Good morning wounded and weary, welcome to Day 84 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
So, after much stress, deliberation, stress, sleeplessness, stress, panic, stress, rushing, and stress… I have decided to abandon cosplaying at my upcoming convention.
It hurts to reach this conclusion, especially after looking forward to it for so long, but after having a rough night last night where everything started piling up on top of me at once and trying to do some last minute plans/adjustments today, the notion all became a bit much for me, and considering the stressful year I have had up to this point, I want to go into my convention weekend with as few worries as possible.
Which sucks to come to the conclusion to, but given my body gets very close to giving up movement entirely once my stress levels reach a certain point, this is the right decision as much as I would normally keep fighting.
And being completely honest, I am hurt. Things got derailed so massively in planning this aspect of my convention holiday that keeping everything on track in addition to doing my day-to-day responsibilities just became overwhelming, and with two days to go, the stress is not worth it now.
A positive aspect I can at least consider now is having more time to plan out a proper approach to cosplay, taking my time with things more to have it all ready for next year’s convention… a weird thing to think about, not used to thinking that far in the future currently.
I genuinely feel like I am one more disaster away from having a complete breakdown, which, is… fun to think about.
But I have to keep going.
I still have things I want to live for.
So even if it hurts right now, I will try to keep moving.
…feels a bit weird to do what I was planning for my review segment, but, it is Hololive Tuesday, and I want to at least talk a bit more about what my plan was for the convention, so, here is the reference sheet of one Shiori Novella of Hololive English Advent.
If it is not already clear from the amount of times I have reviewed something Advent related for Hololive Tuesday and ended it off with calling Shiori beautiful, or stunning, or various complimentary adjectives: I love Shiori Novella so much. She is one of my many oshi, possibly in contention for being my kamioshi.
As a goth myself, I fell in love with her design ever since it was revealed, absolutely loving her dress, her hair, and her big ass jacket. But, after she debuted and started talking on stream, her honesty & realness really resonated with one early clip in particular standing out for me:
What people see of Shiori from the outside is usually someone who says something silly or off-the-cuff, leading to silly or lewd moments with others, but when you dig deeper on her, you realise this is a person who is not afraid to show their emotions, to be excited to share stuff with people and to be open in the harder times.
As someone who writes daily about how they are feeling and trying to maintain honesty as I do so, Shiori’s personality resonates with me a lot, which is why I wanted to cosplay her.
Additionally, her outfit always looked like something that could look reasonably okay out on the street, compared to other Hololive outfits – especially the jacket. If I were able to get a high enough quality one as part of a cosplay commission that was made out of a sturdy fabric, I genuinely feel I would use it as an everyday jacket during the winter.
Plus, being fully upfront, I genuinely have considered getting my hair cut in a similar style to hers. Not matching the dye because that would be way too much to maintain on my own, but just matching the cut and seeing how it feels on me.
Anyway, that is enough silly VTuber ramblings for the day. I am very tired, and kind of just want to curl up now.
Thank you for reading the Redundancy Review all the same. I hope you are having the best day you can.
Good morning seamstresses and crafters, welcome to Day 83 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
It is now six days before my convention and I am most definitely starting to panic and feel the stress holy shit. Was doing some try-ons of the improvised cosplay I am intending to wear and there is definitely still some stuff needing to be adjusted/ironed out for it to be worthwhile, and this is not including all of the other logistical details also needing to be sorted out before we leave on Thursday afternoon.
Of course all this stress would be moderately reduced if my actual costume plans had come together… and of course I would also be less stressed if I had not had to spend a lot of my time fighting government agencies for money in the wake of my redundancy instead of costume planning but life goes on.
All of this comes with the thoughts of what it might be like next year to try do this same convention again, and try to reattempt what was meant to happen this year, which leads on to the thought: where the hell am I going to be this time next year?
My partner and I were talking about how the improvised plan is still not going to be perfect, with him specifically worrying about “it not going right”, to which my very blunt response was:
“A lot of things have not gone right this year.”
If you asked the Rosa of March this year about how she felt her year was going to go, she would respond with cautious optimism. She would recognise that the company she worked at was going through some hard times but she had faith in upper management of navigating these issues, and that whilst things might seem hairy, she at least had job security for the remainder of the year.
And now?
Well, I am certainly a different person, although I find the words to describe who I am now oddly difficult.
Part of me wants to call myself a more “bitter” person now, that my redundancy hardened my heart and fully disillusioned me from any corporate structure giving me true fulfillment, even if holding that belief was a fool’s errand to begin with.
Another part wants to call myself a more “honest” person, that I have a better read of situations within the industry I exist in and I, however begrudgingly it may be, understand that my position within this industry has now changed, demanding that my approach change with it.
There could also be an argument made for a part of myself that considers myself a more “ambitious” person now. Before my redundancy was made official I had struggled to write consistently for over a year, instead choosing to push one of my purest passions to the side in favour of navigating through my new life circumstances – something I do not feel I can be faulted for.
But now I find myself trying to write every day, with a varied success rate, and exploring new ideas for making my way in this world, desiring to learn something new every day or trying new things and attempting to persevere through my mind telling me I am not good enough.
Even if my creative ventures continue to be nothing more than thoughts inside my head, I want to be proud of the fact I have committed to practicing writing every day in one form or another. The Redundancy Review is my living journal through which I build my skills up every day, no matter the weird topics I tackle or the intense emotions I put on show for all to see.
If anything I write appeals to you, please get in touch. I continue to be available for freelance writing work on top of freelance QA work and I would love to learn more while making your project the best it can be.
In the meantime though, I need to review something, otherwise the title suddenly makes very little sense, and I think it is time that a little bit of my tech industry background starts to show itself.
