Let’s talk about last week

So far, Honkai Star Rail has been good to me.

Good thing is that I haven’t spent any money since the first time I tried, and seems the initial investment has paid off. I had all the materials I needed to deal with the higher-level stuff, and sped up my timeline.

My goal is to get my account timeline up to speed with the current app timeline. And maybe soon in a few months, I will.

But the wanderlust bug bit me.

I have finished the main Jarilo-VI storyline and I stopped at “An Invitation Without Proffer”. I haven’t looked it up, but my gaming instincts told me that it might be the start of the next chunky main storyline part, so I left it alone for now.

For the past week, I just kept finishing the non-gold-colored missions. I liked running around doing stuff, seeing more of the maps open, and new shit popping up in other places. They do provide big level boosts or materials to use, so I kept at it. I’m currently at Trailblazer Level 35, and I had more than enough junk to level up my characters a lot.

I also got new characters:

Sampo seems to be a cheap Wind character (not to mention his ass is stereotypical shady HGL guy), so I just leveled him up to 20 for the free rail pass and left him alone. He got equipped with the minimum Light Cone and Relic gear I could spare. The gear’s all Eagle, too.
Gallagher seems to be the unshaven ragged daddy archetype, and I haven’t found much use for his Fire type yet since I have Asta be my default Fire pair (the Trailblazer Fire is my main Fire gal), so like Sampo I just leveled him up to 20 as well for the free rail pass and left him alone. Same with cone and relic gear, I gave him what I could spare. Gear’s all Guard’s for now.
I got Yukong last week on a random roll, and as she’s a ST Imaginary with a good support skill, I immediately splurged and upped her to 48, with her Traces upgraded to the most I could get it to go. Helped on a lot of runs with spongy monsters as Welt’s is an AoE. I also put in a highly leveled-up Light Cone and a very nice set of Relic gear. It’s all Musketeer for the ATK boost. Also, cat ears. Sorry, got to have ‘em.
I also got Hanya last week on a random roll, but as I already have two high-level rotation Physical characters (Trailblazer and Natasha), I simply leveled her up to 30 and left her for now. I also leveled her Traces by at least 1 each. I also gave her a spare 4-star Light Cone and Musketeer Relics.

My regular rotation for now is:

Trailblazer, as I can switch her to either Physical bat girl or Fire spear girl depending on the anticipated matchup, she’s invaluable. The only Level 50 I have, maxed stats for everything I could in her Traces. I currently have her wearing Boxer for Physical and Musketeer for Fire.
Welt is indispensable for Imaginary-tagged runs. AoE helps a lot. I upped him to 48, Traces maxed to what I could for the current Trailblazer level, 4-star Cone and Relic set, and he’s tanky. Not bad at all for my only 5-star.
Natasha has easily displaced March for my support, as she’s a bonafide healer. Her skills and ultimate are all heals, so I maxed her Traces for heals to the top I could spare, and upped her HP so she could survive longer by putting HP and DEF focused Cone and Relic gears. ATK leaves a lot to be desired, but as her healing capabilities greatly compensate for it, she’s my defacto 4th in almost all my runs. Basically, 3 big-ATK characters and Natasha comprise my sets. Oh, I also upped her to 48.
Qingque has become my fun ace for runs with recommendations to use Quantum. Granted, she’s RNG and she’s a cute gambler gal, but as she’s my sole Quantum character for now, I guess she’s my best Quantum option. Maxed her Traces, gave her best Cone and Relic gear I could, and upped her to 45.
Dan Heng is still my ST Wind, so I upped him to 48 with the best Cone and Relic gear set I could. More ATK-focused, but I kind of made him a glass cannon early on, but later I swapped some gear for HP. He also goes well with some runs where I had bad luck with guessing and the spongy boss was only weak with my AoE’s element, and Dan Heng’s skill and ultimate helped with whittling down the boss.
Serval is still my Lightning AoE rock star, so if the recommendation shows Lightning, I immediately go for her. I upped her to 48, with an ATK-focused set of Cone and Relic gear.
Herta and March are also indispensable as my Ice AoE characters, so I tend to use them interchangeably depending on mood, but sometimes if the boss ended up spongy, I use March instantly just for the shield skill. I swear, March and Natasha lineups got me through some of the tougher runs early on. Heals and Shields. But I use Herta mostly. I save March for very urgent situations. I also upped both to the max Traces I could, and both are at Level 45. Both also got good Cones and Relic gears for Ice damage.

