Tag: 2022

Let’s Talk about Animal Crossing New Horizons (Update) – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a bit since I’ve talked about Animal Crossing New Horizons and my attempt to complete all the achievements possible by the end of the year. In all actuality, I think it’s been about since April since I really talked about it. So here, have a pretty decent update.

Up until about August, I played every single day without fail. Did I play for long every day? No, not really. I would play more on the weekends, but I had made it part of my daily routine to play at least half an hour daily to do at least the five daily Nook Mile Plus achievements and slowly work towards other goals.

Around August, things started to taper off. I got busy with other things and I started missing days and weeks. I had to start utilizing one of the biggest tricks in playing the game, which is time travel, only so that I could get a few certain events that I’d missed use to non-playing. (I have one more at the time of this post, the last fishing event of 2022). I hadn’t wanted to time travel, so I’m trying to limit it to only when I absolutely need it for certain hard dates that can’t be changed.

I will say that I am two creatures away from legitimately completing my museum. I have two sea creatures left to grab, both of which I think I can still get (October and November were my downfall I swear). I got lucky with Redd and my fossils early on and was also gifted several art pieces by a few other players.

As for achievements, I mostly have the long achievements left to collect. The ones such as catch 5000 bugs or fish, or collect a certain amount of wood, or see a certain amount of concerts (which can’t be completed until next year, because I have to see 100 KK slider concerts). I also have to somehow do nine more perfect snowmen, something I struggled with at the beginning of the year, so I’m not looking forward to it very soon. I do have some small achievements to knock out, I’m just saving those for a rainy day, I swear.

If I can get my stream up and working one of these days (it’s on my list), I’m hoping to invite people to my island so that I can get that achievement out of the way.

Basically, I’ve done a lot with this game, I have a lot left to go, but I’m still enjoying it.

Just someone explain why crafting still sucks all these years later? /s

Until next time!

Christmas Shopping Mistakes – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

With it being the holiday season and shopping being heavily underway, I was reminded of a bit of a shopping nightmare that my mom experienced years ago, long before she trusted Amazon with most of my Christmas list.

Buckle up, this one is fun.

It was 2008. I was already knee deep into falling in love with Marvel, even though I’d only seen the first Iron Man film at the time. (The Incredible Hulk was not on my watchlist because I have a… thing… about Edward Norton, but that’s a discussion for another day.) I also had found a love of movie novelizations, enjoying rereading the films that I enjoyed on screen, but from an author’s perspective. It was always fun to see a different take.

So for that Christmas, I asked for a bunch of movie novelizations. I was careful to make note of each one, putting the author clearly on my Christmas list, as well as a picture of the book cover. The list ended up being like six pages long or something, but there were only like fifteen books. I gave my mom options, it’s a thing.

And while, yes, the list was printed out from Amazon, Mom wasn’t a fan of the site yet. So instead of just clicking and buying, she went down to our local Borders one day on her lunch break while I was at school. She brought the list with her, highlighted by order of what I considered important (I’m a book snob, sue me). And after walking around the store for a bit (she set her own hours, lucky human), she went to an employees for some help.

You see, finding those movie novelizations was, and still is honestly, rather tricky in store. You had to first know what genre they were, then the author, then pray that they were mildly popular enough to be sold. Some were, some weren’t. I wasn’t sure about these, I hadn’t checked.

Mom had just asked the employee for directions, just a general “point me in the right direction please, I’ll be fine from there.” Instead, the employee decided to personally help her, which I fully say was kind of him!

Until he proceeded to tell my mom that I didn’t know what I wanted, I’d put the wrong things on my list, and I obviously wanted these really really expensive comic omnibuses. He apparently spent several minutes convincing her, and since I wasn’t there to defend my questionable taste in books and life choices, Mom ended up listening to him and making a very expensive purchase. So expensive, in fact, that those two omnibuses ended up being the only books for me under the tree.