So, am I talking about a piece of work software? Perhaps talking about one of the virtual reality headsets I use on a daily basis? Maybe it is even my work peripherals I want to talk about?
Surprise!
It is none of them.
Instead, we are talking about the all-in-one meal replacement in a bottle: Huel.
Huel, a portmanteau of the words “human” and “fuel” which shows how techbro this stuff really is, is a brand of meal replacement powders, dehydrated meals, and the subject of today’s review, the ready-to-drink meal. Specifically the Black Edition because that is the one my local Tesco had in stock.
Initially, I tried Huel on a whim near the start of March having found it next to the milk in my local Tesco. I had some familiarity of what it was but had never considered trying it before that point.
It is… weird to describe. Due to the fact Huel is entirely plant based with the Black Edition specifically having a base of water and coconut milk powder, it has the consistency of very thin porridge but with a chocolate flavour. Thankfully the coconut flavour is not all that pronounced which is good because I cannot stand the taste of coconut.
On the surface, Huel is described as “nutritionally complete food”, with the headlines on the bottle reading:
35g protein
26 essential vitamins & minerals
7g dietary fibre
Slow-release carbs
And Omega-3 and Omega-6
Back in April I actually pursued using Huel as a weight loss aid, replacing my lunch with it specifically. The logic behind this was trying to make my calorie intake over lunch more consistent as I frequently had indulgent lunches that would hit between 800-1000 calories, this is not to mention that a single bottle of Huel (on average) still has less calories than a supermarket meal deal sandwich.
It was a tough time, especially as my body had to grow used to so few calories before dinner, but for a time I did feel healthier… until the redundancy hit and I stopped as a cost saving measure.
Now I view Huel as mainly an emergency/convenience item more than anything else. The two bottles I have pictured are coming with me to my convention as having something to carry around in the back to have as a “meal” if the schedule is as busy as I anticipate it being, leaving me little time to actually sit down and eat.
In terms of convenience though, Huel is a great option for the days when my brain is just too overwhelmed to make decisions, which is what I see as the best personal excuse to do a meal replacement drink. Some days I am worrying too much about work, personal stress, or otherwise to even want to process picking something out for lunch, so downing a drink that gives me enough nutrition to keep going whilst I let my brain slow down is the perfect option.
Plus, with the fact these Huel Black Editions were on Clubcard Price for £3.20 each combined with the recent increase in Tesco Meal Deal pricing, this works out as both less calories and cheaper overall, which I think is pretty good.
But that does it all for today, I am going to head back now to do my actual current job. Thank you for reading this edition of the Redundancy Review, I hope the Monday blues are not dragging you down too much and the rest of your week looks clear.
For more information on Huel, visit their website here: Huel UK
Good morning fixers and repairers, welcome to a double feature for Day 81 & 82 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Did I miss a day out of my commitment for writing every day before my convention trip? Yes I did. Do I have a good reason for it? Yes I do.
I have been enjoying myself and relaxing. I had a friend over for a roast dinner yesterday which took up a lot of my energy in terms of preparation and then I played a lot of Helldivers 2 to continue unlocking stuff from the Halo warbond.
That said, I did make a marginal improvement to Rambles as a whole by upgrading the top navigation bar: adding in a dedicated Redundancy Review button to navigate to all of these articles, and adding in both my fiction & commissions right at the top bar to advertise that part of the website.
Taking several factors into consideration, the primary factor of which is my rent going up by £40 at the start of October, I definitely want to put more effort into advertising the fact I am available for writing commissions or quality assurance contracts. Part of me realises that returning to the stable corporate structure might not be in my foreseeable future, and as much as the freelance life unsettles me a little bit; there are a fair few benefits that come with it as well.
Specifically, freelancing gives me a higher chance of remaining remote in my work lifestyle, which I would very much like to do for the foreseeable, both for personal preference and to help try to maintain the idea of remote work becoming the norm in the coming years.
For those who might not be aware, I consider myself a “remote work advocate”, to put it in LinkedIn speech. I believe remote work is the ideal way for people to work and whilst there are definitely going to be a fair few exceptions within that statement, I feel remote work needs to be more widely adopted across different industries – especially in the increasingly volatile tech industry.
I see a lot of techbros talk against remote work, saying that nothing beats the in-person energy of experimentation and bouncing ideas off of each other… and to some extent, I agree.
Brainstorming ideas in-person can lead to more off-the-cuff suggestions, but I feel it should skew more towards regular team days that focus on both work and relaxation. Gather people together for meetings where they can discuss how things have gone in recent months, where improvements can be made, and then follow it up with an evening of relaxation together, either going out for a meal or engaging in an activity.
Remote work leads to healthier people and higher productivity. At least in my case, the fact I am working in my own space without the distraction of people talking to me or coming by my desk for a chat leads to me getting my work done a lot quicker, especially when taking into consideration that one of my (many) neuroses is that I really struggle to work when I am aware of someone looking over my shoulder or perceiving my work in any way.
I am working, you do not need to stand over my shoulder and assure yourself that I am doing so. It will get done, so leave me alone and let me work…
…god help me if I end up getting an in-person role in the future, in my now almost five-year career as a QA I have worked a grand total of seven days in an in-person setting, and of those seven days only three of them could be classed as actually doing my job since one of them was getting to the office for the first time and being toured round with the remaining three being in-person meetings where I spent more time commuting than I actually did contributing.
It would be one hell of a socialisation experiment, but ultimately, even if I am not the most social person at work, I still get the job done.
Want to hire me and watch me prove that? Get in touch! Quality assurance, fiction writing, technical writing? I will do it all and am more than happy to work within your budget to find a solution that benefits both of us.
