Genshin Impact - Yes, I'm Still Obsessed

So, it's been about a year since I wrote up my first Genshin Impact post, which means I'm way overdue for the next!

I'm clearly still addicted to Genshin... I mean, Sony's 2021 update said I played 1062 hours last year (and that's just on Playstation - I may have made a second account on my computer, but I haven't played that one too much - heh). At least my addictive personality gloms onto games instead of more destructive pastimes?

Oh, and I've kicked Summoners War to the curb (it was fun while it lasted, though). I still try to squeeze in some time for Everquest, and I also play Epic 7 (super casually) and Castle Cats on a regular basis. I've been making my way through Persona 5: Royal (which makes this the third time I've played Persona 5 - haha) as far as normal console games go.

Wow, that was a tangent. I should really post more often about gaming!

The rest of this post will be tons of Genshin Impact screenshots because... all the awesomeness. I'll make a note for each one. Enjoy, and happy hunting!

I figured I'd start with the Lantern Rite festival, since we're currently in the middle of it, in-game. This shot was from last year.

Yes, I got Xiao last year! And this is me releasing a bunch of lanterns with him.

This is during the Windblume festival. All the flowers! Lumine here is the female protagonist/main character (you get to choose her or her brother Aether to play at the beginning).

Pretty waterfalls!

The Unusual Hilichurl. He's in a different spot each day - always fun stumbling across him... and then attacking him to work on my achievement. ;) He always disappears into a suitcase, leaving some cabbages behind.

So, this squirrel was bugged and wouldn't run away per usual. I decided to have some screenshot fun. Doesn't it look like Keqing is reading to the squirrel? Lol.

Zhongli at the end of one of his questlines. He's still my favorite character to use, and he's a bit of a crutch for me. I think I have a thing for meteors (I still love all the meteor spells in Everquest, too).

This is Ayaka from the end of her main questline. And yes, I got her! She is wicked DPS, too. Hubbie kind of wishes he would have gotten her as well.

Here we have Yoimiya. I don't have this character, but Eldest does. I just couldn't pass up posting this awesome screenshot.

Oh, look at Dragonspine. So cold and foreboding, no?

Here's Albedo - this was during the winter event on Dragonspine. Fun storyline! Currently Hubbie is the only one in the house with this character.

Do you want to build a snowman? That's one of the things we got to do during the winter event!

Arataki Itto, the One and Oni (yes, he really says that). I love, love, love his personality. And bashing creatures with him, as well. As a plus, the voice actor is the same one who does Ryuji in Persona 5! There was no way I wasn't going to grab this awesome character.

Entering Enkanomiya, the latest area added to Genshin.

Going up, up, up in the Jade Chamber! That's Paimon, Lumine, and Shenhe. Paimon is your ever-present travel buddy. And yes, I managed to get Shenhe, too.

I was so thrilled I actually got this shot, as I thought I missed it. That's Keqing and Ganyu leading the troops!

Finally, sad Shenhe. This scene was even more beautiful to witness live. MiHoYo does do an excellent job with all the cutscenes - just awesome graphics, in my opinion.

And that's all for my waifu and husbando worship for now! Do you play Genshin Impact? If so, who are your favorite characters, and have you gotten any cool screenshots while playing?

1001 Reasons Not To Clean - #56 through #60

Welcome to 1001 Reasons Not to Clean! The main goal of this series is to see if I can actually reach 1001 reasons, 5 reasons at a time (the final post, if I get there, will be 6 reasons). I'm sure I can. It's not just my crazy brain being unrealistic, right? Links to previous posts are below. And feel free to share your excuses, and they might get added to my list (with credit, of course)!

#1 through #5 ~ #6 through #10 ~ #11 through #15 ~ #16 through #20 ~ #21 through #25 ~ #26 through #30 ~ #31 through #35 ~ #36 through #40 ~ #41 through #45 ~ #46 through #50 ~ #51 through #55

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56. Anxiety, mostly due to #57. It pretty much freezes you and you can't seem to muster the energy to clean anything or work on the projects you started three months ago. Close your eyes, then you can't see the mess. Better yet, take a nap or do #58.

57. Pandemic. Need I say more? OK, I'll say more anyhow. You're cloistered in your house most of the time for over a year... which makes you want to clean it even less. Not to mention to deal with #56 you're playing an inordinate amount of video games. No time to clean, busy with #58.

58. Genshin Impact! Oh, yes, it's another game. A super fun game with gorgeous scenery and beautiful music that's easy to get lost in. And 2020 made many of us want to get lost in things.

59. The house has become sentient and has decided to fall apart on you in the span of a month. Boiler dies during a cold snap? Yup. Front door steps crumbling to dust? Uh huh. Upstairs toilet overflows and water pours from fixtures into the kitchen below (which was remodeled five years ago)? Argh, yes. Who has the energy to clean if your house hates you?

60. Taking cat pictures and posting them to Instagram is loads more fun. Cats are cute. They make me smile. Don't they make everyone smile? I hope so. Cleaning doesn't make me smile. Why do something that doesn't make you smile?

