Horses are good company -- The Witcher

I'm enjoying several of the Wordle spin-offs; my favorites are:

Framed - ID a movie from 6 still images. This game makes me amazed at my own brain.
https://framed.wtf/

Semantle - find the secret word by finding synonyms / words that are semantically similar. This game has a hint function.
https://semantle.com/

also Playing:
Into the Breach, a nice little strategy game. I've been trying to get all the achievements but the last 3 are eluding me. One of the achievement is to win while playing the hard setting, and I usually play games on easy / casual.

Watched:
"This is Going to Hurt," a medical drama starring Ben Whishaw whom i love. This was an intense and challenging seven episodes of TV and I really enjoyed it. Whishaw plays Adam Kay, a junior doctor working for the NHS in obstetrics/gyn. He is gay but not out at work. He has a very sharp sense of humor which he uses as a coping mechanism for the stresses in his life. The job is very demanding and he's at somewhat of a crisis point: he makes a mistake at work and starts having PTSD symptoms. I recommend looking up content warnings (at Does the dog die website).

Whew the last two days were rough, very RA, very fatigue wow. I slept for the better part of Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday it was all I could do to carry my groceries in from the car, and I left the dog food in there.

I watched "The 33," a movie on Hulu. It's a fictionalized version of the rescue of 33 Chilean miners in 2010. The miners were 200 stories underground and lived there for a few months. I love stories like this, about survival and rescue, people trying to do hard things and succeeding. Starring Antonio Banderas and some other famous actors.

I have a few movies out from the library but haven't watched them yet.

I am playing Stardew Valley and trying for the "perfection goal" with one of my characters. I got the Golden clock, fishing, and friendship goals this week (just needed two more fish).
I am trying for: Monster Slayer, Craft Every Item, find all the golden walnuts.

Very tired, sleeping a lot, not much happening.

Watching:
Leverage re-watch, I'm in season 4.
Saving Grace, on Hulu, episodes 1-4. The main draw is Holly Hunter.

Playing:
too much Hades.

Reading:
the Atlantic articles,
"Dragon Pearl" on audio, but I'm having trouble getting through it. It's just taking me a long time.
Finished "Snapdragon," a middle-grade (i guess?) graphic novel that was very cute and beautiful.

I've recently played through all the Dragon Age games, minus the downloadable content (DLC) (my xbox is not connected to the internet). Possible spoilers for all the games.

Origins

I liked the story, but it is gritty and involves death and destruction. I played as a human, and it starts out with her whole family being killed. She joins the Gray Wardens, which is a group dedicated to fighting darkspawn (demons). I really enjoyed the fact that she has a war dog that you can name and take into battle with you. I went back and did a lot of replaying, because I would make a mistake and not realize it until later. I accidentally killed people I didn't want to kill! So I went back to earlier save points and saved those people.

I liked about origins what I like about all these games: exploring, doing side quests, fussing with my inventory, and flirting with various characters. I ended up romancing Zevran, who is what twitter would call a Dramatic-ass Bitch. He's pretty hilarious. The scenes of people in their underwear are VERY hilarious and awkward. This game allows you to give gifts to your companions which I quite enjoyed, and I wish they'd carried that part through to the other games.

My gripes: Unlike the other games, this one has a dull and muddy look to it, like there is too much brown in the color balance. So it's not as pretty to look at. Two of the companions are pretty horrible: Sten is a murderer, and Ohgren sexually harasses other members of the war party. I liked the other companions though. I found the final battle scene pretty tedious. While I don't mind the fighting parts of these games, and am getting to enjoy it more, this last battle was just frustrating and not that interesting.

Dragon Age II:

It's a credit to the writing and game design that I rarely had to look anything up. Playing this game was intuitive. I again played as a human woman rogue.

I love that it is set in a city. You only occasionally leave the city, and keep returning to neighborhoods and estates to let the story play out. This game really taught me more about the major institutions of this world: the Chantry (religious authority), the mages who live in very constrictive conditions called circles, and the templars who police the mages. There is also a city ruler who is fairly useless, and Qunari warriors who are hanging out in the city for unknown reasons. All of these institutions have problems and your character must navigate the increasing political tensions. I loved it.

The companions were great, especially Varric and Bethany. There was a bit of problematic language-- Avelline calls Isabella "whore" a few times, and in return Isabella calls Avelline "mannish". Just... really uneccessary.

The tale really gets into horror mode during the plot line with Hawke's mother. These games are violent, and they are not afraid to show people being evil and gross. I do think, overall, there is something to be criticized in the way body horror and ugliness are used to signify evil-- but that's an overall genre problem not unique to these games.

I got through DA2 really fast and probably missed some things! I romanced Isabella.

Inquisition

This one is just stunningly beautiful. An expansive open world that i can run around and explore for hours on end! I really love that. And I really love the companions (except for Solas and Blackwall who are lying liars). Cassandra, Dorian, Varric, and the Iron Bull are wonderful.

Crafting is elaborate and super fun in this game. I love fussing with my inventory.

My main gripe with this game is that the captions are too small. I have to sit closer to the TV. I usually play with the sound off so as not to disturb my roommate. The voice acting is really great, though; maybe I will try to play with headphones in the future.

One of the neatest things about the series is how you get to return to places you saw in the previous games, but which now look different due to improved graphics and events in the world. You also get to run into some of the same characters.

--Visited a local computer fix-it store that has lots of plants and a dog in the store! They said that while the part is cheap, the labor for replacing the port is several hundred dollars. And there may be other things wrong with this computer too. Told them I'd think about it.

--Started watching Black Sails, which is violent as all hell but I like the queerness and the politicking and the glimpse into pirate society. They must use a filter that makes blue really shine, and there are plenty of blue-eyed actors on the show.

--Playing Dragon Age: Inquisition on the xbox 360.

--It's been about 3 months since my last nerve block (already!) so it's time for another one; but I won't be able to get in for the appt for another few weeks.

I have never in my life owned a console gaming system. That has changed today!

At St. Vinny's yesterday stood a whole shelf full of Xbox 360s. I bought one for 35 dollars. With a few games I spent about 50 dollars, including controller and cord. The first one was faulty, so I went back today and exchanged it, and this one seems to work. My roommate and I just tried out Lego Harry Potter, which is silly and fun.

I have found over the last few years that gaming is a great way to cope with pain and fatigue. Sometimes it's the only thing I have energy for, or the only thing that can really take my mind off my pain. Some games are too technically hard or require too much dexterity, or are too stressful. Ones that I really enjoy are silly and not overly difficult.

I'm super excited!! We are still figuring a few things out and I need to get an extra controller yet. Happy new year to me!