Anyway, I hope that most of you have the option to not go outside except for bulk grocery shopping, hitting up the laundromat (which I need to do today too), or - heaven forbid - medical reasons. True, it's FINALLY getting nice outside, and it's not like the air itself is toxic. So, yeah, have fun breaking up the monotony with walks/runs, taking the pets outside for a bit, play in your back yard, etc. But, please PLEASE remember to not GATHER outside, and to try not to LINGER outside if you're in a public area.
Just... basically...
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I haven't seen any updates on the state I live in, so I think we're still on a vague "until further notice" instead of other states whose governors have stated "At least until April 30th" or "At least until June 15th."
We need people to comply with these lockdowns so this disease can finally be a bit more manageable for the hospitals. So, please please PLEASE stay home if you can!
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So, what have *I* been doing during all of this?
Well, I can tell you what I HAVEN'T been doing: writing. Still.
I didn't think the mental strain was getting to me, but I guess I was wrong, because I can't sit in front of my computer and type up more than a couple of paragraphs in a go before getting itchy and needing to move again.
I've NEVER had an issue of sitting still for hours on end before, but I guess now that I'm "restricted" to my home I just get this itch to constantly want to move??? Heck, I'm only about an hour into working on this blog post and my body already wants to pull the ripcord!
So instead my living room is picked up - then Hubby comes home from a long day of work at the grocery store and "nests" and I clean the living room up again the next day... - and I've been working on re-organizing the kitchen. The clothes got folded and put away faster this week. I'm sorting through the cold-weather clothes to figure out what should be switched out for warmer-weather wear by now. I have been doing my Zumba classes still, thanks to the instructor setting up Zoom meetings so we can still all exercise together. I missed last night's though because 1) lost track of what day it was again, 2) was already in the middle of something else, and 3) my knee has been super tight and clicks a lot the past 2 days.... probably shouldn't dance on that until I can get more athletic tape to help secure it....
I've also been watching an exuberant amount of gaming streams on YouTube. Now, despite always enjoying watching Hubby's playthrough of games, I've never been big on watching Let's Play or Playthrough videos before. Even when two channels I really enjoy on YouTube - OutsideXbox and Outside Xtra - have streamed in the past, I've never really been into it. With this NEW world environment, however, and more time than I usually have to spare, I began having them play in the background. It's actually been really chill and comforting to listen to them.
From the OXbox crew, Jane has been streaming her playthrough of Two Point Hospital. It's a RollerCoaster Tycoon-like game where you are a hospital administrator building up the local hospital for the needs of the community. One of her co-hosts Mike did a stream of House Flipper. It's basically how it sounds: you do tasks to help clean/organize other people's homes in order to build up funds that you can then use to buy, fix up, and flip houses. Mike even joked how it's boring and tedious to weed, scrub down a room, and paint, but it's actually very calming and zen to do it in the game. The final host of the channel Andy hasn't streamed anything yet, but he's supposedly setting up to stream Red Dead Redemption 2.
Now, being OutsideXbox, obviously the team is trying to play as many games on the actual Xbox console as possible, but both Two Point Hospital and House Flipper are available for PC as well, and I believe both originated as PC games. So, yes. After seeing the fun and "chill" environment these games are, I totally added both to my Steam wishlist. I don't have the expendable funds right now, and I do personally prefer to have physical copies of games, so I might have to check to see if I can buy CDs of them instead, but, should they go on a great sale, I will get an email from Steam. So... yeah.
Watching 2hr-long each streams on YouTube took up a LOT of my time this week. Mostly because I can have them going in the background on my laptop or phone as I wander my home doing chores; sitting down to actually watch while I'm eating.
Over on the Outside Xtra side, the one host Ellen hasn't streamed anything yet. As of a few weeks ago, she had been streaming her replay of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, but she hasn't continued that stream since the 12th. Now, she did mention in a video that aired this week that she's in quarantine. I know she's been sick off and on throughout January, so I don't know if she actually has COVID-19 or if she just self-quarantined as a precaution due to her weakened immune system, but she seems to still be in good spirits when she and her co-host Luke did their Show of the Weekend this past week. So I hope she's doing well. I also hope she's just resting up, which is why she hasn't been streaming as frequently as her coworkers. Also, I don't know how their channel works. Maybe she's just been busy doing most of the behind-the-scenes stuff, much like how Andy does over with OXbox.
