Contrails: Apr '26, Week 5

Minerva Murasaki
May 4
4 min read

Updated: May 11

Honestly, I forgot to write this week's post. 🙃 My mind was too preoccupied with trying to make sure I had clear plans for my music projects for the rest of the year since I got up this morning. I'm mentally quite drained because I've been deep in thought for the past 5 hours or so... but this update ain't going to write itself! Plus I have pictures this time!

🎮 Gaming 🎮

Did quite a lot of gaming this week because... I might have caught something from Penang/ on the way back home after the trip. 💀 It was difficult to even game sometimes because my face and cranium often felt like it was going to explode from the throbbing and swelling (or what felt like swelling). But I managed!

Sank my teeth into the latest FFXIV Patch 7.5 content... mostly with the encouragement of my friends. 🤣
1. Tuesday (patch day): Experienced the latest Main Story Quest, the last before the next expansion, which releases January 2027! I looking forward to the continuation of the Godless Realms arc!
2. Wednesday: Did the final Alliance Raid of Echos of Vana'diel. I didn't play FFXI, but I think the ending of the story was bittersweet! 🥹 Battle mechanics were fun, but I didn't enjoy the boss designs -- somehow I wished for something more impactful/ extreme.
3. Thursday: Cleared the Extreme Trial of Enuo with most of my raid static! I learned that I indeed do not like to main tank. 🤣 It solidified my determination to level and gear Gunbreaker to 100 before the next expansion so that I can continue to play the off-tank role moving forward for high-end content. 🥺💔
  On the bright side, I can still wear the same outfit? :D
4. Friday: Watched the Fan Fest 2026 in Anaheim keynote recording with my partner! I felt hopeful that even though we're near the end of the Dawntrail expansion, that I'll continue playing FFXIV until 2027 -- I'll just have energy to put into other content! 🎉...I think?!🤔
5. Sunday: Got carried through the Shinryu Unreal trial. 🤣🤣🤣 I got singled out because I didn't understand what I was supposed to do for 1 mechanic when everyone else seemed to get it. 🙃 Oh well.
Spent many hours in Windrose with my partner, either progressing quests when friends were online, or helping them build a new base.
I helped them find an island they liked some time back, and chopped trees for wood... and helped them break strong lines in their design. 🤔 So this is pretty much all their work! Man, the photo doesn't do it justice though...💔
Played Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for the Captain Majima/ Pirate Yakuza crossover Festival, and for extra practice because I realized how rusty I've become. 💀 Also designed a new Acceleration car (not in this picture) for future use because I wasn't happy with this one. Also decided to dump 10k tickets into my friendship with Wave, setting myself back from getting another achievement. The question is not why, but why not? 💜
Yay winners! Love breaking my thumb to do air tricks! 🤣
Finally got to playing Duck Detective: The Secret Salami because I was in too much discomfort to do anything strenuous. 💀 It's a nice, short game! Would recommend it to anyone looking for something quick to to play. 💜 I'll save the next Duck Detective game for when I am unwell again. 🙃
Me. 💀 This moment reminded me of the start of Disco Elysium!

All in all, a pretty good week of gaming, don't you think? :)

🌙 Work as Minerva 🌙

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7eK8zuYB4M

I actually forgot to write about this! I usually write my blogs following my schedule, but flipped to May too quickly.

Yuraia was the MVP and churned out the mix and master before the end of April as promised! On the other hand, I was unprepared and ended up rushing out the lyrics video in a day to upload by the end of April... at the same time as Ari's cover of Vivarium by Ado. 🤣

Viewership was poor as expected of all my uploads lately. But it's okay! I'm glad to have covered this song from a game I played recently! 🎉

🐰 IRL 🐰

My partner brought me to a doctor to finally get my skin checked. For months now, mostly after moving to my current place, I've been struggling with what I thought was neurodermatitis on my sides and back and dyshidrotic eczema/ Pompholyx on the back of my right hand (it could be seen in photos we took in Penang 🤔). Actually, I've had what I thought was neurodermatitis for way longer, but it got worse after the move. I think I've done a pretty decent job at resisting the itch with fast relief moisturizers, but the patches on my hand started disrupting my sleep (I'd wake up to the intense itch), so it was time to get it checked.

I wasn't convinced by what the doctor told me: he said I had ring worms, but it has never spread or grown since the patch appeared, so I highly doubted it. At least he was honest enough to admit that his knowledge of dermatology was limited. So he issued me a broad spectrum dermatological cream and a doctor's note that I could take to a dermatologist.

The good news is that the cream helped tremendously. 🥹 I've not had to deal with the itch on my hand for almost the whole week. I just hope that this keeps up after I stop applying the cream daily. As for the rest of the patches on my body, I'm still managing alright, so maybe I'll put off the visit to the dermatologist for now. 🥺

Before Penang, my partner also got us new multi-vitamin pills to take, just in case my lifestyle of only having 1 proper meal a day was insufficient for a balanced diet.🤔

Here's hoping that I'll keep feeling healthier from here on! ✨