This is a reboot of my regular blog starting new for 2026. There's a archival wordpress for 2025 if you look around/ahead.
Before I knew it, February was already over.
So what have I been up to since the December 4th blog update? A lot of things, and not so much anything at all.
The previous blog entries were getting too bloated and too much hassle to actually update. I made a wordpress blog but I haven't been using it much. It is a lot easier to make entries on there(go figure it was meant for blogs) but . . . I just got lazy.
December was a roller coaster without the security rails. It sucked.
So, usually my M.O is to get the lame duck stuff out of the way first, then focus on the positives. Usually, that meant life musings and periodic updates on anime I may have been watching (airing or yesterdecade), along with games and updates on my reading and writing. Sprinkled in with images and screencaps and such forth . . .
And that kinda just burnt me out, I guess. Turns out it's harder to keep up the momentum. It was therapeutic, sure, but just a pain after the fact. Having to go back to previous entries and update them with newer blog entries was just . . . agh.
I'm hoping with this new iframe method I discovered it may be easier, so who knows. Maybe the pages won't go on for forever; maybe there'll be more gaps between entries and I'll just post whatever comes to mind. It may all just be a form of Cliff's notes.
So, a recap what happened up to November-December 4th 2025. I played through Ghost of Tsushima, finished Odyssey, started on Stranger in a Strange Land Uncut, and was beginning to write more diligently on an early draft for my webnovel, A Game of Cosmic Titans. My boyfriend and I were starting on Gundam ZZ (his first time, my first rewatch) and I promised I'd write the halfway point anime season review, which I never followed up on. And I ended the blog post with a eerily "So, until next time space cowboy... if ther even is a next time. stay safe."
I usually tried to write out each blog post as if it may be my last(lol), and that one hit the lottery. It was solely just lack of motivation since I had multiple blog entries on each page every month for all of 2025, starting with February.
That's about as minimal recap I could make. I won't delete the wordpress yet, but if you're feeling stalkerish you can read up on the 2025 entries, and maybe I'll continue using it. But . . . I dunno. There's too many Thinking Machines on the platform for my liking, it kind of creeps me out a little.
So anyway, what have I been doing since?
Well. Life sucked. A lot. But at the same time it was OK. My boyfriend and I of 4 years (it's LDR) had a rocky month and we nearly broke up, but we mended and I like to think our relationship strengthened.
We finished the rest of ZZ (having stopped at ep25) and it was such a fascinating series to revisit. He hasn't watched anything except the TV 0079 so he thought the series was incredible up until this point; I'm going to show him Unicorn next despite my initial concerns from the get-go—we watched CCA already, just before the Gquack finale dropped—and then I want to show him the Hathaway Flash movies. From there I have no idea, maybe Origin.
I can't be bothered writing up a review of Fall 2025 anime. The season was OK. Nothing memorable as usual. Crazy that 2020s' has no real hidden gem like prior decades. Just forgettable slop . . .
My mental state throughout 2025 was absolutely rubbish. One supplement I've been taking was Ashwagandha and its effectiveness has been so-so. But strangely, one day nearly overnight in late December . . . I just feel more soothed, more relaxed and calm. Like my mental state isn't usually as turbulent—I have extreme anxiety and intrusive thoughts daily for years, and it was like a useful bandage. But now, my mind is like a gentle river flow. I'm no longer as likely to freak out or get ragebaited.
I've since finished Stranger in a Strange Land Uncut and have read and finished Redenveous with Rama since. Stranger was intriguging but I'm merely too plebian to fathom most of it, Heinlein is completly something else. Meanwhile, Clark was easier on my smoothbrain and I admire its use of economic and short-length chapters that I feel helped me with my writing.
Now, it's back to Heinlein with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. And I must say . . . the first person pov with a slavic dialect threw me off but I'll still give it a try.
Gaming-wise: After Tsuhima, I meandered and played TF2 as my fallback game for the most part. I mostly tried to write more and ultimately fell in on playing MGSV for the first time. I ws taken aback how un-MGS it was in terms of gameplay. No procure on site, no rations, no shaking down enemies, early MGS games had charm because it was a closed sandbox, they were less action and more action puzzle based. . . the warning signs were there with 4. I've long known of the spoilers going in and enjoyed the story for the most part. To me, 3 will always be the highmark of MGS.