The one I am aiming to upgrade next is Asta for the Fire element runs. I suppose the game is starting to up the difficulty by the next story, so I might need two each for the elements, one main and one situational/backup.

But just saying: if the game offers a special Kafka roll, I will spend again just to get her on my lineup. Sorry.

For FGO, I’m already playing the Traum lostbelt. I like the story well enough, and I just plow through it 3-4 parts a day just for meeting the dailies. The Grail Front came soon after, and I played it too. It’s a good challenge for me to see if I have enough 3-star resources that are leveled enough to exploit the point limitations.

I also got the young Moriarty, Roland and Don Quixote via random rolls. I had SQs to spare so I rolled two big mega-rolls and a few 3-SQ rolls, and gacha fortune was good to this poor man. I immediately sent Moriarty to Level 90 (I don’t have the Fou resources yet, so maybe June 1 I upgrade him more), while I packed Roland and DQ to the archive, to be upgraded with spares later.

On Week 4 of my podiatrist-prescribed ESW therapy sessions, I could see that it helped. No more sharp stabby pain in the mornings when I step on my foot after a prolonged rest. Some very random and very small jabs remain, but compared to 4 weeks ago, a very noticeable comfort and difference.

I also got prescribed some feet exercises – front walking (think of being walking like you have heels but none), sidefoot walking, and leaning into a wall with the feet to stretch the back part. I did it whenever I could spare before sleep.

Also, last week, I got my custom pair of orthotics. It came with a fancy suede shoe bag. I had the orthotics put on my Asics running shoe, and my god it was painful and cumbersome to walk with, first time. But I trusted Daniel the podiatrist that these will be good for me, so I persisted. I wore it to work last week. Monday, Tuesday, it really was uncomfortable. But by Thursday, I got used to it.

I wore it again this morning, but on my Nike running shoes, and so far I didn’t mind it that much. Yeah it’s uncomfortable, but not to the point of “f*ck this I’m out”, but more like “I’ll just power through, hope it helps” kind of attitude. Probably in a few weeks this might feel like just another Dr.Scholl pad.

I really hope this helps.

With regards to my breakfast, it’s been 5 weeks since I switched to rolled oats plus some add-ons, but I added something I never thought I will ever get to use more: protein powder.

I did already flirt with using it when I tried the Optimum Nutrition protein drink vending machine at Anytime Fitness, but the flavor turned me off (I initially opted for double choco). Even the cookies and cream variant of whey protein drink shake that I highly liked had an undesirable aftertaste that made me think I was crucifying my tongue for the sake of health. I did think of buying those big black jugs of powder, but the price was a turnoff considering I barely liked the shit.

So last week… I noticed in my YAZIO app that while I am hitting my calorie goals, my other stats aren’t as robust. Particularly protein. I tried switching more to eating eggs and packed chicken breasts as snacks, but it barely moved the needle.

But last week when I did my weekend groceries at Cold Storage, I walked by their health food section and saw they had a cheap protein powder called “Organic Protein” by a company called Orgain. It had two variants – choco fudge and vanilla. I thought to myself, let me try the 1lb jug as it was cheap enough to try. Just barely under 40SGD a pound. 21 grams of protein with a 2-scoop serving size, so I can get 10.5g per scoop.

And the next morning, I dumped a scoop of the thing in my chocolate overnight oats in lieu of Splenda, as I assumed the thing already has sweeteners. It made my oatmeal pleasantly thicker. I tried a spoonful of the new fortified oatmeal and hoped for the best.

It was f*cking good. Chocolatey as f*ck.

So good that I’m considering buying the vanilla flavor variant so I can alternate flavors every other day – chocolate one day and then vanilla-yogurt the next.

