Rosalia Rambles

Category: Redundancy Review

  • Redundancy Review: Day 34, “Setting Back Up”

    Redundancy Review: Day 34, “Setting Back Up”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning angels and demons, welcome to Day 34 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    This edition comes live from my desk once more, as I slowly wake myself up with coffee, ice water, and waiting for my onboarding meeting to arrive cause I can not really do much without getting set up with everything. 

    Admittedly I did not sleep well at all last night, initially going to sleep way later than I had planned because of some commotion going on outside my flat last night and having a desire to people watch whatever was going on, but even after I had settled down I ended up waking up midway through the night for seemingly no reason at all.

    The residual heat and humidity is not doing me any favours either, as I woke up completely drenched in sweat and feeling generally gross, requiring a quick douse in the shower to feel a bit fresher.

    Time will tell how things in this new role turns out for me, I feel a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty about how things will go. My main plan is to go forward for the next two months or so to take me to the convention in September, enjoy myself for a weekend among fellow nerds, and then evaluate where I want to take my life & career.

    For now, I stay in my role as a QA techie – one that I am extremely good at mind, but one I still want to try to transition away from.

    The review topic for today is going to be about one of my favourite bits of gaming kit in my possession: the Steam Deck.

    An OLED Steam Deck

    Initially released in February 2022 with a follow up OLED model in November 2023 a couple days after I received my base model, the Steam Deck is the culmination of Valve’s prior experimentation with both Steam Controllers and Steam Machines. I actually do have a soft spot for the Steam Controller, having bought one on the cheap when they were discontinued and appreciating the haptic feedback it came with.

    One of the main selling points of Steam Deck is just how compatible it is with a large portion of Steam libraries due to how SteamOS works, using the compatibility layer Proton to ensure Windows-based games are able to run on the Linux-based OS. That said, Steam Deck is also a beautiful machine for emulation of older hardware through the use of EmuDeck.

    For me, the Steam Deck is a boon for my low-energy days when all I want to do is stay in bed but I still want to play games. On days like that even dragging myself to my PC can be difficult so being able to relax with the games I love from the comfort of my bed really made them easier.

    Which brings up the question, “But Rosa!” I hear you cry, “You had a Nintendo Switch long before Steam Deck came out! Did that not achieve the same effect?”

    And in terms of the original Switch, as I have not had a chance to mess around with Switch 2 yet… it might just be I was primarily exposed to some of the poorly optimised games on the system, being Pokemon, but I often felt it hard to play my Switch on those kind of days, whereas Steam Deck not only ran a lot of games better; it also was where most of my investment was, meaning more options for me.

    Additionally on lower spec games such as Balatro, Slay the Spire, or Dorfromantik, I never encounter many issues in terms of battery life with usage only being a concern when playing more intense games such as Monster Hunter World/Rise or EDF6.

    My Deck has helped me out through several different points since I got it around two years ago, and considering I have around twenty hours of travel to Glasgow coming up soon, I know it will continue to serve me well.

    That does it for today, I am going to continue to wait to be onboarded. Thank you for reading the not so redundant Redundancy Review, I hope you can have a relaxing Monday and do not get too overwhelmed by the stress of returning to work.

    For more information on Steam Deck, visit the Steam Store page here: Steam Deck™

  • Redundancy Review: Day 33, “Back to Reality”

    Redundancy Review: Day 33, “Back to Reality”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning workers and drones, welcome to Day 33 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    As the temperature slowly comes back down, the start of my new job comes across the horizon, so this means it is the last Redundancy Review before the title itself becomes redundant.

    My intention is still to keep going with the series, primarily as a form of practice to keep my brain active when it comes to writing and to keep an archive of what is going on in my life. I still feel a deep connection to storytelling and keeping this living journal going means I have a record of how I felt at all times… even if the feelings are inconsistent day-to-day.

    The goal today is to tidy a few final things up, primarily my desk. After the first couple days once the news had hit I stopped using it as a desk and ended up making it a storage space for other things, the vacuum cleaner, boxes, random junk, but now it is going back to being my workspace.

    Hopefully having that routine helps me rebalance my energy, but also things cooling down should help my sleep as well. I think that is one of the main things that is hampering my ability to write some days. I feel so damn tired even with an adequate amount of sleep, and the brain fog just creeps in when my rhythm starts to get there.

    On average, it takes me an hour to write a Redundancy Review – and this is not pure writing time. I will write a short bit, scroll a bit on social media or Youtube, go back to write more, go make a drink, write more, grab some screenshots or pictures for whatever I am reviewing, and then finalise it before publishing on WordPress.

    Which y’know, that on again off again approach does lead to a lot of my reviews feeling rambly, but uhh…

    …look at the website name I guess?