Time to head into the review, and considering a well-known card game accessory manufacturer is currently going through a lot of bad publicity due to stupid decisions regarding AI usage and Harry Potter licensing deals, I think it will be good to review a deck box from what is quickly becoming my favourite manufacturer.
An aside, fuck you Ultimate Guard. Your Katana sleeves were actually some of the best on the market but I cannot in good conscious support you given the decisions you have made over the past weeks.
Anyway, here is the Gamegenic Squire Plus 100+ XL Deck Box, in the Teal/Pink colour scheme because the trans vibes must be immaculate.
I am not entirely sure when this particular deck box was released, but I definitely think it was at least in the last year or so, and if we go by how little stock of these exist within UK stores currently, it is reasonable to assume they are quite popular – a sentiment I fully understand now that I have my hands on one.
The headline feature of the Squire Plus over the regular Squire is the addition of the transparent hard plastic card case that can store a single standard-sized trading card. This is specifically designed around the immensely popular Magic: the Gathering format “Commander”, which features a single card chosen to be your commander.
It presents an extremely novel solution to the eternal problem that many Magic: the Gathering players face: remembering what deck is stored in what box. With your commander displayed prominently on the outside of the deck box, it not only allows for finding the deck easier but it also allows your decks to become display pieces themselves, proudly showing off your favourite creations on your shelf.
Additionally, the magnets on the lid of the deck box are extremely discrete compared to other magnetic deck boxes I own, barely being visible on the box or the lid itself leading to a very slim look when all put together.
The MSRP of these deck boxes is listed at $27.99, which converts to roughly £20.78 as of time of writing. I got this a little cheaper than that from chaoscards.co.uk (not sponsored, but a big fan) at £17.95, which I consider a more than worth it price point for the quality you get in exchange.
Now to figure out which deck I want to put in this thing.
That will do it for today, thank you for reading this double feature of the Redundancy Review. Wherever you are, I hope you have had a very good weekend with plenty of relaxation, and that the Monday blues do not get to you too much tomorrow.
Good morning munchers and gobblers, welcome to Day 80 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
As mentioned at the end of yesterday’s review, my period has descended upon me, a stumble on the path to greatness that estrogen has granted me. God knows I would be too powerful if I could have the benefits of euphoria without some crippling debuff, and so sees fit to bring down my potential.
Which in this case has manifested in a loss of appetite… yeah kind of shitty my body has afflicted the one of the few things I have near limitless passion for: my love of food.
That and writing, cause my brain is fogged up in addition to not feeling like eating.
So my extremely brief “review” is going to be the most recent Warbond from Helldivers 2, the “Obedient Democracy Support Trooper” Legendary Warbond.
For context, Warbonds are one of the ways Helldivers 2 distributes premium content, being similar to a battlepass in having multiple pages that unlock as more items are purchased using an in-game currency called “Medals”, earned by completing missions.
Though that is where the comparison to most battle implementations end, as Helldivers 2 is extremely unique in that the premium currency, known as Super Credits, is entirely farmable in game, found in intervals of 10 or, very rarely, 100 at points of interest around the map during missions. This is unrelated to the main review, I just want to highlight it.
Most Warbonds cost 1000 Super Credits, though the new Legendary Warbond for Halo 3 ODST costs 1500 instead, potentially to help cover licensing fees.
Full disclosure, this is the first Warbond I have actually spent real money on, which was £7.99 for 1000 Super Credits to supplement 500 I already had through game progression.
This is a decision I have no regrets in, especially after actually getting to use the weapons within it. The fact a Halo crossover is present in one of Sony’s headline titles is something I want to support in the industry, and Arrowhead’s implementation of Halo weaponry is incredibly loving and faithful.
Thus far I have only unlocked the assault rifle, and from the few missions I have used it on I am thoroughly in love with how it has been brought over. Rather than aiming down the sights of the weapon when going into first-person mode, like all the other weapons do, the first-person mode for the assault rifle mimics how the view looks in Halo, with the assault rifle off to the right side. A small detail, but a clear indicator of how much the series means to the developers.
Additionally, whilst I have a minor gripe with the shotgun being “light armour penetrating” (the lowest value in the game) considering it is modelled after the Halo shotgun that is supposed to annihilate Flood, from what I see of it on its stats page within the Warbond itself makes me confident it will be powerful nonetheless, having a damage stat far exceeding that of the highest damaging base-game shotgun. I look forward to destroying the enemies of democracy with it.
And again, I have no regrets spending my real money on this. For all the game’s faults and technical deficits, I think Helldivers 2 is a shining beacon in today’s modern game industry – regular free content updates, premium content that can be earned entirely through gameplay, and a beautiful community brought together across all three major platforms. I am proud to support Arrowhead, and I will continue to do so by playing Helldivers 2.
For a brain addled by hormones, I think I did pretty well writing day. Thank you for reading this edition of the Redundancy Review. Wherever you are I hope your weekend is good, and you can find relaxation throughout it.
Good morning programmers and developers, welcome to Day 79 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
It has been a while since I have talked about my feelings on Generative AI, and considering the last couple days have been dominated by my own personal stress, I have a feeling that getting some ranting out of my system will do me some good.
To reiterate, I am anti-Generative AI in a lot of different ways. I take a dim view of chatbots, an even dimmer view of using them for creative writing, and an extremely dim view of using AI for image generation.
But there is something I have always found fascinating when it comes to Generative AI discussions, and that is the topic of AI integration with everyday life being “inevitable” to some degree. From the soulless automaton Zuckerberg saying that anyone who does not wear AI-enabled glasses will be at a “cognitive disadvantage” to the universally unlovable Musk saying AI “superintelligence” is going to be here in 2030.
