THE STEAM DECK COMETH
Okay here's the second blog post on this new blog page. Fancy right? Well I've had the Steam Deck in my hands for a bit. Long enough to make a blog post about it at least. I reallllllllllllllllllllly like it. I'm almost a little nervous about just how much I like it. It scratches the PC gamer itch of "Can I get this running?" while still giving me convenience of play (when I want it). I'm iffy on the pink silicon case (cute but it makes the deck feel slippy) but in love with my little skull thumbgrips. I know thumbgrips are controversial due to the Deck's gyro - sensor - thingy (seriously I knew the proper name before but can't remember I've been seraching for liek 10 mins and sitll can't find it), anyway I don't think I'll be play many games that have it as a necessary feature beyond Aperture Desk Job (which was adorable).
I've been playing Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP and have been having a great time with it. I've wanted to play it for a long time but PS3 copies were stupid expensive so I'm thrilled about the remaster. It's just as dumb and campy expected and it runs great on the Deck. I've also tinkered around and have Stardew Valley running with mods exactly how I like it. Though I hear there's an update on the horizon that will undoubtably break everything
. So I have that to look forward to. The Deck has been a good introduction to Linux for me. I've been musing about installing Linux on my "Sandbox" laptop to just try and get a feel for it. I've been finding it equal parts intriguing and maddening. Just like trying to mod some of these games, mostly frustating but still fun. Someone made a comment recently while watching me change some code on this site that it "looks like a lot of troubleshooting". That's led a realization that yeah, most of my hobbies involve heavy lodes of troubleshooting. But the "tinkering" is the point, right? Working to overcome a challenge.
I got Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines to run on the Steam Deck, with the unoffical patch, and a handful of texture mods. That's a fucking accomplishment, man. I'm still fiddling with the controls. I'm trying to make a layout that combines the top 2 community layouts. I like both so I'm trying to create a middleground between them. I may post more about it when I get around to actually playing it. I'm still so stuck in the compulsion to get every game running with mods in exactly the way I want it.
NEW BLOG PAGE AND RIP RP4+ Long time no see; I'm at work updating the site with a new visual style. It's slow going though, and there is still plenty of it that I want to change. But oh well here it is! There's a quite a bit to cover since my last post that's now lost to the ages. Except I won’t cover any of that, too tired. The super sad news is that my lovely Retroid Pocket 4+ is fucking dead. I pluged it into a charger for about 5~ mins and when I picked it up it flashed off and refused to turn on. I did all the troubleshooting, even manually disconnecting and connecting the battery but alas it was no use.
It's incredibly sad, especially since I was right in the middle of enjoying a game. I really loved that little device and I'm gutted that it (and the money I spent on it) is dead and gone. The silver lining here is that my husband (btw I got married in November) ordered me a Steam Deck as a birthday present. It's a different beast than the RP4+ but I am very excited. When my poor RP4 up and died I said I wouldn't be buying an Android gaming device again but maybe I said that too soon. I think having one would be a good compliment to the Steam Deck, I just really love the convenience of being able to throw the thing in my purse. Maybe sometime in the future, I'll pick up an Odin, or whatever the RP6 turns out to be (I know everyone is creaming themselves over the RP5 but I despise the glass front it has). But that for another time when I actually have money (hopefully).
RIP RP4+
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VACATION 2024Hello everyone! I’m back from my Halloween/Graduation Celebration/Anniversary trip! I’m experiencing some post-trip sadness as I come down from vacation-mode and am back at work. So I’m going to write this blog post about it
Mr. Geekula and I went to Boston for five days. It was my first time on an airplane, a train, and frankly the most signifgant amount of travelling I've ever done. It was also our first trip together even though this month will mark our 9 year anniversary. I've loved Boston and New England for a long time. Cheers has been my favorite TV show since I was 16, as cheesy as that sounds. I just happened to find a partner who's family is from outside of Boston. I got to go to the real Cheers Bull & Finch location and complete that pilgrimage. We took the train into Salem one day and we went to two NHL games since we're a Boston Bruins couple (they won both games btw!).
We went to the Boston Wicked Haunt Fest which was incredible. The people were so nice and it was great. I could only handle one of the haunted houses that night but it was really incredible and had amazing animatronics. I really regret not pushing myself to do one more but thems the brakes. I enjoyed the ambiance and the small army of skeletons.
