Persona 3 Portable on The Nintendo Switch.

Shortly after transferring to Gekkoukan High School, the protagonist encounters the “Dark Hour.” Unfamiliar stillness swallows the city, people turn into eerie coffins, and otherworldly monsters called Shadows swarm. When they are attacked by one of these Shadows and all hope seems lost, the power of the heart, their Persona is awakened.

Back in the day, around ‘07-‘08 I remember playing, well, more like trying to play, this game on the PlayStation 2. At the time it was just Persona 3, and part of the _Megami Tensei franchise. I remember I found it boring and blah! I did try, though. I really wanted to get into the Shin Megami Tensei games but they never clicked with me at the time.

Fast forward to 2023, I am revisiting the same-ish game. This is Persona 3 Portable, however, that was released for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) back in 2009. And this one is the Nintendo Switch port of the PSP version. One notable feature of “Persona 3 Portable” is the option to choose the gender of the protagonist, providing a different perspective on the story.

The game has a very engaging narrative, character development, and some social simulation elements (yes, Marley made fun of me for playing a game about “school”) along with dungeon-crawling gameplay. Like many of the games in this franchise, you’ll be navigating daily life in a calendar-based system, managing relationships, while also venturing into Tartarus, a mysterious tower.

What makes this game so addictive to me is, imagine Pokémon but with demons. As you make your way through the tower, you collect these cards with Personas (the Pokémons). Though they do learn moves as they level up they don’t necessarily evolve but you can fuse personas to create other more powerful ones.

I am currently about 20 hours into the game, and I haven’t gotten bored or sick of it. I am playing on the casual difficulty setting so I’m not about the challenge, as these games tend to be a little challenging.

I’m having a blast!

The funny thing is, Persona 3 Reload is coming out on February 2024 which is a modern remake. So, I can either stop now or replay it again in a few months.

A while ago, I posted about my read-it-later and bookmark struggles. Well, today, I am at it again, ish.

Alt + S, is the new thing.

For the past month or so I have been bouncing between Omnivore and Instapaper. For whatever reason Omnivore doesn’t click for me and Instapaper, although is my favorite, visually, it’s another subscription. And subscriptions are something I am trying to be more mindful of these days.

Well, enter GoodLinks! I had forgotten I owned this app and that I somewhat liked it. So I am giving it another go. I installed Chrome’s extension of the app and saving things to it is super-easy, Alt + S and done! I was able to import all my bookmarks/articles from Instapaper at least and I cleaned pretty much all my Omnivore stuff.

So far so good.

Now, what about long-term preservation?

I can save everything I want but eventually one of those links may or will break. This makes me think of services like Pinboard or even Micro.blogs bookmarks, that they save a permanent copy of the page or something like that. But then again, why have a permanent record of something I might never ever come back to?

The only reason I am probably not all into MB’s Bookmark service is because there’s no easy way to add bookmarks to it, outside of MB itself, that I know of.

Because there is always fun to be had at the BU (Blogging-Universe), following Otávio and Maique, here is my SpringBoard

– What is the first app you open in the morning?

– It is usually either Carrot or Weather.app, depending on which one I am using that week, or whichever podcast-radio-show app I may be using at the time just to see what my options are for the morning commute.

– What is an app you can’t live without?

– Drafts, Camera.app, Darkroom , and Mimi Uploader

– Is there a game app you play during breaks or in your free time?

– I always have at least 4 games installed, and ever rarely play any of them. That said, I recently downloaded a game called subpar pool That I do play every once in a while.

– What’s an underrated app that you think deserves more recognition?

– Sequel, I have used almost every movie, video game, and book tracking apps out there, and neither clicked with me nor made me use it as much as Sequel.

– What is the most recent app you’ve downloaded, and why?

– Strongify, because yesterday the lifetime subscription option was free, and I think will be using it heavily in the coming year.

– What is the most unique or unconventional app you use?

– I would say the Nintendo Switch Parental Control app, I mean is for parental control settings on any of your household Nintendo Switch consoles, which we have four. However I only have mine registered in the app and I use it solely for my gaming reports at the end of the month, that’s it.

– What is the most fun or entertaining app you’ve discovered recently?

– This one is going to sound perhaps horrible but, Threads… No comments!

– Which app helps you stay connected with friends and family the most?

– Sadly, Instagram

– Which app do you use to relax or unwind after a busy day?

– For this one, it would be either Audible, whichever podcast app, or even the Music app.

– What’s the phone you currently have?

– An iPhone 14 Pro.

– Do you prefer light mode or dark mode?

– I am probably more on the light mode side, most of the time, but there are times when dark mode is mandatory.

– What can you tell us about the wallpaper you’re using? – I change my wallpapers like I change undies, especially the lock screen one. The Home Screen one, however, has remained unchanged for a few weeks which is baffling to me.

What’s SpringBoard?

During an interview with Empire, director Jeff Rowe revealed he has big plans for the Turtles’ most iconic nemesis.
“The one thing I can say without spoiling anything is, [Shredder] needs to be 100 times scarier than Superfly – who is a credible villain, he’s dangerous, he’s strong, he seems like he could mess the Turtles up,” he said. “Shredder needs to be that, just significantly more.”