And whenever I see comments like that, or hear anecdotally from people saying AI is here to stay so you may as well embrace it, I always think of one thing specifically relating to my personal situation.
You want to preach inevitability to a fucking transgender woman?
I want to highlight Zuckerberg’s comment in particular, as it continues to stand out in my mind as a particularly out-of-touch remark. What the hell do you mean by “cognitive disadvantage” you worm? All the GenAI in the glasses is going to be able to do is look things up for you that you can do on your phone right now, or are you so disconnected from humanity you need the machine in your glasses to translate emotions for you?
This outlook does not even go in to the numerous studies coming out right now that are studying the effects of ChatGPT on cognitive function, or the utterly disturbing news around those who view AI chatbots as their friends and close confidants leading to heartbreaking suicides – all of these techbros are so devoid of ethics and so full of wanting to “change the world” that their contempt for the mass populace is showing even more than usual.
To bring… a semblance of balance to this rant, do I think mass uptake of GenAI in everyday life is inevitable? No.
But do I think it is here to stay regardless of how bad the bubble bursts? Unfortunately, yes.
As someone who works in the Extended Reality (XR) industry currently, a technology that had its own bubble period, I can see GenAI sticking around for the foreseeable future even after the massive funding bubble that sustains it bursts and the development of all these new models slows down immensely.
My hope is that it becomes like crypto and XR, where there is still enough of an ecosystem and demand for it that smaller companies can sustain themselves reasonably okay, but all of these giants like OpenAI, xAI, and most all of Meta collapse in on themselves…
…okay that last one is a little biased because I am asking for Meta as a whole to collapse rather than its AI division, but as someone who regrettably works very closely with Meta technologies on a daily basis there is a certain level of resentment I have for the company and Zuckerberg on a deeply personal level.
I use the term “Human-focused creative” for myself on LinkedIn as part of my banner, partially because I know advertising myself as a Luddite on that AI-infested website would attract all the wrong kinds of characters, and partially because that is my stake in this great war between people and machines.
It matters to me that humans create things.
It matters to me that I can read the stories and experiences of other humans.
I do not want to see machines telling stories, or machines trying to market products.
If you care about the quality of your overall image, hire a human. No amount of savings that AI can bring will outweigh the work a human can produce.
Does this put me at odds with like… 90% of the professional space who preach the gospel of using AI to streamline the job search in an effort to counter a broken market? Yes it does.
But I am going to stand by these principles, in this space AI does not stand for “artificial intelligence”; it stands for “artistic integrity” – yes I know that sounds cheesy as fuck, embrace being a little cringey, all the best art is!
Time for the review segment, and we are back to my favourite type of thing to review: food. That is right, we are back for:
Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!
And in this instance specifically, we are most definitely back as I am revisiting a place I talked about all the way back for Day 3 of the Redundancy Review, the lovely little sandwich shop known as Brambles.
Specifically on my lunch walk today I was very divided on what I wanted to eat, whether to indulge in something greasy to help absorb the emotions I have been experiencing over the last week, or go for something simple to save my money for a takeaway tomorrow. Eventually I decided on the latter, and wandered over to Brambles to get a nice & basic sandwich.
That is, until I noticed the specials board, and saw that for the hot special today they had Chicken, Chorizo, and Mozzarella available as either a toasted wrap or a panini.
So obviously I had to get myself set up with a panini because all three of those sandwich fillings are among my favourite ingredients in the world, and for the price point of £4.80 it serves as a very economical lunch to boot.
Brambles’ panini press is also one that comes with ridges which I especially appreciate, as sometimes when it comes to getting paninis from other places they tend to just be the panini loaf pressed down flat which gives it a crunchy exterior with the texture feeling just a little flat.
Outside of that, there is not much to say about it, which I think is its strength. When you use a simple selection of ingredients, the resulting sandwich turns out as greater than the sum of its parts, and there are very few sandwich ingredients that cannot be improved by the addition of fresh mozzarella.
But that was not all I picked up this time, as a lovely baked creation on the shelf above all the sandwich ingredients caught my eye and, being a lover of the sweets adorned atop it, I just had to try it.
This, is a chocolate brownie/cake (I honestly can not tell which, it sort of dances the line between both) topped with a chocolate icing and Rolos. For those reading who might not know what they are, Rolos are small chocolate swirls that are filled with caramel that are off the charts delicious.
And £2.50 to get a cake with a wonderfully soft texture that combines two amazing sweet treats made it a no-brainer, serving as the perfect dessert for a lunch that helped ease the pain of the last couple days.
That will do it for today, considering my period is about to start the writing may get a little more intense slash unstable in the coming days, but I am still keeping to my commitment to write something every day before my convention trip. Thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review, wherever you are I hope you are able to take it easy today.
Good morning painters and lovers, welcome to Day 76 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Today was a good day for me. It is a bank holiday in the UK, and even though I am a freelance contractor who would not normally get public holidays, I decided to take it off anyway. Partially because of appreciating keeping some semblance of my old schedule as a tech worker, and partially because the events of the weekend left me thoroughly demoralised.
Thankfully though, two of my closest friends (who coincidentally live upstairs from me) had the day off today, which made it a good time to play Magic: the Gathering together especially considering it is very rare we get the chance to start playing in the early afternoon rather than early evening due to mine and my partner’s work schedule.
And despite the fact I was not the victor in either game, it was exactly what I needed today. Hanging out with good company, playing a game we all love, and ending it off by sharing a home cooked meal together.