    I am going to skip the call to action for a while, not only to let myself focus on my new role but also whilst my brain tries to find a balance between writing and working.

    Today’s review subject comes off the back of a discussion I had with some friends last night which started because of seeing that the Ferrero Group (most known for Ferrero Rocher) own the manufacturing rights for Crunch Bar in the United States, with the worldwide distribution being handled by evil company supreme, Nestle.

    Which now makes me want to have the Ferrero Group take over production in the UK as well, because I have a very soft spot for Crunch Bars as my non-Galaxy chocolate of choice, partially for their simplicity.

    Crunch Bars are standard bars of chocolate with crisped rice mixed in, though the specific formulation of chocolate means the bar itself is harder than other brands on the market, leading to each mouthful having more bite than you would expect.

    Another reason I was drawn to Crunch Bar back in the day was because they were usually cheaper than other brands – only by like 50p, but as a broke ass student, that small amount of money made a lot of difference in my choices.

    But of course, I have to balance this review out by stating that whilst I enjoy Crunch Bar, Nestle is one of the shittiest corporations around. 

    The fact their Wikipedia page has a dropdown icon under the “Controversies” heading should tell you enough, but seeing that the list includes things such as “baby formula marketing” and straight up “water” paints a clear picture of scumminess. Me wanting the Ferrero Group to take off is basically a lesser of two evils scenario, because at least they have the appearance of wanting to care.

    You know, for being a left-leaning trans girl, it sure took me a while to launch into an anti-corporate rant on this site – done plenty of anti-AI rants, but had not yet railed against a corporation.

    Thank you for reading the last truly redundant Redundancy Review, I hope you can stay cool and hydrated whilst the temperature goes back down so you can enjoy a relaxing Sunday.

    Here is where I would do promotion for my review topic, but fuck promoting Nestle, instead I am going to promote Tony’s Chocolonely, a more ethical brand of chocolate: https://uk.tonyschocolonely.com/ 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 32, “Siesta”

    Redundancy Review: Day 32, “Siesta”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning legends and planeswalkers, welcome to Day 32 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Is it past morning in the UK? Yes.

    Am I still going to say good morning in each review? Yes.

    It is another day of peak temperatures in the UK, with the current heatwave expected to start tailing off tomorrow leading into cooler temperatures and hopefully some rain. Even just heading out for around an hour this morning was near unbearable due to the humidity retaining heat in the air and making it hard to move around, with me needing to douse myself in cold water shortly after returning home.

    After playing some games and doing some card sorting as the sun rises to the highest point in the sky I suddenly remembered I needed to write today, but surprisingly I feel a lot better writing the review later in the day than in my normal morning slot – plus it gives me a good excuse to sit still and just focus on a task that does not require much physical movement.

    My new contracting role officially starts on Monday, with me feeling… cautiously optimistic about it. One of the things that I am going to try do with this role is not taking things too personally when stressful situations are ongoing like I did with my last role, I am a contractor here to help but ultimately unless the position becomes permanent I do not want to feel much of a personal attachment to the work.

    That is something I do need to consider when it comes to looking for a full time role outside of the pipe dream of getting to do writing as my job every day, the desire to have passion for what I am working on. Whilst I can detach myself emotionally to some degree, I want to feel excited about what I am working on or what I am learning about, feeling enthusiasm for the skills I can develop.

    Regardless, not going to sneeze at an opportunity to build a safety runway further, especially as, outside of my convention trip in September, I have very few major birthdays and events coming up that I need to plan for/spend for, which means I can build a very good buffer of savings before Christmas hits and hopefully I can take a few unpaid days off as winter hits, ideally relaxing on my birthday.

    If you want to help me enable doing this day to day, consider hiring me/helping me out. Aside from when friends and family pay for meals, I fund every review topic myself, so commissioning some work or getting in touch to help provide funds for review topics would always help.

    And because my brain is actually functioning enough to write today, I do have a review topic!

    As part of my trip out today and as a portion of the greater organisation work I have been doing around my flat, I needed to get a new card binder. Sorting through almost eight years worth of Magic: the Gathering rares, mythics, and foils has led to my multicoloured binder specifically exceeding its capacity. Thankfully there is a very solid independent collectibles store in the main shopping centre in town who were more than happy to help me out.

    So rather than buying a standard binder/card album, what caught my eye today was a pack of Gamegenic 18-pocket ring binder pages, with the box stating that its contents could hold 900 cards total, being more than enough for what I currently need whilst also giving me a fair bit of future-proofing.

