We did it! "Seeker" is out!

The long hours harassing Knux as an editor and contorting my brain as a co-author have paid off. "Seeker", a standalone story in the ChaosNova setting is done and out for the public to see. This is where you'd inject a clever synopsis or throw some whimsical quotes in the air, but I'm far too lazy for that (plus, that's what twitter is for).


Instead, this image-link conveniently opens the free preview.

So I have been playing ... (86).Call of Pripyat, Special Edition.

In the middle of spring I felt that special yearning again. After I'd ended my Oblivion Lost longplay, I wanted to deprive myself a bit from the familiar Zone flavours, let the mind clear until the itch builds up on its own. Watching others play grew the urge (I'm blaming you, Grimwald's Gaming, Dave Edwards, and WTFSexyHeadphones), and the final straw came from reading Tiger's Spring.

I knew I wanted the new playthrough to be somewhat casual and free-play-ish, and possibly not too long, so I picked Call of Pripyat for my current fix; I also wanted to mod it up a little - but just a little - and Special Edition seemed to strike just the right balance.

Here are the first two short sessions, mostly consisting of fumbling, night exploration, and avoiding puddles. 

So I have been playing... (47). In Zone you've got to earn your artifacts.

My latest recorded adventures in Oblivion Lost kick off amidst the seasonal serene of Bloodsucker Village. (There's, like, 20 minutes of footage before that, but that's mostly just theorizing.) I share the idyllic vistas with the locals, the freelance adventurers, the natural phenomena, and discover just how helpful a Personal Data Assistant can be.

So I have been playing... (39). Noobvision goes Metro.

What the title says.

I shall probably be recording some more of this in not too distant future.

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (V)

[copy-paste intro]
It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to let go some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2. 

The whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once, so I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead. This was Part Four.


Now, shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (IV)

[copy-paste intro]
It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to let go some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2. 

The whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once, so I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead. This was Part Three.


Now, shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (III)

[copy-paste intro]
It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to let go some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2. 

The whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once, so I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead. This was Part Two.


Now, shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (II)

[copy-paste intro]
It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to let go some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2. 

The whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once, so I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead. This was Part One.


Now, shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (I)

Special thanks to R-6 for being along for the ride via screenshots, 
hearing out my lamentations on the way, and inadvertently 
inspiring this write-up. 

It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to ignore some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2.

Shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

Oh, and the whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once. I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead.  So, uh... shall we?

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 41 & a Monday

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from March 31 - April 6, and April 7.


We still had some eggs to experiment so we went for pancakes. Especially since auntie seems to find something inherently exhilarating about the cakemaking process. With the spring gathering momentum, we'd take longer trips outdoors, even explore the street a little. In recent weeks auntie had developed a keen interest towards spruce-cones piling up on the lawn. (The stone collection, apparently, was satisfactory for the time.) She'd gathered a few handful of those already when she vocalized a new hypothesis: could it perhaps be that if you placed one of those in the ground, a tree would come up? Later on I noticed she had placed a bunch of cones into a bowl and watered them.

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 40 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from March 24 - 30.


During one of her discover&interact rounds, auntie had discovered a carton of eggs and formed a theory that those could be used for making food. I confirmed that her theory was sound; after pondering over the options, we settled on boiling some. The only minor setback occurred when I plain dropped one of the chosen atop the stove (it still had plenty of substance left for boiling afterwards). Once our prey was secured on plates and stripped of shells, I sliced mine on a piece of bread and asked auntie how she was planning to prepare hers. After a moment of creative silence she whispered: "I know exactly what I'm going to do."
[And scene.]

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 39 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from March 17 - 23.


I had noticed that the auntie had become consistently accurate in memorizing/ guessing the "coffee numbers" and got curious about it. So, in the midst of the morning coffee ritual (I pour the water and announce the number of cups, she fishes out the filter and fold it, I deploy the filter while she manages the coffee tin open, I dig the coffee pack out of the tin, we both sniff the aroma, then I ask how many cups it was, then measure out the coffee and finally ask her to push the 'on' switch) I inquired what the secret was. She proudly showed the "finger count" she'd been grasping. So how would she keep track of a tricky number like four-and-half ? One finger bent of course!

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 38 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from March 10 - 16.


We'd fully developed the habit of going up to my old room/study/sundeck after breakfast - for some advanced weather watching and carspotting. (The road and traffic are constantly a big deal, sometimes the target of despise, other times of fascination.) The auntie has this rock-solid theory that the passing cars, once they're out of our view, turn around and return. (Rock-solid because the idea is based on the traffic reality back home.) I had her pick distinctive-looking vehicles going one direction and then watch out for their return (yay for sneaky memory exercises). When none did, she had her eyes widen in revelation and partially accepted the idea that it might not be the same ones going back and forth, but some coming and some going. (There are also various theories floating around about where they all might be headed; also attempts to make traffic-based guesses of what the weekday might be.)

The end of the week brought some surprise snow. March as usual, good news for the still-not-uprooted snowdrops. 

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 37 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from March 3 - 9.


That week the Flower Digging Season got started. The auntie had been eyeing the snowdrops for a while and finally gathered enough momentum for the dig mode. The ground proved still frozen so the flowers gained a few more days of mercy - until the inevitable could no longer be postponed.

