I've started a new video blog of sorts, but that's more of a here-and-there ritual practice, as I mentioned before, so it won't take the place of writing here I don't think.

The past few weeks have been a little bit of a whirlwind, as expected!  We made a game for Ludum Dare, some kitchen appliances got renovated, and I took a trip to the other side of the country.

There's a past version of myself which I think would try to recount everything that happened since the last time I wrote.  I can't help but acknowledge that part of myself even as I consciously make the decision not to live that way.  I think it's because I see flaws in both ways of being.  I think it's...I hate to say this, but for lack of a better word, "cringe", to think that it matters to recount everything that happens in my life, least of all to you, my dear reader.  But I also can't help but see criticism in the opposite direction, too -- that when we simply let things pass by without an attempt to keep everything in check, keep everything going, it's also admonishable.

The steady life is best.  I know that much to be certain.  How do I accomplish so much in my life?  Maybe it's rather simple when you stop to think about it.  I make small bits of progress, unyieldingly.  I neither rush into things headstrong with excitement, nor shy away from duties when I am feeling tired.  You just keep walking forward steadily.  There's a reason why you don't run a mile by alternatively sprinting and then lying down...the steady pace is easier to maintain.  Well, that's just for me, at least.  Maybe I ought to stop repeating the same things over and over -- I feel like I keep on saying this in my blog and in my writing...

Project Diva is an interesting game.  I feel like I only started to enjoy it when I started playing charts on Extreme difficulty, and now that I've tried some on Extra Extreme (or whatever it's called) I'm liking those a lot as well.  Charting "gimmicks" aside, I find long sequences of repeated notes to simply be boring...I don't think they're inherently dull, but rather it's just not something that I appreciate in my charts.  Part of this is probably my background of coming up on IIDX and Pop'n Music, but there's a reason I find those two games to be more enjoyable than Diva and Taiko no Tatsujin.  The Extreme and Extra Extreme charts mix up the buttons quite a lot more, which actually gives me a lot more interest rather than what essentially just boils down to a whole lot of jackhammers with different rhythms.

I've had some various interpersonal things come up which have made me a little cranky as of late.  I don't care to detail any of them, but suffice to say that's throwing my mood off a little bit right now, in addition to some mild stress from just having a bunch of things to handle.  But again, I just take it one hammer swing at a time.  Today did some cleanup for chicky equipment, finished up a commission piece, did some cooking, fixed some Rhythm Quest bugs, added a new feature, rendered the soundtrack and album art for my LD OST, did OHC, and all that.  Did I do "enough"?  It doesn't actually really matter, you just keep on doing things one at a time.  But of course, sometimes you also stop to think about whether you're really doing okay.

I'm pretty deep into my new game+ playthrough of Triangle Strategy now, which has remained entertaining!  Starting to think that at some point I should just do a hard mode playthrough instead, to up the challenge factor, but maybe that's something best done as a sort of "when I revisit the game later" thing, as I'm doing now with Caesar 3 on very hard difficulty (still need to knock out the last military mission).

One Hour Compo has been a little interesting lately, I almost feel like I've lost my knack for churning out excellent pieces.  Of course, I've had a ton of practice, so even my "B game" as it were still does just fine, but the last few times I don't think I've really been firing on all cylinders.  Maybe I've been trying to do a little bit too much of fitting a square peg into a round hole, so to speak.  I work best when I come into the piece with no preconceptions at all, and don't rush to use any particular techniques or instruments...

Overall, things are actually going ok!  The past couple weeks were actually really kind to me.  I think it's been a little bit of rough landing getting back on my feet in my normal life, but at the same time, I really haven't lost too much of a beat.