\(' u ')/

gonna be honest, i haven't been going out and doing a ton of stuff so there's not a whole lot to update with. or maybe it's been so long that i can't really remember if there was anything important i wanted to talk about. doesn't help that i don't have any photos to help jog my memory :')

been big chillin and playing the metaphor demo for too many hours, i'm in love with this little guy:

babygirl. my little meow meow. gotta protect.

i gotta say tho, i didn't expect to like it as much as i am? it's an atlus game so i was 100% expecting me to just kind of give up bc i'm bad at them (i never get far enough to completely understand the arcana system and got bored of social links) but no, i'm having so much fun just wandering around doing shit. it helps that i'm on easy mode and i plan on playing the demo again for a 'real' run that'll carry over to the main game. idk if atlus had this for other titles, but i'm glad to see that they have a story mode where you don't get game over if you die. shows you how much they want you to focus on the story? ig?? could just be talking out of my ass tho, i'm not totally familiar with their stuff. even persona 4 (which i love) was sorta absorbed through friends and i never actually finished the game lolol.

aaa i just really love the MC, he's adorable and his japanese voice is so soft. i want to squeeze him until he pops.

i've been bitching lamenting over how it's $70 for the game ever since it was announced... o)-( imma def get it tho, i feel a hyperfixation happening that hasn't reared its ugly head for a long while now. minus kingdom hearts, which is forever and always my #1. square enix is taking forever for KH4 sooooo guess i gotta find something else to obsess over until then he he.

finally got the lights i wanted. ... sort of. i fucked up and accidentally bought the large ones bc they were on sale lol so now i have these bars just kinda... hanging out. i don't particularly like the look of it, but they were only $40 and i can always put them somewhere else if i find something better. the reason they're up there is bc my desk space was SO DARK with just lights on the monitor and desk. i didn't want to put anything on the walls either bc it's difficult to get anything to stick on it and we don't want to drill more holes, so this solution was easier. alas, i will be on the hunt for something better in the future.

i love u coffee shops that have cool ass interior design.

been keeping up with learning japanese tho! it's been about a month and a half i think and i've stopped having to do the hirigana test every day bc i can read them pretty fluently now. :O just trying to get the hang of dakuten rn, it's still a struggle to read em. also focusing on long vowels, which are arguably a bit easier for me to get. i just wanna be FAST but i'm being patient and giving my brain time to e x p a n d. amazon had the genki workbook on sale for only $20 each, so i grabbed one for both me and my partner. we have a PDF of the textbook and saved a youtube channel where a teacher goes through the textbook, which isn't as great as a class but it's something. time to level up and learn more!!

さよなら〜

shit can't believe it's another month, it's almost like time actually exists or something??

had my next round of infusions the week of august 19th. it was okay, after the first two times it's kinda getting to be more routine in my mind and not a huge deal. the only thing that's kind of a pain is that it's 30 minutes away from where we live, so we gotta make an hour roundtrip every day for a week. good thing i only have to go once every 3~4 months. :'D

weee they recently got these lights and i was happy whenever i got one, even tho they had a tendancy to just. shut off lmao.

this time around i had such a nice, softhearted nurse who was REALLY good at inserting my IV. i barely had any bruises by the end of the week!! which is unheard of for me, i usually bruise so badly after my treatments that it looks kind of scary haha. but nope, not this time. must have been the mutual love of cats that we shared. she told me about a few of hers, two of them were named penny and elmo. ig penny's a muted calico? or something like that? i never got to see photos (she forgor her phone at home on my last day lolsob) but i can imagine via google images.

