Happy Halloween 🎃 and officially the start of my birthday week celebrations! 🍰 At the time of writing this Geek Life Lately it is very close to my Level 41 day which blows my mind. I certainly do not feel like my age mentally, although physically I feel about 90 😂
With my birthday falling mid-week I’ll pop a special birthday post up and let you know how I celebrated. 💖
If you are new here, Geek Life Lately is a chance to get cozy and catch up with my monthly blog update, with some gaming, tv, pop culture and other bit and bobs. This one includes news about my newest blog series Grateful Bytes and vlog which I’ll talk more about below.
I actually wrote the draft of this on my iPhone/iPad notes app which is my new and improved way of curating my thoughts since I quit my last remaining social media account: Twitter and this is the last I’m mentioning that platform, but I noticed my responsibilities creeping on me as I had my head down checking for Twitter replies and I got swept up in it all. I have created a very smol Discord server so I’ll see how that goes (I have since deleted said server by accident) 🙈.
Anyway…. this month feels like it’s gone by so quickly and I’ve basically been embracing Halloween since October 1st with scary films and games. 🎃
Creating
I created a new blog series called Grateful Bytes: Issues 1 & 2 are now available.
Inspired by 2 of my favourite blogs DaisyButter and MooeyandFriends, I decided to create a gratitude blog series, which has spun off into a YouTube series. It was time to bring some more positivity and appreciation to Cuteek. Of course I will still keep it real, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but during the week I make a note on my phone of 10 things or moments of gratitude, ready to share in blog post and vlog. Look out for those posts on Fridays!
Here’s the latest vlog, would love to know what you think 🌸
Gaming
Spooky season means Halloween events in video games. I’ve been playing Fall Guys Halloween and Fortnitemares! I’ve found a cozy and quiet time to stream in the early morning as it can get quite noisy here in the afternoon it’s not ideal.
When you live in a place with windows open for the heat and have ‘expressive’ neighbors it can get quite noisy and so yes, sometimes my streams have car horns honking, somebody shouting that they are selling something or reggaeton blasting from a car parked outside. (All things I actually quite like and add character to where I live but don’t sound great through my stream lol)
Fortnite (PlayStation 4) Downloaded this again after a long break. Happy to see there is now a no build mode as that added so much stress to the game. On my first session I came in 3rd close to a Victory Royal.
Fall Guys (PlayStation 4) Addictive and rage inducing haha but also so so cute, my daily go to game
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp (iOS) I’ve neglected my main ACNH game so much this month which makes me sad, I hope to play for some Halloween feels before the holiday is over.
Goosebumps (PlayStation 4 Premium+) I didn’t read many Goosebumps books but I loved the film and was pleased to see this game on the premium list. It’s a point and click adventure which is just *chef’s kiss*
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (PlayStation 4 Premium+) I’ve been having a lot of fun with this.
Return to Monkey Island (Nintendo Switch) This is everything I ever wanted from a Monkey Island game. The graphics are beautiful and the story is full of inside jokes and is just done so brilliantly.
Yakuza: Like A Dragon (PlayStation 4 Premium+) This is the first Yakuza game I ever played and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not like I avoided the series but I just thought it wasn’t for me. Subscribing to PS premium plus is certainly expanding my gaming horizons and I’m excited to play more of this game.
Toy Story 3 (PlayStation 4 Premium+) So I wanted some easy PlayStation trophies and I thought I would find them in this game. I was wrong. It is actually quite sweaty and after an hour I realised there were no trophies popping. It’s a lovely game but the controls are terrible, I never thought I would rage so much on this.
Watching
Hocus Pocus 2 (Disney+) I really enjoyed it, there were some LOL moments.
The Curse of Hollow Bridge (Netflix) This was a nice movie to start the month about a haunted town and it’s folklore. There were some really funny bits but also I’ll never look at Halloween decorations in the same way again.
Candyman The original terrified me as a kid, all I can really remember is it making me scared of mirrors.
Phantom Pups (Netflix) Started watching this with Cooper but didn’t realise it was a series, I’m not sure my emotions can handle ghost dogs.
House of The Dragon (HBO) This has been a questionable delight to watch very early on Monday mornings and it has me thinking up all kinds of Game of Thrones theories. Props to them for using the same theme tune too. I was worried this was going to be a mess but it flows nicely with the same vibe of GOT.
The Midnight Club (Netflix) Probably my favourite thing I’ve watched this month, like Are You Afraid of the Dark mixed with Pulseras Rojas.
Andor (Disney+) Enjoying this but not going to lie, sometimes it makes me fall asleep. Each episode is a slow burn, the most recent one is like a whole film in itself.
Mr Harrigan’s Phone (Netflix) This was based on a Stephen King story, I really liked the whole iPhone reference and there was a quote I really felt: “Henry Thoreau said that we don’t own things; things own us. Every new object—whether it’s a home, a car, a television, or a fancy phone like that one—is something more we must carry on our backs.” – Stephen King, If It Bleeds
The Unholy This wasn’t the best film but I did find parts scary, especially with it being a religious theme and the twitchy jump scares.
Harry Potter films (TV) Sunday is the only day I watch ‘normal tv’ and with it being Halloweekend, there’s currently a HP movie marathon on.
Fresh off The Boat (Disney+) I’m making my way through this series and throughly enjoying it, it’s my daily go to series.
reading
Speaking of Fresh off The Boat, since I’ve been watching daily, I saw in the credits that it was based off of Eddie Huang’s Memoir and I just had to pick up the book which inspired the show.
Buying
As regular readers will know I’m a geeky minimalist and still at the beginning of my journey, so these days it’s very unlikely I will share hauls or wishlists. I do still buy things just more intentionally and if it’s something cute and geeky I will share it here…. you don’t want to know about the chopping board or cutlery drainer I need to buy do you? 🤣
In celebration of my 700 day streak on Duolingo, E treated me to a Vaporeon Funko Pop! It’s my very first Pokémon pop and I love everything about it from the bright colours to the adorable button eyes. I will share more in another post but I think I need to follow my collection down the Pokémon route because they are so cute!
I’ve been looking for some black Adidas trackpants in so long, it’s getting ridiculous. Living on a small island is not the best for shopping online and I’ve talked about this before, so my preference is always shopping locally and thoughtfully, this does tend to help with the minimalism tbh. We have plenty of sport shops including JD Sports and the official Adidas stores but the sizes they carry are always too small for me and have really long legs.
So anyway, I found some dupes in this new discount store and I’m not mad. I tried my best to find the originals but I guess now I’m 4 striping. They have a bunch of other colours including lilac which I might buy next time but some of them have this weird plastic tag on the leg which I think I might be able to remove with a thread picker. I will probably have to take a pic and send to my Mum first to check unpicking it won’t leave a hole in them. If I get the lilac ones I will be twinsies with my Bitmoji haha.
I also purchased some cute spooky tees from Lefties that I can wear all year round and a lilac Kelme hoodie, which I’ve yet to wear as it’s still 30ºC degrees LOL.
We still need to place them but we bought some solar LED strip lights for our newly refurbished roof garden. Once we get the other pieces and get it properly cleaned up I will share some pics on here.
Well this has been a busy month and this is only a fraction of what I actually did, of course I don’t share EVERYTHING on here. 😅 I’m surprised at how much tv and films I watched though haha. My daily workout updates have their own space over in October Fitness Gaming Challenge which to be brief could have been better but I think I’m finding a better balance now I’m off social media.
I hope you’ve all had an awesome October. How did you celebrate Halloween this year? 👻
Thanks for reading,
Vikki 💖🎮