Lord Spencer

Did I ever write to you about my massive tea addiction?

I consider tea to be my weirdest hobby. Over the years, I have collected a good number of tea-brewing utensils and caddies, but the tea itself is the star of the show. Currently, I am circulating between 30 kinds of tea that are open in my cupboard, and I have 59 teas that are unopened in my storage cabinet. At the rate I am drinking, which is an average of 3-4 cups a day, I would need 4 years to finish all of it, but I am still adding to it every time I travel.

My collection includes non-blended farm-sourced teas as well as signature blends from tea boutiques all over the world. It includes black, green, blue, white, rooibos, mate, and other "teas" of all kinds. One of the weirdest is a blend I bought in Edinburgh that was aged in whiskey barrels.

This hobby started at a very young age since I always loved tea as a child. Initially, I used to buy every kind of teabag I could find in groceries, but I eventually realized that teabags are trash. I then started buying different kinds of loose teas, but the variety at home wasn't much to write about. Once I went to college and realized the massive variety of teas in the world, I commandeered a couple of cabinets in my mother's kitchen and started my collection in earnest.

Unfortunately, I did not keep a record of the teas I bought in the early years, so my records may be short a hundred or so teas. Now, it "only" registers 150 teas that I drank since 2015.

So, that's my weirdest hobby, what is yours?

Check out my latest PS1 Review of Wild Arms 2, an improved sequel to the early PS1 classic, albeit one with an infamously bad localization. Still, it is worth playing today.

Also, check out my blog where I ask Where the Hell is Wild Arms? A retrospective blog where I try to figure out why the Wild Arms series died, and explain why it would be great to have it back.

Finally, check out my weekly updates on the games I am playing now. The information in brackets is how long I have been playing the games and how close they are to the checkpoint that decides whether I continue with them.

-Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening (Switch): I am slowly handling my addiction to the game (famous last words?), and I am on track to finish my Date's playthrough. It feels bad, but I plowed through the Toukogawa and Zaitsu forces in the center (which I won as in previous playthroughs) and I am in line to crush the Mori next.

-Galerians (PS1) [2/3W, Pause]: I think I must exert a lot of effort to get back into this game (which I want to do) after pausing on it for too long. I promise to finish the second disk of the game this week. Please hold me accountable to that promise.

-Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch) [3/4W]: I save the second Toad in the game, so I don't think I am at the halfway mark. The game has some charming levels, but I think its gaming loop is starting to wear thin. Maybe that's due to the stop-start way I have been playing it so far. I hope to accelerate into the finish line in the next two weeks (I don't think this will finish in 4 weeks).

-Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Switch) [1/4W]: After a forced beginning to the adventure which had me rolling my eyes, it became immediately clear that this would be a much better game than the original. Both combat and platforming are tighter this time around, and while the visuals are still gorgeous, they do a much better job of demarcating the play areas and hinting at secrets.

It is still early, but this looks like it's going to be one of the best Metroidvanias I ever played. Now, to help that become true, I must not drop the game long enough to forget its map, or it would be really hard getting back into it.

-Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS4/5) [0/5W, Pause]: I cam to a curious possible realization. Am I kept from playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon because of my Nobunaga Ambition addiction, or is my addiction caused by a subconscious desire NOT TO PLAY this game?

I have played every Yakuza/Judgment game released before this game, I noticed how gameplay became bloated while the story mostly got worse and worse. I struggle to comprehend how the 7th Like a Dragon game would not follow that trend.

Maybe I should just take the plunge but with a more critical eye on it. If I find this game following the same downward trend I felt the franchise going on, I should drop it immediately.

-Upcoming Games in my Backlog in Uncertain Order: Various Games (PS1), Pokemon Sword (Switch), Part Time UFO (Switch), Resident Evil Village (PS5).