    The pages feel high quality, and with them being sideloaded instead of toploaded it means the cards are more secure to being shaken around. One of my main worries when I was buying the pages was that it would not fit the binder I had picked out to go alongside it, but upon closer inspection the pages have a wide variety of holes along their margin, making it almost impossible to find incompatibility.

    Gamegenic are newer on the scene compared to card storage & protection giants such as UltraPro, Ultimate Guard, and Dragon Shield, but each time I end up buying a Gamegenic product I find myself pleasantly surprised at the quality of it. 

    That said, the actual ring binder I got today is an UltraPro product, and as this shop specialises more in Pokemon cards than in any other product, my options were limited to Pokemon-themed ones, but that is no issue.

    I managed to get a pretty neat one anyway.

    Thank you for reading the Redundancy Review today, please keep yourself hydrated in this warm weather and do not exert yourself too much when it comes to physical activity.

    For more information on Gamegenic products, visit their website here: Home – Gamegenic

  • Redundancy ‘Review’: Day 31, “Damn, too hot”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning giants and dwarves, welcome to Day 31 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Funnily enough, 31 is also what the temperature is going to peak at today which is causing me no end to the suffering, everything hurts, and I am dying.

    Summer is my least favourite time of the year which is impressive to say as someone who gets their ass kicked by SAD each winter, but at the very least I can manage that through different means without completely breaking the bank, but managing heat is different.

    For context, the building I live in is rather old – Victorian era old. Whilst this is a fun talking point when people ask about it, it means that the walls are solid brick with no insulation and the windows are single-glazed at the same time as being over a hundred years old. What this results in is the flat becoming a clay oven in the morning when the sun hits it directly.

    So the plan for today is to hunker down in the cooler spots of the flat, drink plenty of ice water, and avoid anything that causes sweating or exertion to stave off feeling gross & horrible.

    I have to be honest, I am mainly posting this one to keep the streak going. The heat and head fogginess is combining to make my brain completely nonfunctional for creative purposes.

    Thank you for reading this very short ramble, I am going to drown myself in ice.

  • Redundancy Review: Day 30, “One Month”

    Redundancy Review: Day 30, “One Month”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning killers and survivors, welcome to Day 30 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    One month.

    One month since I got made redundant, and felt like my world had collapsed.

    One month of writing every day to document my journey through unemployment.

    One month of trying to share joy about the things I love.

    It has not been easy, to be completely honest. Whilst a love of writing comes naturally to me, keeping on this route does bring some stress and strain to me, which feels weird to say given… every previous review I have written.

    Possibly due to self-doubt, I currently find myself sitting here wondering if it is worth it to try to push towards writing professionally, especially as I return to the tech sphere on Monday. I still intend to write the Redundancy Review with no name change, but part of me wonders if I should just keep this a hobby, a passion I share with the world with no hesitation or desire for compensation.

    Make it my escape from the world of tech rather than a new career path entirely – I still want to create, I still have plenty of stories to tell, I just do not know how best to… be a writer I guess. For someone who has been writing different pieces for around nine years now (think I got started in 2016 with GeekOut), albeit with very little consistency, you would think the self-doubt would go away.

    Regardless, I am going to try to enjoy my time before I return to work. This period of unemployment has let me explore my different hobbies a lot more and make some improvements around the flat, but I am looking forward to having a regular source of income for a short amount of time.

    Should be having some social time with friends today as well, which should be fun and give me a bit of time out the house.

    Going to skip the call to action today, instead I want to ask for any encouraging words from other writers about getting past self-doubt. Wondering if I am doing good enough just by telling my story.

    Time for the review, and considering I 100%ed another game last night I think that makes it a good time to talk about it – especially considering it comes from possibly my favourite franchise of all time.

    Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is currently the latest entry in the beloved series, releasing in June 2021 for PS5 and later receiving a PC port in July 2023. For those unaware, I really like Ratchet and Clank, having almost every game collected in physical copies and having even written a full retrospective on the trilogy years back. Having skipped out on the PS5 because of being a broke ass bitch, I was excited to give the game a go.

    It did not disappoint.

    First off, this game is absolutely gorgeous. The characters are well lit, the models are extremely expressive & bouncy, and for the most part the framerate stays at a consistent 60fps even at 4K on my rig. Both Rift Apart and previous iterations of the franchise have been called “playable Pixar movies” with it not being difficult to see why, the art style really lends itself to that whimsical feeling.

    The premise of the game is the return of series favourite villain Dr Nefarious stealing a device known as the “Dimensionator” and using it to cause a dimensional cataclysm that sees our titular protagonists thrown into a new world, meeting another Lombax in the form of Rivet.

    After getting a certain way into the story, the perspective shifts between the two Lombaxes across different planets, letting Rivet become more familiar with Clank and Ratchet getting a new robot on the scene named Kit to open up and trust others a bit more.

