The Cracked Mug v 2.0

[Fetian]

That sounds amazing though and I look forward to seeing it!

[erikavonkaiser]

The man's nipnops are walleyed

Maybe the book is about his lady learning to love him even though his nip nops is goofy

[knightofcups]

"nip nops" is the most absurd phrase and it makes me laugh so much

[knightofcups]

Also! Very cool art! The McDonalds one. I'm digging the tiny nuggets : )

[erikavonkaiser]

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[Fetian]

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[erikavonkaiser]

Today has been successful! Tomorrow starts Actual Weekend, and I do have a responsibility errand I'm slightly anxious about (I have to take my car in to replace a recalled part but I am nervous I'll be at the dealership all day, and "car dealership" is probably in my top five list of places I want to immediately leave the minute I step into them) but I suppose if the time estimate is absurd I'll just fuss at them until I get a loaner vehicle. Hopefully it'll be more painless than that, though, because I really don't want to go back-and-forth if I don't have to.

Anyway! Assuming that doesn't eat up my entire day and make me super grumpy I also need to grab groceries and then can resume working on projects and being a slug, which is my usual (and beloved) weekend routine. I have some stuff I wanna draw and need to get back on the wagon for writing. I haven't written in weeks, unfortunately (although I have been plotting stuff, so I haven't been ignoring writing completely). Just been kinda mentally thrown off, but I'm getting back on track, so!

For now, it's time to brush my teeth, take my meds, and go to bed. Hope everyone has a nice evening!

[erikavonkaiser]

Elden Ring! I have played a lot of it over my weekend!

A few thoughts:
1) I am sure I've said this already but I am so glad I have somebody to play with; Greggo was taking me through part of the magic academy (Raydon Lucario or whevs) and so many times I was like oh my god I would've been here all day going in circles and getting frustrated before I realized you stab the bookshelf to go through
2) multiplayer continues to be fussy and dumb, I have accepted it but I'm not happy about it dadgummit!!!
3) the game! is! so! pretty!
4) worldbuilding and lore good
5) I would die for this wolfman and yes I already know it's bad to get attached to him but I want to smoosh his ears and tell him he's a v. good boy

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I'm still having a good time, though! I will say something that overwhelms me slightly with Elden Ring is I'm worried I'll mess up quests with NPCs by doing the wrong thing or doing things out of order, because that seems a bit sensitive. I don't necessarily want the game spoon-fed to me, but I also don't want to ruin my time and effort by not realizing I'm messing up some obscure quest step I don't even know about. I'm not sure if the game actually is that fussy? I may have the wrong impression! Any thoughts, @mek?

Due to the above I'm slightly considering playing alongside a guide if I can find one that gives me general pointers for sidequests vs a full walkthrough. I like fucking around and finding out, which I feel is intrinsic to the experience, but I also already know I will not be doing multiple playthroughs of this game so I don't want anything to go too poorly.

[Fetian]

Blaidd is The Best

In terms of actually locking you out of quests, unless you're killing random NPCs, I don't think the game does much of that. Overall it's really good at keeping quests available even if you do something in a weird order, or talk to Person A instead of Person B, or whatever. Due to that, though, it is possible to accidentally skip over specific steps in a quest, like you'll meet Blaidd at the tower instead of in the forest and so miss out on some of his dialogue

I'm a good ways into the game, now, and did stop and go over a guide to see what sort of content I may have passed over, and didn't really find a whole lot, and definitely didn't find anything that I outright missed out on -- it was all still available to me if I went back to it, even if I was overlevelled at that point, I think

Unless that really bothers you, I'd keep playing without a guide and then look up the progress route when you're bored and unsure of what to do next, or don't know where to go

[erikavonkaiser]

To sound terminally online for a second, the vibes the past week or so have been off.

Last night I did a mental "I am a glorified houseplant" checklist -- am I socialized? am I generally eating alright? am I moving my body around? am I perceiving the sun at least a little when I'm able? have I slept okay? -- and everything more or less passes. Some stuff's squiffy, like I've definitely been having an uptick in stress dreams/nightmares, but I think that's a byproduct of the vibes being off vs. a cause. A few days ago I had one about school stress, of all things, where I realized I had signed up for a math class that I'd forgotten about and a whole bunch of important assignments were due that day. Regardless, in spite of my unconscious (subconscious?) brain doing me a goof, I've been able to go back to sleep after waking up and I think generally am rested.

I think it's just something to power through. It honestly may be that I'm ready for springtime, and my body is waiting for the first sunny day above 40F to stop feeling a little distant and melancholy all the time. So I'll keep going through the motions and hopefully things will clear up.