November 28, 2024

The fourth Thursday of November, which is either Thanksgiving or a normal thursday, depending on where you live

Heh, we should probably make Normal Thursday an actual holiday, an universal one. It's Black Friday's eve, where people outside the US try to do Thanksgiving traditions like eating stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, and watching football and the parade.

Regarding life - Thanksgiving traditions

I made turkey thigh roulade, with cheese and salami pieces for the filling. I've never heard of someone use that stuffing before, so I was taking a risk. I didn't even call Butterball!

It took me some time to debone the turkey, and to then butterfly cut the meat. I started early on because I knew this would take a lot of time. In the end, it was worth it. This yielded 3 lunches for me.

In the meantime, I put on the TV to watch people talk about the holiday, about the dog show, and the parade with all the balloons and bands playing music.

I also watched some football.

Regarding gaming - Steam Autumn Sale

Since we're on that time of the year, that means Steam is throwing its autumn sale.

I got Nine Sols and Project Highrise. Today I played a lot of Project Highrise, which I decided to get because I remember there was a Facebook game called Hotel City, where one can build a hotel and put rooms with all kinds of stuff. Finding this was pretty cool because it was basically that game, but as an actual game that I pay for once and doesn't have the level of microtransactions that Facebook games have. It does have some expansions, but, they're cheap as of now and I only had to pay for them once. I actually never paid for these "premium cash" and stuff like that on Facebook games because I was too little and had no way to pay for that, hahah. But I wouldn't pay for it now, since I'm responsible now.

Of course, I found out that Project Highrise was actually inspired by two games that came before Hotel City: SimTower and Yoot Tower.

I got another game too, but I'm not sure if I'd get anything else for the moment.

November 25, 2024

At uni this week will mostly consist of me showing slideshows, so it'll be easy. There's just a test on Friday, but no worries, it's from an easy course.

Regarding life - Cooking

This Thursday I'll be using the oven for the first time, I'm excited. I'll make a meat roulade.

Regarding gaming - Platformers

Today I finished Super Mario Bros Wonder. I played mostly as Luigi, and sometimes as Blue Toad. I like how the game lets the first player play as anyone, it's not just Mario's game this time.

Pretty beautiful, I think I like it how Nintendo gave a twist to the usual world biomes (meadows, desert, volcano) I like that, since I sort of get tired when some Mario games tend to use these over and over again.

Also, I picked FEZ back up after years of not playing it. I'm at like 21 cubes. At first, finding cubes and keys felt like an adventure, but it's slowly becoming a chore.

November 20, 2024

I just got back from the biggest day I've had at the campus. The test was tough, but, I was still able to do well at it. I'm glad I studied a lot yesterday. I had some other tasks and activities afterwards, they were fun, though.

It's all smooth sailing from now on. Nearly everything else left regarding uni is making some slideshows, and a single test. I can finally resume my drawings, including two comms, an upcoming pic of my manaphy, and revealing a new character.

November 19, 2024

Tomorrow I'll be taking a test on the hardest course I'm having this semester. I'm doing alright on it, I do have a passing grade on each part of it, but it's not high. All the other courses are on near-perfect grades, so, this will be the most important challenge of the month.

November 18, 2024

Now that I'm using RYM, I think I might make the move and use RYM as the main method for telling people what I've been listening to. It has a "Currently listening to" feature, with a history telling what I listened to. There's also lists, which fulfill the purpose of the playlists I make (logging the music I listen to during a certain period of time)

I already took all of my 2022 playlists and put them on a big yearly list of music, 2023 and 2024 still need to be added.

RYM also gives me more, I could listen to a song on any platform and still log it there. I can review an album or single and let people know about it. I can customize my profile even more. I can play around with lists to do even more than being playlists. It just feels more complete.

Also, I've been getting the idea that Spotify feels shady, and on top of that the page's been getting some bugs. Sometimes it wipes out the "liked song" indicator, and when I get back on the app, I have to click on the song's timeline to let Spotify know that I started listening to the song. It just feels janky.

I might miss Spotify Wrapped on the following years, but, I think it's not worth it. Last time I remember it was only available on the mobile app. I think wrapped is not worth it anymore, and that whatever I do on RYM has more weight than it.

So the plan is to make the December 2024 the last Spotify playlist, and then move onto just using RYM to log (and review) music.

Regarding gaming - Mario

I've been playing Super Mario Bros Wonder. The way how it looks is amazing.

Since I've been busy with uni projects, Mario games make for a good game to play on a break, since a level can take like 5 minutes to beat. I can do some work, then knock down a pair of levels, and then go back to what I was doing.

November 13, 2024

Yesterday I talked about my Goodreads, Letterboxd, and MyAnimeList accounts. I mentioned I used Spotify to showcase what music I listened to, but, I remembered that I could instead use RYM to log my music.

Turns out I had a RYM account for years, and did almost nothing with it. So I picked it back up. I think it'll take some time to put all of the music I listened to.

I'm rating the albums that I have listened to during my life. Sometimes I give reviews to new albums that I listen to. I listened to the new The Cure album, and the new Vampire Weekend album.

Regarding gaming - Backloggd

I also have new Backloggd account to record what games I played and which ones I'm thinking of playing. A huge portion of these games are ones that I did start but left during the early parts of the game. I just happen to play a bit of a game first to get a feeling of how it is, to see if I like it or not, and then leave it. But sometimes I pick them back up.

November 12, 2024

I do have a Goodreads account. I like showcasing what books I read. I do the same for music with my Spotify playlists, though, I'm considering using other means to track what I listened to. I do it for movies with Letterboxd, and I do it for anime with MyAnimeList.