    Despite there only being nine planets in the game, one of the smallest amounts next to Into the Nexus, there is plenty of variety across all of them. 

    Quite a few planets are revisited as part of the story with new areas being unlocked upon return, either due to actions happening in the story or, in the case of the battle arena, new sets of challenges being unlocked – good for making sure players have a reason to return, bad for me because I love the battle arenas and want to do everything in one go.

    The core of the Ratchet and Clank franchise are the weapons, with Rift Apart being no exception in producing phenomenal weapons with unique traits across all of them. Rosalia Rambles Ratchet tradition dictates I do a rule-of-three rundown on some of my favourite weapons, so that is what I am going to do.

    The Topiary/Toxiary Sprinkler is your typical enemy disabling weapon present in the franchise, giving you a chance to switch to a more powerful weapon to deal unabashed damage, In this instance, it takes the form of a sprinkler that will turn any enemies (even big massive bosses) into decorative topiaries of themselves for a short while. A silly and entertaining take on a standard weapon class.

    One of my favourite entirely new weapons is the Ricochet/Wreckochet, a weapon that fires a seeking projectile that will hit an enemy before bouncing off it, hanging in the air and allowing you to press the trigger to use the projectile to enable a follow-up attack. With fun sound effects and having uses in both crowds & against larger targets, it quickly found a place in my heart.

    Finally, we have the Blackhole Storm/Blackhole Vortex, a rapid firing gatling gun that is unlocked fairly late into the story, but is incredibly worth it once picked up. Taking some time to spin up, it will unleash a torrent of miniature black holes, raining antimatter death upon your enemies… until it overheats, after which point it needs some time to cool down.

    What is unique to note that due to this game being on PS5 originally, it does support DualSense controllers with plenty of unique vibration patterns across different weapons, and the majority of weapons having a system where half and full trigger pulls do different things.

    As shown in my achievements image, it did not take me long to 100% this game, having finished the remaining achievements only an hour or so into my New Game+ save, but I consider that time fully worth it. There were no instances of me being disappointed by any planet, the setpieces were fantastic and the combat has evolved for the modern day with features such as a dodge move and the rift tethering mechanic.

    I would like to end off my review with a tribute to Captain Qwark’s original voice actor, Jim Ward. The captain returns in this game however briefly at the start, being voiced by a new actor, with Jim Ward having retired due to a double whammy of a severe case of COVID-19 and developing Alzheimer’s Disease.

    Mr Ward, thank you for being one of the most recognisable voices of my childhood. I hope you can enjoy retirement.

    That calls it for today, thank you so much for reading the Redundancy Review. With a heatwave on the way in the UK, I am going to focus on trying to stay as cool as possible.

    Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is available on PS5 and Steam.

  • Redundancy ‘Review’: Day 28, “The Long Haul”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning clocks and watches, welcome to Day 28 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Sitting here trying to think of the semantics of what doing this for a month is – technically I could say today is me having done it for a month since I have done it for four weeks, but my mind is thinking more on the side of Day 30 being the official month milestone as that lines up with my redundancy date.

    Regardless, I have been at this consistently for a good length of time all the same, and even though it looks like things are about to change for me I want to keep up with this daily habit I find myself in.

    There was a lot of doubt and weird feelings around taking this contract opportunity, specifically because I have been trying to style myself into something new, to move away from almost eight years of being a tech-focused person and shift my energy into being a creative type like I have always dreamed of.

    But being a creative is a difficult career, and I want to prove I am in it for the long haul by keeping up my creative efforts even when working in a different sector. My ultimate driving force is still those words I heard so long ago:

    “Don’t let it die in your head”.

    I want to tell stories.

    I want to share my voice.

    I want to put something positive into this world.

    Even if this whole endeavor turns out glory-free, I will be satisfied that I wrote it down at least, to keep a record.

    But if you are reading this and want to help out my career, why not consider hiring me? Scripting, stories, and Redundancy Reviews on request, I want to create each day.

    It is Tuesday, which means one thing: today is a Hololive review day!

    Although, honestly… I am not feeling too great, just went out for a walk and some food which normally helps perk me up, but if anything I feel even foggier after doing so.

    So instead, I am just going to share a Hololive talent covering possibly my favourite Vocaloid song of all time, Rolling Girl by wowaka – rest in peace dude.

    And to make sure I have a thumbnail, I am going to include a meme I made about my ability to make memes.

    Thank you for reading this shorter review. I am going to go lie down.

