Oops, I Did It Again!

 . . . as Britney Spears would say. 

All my good intentions of blogging every day (did I really say I would do that? 😂), or even vaguely regularly, went up in smoke as they always do with me, although me saying I didn't do anything apart from celebrate idols' birthdays probably wasn't hugely interesting to most people (or even me) anyway.

To be fair, I was heavily sidetracked by Hogwarts Legacy, as we all know - and being terrible at games it took me about 420 hours to complete it (yes, I really am that bad!) - and that was without any of the side bits like decorating my room of requirement or the vivariums - mine were empty apart from plant pots and potions tables, and let's not even talk about shiny animals (although I did somehow manage to get a shiny (gold) unicorn 🦄. 

Look at the pretty unicorns ❤️

Worse still, I felt I didn't do it (especially my Slytherin character) justice so I restarted playing over Christmas. I'm impressed at how much better I am this time around (and more adventurous in jumping across gaps and stuff), although I still suck at flying and my fighting ability is zero - and yes, I was and am playing "story" mode, the easiest mode, and it's still challenging for me 😂.

After I finished the original run-through, I decided to try another few games (Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and a curious game called Book of Hours) but gave up with both almost immediately as they weren't as easily playable as HL so I was even worse at them - and I give up when I get frustrated with things. I am not a trier, which is why I hate all those games like Candy Crush or the bottle-filling games because I just want to smash things or fill bottles for hours, I don't need them to get increasingly impossible to do (maybe this is why I don't mind all the repetitive tasks in HL). 

Two other big factors in not blogging (or playing games) were work - which took up far too much of my time and mental well-being this year - and still is, unfortunately - and music which took up a whopping amount of my time (far more than I expected - I really should make listening to music my full-time job - I would be much happier too). Even drama-watching took a backseat as the year went on, although I did manage to complete a fair few.

Anyway, having spent too much time on those things I really couldn't be bothered to sit down at the end of the day and blog about it, especially when I wasn't doing anything exciting.

I did do a few things over the year - at the end of May/early June, I went on holiday with my family to Benidorm. It was great, both the holiday itself (which was the first proper holiday since 2019 and was a lovely break from work and I want more) and spending time with my family, who I hadn't seen since the pandemic began in March 2020 (in fact, I had just got back from my mother's 80th birthday party in Spain when the lockdown started). 

There were also concerts, of course:

• April - Blue October (twice and we met them again too)
• June - SHINee (online - I really want to see them live one day)
• July - KPop Lux Festival (online as it was in Madrid - I wish I'd gone, though)
• October - Muse - they were as incredible as they always are, but unfortunately, Quincy ended up catching Covid
• November - London KPop Festival (online as we couldn't make the concert - which was lucky as they streamed all the performances on YouTube a couple of weeks later and I'd have been really annoyed at paying almost £200 for a ticket just to see it all online)
• November - Woodz - he was great and we were lucky enough to see him just a couple of days before he announced his enlistment date (serve well, king)
• December - TVXQ! (online this morning and they were amazing - I love them so much)

There are plenty more concerts, both online and IRL planned for 2024, assuming ill-health doesn't stop us, as it did a few times this year 😞.

We also managed a couple of trips to the cinema - to see the Peter Doherty film, which I found really interesting and informative, and made me love him even more than I already do, and also to see the NCT Nation concert film, which was entertaining but confirmed that the only NCT unit I really like enough to spend time on is WayV (sorry 127 and Dream).

This year also saw the sudden enlistment of Kai (very unexpectedly, just before the EXO album (which is a banger) was released) and then we lost Sehun to military service too, just before Christmas, so no full band again until 2025 now. Shinwon from Pentagon went at the same time.

Sadly, my beloved ult, ult bias, Onew, went on hiatus for ill health just before SHINee's last album was released in June, so he missed all the promotion for it, and he still isn't back😭 - get well soon, my love, I and millions of others miss you greatly. 

Most members of Pentagon and all of BtoB left Cube, and have signed with other agencies. Hopefully, they will still all be working as their respective bands in the future as well as following their solo careers (although Yanan is still in China and signed to a Chinese agency and busy with all sorts of work, so I'm not that hopeful about his return to Pentagon 😢). 

EXO also had a busy year with their contracts - EXO CBX were even suing SM at one point (good thing too!). I'm not entirely sure where they all stand at the current time, except that D.O. has started his own agency to manage his solo activities. I think Baekhyun has started a dance agency (?) or maybe one for his solos (I'm sure he said something about dancing though), and EXO-SC are also managing their own activities (when Sehun returns obviously). As the band's relations with SM are less cordial than they've ever been, I wouldn't be surprised if the band leaves in the next year, or shortly after Sehun is discharged. I live in the eternal hope that Lay is still a member, despite his increasing workload in China, and his signing to yet another agency to manage his international work. I miss him in the band and want him back working with his members.

One of the best things K-pop-wise (from my point of view anyway), was Omega X finally getting away from their terrible agency and then releasing a fab new album. I was so happy for them - long may they continue. 

I'm currently working on my end-of-year music lists, which I will write about here once I've finally sorted them (although the playlists for the favourites and monthly listening are available in the bar on the right). Some of it will be easier thanks to the monthly playlists, despite the difficulty in choosing a top 3 every month, but there is still a deal of work involved, especially deciding on favourite lead and B-side songs from the EPs and Albums and sorting out OSTs and stuff.

I also hope to listen to more Chinese music next year, although it's not so easy to track down, especially when they only put some of it on Chinese streaming sites that have no translation facility. I did split what I could find into separate monthly playlists, with the intention of doing a top 3 for them too, but when the K playlist was up in the 6-700's each month, and with work sometimes leaving me having to play catch-up, it was hard to find time to listen to them as well. I must try harder next year as most of the stuff I did listen to was excellent (and not just Zhang BinBin and WayV either).  

I discovered LastFM in July, which has been providing me with all sorts of interesting (and contradictory) information about my listening habits - it has EXIST (the EXO album) as both 1 and 2 in my most listened-to albums list (I have no idea how this happened 😂). I'm also continuing the use of Receiptify. I look forward to a full year of data from both this time next year, when I might be able to get a proper reading on the number of songs listened to etc. (it's been 11,676 since 1 July, so probably at least double that). 

At the beginning of December (far too early as I've listened to another 2,527 (as I write these words) songs since the beginning of the month, Spotify released their annual Wrapped stats, the details of which can be found below. I don't think 4 of my top 5 artists this year would be much of a surprise to anyone. If you're interested in what they say I listened to most, you can listen to my playlist.  

This is not really that indicative of my listening this year, but still.... (yes, apparently I really do love Zhang BinBin that much!)

Going forward, I expect to use this blog more as a monthly catch-up for things I've done (I am seriously intending to leave the house more this year - yes, I know I've said it before but I'm really going to try in 2024) and a round-up of the music I've been listening to, plus anything interesting going on. If something really exciting happens, then I'll post about it, but I'm definitely not tying myself down to daily or even weekly posts if nothing interesting is happening, as that's just setting myself up to fail. Just like my Goodreads Reading Challenge, less is more, and if I manage to exceed my target then I can feel proud of myself for doing better, and I really need mood boosters rather than things to drag me down. 

Anyway, I think that's it for now. End-of-year music and drama posts will follow in due course (maybe even today as I'm on a roll). All that's left is to wish everyone 

Oh yes, I also finally changed my hair to a full rainbow rather than the pink, purple, and turquoise it's been for years. I love it, but also miss the simplicity of the earlier colour as it takes longer to do and clashes with all my clothes unless I'm wearing black 😂.