OH but my partner finally built her new PC with the help of our friend! they spent maybe 5~6 hours on it? there were some parts that of course didn't fit 100%, so they had to do surgery on some of them. it's really cool tho and compact, nothing flashy like i'd aim to get because we all know how much i love obnoxious LED lights.

the rest of august was us trying to catch up with things after The Tornado Disaster. it's been a while since then and i think we're mostly back to normal? got food staples and stocked up slowly since we didn't wanna drop a ton of money on groceries right after. for a while we were just worried another storm would be coming but so far it's been fine, yahoo.

my new figure came in too somewhere between all of this. she's the sister figure to the one dressed in black that i showed off maybe like 5 posts before this one? maybe. she's the perfect finish to the needy girl overdose shelf i made. i gotta refrain from buying another figure from this series because idk if i would have room for it lol.

i alsooooo updated my desk setup! got a cheap monitor stand that lets me adjust it to my liking and put all the things on display. i originally wanted the main monitor to be on the side, but it's 27 inches so it limited where i could place it. in the end i'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! it's not 100% there but i couldn't find anything else that would work after searching for a month, so here we are. i'm just glad the steam deck has a nice little home now and isn't stuck being shoved inside its carrying case. ; u ;

right now i'm on the hunt for new keycaps and maybe a new deskmat to match. why are keycaps so expensive tho... i'm probably just gonna get some that are like a 4/4.5 out of 5 and then upgrade to something more higher-end if i feel like i'd wanna swap out keycaps semi-often.

i'm also looking out for a good workbook to use for learning japanese, since the one i own is more like a light textbook than anything else. don't get me wrong, that's incredibly helpful as well, but there's something about doing the work as if you're in a classroom that really helps. we unfortunately could never find any japanese classes near us, so we're trying to self-study and see where that leads us. duolingo is fine for some basics/a foundation, but that foundation is a little shaky and not the best learning tool. i've still been keeping up with that and using some other sites to practice! i think this is the longest i've ever studied another language (outside of high school) and actually started to understand things without too much help, so i'm really proud of myself for sticking with it. here's to hoping i continue onwards!

last thing is that i want to show off my little critter village. i took these photos a while back so ignore the dates lol i kept forgetting to post them...

my partner and i agreed that the wooden guy is the village mayor. he watches over the little guys and keeps them safe. :3

now back to glancing at mousey's subathon while answering emails.

ok so. i got to experience my first tornado about a week ago. :D IT CERTAINLY WAS A THING.

it didn't even look like we were in range of it? we got a warning on our phones, looked outside, and it wasn't even raining or anything. then about 5 mins later it hit us HARD we were just like 'whoa ok maybe the phone was right after all.' my partner started to track the weather map and it kept getting worse by the minute, so i immediately started packing up and put our cat in the carrier just in case. after that the power and internet went off, so we hunkered down to see if it was gonna get dire and we needed to flee downstairs. luckily we didn't have to, but it was the first time i've ever had to be prepared to run to shelter. @ _ @

when we settled down a bit we tried to look up more information, but our cell service was suddenly really awful? it was struggling so much, we were barely able to load anything at all. after a while my partner got things to verrrry slowly load and looked at the tornado map and it was literally 1 mile away from us. 1 MILE!! so we didn't get hit directly, tho it might as well have been with how much damage it caused.

for a while we were so sure that the power would be back on later at night. unfortunately it uh... did not work out as planned. :') we were also stuck with no food (needed to keep the fridge locked up so the food was safe) and tried to look for a place that was open for delivery. took us about 30 minutes of searching and the only thing that came up was dominos. luckily they have gluten free pizza, so we gathered an order and placed it. the estimated wait time was 90-100 minutes lmao, to be expected tho when there were a bunch of other ppl in the area trying to do the same.

HOWEVER. the pizza took 4. hours. to arrive. we were just like 'ohhhh my god that poor dominos is probably swamped'. like we didn't mind waiting, but it came around 11:30pm and by that time we were perishing from hunger. i can't remember a pizza ever tasting that good, even if it arrived cold (for good reason). also the poor kid who delivered it to us looked like a teenager, we really hoped that people were nice to him...

so the next day came around and we were still without power. whatever, we just told work we couldn't be around bc there's no internet and our cellphones were barely working. decided that hey, we should find somewhere to hang out bc it was getting a little hot and we were hungry. when we got outside tho it was... a huge mess. trees were down everywhere, roads were closed, no traffic lights were working. of course we were unable to find anything that was open other than supermarkets that were running off a generator.

since finding food was impossible we resorted to a grocery that was a bit out of the way but seemed to have less people. i think we stayed there for maybe an hour? then we did more driving and ended up at our friend's place to charge things. it was nice to just chill and then go out to eat.

