Update 10

 Well, been a bit quiet on the blog front. Most of that comes down to progress being pretty slow with the two games I have been focused on. Those are Chrono Trigger and Sokobond. I was making some slow progress with Chrono Trigger and I believe I am close to the end although not sure exactly how close. But then I hit a roadblock. Basically I am fighting the queen's second manifestation. Up to this point every boss I faced was pretty easy and would take like at most two or three tries. But suddenly it feels like the difficulty has ramped up. Maybe there is some trick I haven't discovered. The idea has crossed my mind of checking a guide but I haven't given up trying to solve it on my own.

Sokobond has been fairly steady but I believe I am only maybe like 2/3 finished or something like that. But there have been some puzzles that have stumped me for awhile.

Both of these have been slightly exacerbated by the fact that, although I have tried until recently to limit myself to these two games there are many days where I just don't really feel like facing up to whatever is blocking my progress. I really want to finish both of them but a lot of times I kind of just feel like I want something easy. So for awhile I just wouldn't play anything if I didn't want to face up to those two. But it has been a bit a challenge because there are a lot of times when I really feel tempted to start something new. In the moment I feel like I am just kind of bored but I think what is really going on is just that I am not wanting to face up to the challenge and something else seems like it will be easier.

Sometimes the approach of "just play whatever you feel in the moment" seems really attractive. The main problem with that is just analysis paralysis. I have over 300 video games and I really don't know what game I am in the mood for so I just come up with ideas and reject them and then just don't play anything. 

So anyways, one of the games that I was consistently wanting to jump into is a factory builder called Satisfactory. Basically you are dropped on an alien planet and have to build factories to produce parts to help save humanity. So last week I just decided I would install and play it. So I have been playing that most days since then. It is pretty fun. I admit to having some negative feelings about tearing up these beautiful natural scenes but the planning and automating more and more is "satisfying"!

Other than that I have been reading a book called "Works of Game", it is an exploration of the intersection of games and art. I plan on finishing it soon and will post a review.

I do spend some time on Twitch watching streamers and sometimes watch German streamers. This has given me a bit of a bug to get back into German. Not really sure how serious I am about it. There don't seem to be any really great reasons to get into it. I also have some bad associations from my time in Germany (my own issues, not related to the people, who treated me well.) But we will just have to see.

 Other than that life is pretty basic. Dealing with some issues at work with a student who causes me a lot of anxiety. But other than that work is pretty smooth. Ellie is quite busy. The twins seem to be doing ok in England although one of them is having issues with his group mates in one of his project classes. The weather here has been up and down but is currently cold and rainy again after a streak of very pleasant sunny days.