Author: Karel Kerezman

First check-in of 2024

You know the year’s off to a fun start when you startle yourself awake several minutes before the alarm on the 3rd day of the year with the realization that you forgot to pay the rent and the electricity bill two days prior like you were supposed to.

The year’s not bad exactly, so far, but it’s certainly being weird. And that’s before we get into it being an election year. Ugggggh.

I don’t have as much to look forward to this year, entertainment-wise at least, so I’m going to have to make my own reasons to keep going. Like, I have a new Satisfactory (solo) save game to kick off now that “ChooChooingScenery” is wrapped up. The goal is to post more & better material about that as it begins and proceeds, both about what’s happening in game and what I’m doing around the game (planning, etc).

There’s also the ongoing (for now) co-op game with the kids, plus a possible new co-op game with someone from Discord. More on that when/if it happens.

Last year was a lot about music, this year may be a lot about (e)books. I’m ramping up my light novel reading, (not) helped by getting into the Ascendance of a Bookworm series which is a stack of reading all on its own. (They’re quite good, though.) Then there’s Apothecary Diaries to start in on, the Frieren manga to continue, and so on. Ask me about my rec’s! Oh wait, maybe those should become posts. Right. I know how this thing works, honest.

I stopped using what-was-Twitter, started using Mastodon more and Bluesky somewhat, but mostly my intent is to post things here first & foremost. I did much better at it last year! Some months I hit double-digit post counts! Not many, but some. Drifting away from “social media,” I take refuge in the land of RSS and such.

Join me, won’t you?

3 January, 2024
Satisfactory: Employee of the Planet

I met my goal. By year’s end 2023, I made it all the way through the Phase 4 parts shipment. Look!

This officially puts the “ChooChooingScenery” savegame sequence to bed at 299 hours 45 minutes accumulated play time. Coming up in mid-January: I… haven’t figured out what I’m calling it yet but it’s a new savegame with a very particular focus, and I also want to sort out how I can turn it into more regularly-scheduled material for this here not-a-blog.

Wait for it! It’s coming! It should be fun!

29 December, 2023
2023: A heckin’ good year for music

It started with a spark and it ended with a bang, to (slightly mis-)quote a song from one of the new releases I picked up in 2023. I’m just going to scroll down through the artists list (sorted alphabetically) in MusicBee and point out the ups & downs, plus direct you to some highlight songs you may want to check out via the online service of your choice.
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28 December, 2023
Merry Christmas – 2023

To those who celebrate, for whatever reason you do so, please have a lovely and pleasant holiday.

I was going to just leave it at the simple line of text, then realized… hey, I can add something seasonal AND silly! So here you go, a gift from me to all of you.

25 December, 2023
A Steam-y 2023

End-of-year retrospectives are as common this time of year as wadded up balls of wrapping paper thrown aside in frustration while trying to wrap presents. I’ll be putting together my thoughts on some of the music released during this calendar year later on, but I was reminded this afternoon that Steam’s fancy “year in review” results are now available, so let’s take a look-see.

Sadly, most of those 4 new games didn’t connect with me very well. Better luck next year, game studios! My attention is valuable, after all!

Checking out the full document may be entertaining for you, but if you’d rather just get the high points in summary: I played a lot of Satisfactory, I spent a couple months getting back into Skyrim pretty heavily, and I used my PC to play Gems of War & Ascension a few times (usually I play those on the tablet).

The amount of Satisfactory I played will come as no surprise to regular followers of this site. (Hello to both of you!)

No kidding?

Over 170 sessions, nearly 70% of my entire time spent out of all games from my Steam library. Yeah, that tracks.

But that’s not the whole story, is it? I play games which aren’t on Steam, after all. Like Honkai Star Rail (my main mobile game), Fire Emblem: Three Houses (several years on and I’m finally winding down on that one), Fire Emblem Engage (for a few months there, anyway), the beta for Palia (the 3D Stardew we keep hoping starts to gel), the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV (just getting back into that very very recently), and a few other odds & ends besides.

That seems like a lot of games, but again, remember that Satisfactory (and HSR) are getting the bulk of my attention… as do books, TV shows, music, and so on. I’m a “gamer” but only in the mildest, most casual sense of the term.

And that’s fine!

I hope you’ve all had fun this year, and I hope you have increasing amounts and quality of fun in the year ahead.

19 December, 2023
Peter Gabriel – i/o

When you’re a world-famous perfectionist weirdo, you can probably get away with a two-decade break between full releases of new material, right? Well, Peter Gabriel’s certainly finding out.
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15 December, 2023