We went to Salem for a day and did a bunch of Halloween stuff. It was absolutely incredible to be somewhere were an entire town actually celebrates Halloween (my town could NEVER). We thought that the crowds wouldn't be so bad since we were going early in the month but oh boy, the place was PACKED. I totally get that if you lived and worked in Salem that all the tourists would drive you crazy but God I wish I lived somewhere where once a year Frankenstein's monster comes out and occupies a street corner everyday. The Peabody-Essex museum was absolutely wonderful and had a ton of stuff relevant to my research into American whaling. Their exhibit on Spiritualism was also incredible! Sadly I lost my admission button somewhere in the dark of the International Monster Museum so we wouldn't go back in. But, the Monster Musem was super cute! They gave us a lantern and we went through looking at all the monsters and animatronics. They said I could take all the pictures I wanted but I only took one of Moth Man. We also went to Count Orlock's Nightmare Gallery which deals in Movie Monsters. It was absolutely fantastic but we weren't allowed to take pictures in the gallery. Which is sad, I was dreaming of taking a photo with the Creature from the Black Lagoon but oh well. The gallery had a ton of deep cuts to iconic B-movies but my favorite was the room with Barlow, the vampire from the orginal Salem's Lot mini-series, the Creepshow Father's Day cake moment, and Fluffy the Crate Beast. The lighting in that room was amazing and made it all feel so life-like. I really want to go back to Salem and be able to relax more and explore it really was amazing and we didn't even see half of it.
I desperately want to live in New England. People tend to scoff when I tell them that. But MAN...I live in the AMERICAN SOUTH. Being in a blue state was so fantastic. There was decent public transportation, it was cold and not broiling hot outside, you could actually get around without a car! No one up there expected extended pleasent small talk as if it were part of the social contract. UGH! Someone give me a livable wage and let me move up there I don't care where!!
I'm already pushing to plan another Halloween trip for next year. I either want to go back to Salem and make it a multi-day visit or visit Sleepy Hollow. I'm really pushing for Sleepy Hollow since it's America's other Halloween town, wish me luck.
BACK AGAINHi folks. Long time no post per usual. Theoretically I was waiting to make a new post when I had something to post about but it’s hard to tell when that’s going to happen. I’ve been having trouble focusing on anything to the point where it’s kind of driving me crazy. That’s post-grad school life I guess. Also work is wringing my soul dry. Maybe I would feel better if I got my head back into updating the site. My vacation trip is coming up in about one week and 7 work days. I’m hoping that help reboot my brain.
At least one thing I have been doing is messing around with my Retroid. As soon as I got mine the RP5 was announced but whatever. The SBC gaming hobby is cyclical in a way that convinces people you should just be perpetually waiting for the next thing with better specs instead of enjoying the thing in front of you.
Anyway, the thing in front of me is my Retroid Pocket 4+ that now has cute thumbstick covers. I’ve messed around with it enough that I feel I can hand down opinions now. Overall, I am VERY happy with this little baby. It runs pretty much everything I want it to and does it well. What I wanted the most was PS2 emulation and I’m very happy with the results. It runs PS2, Gamecube, and Wii very well for me. Also it’s cute and fits perfectly in my bag so I can spend 15 minutes playing Yoshi’s Cookie on my break at work. I’m having so much fun with the capabilities of the RP4+ that I’m falling into that trap of tinkering with games at length and not actually playing them! I gotta pick something and stick with it.
Okay let’s talk about the downsides– the disappointments. Not all of these are faults of the RP4+ but it’s my blog so I’m gonna whine anyway. Really the first major thing I dislike about the RP4+ is the shape. It’s just not super comfortable for me to hold and play for long periods. The official grip helps with this a bit but I found it to be weirdly smooth and slippery. I added some grip stickers to it and that helped somewhat. I just feel as if the grip is weirdly… short? I’m going to try one of the 3D print grips that are out there one day when I have the patience to sit down and sort out my printer’s mental issues.
Ok so on the games side of things: I’ve had a few failed attempts at playing some games and I’m annoyed.
♥ First; I was enchanted with the thought of playing Stardew Valley on a handheld w/ mods. What I didn’t know if that modding mobile SDV is an absolute, fucking nightmare. I have a handful of mods working but SDVE refuses to cooperate no matter what so we’re at a stalemate.
♥ Second; this was expected but Um Jammer Lammy won’t cooperate no matter what. I knew from trying to emulate Space Channel 5 in the past that emulators and rhythm games don’t get along. After trying for about 3 days to decrease the latency I gave up. Now I just have Kick, punch you all remember. Chop Chop back again yes forever.” burned into my brain.. forever.
♥ Third; another expected was Switch emulation being a bust. I tried running a fairly simple indie game and fixing the lag was too much of a hassle for me. Maybe I’ll try again at some point but I can just…use my Switch instead.
♥ Fourth; I find playing DS games on the RP4+ too cumbersome to entertain. But I have a homebrew 2DS XL to do that. Or at least I did when I swiped its SD card to use in my Retroid. I gotta find a new card and get it operational again.. oops.
Overall, I am very happy with the RP4+ and I don’t regret my purchase at all, or choosing it as my first SBC gaming device. Though, if the presence of the RP5 pushes the price down of RP4s I may regret not waiting a few months…. Other things I did in my absence…. I watched all of the show Superstore and now I just feel kind of empty. I drank a bunch of tea. My debit card magically vanished from my wallet and I had to deal with that… blah blah blah..
