terabient

★ I had my final phlebotomy class today, and the important thing is, I passed the test with the worst score in the class orz I have a certification test next week but I can start applying for phlebotomy jobs now :o I'm not sure I will given how difficult I've found it, but at least it counts as contact hours for my LNA.

★ Google pushes a random assortment of gaming articles at me daily, some of which I understand and some which I do not, and sometimes I get stories like this: Fallout 76 canvas bags were given to social media influencers instead of the people who actually pre-ordered them? I'm not sure why Google thought this was RTMI given that I've played Fallout 4 for all of an hour, but then again, the Fallout 76 ongoing meltdown is fascinating enough to follow just for the drama alone. Everything surrounding it seems so....dumb? Why would you give away an item from an expensive premium game for FREE, to people who didn't need them, then replace the item you gave away with a low-quality version? Like just give the cheap bag to the '''''influencers''''' and let the people who actually pre-ordered the bag get....the exact thing they ordered???? EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS STORY IS SO STUPID

★ I think I might try some sort of posting schedule for December--not daily, but maybe weekly or bi-weekly. I forgot how enjoyable just sitting down and journaling can be. Maybe post in some semi-dead communities like girlgamers too -- I've been thinking about doing some kind of 'your week in gaming' posts to encourage people to share what they're doing and hopefully start up some conversations.

★ Pink Gorilla gaming had another "Twitch Shopping Network" stream and I probably shouldn't have gotten anything but I ordered more Pokemon plushies.......they also have pre-orders up for a Gamecube console mod thing so that it can output in true HD and digital sound BUT even with a discount applied it's like $100. I think it would be a great present for my brother, who still throws Gamecube parties (lol), but $100 is...a lot for a HDMI input.

GUESS WHO HASN'T STUDIED AT ALL FOR A TEST THAT WILL HAPPEN ON FRIDAY YES IT'S ME

EDIT: okay and like 5 minutes after I posted this the internet went down and i had to contemplate posting from my phone or just calling it quits for tonight and settle for 'at least a post with some words went up so i don't break my NaBlo streak' but it came back on within the hour. pHEW

★ Phlebotomy class went well: I had six successful venipunctures tonight! Four of them were with the butterfly needle, which I've been struggling with throughout the course, but tonight I finally 'got' it. My sister was one of my volunteers tonight, and she said this was the first time she'd had a successful hand draw done on her, which was very nice to hear ^_^

★ Tumblr is getting real weird about what kind of content it will show in tags and whether or not NSFW blogs belong or not....so there's been a slight uptick in Dreamwidth activity as people start backing up their original content. I'm not sure if anyone will stick around given that the majority of communities are ghost-towns now :( I suppose I could start posting in some of them myself but all the ones I am interested in don't have active mods which could be an issue if spambots or real live jerks come around. :S

★ I sold off a huge amount of my gaming collection earlier this year, after realizing that I would never play large portions of it again (or ever, I am as bad as everyone else when it comes to buying games on sale) and...I feel like I should trim it down some more. There's not AS MUCH as there used to be, but there are still a lot of games that I'm not going to play any time soon, if ever, and they take up a fair amount of space. What's left is a lot harder to get rid of, though, due to emotional attachment or the rarity of the game itself.

Maybe I'll do some kind of Christmas giveway for the stuff that is hard to part with? When I'm attached to something I need to get rid of, I find it easier to give it to a friend than trying to sell it...

I think I have said this multiple times every year i do NaBloPoMo, but I really ought to set aside some time to write instead of waiting until 11PM to get started. WHOOPS.

★ I went to the day phlebotomy course to make up for the Friday I missed. Our instructor saved the liability/risks and dangers video for the last classes because it's uhhhh kind of terrifying. "Here's a recreation of a draw that ended in permanent disability for the patient!" It was hard enough doing draws on classmates & volunteers after weeks of practice...I would have quit the class if I'd seen the video BEFORE performing my first venipuncture.

The course ends December 8th. I'm not sure I'm going to apply for phlebotomy jobs specifically anymore, but I'm glad I took the course and like...found that out now instead of later, I guess. Next January I will hopefully be able to start a medication distribution certification course to broaden my prospects but I think I'll have the job I want anyway well before that.

★ I got a Nintendo Switch today! My sister had like, a bunch of coupons she wanted to use before her Gamestop membership thing expired, and they were running a promotion where you got a $50 gift card with the purchase of a Switch console, so...now seemed like a good time to buy one. I only have Let's Go Pikachu and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle right now; I don't want to get too many games because I don't have the time to play the ones I have :( But it's hard because the Switch has a bunch of stuff I'd LIKE to play.

