Journal

Hi!! It's been a little while, but it's good to be back! Over the past few months I've been seriously stepping away from social media platforms and the "modern" internet. I was so overwhelmed by it! So many huge changes, mostly involving shoving AI down people's throats and further invading our privacy... It was all too much, and it was affecting my perception of the real world around me.

Stepping away from these spaces was good. I felt like I was better able to focus on the world around me, and not feel so overwhelmed with everything going WRONG. I know it's still happening, but I'm proving to myself that I can limit its effect on my life if I live intentionally.

The downside, however, is that I definitely felt more lonely. Even if the social interaction on things like Instagram were superficial at best, I guess they still tricked my brain into thinking I was having social interaction. A couple of days ago, however, I found the Melonland Forum. I don't remember the last time I found an online space so immediately appealing.

Just a couple of days in, I have already had such lovely interactions with others. Ones that feel meaningful, and feel like actual connection. Not just the endless cry for attention that is social media. It's playful, welcoming, and more than a bit zany. And, best of all, it's encouraging me to get back to tinkering with this website!

So, I'll be more active around here from now on. I hope we can become friends!

We visited Maine in June of 2025 for my sister-in-law's wedding. It was tiring travelling abroad with a toddler, but we had a truly memorable time!

These photos were taken with my beloved Nintendo DSi. It was a fun companion! I also played a LOT of Etrian Odyssey on it, which is probably going to be my game of the year.

Arriving in our first stop in Kennebunk, I was struck by the wide streets and large lawns of American homes! It make me feel nostalgic for what I once thought our future would look like.


Toddler Turnip loves the beach, wherever he is in the world.



Thought he might have been grossed out by this gigantic seaweed. HE WASN'T!










Coolest padlock I ever saw! (With additional padlock)







A TRUCK TOWING A TRUCK TOWING A TRUCK! Never let go of your dreams.

We arrived at our primary destination in Acadia! This lovely beach was just a short walk from where we were staying.


Finding treasure











It was so hot I was tempted to drink this gross golf water





We enjoyed a day out in Bar Harbor

Very excited to see this huge Sylvanian Families rabbit



This beach in Acadia National Park was so lovely. Could have spent longer there!





Took this photo while the wedding photos were being taken with the lake as a backdrop. (Felt mildly silly with my DSi)











The view from atop Cadillac Mountain was really astonishing. I tricked my brain into thinking those islands in the distance were floating in the sky


A gloomy beach in Rockport, MA for our last full day.

And, the next day, a quick trip to enjoy Rockport itself before flying home that evening.


Goodbye!!

Haaaaaaaaaaaaangh.... It really feels like a lifetime since I last updated this blog. A few months have passed, and we managed to move to Wales! Is it an exaggeration to say the move nearly killed me? Yes (but I'm still going to say it).

Life somehow keeps throwing "the new and improved hardest thing you've ever done" at me, and I honestly don't know how I am still here right now! It has been so, so hard! But things are certainly improving. We're renting a comfortable house, and we've managed to get many of the things we need for everyday life (car, cooking supplies, furniture, etc). RIP to our savings though.

We're lucky to live in an area in North Wales that has a whole bunch of cool things to see and do. We live closer to the beach than ever before - multiple beaches, in fact! And even though it has been winter the entire time we've lived here, it's SO mild compared to what we were used to in Massachusetts. We've enjoyed visiting the beach so many times already, and it's one of those things that makes everything feel better.

When I've not been desperately searching for a job, taking care of each other and enjoying some escapism have been key. We watched an AMAZING J-drama called Brush Up Life (or Rebooting, depending on the region). It hit all the right notes for the type of humour my wife and I enjoy, and the story grew in scope so wonderfully, becoming something utterly fantastic. There's a new show coming to Netflix soon with the same screenwriter, Bakarhythm, and a number of actors we enjoy. I'm so excited to watch it!

I also recently finished reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers that I feel I similarly will have to write something more in-depth about. It took me a little while to get into, but suddenly I realised I intensely loved these characters and I didn't want it to end. It was really good, though my heart is still recovering from a major plot point that destroyed me. It was great "cosy" fiction without being wishywashy. Definitely looking forward to reading more!

This was meant to be more of a life update, but here I am talking about media I've been enjoying. I guess that's how the past few months have been, really. Things have been really tough, and when recovering from all the intense effort we are putting into simply existing right now, escapism into stories has been so important. When I sometimes feel like it's hard to feel anything at all, it's wonderful to have a good story come along and sweep me up in all kinds of emotions.

