As always, it's a mix, overall.  I'm at least not struggling like I was last month, so that feels nice to be able to say.  My sleep schedule is, predictably, unpredictable.  Particularly last night where I really wasn't able to sleep much at all...either owing to being too hungry or maybe having too much nighttime tea -- ended up choosing chrysanthemum tonight instead as a result...

 

I talked a bunch about linear key switches in my last post -- I ended up going with the Keygeek Tipsy Red (Blush) and the HMX Twilight switches, and nabbed myself a big batch of both.  I'm currently running with the Keygeek Tipsy Reds in my Cycle7 (added most of the foams in, as well, minus the PET sheet since that would require me to reinstall the stabs) and it's a really pleasant and tame muted sound, very refreshing!  After a while I'll take these out and switch over to the HMX Twilights and go for a more clacky build, but for now I'm enjoying these, not regretting the purchase at all.

My DSA Pastel Dreams keycaps come in soon as well, which is mega exciting.  Not 100% sure what the overall plan is going to be, maybe those will go in my Neo80 while my Osume Sakura caps stay in the Cycle7?  Or vice-versa.  Those are probably the most likely to happen; then the Cinnamoroll keycaps can go onto my small portable board probably...

 

It was a few days ago by now, but another Augustus Reconquered mission in Ceasar 3 is complete!

Felt mostly good about this one.  It was challenging for sure and there was a point in the middle where I was struggling to both feed everyone and have enough workers to accommodate everything I had going on.  I also learned that the campaign recommends turning the retirement age up from 50 to 60 (hopefully this is the last time I learn about a difficulty-related setting that I just overlooked), which certainly helps with the worker shortage issues I kept on having in previous maps.

Had one kind of major crisis where there were no incoming "invasions" so I thought it was safe to send all of my troops to dispatch to go help the distant roman city but then a barbarian attack happened shortly after and I had no army left to defend...in the end I had to end up spamming a bunch of prefectures so that the police would try to fight off the invaders and at least hold them at bay for a little bit while my towers tried to do the real damage.  Phew...

The next mission should be really interesting as there's no food production at all on the map -- you're forced to import all of your food!  Should be an interesting spin on things for sure.

 

Made la zi ji, it was a mild success!  I say mild because there's probably room for improvement -- can afford to use more xiao mi la peppers and more sichuan peppercorns to amp up both sides of the spice equation.  Shallow-frying the chicken breast/thigh worked relatively okay but I got a request to get it crispy next time, so maybe more breading / more oil is needed for that.  We'll probably ditch the breast as well, the thigh was just better as expected; using some drumstick meat might be something worth trying though.

 

I had a sort of long work week followed by a pretty long weekend (in the midst of that now).  There's this weird half-fallacy where it feels like if I just laze around and don't make full use of my weekend then it's a "waste" and I'm "behind".  I say "half-fallacy" because I think it's equal parts veritable and not at the same time.  Like, I ought not to have to feel that pressure, but at the same time, it doesn't really feel *good* to not have invigorating days.  But I guess everything in moderation is okay.  Every once in a while if you just go hedonistic degenerate mode and sleep late and play videogames all day maybe that's okay, but that really isn't sustainable at all.

Taking care of myself is important...