Cooking is definitely how I show love to others, being stronger than actual physical affection in my eyes at least. Making a meal is one of the best things I can do for someone, and it is something I massively enjoy in trying to hone my skills in the kitchen and infinitely trying to get better with what I am making.
Which y’know, ties into how often food reviews feature on the website. Whether I am making it or whether I am eating out, good food with good people is a cornerstone of my life, leading us very nicely into…
Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!
I mentioned in yesterday’s review that I had got another one prepared ready for today, partially out of feeling intensely on Sunday and wanting to find somewhere to have a treat lunch, realising I could make another food review out of it and capitalise on how easy they come to me.
And when it comes to comfort food, pizza is the be-all and end-all for me, with myself having a soft spot for a local joint known as “Dough & Oil”.
Dough & Oil is definitely more… hipster than other pizza places would be. WIth a small menu of pizzas along with minimal sides, the focus is more on quality ingredients and pillowy crusts than anything else. My pizza of choice? One known as “The Philipo”.
The Philipo is the standard tomato sauce and mozzarella base, topped with spicy nduja salami and piquante peppers before being sprinkled with fresh pieces of rocket. The price point of this pizza is where the hipster element of the venue comes in, with this lovely pizza pie clocking in at a steep £15.
On one hand, I can recognise this is extremely unaffordable, especially when it comes to pizza – the same amount of money can pay for a larger takeaway pizza that can become multiple meals or pay for several supermarket pizzas that can be stored for longer and make even more meals beyond that.
But on the other hand, as a very infrequent treat, this pizza hit the exact spot I was looking for. Spicy toppings, an incredibly soft and flavorful dough, and hitting the craving for a slightly more luxury pizza. Specifically the nduja salami on this one hit my usual craving for spicy food perfectly, warming my mouth perfectly and waking me up sufficiently for the rest of the day.
Somewhat related, I really wish there were more places to buy pizza-by-the-slice in the UK. When it comes to craving the comfort of a pizza at lunchtime, I find myself very thin on the ground for options. I am either committing to something like I did yesterday, sitting down for a proper lunch and a large-sized pizza, or I am scrolling the menu of the local Dominos to get a small personal pizza that hits the spot, but feels a little overkill for a lunch.
And before anyone chimes in: no, Greggs does not count as pizza by the slice. It barely counts as pizza if you ask me.
A venue like Dough and Oil I think would be ripe for such a business venture, serving delicious slices of specialty pizzas for a reasonable price to anyone who might be walking by.
Side tangent over, finishing things off.
Thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review. If you are in the UK I hope you have been able to enjoy your bank holiday, and if you are someone who has been working today, I hope things have not been too difficult for you.
For more information on Dough & Oil, visit their website here: Dough & Oil
Good morning reclaimers and salvagers, welcome to Day 75 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
This whole cosplay debacle is still pretty raw in my mind as I write this. I feel a lot of regret about how things went down and what I could have done differently, which, in general I try not to dwell on regret as part of my life philosophy.
Is there plenty I have done in my life that I can and do feel regret over? Yes – but ultimately I try to not to let myself feel regret long. For all that I can regret, I am still in the position I am now because of my actions, good or bad, so spending time wallowing ultimately does not serve what I want to do.
It is just this specific instance and what the result of it was supposed to be that makes me wonder what I could have done differently as part of the commission process. Should I have messaged after the estimated delivery date passed, giving myself almost three months worth of time? Should I have pressed the seller more in general even though they said they do not give WIPs?
In general though, I mainly feel sad. This sadness prevails even as I consider the fact I have a backup plan for a cosplay that people in the community seem interested in, but I find it hard to discover the impetus to work on the cosplay or accessories because of how derailed my initial plan is.
Sadness is also what is making me struggle with wanting to write, even though a good part of the Redundancy Review is trying to capture my day-to-day feelings, from the highs and the lows, but the sadness usually comes with fogginess that can make it hard to sit down and write, even though I have demonstrated multiple times that I can utilise my emotions and channel them into my work, like with my anti-AI and anti-government rantings.
If I am honest, this is probably going to stay raw in my mind up until I get into the post-con depression phase of my convention, have greater sadness replace the current sadness and also go past the crux of what makes the current sadness so great.
I want to try to write every day up until my convention, especially as I have been slacking in recent weeks, and hopefully I can work through the sadness to do that.
Though, one thing that I always find it easy to write about is food… that is right, we are back with another exciting installment of:
Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!
I really like that I have made this a regular segment, even if I do not consider myself an official food reviewer of sorts, and more just a foodie who loves talking about the places she goes to.
And today we have another local joint known as “The Exchange”, a sort of fancier pub style of venue with food to match, offering up classics like fish & chips, burgers, and gammon.
We went there because I wanted to take my parents out to dinner to say thanks to them for helping me through things when it came to my redundancy and joblessness, from paying for meals out, to my mum providing me with food that would have been wasted off otherwise at her job.
For starters, I ordered a simple portion of southern fried chicken strips which came with a black pepper mayo. An incredibly generous portion of strips with a simple yet delicious dip, which when paired with the extremely reasonable price tag of £6.50 for this amount of food made for an excellent starter that prepared me well enough for my main.
Initially my partner and I had planned on ordering what is known as the “Meaty Boy Platter” off their menu and sharing that, but once we had conferred that we were both absolutely starving by this, we went for our own mains, which for me was a simple bacon cheeseburger.
Burgers for me are similar in a way to pizza, in that it is very difficult to make an objectively bad burger, instead variations in preparation leading to differing results. Regular readers will also know I have reviewed a lot of burgers as part of eating my way around Shrewsbury, and this one was… alright.