So Christmas morning rolls around, I camp out in front of the tree, we start passing out presents. I’m immediately clocking that there’s not a lot of “book-shaped” presents, but mom has packed multiple books in different ways before to trick me, that’s obviously the case here.

Nope, I open up an X-Men Comic Omnibus and a Batman Comic Omnibus. (Please don’t ask which ones, I do not remember.) I did my damndest to hide my disappointment, but I did a poor job of it.

Here’s the thing. I respect the comics. I support anyone who wants to read them. But I really really really don’t. I am a person who would want to collect them all if I got one. I know me. It would be a massive problem. It bothers me when I don’t have the complete collection. And comics are a very expensive hobby, especially ones that have been around for decades at this point. On top of that, I don’t read them. I prefer to watch the films and read books, but the comics do nothing for me. Again, total respect to anyone who wants to read them, they just aren’t something I want.

Mom clocked my disappointed face faster than not and called me out on it. So I was honest. Polite but honest. I thanked her profusely , but I said that I wasn’t a fan of the comics. I told her I was grateful that she’d tried to get me what I asked for and I understood that it was probably hard to find in the store.

It was here she cut me off and told me about what had happened at Borders. About how the worker had told her this was what I wanted, not the novelizations. That I’d made the mistake when I’d made my list. She was sad that I didn’t like it after she’d gone to all that trouble.

I flat out told her that I didn’t know what that worker was thinking, but I wrote down exactly what I had wanted, like I do every year. I told her that I’d already read several movie novelizations and that I’d wanted to continue, hence why they were on my list. I explained my thing about the comics. I also said I didn’t appreciate someone at a store saying that I didn’t know what I liked or didn’t, that it would have been my mistake if I had made one, but his mistake was more egregious.

The conversation actually continued for several hours, with me literally having to prove that I had wanted the novelizations over the comics (thank you Amazon). By the end of the day, mom was apologetic, and I flat out told her she had nothing to apologize for, mistakes happen and it was easily fixable.

Boxing day, we went to Borders to return the omnibuses. She gave me the receipt to make the return while she went to go do attempt number two on books for me, like a mini Christmas. When the person behind the counter asked why I was returning the books, I told them that they had been purchased in error, that an employee had convinced my mom that I didn’t know what I wanted even with a list with pictures, and that I was returning the books so that I could purchase what I would actually enjoy.

The guy looked chastised. Very chastised. Enough that the look has stayed in my mind for almost fifteen years.

He returned it without a word. Well, it was clear exactly who he was.

Mom was able to find a few of the books that were on the original list, which was more than what I had figured. I also learned a valuable lesson – take better acting lessons. Okay, no, be more grateful for the gifts I receive. I still am quite embarrassed for how I reacted to this day.

The moral of the story: when you have a list, assume that what is on the list is what the person wants, not what someone at a store says. That lesson would have saved us all a bit of grief.

And now that I have thoroughly embarrassed myself…

Until next time!

Let’s Talk Audiobooks – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

I’ll be the first to admit, I used to never listen to audiobooks.

No, seriously. I really really disliked listening to them. So I just avoided them. I wasn’t one of those readers who loudly shouted that they didn’t count as reading or anything, I just didn’t like listening to them so I didn’t touch them.

I always felt that audiobooks were too slow. The narrators were dry and dull. The spoken word never brought images to my mind the way traditional reading did. I much preferred to read an actual print book, or at least a book on whatever eReader I had at the time.

Well, this all changed this year. When I decided to read through all of the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, I knew I was in for it. That’s fifteen books, not counting the two spinoffs series and the tie in series. Something quickly had to give because it was taking far too long to read through everything. I just didn’t have the time to read 20-something books this year, not with working and other commitments.

On a whim, I logged onto my library’s eLibrary app and discovered that the entire Camp Half-Blood Chronicles were available in audiobook form. I made the decision to just go ahead and give it a try one day on my way to work. If I didn’t like it, I could go back to my music.

I ended up really enjoying it!