As for games, I don't have a site that shows everything I've played. Most of what I have boils down to my Steam account, my PSN account, my Xbox account all having my games scattered around them. I've been playing some PS3 games, but since Sony has deprecated the PS3 library on PSN, it's sort of hard to display, also, there are some games that don't have achievements, and don't show up on my profile. PSNProfiles sort of does the job for me.

But, then again, let's go back to literature. I tend to read educational books more often than fiction. I still enjoy fiction, and sometimes read it. I just think the books I read, a lot of them being either McGraw Hill or Pearson style books, or "For dummies" books, give me useful advice for my life and my career.

I could show people in my career that I read these books, but, I don't think I should use my current goodreads account to do it, since it's a Kespuzzuo account, and not a Business life account. I could perhaps use my Linkedin to post about what books I read, since I'll put the educational books I read on the spotlight for people to see. There's also the small chance someone might think "Oh, this artist and this employee tend to read the same books at the same time!", but I think that would be an incredibly small change, so small that people would think it's a coincidence.

November 11, 2024

The June 2023 playlist was the longest playlist of music I've made in my life. I listened to a lot of music on that month, a lot of it while gaming. Spotify says it's over 24 hours long, and it has 390 tracks on it.

Well, I'm here to tell you that I have surpassed that playlist, and we're just past the first third of the month. The playlist for this month has over 400 tracks, and of course it is over 24 hours long. I'm certain that it's going to get even bigger during the rest of the month.

November 10, 2024

Yup, I finished that one. I finished Return to Dreamland (Deluxe) a year ago. I recall finishing Triple Deluxe two years ago, because of course I had to get into that Floralian lore. I finished Planet Robobot earlier this year. And, I just finished Star Allies.

So many people tend to put this game in a lower rank than the other Kirby games directed by Kumazaki. I think I get the reason why. The three previous games felt like they had a bigger scale, and each one had a bigger story going on. Robobot had the robot theming going on through all the stages, and each stage was like a spectacle on its own. Star Allies... while it still had some interesting stuff going on, like the lore of the ancients, it felt like it wasn't the next step after the previous games, but it was still fun.

On top of that there were the puzzle pieces, that replaces the "collect enough energy spheres, sun stones, or code cubes" collect system that the previous three games had it. That gameplay element from the previous three games was so good, that Pizza Tower decided to have it as well. In that old collectable system, I felt motivated to look through every place, and each red star door, so I could find other paths and collectables. The puzzle pieces feel different, because they're not a requirement to unlock the boss of each world, so there's less of a motivation to get them. Perhaps I should have established a self-imposed challenge of collecting all the rainbow puzzle pieces before fighting each boss...

I found it charming that you could have a lot of characters fighting alongside you, including the dream friends. The art style is also good, like the 3DS games, but in HD!

Some people might be asking themselves why I played it. The reason is that I'm going through all of the main modern Kirby games, since I like the way how Kumazaki shapes the lore, and I make Kirby (and Lolo) fan content, so I gotta know about that!

With Star Allies done, I will finally get to enjoy Kirby and the Forgotten Land, I heard it's amazing!

Regarding life - Others try it

So I've been making my own lunch for a few weeks now. So far, I have prepared breakfasts for my family on birthdays, but I haven't done lunches until yesterday, which was when I made chicken thighs for my family and guests to enjoy at a barbecue party. I think they loved it.

Regarding art - One of my New Year Resolutions

At the start of this year, I set up some New Year Resolutions, which include "Drawing 60 pictures", "Creating 12 characters", "Getting the Bachelor's degree", and "Composing 5 tracks of music".

So far, I've drawn over 60 pictures this year! I started the year off strong, with a good pace, but then at the middle of the year, I slowed down, mostly because I was focusing on studies. Then, on the middle of October, I got a second wind and got to draw seriously. I might even be able to draw 80 pictures this year!

There's still some resolutions to finish. So far, I have created and drawn 10 characters, which means I still have to draw 2 more characters in order to finish that resolution.

Also, I have to post 3 more music tracks. They could either be from Kuberspell, or music inspired by Skygardening, or a completely original EP. If I try doing an original EP, I could sell it, but I know my audience is here for drawings, and not to buy music from me. Skygardening... could use of some music, perhaps for the characters, but it's not actually a project that uses music, since it's a book. At least I've heard of writers who like to put playlists on their books. So that means it is most likely that the 3 remaining tracks of the year could be for Kuberspell.

I haven't done a lot of work on Kuberspell, I haven't even put the effort to promote it. It was technically started on the 24th of October, which was the anniversary for Kirby's Return to Dreamland. But, the thing is, I got a lot of other priorities in mind. I'm gathering my downpayment funding from the money I get from drawings, I'm promoting my account on that new blue butterfly site, and I'm preparing for the next stage of my life.

November 1, 2024

Somebody get Mariah Carey on the phone.

So it's November now. I originally planned to take a break from drawing and doing other fine arts during this month, but I thought it would be better to keep the momentum going.

With that new site with the butterfly that I set up, I feel like I got a motivation to keep going and going. I'm trying to get as many followers as I can, and rewarding them each time we reach a milestone.

By the way, here's the October music playlist.

But, yes. We're 2 months away from 2025. We're now at that time of the year where people are working really hard to meet deadlines and build their end-of-year projects. Oh! The drama is building up, the pace is picking up so fast!

As for me. Well, for me it'll be doing art orders and the remaining "events" of the year. I had no idea of what to do with the money I earned from drawing. Games? No, I already have a huge backlog across multiple platforms. Art? I draw art for myself. I want to look at my future, and tell myself that part of this money will be used to pay a portion of the downpayment for an eventual place of my own. Some of this money will also be used as an emergency fund.