Which is a bit of a shame to say, because for the price point of £17.50 (base price being £15.50 and adding on £2 to add bacon & mozzarella), I was expecting something fantastic.
The burger patty itself was well cooked and seasoned, being extraordinarily juicy to the point I took my arm warmers off before consumption, but the cheese and bacon did not really add anything to the burger as well.
Whilst mozzarella is in contention for being my favourite cheese of all time, it is nowhere near the top spot as burger cheese specifically due to its mild flavour not really offering any contrast to the flavour of the meat.
Additionally, the bacon was back bacon rather than streaky bacon, matching the popularity of the cut in the UK, but emphasising why streaky is used instead as the thick meatiness of the back bacon kind of overwhelmed the beef patty in some bites rather than complimenting the flavour of the beef.
Finally, the fries were… good. The entire main I had was very middle of the road, being an alright burger served with alright fries. I think part of my mind was expecting something closer to hand cut chips rather than fries as part of the meal in a venue such as this.
Now, we get into a part of the story that is a little more difficult to talk about, and that unfortunately does not come with pictures because of what happened. After our mains were finished and we ordered dessert, we waited.
And waited.
And waited a little more.
Flagged down the assistant manager.
And waited.
And kept waiting.
Until fifty minutes later, we received our dessert. In the venue’s defence, they had a private function of twenty people booked upstairs and the kitchen definitely seemed to have got a little overwhelmed because of some plates being sent back, but it would have been nice to get a little more attention as part of the wait, especially as it was only after our dessert arrived that we were offered some free drinks as compensation.
However, I cannot complain too much for two reasons. The first being that our starters and mains were promptly delivered, and it was this private party that put a knock-on effect on the kitchen, leading to delays for both our desserts and other customer’s food.
Second being that because of how long we waited for the desserts, the manager comped them off our bill for us with his apologies. The wait was annoying, but it was incredibly appreciated to see the manager stepping up, taking responsibility, and making it right by us.
We were planning to return to The Exchange at some point anyway to try other options on the menu (mainly for myself to see what I might like beyond the burger), but the integrity of the management definitely cemented the idea of going back due to how well we were treated in the face of a problem.
…I should really do food reviews more often, they flow so easily for me compared to other topics, though I doubt my waistline would appreciate that fact… that said I have a food review lined up for tomorrow as well so look forward to that.
But thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review all the same. For all of you in the UK alongside me, enjoy the long weekend, for the Monday blues have no hold on us now!
Good morning bassists and drummers, welcome to a massive catch-up post for a bunch of missed days of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
A lot of what I write for the review is self-indulgent. I talk about my emotions, things that make me feel happy, and food I have eaten that tasted good. The entire series is a reflection of myself written down as a living record.
And so, given the fact I took a very hard loss over the last week, I am going to take today’s catch-up post to let my emotions fly a little bit, because fuck me do I need it.
There has been a lot that has gone wrong in my life, wasted my degree years due to stubbornness, losing friends cause of a lack of emotional intelligence, and going through severe periods of distress due to transition related issues.
But I can comfortably say that the last three months of my life have been the worst period I have ever experienced – and that is fucking saying something considering how dark my mind got during my university days.
Ever since I got the news that the company I worked for was in the shit, I have been fighting every day to try get small victories, and I should not minimise the fact that even small victories mean a lot when I have gone through what I have gone through.
But for every small victory I feel like I take a big loss alongside it, and I am really fucking tired of that happening.
Even in the last couple of days I have taken a small victory and a big loss simultaneously with my custom cosplay order falling through two weeks before my convention. The seller was courteous and offered me a full refund for my disappointment, which is the small victory, but the big loss comes from the fact this outfit felt like it was going to be the centrepiece of my convention holiday – something I have been looking forward to all year and now I have to go put together a backup plan in a short amount of time.
I am not going to name and shame the seller. As part of the refund I agreed that I would not leave a negative review, and I am sticking to that. I would much rather move on and try make something positive out of this mess… finding yet more small victories.
Every day feels fearful to me now, as if something has changed in my brain that has shifted my outlook from nervous optimism to outright pessimism. I had a breakdown on my partner last night and when I started talking about some of the fears I have about upcoming things, I said a line that breaks my heart even now to repeat:
“I am wanting to prepare for the worst because that is all I can expect nowadays”.
Making the best out of a bad situation should be an admirable trait, one I can take pride of, especially as someone who has lived in startup culture for the last three plus years and has made a name for herself of trying to be adaptable in times of crisis, knowing how to problem-solve my way out of anything.
But I resent the fact I have become that person.
I resent that I can never go long without needing to put out a fire.
And I hate the fact that everything I am going through is making me a colder person and I do not know what to do to stop it – which I am not even sure I fully agree with saying cause the main thing that differentiates this period of time from the previous absolute worst time of my life is that I actually recognise I have people to live for now.
I will keep going, I do not want to stop… but I am absolutely praying for a better season to come my way, because quite frankly, this summer has sucked.
Going to keep it simple with a different review today, talking about another Stardew Valley save of mine that I have with a friend, this time on the Forest Farm layout.
I have mentioned it in passing before, but I have an obsession with building infrastructure in video games. Paths, roads, transport structures, all of it is fair game for me wanting to make neat layouts & patterns in whatever I play, and Stardew is a game I find surprisingly useful for that purpose, especially when presented with the challenges of any of the nonstandard layouts.
Forest in particular has been an interesting challenge, in trying to find the perfect blend of farming crops, farming animals, and utilising the main feature of the farm – that being renewable forage and hardwood options.
Initially I had struggled with this task, especially when it came to building layouts that could work with the sprinkler patterns I usually use without actually having the sprinklers to plan out the infrastructure.