One of the things I really liked was that I could speed up the narrator. If I felt like a scene was going beyond too slow, I can slightly increase the reading speed and I’d cut through the time. I also liked that, at least in the case of these books, the narrator really got into it. Several times I caught when the narrator had to pause. It’s pretty interesting.

It’s been my saving grace for every Monday morning and afternoon drive to and from Los Angeles. I can listen to a good book (and currently make snarky responses to everything Apollo say).

To me, it ended up being worth it. Your mileage may very, of course. But or me, it worked perfectly.

Until next time! (When I’m actually awake from my nap)

My Favorite Games of 2022- Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

2022 was quite the year. And honestly, I didn’t do much “hard core” gaming. I watched a lot, but I didn’t do a lot.

I played my normal amount of puzzle games and shovelware for the most part. I bought some fun games and replayed a couple because I could. I even broke out my Vita at one point because why not.

Instead of doing a “Top 10” list of games, I’m simply going to highlight some of the games that have sat with me this year. These can be ones that I finished in 2022 or ones that I replayed in 2022, as well as the ones that I played completely in 2022.

I’m gonna start with one that was well done, but never should have been released as a full game. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales tells an amazing story with updated graphics and extra powers for Spider-Man that have a bit of a learning curve to get used to. I really enjoyed my time with it and it was a great way to start the year. I just think it was a very large DLC to the original game. I just think that selling it at the price it retailed at was a bit much. But it was a brilliant trip, one that I look forward to replaying in 2023 on my PS5.

Island Saver is a kids game that released a few years ago. It’s short, it’s simple, it takes no time at all to figure out, and I had a blast with it. It’s all about pollution and preservation. It’s a fun little game that I first saw… I think Ray Narvaez Jr play (a Twitch streamer I watch).

Lost Words: Beyond the Page is a spectacular game about grief and mourning. The story is told in two ways. The first is in diary entries, where the writer deals with the loss of her beloved grandmother and how to heal. The other side is the story that she’s writing in a fantasy world, and her grief changes how the story goes. It’s done so very well and is sadly looked over. I highly recommend it to anyone who has access to tissues.

One of my games of the year was always going to be Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, because it was finally released in April. I had a damn blast with this, even with the few issues I had. The levels were a bit lacking and some of the tasks were a bit repetitive, but I really ended up enjoying it very much. My goal when I get my PS5 set up is that it will be one of my first games played to 100% if I can help it. Totally worth the rush. (Now if it only would get some story DLC…)

Then there’s the indie title Unpacking, which finally made its way to the Playstation systems this year. A story told by unpacking a young woman’s boxes, I loved every moment of it. The subtle ways of showing the woman growing up and finding her true self was done so very well and it absolutely deserves all the love it gets.

I ended up replaying Lego DC Supervillains in August and September. It was the Japanese port and wow was it weird to play a game with the X and O buttons flipped (the amount of times I thought I crashed something…). The game continues to hold up even a few years post launch. All that is left is to get the Asian release and I will have Platinumed all versions. That’s a 2023 goal.

I played The Gardens Between on Xbox one last year and enjoyed it. I ended up replaying it on PS4 a few months ago and I think it holds up. It’s a simple puzzle game but I do enjoy it. I’ll be honest though, I probably won’t play through it a third time.

Submerged: Hidden Depths is the sequel of a game I played a few years ago. It’s an indie title that I really enjoyed when I first played it. I did like the story in this one, though I was sad to see that there were some pretty nasty graphical glitches that really bothered my eyes and pulled me away from the game. I also wasn’t entirely clear that it was a sequel until I literally googled it, which is just slightly an issue. But it was still a fun little game.

All and all, it’s been a slow gaming year. I knew it would be when I started working, which very much slowed down my playing through everything. I’m hoping when I get my PS5 on Christmas and I’ve settled into my new positions (or if I go through with my desire to move to a different department because I’m honestly not happy where I am right now), I’ll find more time to play through some of the other games on my backlog that I really want to kick back and enjoy.

