underwater metroidvania), in hopes of not spending the month impaling myself on spikes when I inevitably miss a simple jump.

Other Gaming

As far as co-op gaming is concerned, I expect it’s going to continue to be Sun Haven throughout the entirety of May. We’re making solid storyline progress, but we have set the slider to 30 minute days, so we get through about an in-game week per play session. If we continue at this pace, we won’t be wrapping up our first year for several months.

I took last month off from this, but I want to get in the habit of writing about at least one game purchased the prior month, as well as continuing with the Blaugust Reviews Humble Choice project.

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Other Nerdstuff

Reading

I am currently super far ahead of my annual reading goal, but I’m going to stick with the four book goal since I sometimes go through long periods where I don’t touch a book. I’d rather far overshoot my annual goal than miss it.

Watching

I’ve also found a renewed interest in the television, so I’m going to add back the new to me movie and new to me season, series or mini-series goal for May.

Stitchcraft

But the most exciting thing for me, is that stitching is back in rotation. After packing up the project I wasn’t enjoying, I’ve found a new vigor for making tiny x’s. I’ve pulled out a WIP that was supposed to be a birthday gift for last year, and am making excellent progress. That said, it’s still a pretty damn big project, with a lot of work still to do.

However, I also need a win, so I’m going to set what is only a moderately high goal of 5000 stitches done during May, which averages out to about 250 stitches a day, five days per week.

…I had considered doubling that, but this will allow me to maybe check off another handful of goals this month instead of just the one.

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IN SUMMARY

• Make at least 8 blog posts during May.
• Complete the 10.1 story content in World of Warcraft.
• Play and write about at least one game for #MetroidvaniaMay.
• Play and write about one title purchased in April 2023.
• Participate in the group review of the May Humble Choice.
• Spend at least 10 hours gaming on the Steam Deck in May.
• Read / listen to at least four books.
• Watch at least one new-to-me movie.
• Watch at least one new-to-me series, mini-series or season.
• Do 5000 stitches during the month of May.

• Make at least 10 blog posts during March.
• Reach Level 70 on at least one more character in World of Warcraft.
• Play and write about two games for #MusicGameMarch.
• Play and write about one title purchased in February 2023.
• Play and write about one title in my Itch.io library.
• Participate in the group review of the March Humble Choice.
• Spend at least 10 hours gaming on the Steam Deck in March.
• Read / listen to at least four books.
• Watch at least one new-to-me movie.
• Watch at least one new-to-me series, mini-series or season.
• Finish the crochet scarf I’m currently working on.

When I was putting my March goals together, I was trying to go at least a bit easy on myself. Clearly, I did not go easy enough on myself. The balancing act of trying to keep goals manageable without running out of stuff to do during the first week of the month is currently on hard mode because I haven’t yet fully adjusted to working four days a week, and only barely starting to shift other responsibilities off my plate to compensate for the energy-drain of that.

I continue to be in awe of the chronic illness sufferers that manage to balance a full time job, household responsibilities, and still find little pockets of time & energy to pursue hobbies. I don’t know how y’all do it. Which is to say, if you’re one of those people handling it all, and have tips to share, I’m all ears.

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GAMING

The only goal I feel like I really hit out of the park this time around was hours played on my Steam Deck. I more than doubled my original goal, re-playing the entirety of 10,000,000 and You Must Build A Boat. I’ve also played through more than half of AuroraBound Deluxe, and a pretty significant portion of Potion Permit, absolutely none of which I’ve blogged about.

On co-op night, we finished up The Survivalists mid-month, and dove directly into the recently fully released Sun Haven immediately afterwards. I enjoyed Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure for #MusicGameMarch, which was short but lovely. Unfortunately, I didn’t do nearly as well with Shrug Island – The Meeting, which I bounced off of fairly quickly.