Genshin Impact - My Newest Addictive Game

OK, so this post is likely just going to be mostly screenshots, and a little bit of my own art. PICTURES. That's about where my brain is today anyway. Processing words = hard (I haven't been sleeping well lately so, yeah...).

As many of you already know, I'm a gamer. Yes, I still play Everquest and Summoners War, but now I have a new addiction. Actually, it's kind of a family addiction since Hubbie and Eldest play as well!

Last October, the three of us started playing Genshin Impact, by MiHoYo. The biggest thing that drew us in at first was that it was available for free on Playstation 4 (it's also available on PC and Mobile, and it's in the works for Nintendo Switch).

As a warning, though it's available on a console, it's still a gacha game. But oh man, have they brought that genre of games to a whole new level! It plays like a normal console/PC fantasy RPG. There's a huge and beautiful world to explore. Chests (some hidden insanely well), puzzles, adaptability in game play, fleshed out characters (the ones we've received stories for at least), and a great overarching story. When I grind in this game, I feel like I'm playing Everquest (fantasy MMORPG) instead of Summoners War (fantasy gacha). Take a look at some world screenshots below.

We have paid in a little bit of money to it, but we're looking at what we've spent as pretty much a monthly subscription for the game (which we pay in Everquest still). The best deals to make the game a little easier but not spend too much is going for the monthly Welkin Moon ($5 USD) and the lower tier of the Battle Pass ($10 USD every six weeks). The Battle Pass especially has helped us with being able to partially build a few more characters to experiment with.

Of course, the characters are the biggest gacha draw, especially if you want some of the 5-stars. Though, if you're patient, you will gather enough Wishes to get a 5-star without spending a penny. The rates are pretty low, but they have a pity system built in, so you're guaranteed a 5-star after so many Wishes.

Here's one of my favorites that I pulled last month. ♥ Yes, I have fallen into the world of waifus and husbandos - lol.

So, me, Hubbie, and Eldest have decided to do some challenges with each other in Genshin Impact as well. It's a PvE game (so no PvP content at this time), but you can group with up to three other people to tackle some things together if you'd like. Our first challenge, though, had us killing as many monsters as we could in our own worlds. We had six categories of monsters to slaughter in an hour. I decided to make some "trophies" for these categories. So I drew some Genshin Impact cards! They're still in pencil only, but the front of the cards are below, and what's on the back of the cards is to the right.

Finally, we eventually plan to do a challenge in one person's world, only using one character each, and each type of mob will be worth different points. I made a big primogem for the trophy for who gets the most points (kind of similar to a wrestling title, it will be handed to whoever the current champion is, as we plan to do this challenge more than once). This one I colored already, but scanning it in dulled some of the colors. It's posted below.

So, what do you think? Am I crazy as usual? (Yes, probably.) Am I playing too much Genshin Impact? (Oh, definitely.) Have you tried Genshin? If so, what do you think? (Hit me up for a friend request if you enjoy the game and plan to continue playing!).

And you do know you'll all be seeing more screenshots from me in the future, right? Happy gaming!

NaNoWriMo 2020 - NaNo Bites

No, no, I'm not saying NaNo sucks, although some people might think it does (NaNo Crud sucks, and I really hope it stays away for me this year). I'm talking about word bites!

So, I'm undertaking NaNoWriMo again this year. I've been on another 3-month hiatus due to kids and health, and I am mad with the need to write. And during my hiatus my brain decided to spawn an idea for a 13-book series. Yup. I'm crazy. And I should be working on all the other projects on my to do list, but here we are...

I don't expect to hit 50,000 words. I never have, and I suspect I never will, at least not until both kids are out of the house, but by then it's likely I'll have another job or two, so yeah. =P I'll definitely be trying my best, though.

My NaNo project for 2020 is called Gemini's Echo - the first in a series titled Zodiac Aegis. It's looking like it'll be New Adult Urban Fantasy.

This year I'll be taking a different approach. I won't be integrating my usual meter into the post. Instead, I'm giving myself stickers!

I have 100 NaNo Bites I need to take. Each Bite is 500 words. So, I made myself a handy little chart in Google Docs, which means I can share it with everyone. I'm going to try to do a thumbnail here in the post, but if it for some reason doesn't work nicely for everyone to view, you can use this link to take a look: NaNo Bites 2020.

How many unicorn stickers do you think I'll get this year? I'd love to see people make guesses on how many words I might reach! I already have two as of this post... and I'm like 37 words away from my third - lol. No more writing until later tonight again, though. Unfortunately, I have to adult and pay bills, balance accounts, and deal with kid homework.

Also, Eldest is home for the week doing virtual learning (was informed of this on Saturday), just to make the start of NaNo more difficult. Though this year, she'll be joining in on NaNo with me! She's participating in the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program. Her goal is 5,000 words, but she might raise it if she plugs along faster than she expected. I've also told her she can play 30 minutes of Genshin Impact during the week (usually it's weekends only) for every 250 words she writes. Wish her luck!

Speaking of Genshin Impact, I'll need to resist the call of that game and others if I want to get more words down. Happy NaNoing everyone!