The only sad this is that at the beginning of the month, we had lost power for an entire day and I wasn’t able to get a trophy which killed my trophy streak. I’ve since restarted so we shall have to see what comes of this trophy streak next year.

I’m excited to see what 2023 will bring for me in gaming! Who knows? It can only go up from here.

Until next time!

I Won Nanowrimo?! – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Surprise?

Back in October, when I was knee deep in Whumptober and just generally feeling sorry for myself, I made the decision to go ahead and give Nanowrimo yet another attempt. By my math, this would be my 15th attempt. I’ve never won. And I honestly figured this year would be more of the same.

If you’re not sure what Nanowrimo is, the easiest answer is that it’s an event to encourage writers to write 50,000 words in the month of November. You can write whatever you want, you can use whatever medium you need or want to, but that’s the general thing. 50k in 30 days, 1667 words a day.

With my migraines getting worse, as well as moving from training to actively working at work, I figured I was doomed. But I thought of something. Why not use a tool that I used when I texted to get through each day?

I used speech to text. This method made it possible for me to write while doing other tasks, or when I was laid up in bed, and I didn’t have to look at the screen while I did it. To make it “fair”, at the end of the night, I gave that day’s text file (I made a new one per day) a quick edit if at all possible before entering my word court onto the Nanowrimo website for official tally.

When I wasn’t using speech to text, I was writing on my kindle with keyboard attachment (my “I survived training” present). This was especially helpful when I attended a local write in on by birthday in the middle of the month.

Well, my word count rose steadily each day, with weekends being higher and weekdays (especially Monday’s) being lower. I honestly wasn’t really looking too hard until around 30k when I realized that I was racking up the word count. That was actually the day after my birthday when I saw that. That was when I realized that not only was I on the road to doing this… I was ahead.

So much ahead that when November 23 was coming to a close, I discovered I crossed the 50k mark. That was Thanksgiving Eve.

I cried. A lot.

Okay, seriously, I have never legitimately won. Never. And this year I did. I never expected it, but it happened.

So what exactly did I write? Well… I totally wrote fanfic that will never see the light of day. Basically I wrote a bunch of one-shot fanfics, for the most part simply spite fics to get my annoyance and anger out about different aspects of 9-1-1. Does it count? YEP.

I’m still happy about this. It’s done and finished and I ended up finishing with over 65k words in the can. I’ve been taking the last few days to take a break from writing before I finish my last Whumptober fic and everything else I’ve wanted to work on.

Even with everything else going on right now, this was a good accomplishment to hit.

Until next time!

What’s With Us And Thanksgiving Anyways? – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

I swear my family is not allowed to have a normal Thanksgiving.

For 2022, my family and I made the decision that it was finally safe enough to open up our doors to allow a family friend to visit for Thanksgiving. This was discussed for a good long while before we made the decision to go ahead and let this friend visit. We knew of the risks involved, but we figured it should be safe enough. He knew our rules and what we did to stay safe.

Well, we were sure as hell wrong.

I’m not going to discuss the entire trip – that would take entirely too long and wow I don’t feel like being that negative this early in the holiday season. I will say that I’m purposely skipping on thing that happened on Thanksgiving, but I’m saving that for a good reason.

So, Thanksgiving dawned bright and cold. Mom and I got an early start on our stuffing for our bird, with our guest continuing his bout of making rude comments about our cooking skills and generally getting in our way whenever he felt like it. We got Herbert the Turkey in the oven right on time with no real issue.

During the open period between turkey in and putting the extra stuffing into to bake, the guest decided to go take a nap in my mom’s room (she offered). This worked to our advantage because we were able to get a jump on prep. We got the stuffing in and moved steadily right along.

That is, until I noticed smoke coming out of the oven. The butter that we use in the stuffing had leaked from the little stuffing packs and was dripping onto the bottom of the oven, burning and smoking up the entire main living area of the apartment. We quickly got everything out and threw flour over the smouldering butter to kill the potential for fire and quickly got the smoke out of the apartment.