I also finished up the entirety of the Mystery PI series of hidden object games, and played a bit of the Early Access game Cygnus Enterprises, which is a mix of a base management game and an action shooter RPG, which I picked up this month on a whim. This month looks like it was one of those unsatisfying dabble-in-everything months, but really, I was completing a bunch of shorter titles.

World of Warcraft

Gaming Related Spending

There were far too many good bundles during March, including one on Steam which netted me 12 indie games for under $10 which I couldn’t pass up. I also grabbed the Humble Earthquake charity bundle (although I only redeemed a handful of titles), as well as the Humble Heroines bundle. I rounded that out with a three-game bundle from Fanatical, as well as a couple of specific game purchases. Add into that my Humble Choice and World of Warcraft subscriptions, and all in all, I spent $127 in gaming related spending during March, and I still feel like I got a bargain.

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Other Nerdstuff

Reading

I didn’t manage to finish any audiobooks this month, but I read through five titles on my tablet. After being somewhat unsatisfied with Within These Walls by Ania Ahlborn, I decided to move back to thrillers and mysteries for the rest of the month. Everything else I read was good, but If We Were Villains was the highlight for me. Who knew I’d be so enthralled with some theater-kid dark academia?

Stitchcraft Etc.

I very nearly had nothing else for the Other Nerdstuff section – I don’t think I even turned my TV on this month, so no watching at all. However, I was browsing /r/Cross-Stitch, and noticed that their theme for this month’s stitching contest was “Less than 300 Stitches”. It seemed like a good way to shake off a little bit of the rust, so I adapted a quick pattern from a perler bead pattern I found online, and stitched up a tiny Toy Story alien.

It only took about 90 minutes, and while it has yet to inspire me to get my butt back in the chair at the crafting desk, it has made the prospect a little less overwhelming.

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Sometimes, I’m downright embarrassed by how poorly I react to change, and how difficult it can be for me to find my way through things. As far as that is concerned, March was more of a success than I truly expected – I’m finding my groove slowly but surely.

I am currently suffering from a pretty severe bout of procrastination. It’s something I’ve always struggled with, but that until recently, I’ve felt like I had a pretty good handle on. Sure, that means frequently grumbling “Just do the thing!” under my breath, but, hey, when you find something that works, you roll with it. Even though I’ve been trying to be gentler with my … well, let’s call them my issues, shall we? … I find I’m still acting out. It’s not even that I don’t want to do the things, I just figure that it’ll be just fine if I do them later, and then later never shows up.

I don’t think I’m quite ready to dial back on goal-setting, though that would seem to be the logical solution. I’m already squandering more time than I like to, and I’m mostly okay with not hitting all my targets. I think I just need a bit more time to get a solid handle on exactly what I do and don’t want to prioritize.

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GAMING

World of Warcraft

I’m not quite sure what to do with World of Warcraft goals this month. We’ve killed all of Vault of the Incarnates on normal, and I have no interest in even dipping my toes into higher difficulties. My main almost has all of her 10.0 reps maxed out. I have two alts that are decently geared and three that are doing pretty well with their professions.

There are still things I’m doing in game, but nothing I can easily put milestone markers on. I would like to get another alt to 70, but I’ve been finding there’s too many things I want to do on my already leveled characters to feel like I have enough time and energy to work on any more. Still, it’s the easiest thing to quantify, so I’ll bring that goal forward from last month and see if I do any better.

Community Game-Along 2023

It’s #PlatforMonth, which is most definitely not my genre. Ultimately, I decided to go with a pair of 2D puzzle-platformers that are both well-loved and, more importantly, short. They’re also both Verified for the Steam Deck, so that’s how I plan to play them. Assuming I play through them both, this will also satisfy my play something purchased in the prior month goal, as I just picked up Inside during March when it went on sale for around $2.

Other Gaming

Sun Haven came out of early access during March, and having finished up The Survivalists, we’ve gone back to farming for our weekly co-op night. Initially, we found this one a bit overwhelming, but we’re starting to get into our groove now. I expect we’ll get a good couple of months out of this one.