  • Redundancy Review: Day 27, “The End Justifies The Means”

    Redundancy Review: Day 27, “The End Justifies The Means”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning sharks and seahorses, welcome to Day 27 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Writing this a lot later than I usually do due to a mix of calls and appointments this morning around different topics which I wanted to tackle before getting my thoughts in line to do the mental health check-in portion of the review.

    I have been presented with an opportunity to do some contracting work which, whilst not entirely in my wheelhouse or interest, is in my area of expertise, that being Quality Assurance. 

    My main feelings around continuing QA work are what the title suggests, being the means that can help justify the way I want to live my life now. My ultimate goal is still wanting to be a writer for hire, telling my own stories whilst helping others to tell their own. If freelancing in tech can help enable that lifestyle, then it is something I should pursue…

    …which I recognise goes against my entire discussion on my burnout a couple reviews back, but the benefit of this being a contracting role is that I would be able to back out if things became too much for me. Even if it was just for a short while, it would get me some additional experience both as a QA and getting more familiar with the freelancing way of life.

    The Redundancy Review would continue even upon taking the contracting role – there is no stopping this train now, especially since the role would let me fund the “eating my way around Shrewsbury” reviews far easier, which are honestly some of my favourite pieces to write.

    There is some part of me that wonders what it would be like to try position myself as a professional food critic, but the problem with that is I love food too much to want to try criticise it intensely – even the most subpar food I will still find things to love about, and in a way I have not forgotten my student days where things such as the “lasanwich” and the “chicken kyiv burger” brought me incredible amounts of comfort.

    I strive to find the positives in everything, and unless something made me physically sick, I would want to try to express those positives.

    Even as I begin to enter into contract work, I will keep myself available for writing work, which if you are reading this and want to hire me, please do! I am available for professional scripting, transcription, and reviews of all sorts, do not catch yourself putting inadequate AI-generated copy out there – invest in a burgeoning writer today!

    Today’s review is another homeware/furnishing review, but one taking a very different form from a flatpack. 

    3M Command Hooks/Command Strips are one of the most useful pieces of kit as someone who rents the place they live rather than own, as like most renters, I am terrified of actually putting a hole in a wall that is not mine. 

    Command products are a godsend in that regard, with all different varieties being in different locations. I have used Small Clear Wire Hooks to build a makeshift tool rack over my hob, and the decorating clips allow me to hang fairy lights around easily, letting me live out my dream of being an e-girl through the aesthetic.

    But today’s subject is a bit more heavy duty than those two, and is used in a very unique and novel way.

    3M Command Large White Wire Hook has a weight capacity of 2.2kg, making it more geared around holding heavier objects with the suggestion on the packaging being a dustpan and brush, whilst also being able to go up to backpacks, bags, or cumbersome tools that are hard to store elsewhere.

    So, what do I use them for?

    Creating a makeshift armoury behind my bed and desk of course.

    These hooks are the absolute ideal way to mount up Nerf guns without drilling any holes to make mounting posts. The main body of the hook is long enough to guide it through the sling points of more slimline blasters, meaning the second hook can be positioned to support another section or be put through another sling point to make a rock solid mount.

    The application of the adhesive strip is incredibly straightforward, with the body of the hook itself being able to be slid off to remove the strip when needed. Each pack comes with two strips so the hook is able to be removed and reapplied elsewhere if they need to be repurposed.

    My guns have been mounted for a period of over four months now and I have not had any issues – a relief given that three of them are mounted over where I sleep, meaning I have not had any rude awakenings. With how well the initial mountings went, I am definitely looking forward to investing in more and expanding my armoury wall.

    That does it for today, thank you for reading the Redundancy Review today. These will continue until morale improves, so I look forward to continuing this journey with all of you.

    The Command Hooks mentioned in this review and many other fine products are available at B&Q in the UK: 3M Command Hooks and Hardware at B&Q (not sponsored, just a fan)

  • Redundancy Review: Day 26, “Relaxed”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning dancers and jivers, welcome to Day 26 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    It is a beautifully quiet Sunday morning right now. The day started with rain outside which has now developed into it being cool and cloudy as I wait for an IKEA delivery to arrive, with not much planned beyond that.

    Building on the theme of yesterday being the odd feeling of my redundancy feeling “liberating”, Sunday would always be tinged with sadness slash anxiety due to my burnout feelings – enjoying the day but dreading dragging myself back to my desk on Monday, an emotion that has been replaced with a similar but different one.

    There is still some amount of dread I feel on a Monday, as I mentally gear myself up to go delving on LinkedIn again and look at job postings but in a way it is less oppressive than what my burnout felt like. In a way I have more freedom to structure my day around different periods of job searching and working on different bits of writing work.