Well, Thanksgiving dinner was obviously going to be canceled, right?

Wrong. Mostly because of Mom. Well, something that she likes to say.

Summer last year, we bought a grill finally, a small two burner gas grill for our little patio. It was just large enough to fit the turkey, leaving just enough room for us to baste and also bake a few extra stuffing packets as well. It was tight, but it worked.

Thanks to the scramble and the delay of getting the turkey and everything back on, we had the mad scramble to make and finish all the side dishes all at once. While my uncle sat at the table patiently and nibbled on the biscuits we put out, dear guest kept coming in, opening the fridge, trying to stick his fingers in the pans (without washing his hands) and just generally ended up getting enough four letter words thrown at him that I think I would have been adopted as a sailor if I had wanted to be and no one would have been the wiser.

We did get everything on the table on time. Barely. And the turkey got a little overcooked (cooking on the grill is a whole other beast). But it was good! Dear guest flat out said ti was tasteless, but he wouldn’t know good food if it came and bit him on the ass.

The rest of the night passed with cleaning and basically putting Thanksgiving away, and generally ignoring the TV since dear guest wouldn’t turn off one of the few shows Mom explicitly asked not be watched with her around. The request wasn’t honored.

(He also got us very very sick, so sick in fact that I’m still feeling the effects to this day, but that’s a story for another nightmare.)

I swear, I should just cancel Thanksgiving next year. It’s just not worth it at this point. I just can’t win.

Until next time!

It’s a Holiday Miracle, Charlie Brown! – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

There was a point today that I thought I wouldn’t get anything posted and I’d start December behind. Luckily, the flu-induced dizziness abated for just long enough for me to knock this out, so we can get December off to a much better start.

It’s December 1st, which means, it’s time for Blogmas! For me, Blogmas is usually a time where I set myself a goal during the next 25 days. Sometimes it’s to watch a different film or television show a day. Other times it’s to attempt something new and post about it.

This year… I’m taking it easy.

I’m starting December out getting over a very nasty cold that has had me down since Thanksgiving. Instead of having our apartment already mostly holiday decorated, we’ve only just gotten started. Instead of having my tiny little silver tinsel tree out set up next to my desk, I still have my pile-o-mess that takes over for the other eleven months.

This month, my goal is simply to make sure I post something every day. Will it always be holiday-themed? Nope. Some days it will be writing challenge wrap ups, other days it may be show reviews. As long as I’m posting daily, it counts for Blogmas 2022.

I don’t really have much planned besides attempting to stay on top of my work, continue to finish up my outstanding fanfiction (I was too sick to finish what I had wanted to before Thanksgiving, so I’m paying for it now), maybe read a few good books and write a lot of reviews. Besides having a blast setting up the apartment for Christmas and quietly making space for my PS5 that I’m getting on Christmas Day, it’s going to be a pretty chill year.

I hope you’ll be around for the ride!

Until next time!

(P.S. I am doing a sticker advent calendar this year. I’ll be including a pic of each day’s sticker at the end of each day’s post! It should arrive on December 2nd (packing delays, it happens), so this message will be updated with the pic when I’ve got it!) I actually got the sticker advent calendar and I’m not impressed with it, so I’m not going to be showing it off. For being a “holiday advent calendar”, it only had Christmas or Christmas colors featured, in an uncomfortable manner so… Nope.

Let’s Talk: Gaming in 2022 – July Update

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

It’s the year of puzzle games, a few standouts, and Animal Crossing.

We are officially past the halfway point of 2022 and things are moving steadily along. I’m slowly getting through all of my goals, with a hope of completing them to the best of my ability by the end of the year.

The Playstation Update

I started this year with 303 Platinum trophies. As of the time of writing, I’m at 339. I’ve already picked #350, which I’ll talk about in a bit.

For the most part, I’ve just been playing easy puzzle games and hidden pictures games, mostly because it’s just calming and easy and still fun. I’m not trying to spend every moment gaming (nor can I), so this has been just calm and easy.

