I thought I’d provide a few general updates on what I’ve been up to over the past week or so regarding my folklore project, my gaming activities, and other recent developments.

Final Fantasy XIV

I decided to start getting the Triple Triad cards I was missing to get the card mount, and my gosh, I did not realise how much different side content was involved. Eureka, FATE farming, Heaven-on-High, and a bunch of other content I’ve been really neglecting.

I spent this week finishing off my Heavensward society quests, which felt a bit weird going back to this setting and seeing cutscenes of like Tiamat again, but at least that’s now checked off (and I got another minion I was missing, too).

This is going to take far longer than I anticipated, though! In other good news, I have finally reached Level 100 for both Armorer and Goldsmith. Bosh!

Folklore Project

My Folklore project is off to a flying start. I’m honestly shocked by how many leads I’ve found in such a short amount of time. I’ve been super lucky in that family, friends, and even complete strangers have reached out with tips, info, and help.

I tried to be strict and do research in its entirety, followed by writing, but failed. I ended up drafting out a couple of chapters, as I wanted to do a couple of different chapter templates and felt like I needed to put it into practice to really check it worked. Before I knew it, I’d written 5k words!

It’s been really fun so far to discover so many interesting stories I didn’t know, as well as deep diving into some things I did know. I think that’s been a large reason why I’ve managed to speed through my research and ideas, because I just genuinely enjoy doing it so much.

At the end of the month, my friend and I are going to check out Tales By The Teign in Teignmouth, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Other Updates

I popped up to London last week for work and got to check out Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, and you can check out my full write-up on TheGamer.

We’ve started planning our trip to Cambodia for later this year, so I’m really looking forward to that. With hindsight, it was poor timing to take another big trip in terms of finances, but I am really looking forward to seeing my brother and his family, so we’ll just have to work the money side of things out later.

I’m hoping this next week goes a bit smoother than last week, but it’s been a weird start to 2026 so far. I’m pumping my energy into my writing project, and that’s what’s keeping me sane right now.