we were blessed with HOT FOOD!!!

going home was so bad tho, the temp ended up rising and we were wilting even at night. BUT we got a notice that our local library was staying open until 11pm to let folks come in and have aircon/can charge their stuff. our rechargable batteries died so we booked it over there to charge them bc our light bar (that we removed from the rock cabinet) died orz the whole place was very packed and we were lucky to find outlets/a place to sit for like an hour.

we woke up the next day with...... still no power. it was so hot but we had to finally call it and get rid of all the food in our fridge. we'd just went shopping a few days prior too. :''')

thus began day 2 of just... driving around and trying to figure out where to go. ended up at a mall that was about 30 mins away and didn't get hit by the tornado, but not before grabbing boba for our weary souls.

my contribution to their post-it note display.

as we spent several hours at the mall (i wandered around to keep my mind occupied and my partner sat with her laptop) we were like 'ok fuck this actually' and decided to just. pack up and drive 4 hours away to my partner's parent's house. trying to halfhazardly pack in an 80 degree apartment sure was something. we felt bad for petra (the cat) bc it must have been so much hotter for her. :( very glad we left, even if i had a rather uh. colorful experience in a mcdonald's bathroom when we stopped for food (ppl were fucking in there and i don't know WHY).

petra was so content after this. we all were.

treating ourselves to coffee bc we deserved it.

so yea, that's how i survived a tornado and the wreckage that came along with it. :'D

backing up a bit to something more fun that happened before all this: at the end of july we went to visit one of our friends and we found a cool bookstore where i finally picked up something to help me with my japanese. those stickers were so cute too, how can i pass them up when my main hobby is journaling haha. it was really nice to see her and hang out, tho my partner's car battery died and we had to get our friend's husband to help replace it for us LOL. an unexpected purchase but everything went smoothly and we just tried to enjoy ourselves.

ok i am tired of typing so stopping here. o)-( zzz.

this is a post about traveling to the city and going to... a museum! a contemporary art museum to be specific, which is my favorite kind. i haven't been to one is soooo long tho, so i was excited to have the chance to see one again. :3

since the area we were going to is uh... hell to drive in, we decided to take public transport. tbh i'm not fond of going on trains/buses/etc. bc of bad experiences (that and i had to use it up until i moved 2 years ago) but i did my best to not be too anxious the entire time. headphones are my one true love when traveling. the ride wasn't terrible tho, it was only like 30 mins and it was around an off time so not many people were using it thankfully.

first we took a nice walk to a coffee shop. the scenery was calming, i love the buildings we passed by.

i ended up getting an iced americano and my partner chose a summer special latte. i think it was oatmilk and lavender? i tried a little and it was so good, i almost wish i got it too. they also had a gluten free banana bread that was kiiiind of dry, but i enjoyed it anyway.

when we got to the museum finally, our friend was in the area and decided to come along with us. :D an unexpected, happy coincidence! we all had a fun just taking our time browsing and reading all the descriptions of the pieces. i was good and took some photos instead of forgetting like i usually do haha.

at the very end of our viewing we all got burgers and he took us home woo woo.

life hasn't been that eventful otherwise, just doing my usual work and defeating those video games. i finished secret little haven (highly recommend) and the last campfire, which made me a little emotional. :') it was so so so good, 10/10 game, PLUS it's only 2 bucks on steam right now! go get it, you won't regret it.

i did do a little bit of rearranging on one of my shelves, it was time for a refresher. houseki no kuni is one of my forever loves, though i half-recommend it because it went in a direction i wasn't totally onboard with haha. the anime is beautiful too and stops before things get weird, so watch that instead.

ok see ya laterrrrrr.

been quite busy these last few weeks so had no time to update, oopsies.

it was my birthday on the 20th! me and my partner had to do some work that day, so it was a pretty chill bday celebration. but she got me a present i wasn't expecting at all.