Anyway, now that life is maybe slowly healing itself into somekind of routine and rhythm, I'll hopefully have the capacity to spend a little more time tinkering here. I guess this was a kind of messy "catch-up" post from being MIA the past few months. But I'm here! Still alive! Next time I'll write something a bit more focused.

Keep hanging in there! You're doing amazing!

Juniper

As our lives have been turned upside down due to our imminent move to the UK, I've been feeling a bit frazzled! I suppose that's entirely to be expected, as many routines and familiar comforts have slipped away.

I finished my job at the library last week, and have been spending a lot of time finding new homes for objects we won't be bringing with us. Just today, our pallet of belongings started its long journey across the ocean!

While everything has been feeling so crazy and out-of-control, I have enjoyed some peaceful time in the evenings playing Colors TCG - a trading card game hosted over on Dreamwidth. I learned about the game while browsing Neocities websites, when I stumbled upon Cloudcover's Colors TCG page. The sight of all those little pixel cards organised so neatly was immediately appealing!

I enjoyed learning about how the game works and setting up my own page for a few evenings after that. It's really cool how this game exists because of the community that engages with it. Seeing people swapping cards and helping each other towards their goals reminded me of collecting Pokemon cards as a child, or of collecting pixel items on Gaia Online as a teen.

While there is some fancy code available that automates a lot of the process, I opted to engage with the game manually, meaning lots of saving files, and writing them into my website manually. It's certainly more time consuming, but during this chaotic time in life I am really appreciating the opportunity to engage with something like this. Something that is nothing more than organising nice things into nice places. While everything is crazy, this is neat, orderly, and within my control. Seeing a collection of cards grow feels very rewarding, and after playing it for a few weeks I have a nice little routine going with note-taking and code-writing.

There are reasons to enjoy the game outside of the card collecting, too! The community is really lovely and welcoming, and there are other ways to engage such as "donating" decks to be added each month! I've enjoyed sourcing images to donate for decks related to Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Maison Ikkoku, and Rilakkuma and Kaoru this month! It's fun to think that people might seek to collect cards that I helped to introduce to the game.

Time will tell how much I will stick with Colors TCG when my life eventually resumes its usual flow. Typically I like to spend my "gaming time" on games with stories and complex mechanics to dive into. Colors TCG is very much not that, but I think as a slow-paced alternative that feels oddly meditative, it will continue to have a presence in my quiet time.

Anyway, there's my ramble about Colors TCG! If you think it sounds kinda cool, I encourage you to take a look. If you do - let's trade!

The next time I write a blog post here... We'll have finally moved to Wales! How crazy!!!!!

For the past couple of months, life has been all about packing belongings and planning the logistics of moving across the world, back to Wales. It's exciting! But also exhausting, and kind of constantly overwhelming!

It's kind of fitting then that recently my wife and I really got back into the swing of watching old pre-Netflix episodes of Ainori. We started watching the modern Netflix version of the show not long after our son was born. Plot twist - having a baby is kind of (absolutely) a nightmare, and we were desperate for some escapism and something just reliably nice to bring comfort and structure to our days.

We found this in Ainori, a show about people going on a little pink bus, travelling around the world, and maybe falling in love. It's kind of funny that as we approach the next big challenge in our lives, we really got back into Ainori. It was so much fun to watch, and was a welcome distraction from planning and packing!

The only problem is... we're entirely out of episodes! We exhausted the supply of English fan-made subtitles made well over a decade ago. Now what?

The original run of Ainori was ended after 10 years really suddenly. The participants on the show didn't even know it was ending, and even though the final episode was an hour and a half long and presented as a "Special", it was all still so sudden and without explanation and closure. I think this, combined with the fact that there are so many earlier episodes (not to mention a short reboot between this and the Netflix reboot that I can't find) just leaves me with this feeling of... I don't know - like I know there is so much more out there of a thing I really love, but don't know how to reach.

Is this worth learning Japanese over? Probably not. But if this was past-me with plenty of free time, I think I'd be tempted.

At this point I'm just ranting to myself a bit. I hope you'll forgive me (unless you also like Ainori, in which case let's be friends).

I'm really glad we were able to watch so much of something that really should have been impossible for us to watch. It seems so unlikely that I should be able to watch a Japanese reality TV show from the 90's and early 2000's with English subtitles at all. That's crazy! I think the unlikeliness of it made it all even more special. Like I was stealing away some unexpected treasure or something.