    But with freedom comes responsibility, with one of the main things I am definitely struggling with is discipline. I write these reviews every day but I find it hard to keep up with my mind flitting between different personal projects, wanting to tell all the stories at once without finishing any.

    It is something I will improve on as time goes on, although for now I am going to continue to enjoy my sleepy Sunday.

    For the weekdays though, I am still available for writing work and both money & getting experience on professional projects again are insanely good motivators.

    Going to be a straightforward review today as well, talking about my favourite piece of IKEA furniture: the Kallax.

    Whatever purpose you need storage space for, the Kallax can handle it. Easy to build, infinitely versatile, and available in a range of attractive designs, it can fit into any room and any style with ease.

    My favourite feature of the Kallax is how many inserts are available for it, both from IKEA and independent sellers. On my one specifically I have these laser cut stands that are supposed to be used for books, but as you can see from the image, I use them to support a copious amount of plushies.

    Board/card games are also ideal for the Kallax, with many standard sized boardgame boxes fitting perfectly into a Kallax square for a tidy and presentable solution.

    I am not sponsored by IKEA in any way, shape, or form, but considering how much I shill for the Kallax in my everyday life, there would be no greater honour if the opportunity ever arose.

    Short, sweet, and to the point. Thank you for reading today’s shorter review, I am going to go back to snoozing. Enjoy some relaxation yourself.

    For more information on Kallax styles and variants, visit the IKEA link here: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/kallax-series-27534/ 

  • Redundancy Review: Day 25, “The Call of Yesterday”

    Redundancy Review: Day 25, “The Call of Yesterday”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: https://rosaliarambles.wordpress.com/2025/06/11/redundancy-review-day-1-a-new-beginning/)

    Good morning knights and squires, welcome to Day 25 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    A later start today, but it feels nice to be relaxed for the first time in a while. This whole experience I am going through puts me under varying amounts of stress day-to-day, so having an afternoon yesterday and a morning today where I do not feel that as hard as I usually do is an incredibly liberating feeling.

    I do not think I have used that word enough in regards to some parts of this journey: “liberating”. It is a weird one to use considering how redundancy has completely upended my life, but it has also brought benefits to me.

    There was no denying I was going through some degree of burnout in my old job. I was still delivering what was needed of me on the daily but I also struggled to get out of bed some days in the lead up to the end times – dragging myself to my desk and putting on my best face.

    It was honestly the people that kept me going a lot of the days, I worked with extremely talented and personable people who made even the hardest times go by quicker. The culture, even with all of us working remotely, was what kept me in till the bitter end.

    (god getting woken up at 3am has thrown me off today, struggling to keep my mind on track)

    But now that I am out of work, there definitely is something positive from being away from the tech sphere and doing my own things. I have struggles but I also have runway, leading to me existing in this flip-flop of zen and panic, but ultimately letting my mind recover from the experiences I have been through.

    Writing every day is helping with that too. Being able to sit down and express myself through the written word is a peaceful feeling even on the days where my brain does not want to co-operate with me, and I remain ever thankful for anyone who takes time out of their day to read my words.

    The dream is still to be able to make some form of living off of writing, be it being hired as an in-house copywriter for a company or freelancing my way around, always finding something new to work on. Is this a lofty goal in the age of AI? Of course, but what I am building for myself is an identity of human creativity, what I aim my “brand” to be in a way.

    If you are looking for someone to write something thoughtful and emotional, consider hiring me. This project is but a fraction of what I am capable of, I would love to prove my worth against a wide range of works.

    Eating my way around Shrewsbury

    Yup, that is right. Welcome back to another exciting edition of talking about somewhere to eat in Shrewsbury!

    With my redundancy payments coming in, and after putting money into both bills and savings accounts, my partner and I resolved that we would go out for a proper meal at a restaurant. We tour cafes and small eateries pretty frequently, but it had been around two months since we had last gone “out out” as it were – for obvious reasons.

    Considering I was going to pay, it was my choice as to where we would go, and I picked one of the best places for burgers in town: The Beefy Boys.

    The Beefy Boys is a small-scale chain restaurant with only four locations across the UK: Hereford, Cheltenham, Bath, and of course, Shrewsbury. Very good going for a group of four friends who came together over a love of cooking, a wholesome start that reflects in the quality of their food today.

    After we got seated by the extremely friendly staff, we got to work on deciding what we wanted. Beefy Boys is one of the few venues I have seen today that offer free refills on soft drinks, a very good offer considering the asking price of £4.25 with both myself and my partner getting three glasses worth out of it.