As it should be! I have always seen The Shredder as a menacing villain. He should give the turtles hell.

Today, like around this time of year every year, I had my end-of-year performance review. And although I knew in my heart that I had done well, I still self-evaluated myself in the worst way. Everything in my head.

This year was challenging, in November of last year, the QC technical expert had retired so I had to step up, big time! I had to go from a support role into “doing the thing”. Once my manager was hired it was not like it became any easier, for either of us.

Long review short, I got an “I am proud of you and the work you’ve done and the challenges you have taken on this year”.

And two coaching advice, one, is to know when to ask for help. Well yeah, when I commit, I go and forget I may need help sometimes and get overwhelmed in the process. Two, time management, in the sense that sometimes I’m working on something and get distracted when people ask for something via email, mainly because I think it’ll be a quick thing. Famous last words.

Anyway, I’m happy with my review and looking forward to getting better at what I do and then some!

Another Naples Florida work trip. This is for the fall 2023 season. Which started Sunday the 10th, at 4:00 am (🫠).

First flight, BOI to MSP

There (at MSP) I was introduced to what an espresso martini is, never have I ever had one.

After an almost 5 hour overlay – and a beer or two – our next destination was Fort Myers, FL, MSP to RSW.

This one is probably the longest flight of the two, I little over 3 hours. It kind of sucks. We also took off late as they needed to deice the plane before taking off.

Thus, we arrived much later than planned and famished. Very uneventful evening after that, quick dinner, hotel check-in, and sleep!

Monday

Field day, cucurbits evaluation (squash, and watermelon)

The day started great, we may or may not have gotten stuck in the sand with our truck, though (🫠).

Otherwise, a perfect fall Florida day in the field.

Spot the off-type there (😉)

Truly, the weather was perfect!

After a long first day, it was time to wind down but also meet up with other colleagues for supper. Not before doing some computer work as well. We found this little cute bar in Downtown Naples,Old Naples Pub, Naples

It was small and cozy but very inviting. And of course, they had gator bites for appetizers so, I mean, when in Florida… 🐊

Then we head out for dinner, at this place called,The Dock, Naples

It was a really nice spot and by the dock or marina. We were the only people sitting outside with the view of the marina and Christmas decorations in the distance.

The food was great, obviously mostly seafood (no pictures, however). I remember having some kind of pasta with lobster and probably the best cornbread I’ve ever had in my life. It was more cakey than bready.

Tuesday, day two.

Sweetcorn evaluation. Nothing too exciting, we only had less than 1K plants to evaluate, finding two off-types. It took us a little over 10 minutes. Once the data was collected, we decided to go out to do some computer work over brunch.

We found this little place called, The Rooster, Naples

The Rooster

It is a very southern cuisine style. I was tempted by the chicken and waffles but that I can find almost anywhere. So I went for some Jumbo Lump Crab Cake Benne with Poached Eggs & Citrus Hollandaise. And a Hummingbird Cake to finish it off.

So good!

Then we needed a space to do some more real computer work. So we found a spot at the, Ridgway Bar & Grill, Naples.

Here was pretty much at the heart of downtown Naples. The people here were weird, well, pretentious Floridians or perhaps not even Floridians and more like snowbirds. Every conversation we overheard was about expensive cars, boats, and typical entitled people like complaints. It was an interesting perspective to witness.

Tuesday evening. A colleague from Woodland, happened to also be in town on a different project, so we agreed to meet up for dinner at the Divieto Ristorante, Aventura. An Italian restaurant. I had a hard time making up some of the stuff on the menu unless I read the description. And omg, they had a tomahawk steak.

A purchase that my boss advised against it (😅). We suggested ordering it, eating it between all of us, and splitting the check (😁).

The worst part about this restaurant is, they have no beer! And their wine list was so massive, I had no idea what to go for. Eventually, I went with the server’s recommendation which was a DiNotte Mezzacorona Red blend. It was pretty good and I thought it’d be a very expensive wine. I looked it up, turns out, that it is about a 10.00 USD bottle of wine u less I found the wrong thing.

Anyway, we had some CARPACCIO DI MANZO as an appetizer,

Thin slices of beef topped with fresh mushrooms, arugula, and shaved parmesan cheese, drizzled with white truffle oil. Served with focaccia bread.

The entree, a DIVIETO SPECIAL STEAK

Enjoy this house specialty. Grilled to perfection skirt steak in our signature mushroom-Madeira wine sauce. Served with mashed potatoes.

All pretty tasty and spendy. After some rock paper scissors to who would pay for dinner, in the end, there was no real winner (I mean I won, however) since we ended up spilling the bill anyway. Turns out, Italian restaurants can be pretty expensive.

And that was pretty much the trip. It was full of good food, good times with colleagues, and good weather.

Then, all over again on the way back. RSW TO MSP, MSP to BOI.

Some of the movies were watched during this trip.

🍿 A Compassionate Spy (2022)

🍿 Fast X (2023)

🍿 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

🍿 Gran Turismo (2023)

🍿 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)