Otherwise, I’m looking at an April Humble Choice title, and finishing up Potion Permit on the Steam Deck. I don’t expect that to be everything I play this month – in fact, I’d be a bit disappointed if it were – but it’s all I’m comfortable planning out at the moment.

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Other Nerdstuff

Normally, this section gets broken into categories too, but I’m going to back off a little. I’m keeping my read four books goal, but otherwise, I’m going to give myself a free pass this month. I’d really like to focus more of my attention on getting back to blogging semi-regularly, and seeing what space is left over for other stuff. Which probably means I’m going to watch a whole bunch of television and movies and spend hours crafting. It’ll be interesting, at least, to see how it all shakes out.

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In Summary

• Make at least 8 blog posts during April.
• Level at least one more character to 70 in World of Warcraft.
• Participate in #PlatforMonth
• Play and write about one title purchased in March 2023.
• Participate in the group review of the April 2023 Humble Choice.
• Read or listen to at least four books.

It’s a fairly short (and very achievable) list this month, because I could use an easy win.

• 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.

It probably won’t surprise anyone who’s been reading along for awhile now, but I am not a big fan of change. I like my life organized and scheduled and cobbled together in a way that I always know what to expect. This past month has been full of hard adjustments, and as is typical for me, just the fact that there needs to be an adjustment is a struggle, which makes it hard to know where to set the goal posts. Do I (potentially) overshoot in hopes of finding my rhythm? Or do I go for easier goals for a little while?

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GAMING

World of Warcraft

We’re firmly in the first real lull period of Dragonflight, with the next major patch not expected until later this month at the soonest, and the next tier of raid even further out than that. We have one more boss to kill in normal Vault of the Incarnates, and it’s likely we’ll see Razageth fall before the end of March. I haven’t quite maxed out all my reputations, but it’s highly likely that’ll happen this month without too much effort on my part.

Which means this is the time where I start taking that army of alts I have a 60ish seriously. I plan to continue weekly wizard chores on the ones already leveled, but there should be enough time to get at least one more character to 70 this month.

Community Game-Along 2023

I always try to pick out more games than I expect to play for the Community Game-Along because I don’t want to be stuck in a scramble mid-month if I only have a single option and I find I’m not enjoying it. For #MusicGameMarch, I picked out and installed four titles, but I’ll be happy enough if I play two of them. My top choices are two short games Shrug Island – The Meeting and Ephemerid – A Musical Adventure. I’d like to play and write about both of these titles, which I expect to be able to complete in a single sitting each.

Because I always feel the need to be overprepared however, I’ve also chosen a couple backup titles. Figment is a game I sampled briefly in 2018 and never got back to, and Wandersong I picked up in the May 2019 Humble Monthly but have never played.

I did not, however, even look at any rhythm games, which is probably what most people think of first when talking about music games. I’m absolutely dreadful at them, and I’m not really in a place right now where I expect to have much patience for being frustrated by gaming.

Other Gaming

I don’t really want to drop any of the other blog-related gaming I’ve been doing, although I haven’t exactly been successful getting all of it done consistently. Two things I’d like to make more of an effort to do every month is play and write about a purchase from the prior month and play and write about something from my Itch.io library. I also plan to continue with the group review of Humble Choice, and for co-op game night, we’re still working our way through The Survivalists, and I expect that’ll continue to be the game through all of March.

I should also be receiving my Steam Deck back by the end of this week from its RMA adventure after not having it for awhile now. I’m really looking forward to being able to game in bed again, as I’ve been having more and more difficulty spending extended amounts of time at my desk. I am not sure how to best translate this into something goal-worthy, so for March I’m going to try out spend at least 10 hours gaming on the Steam Deck.

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Other Nerdstuff

Reading

I’m every so slightly behind in my reading goal for the year, but since I’m still adjusting, I don’t expect March to be the place where I play catch-up. I’m going to try again for reading at least four books during March.