    With food though we decided to be a little more indulgent. One of the main differences at Beefy Boys is that you can decide what kind of burger patty you want:

    • You can go for a standard smashed patty, which comes with two thin patties on the burger
    • You can go for a thicc patty, cooked pink in the centre
    • You can go “Oklahoma-style” smashed patty, which has onions pressed in during the cooking process
    • Or you can go for “Cali-Style”, which is a thick patty grilled in mustard – mimicking how the fast food chain In’n’Out do their “animal style” burgers

    Everything beyond a smashed patty incurs an additional charge, but having the freedom to upgrade your burger however is a very nice touch on the menu.

    For myself I got what is known as the Pizza Boy with smashed patties. This is a burger topped with pepperoni, marinara sauce, a big lump of breaded mozzarella, and served with a garlic and herb dip on the side. I am a lover of all things cheesy, and this hit the exact spot I was looking for when coming back to Beefy Boys.

    My partner got the Bacon Boy with the thick patty and an egg added on top. Unsurprisingly, this burger contains a large amount of bacon, coming loaded with crispy bacon strips, bacon jam, and baconnaise. A solid choice for any porcine purveyors out there.

    When it came to sides, we know from past experience to only order one portion of fries, as doubling up with the absolute majesty of these burgers leads to feeling extremely bloated… that said, an old special has now made a permanent home on the menu in the form of chicken kyiv fries – fries topped with chopped chicken strips, garlic mayonnaise, and garlic butter. 

    These are an extremely indulgent treat, but are oh so worth it. We finalised our sides with an addition I specifically wanted in the form of mac and cheese balls, which came with a little side of chipotle ketchup. These were crunchy, creamy, and absolutely divine when paired with the sauce, perhaps a little overkill considering everything else on the plate.

    To finalise, we decided to get milkshakes as our dessert, which is where “indulgence” started to slowly eek into “overkill”. They were absolutely delicious, extremely thick and a very generous portion, but I had to stop at least twice during mine to contemplate what I had done.

    Now, for the price breakdown:

    • Two refillable soft drinks: £4.25 each for a total of £8.50, where we both got three glasses each out of it
    • Pizza boy with smashed patties: £13.70
    • Bacon boy with thick patty and an egg: £16.15
    • Chicken kyiv fries: £12.50
    • Mac and cheese balls: £7.70
    • Biscoff milkshake: £8
    • Banana milkshake: £7

    Total cost of meal: £73.55
    8% service charge: £5.88

    Total cost overall: £79.43

    A very expensive meal overall, but hopefully the price breakdown shows the general impression of what you get for your money at Beefy Boys. Additionally, the service charge is discretionary, and you are able to remove it from the bill if you want.

    But you should not. Not only because service staff definitely deserve the extra boost where possible, but also because every time we have gone to Beefy Boys the service has been immaculate. Staff are friendly, the food comes out promptly, and the overall atmosphere inside is fantastic.

    It was a worthy date night out after two months of stress, and whilst the current situation prohibits doing it on the regular, I will definitely be returning to Beefy Boys.

    Thank you for reading today, hopefully I have not made you too hungry – but if I have, I hope you can treat yourself to something indulgent today too. It is Saturday after all, and the week has been a long one.

    For more information on Beefy Boys, visit their website here: The Beefy Boys – The Burger Experts

  • Redundancy Review: Day 24, “Crybaby”

    Redundancy Review: Day 24, “Crybaby”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: https://rosaliarambles.wordpress.com/2025/06/11/redundancy-review-day-1-a-new-beginning/)

    Good morning snoozers and sleepers, welcome to Day 24 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Being rejected by Poncle yesterday hurt.

    A lot.

    So much so it threw me off my mojo for basically the entire day once I had got the review out of the way in the morning. I know it is okay to have days like that, especially when I am still dealing with the emotional fallout of the whole catalyst for why I am writing today.

    But it does not stop me feeling the hurt, and I am someone who feels emotions very intensely because of my estrogen treatments. I always got told by doctors in the leadup to starting that my “emotion range would open up” and “you might find it easier to cry”.

    I was not anticipating how much both of those would happen – even three years past the start I still get caught by surprise on how much I can feel and how much I can cry.

    Even before estrogen though, I have always been a bit of a crybaby, being able to cry very easily. Nowadays though it does not take much to set me off, sometimes I have even just looked at a picture of an axolotl and that is enough to make me want to cry a bit.

    That said, I do not consider my emotions or my ease of crying a weakness by any stretch of the imagination. They might be vulnerabilities for me, but I can utilise them as a strength as well, usually within my writing work. In general I hope that is the vibe that comes across with the Redundancy Review thus far, weaponising my vulnerability in the wake of disaster to try make something positive come out of it.

    And as much as I do feel doubt creeping in some days, I will always be here. Rain or shine, happy or sad, awake or asleep – I have my rhythm, and I have a job to do. 