As we're soon about to embark on our own journey across the globe, I feel a little bit lost without the comfort that watching Ainori has brought through difficult times. But we'll do it! We'll be okay!

We recently learned that we will be moving across the world at the end of October! (The spookiest time to move to another country)

Back in 2018 I moved from Wales to the US to be with my now-wife. It was a great time, and we have had many cool experiences together here! Though last year we had the biggest experience yet in the form of a lovely and demanding baby named Elwyn. Since then we have been trying for some time to find a way to move us over to the UK where we can be closer to family (and castles, and sausage rolls).

We tried multiple avenues without success, and overall the process took so long that I kind of thought it wasn't going to happen. And now that it IS happening, I am slowly allowing myself to be excited for all the reasons we wanted to move back to Wales in the first place.

One of the things I missed most while living in the US is the sense of history. Yes, the landscape and vast nature has plenty of history, but I miss the man-made history of castles, stone walls, and winding streets. It's something I wasn't even all that conscious of while living at home, but now I miss it tremendously! I can't wait to explore it all with new eyes, and I'll definitely write about some cool places here and share photos.

We are also excited to live much closer to the seaside. Pretty much wherever we live in the UK, we'll be closer to the sea than we are now. With that said, we would love to live right by the sea. Let's make this dream come true!

One of the silliest things I am excited for back home is all the cases for my video games! When I moved over here, I took all the cartridges and discs out of there cases and brought them with me, leaving the cases at my parent's house. I always intended to bring them over with me on a future trip, but thanks to COVID I've only been home once in the past 6 years, so that never happened.

I have a pretty good collection of DS, 3DS and Wii games, and I'll have so much fun reuniting them with their cases and manuals! A lot of them even have my original receipts tucked away behind the manual, and it's always a fun bit of history to remember buying something for a great price (especially since DS and 3DS games have gotten so much harder to buy these days).

Anyway, this is all just a bunch of words to say we'll be moving in a few months, and life is about to get crazy. It felt overwhelming a couple of weeks ago, as we struggled to come up with a plan while also entertaining Elwyn. But since then we have started forming a plan, and bit by bit things are clicking into place.

I'm sure there are things I will miss about living here. Like vultures, apple-cider doughnuts, my job at the library, and my favourite pond full with frogs. But I will hold these memories dear as I make new ones.

I'm nervous and excited and all sorts of other emotions, but I will look forward to the adventures that await us as a family and continue onward!

I recently hit the twenty-hour mark in Dragon Quest VII and wanted to share some thoughts about my experience so far!

I get the impression that this game is somewhat notorious for a couple of reasons. The main complaints I hear are:
1) When starting the game, it takes multiple hours of play before you reach the first battle.
2) It takes approximately 20 hours before you gain the ability to change the vocations of your characters.

Both of these things are true, but are they necessarily bad?

The opening hours of the game luxuriate in establishing its characters and story. It felt so novel for a JRPG to spend this much time easing us into its world! I hear that the introduction of the 3DS remake even cuts out some content from the PS1 original - I would love to try that one too, sometime!

Contrasting with the long opening of Dragon Quest VII, Dragon Quest VIII cuts to a combat encounter almost disorientingly quickly. Before we even know our characters, we're bashing the goo out of a group of over-optimistic slimes.

I like that in Dragon Quest VII, by the time we reach the first battle, we know what a startling and frightening experience this must be for our protagonists! The world we have lived in until this point has been entirely free of monsters, and filled only with an unending sense of childhood adventure and innocence.

As the plot picked up and my ragtag crew of children were thrust into their adventures through time, they felt suitably out of their depth, and I loved my time guiding them through their accidental quest.

If at this point, my characters felt underprepared and out of place, by the time I reached the part of the game that allows me to assign new vocations to each of them, they felt changed, experienced, and deserving of this reward.

So much has happened in these past twenty hours! I will refrain from detailing plot specifics, but will say that the Dragon Quest style of storytelling vignettes is put to excellent use here. I already feel as though I have an entire game's worth of stories, and they just keep coming, and keep getting better!

And the quantity isn't the only impressive point - the variety is huge. I never know what to expect from one town to the next, and the game succeeds time and time again in telling stories that surprise and tug at my emotions.

Before unlocking the ability to assign new vocations, a surprise plot-twist throws you into a story that feels like a season finale. Struggling through it and emerging victorious makes the reward all the sweeter.

I'm excited to see where Dragon Quest VII takes me next. If the first twenty hours have been this rich in adventure, I can't even imagine what I have ahead of me!