A STEAM DECK??? THE NEWEST ONE? i was stunned. she said she wanted me to have it because i've been wanting to play lots of games and can't really do that because i have a mac. i'm still so thrilled to have it and have been messing around with it almost non-stop since i got it haha. it was the perfect time to get it as a gift because the steam sale's going on, so i grabbed the following games for like $60:

a normal lost phone • AI the somnium files • alice madness returns • at home alone • before your eyes • catlateral damage • a date with death DLC • donut country • dragon age inquisition • emily is away too • GRIS • heaven will be mine • hypnospace outlaw • the last campfire • monument valley • one night, hot spring • pikuniku • secret little haven • start again • tales of berseria • turnip boy commits tax evasion

my friend got me FAR: changing tides, FAR: lone sails, inside, journey, and shape of the world for a late bday gift. :') very grateful to him, they're all games i normally wouldn't buy myself but so far i've enjoyed FAR: changing tides and shape of the world.

i'm sooo hyped to play everything! i've poked around with a lot of them but i'm reaaaaally into the last campfire. i used to avoid puzzle games bc my brain no work good w/them, but i'm starting to enjoy them a lot. highly recommend this game too, it's about this creature called ember who's trying to help others. there's a lot to look for so it's mostly just a lot of exploring and finding hidden things that helps you to progress. i think i'm about halfway through, thanks hyperfixation looool.

ok enough about games, moving on with birthday stuff. we went to a nice japanese restraunt later at night that's a bit pricey for the portions, but it's soooo good and the staff's very friendly. we got miso eggplant, grilled fish, some beef dish i can't remember the name of, a rainbow roll, then decided a bit later to get tempura and another roll. didn't take a photo of dessert because i forgot he he. it's this brown sugar ice cream that's to die for. i'd go again just to eat three of those ice cream binchies.

while we were visting my partner's parent's house (we were house sitting for her dad) we grilled some skewers and went out to eat at this cute cafe. their gluten free pancakes were HUGE and so delicious.

we also went to an big antique store that had some... interesting creatures in it. a lot of it wasn't to my tastes, but i found some stickers and a acrylic stand to display my roxas plate that i got in japan. it was interesting to walk around and see how everything was set up! there was also a guy there that had a pet possum?? it was so cute, he put a blanket in the seat of the cart so the precious baby could hang out in the open too. wish i mustered up the courage to ask if it was okay to pet it since it looked very sweet and domesticated. :( ah well.

last but not least, we went to another convention! :D it was actually waaaay bigger than we expected, it's known for being small but when we stepped in we were like "... this isn't that small." not that we were complaining! we spent a few hours looking around and i ended up purchasing those stickers, the cat pin, and an ironmouse pin i've been wanting but never got the chance to purchase back in 2020/2021.

and that's all the fun stuff i've done that i actually documented. i need to start taking more photos when i'm out, i'm really bad at capturing moments on camera and the whole point of having a blog (for me) is so i can look back on entries and admire all the things i've done. writing it out in text is fine, but i like pics to accompany what i'm talking about. new goal unlocked i guess!

thanks to anyone who reads this, have a good one! ^ _ ^

not much has been going on except doing a lot of work. we're pushing out a big update on the app i work for, so i've been doing a buttload of testing every day. which is to be expected if everything is being pushed out on the 21st. DX

god it's so hot rn tho, stepping outside after being in a nice airconditioned house fogs up my glasses so fast haha.

before this heat wave hit, me and my partner went out to a park to have a nice walk. after getting infusions, i feel much better and have the energy and motivation to actually take a long strolls outside of our apartment complex. after it's been around three months since getting my treatments, i tend to hole up and my health declines, so i'm not very willing to go out at all. thankfully i'm good to go for another two months yahoo.

my ame-chan figure finally came yippiiiieeeee. i'm so so so glad i managed to snag her as well as the kangel one that rereleased, it was crazy how much folks were selling her for secondhand. popup parades are supposed to be very affordable, man. the ame-chan one was only $32, and kangel $30. like sorry i aint paying $100+ for something that should be 30 bucks. :/ the world of figures be wilding sometimes.

ahhh i love figures, i wanna collect more but our apartment is so small. x _ x there's no room to put them... maybe i should finally invest in shelving around my desk area.

i'll close this out with a cute photo of my cat. byeeeeee!