After I wrapped up V, I decided to also give the og, functioning out of the box, now-delisted working version of Final Fantasy 7 a try. Like MGSV, I never played it before beside a very, very brief moment at the dawn of the 2000s' when I played it on my uncle's PS1; that remained my only experience with singleplayer FF games. I did play FF11 with a friend group for the last couple years, but interest fell off one after another or some of us were too broke to pay the sub. Sad, but the last of us (my bf and I) enjoyed our last session as we literally rode off into the sunset after a somewhat frustrating session figuring out where to go.
FF7 was fun. Challenging, unforgiving, and I knew of THAT spoiler scene, but I didn't let it stop me from having an unforgettable experience. I won't be touching the modern remake sequels, however.
Since then, I bought New Vegas on a whim since I never got into Fallout. After installing Viva Vegas, I booted it up, ran around aimlessly, and . . . refunded it. It didn't click with me. I think after playing Morrowind, Tsushima, MGSV, and FF7, you get kind to experience hallmarks of open world games . . . and the genre is kind of meh. Morrowind I never played much of either. It was too empty; something that was echoed a decade later with V. GTA remains the titan of the genre and it pains me that its influence was so entrenched for the 2000s-2010s. I thought about eyeing Chrono Trigger, or one of the earlier crusty FFs like FF6, or 5. But I haven't decided on any further game to play right now. Presently, I'm enjoying TF2 Classified, and that brings me to . . .
My writing. Maybe you've been following me the past year but I talked about it frequently. I finally worked up the courage and launched A Game of Cosmic Titans on Royalroad and Spacebattles. So go check it out if you're interested. Swan's Song is completed at approximately 50k words; it just needs a lot of editing. I write slow, and edit slower.
Hmmm . . . let's see . . . I think I covered most bases for the debut blog entry. There's no telling when the next one may be, or if there even will be a next one. But the days are getting shorter and I went outside today and despite the forecast saying it was 86 F, it actually felt more like high 90s . . . ah well. For the non clapping americans out there, that equals to 30 C and what I felt was about 35 C. Yeah. Turns out living in the smack middle of the desert kinda fucking sucks. I always joked to my co-workers in the past I'll fake my death and move to Alaska. At least they have UBI there; my state struck down UBI and declared it illegal; to paraphrase a politican: "I don't know, it's too socialist."
Oh, there is one thing I neglected: Our airing anime. This season my boyfriend and I are watching:
It's an OK season so far. Normally, my M.O would be giving at least a brief summary of each, but I'm feeling lazy.
It's hard to say which show is good or not at this point. MF Ghost resolved the protag's reason for coming to Japan in the first place and it's doing a somewhat sloppy job of juggling the slice of life aspect that made the original Inital D series so endearing; in the og, they were just school kids who liked to race and juggle life on the side. It was balanced, here, not so much. But ms paint gold star for trying.
Golden Kamuy . . . boy! Such crazy pacing, but the ending visuals is real killer.
Trigun Stargaze . . . I've only watched the OG and never read the manga. Apparently the little girl is anime original and just like there. She's like Jar Jar Binks, you can cut her out and nothing would really change (other than her coming along to fetch the protag so he can save his ship thingajing). It's kind of weak. As one friend put it: if a show has very little to no fanart or porn on gelbooru it's dead in the water.
Darwin Jihen is simply diabolical. I'm surprised they got away with showing what they did in the last 2 episodes (6+7). Interesting to say the least.
Frieren . . .something something Himmel. *Himmel flashback*. It's just more of the season.
On the side we're progressing nicely through og Higurashi season 2. Nipaaah~. And starting on one of the later Sailor Moon series. We're suppose to be resuming VOTOMS but I keep neglecting it. My BF has been showing me lots of tamer12345 content recently and it's amusing to say the least.
OK. That wraps it up.
Take care dear visitor; see you space cowboy.