Watching

Another place where I don’t really want to push, but I don’t want to drop my monthly goal of watching one new-to-me movie and one new-to-me series / mini-series / season.

Crafting

I’ve had to put cross-stitching on hold for a bit; neither my eyesight or my attention span is currently up to the project I have on my frame. However, I’d like to finish the scarf I’m working on and maybe even get to wear it a time or two before spring weather is here.

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In Summary

• Make at least 10 blog posts during March.
• Reach Level 70 on at least one more character in World of Warcraft.
• Play and write about two games for #MusicGameMarch.
• Play and write about one title purchased in February 2023.
• Play and write about one title in my Itch.io library.
• Participate in the group review of the March Humble Choice.
• Spend at least 10 hours gaming on the Steam Deck in March.
• Read / listen to at least four books.
• Watch at least one new-to-me movie.
• Watch at least one new-to-me series, mini-series or season.
• Finish the crochet scarf I’m currently working on.

• Make at least 10 blog posts during January.
• Play and write about two games for #PuzzleGameMonth.
• Get at least two more characters to level 70 in World of Warcraft.
• Get the Loremaster of the Dragon Isles on at least one of my alts in World of Warcraft.
• Participate in the group Humble Choice review.
• Play and write about at least one game I bought during December.
• Make a post about co-op game night.
• Read at least four books.
• Watch at least one new-to-me movie.
• Watch at least one new-to-me season, series or mini-series.
• Finish reorganizing my crafting area.
• Do at least 2500 stitches on any current project or combination of current projects.

I feel like I did pretty good this month for how un-focused I was feeling. When it came to playing games and blogging, I mostly just did whatever felt right at the time, and I made a more determined push towards my other goals. Mostly, I’m happy with how it all shook out – I managed to keep myself from feeling overwhelmed while also avoiding decision-paralysis problems.

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GAMING

I expect that I’m probably pretty close to being done with Against the Storm, at least for awhile, but it dominated my January game time, with over 100 hours played. I’ve put well over 150 hours into this one since I started playing it late December, and although I’ve already turned the difficulty up once (something I rarely do in games), I don’t feel a particular need to make it even harder, so I think I’ve just about gotten what I can from it.

I expect my World of Warcraft time would have seen a dip this month, even if I hadn’t been enamored with another game, but the dip likely would have been a bit less, and I might have even met one or both of my WoW-related goals this month. I’m not upset about it by any means – I feel like I’m still playing enough to make the subscription cost worthwhile, but I’m hoping to find a better sense of pacing than how I’m currently playing.

Starbound was a one-and-done, we tried it out on co-op night, and neither of us much cared for the experience. Instead, we started up The Survivalists, which definitely has more than its share of flaws, but is still a pretty enjoyable co-op experience.

Everything else I played in January for any significant amount of time was either for the group Humble Choice review, or for #PuzzleGameMonth.

Gaming Related Spending

I mostly threw my money at other hobbies this month, which was a nice change. I did buy the Wadjet Eye bundle on Humble, and picked up a couple of games during Steam’s recent Base Builder Sale. I also grabbed a couple of companion pets for WoW at the beginning of the month that I didn’t have and that were leaving the store. When you add my Humble Choice and World of Warcraft subscriptions, my total gaming related spending for January was $78.

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OTHER NERDSTUFF

Reading

After a slow start, I ended up finishing five books this month, although I was lukewarm on most of them. The exception was In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, which I found myself reading a chapter or two of every chance I got until I finished it. Two of these books I picked up because of their associated TV adaptations, but I still find myself mostly picking books by whatever sounds good in the moment.

Watching

Although I didn’t manage to get myself away from re-watching things this month, I still managed to catch a few things that were new to me.

Firstly, despite owning the entire series on DVD, I had never actually watched the entire final season of Sanctuary, which I have now remedied, and I appreciate the fact that the show didn’t go out on a huge cliffhanger. Then, on a whim, I binged the entirety of Panic on Amazon. It’s only a ten episode series, and it definitely lends itself well to a marathon watch. Amazon decided against making another season, which honestly, is probably best. It was a complete story, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing a limited series that doesn’t drag on into ridiculousness.

