Kotobukiya wants me to go bankrupt, I can’t find another reason why it decided to release a new Kiseki figure every 3 months. Just pre-ordered this Renne, curious who’s going to be next — hopefully Tio. Or Alisa. Or Juna. Or Laura. Or Sarah. Or… Who am I lying to — I’m going to order a figure based on pretty much any girl in this series except maybe Millium and Angelica =)
Oh boy, it’s already January 1st. What a year 2022 was! I mean… to be completely honest most of the year is a blur to me, not only I had never had a year as busy as this one, but every day was like the other. On the other hand the reason why it was so hectic and “unmemorable” is because a big thing happened, we became parents. Hopefully all the stress and lack of sleep will be worth it in a long run =) But not only did we become parents, in 2022 we also became Canadian citizens, the achievement I’m immensely proud of and happy about. Onto 2023 I guess, hopefully this year will be less eventful and, well, more memorable =)
Random pictures from places around London we visited recently (yeah, we now can do this and that).
St Thomas has some nice views (and some pretty decent graveyards)
Heeman’s
Port Stanley looks almost like a seaside town from some angles
Ingersoll
Were in Komoka provincial park on the weekend. Nothing mind-blowing but it’s a nice place. Was quite an adventure as well, because we relied on google maps to get back to the parking lot and turned out that that trail was actually closed off. Our first attempt was “ah well, closed doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to use it, right?”, but when we ended up in some kind of swampy place with deer footprints all around we’re like “okay, we’re gonna have to find another route” =)
I mentioned the other day that I was going to buy a car, and actually I decided to strike the iron while it’s hot and already got one. First of all I have to say that yeah, the market now is crazy. It’s probably better to buy a new car as long as you can afford to wait for at least 3 months to get it delivered to a dealership, and that may be not the worst case scenario. Some guys at work say the wait time will be 9 months or even more for some models. I need a car right now, so I spent a week looking at the prices online and complaining that there’s nothing that I’d like and within the price range I’d be willing to pay. By the end of the week I gave up and was about to bite the bullet and get a 2019 Civic with decent mileage for a ridiculous price of $23.5K (a new one costs like $28K). The dealership had two of them so I was positive I’d get one without any problems. Only to receive the message that they both had already been sold. But! Turned out they’re getting a 2016 Civic in an ostensibly great shape the next day and they asked whether I’d be interested. The weird part was that they asked for $250 deposit, in the case if I liked the car I’d be the first to buy it. That sounded a bit sketchy but I was desperate and reckless =) Not very reckless, to be honest, because it is a legit dealership but still, I’m not a fan of this practice.
Considering how all that started the odd thing, to me at least, is that overall the process of purchasing was pretty smooth and not annoying. The next day I came over there accompanied by Sean, who was kind enough to agree to check out the car with me. We didn’t find anything suspicious on the inside or outside, the sales guy told me that the only owner of the car was a nice old lady, after that he just gave us the keys and we drove around the city for maybe 30 minutes. I don’t know if it’s a standard approach but it’s really nice that he wasn’t driving with us, that would’ve made the experience more awkward I guess. After that we shook hands, I left $500 deposit (they didn’t even withdraw the $250 he told me about the previous day!) and a week later I picked up the car (it had to be cleaned up, washed, inspected, painted a bit + they were doing all the licensing) and drove home, the end. I still think that the price was rough but I’m happy it was over quickly.
Unexpectedly, passed my G2 license test on the first try. Was actually a quite pleasant and not very hard test — I drove around the neighborhood for a bit, a few lane changes, parking, three-point-turn, return to the test center. I fucked up the parking at the end pretty badly but apparently it didn’t matter already. The examiner was very nice, was giving good instructions and told me in the end that the only thing I’d need to work on is my blind spots checks. Dunno, I felt like I was turning my head like an owl but maybe it was my imagination. In any case, the next step is to put on my big boy pants and buy a car. Scary times ahead =)
It seems to be kinda counter-intuitive but right now I play videogames more than before. There’s a simple explanation though. Every day we switch to ninja mode after 7 or 8pm and that means that a) we don’t go outside in the evening, b) I can’t really read books, too difficult for me to concentrate and c) pretty much no anime — because it feels really awkward to watch anime with TV sound set to minimum. We still watch 1 episode a day (maybe 2 or 3 on weekends) but with games it’s much easier, I’m used to playing them with no sound or it’s super simple (thanks to the designers of PS4 and PS5 controllers) to hook up a headset. And yeah, I can turn my brain off =) So all the chances are that I will beat a few more JRPGs by the end of the year =)
We took a walk from Springbank Park back home (just about 7 kilometers), and I’m genuinely surprised we managed to finish it, considering that we’re walking with the baby who isn’t especially calm and doesn’t usually enjoy long periods of doing nothing in the car seat or stroller. Adult life heh.
Another Tennocon is officially in the books and this time around it was pretty special, because not only we showed Duviri, a new quest and planet Warframe players are going to get soon, but also announced a new game Digital Extremes is working on.
Tada! Soulframe, ladies and gentlemen
And, of course, The Duviri Paradox
I’m quite a lucky bastard considering that I had a chance to work on both projects and implemented a couple of new shiny graphics features there =) Hopefully the players will enjoy the quest and, one day, Soulframe =)
Randomly generated stuff 