    Promoted this website on my LinkedIn yesterday, as part of a general headline update which included a very professional way of advertising my anti-AI sentiment. On a platform dominated by AI content from GPT-speak copy to obviously incorrect images, promoting myself as a “human-focused creative” definitely makes me stand out a bit more in the opposite direction.

    If you would like a healthy dose of human-focused creativity, I would love to work on your writing projects! Do not settle for the myth of AI-generated copy being “good enough”, whilst it can convey a message it does not convey any emotion, especially when you are trying to market something. Find a human who can get excited about your product and pay them to write about it! (bonus points if I am that human)

    Speaking of getting excited about things, today’s review topic is one that has been considered long overdue by my partner, and a game I followed the development of for a long time before taking the plunge myself.

    Plus, with the big announcement yesterday that Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox Series platforms in August, now seems like a good time to talk about it – it will be admittedly hard to cover the heights this game has reached over the last year and a half, but I will try my best.

    Helldivers 2 is a third-person shooter online cooperative shooter developed by Arrowhead Games released in 2024. The main objective of the game is to fight back against the three factions vying to destroy Super Earth:

    • The Terminid Swarm (standard sci-fi bugs)
    • The Socialist Automatons (standard sci-fi robots)
    • The Illusive Illuminate (standard sci-fi aliens)

    The main way this fight is driven forward is through the regular deployment of “Major Orders” (MO), community-wide objectives that need to be completed or fulfilled within the time given, sometimes within a couple of days or over the span of a week. Players are free to engage with the MO or they can fight whichever faction they prefer.

    I personally love the Major Order system as an example of live service done right, especially when Arrowhead have let players decide what new content they want by offering it as an incentive for doing the MO a certain way… even if it did result in it taking four MOs to unlock Anti-Tank Mines.

    The gameplay loop is fairly straightforward, dive onto a planet.

    With the coolest loading screen ever.

    After which you are presented with your objective, which can range from collecting geological samples, destroying enemy supply lines, to the most important task of them all: raising the flag of Super Earth to bring democracy to all.

    One of the most potent tools in the Helldiver arsenal are stratagems, powerful pieces of equipment that are activated by inputting the correct arrow code. These include but are not limited to:

    • Orbital barrages
    • Vehicles and mech suits
    • Jet fighters carrying ordnance 
    • Defensive turrets and sentries

    After completing your objective, it is time to go to the extraction point, with it taking some time for the shuttle to reach you – this is where shit will really hit the fan, especially on harder difficulties.

    Enemies will lay siege to your extraction with relentless fury, calling in more reinforcements as time goes on, making you rely on all the stratagems at your disposal to get you out of there alive. These moments are where a lot of Helldivers get their most intense stories, and it is no surprise to see why.

    Upon returning to your ship, you get your experience points and any currency collected which can be used to unlock new stratagems, upgrade your ship to access potent passive buffs, or spend on the “Warbond” system, a set of premium, non-expiring, battlepass-style collections of equipment and customisation options.

    That said, Helldivers 2 does not mandate the spending of additional money on top of the price of access. The premium currency of Super Credits is able to be earned entirely in game through missions, so whilst it will be a bit grindy premium content is accessible without spending more money.

    Additionally, upon reaching Level 10, you gain access to weapon customisation. A recently added feature as part of the game’s massive “Heart of Democracy” update that allows players to change how their favourite weapon handles via changing the scope, muzzle, or even the magazine size.

    Whilst this is a very cool feature, there is one major issue currently in-game at time of writing: when going to customise your weapon’s pattern, it is entirely possible for the game to crash to desktop, which leads into one of my main criticisms of Helldivers 2 – it is a technical debt nightmare sometimes.

    For context, the game is built on Autodesk Stingray, an engine that had support discontinued for it in 2018. This means that Helldivers 2 is working on very outdated tech, which can lead to a lot of bugs, crashes, and performance issues depending on your hardware. Quite often bugs that have been quashed in previous updates will reappear at random, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

    It can be a reason not to buy the game, but personally coming from a QA background I recognise how hard it must be to keep a game of this scale working on a regular basis, so whilst I criticise, I can not in good conscious condemn the team knowing full well the patches I have suffered through.

    And with everything the game has accomplished with real, permanent changes to its world as part of the ongoing storyline, I am more than happy to accept some game-breaking bugs along the way.

    I said I wanted to talk about something that excites me, and nearly two whole pages of content before adding in images is definitely that. Thank you for reading today. I hope you can have a relaxing weekend wherever you are. Take it easy, it has been a long week for some and you deserve some time to unplug.

    Helldivers 2 is currently available on PS5 and Steam, with it coming to Xbox Series platforms August 26th.