SNAPPY TITLELet’s get the sad venting out of the way; my cat is sick. She’s not exactly a young cat, and she’s had problems for quite a while– a really messed up spine and chronic pain. But let’s just say some things have gotten worse lately and she’s going to the vet today. I’m prepared for my savings to be decimated by this and yet we don’t expect her to be around much longer. Which is pretty devastating and I don’t want to think about it.
Okay, well let’s get this post started proper before I start waxing philosophical about death. Hello everyone~! I’m currently at work! I don’t usually work Fridays but we were closed this past Sunday which means I gotta work today to keep up my full-time hours. But it seems I was the only one that remembered that! I’ve already had two “Why are you here?” conversations and I’m not even on the desk schedule! I’ll pop out there around my usual time and offer to take the desk if the schedule stays that way but for now I guess you can say, I’m chilling.
More construction is starting in the building, it’s kind of a relief because they really need to get that stuff done before the Fall semester, but also bad because It’s about to get sooooo loud in here. They’re doing minor demolition which is mildly exciting though. I’m excited to see them knock a hole in the wall lol
I’m really just tired since I had to get up earlier than usual to be here. I’m drinking an Alani Nu Dream Float flavored energy drink. It is seriously the best tasting energy drink I’ve ever tasted. It doesn’t bump me up as good as Ghost but it tastes almost like a cookie. I guess other people have noticed because I had to go to two different stores to find one (and I only found ONE).
I promise I’m still chipping away at the new site layout. I’ve just hit a creative block where I want to do something new but I’m at loss as to what exactly to do. I’ve put away the file and I’ve been making custom icons 
look at this tiny tombstone. I’m also planning on making custom emojis to use here in my blog posts.
I’ve picked Neopets back up. I was feeling pretty apathetic about the Void Within plot but the FOMO has gotten to me. Also the battledome stuff is paying out huge rewards for minimal effort since I already have a high level BD pet. I’ve also been highly anticipating the mfing ALTADOR CUP. We’re making All-Star for Meridell this year bb!!!! I made it to rank 14 last year just shy of All-Star rank. I’ll be wearing my Meridell pin at work to rep for my team!
This is a tangent but Mr. Geekula likes to say that people are going to mistake my Meridell shield pin for something Harry Potter related (ew) but it’s literally never happened. I do get asked if my One Eyed Jack’s poker chip earrings are Harry Potter though (likely because of the maroon and gold color scheme) -_- which sucks big time because A. they were expensive, and B. I had been looking for a pair of Twin Peaks earrings that I liked for a really long time and now I kinda hate wearing them!
SOME MUSING ON MY RELATIONSHIP WITH JAPANESE MEDIALet’s talk about something bordering on pointless. Tissues!
I bought these tissues from W0nkk0
I also got a Sailor Moon tissue holder that I intend to use at my desk at work but very gently. I think I've posted on here about how much I loooove their art but the stationary and cards they sell are sooo great as well. I've bought two junk journals from them and I'm just so over the moon about them.
Anyway, back to the tissues. I just adore the art on the St. Tail tissues. The black lines and solid colors are so appealing to me.
I don't know a whole lot about St. Tail except there's some dissatisfaction with the english translations of the manga and anime (likely a symptom of it's age). It's a been a very long time since I've partaken in anime or manga (outside of Junji Ito and Satoshi Kon). I'd like to dip my toes back in but only with anime and manga properties that produce some kind of nostalgia for me.The stuff I was into as a kid wasn't exactly popular and did not interest the anime kids at my school in the slightest. So, I would want to approach from a purely self indulgent point of view. Though I am worried that I’ll revisit a series I used to love and find some really pervy content that I just didn’t notice before.
While I haven’t partaken in anime or manga much in the past 12 years I have made an effort to indulge in J-horror and just Japanese cinema in general. I took a few world cinema classes in my last years of undergrad (trying to finish that film minor) and I absolutely loved them. There’s nothing I love more than cultural history and film analysis. World cinema classes give you a history lesson and a film lesson at the same time. I’ve been making an effort to watch more foreign cinema on my own time. J-horror was an area I wanted to explore more thoroughly (I love horror) and found that there are sensibilities about Japanese horror films (like pacing and story progression) that align with my own tastes. The English major in me also pushed me to read a few Japanese horror novels like Audition and Parasite Eve (which I’ve always wanted to read since I'm a huge fan of the game). Those are also areas I’d like to explore more thoroughly.
If anyone read to the end of this and has any recommendations for nostalgic anime or J-horror films, or just films in general pop em in the chat or DM me on Discord. I’ve been thinking about Kon films, especially Perfect Blue so if there’s anything out there with similar vibes I’d be very interested.