Well, this is still new!

The last few weeks have certainly been…something! There’s the political climate, which I’ll try not to touch on here, but then also being unsure about the direction of my writing. A few have probably seen me talking about that and the trouble I’m having coming to a decision around how I format any reviews and even my story. It’s not that it’s exactly weighing heavy, but that it’s almost immobilizing.

There’s this sense of perfection, or not wanting to be seen as illiterate, or even perhaps missing the point of something that happens in a game or book. I keep coming back to “Dancing Through Life” from Wicked constantly, too. I try not to think too hard about things, and try to be stress free, but, in the end while I want to be carefree I also find myself striving for that perfection. And perhaps that might resonate with someone else. Part of why I’m doing this, for instance, is to just get the words out of my brain and onto the page.

I had a very difficult night two nights ago where I wanted to do so many things at once—read, write, play a game, watch a show—that I became overwhelmed with it all and did absolutely nothing for nearly three hours. I dabbled in a few things for, at most, twenty minutes before finding myself torn away to something else. I know several friends who tell me that they think I most likely have undiagnosed ADHD, and that’s something I’m working towards finding an answer for, but for so long I didn’t have this issue—it’s irritating! Some nights I have no issue immediately diving into a game or book and being focused on it for hours, and some nights, like I mentioned above, twenty minutes and I’m done.

Additionally, I think part of my issue is that I’m so mentally tired towards the end of the day that I’m too tired to sleep. Yes, too tired to sleep. Last night, Jan 27, I got 3 hours of sleep, but I functioned so well today and even spent almost five hours playing Pokemon Emerald Kaizo Ironmon tonight. Another day and I could just go straight to sleep. The variance in sleep has been irritating lately, and, again, something I’m working towards figuring out.

Funny enough—I’m up writing this at 2AM, not feeling a bit tired, which is part of my predicament.

So, since I have all of that out of my brain for now, at least, I have at least been keeping myself busy the last few weeks! These will be the quick and dirty versions, because I do plan on going a bit more in depth about these in future posts.

What has Dom read or played since Jan 5?

Well, the quick and easy is a lot, or at least what I think is a lot. The longer version involves actually taking a few paragraphs to even talk about the things I’ve done—hooray!

Skies of Arcadia Legends: 8.9/10

What a gem of a game, quite frankly. I remember seeing people about it in chat rooms and forums in the early 2000’s, but I didn’t have the means to acquire and play the game. In 2025, I played it! I had been asking around for other JRPGs to play, and someone had suggested it to me, and it was so worth it. The combat (both character and ship) was engaging and entertaining and the ship combat itself I’ve not seen another game do just that.

The story itself also stood out, and follows some of my favorite tropes. An ancient world, which was more advanced finds itself destroyed, and in the future someone is trying to resurrect that world, whether by means of controlling their power or using their technology. You have to prevent it, so you go on a quest to acquire the Moon Crystals, and prevent the Gigas from reviving. A flash, bang, and tons of ship battles later, you’re finding pirate treasure, flying around the currents in the sky, and saving Arcadia from destruction.

I still want to know more about the Black Moon. The Rift, anyone?

Mistborn: The Final Empire: 9/10

This was a book that I’ve had in my home for a few months, and I’d read the first fifty or so pages before, once again, becoming immobilized with too much to do. Then when all the business with TikTok going on, I decided I was going to dedicate more time to reading with a goal of at least 100 pages a day. I might have been an overachiever in this respect. I zipped through this book in about two days, and was dedicating all my free time to reading it.

From a scared and timid member of a thieving crew, to a fake noblewoman in a different crew, Vin finds herself changing as she helps Kelsier and his crew to overthrow the Final Empire. There were several points in this story I hadn’t anticipated, like how the gossiping in the noble families was so cut throat, or finding out what the Lord Ruler did to the Terris people—spoiler alert, the Lord Ru—I’m kidding, I won’t do that. As with most books like this, those last two hundred pages really draw you in and almost force you to finish them. From lows to highs, to lows again, all the way back to highs. I could not put the book down until I finished it.

The one thing that does kind of bother me about it is while the main character is a woman, most all of the other characters she interacts with are men. Any of the women she comes across are very much side characters—although some do serve as some good plot points (Shan, you witch).

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension: 9.5/10

I thought I zoomed through the first book? This was almost two-hundred pages longer than the first, and my god did it throw plot point after plot point after you. Between The Final Empire and The Well of Ascension, a whole year had passed, giving Elend time to create a constitutional monarchy, essentially. He ruled as King with an Assembly serving as means to curtail his power if the people so choose to do so.

The city of Luthadel came under siege from, eventually, three different armies: Elend’s father, Straff—who by the way, is probably the worst father figure I’ve ever had to read about—King of the Northern Dominance, Ashweather Cett, and a Koloss army lead by Jastes Jekal. Through assassination plans, coups from the Assembly, and a fairly ballsy move from Cett, the whole book is managing the siege, and coming out on top. Several members of Kelsier’s original crew end up dying as the Koloss ransack Luthadel, but Vin comes out victorious as she learns how the Lord Ruler controlled the Koloss during his one-thousand year reign, she strikes down Straff—in one of the most satisfying ways to cut down a horrible man—and eventually finds herself near strange waters deciding what to do…

There is an incredible amount more that happens in this book that is both gripping and heartbreaking that I’ll leave to others to experience, but, I’m already starting book three of this series, and I can’t wait to see what happens in Hero of the Ages.

What’s in store for the next few weeks?

Now that I have my own car again—oops, yes, I bought a used car the beginning of the year—I plan to actually leave the house more often, a novel idea. There’s this bookstore in the town over that’s all used and donated books, and they host a few events a month that I might check out. I’m unsure if I’ll find exactly the type of book I like the read there, but, you never know what bookstores might hold.

Another item that I’m sticking with is the reading. I’ve missed diving into these new worlds, learning about the world an author has created, book by book, and enjoying the adventure. There’s truly nothing better than bundling up in bed or on a couch and just reading for hours on end.

Stay tuned on the game and book reviews, I’m working on them, which will hopefully be a little more eloquent than the above—again, striving for that irritating perfection.

One last thing

Have you seen this YouTube video created in Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 that synchronizes Defying Gravity? I did not expect to have roller coasters make me emotional, yet, here we are.

Please take a watch and just enjoy this art.