January 2024 Update

"Monthly Update" Thumbnail.

My "scuffed curse" has been slowly catching up with me. As I'm still following my established daily routine against all odds, I've been stumbling into all sorts of wonders and oddities in my everyday life. My plate was full, which served as a great distraction from things that usually bother me... Well, for the most part. Silly overthinking was heavily suppressed (or rather muted), not gone completely. I guess that's just part of my identity, and it would be very difficult to get rid of.

Despite the lack of holiday spirit in my heart throughout the second half of December, I realized that ignoring New Year's Eve and doing nothing would be too depressing. Especially when I actually can do something about that. This trail of thoughts lead me to not only get myself pizza & Olivier salad (no homemade salads this time) for some kind of a treat. I also went ahead and paid up debts I owned to two of my friends, even though they didn't saw it that way. These generous folks were "happy to help" me at the time and didn't expect anything in return, but I argued it would be best if I return the favor (they didn't protest it) as that was simply the right thing for me to do.

I suppose this means I met 2024 as a free man of sorts. After facing some hard struggles and darkest moments, I was dragged up by great support from my friends. Not only I got myself an insanely good laptop and a new stable work that won't be possible without it, I've been reminded yet again how I'm surrounded by good people on Internet. No matter what happens next, I know they'll have my back and that's enough to achieve great things.

Summary.

I should really consider revamping my daily schedule. Work was getting more and more hectic as we approached December's end, which was just one of the few reasons that lead to my sleep remaining screwed. My habit of ritualistically follow specific order of things is clearly odd and this time around it definitely ensured that I won't reach my bed before midnight. At this time, there're three distinct parts of my daily journey: work, gaming, browsing. Not sure if my efforts to positively disrupt it will lead to anything. Perhaps that's the excuse I need to try out something totally new as I still haven't bother with that.

A lot of things require my attention and my ASUS TUF laptop. Its problem with power button has become even more persistent and this troubles me great. So I've been talking to ASUS Support for a couple of weeks in order to figure out potential cause of my issues and all the details regarding local repair services. I want my laptop to be in the best shape and get proper treatment if needed, but the idea of separating with it for a couple of days (or even more) is quite stressful. And that's without mentioning the fact that there're only partnered services around here, no full-on official establishments. This led me into learning more about Sleep Mode & Hibernation... They can be scuffed on modern Windows. Really, my main takeaway from here (stated in some Reddit threads and comments) is that ASUS laptops, as great as they're, can be very dank. Will keep talking to them, probably message English support and explore options with Sleep Mode.

This didn't stop me from ending 2023 and starting 2024 with some great gaming accomplishments. First of all, I finished my long journey towards Perfection in Stardew Valley a couple of days after publishing December 2023 Update post. Initially I wanted to gather a substantial amount of gold before getting a Golden Clock, but then I decided that I should just go for it and that was great. Visit to the Summit and other stuff that comes with Perfection are wonderful. I didn't expect this game to become a prominent part of my life, but I'm happy with how everything worked out between me and this farming simulator. For now, Farmer Ilko and his family at Save Haven Farm are in Groundhog Day as I'm waiting for an Update 1.6 by opening up the game for some Arcade action.

However, Heroes of the Storm was pretty much pushed aside since the start of this new year. I've been playing that game far less than usually lately not only because I clearly needed to have some break from it, but also because something else has required my attention... I got Transistor on Steam as a gift in New Year's Eve, so my playthrough started on January 1st. And it took me two weeks to finish my initial playthrough, gather all achievements and complete Recursion Mode. What a game! Loved it as much as Bastion. Supergiant Games did well with both. I think that now I'll go back to another First-Person Shooter grind as not only I have an Arrange Mode waiting for me in Ion Fury, but I've also bought myself AMID EVIL: Black Labyrinth (+ Machinarium and Another World) & WRATH: Aeon of Ruin's release is getting closer and closer. I want to play a lot of games and carry them to perfection this year.

I would have much more to say about the future of Ilko's Hall in the next month, so for now I'll refrain from stating the obvious solely for sentimental reasons. Last two years this blog was meant with massive amount of publications throughout the month since the beginning of January was that period where was going on for me and getting carried away with writing a lot of nonsense seemed like the right idea. This time was different as I had only one day off and two shorter working day, but I've also just didn't really feel like writing "articles". There're still some things I can explore in the near future, but I don't think I'll go for it. My daily routine is full as is with both nice and annoying stuff. So there's that. Like I said before, anything else can wait for the third anniversary of this endeavor.