The First of Firsts - M01

I’m back for my first installment of monthnotes! I was going to give weeknotes a try, but it doesn’t really mesh well with my busy schedule right now.

Not gonna lie these last couple of weeks have been pretty rough, but I think that makes this exercise even more worthwhile to me. Something really cathartic about writing these. Is nice a respite for the stresses of the world we live in.

Site Updates

Goodbye Tinylytics

As you may or not noticed, I removed Tinylytics analytics from my site, including all of its nifty features such as kudos, hits and my favorite one: its webring! While I really enjoyed all its features and love the work that they do, I figured I might as well delete my account after they announced they’re phasing out their free plan. It just isn’t the cards for my small sapling of a site, and I like keeping this site as zero cost as possible, partly for my own wallet’s sake, and mostly as a way to show others than maintaining a site doesn’t have to cost anything other than your time, which isn’t that much either once you get a little know-how on your belt. :)

While I could move to another free analytics provider, I kinda like the idea of not having analytics for now. I never really paid much attention to it, and a lot of the hits could be just bots anyways. I think I’ll just focus on more organic ways of user interaction. Like webrings, likes/kudos etc. Oh, and if anyone knows or hosts a techie webring that my site could be a good addition to, please let me know! Afterall us small/indie sites should stick together.

Planned Rewrites

While still on the topic of analytics, I recently took some time and went over mine in depth, and I noticed something surprising. Well, at least for me!

My Getting Started with Chromebrew! post seems to be my most popular to date, which is interesting, if not a bit mortifying..

To be perfectly honest here, that post isn’t my finest work, and I didn’t give it much time as it deserved. It was mostly a quick write up after messing around with Chromebrew on my Chromebook for a while. Is pretty barebones and neither in depth enough or easy to follow. Seeing it being that popular fills me with a bit of dread, not because I dislike the topic, far from it! But at my own ineptitude. I feel like, no I know I can do better. So, I’ll be focusing on a complete rewrite of that post and modifying and cleaning up others. But, I will still be doing my (hopefully on time) monthnotes.

Anime

Now onto what I’ve been watching this past month, if you didn’t know I’m a huge anime guy, is pretty much the only thing that I watch that isn’t YouTube videos lol.

Watching

Digimon Beatbreak

Now the main thing I’ve been surprisingly hyped for last season! I’m genuinely really impressed, and amazed how good this series is turning out to be! It could easily overtake Tamers as one of my favorites Digimon series, and that’s not a small feat. I’m planning on writing a post on it once it finishes airing, but for now if you’re at all into Digimon, I highly recommend you check it out!

Watched

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Watched this when it first premiered back in the fall of 2017, and it’s one of my favorites non U.C(Universal Century) series. So I thought it was as good a time as any for a rewatch, and it still holds up remarkably well! Watched the English dub this time around, which was a bit off at first, but I quickly warmed up to the cast.

Is one of those shows that you know won’t end well, but you can’t stop watching it, you just need to see it to its end. The ending is still my favorite part of the series, is just that well executed in my opinion.

I highly recommend giving it a shot if you’re into mecha, or into Gundam and somehow haven’t seen it yet.

Detective Conan: Locked Room in the Sky: Shinichi Kudo’s First Case

Been really into watching Conan lately, thanks in part due to Anime on TMS! releasing episodes and movies on their YouTube channel for its anniversary. This was a pretty good episode and it was nice to get some more backstory for Shinichi and Ran.

Detective Conan: Episode One - The Great Detective Turned Small

Great movie, is just the first few episodes, newly animated with added scenes. But hey I’m not complaining! More Conan content is always welcomed in my book.

Gaming

Not been gaming as much lately as I would like, but still managed to get some good time there and there.

Playing

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Decided to replay yet again earlier last month. Is one of my favorites Fire Emblem games to date, while the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, the presentation is the best the series has had to this point, in my humble opinion.

Currently left around Act 3, because something else has been keeping my attention at the moment…

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Been pretty hooked on it ever since I was given it late last month. and at the time of writing this post, I should be pretty close to finishing it.

I’ll probably dive deeper into my thoughts on it in a later post but for now, it is fun. Really fun! and I really enjoyed the new real time battle system and its mechanics. Sorta challenging in some parts as well, which is welcomed for someone like me who’s been playing these games for decades now.