A weekly status update from everyone’s favourite caffeinated weirdo.

Welcome back to Whatcha Up To! Coffee here, and here’s to the end of another week – the very first full one of 2025.

Firstly, I want to send some love over to the people in Los Angeles and surrounding areas in southern California dealing with the devastating wildfires. I am so sorry for your loss and I’m praying hard for your safety and the safety of your loved ones. I hope that the fires can be contained soon and that the rebuilding and healing of the area will be swift.

As for myself and the rest of the Coffee family, we’re at the tail end of a two-week long bitter cold snap. It’s a dry and penetrating kind of cold that makes you want to wrap yourself in multiple layers of sweaters and blankets just to keep warm. Still, there were things that were done this week. Here’s the recap:

Whatcha Playin’, Coffee?

I’m in the midst of playing Shining Force for the Sega Genesis. Strategy RPGs aren’t really my thing, but I find this one to be enjoyable. I like the fact that you can revive your allies. That’s quite unlike Fire Emblem, where an ally’s death is permanent. Right now, I’m crossing the sea to a place called Prompt, where I can find an access point to what’s called the Shining Path.

I decided to play Shadowrun Returns on the new rig. It’s a title that I picked up a long time ago as part of a Humble Bundle. I created a Street Samurai character. I like to think of myself as an individual acting with honour, which is why this class resonates with me. I haven’t made it too far into it just yet, but I want to try and finish this by the end of the month. In fact, completing my Steam backlog will be my main focus for this year.

I also spent this week preparing a birthday present for Kid Espresso – his own Miyoo Mini! I’m just waiting for the unit to be delivered, but the brains of the device are ready to go.

Whatcha Writin’, Coffee?

It’s been a week now and I’ve been writing something for five of the last seven days. Not a bad start, if I do say so myself. Consistency, of course, will be the key. On the Mobius VII front, I had to go back and modify a previous chapter to make the events of chapter 29 make sense, but I’m at least making some progress. Writing this post also counts as well!

Whatcha Readin’, Coffee?

So, I had to return The Jasmine Throne, just as I was about to start reading it! D’oh! In its place, I picked up The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong and read it in one night, making this book #2. It’s an instant classic that’s going into my collection!

It’s heartfelt and cozy and the immigrant angle to it resonates with me, despite me being born and raised here. I could relate to Tao’s feelings of not belonging to the land she immigrated to. And, man, that ending really tugged at the ol’ heartstrings. Happy endings are always the best endings.

Mrs. Coffee just finished reading Breathless: A Thriller by Amy McCulloch and recommended that I take a look. The premise sounds interesting – a journalist gets caught up in a series of murders while scaling the eighth highest peak in the world and has to fight for survival. Sounds right up my alley.

How’s Trainin’, Coffee?

In spite of the extreme cold weather, week one of the new program seems to be a success. Monday and Thursday were the heavy lifting days. Both workouts lasted roughly 20-25 minutes, although leg day on Thursday threatened to derail my conditioning plans for Friday. Luckily, I did not pull any muscles during the bodyweight countdown circuit. I was supposed to take a walk on Wednesday, but I wasn’t particularly interested in turning into a Coffee-sicle. Instead, I found a skipping rope and did a few drills, followed by extra stretching.

I was most impressed with my performance during my conditioning days on Tuesday and Friday. As I stated last week, I’m doing countdown circuits: six bodyweight exercises per round and a number of reps per exercise. On the next round I do one less rep and so on until I reach one. This Friday, I was able to complete the circuit continuously without any rest! Granted, I started at eight, but I was still very impressed with myself. Here’s hoping week 2 shows similar promise.

That’s it for what’s been happening recently. Anything new on your end? Let me know below. Happy New Year to everyone! Let’s make 2025 a great one!

~Coffee