Before I sign off, if you want to see the box art - here you go! I think it's a fun cover, and it catches the sense of adventure. I particularly like that the back of the box promotes the vocation system - I admit I can see why people would be irked at waiting twenty hours before being able to engage with a feature so prominantly advertisd, but the journey is so worth it!


Yes, a major motivator to unlock the vocations is to dress everyone up in that sheep costume.

Wow! So many monsters!

I was so excited this week to receive three whole Dragon Quest Monsters games in the post! More exciting yet is the fact I got all three games for only $30!

So what did I get? Well, I got three Japanese 3DS games that, through the magic of a modded 3DS system, I'll be able to play with fan-made English translation patches.

In recent years I have really fallen in love with the Dragon Quest series. Even more specifically, I really love slimes from the DQ series to a silly extent. They make me so happy! And so the Dragon Quest Monsters games are perfect for me as I can delight in as many slimes as I can gather.

Additionally, as the gaming world moves more and more into prioritising digital purchases, I'm excited at any opportunity to buy a physical game. I especially enjoy DS and 3DS games for this, as the boxes themselves are very pleasing and often contain fun goodies and surprises - as we're about to see with our first game of today...

Look at that gorgeous artwork! You can click to enlarge.

Ahhh, I really love the box art to this game! This is Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D - a remake of the very first Dragon Quest Monsters game for GBC. I really love the original game, and can't wait to see how it has changed for a newer console. Plus... look at the weird slimes on the cover! There's weird box slimes! A sprout slime! I am so excited to discover more.

Speaking of discovering more... Let's look inside the box.

Artwork peeping through the interior "windows" is my favourite thing about 3DS cases!

Look at all those monsters! Look how they peep! Ah, it's always such a delightful surprise to open up a 3DS case and see artwork like this. I feel like the form of the case here elevates the experience from internal artwork inside clear cases like Nintendo Switch games. Something about the windows are so playful.

The game also comes with a colourful folded manual, too. Of course I can't read a word of it, but I like having it all the same.

I appreciate the amount of illustrations included. It makes the pages appear a lot more playful.

---

Next up is Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru and Luca's Marvelous Mysterious Key. What a title!

Unfortunately there isn't nearly as much to say or look at with this game. Unlike the first game, there is no interior artwork, and this one didn't come with any manual.

However, that's not to say there isn't plenty to appreciate on the cover!The swarm of monsters on the cover is very exciting, and I really like the character designs for Iru and Luca. Their big, round hats are so pleasing! I wonder if I get to choose which character to play as?

My favourite part of the back of the box is that wonderful illustration on the right. There's something so carefree and wonderful about it - and these kids clearly really love monsters! I want to share in their enthusiasm and play the game!

Iru and Luca will have to wait until I've finished the first game before I join them for an adventure, though...

---

Less whimsical on th surface... Where are the slimes???

Last up in today's haul is Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 3! What does the "Joker" mean? I've no idea, as I don't own 1 and 2 (yet)!

I've long been aware of the Joker games in the series, but something about them didn't appeal to me. They looked a bit edgier than the regular Dragon Quest vibes, and that was offputting. However, this was available for such a good price, I figured I would give it a try someday! Plus, maybe there are edgy slimes? I guess I would be intrigued to see that.

I don't have too much to say about the box art overall here, mostly for those same reasons. It looks "cool"? I like the horst the protagonist is riding on the cover, though. It seems like some kind of legendary creature.

Empty windows are sad windows...

We may be lacking interior artwork, but this game has a few paper goodies tucked inside! There's some kind of Square Enix membership(?) code tucked inside the case. Above the case, on the left, is an advert for a guidebook. The characters continue to look "cool" in a way that doesn't feel very Dragon Quest to me, but I am hoping that by playing the game I will grow to like them. There's also a manual, similar to the first game, that I'll open and share below!

As with the first game, I appreciate the monster illustration! And even if it's not 100% appealing to me, I can appreciate how "in universe" the design of this manual feels.

I wonder how many thoughts and feelings about these games will change and develop when I play them? It will be a while until I do, as I am currently playing (and really enjoying) Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. I enjoy imagining what a game might be like to play by looking at box art and manuals. Illustrations and screenshots present the idea of the game, and our brain fills in all the details.

Right now in my mind, these games seem huge and unknowable! I am excited about the places I will explore, and even more so about all the monsters I will meet. How many new types of slimes will I discover? Hundreds, I hope. Even though I know that's not reasonable.