Also it took me like 45 minutes to create a Nintendo account because I kept getting mixed up at the "sign in with your nintendo network id to easily make a Nintendo account, which is not the same thing as a nintendo network account" thing. @_@

Adventures in SCVI's Libra of Souls:

★ Mitsurugi abandoned me because uhhhh I guess he wants to fight people in Japan now
★ I beat up the Wind Priestess from yesterday, who turned out to be Talim's older cousin. Still haven't met Talim but I think that's for the next visit. I'm not sure what the purpose of this questline is beyond making sure my automaton avatar meets every character in SC canon, but maybe something interesting happens later on?
★ I was enlisted in the "Bring Seong Mi-Na home" army (I didn't have a choice orz) which i guess means my avatar has straight up replaced Hwang like a true Mary Sue AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
★ A weapons dealer tried to beat me up for my sword so I stole one of his weapons instead, which apparently is an Important Decision
★ I met Groh in a field full of rocks, told him "the truth about everything" and he ASSUMED I WAS LYING WHAT THE F U C K
★ Azwel showed up for the first time and in a mode filled with primarily pedestrian dialog he was GLORIOUS AND CAMPY and now I love his goofy evil!Jesus-lookin ass
★ Libra of Souls has a food mechanic where you "equip" a piece of food to get buffs, and because this is the 16th century like over half of the sidequests involve you protecting spice shipments. This means I have a sack full of rare and expensive spices and absolutely nothing else. So I keep imagining my human-sized doll shoving a big satchel of black pepper into her mouth before every fight. X)
★ On that note, absolutely no one has commented on the fact that my character is a giant, sentient ball-jointed doll. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Adventures in Overwatch

★ I had some goooooood games playing Ashe tonight (and a few not so good ones but whatever) I'm a little better at using B.O.B and detonating dynamite early. Still struggling a bit in sniper duels but I'm generally coming out on top in Ashe v. Ashe and Ashe v. McCree fights. Also been pretty consistent in taking out Pharahs, but a lot of people are playing Pharah way out of position after her direct damage buff so maybe it's less me being good and more them being reckless.
★ Managed to win a match without a shield tank on Hollywood defense while playing Mercy, which was PRETTY UNEXPECTED like no one on the team is quite sure how it worked. But that's Overwatch for you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Some weeks ago, a prominent Overwatch streamer, Seagull, released a video titled The State of Overwatch. This video touched upon several topics that had--and continue to be--discussed frequently by the player base over the past year, such as:

-Game balance after the introduction of Brigitte and the increasing dominance of tank/support heavy compositions;
-The ultimate "meta" essentially boiling down to "have more than the other team"
-General feeling of the matchmaker being inadequate, leading to games where teams have multiple players with identical/overlapping hero pools;
-The team nature of the game means that when your team is working well together you feel great, but if you're not you feel helpless and this contributes to toxicity and the urge to blame those around you;
-All of the above combining so that actually playing Overwatch becomes frustrating and unpleasant and ends with players leaving the game altogether

The reaction to the video has been mixed; there's widespread agreement that Overwatch isn't all that fun to play anymore, but no real consensus as to why these issues exist, or on what to do to address them. I'm no different; there are a lot of aspects of Overwatch design, balance, and approach to matchmaking/social features that have bugged me for a long time, some for years at this point, and now seems as good a time as any to voice them.

Sorry, this is going to get...whiny.

( Hero balance, why triple tank/triple support is strong, and why supports keep getting nerfed )

Hello everyone! I hope you had a lovely Thursday wherever you are, whether or not it was a holiday for you. :)

Today's Thanksgiving was the last year my aunt will host dinner, which she's done for the past 30 (give or take a few) years. I thought things would get melancholy because of that, but it was a very mellow, pleasant affair all around which was nice. It also highlighted why it's probably a good change of pace for the extended family to make plans that don't boil down to "go to aunt's house" as people arrive later and leave earlier each year--everyone is busy both the day before and the day after the holiday, and travelling by car gets worse every year. (especially in the Metro-Boston area where my aunt lives) The effort involved in having everyone at one place for one day is tipping pretty heavily towards "not worth it" so now is as good a time as any to end the tradition.

In retrospect, I can't really remember anything specific about the past 10 or so Thanksgivings; it's not that I didn't enjoy them, but they were simply...pleasant? The memories I have from my childhood all the way up to college are etched in my mind so clearly it feels as if they happened today, but after that...? And maybe that's why I didn't feel much sadness over a tradition that we've held for as long as I can remember. If the purpose of Thanksgiving is to help us appreciate the bonds we have with our family and friends, this particular way of celebrating has run its course. Things will be different next year, but I'm looking forward to visiting the parts of the family that haven't been able to make it to the "big" Thanksgiving we have in Massachusetts.