On the other hand, Luke has been streaming his play through the Master Mode of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for months now, but switched over to Animal Crossing: New Horizons last week. And let me tell you, he has been absolutely adorable the whole time! He's just such a bubbly guy to begin with - he and Ellen are kind of known for their constant giggling on their channel, as opposed to the more professional presentation over on OXbox - but to add in the lighthearted AC:NH game? He just gets so excited about so many elements of the game, and it's the cutest thing to watch/hear.
For a while now, mostly because so many of my friends were excited for it, I've kept my eye on Animal Crossing. I've never really been into the other games before. Mostly because the game plays in real time. I'll touch more on that in a bit. However, the hype for this game was so major. The first time I truly paid attention though was when I saw commercials about how Hubby and I could play together and visit each other's towns. As far as I knew, this was a new feature. Either way, it was a way for Hubby and I to play together. So my interest was piqued.
Fast forward to last week. My friends got their copies and loved it. What I saw online showed me that all the hype for the game was well warranted because everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Then I saw those streams Luke did on OXtra. Add in the social distancing that happened right as the game was released? Well, the members of Eurogamer had streamed themselves playing hide-and-seek on one of their islands, and OXtra did the same thing when Ellen visited Luke's island during one of his streams. Seeing that interaction? Seeing how you can still communicate and play and INTERACT with people in real time via this game? Knowing that I can "hang out" for the first time with some of my online friends via this game? I was sold. I wanted this game now.
Well, as luck would have it, Hubby had MASSIVE amounts of overtime last week, so he splurged some of that extra cash on me. As an insanely early birthday gift, he bought me my own Switch console and a copy of AC:NH! He then bought himself a copy so we can play together with our own islands, and I went ahead and bought myself a copy of Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, because how could I not?
So, as of Saturday evening, I was able to join about 40% of the population who are keeping their sanity by playing AC:NH.
Now, keep in mind, this is my first attempt at this game series. I know the basics of it: building up a town, so it requires proper planning. This is not something I'm good with because I don't know WHAT I'm planning space FOR yet. So, this island will most likely be a complete mess, much like my first attempts at SimCity back in the day. Thankfully, I've learned that - for MASSIVE amounts of the in-game currency - I can have buildings shifted later in the game. So, once everything is set up and all I need to do is maintain - very late game - I might actually get the island looking like an organized town. In the meantime, though, I'm just enjoying my organized chaos.
Much like how I am in real life.
The thing about AC:NH, however, is that I somehow poured a lot of hours into it already, and yet... not?
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I haven't been able to sit still for very long lately, which is very much not like me. Well, even with the distraction of a game, and the fact that I'm still early-game and so I have a lot of objectives to still try to hit - I STILL haven't been able to really sit still for long. I've purposefully NOT played the game on our TV, that way it's out of the charging dock. The Switch has roughly a 2hr battery life, so I play until it's about to die, then I put it back on my dock - which isn't connected to the TV since we can't connect both - and go do something else. Be it more cleaning, checking in on social media - something else I've been unofficially avoiding this week - or watching more streams.
Even when I'm playing the game, I wander to the dining room, which is where my laptop currently is. I check in on game tips online while still playing. I answer Facebook messages. I watch streams while I keep playing. I go lay in bed for a bit. I'm just always moving.
And yesterday, I only played in hour-long intervals. I then go to clean something for an hour, go eat, chat with my mom on the phone, etc, and then went back for another hour of the game before putting it down again to do something else.
The only exception was when I had my first online island visitors yesterday.
Then, that evening, Hubby and I noticed that Rozsavaria was playing, so we stopped by her island... and then we popped over to Hubby's island... and then they came to my island.
In comparison, this is Rozsa over at my place...
Now, the fish thing? Well, this brings me back to my problem with the Animal Crossing series: it plays in real time. So, while I was trying to play catch-up with all of my friends who started a week ahead of me, at least for a time, I will always just be behind them because the game has its own pacing that you can't rush without doing a time hack where you change the date on your Switch itself.
I'm not one for hacks, so I'm just playing the game as intended.
HOWEVER, this is the big thing for early game: Day one you need to gather up specimens you find on the island - fish and insects - and show them to Tom Nook. After showing him 5 specimens, he asks you to set up a spot for his friend Blathers. That way Blathers can move to the island and you can show him the specimen directly, instead of using Tom as the middleman. Problem is, Tom now won't take any more of your new specimen. You have to literally wait until it's after midnight your time for Blathers to show up. I knew there's a museum feature of the game, and I don't know how rare anything is, so I didn't want to sell or otherwise get rid of my other new specimens. Also, you only have the tent the first day, even if you do pay off the moving fees. You don't get your house until the next real-time day after paying off the moving fees. So I didn't have the inventory space for all of these bugs and fish. That's when I started displaying them in tanks and terrariums throughout my campsite.