There were other developments as well. I'd already let the auntie mostly manage the kitchen stove herself - but that week the stoveside emancipation reached to a new level. Occasionally I spend nights in my old room/ study and return to "refugee camp" for medicine time and a bit of followup nap, opening the stove dampers on the way. That week, going downstairs I found the kitchen stove (as well as auntie herself) already in full throttle. To my inquiry about how she managed to reach the damper, she gleefully demonstrated the climb-atop-some-firewood-reach-out-the-knife manoeuvre. (That would be the same kitchen knife depicted with snowdrops.) As impressive as I found the creative use of tools and environment, I recognized the safety issues involved and decided to remain downstairs for the nights to come. The next morning, awakened to dispense the morning medicine, I found the stove already going once again. Knowing I wouldn't be able to keep up with the early rising contest, I, too turned to some inventive tool use. After deploying the long-handle ladle with just the perfect hook, there has been no more evidence of firewood-stack-parkour.

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 36 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from February 24 - March 2.

The week began by pulling off an almost impossible feat that required aligning and balancing a lot of little things and processes just right: we managed to take the auntie to an Independence Day celebration with the Defence League. A formal event, that is. Inciting the process of "we're going somewhere today" was not that difficult in itself. Then again, convincing auntie that bare pantyhose does not quite qualify as festive attire ("But I am already dressed. See how pretty!") took quite some effort. Eventually she accepted the skirt I was offering - then added her little go-anywhere kitchen apron to the mix, just for the good measure. When on-site, all went well and we got to stuff our faces with cake. (No pictures of it that I'd care to share publicly.) Only after returning home did I realize the amount of focus and effort that I'd been exerting; a long slumber ensued.

The rest of the week was mostly quiet (my followup slumber sessions extended into several days). Plenty of trips outdoors, though. Some days the usual "outdoor quests" (check laundry, bring kitty, bring firewood) were not even necessary - the fresh spring-y air itself proved motivating enough.

So I have been playing ... a lot apparently! (Playlist roundup)

It turns out that over the last one-and-half-or-so years I've been able to generate a whole buttload of gameplay videos. Here's a roundup of all the playlists so far - somewhat chronological, different lists of the same game bundled together. 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl (with Oblivion Lost + Arsenal RC1)

The very beginning. Including babysteps in managing the recording tools - especially learning how to do decent audio. Have not established yet where exactly I would want to go with this.

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 34 -35 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from February 10 - 16 and February 17 - 23.


We went on an epic quest to find a good pot for the uprooted plant. The plant approved. I also managed to decrypt the Mystery Of Collectible Stones: apparently the auntie has formed a clear plan to hem in a flower patch back home; whether a specific or a hypothetical one, I could not tell.
Also - snowdrops popping up everywhere; heading towards an early spring suspected (in "long winter years" we get similar weather in April as we do in "short winter years" February).

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 33 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from February 3 - 9.

Among other things (incorporating the Sneaky Nimble Finger Training Tactics of coffee filter retrieval to the morning ritual, fixing a leaky kettle with some lucky leftover Sugru, marvelling over the jet streams in sky, some overall nest-space structuring and decorating) I managed to be "bad" influence. Or creative. In the deepest dark and cold of winter, I had not had the heart to throw away the carrot stubs that were sprouting green. Instead, I'd stuck the stronger sprouts into shot glasses and watered them (greenery ensued). One day (when returning from some errands upstairs - go figure) I found that the auntie had proudly followed my lead, uprooting some strands from a resident flowerpot and sticking them in water.

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 32 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from January 27 - February 2.


A most remarkable development occurred that week. A lot of my work with the auntie involves eating the proverbial red berries - and the results can vary a great deal. After I'd begun inviting her along to the shower she'd been enthusiastic to observe my endeavours close by but always refused when I'd invite her to join in. Then one morning, returning from some chores upstairs, I found her waiting to tell me something with determined look on her face, trying to hold on to an already fleeting thought. She requested that I take her along to the warm falling water and let her have some. Next time. If it wasn't too much trouble. Because "she's an elderly person and does not know these things." I cheered for the incredible coincidence that I was *just* about to go there myself, and improvised the logistics on the fly. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and we've taken on the recurring quest ever since.

 (Also, winter. )

Granny-sitting Chronicles: Week 30 & 31 (Town edition)

In June 2013 I moved to countryside with my elderly aunt to run a "Grannysitting Expedition". 
During this time I have been taken pictures more or less constantly. I'll be posting these picture chronicles one week at the time. In December 2013 we had to relocate to town for a while - I'll be doing my best to keep up the weekly picture chronicles. Previous week is in this post.


The following moments are from January 13 - 19, and January 20- 26

A cold wave arrived and eliminated the "would there be any snow?" from the daily discussions list. Added bonus for me: basic workout without having to wander too far. (It had been quite clear from the get-go that regular town life would not offer the level of physical activity I'd become used to. So, looking for available ass-moving options, I'd promptly volunteered for the snow duty.) Sweeping a broom in the manner of wielding a scythe proved to be super effective. The cold wave also meant increased need for heating, meaning increased need for firewood, meaning more regular trips outdoors. I'd once again have to deal with the "what if there's work" challenge, trying to accommodate focused thinking-writing time to the available (and wishful) timeslots in my schedule. Around this time I started to invite the auntie along to the shower room to "assist" and watch me bathe (This would become relevant later).