I'm glad that in this matter, ending a long-standing family tradition feels like a natural end rather than something that stopped because of loss as is often the case. It it might be a bit strange to say this, but I am thankful that today was calm and uneventful, and left me with warm feelings and excitement for what lies ahead, not anxiety due to the unknown.

★ seeing as today is 11/20 it's everyone's obligation to listen to DJ nagureo's 20,november, an early Bemani masterpiece.

★ i have no idea what i am doing for thanksgiving this year WHOOPS. well, okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, i have some idea of where I'm going, it's just that several family members are holding Thanksgiving celebrations and i've been invited to all of them???? i was just planning to visit my aunt since this is the last year she is hosting Thanksgiving, but given how many other dinners are being hosted this year i am trying to fit in at least one more during the day. the travel conditions are Not Looking Good, unfortunately, so i may just stick with the one dinner.

★ been waffling on whether or not to get a Nintendo Switch this holiday season, and with the slate of upcoming games in the upcoming months i'm leaning a lot more towards 'yes' than 'no' these days. thing is, i barely have enough time to play all the games i have right now so i don't exactly need another console to buy exclusives i might not play due to the time crunch. On the other hand, one reason i've been playing my X1 almost exclusively for the past few months is because my brother and sister and I all play Overwatch together; we're all ready for a change but there's nothing on the X1 that appeals to all 3 of us. The Switch looks like it might be a better fit for our multiplayer needs right now.

★ there's been a lot of tumblr drama over a recent string of unexpected blog deletions, the tumblr app being deleted from the Apple store, and tumblr posts with links not showing up in tags...there is a lot of misinformation and speculation being bandied about as to why all these things are happening, but i haven't followed it too closely because i don't follow tumblr stuff all that much these days beyond stalking rarepair tags and dead fandoms.

BUT. this not-fully-understood blog deletion thing has people seeking tumblr alternatives, one of them being PillowFort, which is some kind of tumblr/twitter/dreamwidth hybrid service that is in closed beta ATM. I am a big sucker for trying out new social media platforms intended to compete with tumblr/twitter even though i think it's almost impossible for them to succeed (RIP imzy, you lasted not even a year) and I really want to try this one out...there is a $5 "donation" fee to get an invite into the beta though. That's not an issue for me personally but i know that's a pretty big hurdle for lots of people for a variety of reasons, and if there's not a lot of people already in the beta that share my interests (video games, almost exclusively) I probably won't post much, if anything, on my own.

I am mulling over donating enough to get several invite codes and then distributing them to friends and others who a) blog about gaming and b) are interested in trying out another social media site. The last part is the hard one because I don't think a lot of people are SO dissatisfied with twitter or tumblr that they're inclined to abandon them entirely for a new platform that does the same things but...different.

★ i've been getting a lot of ideas for fics recently, but no motivation to actually write them out lol. but, having ideas at all is better than not having any.

I'm trying to tell myself that, if all i want to do is Porn Without Plot for rarepairs i don't need to justify it, that i should just PUT IT OUT THERE, but that's easier said than done when you are full of self-loathing and depression.

★ Went to Another Anime Convention today; it's in a different, smaller venue than it usually is, and because of that, a lot of stuff was reduced in size or cut altogether. There was no video game room, only one video screening room, and the dealer's room/artist alley was outside in the parking lot under a tent...a day after half a foot of snow fell. :S I had fun, but it sucks that so many things had to be compromised this year. :(

★ I didn't bother cosplaying. Today was the perfect weather for my Mei cosplay BUT i have so many bulky props (endothermic blaster & tank, Snowball) that it's extremely hard to manage on my own, so even though I really like cosplaying as an easily-recognizable character (lol) I just didn't want to deal with the logistics of it. The hotel didn't have any nice outdoor areas for taking photos anyway which is the main reason I wanted to wear the costume, and the halls were very narrow and crowded so it was the right decision, I think.

