• Atelier Ryza 1: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout
• Bear and Breakfast
• Fantasy Life
• Giraffe and Annika
• The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants Edition
  
• Live a Live
• LumbearJack

• Moonglow Bay
• Poco
• Schim
• Shadows Over Loathing
• Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley
• Toem

I previously wrote a blog post about how I've got my current setup with dreamwidth. I liked DW's tag structure, but I hated how SSGs made you write posts in Markdown.

After getting over that hurdle (I still find it kind of annoying), the next biggest problem was finding a blog theme that I liked. I've checked out a bunch of themes from Hugo, Jekyll, Hexo, etc. but I couldn't really find anything that was simple AND attractive, until now.

I found this absolutely gorgeous Fuwari theme from Saicaca.

After cloning the github repo, I found that editing the config file isn't too hard. Most of the code is readable, and everything is preloaded. I'm already pretty happy with how everything looks, so I've decided to finally commit to this blog instead of forwarding http://blog.pomnavi.net to my dreamwidth archive.

I still don't like having to write in markdown, but at least the blog is nice to look at now. All my posts will still be archived on DW because I don't trust myself not to screw something up, like the test run I had with 11ty and Hugo.

I hate the experience I had with SSGs so far (especially with trying to hook-up a 3rd party CMS), but I'm going to try straight markdown for now. If I need rich text conversions, I'll probably look up another tool online.

This has been a really annoying saga, but I'm gonna keep sticking with this until it breaks.

• The Amazon Kindle debacle, where Kindle users are losing the ability to download and transfer ebooks over USB
• Dark Horse Comics shutting down their digital storefront, causing comics (and some manga) fans to lose their digital purchases.

A Ballad of Sword and Wine: Qiang Jin Jiu Vol. 1, Written by Tang Jiu Qing, Illustrated by [St]. Published by Seven Seas. Translated by Jia, Xia, and amixy.

We all love a good enemies to lovers plot-line. I was really impressed with this series. The story hooked me right from the beginning, and I wanted to see how Shen Zechuan navigated all the issues. I don't have a good read on what his motivations are right now, other than surviving and maybe getting revenge (but against who?).

Surprisingly, it seems like quite a bit of the political intrigue wraps up in this book. But knowing that there are going to be 8 books total, I'm really excited to see where things go next. The development of the "relationship" between Xiao Chiye and Shen Zechuan was fun to read since they always kept each other guessing. I don't think that's going to change anytime soon, as they barely set aside their animosity when interacting with each other.

There are some really hard scenes to read, mostly due to the torture at the beginning and one scene of animal abuse. It definitely had the intended effect, but do keep that in mind.

You definitely need to pay attention while reading this book, as there are dozens of important named characters, but I actually like that. I got sucked into the intrigue right away.

I think this could easily become one of my new favorite series. I already have books 2 and 3, but I'm going to pace myself and read something more lighthearted next.

This article came up on my feed about how game publishers may abandon physical games, as tariffs in the US would probably make it completely unprofitable. Gaming in general has been moving toward what people might say is an “All Digital Future”, and I dislike it heavily. We don’t really own digital purchases.

I like collecting games. My game collection currently includes Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, DS, 3DS, and Nintendo Switch Games. (Technically I have some PS3 and PS4 games, but they’re not part of my collection since they were bought for me, and they’re stored with my sibling’s other PlayStation games.)

I appreciate the artwork on the cover, the mini booklets/manuals, and all the little extra goodies, such as stickers. I love pre-ordering games from Japan, as there’s usually an extra little something they include. One time, I even got the full soundtrack as a pre-order bonus with 2064: Read Only Memories! I ended up loving the music for that game, so being able to rip it to flac and listen to it on-the-go in high definition quality was awesome.

There’s something magical about popping in a little cartridge and just starting the game. This doesn’t always work out, since some games are horribly incomplete on launch, but it isn’t always this way. There are many games that are feature complete. Otherwise, there are “complete” editions that you can wait to buy.

I have a gaming PC as well, which is currently being used to play Monster Hunter Wilds. While I’ve been enjoying the game, it just doesn’t feel as fun as the day I opened the Monster Hunter Rise deluxe edition, and added the included Kamura pin to my itabag. I proudly displayed the Magnamalo amiibo, and stuck the stickers everywhere. And once I was done with the game, I got to put it next to Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, the game that started my love for this series.

With Wilds, I simply paid ahead of time, and downloaded the game the day before. The day of, I was able to load in my save game from the beta, and start playing. While I am enjoying the game, this experience is just missing the “specialness” that I had with the previous games in the franchise.

Even the extra goodies in the PC Collector’s Edition of Metaphor Refantazio doesn’t make a difference, the game is just a steam code!

There’s no fun in collecting digital games. If gaming moves towards becoming completely digital, then I will simply wait for sales. There’s no incentive at all to buy a game full price at launch. I will simply buy a game right before I intend to play it.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the Switch 2, since it’s looking to be the last bastion of physical games.  Once that console cycle is over, if everything is completely digital, then I will wait. I have such a large collection of physical games in my backlog, that I might abstain from buying new games at the pace that I have been currently.

I have a lot of games to beat anyways.

edit 2025/05/06: It looks like a majority of third-party games will be game key cards, which means that I’ll have to make a decision about physical collecting a lot sooner than I wanted to :/

I helped my friend alisenmakes table at the Anime Night Market in Westminster, CA. It was a fun experience, and I ended up spending wayyyy more than I wanted to lol. But it was a lot of cool stuff! Here’s a roundup of my haul: