Category: Gaming

Danni

Week 4 Review

Autism, Computers, Danni, Gaming, M.E., Penguins!, Physical Disability, Real Life, Week in Review

Danni is lying in bed with a massive smile on their face. On their shoulder there is Poseidon, a baby emperor penguin.

This week has been pretty good overall. I’ve been on a huge high from going in the living room last week. Thursday was Johan’s 29th birthday, and though I’ve not managed to sort his presents out properly yet I think he had a good day. On Friday we got a takeaway to celebrate and I had a yorkshire pudding wrap with pulled pork in the middle. It was very nommy.

The only downside is I tried to do a food shop on Tuesday and I got so overwhelmed my brain broke. For a few days afterwards I couldn’t really make decisions without a lot of help, and felt really out of it and foggy. I think I’m getting over it now. I keep forgetting that cognitive stuff can be just as exhausting and blehness making as physical stuff. It didn’t stop me being happy but it did make me need a lot more rest and help than I otherwise might have done. I think next time it might be better for Johan to do it (as that happened despite having a shopping list – not being able to find out what we already have in makes it a lot harder, but even trying to work out what was better value was too hard).

On Monday I read Fahrenheit 451. I’m not sure I really understood it but it was good. I’d like to read it again at some point when my brain works a bit better. Since then I’ve been reading stuff on the SCP Foundation website (and on the SCP subreddit). It doesn’t matter that I can’t understand a lot of it, but it was good for when by brain was broken (even if I did keep reading the same ones over and over again because I forgot I’d already read it until I got near the end).

Sammie got hit by the Malwarebytes update problem yesterday. Unfortunately I was half asleep when trying to help her (I woke up to roll over and have a drink and noticed the chat) so didn’t get her to check the task manager which would have revealed this. I guess resetting Windows 10 isn’t the worst thing in the world. Luckily she was able to backup everything she wanted to keep, and she was glad to hear this morning that it wasn’t her fault.

I bought a new electric throw/blanket as the one I wanted was finally available on Amazon. I have one I got a few years ago but the material felt horrible and even putting a duvet cover on it didn’t help much. This one is fleecy and though it’s an ugly brown it works and is small and light enough for me to use by myself. I just need to figure out how to stop knocking the buttons on the controller in my sleep as they’re very sensitive. I also got new penguin towels which are cute. I’m hoping they don’t go missing as much as the other towels we have.

  • Overall mood – Awesome
  • Average daily sleep – 7 hours 56 minutes (of 9 hours 48 minutes)
  • Longest sleep – 10 hours from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning (of 13 hours 47 minutes)
  • Clothes changed – 1 (Zen penguins guide to hoppiness, due to accident as was too ill really)
  • Wipe wash – 0 (only had underarms done when changing top – too ill for anything else)
  • Water wash – 0
  • Hair wash – 1, with shampoo cap.
  • Books read – 1 (Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury)
  • TV watched – 0
  • YouTube videos watched – 2 – Corgi in an elevator and Newsthump card game.
  • Music listened to – Steven Universe songs, Moonlight Shadow.
  • Blog posts written (including this) – 1
  • Penguins cuddled – plenty 🐧🐧🐧
  • Johan hand holds – tons
  • Johan hugs – 1 on his birthday 🙂
  • Time on Twitter – 3 hours 56 minutes (average 34 minutes a day)
  • Time on Reddit – 25 hours 54 minutes (average 3 hours 48 minutes a day)
  • Time on Facebook – 51 minutes (average 7 minutes a day)
  • Other –
    • Johan is now 29!
    • Johan ran to Scotland this morning. It was 10 kilometres from Carlisle to Gretna Green.
    • We only needed 1 extra care call for Johan going to Scotland. Knowing the care agency will respond in an emergency makes a massive difference.
    • Electric blanket is awesome! It doesn’t completely replace heaty penguins and hot water bottle, but it does mean I don’t need them heating as often.

Game stuff

  • Games played – 5
    • Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
    • Cross Stitch
    • Neko Atsume
    • Godville
    • DragonVale
  • AC: Pocket Camp Level – 67
  • Godville Heroine Level – 48 (5% done)
  • Godville wood for ark – 4.1%
  • Godville savings – 220 thousand
  • Cross stitch completed – 3
  • Most played game – Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (16 hours 6 minutes, average 2 hours 21 minutes a day)
  • Other –
    • Managed to finish the second half of the butterfly event in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp with about an hour left to go. I was incredibly lucky and had some very generous friends in game.
    • Much preferring the Winter Sports Event. I got one of everything within two days, including getting the Snow Park amenity to level 2. I’ve just finished building my eighth mini skate rink and any extra snowflakes from now on will go on more tiaras.
    • DragonVale released an update with extra levels an islands to get. Break postponed until I get them all.
Danni

Week 3 Review

Danni, Gaming, M.E., Penguins!, Physical Disability, Real Life, Week in Review

Danni is lying in bed, with an eye mask on their head pushing their hair upwards. They are trying to wave and smile, but it's not effective. The picture is tinted purple due to the light. Danni is lying in a day bed. Their eyes are closed and they have a massive grin on their face. Danni is lying on a day bed. They have a huge smile and are sticking their tongue out.

I spent most of this week feeling pretty bleh, mostly due to payback from Esther’s visit. I ended up turning my alarms off as waking up for the care calls was meaning I wasn’t getting enough sleep. I wasn’t well enough to have much done anyway- was in too much pain for washing or changing clothes so it was mostly just pad changes, food, drinks and penguins. The first photo (that Johan took) was pretty typical for most of the week.

On Friday I started feeling a little bit better. I ended up staying awake a long time, which normally comes just before a change in how I’m doing (either good or bad). By the early hours of Saturday I felt well enough to sit up in bed more than I have in months, so I knew I was over the worst of the relapse and payback. I had a long sleep from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning, and once I’d gotten over the waking up awfulness I knew I was doing better.

I sat up really high for me in bed, to the point where Johan said it looked like I was actually sitting up! (Normally my sitting up still looks like lying down to most people, just not flat). As I was managing that without any issue, and I was no longer feeling horrendous whenever I moved, I asked Johan to take me into the living room. After a bit of grumbling he did it, and it was amazing! It had been over 4 months since the last time I got out of bed at all, and it felt really weird being in a different room. I didn’t want to push it too much so was only in my wheelchair to get me into the living room then I went on the day bed in there, but it was awesome being in the same room as Johan and having a different view. Until it got too dark I could see the snow falling outside which was really cool. The second and third photos were taken in there, Johan taking the second and me the third.

Johan went to the gym for a run, after checking I’d be okay staying in the living room (I promised I wouldn’t fall out of bed- the cushion tends to stop me). I mostly just played mobile games and read Reddit while in there, which is the same as what I do normally in bed but the different surroundings made it so much better. He arrived home just after the care workers came for my evening call, and they were very confused when I wasn’t in my bedroom. They changed the sheet on my bed (much easier to do when I’m not in it, and desperately needed as I hadn’t been well enough to have it done since Christmas), hoisted me back into my chair and then from my chair into my normal bed, and then it was just the normal personal care and food and penguins. I’m still on a big high from it, and will see how I do over the next few days before deciding what next.

I’ve got my PIP tribunal at the beginning of February, so I’m probably not going to go out before then (as we said I’d be there). I’m hoping to manage being in the living room at least again before then. If I don’t, at least I’ll be able to remember I did it this time 🙂

As you can imagine right now I’m super happy. What also helped with that is that yesterday was Penguin Awareness Day. We should all be aware of penguins and how awesome they are.

Now for my normal stuff.

  • Overall mood – Good, with a couple of mehs (when I felt particularly rotten) and a couple of excited/amazings (being well enough to get out of bed!)
  • Average daily sleep –  8 hours 3 minutes (of 9 hours 51 minutes trying) – a big improvement
  • Longest sleep – 11 hours 46 minutes from Saturday evening to Sunday morning (of 16 hours 1 minute trying)
  • Clothes changed – 0 (Was too ill until today, and prioritised going in the living room)
  • Wipe wash – 0 (same reason)
  • Water wash – 0
  • Books read – 0 (I really need to pick a book to read next. I just get overwhelmed by choice then go back to Reddit :P)
  • TV watched – 0
  • YouTube videos watched – 2 (Penguin videos for Penguin Awareness Day)
  • Music listened to – Do It For Her from Steven Universe. I tried to listen to some more songs but gave up after a couple of minutes.
  • Blog posts written (including this) – 1
  • Penguins cuddled – many 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
  • Johan hand holds – plenty
  • Johan hugs – 1 (While I was in the living room I had the best cuddle from Johan. It made an already awesome day even better.)
  • Time on Twitter – 11 hours 48 minutes
  • Time on Reddit – 19 hours 18 minutes
  • Time on Facebook – 53 minutes
  • Other –
    • Tried the giant banana from the massive sweet box. It was disgusting 🙁 I was very disappointed.
    • Super proud of Sammie for how she’s handling stuff (being a teenager is hard).
    • Johan read the 25% ME Group magazine to me. I need to figure out renewing my membership.
    • Got a new calendar from DoodleCats. Is adorable. Need to find command hook to put it up.
    • I think I’m finally over the relapse! It’s so nice to feel more like Danni-normal! I’m hoping I don’t get too much payback from going into the living room.
    • I wrote this blog post on my Surface tablet. So much easier than on Android, especially as it has a keyboard. Photos are particularly hard to do as the app sucks for it.

Game stuff

  • Games played – 5
    • Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
    • Cross Stitch
    • Neko Atsume
    • Godville
    • DragonVale
  • AC: Pocket Camp Level – 65
  • Godville Heroine Level – 47 (69% done)
  • Godville wood for ark – 3.1%
  • Godville savings – 167 thousand
  • Cross stitch completed – 2
  • Most played game – Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (22 hours 27 minutes)
  • Other –
    • The second stage of the butterfly event in Animal Crossing:Pocket Camp is really frustrating. Luckily I have some very kind friends who leave me lots of butterflies so I only need 5 more gold winter ones to complete.
    • I’ve had to make a list of everyone who is gifting me butterflies so when I do catch them I can share with them. Feels bad that for every 4 or 5 they give, I only catch 1 so can’t return as many.
    • Got my first level 20 animal in AC:PC. Tex is a cute penguin 🙂
    • Finished all the free cross stitch patterns, and used some of my coins to buy the first cat pack. The first one I did is an orange cat who isn’t as awesome as Bilbo but still pretty. Bonus cross stitch picture below.
    • I’m considering taking a break from DragonVale once Bring it Back is over. I’ve got all the main dragons and eggs, and the rift is a bit overwhelming. I’ll probably return for the next event.

A virtual cross stitch picture of an orange cat.

Danni

2018 Week 2 Review

Danni, Gaming, M.E., Penguins!, Physical Disability, Real Life, Week in Review

A photo of Danni's face. Their head is resting on a pillow. The entire image is tinted purple from the light in the top right corner. A photo of Danni lying in bed, wearing a dark t-shirt with blue penguins wearing space helmets. They are smiling.

I’ve been a very tired penguin, and have not been sleeping as much as I’ve been wanting. These may be related. I’ve also been hallucinating quite a bit. When it’s hearing Johan calling me when he’s not home, it’s pretty easy to figure out it’s not real. The phone or doorbell ringing are harder. Music helps, but I have to be careful as it can easily be overwhelming.

Johan has been doing a lot of running, including a marathon today that he ran faster than anyone else doing a marathon there. He is happy. I am proud!

Main event was getting a visit from Esther today! Thank goodness for adrenaline. Totally worth it even if I get payback from it. I’m hoping to be well enough to have more visits soon.

Two pictures this week – an attempt at a selfie in my normal (purple) light conditions, then a second where I made the light white for a minute. White light is very bright. Having the light behind me is excellent for not being overwhelmed but not good for selfies.

  • Overall mood – Good 😊
  • Average daily sleep – 6 hours 44 minutes (of 10 hours 22 minutes trying)
  • Longest sleep – 8 hours 41 minutes from Wednesday night to Thursday morning (of 11 hours 40 minutes)
  • Clothes changed – 1 (Space Penguins. Because Space Penguins.)
  • Wipe wash – 1 (And was much more painful than expected)
  • Water wash – 0
  • Books read – 0
  • TV watched – Small amount of BBC News when trying to find out if Hawaii had a missile headed towards them (they didn’t)
  • YouTube videos watched – 0
  • Music listened to – Darwinia soundtrack, Spirited Away soundtrack (now my default when hallucinating and am home alone)
  • Blog posts written (including this) – 1
  • Penguins cuddled – lots 🐧🐧🐧
  • Johan hand holds – lots (and a Esther hand hold too!)
  • Johan hugs – 0
  • Time on Twitter – 4 hours 45 minutes
  • Time on Reddit – 10 hours 46 minutes
  • Time on Facebook – 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Other –
    • Received massive box of sweets with a giant foam banana
    • Esther visited!
    • Sammie been sending lovely messages
    • Attached Velcro to my tablet and bed rails so I can easily hang it up when I’m not using it (my bed rails are very tall)
    • Care worker who had been here multiple times before asked if I liked penguins. We’re trying to figure out how on earth she didn’t notice before

Game stuff

  • Games played – 6
    • Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
    • Cross Stitch
    • Neko Atsume
    • Godville
    • DragonVale
    • Infinity Loop Premium
  • AC: Pocket Camp Level – 62
  • Godville Heroine Level – 47
  • Godville wood for ark – 2.2%
  • Godville savings – 123 thousand
  • Cross stitch completed – 6
  • Most played game – Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (22 hours 30 minutes – I might be a little obsessed)
  • Other –
    • Got a new pet in Godville, a Lightsaber-Toothed Tiger called Sandy. They’re level 5.
    • Building third tier rustic amenity in AC:Pocket Camp. Once that’s finished I can level all the animals to level 20.
    • Also enjoying the new butterfly event in the garden. I have so many people giving me butterflies I’ve already completed the diamond butterfly goals and am one away from the topaz ones. I think I won’t have a problem getting everything in the event.
    • Completed all the New Year cross stitch patterns. Now finishing the free ones before deciding which to buy with my coins next.
Danni

2018 Week 1 Review

Danni, Gaming, M.E., Physical Disability, Real Life, Week in Review

A virtual cross stitch pattern, mostly pink and purple with large white numbers saying 2018.

Danni is lying in bed, wearing a purple t-shirt with a picture of the top half of an orange cat's face (Bilbo), with orange boy fan club written underneath in white. I’m wanting to blog every week, as I use my blog as a reminder of what I’ve been up to. This week I’ve started using a couple of new apps to track what I’m doing, and I’ve decided to use the data from there to make a blog post. I’ll probably tweak this template as time goes on and I decide what information I want to include or not. If I feel up to it I’ll add appropriate links, but on bad days I’ll leave them out.

The apps I’m using for this are Smarter Time (tracks what apps I’m using on my tablet and for how long), and Daylio (daily journal app which lets you record your mood and activities by just pressing a button). I’m also using my FitBit for sleep data. I only started using Smarter Time on the 3rd January, but from next week I’ll be using it to track how long I spent trying to sleep, as it’ll be more accurate than my FitBit for that.

I’ll also be adding my photo of the week. This week it’s one Johan took of me.

  • Overall mood – Good 😊
  • Average daily sleep – 7 hours 56 minutes (of ~11 hours trying)
    Clothes changed – 1 (Orange boy fan club t-shirt)
  • Wipe wash – 1
  • Water wash – 0
  • Books read – 1 – Slightly Higher Interval Training for 5K runners (or Run 5k in under 20 minutes on Goodreads for some reason)
  • TV watched – New Year Fireworks in London
  • YouTube videos watched – 3
  • Music listened to – Enya, Paramore, “relaxing” instrumental playlist (I disagree with Google on what counts as relaxing – it included the Game of Thrones theme)
  • Blog posts written (including this) – 4
  • Penguins cuddled – lots 🐧🐧🐧
  • Johan hand holds – lots, but wanted more
  • Johan hugs – 0 (I can’t wait to be well enough again)
    Time on Twitter (since 3rd January) – 5 hours 1 minute
  • Time on Reddit (since 3rd January) – 5 hours 33 minutes
  • Time on Facebook (since 3rd January) – 1 hour 14 minutes
  • Other –
    • Cleared snack box of rubbish
    • Automated app backups
    • Ate chocolate igloo Johan smashed (called the DWP)
    • Maybe I’m finally getting over this cold?
    • Read short Fusbyverse story on Reddit.

Game stuff

Danni

Happy New Year!

Autism, Computers, Gaming, M.E., Penguins!, Physical Disability, Real Life

I hope everyone had a good Christmas/holiday period, and that this year is better than the last.

I’m still not doing amazingly. Caught another cold before I’d recovered from the last one, so haven’t got out of bed since the Great North Run in September. Despite this, I had a lovely Christmas, and was thoroughly spoilt.

Johan bought me this amazing purple glittery crystal thing, that is sparkly. I’m hoping to find somewhere to put it that has a light shining on it so I can see it properly. He also got me some sheets which is very practical when bed bound 😛

Sammie came over on Christmas Eve, which was the best present from her, especially the hug. She also brought me gifts, a wall sticker of some penguins swimming through a port hole, and this huge penguin cushion that’s also a hand warmer. She got Johan (now also called Dad2) a t-shirt saying “I am currently unsupervised. I know, it scares me too, but the possibilities are endless!”. Both of us were extremely happy. Sammie’s grandparents gave me a chocolate penguin and chocolate smashable igloo, and Johan some running socks. That was awesome of them 😊

My mum gave us a pod coffee machine. As Johan has now started drinking coffee, this is very much appreciated. If also does hot chocolate so I’ll be able to use it too. Other gifts included a hot chocolate mix and some star decorations from friends (and I think there were others I can’t recall right now). I’m grateful for all of them, and along with the many cards I received feel very loved.

Christmas day I spent time video chatting Sammie, which is always good. Johan made Christmas dinner, which was roast duck, his amazing roast potatoes (even better this year!) and the trimmings. I managed to stay awake to eat it, and also watched the Doctor Who Christmas special with Johan. Loved the episode, and it makes me want to catch up with the last series (I’d only got up to the 2016 Christmas special before). I may not have been able to get out of bed, but it was awesome.

Boxing day the payback from the last few days hit, so I spent most of the day asleep or resting. I did manage to message Sammie to wish her a happy birthday (she’s 14 now, which is kinda scary) and I think she liked the presents we got her. That’s pretty much how I spent the rest of the week, though on the Saturday Johan went to South Shields to run his 50th Parkrun, which also took him to 1000 miles ran in 2017. An awesome achievement, which I slept through so he went for breakfast and cake with his running friends.

New Years Eve I woke up in the evening, and just before midnight put the telly on to watch the London fireworks and spoke to Sammie through messenger. The fireworks were awesome to watch, even though I’m torn on whether it’s a good thing or not. Once they finished the telly went back off as it was a bit much for me, but I’m glad I got to see the pretties and virtually celebrate with Sammie.