One week in and I’m happily dumping in a scoop in my overnight oats every morning without fail. Why not? It tasted good, and I’m getting way more protein.

I also tried it a la carte, 350ml of ice-cold water with one scoop in a shaker bottle, and it left me underwhelmed. Really? It’s like severely watered-down chocolate milk. So I added in one more scoop to make it a full serving, and while it tasted better and made the drink thicker, the added thickness kind of needed dilution IMO. I think 2 scoops should be on a 500ml drink instead.

But 1.5 servings a day might have me running out of the powder jug quicker than when I wanted it to. Shit’s still pricey. So I settled on 2 scoops a day for now, one for my breakfast and one for the night. Maybe I’ll go for 3 scoops on gym days, but well, 2 for now.

So I experimented on how to make the 1 scoop drink better-tasting. I tried it first with 350ml low-fat milk, but it tasted too rich. Like drinking rich chocolate milk. Then I had it mixed – 100ml milk with 250ml water, I liked it better. Then the breakthrough came when I added half a tablespoon of the unsweetened cocoa powder I use for my oatmeal, voila I had the tasty mix I wanted. Triple choco fudge. Pleasantly brown like the old Swiss Miss drinks I knew. I had my preferred mix now.

But now, I think I have to adjust the custom thickener mix I made. Its sole purpose was to make my overnight oats thicker, but now that the protein powder made it even thicker, I’ll have to adjust it. By Tuesday I used 3/4 of the mix instead of the full tablespoon to see to what extent I have to dial it back. The mix’s container has about 6-7 tablespoons left in it, so maybe this weekend I’ll adjust. Maybe more of the rolled oats and throw in a few almonds, and less of the cereal oat drink packets.

Man, healthy’s getting expensive.

Last May 11, I went to Doujin Market 2024, commonly known as DoujiMa. It was still held at Suntec, which remained the best choice.

Unlike last year, I came early. Partly to avoid long-ass lines, partly because my Saturday podiatrist appointment that day was at 4PM. Convention doors opened at 12PM. And fortunately, I was near the front of the line at 930AM. The only ones in front of me were cosplayers. So I spent the extra time grinding away at FGO and HSR.

I got in promptly at 12PM, and I immediately went on hunt mode.

Targets: t-shirts, toys, desk figurines, stickers, keychains.

I can say that I walked the ENTIRE length of the market and seen every single vendor. I didn’t miss a booth. But my feet paid for it. I considered it exercise for them as I had a podiatrist appointment hours later. And I burned enough calories walking anyway.

The booth that ate my money was from NewNew, which had a veritable feast of official Mihoyo merch. I bought a pyro slime squeezable plush, a Trailblazer desk figure (see my previous blog post’s pic), a set of Wanderer sticky note papers, a set of HSR sticky notes, and two Kafka pins. Just roughly under 80 SGD. Almost all of them immediately found use – one of the Kafka pins is on my shoulder bag, and the desk figure and plush is on my office desk. The sticky notes are in my office drawer. The other Kafka pin I saved for future use.

The next set of damage was t-shirts. I bought:

One green t-shirt satirizing graphic design, with a big comic graphic and the words “Graphic Design Is Not My Passion” on the front with a passive-aggressive “bottom text here” misaligned at the bottom part.
One black t-shirt that sells “Pika Pika Gao” – basically a parody of Chinese herbal cough medicine, with this one using Pikachu graphics.
One black t-shirt with RPG pixel graphics I bought from one of the four Filipino creators there with a booth.

I had to limit my t-shirt purchases as I anticipated the Uniqlo line for Legend of Zelda was to be released soon after the DoujiMa, and those also cost me a bit.

I also bought a few anime stickers, and a couple of amusing knick-knacks. One was a chicken wing keychain, and another is a chicken nugget keychain paired with a curry sauce tub.

All in all, I was out of the convention by 2:30PM, with enough time to spare. But as my feet were tired, I instead opted to go to the podiatrist’s place via Grab taxi.

Hobbies are expensive too.