Fortnite is so sweaty in the holidays.

But I do get a lot of time to play online with the kids. They’re much better than me. But I secured us a scrappy, but deserved Victory Royale this morning.

Gets the blood pumping! 🎮

And in Lightroom, I’ve just been continuing the years-long project of trying to gather all my work. My first digital photos were made in 2003. And I also started digitising my film negs and slides back then too.

One thing I am appreciating is 2005, 2006 were perhaps my best ever years of photography.

Unfortunately I have the best part of 200K files to go through. Many, many, many of them are dupes (backups of backups of backups). It’s taking a lot of time and patience to get through them.

But it will be worth it because I have so many precious memories in there. Of my children, my family. And of course, my precious art.

MY PRECIOUS ARRRRRRT 😇

✱ After a looooooong day on the computer (mainly on Lightroom) I got a nice bit of welcome news by email. A very nice portent for the year ahead, I feel.

My 2023 PlayStation Wrap-Up

I do love a bit of Fortnite. Maybe a bit too much. I did play some awesome games in 2023!! But they didn’t really show up here, lol.

Also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/rlqi2iC3IS8

🎮

NTS 1

  1. Note to Self: 1. [✓] Upload video. | 2. [_] Change date 31/12/23 ↩︎

My 2023 PlayStation Wrap-Up

✱ I’m over the hump of this flu. And I had begun making deals and plans with myself about how I would get life back on track today.

But my body is saying No, more rest.

Listening to my body is the most important thing I can do when I’m poorly. Learning this every day.

✱ I’m about 15 hours through playing Sea of Stars (2023) and it’s just brilliant. It’s one of those games that I can put down for a couple of weeks and forget about it, come back and play with no problems remembering what’s going on, or how to play.

We need more games like this! It just strikes a perfect balance of a good gameplay system worth mastering, whilst keeping it simple. The battle system is so satisfying! The story is pretty good, and it’s a very pretty game.

I don’t know how long it is but I hope there’s plenty more before I complete it, and I’m voting for a sequel. 🎮

✱ Science: We now definitively and absolutely understand Subject Y.
Science: Our understanding of Subject X has matured and we were previously wrong in our understanding of it.

I love science but I don’t like the statements of absolute certainty scientists sometimes make.

✱ I’ve moved my domain aeryn.me from my Blot account to this Micro.blog account. It was super smooth to do.

I think I’ve successfully redirected the Blot RSS feed to the new URL too. So, any Blot RSS subscribers should have just received recent posts from my Micro.blog.

I’m super happy with Blot and intend to use my account for a different project soon. If you’d like to stay up to date with that, you can follow the RSS feed for that.

✱ Unfortunately, it did kind of ruin the post-Christmas period. A time I usually treasure for being with family but have had to rest and isolate instead.

✱ I’ve had the flu for the last 3 or 4 days and it’s been rough. Being ill alone is very hard going but I have been looking after myself ok. It’s been a million times easier than long covid was tho.

I think I’m over the hump of it now. So tomorrow I have a goal of getting outside for some fresh air. As I slowly regain my strength.

Long Covid taught me how to self care deeper than ever. It showed me a greater level of compassion for myself than ever before. This bought of flu has been a not so gentle reminder of all that.

2024 is for growing and getting my strength back.

✱ I watched Aftersun (2022). A beautiful film with a rising, brooding background darkness that is fairly unambiguous in the end, although not depicted. Lots to unpack for me. 🎥

Pen and Ink drawing with overlapping rectangles at 45 degrees. Some spaces blocked in with black ink.

Alfian canal boat on the Macclesfield Canal. A rusty old canal narrowboat painted blue and red floats on rippled water, underneath yellow and green autumnal trees. The canal water reflects the blue sky which has wispy white clouds. In the foreground of the photo are reeds. The photo is saturated in colour.

Alfian canal boat on the Macclesfield Canal

Hey, I’m back on Glass. I took a year out to find myself :PI like this. I took a walk along the canal a couple of evenings ago and it, well, wow. It was gorgeous..Alfian canal boat on the Macclesfield Canal, High Lane. 11 November 2023. By Aeryn

2023-08-02 09-28 Rabbit Hole Plastic Soul (lyric- Arcade Fire)

A photo of a green field in low light. Trees line the field on either side, and the near horizon. The sky is muted and dark blue. In the centre of the photo is the orange after-glow of the sunset.

After sundown in the park.

A buzzard perched in a tree, with blue sky behind.

I got really lucky last night in the park. A buzzard was perched up in a tree above the path. Shot on iPhone in RAW and I’m impressed with the quality.

A laminated print out of a poem titled In Passing tied to the corner of a park bench.

Found on a park bench. Author unknown. I can’t find this on a web search.

Looking down an empty street with white lines painted. On the right, green leafy trees behind a low red brick wall. On the left, red brick buildings, one flying the Union Jack flag.

I took a little early walk the other day and it was nice to see it so quiet.

Three goslings shown close up, foraging.

I took a bit of a risk with this. I could see the Canada Geese pair working their way along the edge of the pond with their goslings. So I sat on the ground waiting for them to come to me. And they did! They got close enough to touch. And their parents were surprisingly very relaxed in my presence. I shot a bunch of photos. It was a lot of fun and I felt pretty amazed how cool the geese were with me, because usually they’re very defensive and aggressive.

This is from last year in my local park. There are no goslings here this year.

My mental health has been a massive challenge for me this year. I was hoping to upload to Glass more regularly. I’ve been meaning to upload this for the Wildlife theme. I am quite happy with the way this photo turned out and that I actually uploaded it.

At Abney Hall Park. Goslings Up Close by Aeryn North 2021-07-11 17:56 #AbneyHallPark #Birds #CanadaGeese #Cheadle #Cheshire #Feeding #Geese #Goslings #Park #UK

Dew drops on grass. The frame is filled with green grass and dew drops.

Dew Through a Dirty Window

My window is super dirty but the early morning dew was still pretty AF. By Aeryn North 2022-04-16 07:53 with Nikon Z5. #Bright #Cheadle #Cheshire #Dew #Droplets #Garden #Grass #SpecularHighlights #UK #Verdant #Vibrant

An insect on white blossom flowers with blue sky behind.

Some Kind of Bee By Aeryn North 2022-04-02 16:17 with iPhone #AbneyHallPark #Bees #Blossoms #Cheadle #Cheshire #Flowers #Insects #Nature #Park #UK