Fast forward to Day Two. Blathers shows up, and asks you to show him 15 more new species of critters so he can get a grant for the museum. Easy peasy! I had about 25 specimen just waiting in my front lawn! So that was easily completed. Problem there is that I still have to wait another two (at least?) real-time days for the museum to set up. Which means those 10 specimens in my lawn? Yeah, they're staying there, and they're getting some buddies as I craft/receive new tools that let me experience the rest of my island.
Now, my "Day 2" is actually "Day 3" since I started playing the game so late on Saturday that my "Day 1" with the Blathers quest didn't actually conclude until Sunday. But still, you get the point.
Also add in that I can now find fossils. I don't want them to take up inventory space, so they are now very large lawn decorations circling around Blathers' campsite until the museum opens up and I can officially donate them.
This is what I mean by "organized chaos, but I'm fine with it for now".
Still, a quest to set up the museum that I could have easily done in a few hours has taken me four real-life days, and it's not even done yet! I don't even have access to Blathers today because they're building the museum! I cannot wait until this first week is done, the museum is built, and I can start keeping this extra stuff off the grass!
Another problem with the real-time mechanics of the game is that I can't catch up with my friends quite yet because I'll always be that week behind on building my house, the museum, the shops, etc. The only real reason I was able to get as far as I could yesterday was because Pixie gifted me with a ladder, a tool I don't otherwise have access to yet. Hubby got his early by buying it from Rozsa's island.
It's fun, and does force you to pace yourself, but it IS a touch annoying as well to have to constantly wait real-time for the game to advance. Plus, it means that when I inevitably give up on the game in favor of another one, or because I'm back at work and no longer have the free time, that my island will keep going on without me. I'm not the biggest fan of games that don't pause when I do. Ya know?
Another little pet-peeve of the game is that I can't manually move things in my inventory to better organize them. I have to drop everything out of my inventory and pick them back up in the order I want them to be. If you know of a better way, please message me or comment below!
All-in-all, though, it IS a fun little game, and there IS a lot to do and explore. So I get why so many of my friends love it.
As for my poor, poor neglected writing? Well... I FINALLY finished up the Adrienette portion of my 'Your Voice' fanfic. It's already 3600+ words long, so I might have to do some editing down... not that THAT ever does any good for me... I've also kinda-sorta sorted out the reason and moment that Chat Noir notices Ladybug's voice reminds him of Marinette's, but I still need to figure out the transition into the LadyNoir portion of the story, as well as how the whole thing ends.
How did this story take over a month to write!?!?!?!?!
Tomorrow is April 1st, which also means it's Camp NaNo time!
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I miss writing so much, and now that I have the time to do it, it's killing me that I'm not touching it at all. I just hope my Muse hasn't been quarantined from me during all of this...
Take care, you lovely people, and try to stay sane. In that regard, I want to thank Hubby and his coworkers for being on the front lines, so to speak, and keeping our grocery stores still running. Thank you to the delivery drivers that allow us to stay put but still get the things we need/want.
SUPER THANK YOU TO THE MEDICAL STAFF AND FIRST RESPONDERS. You ARE the front lines of this pandemic, and may you all get the PPE you need to keep yourselves safe. You are all literal lifesavers.
Thank you to the OutsideXbox and Outside Xtra crews for artificially keeping me company and entertained. I'm like a dog with a TV or radio left on when the owners leave the house, just so I can still feel connected to someone, and these streams are such a soothing blessing.
Thank you to the creators of Zoom for a great - and relatively cheap - way for people to still interact, work, learn, and maintain some semblance of normalcy. Along with doing Zumba still and attempting to stay healthy that way, I also used Zoom the other night to have a virtual get-together with my extended family. I grew up seeing my aunts and uncles and cousins roughly once a month, if not more, depending on birthdays and holidays and other such get-togethers. It's been rough enough to not really see them since I married and moved away, so getting to have a "party" with them was fun.
Finally, thank you to my Hubby for keeping my spirits up, gifting me such an awesome early present to help keep me entertained and connected to my friends, and thank you to said friends. It was awesome to interact with you, and thank you all for your advice and tips for the game. I can't wait to see more of your islands and have more of you visit! It truly is nice to still feel connected to everyone.
I hope you all can find those silver linings in your own situations, and that you're keeping your own sanity. Stay well, friends.
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