Beyond part-time work

It still took me a little longer to write another blog post than I would have liked, but the gap wasn’t as big as last time at least. My part-time job at the café is going great and I am even starting to to learn how to make latte art. When I do it, it still looks like… nothing, really, but I’ll get there eventually. My actual full-time job is going great as well. As some inevitable big changes are on the horizon, it’s actually kind of exciting to contemplate what I could be doing starting Q2 of 2023. So to get things out of the way, I am doing really well right now and feeling quite positive too. It of course could have something to do with the fact that I am currently on a mini holiday, but that’s just a minor detail, isn’t it?

Making videos

I mentioned in my last update that I was working on a video in regards to my new Keyboard and that one is still in progress. I do however seriously lack the energy to film the outstanding pieces I need right now, to finish the video. That’s something I have been feeling in general right now and it’s not exactly surprising either. I am working two jobs, which means I am working 7 days a week and I go to the gym daily from Monday to Friday. I am not saying it would be impossible, other people do it with even more on their plate, however, I am currently trying to work on my mental health, not make it worse by stressing about making videos, that barely anyone is watching in the first place. So until I get a little more comfortable with my energy levels, I am not going to worry about this right now. I do have a few ideas that I want to tackle, but before that, I really need to figure out how to film the pieces I need first, as I want to move away from gameplay focused footage. I don’t want to stop that, but I do want to rely a lot less on it going forward. All a work in progress and while I will aim to at least get my Keyboard video out, as it will otherwise no longer make sense, the rest will probably have to wait quite a while, as long as I don’t forget about it.

My own vegan Croissant

I said I would do it and I did! The end result you are seeing pictured above actually was the second attempt. My first attempt landed on the floor, literally. At the very last stage, where it would have come to shaping the croissants, the dough fell on the floor, nullifying five hours of work. Those five hours include a lot of waiting around during the layering process mind you, but it was still wasted.

So this is the result of dough number two, the one that actually made it into the oven. The taste was perfect, the insides were nice, smooth, well layered and buttery, but I do need to make one final adjustment. I loosely followed a recipe from Vera’s Kitchen and forgot that in America, as in generally across the continent, not just the US, oven instructions are based on upper and lower heat, instead of the over here in Europe, more common convection settings. So while I converted her figures to celsius, I did forget to shave off roughly 20 degrees to accomodate the convection setting we use by default. I could technically also just use upper and lower heat in my next attempt, but I find that using the convection setting usually yields better results. Either way, they turned out great and even though they do require a little fine tuning when it comes to the baking process, I am extremely proud of myself to not only make really good croissants, but vegan ones at that.

Bayonetta 3

I love Bayonetta and while I thought the whole Hellena Taylor drama would loom over the game and ruin the enjoyment of the game, I am so glad that I was wrong. The game is great. There’s a lot to critique here too, if you are someone who has played Platinumgames’ games and the previous two Bayonetta installments specificially, but it’s still so much fun. I still have a lot to do as well. I have yet to purchse the platinum ticket, I haven’t finished up the Witch Trials, I still haven’t really grasped how to play Viola optimally and I haven’t even started on Pure Platinum’ing the game on Infinite Climax. I had kind of hoped that I could do the grind in handheld mode, but due the performance issues the game has, it’s borderline unplayable if it isn’t docked for anything other than playing through the story. As I am not done yet, this is all I can really say for now without risking to contradict myself in the near future. Bayonetta is one of my absolute favourite franchises out ther though, so I want to dedicate a post solely to Bayonetta 3… but I will need a little more time with the game first.

That’s all I have right now. My anxiety hasn’t been an issue ever since I started working at the café and while I am not too stoked about the fact that I am kind of sacrificing making videos in the process, I am not exactly fretting about it, as keeping my anxiety in check is a lot more important to me after all. Let’s see how long it will take me until my next update. See you next time.