Stitchcraft Etc.

Logically, I realize that I’m just struggling a lot with this particular pattern, and I haven’t lost interest in the hobby itself, but this project is dragging on forever. I’m unwilling to abandon it, however, so I’ve been telling myself to just do 100 stitches every day. Some days, that’s all I can handle. Others, I end up working on it for twice that or more, and then there have been a few days where even that felt like too much, so I didn’t force it.

However, I’ve been working on other types of projects that take far less concentration. I’d gotten away from yarn work because although I enjoy the process, and have no shortage of supplies to work with, I’d gotten tired of finished projects just piling up. I’m in a weird place with most types of crafts in that they are strictly hobbies, and I doubt that I’m proficient enough anyway to sell my work for anywhere near what I should based on material costs & time spent. I’ve also been doing it long enough that I’ve gifted many projects to family and friends, and I just don’t know what to do with any of it anymore.

The scarf I’m currently working on, though, that one I’m keeping for myself. It’s a fairly basic stitch, but a really lovely yarn.

I’ve also started playing with diamond paintings again, which are typically not very impressive when finished, but super meditative to do, and I’m okay with them being solely about the doing, and less about the having at the end.

Diversifying in this way means that no matter what kind of day I’m having, there’s something enjoyable I can work on, and I think that’s helped me get past some of my winter doldrums & frustrations.

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I know we’re only a month in, but so far 2023 seems to be about figuring out how much space I need to make for myself for the things I enjoy, and what level of rigidity works best for me. It’s a process, but this feels like a pretty solid start.

I have been aimless more often than I like to be over the past month, and because of that, I’m putting a goal right into my intro paragraph for this month. I would like to resume using a content planning calendar, because I do better with schedules, even if they’re not as rigid as they could be. I am not entirely sure where January went, but I’m guessing the fact that I never knew what day it was a big part of the reason time felt even more floaty and unstable than usual.

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GAMING

World of Warcraft

I still haven’t quite figured out my optimal cadence with World of Warcraft right now. I’m still interested in doing a bit more than just raid logging, but I’m finding my interest in actually playing is not quite matching my ambitions. I’m finding most weeks I’m doing what I want to get done on my main most every week, but I’m not nearly as consistent with my max level alts, and I’m doing very little with my sub-70s still. I’m not sure yet if this is a sign of an impending period of being unsubbed, or just a natural reaction to the “less required content” vibe of Dragonflight.

Given all that, I’m going to make my World of Warcraft goals nigh unmissable for February. I’d like to get one more character to max level, and that should be easy with my hunter about a level from cap. I’d also like to max out renown with at least one faction on my main, probably one of the two that stops at 25 rather than 30. I’d also like to make at least one World of Warcraft related post.

Community Game-Along 2023

Other Gaming

The latest iteration of Steam Next Fest is right around the corner. It’s usually not a struggle for me to find half a dozen demos I’d like to try out, so I’m going to set my goal for this one as at least one NextFest post. Sometimes, there’s oodles of stuff, and I do more than that, but I’d rather get out one post with games I was excited to play, than drag myself through a bunch of demos I don’t care about.

I’m also bringing forward a couple of things that have been working well for me – namely participating in the group Humble Choice review and playing and writing about a title purchased during the prior month.

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OTHER NERDSTUFF

Reading

While I’m glad I’ve gotten back into reading and not just listening, I do wish I were able to be a little less “all or nothing” between formats. In an attempt to nudge myself in this direction, I’m going to set my goals at read any four books and listen to at least one audiobook.

Watching

Here again, I’m pretty pleased with where I’m putting my focus, so I’m going to repeat my January goal of watching one new-to-me movie and one new-to-me series / mini-series / season this month.

Stitchcraft Etc.

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IN SUMMARY

• 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.