Motivation

One thing I’ve wanted for quite some time is a fitness tracker. I’ve had a number of fitbit products over the years, but they never lasted longer than a year, whether it was because of poor quality or maybe my lifestyle was just too rough, I’m not sure. I decided enough was enough. I knew I was going to either go with an apple watch (let’s face it, I’m already deeply vested in apple products, we have 3 iPads, an iPhone, and a MacBook Pro), or I was going to go with Garmin. In the end I decided it was more important for me to have a fitness watch with smart watch capabilities, than it was to have a smart watch with fitness capabilities. I went with the Garmin 245 – heavily discounted from $479 to $299 (probably because they’ve just released the 255, and want to get rid of stock).

Setting it up was daunting but simple. It’s highly customizable, everything from the watch face to the screens that show to what activities you track. It gives health and fitness statistics like a heart rate monitor and oxygen. It can determine your sleep stats (though people say Garmin does not do this well, I think that can be said for most devices, they’re just not really there yet). It has GPS, can let me know if I have a call or messages on my phone, and so far I’m quite pleased with the device over all. Whether or not it stands up to the test of time is another matter. For the price I paid, I’d like it to last at least three years with constant use. It’s also just plain strange to be wearing a watch again, I haven’t worn one for many years.

I’m hoping this motivates me to move more, and to get healthier. I love statistics and have had good experiences in the past – so we’ll just have to see. On a side note, it’s hilarious that this also tracks stress levels. Let me tell you, as a parent to a 3 and 5 year old, those stress levels are ping ponging all over the damn place and bedtime is a zone you can effectively see on the charts.

Keplerth – Surprisingly Fun

My husband surprised me by gifting this game to me yesterday, and honestly I had never heard of it before. It is a 2D Sandbox RPG with online co-op (and LAN co-op), a steam workshop, and achievements. The graphics look VERY similar to RimWorld, which caught me off guard. The gameplay is NOT RimWorld at all, but it is a whole lot of fun.

I created a dark elf, I’m not even sure what the husband was playing. We found ourselves in a broken down base, and vaguely followed tutorial prompts to build some basic tools, armor, and head to a laboratory where we found a trade shop. The game is a lot more complex then it looks initially, there’s all sorts of mutation and gene events going on, there’s pet breeding, mounts, farming, exploration, randomly generated maps, and dungeons.

The team who made this game is just four people, so if you find bugs you have to bring it to their attention so they can work on them, but so far, I completely understand why this game has a very positive review, having released back in May 2022. I’m looking forward to exploring further, and seeing what trouble I can get into.

The only ‘downside’ or complaint I have so far is that although the game can be played co-op, there’s very little ‘group’ interaction. The tutorial only updates for one person, and there’s no grouping up (that I have found at least). You can see other people on the map and you can trade with them by dropping on the ground or putting it in a chest, but it’s not really customized for actual full co-op play (IMO). Still, it was a great way to spend an evening. I donned my stone club, my husband made a bow, and together we lured out the zombies and mutant monsters to make short work of them.

Then survivalists started showing up at our base, and making use of our amenity. It just got more fun from there.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Factorio (Or Maybe Dyson Sphere Program)

I recently picked up a few games from steam that I’ve had on my radar for a while. One was No Place Like Home (which I refunded, because as much as I wanted to love this game, the controls were just so bad), Keplerth, and Factorio. I’ve watched others playing Factorio for some time, but I stayed away from it myself, thinking it would be too complicated. The thing is I do enjoy those types of games (I also feel like my game library is already quite large) so I knew sooner or later I was going to pick it up. Then someone commented, and mentioned Dyson Sphere Program. This game is one I haven’t really looked at, but it’s very similar to Factorio. Now I sort of want that one too. There’s just so many games, and not enough time.

I’ve been playing through the tutorial of Factorio, and one thing I don’t like is the bad guys that keep putting pressure on you (and growing in strength) as you’re trying to get things done. Of course eventually you get better guns and automate some processes to keep things safe, but that extra layer of stress is one I could do without. I know there’s a creative mode, but I really wanted to finish making my way through the tutorial first before branching off.

Have you given either of these games a look? What are your thoughts? Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Getting Back to Twitch Streaming

After a three year hiatus, I am finally tentatively getting back to streaming on Twitch! This has been a long time coming. I couldn’t stream at my previous post because our internet was too poor, and before that, I was a new mother trying to find time between two active littles who were up all hours of the night. Now we’ve moved, the littles have an actual ‘bedtime’ and while life is still just as active and busy as always, I’ve managed to carve out a little bit of time. That’s what I keep telling myself, at least.

I’ve done one stream so far – and gained 17 new followers! I was tickled. I ran RFK in World of Warcraft and talked about gold making. It wasn’t the most exciting stream, there were some technical difficulties along the way – but I had a good time, and hopefully people learned a thing or two. I’m hoping to keep this up and even get a schedule going when I get a bit more comfortable. My free time is usually in the evening (EDT) around 9 or slightly after. I know that’s pretty early for those on the West, and pretty late for those in EU, but honestly, I’ve got to stream when it makes sense for me. In the past I would have completely remodeled my schedule around streaming to optimize the viewers, but I just don’t have that in me any more.

I’m beginning with World of Warcraft gold making streams, but I will occasionally stream other games (like RimWorld, one of my favourites) and I’m hoping to also stream some of my favourite crafts, like spinning yarn, using my drum carder, using the sock knitting machine, and that sort of thing. I do have to spend a little more time on set-up for those things, so there is no ETA at this time. I’m thinking that three streams a week (mon/wed/fri) might be a good start, with extra streams tossed in when I feel like it. I haven’t mustered up the courage to turn on my camera as I stream yet, but I do have a mic and I’m pretty talkative. Things are laid back and casual, I also won’t take any shit from people, so if you’re hoping to come to my stream to cause problems you’ll be looking at a ban hammer. Remember I used to be a moderator for NCSoft, so this isn’t my first rodeo.

As always, happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself. If you want to catch my streams, head on over to Twitch and give me a follow. https://www.twitch.tv/stargrace

The Tenants (Steam)

I’ve owned the game ‘The Tenants’ on steam for a little while now, but since our internet was pretty poor I never got around to installing it – yesterday I decided to play for a short while, and it really is a cute fun little game. I love building simulators, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise that I enjoyed myself.

You play the landlord / owner of some property, and you have to fix it up and then get tenants to stay in it. You’ll have good tenants, bad ones, and you’ll have to do some unusual tasks along the way to earn cash to continue renovating. Like babysitting. What landlord is doing that for tenants out there?!

The game play is similar to games like house flipper, but in a top down view, and the art is what really appealed to me. It’s not the most complex games as far as having options to place down, but there are more than enough to keep me interested. Unfortunately after some time I found myself caring very little where I placed household items so long as they could be accessed and meet the criteria each tenant was looking for – which is what usually happens when I’m playing these games. Still, it was a fun little afternoon waster, and it was nice to feel an urge to play something that I could actually download while I still wanted to play, lol!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!