But as with my mind itself, things start to make a lot more sense around Winter in this game, and without needing to worry about (much) crop watering and focus more on getting stuff organised for the next year, I feel a lot happier plotting out paths and working out where things need to go.
On this map in particular, it is evidenced by the massive tree farm I am trying to establish in the top middle of the map. This initially started small scale with each tree type being vertically aligned which made collecting forage from the tappers a nightmare, but once I had established where the animal pasture needed to go a lot of space opened up which has led to the larger scale farm pictured above.
There is definitely still a lot of work to be done on this farm, but considering this is only the end of Year 1, I am extremely excited to see where this goes next.
Here is where I would usually say something about getting my rhythm back, but honestly, as much as the Redundancy Review will keep going, I am not sure how well I will be able to write individual days depending on my mood – I definitely want to try chronicle my convention holiday each day, but, we will see how it goes.
Thank you for reading this far if you did, I hope you are able to have a relaxing weekend, a longer one than usual if you are in the UK.
Good morning brewers and roasters, welcome to Day 68 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
I have found the solution to my spacing out issue I have been experiencing.
It was caffeine.
What I was experiencing was caffeine withdrawal combined with antidepressant withdrawal.
It has been so hot and humid in the UK recently that I have not had any desire to make a hot coffee or the energy to make a cold coffee, instead choosing to drink copious amounts of water and canned soft drinks to beat the heat.
Whilst this helped me beat the heat, my body is used to a regular intake of caffeinated substances and so if I am not able to consume any or, like in this case, completely forget to consume any, the withdrawal symptoms tend to onset pretty quickly and usually abate once I have remembered to take in caffeine.
In today’s instance, my partner made me a mocha shortly after I crawled out of bed and then I had an iced mocha around two hours later as part of my lunch, which has led to me feeling the best I have in a couple of days. My mind and instincts have been the best they have been since my spacing out started.
Initially I could have fixed it yesterday after a shopping trip, because I had considered picking up a Relentless due to a long week but initially decided against it due to not wanting to be wired out of my mind for a D&D game – which was a good decision in hindsight because yesterday’s game was one of the best sessions I had in a while.
Hopefully with the temperatures cooling down I remember to imbibe the blessed substance.
For now though, we have today’s review, another exciting installment of…
Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!
I really need a dedicated logo for this, perhaps something like an axolotl with its mouth wrapped around a burger.
And no, no GenAI to get one quickly. I have standards and would want to pay an artist to create this.
Last night I was thinking about wanting to go out today. I usually go out every day on a walk for my lunch hour but today there was no need to go out except for the sole desire of leaving the flat, as we had already gone shopping for everything we needed for the week and did not need anything extra for tonight.
Thankfully, my partner felt the same, and after much deliberation of where we might want to go for a sort of brunch, we settled on a local bistro-style restaurant known as “The Ol’Chemist”.
We have been there a few times for meals at all hours except dinner, and in this instance we had specifically arrived just in time for them to start serving their lunch menu, where something in particular caught my eye.
But first, drinks.
My partner, pictured in the background, had a Cookies & Cream “Freakshake”, which looked absolutely fantastic, whereas I settled on a nice, simple, iced mocha as mentioned previously.
The tall Collins glass made a nice change for how iced coffee beverages are normally presented to me, along with a minimal amount of ice that reduced how slushy the drink ended up after it sat for a while, experiencing minimal slush and making it perfectly pleasant to sip on as we waited for our food, with it coming in at the very small price point of £3.95 making it all the more enjoyable for being £1 less than drinks of a similar quality.
However, what I was particularly excited for was what I ordered off the lunch menu: Beef Sliders… sort of. When I went to order our lovely waitress told me that the kitchen is out of the beef they used for the slider, but they would be happy to substitute in either chicken or, what I selected, brisket.
These were absolutely phenomenal, potentially being even better because of the brisket being used instead. As someone who absolutely loves pickles in all forms, the chunkiness of how the pickles were cut and placed on the surprisingly soft buns made me very happy, with the sheer amount of melted cheese only improving the taste.
For these two sliders it cost £9.95, a bit pricey in terms of wanting a simple lunch especially compared to some other cafe offerings around town, but for the price it absolutely hit the spot, definitely being filling enough to keep me going until I make dinner later tonight.
If I were looking for more I possibly would have added a portion of fries to go along with it, but I was more than happy with what I got, especially as the vibes were immaculate and the staff were lovely.
That does it for today, thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review. I am very glad I have found my rhythm as we have an exciting milestone tomorrow that I would not want to combine any days for. Wherever you are I hope you can enjoy your Sunday and make the most of it before Monday arrives again.
Good morning flips and flops, welcome to Day 65 & 66 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Initially tried writing Day 65 yesterday as a semi-placeholder day, but I ended up being way too spaced out to finish writing anything. I am not entirely sure what was causing the space-out or the dizziness, but I can reasonably assume it is one of the bigger changes I have been working on in the background.
Recently had a friend compliment me on how I put stuff out into the open so willingly and they like that about me, with today’s topic being no different.
For about two weeks now, I have been weaning myself off my antidepressants.
Disclaimer: My words are not meant to be taken as advice to either stop taking antidepressants or decide not to pursue them. If you feel your medication is helping you, then continue taking it, likewise if you feel medication is what you need to help you. Always follow the advice of your doctor when it comes to antidepressant medication and consult them before any major changes.
Bit of context, I had been on the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) Sertraline since about November of last year, having had a mental breakdown around that time due to a large combination of factors and wanting to see how the medication would help me out.