I decided to wear my yukata instead, which is meant for summer but it's also incredibly easy to put on and comfortable to wear (at least when it's not below 50F lol) I wish I had a fall/winter kimono for this time of year but I feel like there are not a lot of occasions where I can wear traditional Asian clothing and not seem out of place...I have thought a lot about wearing culture clothing in public places recently, being an Asian in a mostly white area. I sometimes think about wearing cultural clothing out in more casual public settings like restaurants or when out shopping at higher-end places, because a) it's beautiful and b) I think an important part of making a cultural practice seem less exotic and more acceptable is by doing it (or in this case, wearing it) as often as we can. But people who don't understand what you are doing and why make what should be a simple thing (wearing beautiful clothes you like) difficult by making fun of you either subtly or....not so subtly. :/

★ Tomorrow is the swap meet/yard sale and ~*~TEA PARTY~*~ which I am very excited for! I have a bunch of stuff that needs a new home and dressing up for the tea party is always fun i've been preparing FOR MONTHS, good job me

★ It's snowing tonight in New England. I can't remember a time when snow came so early--I remember a few scattered years in my childhood where there was snowfall in the last week or so of November, but nothing like tonight. Also not looking forward to driving in snow already, as my phlebotomy class for tomorrow hasn't been cancelled. OH WELL.

★ There has been a lot of talk post-Blizzcon about the state of Overwatch and how fun or not-fun it is to play in its current state, with the general consensus being that while it can be enjoyable, more often than not it's extremely frustrating, especially if you are playing for very short sessions (i.e. a game or two) or very long ones (over two hours). I haven't read every article/video that's brought up in the discussion yet, and I don't want to respond to stuff I haven't full seen, but I've definitely felt a sense of burnout in the past 2 months even though I still have a high interest in Overwatch.

★ I passed my LNA exam today! Now it's just a matter of waiting for the results to arrive by mail so I can send it in to the Board of Nursing and get my license reinstated.

★ Ashe went live on the Overwatch servers TODAY, along with a number of other character adjustments from the PTR, and I had a lot of fun trying out all the new stuff.

Ashe: She kinda feels like a Borderlands character plopped into the world of Overwatch--she can ADTS (much faster than Widow and Ana can), is strongest at mid-range, and her coach gun knockback is best used for self-mobility so it feels like she has a Borderlands TPS type superjump at her disposal, even with the cooldown aspect. Her Dynamite seems pretty meh if you just throw it out and wait for it to blow up--it moves slowly enough that people can just move out of its range--but if you detonate it early by shooting it (either in the air or just after it lands) it's a lot more threatening. The burn effect is stronger than I expected although any type of healing will cleanse it.

Her ultimate B.O.B. is interesting. He's thrown out as a projectile like Mei's Blizzard or Zarya's Grav, and once the projectile hits a surface B.O.B materializes and just....runs down the map until he hits something at which point he starts shooting at anything in sight. I didn't pay attention to how long the duration is, but it felt like 6s-8s? Given how much damage he can put out instantly it seems a little long although if you summon him in a bad spot he's worthless--it doesn't seem like you can re-position him if you throw him out in a way that makes him run away from the enemy team.

Mercy: Her ultimate, Valkyrie, charges 10% faster and her healing while in Valkyrie is 60 HPS instead of 50. In practice, this means getting Valkyrie up roughly every other fight, and I had two games where I started a teamfight with Valkyrie and the fight lasted long enough for me to get another one to end it. Having better HPS also means there's some wiggle room for Rez/damage boost to so there's just...a lot more utility overall with her ultimate. I still think Valkyrie is in a weird spot where it's not strong enough defensively to be used as a counter-ult, and not particularly good as an initiation ultimate like Nanoboost or Rally, but at least you get them quickly so you can use it more freely.

Roadhog: His hook and gun spread got tweaked, so that his hook reels in people faster and his damage is more consistent and predictable so ideally there are fewer instances where hooked targets survive with like, 4 HP and escape. In practice it didn't seem like there was much difference but I suppose that was the intent.

Reaper: His shotgun spread also got tweaked to be more consistent (though not tighter) and he heals 30% of damage dealt rather than 20%. Unfortunately he still sucks because his ideal range is still right in your face, he doesn't have a good way of getting into that range without getting stopped by a zillion different CC/stun abilities, and his damage even at ideal range plummets if he's shooting into armor health which he is doing basically all the time. Poor dude can't catch a break.

★ For my next phlebotomy class i have to bring in a volunteer and I'm kind of nervous about having someone I know come in because what if I severely mess up and hurt them? I've been doing this weird thing where I ask someone about volunteering and the moment they agree I immediately try to talk them out of it. Still, I have two people committed for this week's classes so I just have to....not suck.

Not much of interest happened today. I studied for my LNA exam on Tuesday and plan to run through all the clinical skills at least once tomorrow (aiming to do 3 but I get easily distracted). In the evening I visited a consignment shop that I'd heard good things about. I got this Extremely Goth ring-watch:

( it's big )

I am also, for some reason, extremely tired even though I didn't do much that would warrant exhaustion at this hour. Maybe my sleep schedule is starting to become something reasonable at last? Let's hope!