It’s Monday again! And with just one week left for November, December is getting awfully close. December is always a great month to reflect on the year and to start looking forward. Now that we’ve settled here in our new home, I’m sure to pick up that tradition again and see how this year has gone. It sure didn’t go as I had planned before, but I’m slowly picking up and getting into the right groove again.

Getting back into shape!

As I said before, you shouldn’t wait for change to happen. I’ve been going to the gym since about two days after I wrote this article and last week was my first “full” week. I went three times, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have to admit that it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be and I think Bren is amazed by the fact that I haven’t given up yet. The thing is that I’ve met some familiar faces at the gym from the time when I was still working in an office here in Hilversum and seeing those people still going at it after all this time is giving me a lot of motivation. But it’s not just that, that feeling after completing a workout and hitting the shower is just pure bliss. So, yeah, it looks like I’m starting to make a habit of it and I love myself for sticking to it thus far!

Sorted and sold!

So, last week I wrote an article about sorting out stuff. I’ve been going through my old Nintendo collection as well as part of my childhood LEGO sets and put up a whole ton of stuff up for sale that I know was just collecting dust. I’ve already sold a great deal of my Nintendo games that were near mint condition and am still working on rebuilding the old LEGO sets before putting them up for sale. But the latter is a lot of work. The pirates sets are nearly done, however, so I’ll probably put the whole lot up for sale, instead of selling all the sets individually. I had already put up one set for sale, but thus far no one seems interested.

Playing more (retro)games

Last Friday Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl were released and Bren and I have played them a little bit, having never played the originals we’ve enjoyed these games and their “chibi” graphical style a lot so far. I’ve also hooked up my Wii U, because I remembered that Nintendo had released Game Boy Advance on it and that I had bought several of them. I was delighted to see that I had actually already bought Metroid: Zero Mission, the remake of the original Metroid game from the NES. So, I’ve been playing that and am thinking about playing all the games leading up to Metroid: Dread, before giving that one a go. Of course, I’m also going to write some more in-depth articles about all of these games as I play them. You can expect more gaming related reviews and articles here!

Writing

Yeah, writing. That thing that I do. Lately it’s been mostly blogs that I’ve been writing, but my head is doing overtime for the plot of the new Kevar story that I’m working on, so that is still happening. Also, the pitch for Stempels is on my To-Do list for this week. And having read “Ask Iwata” has sparked an idea to maybe one day write a video game related book as well. Perhaps one about storytelling in games and how I still think it’s one of the best ways to tell a story. In other words: busy times! But they’re good times and I’m loving it!

Hope you’re having a great week all!

Happy Monday!

~Jeffrey