In short, it brought my mood into a consistent “happy medium” point as I frequently called it – and for a good amount of time I was satisfied with existing in that happy medium. But as time went on and I became redundant, that happy medium was something I no longer wanted to have as my baseline.
With the way my brain works, combining a potent cocktail of estrogen, ADHD, and general mental fuzziness means my emotions fluctuate wildly throughout a day sometimes… actually hold on I have the perfect image to use this for:
Yeah it looks pretty much like that for me on a given day, whereas my antidepressants would stabilise my line in the middle. For some people, that is all they would need, craving stability and a mood that does not shift throughout the day.
For me though… it feels weird to say, but I want to try embrace all my emotions more – even the negative ones. I want to feel the highest highs and the lowest lows, not suppressing how I feel and just letting my emotions fly out.
It has been hard for me to embrace emotional expression, and to an extent I still find a fair amount of difficulty with it. Not so long ago I would suppress any negative emotion I had because I did not know how to process it properly, which inevitably led to things boiling over in my mind and causing me to lash out anyway.
That is not to say I am an expert at it now; because I am really not. Learning how my brain and emotions work is a long form process for me that I think will still take a significant amount of time to understand, but I want to learn about them in their purest, unrestrained form before figuring out how I want to work with them.
Similarly, I find myself wanting to embrace the flip-flop in my career as well. Right now my contract role is sustaining me in a way that is working, but I have ambitions way outside of the tech industry that I would love to explore as well.
As a massive VTuber fan, the idea crosses my mind of getting a model and trying to establish my own brand of content in a massively saturated market, not only for the potential niche I would love to try to fulfill, but also as a way of further introducing things that make me happy to other people.
I aim to continue improving my baking skills, along with working towards making homemade pickles and sauces with the aim I could one day sell them at a market of sorts, and of course writing work falls into this mix as well, either as a professional copywriter somewhere or just picking up odd jobs here and there.
My position in life right now is not entirely in danger, so for me, this is the best time to explore and try new things to see what I might want to do as a career outside of what has been familiar to me for so long.
For now though, I shall continue on the path I am currently walking, enjoying my card games, plushies, and everything else in between. The most important thing in between being food, which is a perfect and not-at-all awkward segue into another exciting episode of…
Rosa Eats Her Way Around Shrewsbury!
It has been a while since I have done one of these, and this time I hit up a proper local joint called “Bird And Beer”, specialising in fried chicken and beer, in case the name did not give it away.
This is a place my partner has been asking for me to try since he went while I was away in Scotland, and tonight we finally went out together as a treat. The menu is decently sized but offers all the favourites: strips, wings, burgers, and a good variety of sides.
Now, I am someone who appreciates the spicier things in life, and constantly tests my limits in regards to my spice tolerance. Usually I am pretty good with whatever I decide to throw at my mouth, esophagus, or stomach, having once tackled ghost pepper chilli sauce and enjoying it with some regularity.
With this in mind, I decided to order the spiciest sauce available on the menu to coat my chicken strips, “Cluckin’ Hot”, a concoction of fresh garlic, ginger, and Scotch Bonnet chillies, topped with jalapeno salsa, sliced red chillies, and chilli flakes in case you have not already regretted your life choice by ordering this.
Included in my spread was a portion of “Bird Disco Fries”, skin-on fries topped with melted cheese, yet more jalapeno salsa, and the mysterious “Bird Sauce”, which I did not think to ask what it contained. A bowl of fried pickles (frickles) finished off my meal, and were incredibly lovely, especially as I struggle to find these delightful treats on menus nowadays.
Okay, enough positivity and beating around the bush.
The Cluckin’ Hot sauce was quite possibly a mistake. To give the lovely staff at Bird and Beer credit, it was a flavourful sauce which is something that often falls by the wayside when it comes to places devising their spiciest sauces, favouring pure heat over taste.
I am not sure if it is the combination of the hot sauce with the fresh chillies, or the hot sauce with the jalapeno salsa, or the fact I ordered spice on top of spice, but something about this meal absolutely demolished me, to the point I was turning red, coughing, and slamming my fist lightly on the table.
It is hard for me to even pass a proper judgement on the quality of the chicken strips themselves because my mind has been so fixated on the absolute pain and suffering I inflicted upon myself with their spiciest sauce…
…only to discover it is not the spiciest thing they offer, and, in fact, they offer a Challenge Sauce made from Carolina Reaper and Trinidad Scorpion peppers, complete with some stories about past contestants who attempted the challenge and rightfully regretted it. The staff said they did not have any in stock currently but if they did they would have offered me some to try.
Not sure I would have taken it mind, considering that as I am writing this review some thirty minutes after consuming the devilish sauce I am still feeling the effects of it from my head spinning to my stomach very much not agreeing with my decision – time will tell how much I suffer later on.
As mentioned, the staff were lovely though. The service was on time, the vibes were immaculate, and in terms of eating out in the modern day, this was a fairly cheap meal, coming in at £57 before the service charge, which included two mains, two sides, two drinks, a pot of blue cheese sauce to mitigate my terrible decision making, and a dessert for my partner.
Which came in the form of a god damn deep fried Mars bar, a Scottish delight brought right to our doorstep.
The little bit I tried of it was amazing, the batter was exceptionally light and the flavour of the chocolate and the caramel melted together in this unholy log of deep-fried goodness was amazing.
I definitely will return, hopefully next time for something a little less painful and making it so I can enjoy the flavour of the chicken without re-evaluating every life choice I had made up until that point.
Food reviews are always some of my favourite to do, especially when it comes to reviewing local joints that definitely deserve the love. Thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review, I hope the weekend stays cool for you and you are able to relax.
Rosalia Rambles 