It’s been another nice week, it was a bit stressful at work because at the beginning of the week most of my collegues where in germany setting up a couple of new acquired places in Germany, and towards the end of the week, my most competent collegue went on vacation. The next week is probably also going to be quite a bit of work, since my collegue is still on vacation for a week. But well, that’s just how things are, just a bunch of tasks that I don’t really know that well to deal with, it’s okay, it’s just a bit more stress than normally.

I had some really quite nice walks over the weekend, it’s finally pretty cool, around 5 degrees, so it’s not too warm, but it also means that it’s more or less and end to sitting around reading outside, it gets uncomfortable too quickly. So it’s more or less getting out, walking for some hours and then getting back in.

The weekend was nice, I was for myself, and didn’t really have to talk with anyone, which was great for recharging a bit. I also managed to keep a good sleeping rhythm over the weekend without overly extending it like I have the last couple of weekends, which means that I feel quite a lot better now on Monday, I’m pretty sure that will extend into the week as well, that’s at least a good sign that it’s going to be a bit better of a week, as long as it doesn’t get too stressful.

Books

I’ve been reading quite a bit of fanfiction stuff the last month or so, that I don’t count on books, which is why there has been pretty much a very slow trickle of reading books, I don’t know, hopefully I’ll get that back in order again, since reading on a screen is not really my favourite thing. I’ll be trying to get focus back on reading books again, it’s not something I want to lose. It’s just pretty nice to reading some really tropey, some smutty, and some just not that great but entertaining slice of life stuff. It’s not quality writing most of the time, but it’s nice and comforting, and I just kind of needed something that’s simple to read and just enjoy something that didn’t demand much of me.

That being said I have gotten a bit over half way through Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik, and I hope that I will get this one done this week. It’s a fun reread, and it’s long enough since I read it last that the books in the series have blended and only remembered in broad strokes. There is something really nice about a reread now and again, since you already know the story, there isn’t as much tension as I often have in reading where I don’t know where something is going, which is nice often, and creates more of a drive. But you kind of notice other things when you’re not so focused on going on to see what will happen.

Games

My Hyperfocus on reading fanfiction, has also impacted how much gaming I’ve done, and it’s mostly the normal group of games that I have been doing.

Rift of the Necrodancer is still as fun, great soundtrack, great beatmaps, and fun controlled chaos. It’s nice because it does induce this zen state where you have to focus, but at the same time everything feels like it goes automatic. It’s the perfect in the zone kind of game for me, it’s one where just playing brings me down in a near meditative state. It’s pretty wonderful. It’s a flow inducer that I can adjust the intensity of. And I’m still not tired of it, after having played it on and off for quite a long time now.

I did play a bit more of Ender Magnolia also. I’ve been a bit confused about where to go, I find the map better than in the first ender game, but still it’s a bit unsure where to go, so I keep on having to edge the map, finding new places, where I haven’t been. trying to find out if I go in the right direction, I have found an opening now though, so it’s onto more exploring and I think I’m pushing in the right direction about now.

I also tried out Rip it: Card collector which is just opening card packs and sorting them in a binder, as an incremental game. It’s quite fun and very tactile, it’s very much a podcast game, something to fiddle with while you do something else, but it’s a very good one at that, you always have something to do, and you get that nice collecting feeling, and some progress, pretty fun so far at least. Not something very original or ground braking, but a quite enjoyable execution of it.

Misc

I’m still on the punch me happy kind of music streak, so a lot of Uk Hardcore, and Euphoric hardstyle. It’s just something that is really nice in the cold harsh kind of dreary weather that we’ve had lately. Also growing up in the scandinavian period that I did (coming of age in the 2000s), the big corny anthemic music just hits me really well, and I get the happy feeling of the music, and it just hits that part of me that grew up with the music, it’s nice that at least part of the scene still makes the happy go lucky probably a bit corny music that is just happy without being ashamed of it. I feel like parts of the scene tried getting too serious, and chip hop for example is a genre that moved over from the overly happy, optimistic idealistic thing into something more serious, and for me at least more boring direction. For music to be really enjoyable for me I need a hook and some at least happy melody. And now at the moment I’m in an EDM phase again, usually spring and summer are more of a metal place.

It’s now about a month since I stopped listening to Skeptic’s guide, and I don’t feel like I’ve missed it much. And I’m very happy with skeptics with a K which has been going up in my list of favorite podcasts as I’ve listened more to it, they have a different focus and are way less into the whole shilling for companies thing, and as they themselves say often, they are way more clear politically, with having a left progressive bent. I also enjoy that they have multiple neuro divergent people on. So it helps feeling a bit more seen often.

All in all I hope I can get a bit more out from the hyperfocus on one thing that I have had going on for about a month now. But on the other hand it feels nice and safe knowing that I have something comfortable to lean on after work when it’s stressful. So I’ll see I’ll try to reign it in a bit and hopefully let it take up less space than it has been, and get more time clawed back to other things before I completely burn out that source of entertainment, but it is how it is.