Author Archive

27
Jan
2020

I am the proud owner of a FitBit Inspire HR!

categories: personal; word count: 249 words

I am proud to say that I received one of these as an early birthday present!

Not only do I have the app on my phone for it, which makes… using the whole thing a lot easier (as well as, well, Googling everything that has to do with it), but I am pleased as punch because this thing actually attempts to track which stage in your sleep cycle you are in, as well as how long you spend in that stage, and I’ve been wanting to know more about my sleep stages for awhile now. Years ago, I was gifted a more basic FitBit that I used until it barely held a charge, but that one was a lot more basic, and it only tracked how long you slept and when you woke up. This one tracks your heart rate, more metrics in general, and the stages of sleep you’re actually in when as well as how long you sleep and when you actually rouse during your sleep… things that you might not consciously be aware of or remember because you went back to sleep.

I also look forward to seeing how much exercise it actually logs taking Bub on Pokewalks and to the park.

As time goes on, I intend to take pictures of it and screenshots of the app, and post them up here as well. I should actually do that with my Ancestry and 23andMe results, come to think of it… have I done that yet?

26
Jan
2020

Bub went to the park for the first time!

categories: personal; word count: 44 words

I got a lot of pictures of Bub’s first excursion to the park that’s down the road from our house, but this one happened to be my favorite of them all. We’ll probably walk down there more often since he likes it so much.

25
Jan
2020

We’re making progress filling that microSD up.

categories: RPGs; word count: 361 words

I decided to pick up the Atelier Arland series deluxe pack to have on hand to be able to play portably with Bub, as did I decide to pick up the Atelier Dusk series deluxe pack for the same reason… and I also got the Atelier Firis game on the Vita for that same reason, not knowing that the first two sets of these games had been released on the Nintendo Switch when I made the decision to get them, and not knowing that Atelier Firis was actually available on the Vita. The deluxe packs might have taken awhile to download on a decent connection, but we eventually did it, and I’m glad that I eventually did come to the conclusion that I should make those purchases. Bub likes games where you go out, scavenge, collect items to make items, and I like cute games, so these intersect in an awesome way for both of us. Each game also has about a hundred hours worth of play time if you play the base game through and then turn around and do some of the optional things in the game, so there’s also that… meaning that if we have them on a portable console we can take them with us to doctor’s appointments, on commutes, have them on hand in waiting rooms, so I really saw no downside to making sure that we have the Atelier franchise in portable form once I realized that we could actually do that. (And I mean, I can get past the whole “timed” aspect of these games. I can.)

The Atelier franchise is adorable enough that I can look past them being timed. Seriously, folks.

I know that I’ve mentioned the bane of my existence in the gaming world being timed games, not being allowed to explore to my heart’s content, but if the game is cute enough, I can manage to look past that. This is an example of a franchise that allows me to do so. Now, I might still voice complaints about the timed aspect of the games making… certain things difficult, but I can manage to look past that for these games.

24
Jan
2020

Persona 5 Royal: DLC for the price of a whole game.

categories: RPGs; word count: 347 words

And because of brand loyalty and my child’s cute face, I’ve been suckered into buying it.

This did spawn a bit of an interesting discussion amongst people in a chat that I frequent (friends? I can call some of them friends): games that I play with Bub. I don’t mind playing some slightly higher rated games with him, seeing as how he’s autistic and internalizes a lot of the experiences much differently than a neurotypical child his age might. A lot of conventionally frightening things do not frighten him. In fact, many of them amuse him. Things that “go bump in the night” don’t bother him one bit. Zombies make him laugh. Although I take care not to play particularly bloody or violent games with him because those games tend to bother me as much as the idea of playing them with him bothers me, there are certain games that may carry a slightly higher rating that I don’t mind playing with him on my lap or beside me, although that depends on the specific game itself… I put a lot of research into games before making the decision to play them with him. For instance, I care more about games that have characters heavy into cigarette or drug use. I care more about games with plots that involve child abuse or child death. Among the Sleep might be the only game to date that I have banned in our household for reasons having to do with plot. But Persona? I don’t mind that.

Well, except for the bit about “DLC for the price of a whole game”. I minded that, let me tell you. I really did.

But let me tell you, I wish that the DLC for this had been released as just that: separate DLC, and not for the full cost of a game. I feel like this makes those who plays Persona 5 play twice for it just for the DLC, and I feel like that penalizes the biggest fans of the game and the series… the ones you want to keep coming back.

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