Of games of note, there have been a few standouts as well.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was an absolute amazing game, though the post game just wasn’t as interesting to me. I normally like collectathon games, but something just didn’t click with me. The story, however, is so important and well done.

A game that surprised me was Lost Words: Beyond the Page. It was a sale pickup, and I chose it simply because the cover art looked interesting. The story itself was poignant and well done, focusing on a child going through the stages of grief. If you want a short but fun little indie title, give this one a play! (If you’re going for all trophies/achievements, make sure to use a guide for the collectables. There are about ten that will trip you up.)

Unpacking is a game from last year that finally just released on PSN. A story told in a few words, it’s a quick but fun and satisfying game. Absolutely go into this one without any spoilers or having watched any lore. I honestly think this is an amazing little game.

And of course, how can I do a list of games without talking about the largest game on this list, that took almost two months to finally 100% because of its size (and because I was working)? Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga earned its reputation as being the largest Lego game, unseating Lego City Undercover and Lego Dimensions. It’s also damn good, fixing the things that I heavily disliked about the prequel and sequel trilogies, while also doing justice to the stories. The post game content is somewhat repetitive (lots of fetch quests), but I did enjoy it. At some point this year I’d love to replay it on either PS5 (providing that I get it as my birthday/Christmas present, it’s been hinted already) or on Xbox One.

Animal Crossing New Horizons

One of my biggest goals this year was to complete as much of Animal Crossing New Horizons as possible. And honestly? I’m doing pretty well.

I spend about thirty minutes or so total a day playing, usually just doing Nook Miles+ tasks and a few things that need to be done still (collect wood, catch creatures, take a Capp’n trip, and exercise). It’s low stress, something I would usually do on my breaks. I don’t particularly mind doing it.

One thing I’ve focused on is making sure to get each month’s creatures. That means at the beginning of the month, I take note of what new creatures are spawning and what time they spawn and slowly get them all. I’ve been doing great with that, only missing one that stopped appearing in February (I only had like two days to get it), and I’m only looking for one more in July.

I usually play when I have something on in the background (lately, One Chicago, which I finally just finished the midpoint of the series, and soon to be Heartstopper and Marvel’s What If?). If I’m playing while I’m on lunch break at work, I usually turn on Lofi Girl on Youtube and enjoy it. Such a good way to pass the time.

Wait, go back to the Puzzle Games.

Well, there’s a lot of those.

Puzzle games are what I like to refer to as Platinum-bait. Nine times out of ten, I could knock them out in about ten minutes or less. Some of them I do stretch out.

My honest to Merlin favorites are any games released by POWGI, as they are always word puzzles in some way. We’re talking crosswords, fill in the blank, word scrambles… You name it, they’ve probably made a game or three for it. But I find them fun to play through, and I can take my time with them to stretch them out over a week or so.

To the surprise of no one, I’ve also played the currently released Artifex Mundi hidden picture games. Those are… well, formulaic at this point. I do enjoy them for their actual hidden picture mechanic, but not for anything else. The stories have gotten stale and uninspired, and they use the same four voice actors for every game, giving each one a boring aspect.

The other puzzle game I want to mention is also not one with trophies, but it tells a pretty good message. Island Saver is a game revolving around three things: cleaning up the environment, recycling, and banking. Yes, those make some sort of sense. It’s actually a good deal of fun, if slightly frustrating in some places. It was developed by indie studio Stormcloud Games and published by a British banking chain called Natwest. It ended up being a fun little game for two days.

In Summary

I’ll be totally honest, I don’t think I’m going to hit two of my gaming goals, since they were made when I actually had free time. But I’m going to keep on pushing through.

(For those curious, I’ve slowed down getting Platinum Trophies, and my goal was to crack 375 this year. The other was to complete just about everything in ACNH, but I know I’m behind for a lot of things, thanks to island travelling.)

But gaming in 2022 is still a lot of fun and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Until next time!