Payback is hard to deal with, as it makes all my normal symptoms much worse and adds in new ones which isn’t great, especially when I’m already in relapse from the successive colds. It’s a lot easier to deal with though when it’s due to doing something nice. I know that with rest and patience it will pass, and hopefully I’ll be able to get out of bed and do stuff again.

Since my last blog post I bought a new Android tablet, as my old Galaxy Tab S was freezing, randomly rebooting and generally being less reliable. It had lasted 3 years including many drops and falls, so I’m happy with that. I replaced it with a Google Pixel C, which is much faster. I also bought a chunky case for it immediately, to protect it from the inevitable drops and to make it much easier to hold.

As my new tablet went on sale the day I bought it, I used some of the money I saved to buy a Google Home Mini. Within a couple of hours of playing with it, Johan wanted one so we now have two. I already had wifi plug sockets that I could control, then on Black Friday the Philips Hue starter set I’ve been eying up for years was reduced to its lowest ever price, so I grabbed that. I have one bulb in my bedroom (currently in the lamp clipped on the back of my bed) and Johan put the other two in the living room and his room. Though it doesn’t always understand what we’re saying, being able to control the lights with our voices (including my text to speech if I’m nonverbal) is amazing, and I’ve set up custom phrases to set my light to purple, make my light change colours and such. It’s also good for reminders and simple searches when I’m not wanting to leave the app I’m using on my tablet.

Our Christmas tree from last year ended up being broken, so it’s been replaced with a black fibre optic one. Johan is very happy that he didn’t need to set up lights, and I’m happy because they’re twinkling slowly enough to not make me worse and aren’t too bright. We plugged it into one of the the WiFi plugs so I can turn them on and off by myself (including using the Home Mini) and this year it was fully decorated for an entire 10 minutes! Then the penguin on the top fell off. For next year we’ll either need to get a better penguin topper or a way to secure the penguin on there, but even without it’s very pretty.

Below is my game stuff which I know is more boring 😛

I still miss World of Warcraft, but I’ve only been able to go on my computer a couple of times in the last couple of months, and on the surface not much more than that. I’m hoping once I get out of my relapse I’ll be able to resubscribe and play again.

For now I’m sticking with my tablet games. The main one I’m playing right now is Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. It’s perfect for me, as I couldn’t use the controls to play the full version on the DS, and it’s simplified so it works even when I’m very foggy. At the moment I’m level 56 (of 64), have invited all the animals to my camp, have 2 of 5 top tier amenities (which let me level up the corresponding animals to 20), and have one of every is of flower in the garden. There’s still plenty for me to do, but I can spend only a few minutes or an hour depending on how I’m feeling at the time.

I’m still playing Neko Atsume, Godville and DragonVale. Neko Atsume I’m only missing the memento from Hermyown. In Godville my heroine has just completed my temple and is now saving for retirement and collecting wood to build an ark. In DragonVale I have one of every dragon, two of all but the most recent event dragons, and am working on rift traits for the dragons that can have them.

I occasionally play Gardenscapes and Fishdom when I fancy a match 3 game. I’m also occasionally playing sudoku, but I’m much slower and it’s very frustrating now my brain is so foggy. Puzzle games are normally my favourite but I need to be able to think to complete them.

I tried colouring apps but was getting anxious as I couldn’t decide what colour to use. Then I discovered cross stitch apps and they work much better for me. They work like colour by number, so I just follow the code and it tells me if I make a mistake. Once I’ve put the right colour in it won’t overwrite it with a wrong one, which is great as my hands can be quite shaky, and I can zoom in really far if needed so the boxes are big and easy to hit. I’m really happy to have found something I can do that’s relatively low energy and helps when I’m anxious. It helps that I can add my own pictures as the one I’m currently using doesn’t have any penguins by default. Penguins make everything better.