.png){kind=small}
Contrails: Sep '26, Week 2
It's a new week! ✨ I'm feeling a little tired today, but I'd like to wrap up last week and get on with my day. 🥹
I had initially planned to finish recording, editing, and mixing a karaoke medley within a week, but I didn't. 🤔 We'll see if I manage to do that this week. Instead, most of my week was spent gaming, continuing my streak of avoiding thinking about my ongoing projects to give collaborators more time to work on their parts.
🎮 It's game time! 🎮
I reinstalled The Sims 4 on Monday because I suddenly felt like it and needed a game to tide me through the wait for FFXIV 7.56 and Valheim 1.0. It's an easy game to pick up, and good for killing time whilst feeling like I've completed tasks along the way.
It was good fun, though I will probably uninstall the game again after this Sim passes on. 💀 There are other games I want to play!
FFXIV Patch 7.56 dropped on Tuesday, and I played through the conclusion of FFXIV Dawntrail's main story. I don't like engaging with other's opinions on social media as they tend to be extreme and/or provocative, so I'm not familiar with the arguments regarding Dawntrail being a poorly performing expansion. But to me, it has done a decent job with keeping my interest in the game whilst building up a new story. 💖 Can't wait for Evercold, though I'm really feeling the impending doom of not being able to play Paladin during the many hours of high end raids with my static. 💔
Maybe I should try asking my static if anyone wants to swap roles with me...? 🤔 But at the same time I don't want to shake things up unnecessarily. We'll see. I'll still need to level up Gunbreaker regardless due to the official division between Main and Off Tank roles. Still trying to convince my subconscious that Gunbreaker is just a Paladin without a shield with a modded sword... 🥺 Sometimes it feels like as if Arcturus is screaming and whining in my brain jail while I make executive decisions. 🤣
Besides MSQ, I finished the Dawntrail Allied Society Quests and tried out Beastmaster! Beastmaster was alright -- I was mainly stoked to learn that I could now have TWO mandragoras following me around (excluding the mount). 🤣🤣🤣
What surprised me was how touched I was by the conclusion to Allied Societies story.
One tiny regret I have was that I had skipped a lot of cutscenes in Dawntrail. (For optional content like Alliance, Allied Society, Custom Deliveries, Events, and Raids.) I often felt rushed to speed through content to keep up with my friends because I know that I'm a very slow reader. I don't regret being slow at reading because I know that when I skim through text, I learn the context but I don't have time to form my thoughts as I take in the information. Usually this results in time spent, with only vaguely formed memories as proof of it. Eventually I decided that saving time and just having no memories is better, my excuse being that I would just ask my partner what the story was after the fact -- which seldom happens. I was always... pissed off/ upset whenever I clicked the button to skip cutscene because I kept telling myself, "I agreed to play this game this way for my friends.". Deep down I wanted to put all the blame on them.
But the Allied Society quest felt like a wake up call. I used to feel present playing FFXIV. Simple things like walking on different types of terrain and jumping to hear my boots hit the ground brought me so much joy. At some point, Arcturus felt like an empty shell, showing up because he had to. The only thing I've stayed true to is my respect for this extension of myself, and hope that my heart will smile as I type "/beam". (I started playing in Shadowbringers, spent it figuring out who I was in the world, and haven't changed since the end of Shadowbringers, through Endwalker and Dawntrail.)
And honestly? I haven't used that emote in years now.
Maybe I should put aside more time for FFXIV next expansion so that I can enjoy it at my own pace and catch up on the story. 🥺 We can still fix this, Arcturus!!! ⭐️🐈⬛
For now, I'll be back to play FFXIV once the hype over Beastmaster has died down and the world isn't flooded with hoards of people spawn camping to catch monsters. 🤔
Wednesday was Valheim 1.0 drop day! The game is pretty much the same, but it is nice to have a reason to play the game now that there is a definite end-game.
I'm trying my best to play the game at my pace despite there being others who are a lot faster because they are familiar (and better) at the game. I feel a little more competent now that I am committed to prioritizing myself over the whole "team", but maybe that is more so because I have yet to challenge new content (Mistland onwards). I'll try my best to enjoy the game as intended before using mods to change my avatar to a VRoid model. 🤣
Will I eventually build a house for fun? We'll see. 🤔
In Forza Horizon 6 (FH6), I finally tuned my Acura NSX. 🤣 I know my tunings are not perfect (there's no perfect tuning, but they could be better?), but I'm satisfied to at least get the car to behave so that I don't feel like I'm riding a raging bull. 🤣💀 Not that I have an issue with that, but some races/ challenges are difficult to beat if the car loves to misbehave, and I would prefer to spend less time losing without resorting to lowering the game difficulty. 🙃
Will I be able to accumulate 4.2M CR to purchase the McLaren F1 GT from the British Automotive Aftermarket before the end of the Season?! We'll see. 🤔🤔🤔
🌙 I continue to exist and live my truth even if without witness. 🌙
~💜~
Hopes for this week
♪ Karaoke medley 🎤
☆ Cut back on carbs and sugars... I keep snacking...
☆ Play Valheim
☆ Play Forza
☆ Be with myself in Spirit City
Thank you for reading! 🌙🐰
Comments