Not to mention all of the cleaning at the job I want to quit is put on me as the only AFAB employee. Someone who works here literally asked me how to do the dishes - you cannot work here under the age of eighteen, mind you (not for shady reasons, we just usually work during night hours when it's illegal for minors to work). Like why are we taking in employees who can't do half of the job, which is cleaning the place? I get paid more than the other employees, sure, but it's due to seniority and not because I'm doing so much.

Another thing that pisses me off is how I submit my shifts ON TIME unlike a lot of people who work at my jobs, and the boss has the audacity to ask me "hey can you come on a day you specifically told us you can't come?" ACTUALLY NO! Does she think I submit shifts for fun? For shits and giggles? Not to mention one of the days she wants me to come in - I have an exam with no re-dos. Even if it wasn't an important exam, let's say I had a date set up with a handsome fella, it still doesn't give her the 'go ahead' to ask me to still come in. Your workers have lives, and if they have something planned, fucking respect that!

"Wait, you said she told you to clean during your last hour at work?" yep, but instead I watched Steel Ball Run like the GOAT I am ✨✨✨

The thing, it is estimated that the war is going to last for a long time (please refrain from making WW3 jokes, this is not helping) so I'm trying to live a "normal" life. I'm off work this week, but next week I should be back to working full time & have been doing driving lessons this week (because I refuse to forget what I learned so far). There are bomb shelters in most places, so I'm not worried about getting hurt, but you know what actually gets hurt? My sleep schedule. Because tell me why I have to run to our basement four times a night, sometimes even more! How are people supposed to function like that!!

In better news - I started doing practical driving tests right after I passed the theoretical, and so far it's going really great! I have an amazing teacher who's also an anti-anxiety coach as her other business, which means she's really good at directing me from both the technical & emotional parts of driving. What, you didn't know driving had so much emotional baggage? Me neither! Apparently, the way I drove made it obvious that I'm a bit of a control freak that needs to rationalize everything with logic (driving lessons & therapy in one go - what a bargain!) so one of the main things we're working on is me relaxing and being one with the "road's flow". But I am getting better!

And despite everything going on, it is my friend's birthday this week and her gift just arrived in the mail, can't wait to actually give it to her!! (and in case you're snooping Rashel, I'm not going to write here what I'm getting you! >:3c) Hopefully next week will be much easier than what's going on right now, considering I can't even sit for a whole hour without SOMETHING happening! I now understand all of those isekai protagonists who just go on to have peaceful lives... Wish that were me...

Also for anyone wondering about Game Dev stuff... I'm still not back to working on my games, I feel like I need a couple of days of recovery to get into the groove of everything, but before I went on hiatus I was working on a game that's basically (gosh, this sounds so bad) is mainly made to be sold on Steam. Now hold on before you judge (too harshly)! This has been my dad's idea, because while he has become supportive of my dream to become an indie game dev (this took a decade to happen, by the way), he is frustrated that I haven't finished any proper projects. The idea is to make a simple game and put it on Steam (most of my projects need a long development time, so I had to come up with a whole new idea), and I'll update the game over time with new levels and fix bugs - meaning it's not a cash grab or anything, just a simpler project to have a small income while I work on passion projects. I already did the paperwork for selling on itch.io & the only thing left for me to do to sell it on Steam is paying 100$, so I did my homework on the economical front so once I finish developing nothing will get me by surprise.

Another thing I want to say about game development – since I'm done with most of my finals (I have an exam in two weeks, but exams are easy for me so do not be afraid, I legit always get 80-90% unlike assignments; blame it on my ADHD baby) so I'm going back to working on my website for game development stuff specifically under the pseudonym KreepyKrapiva. The design I started coding looks so corporate to me now, I really want it to look more fun! I wanna try the style of this website, so it looks like a physical space you can explore. I'm not sure about the theme wholly, but a creepy cabin in the woods sounds about right (krapiva means nettle in Russian, so I'm leaning into the forest-y theme here). What do you guys think? Feel free to give me some advice / suggestions in the comments above.

Because I finished theory, now I need to do physical driving lessons and that's going to hurt my wallet so much... I already found a teacher, she has some really amazing reviews, but she's also one of the priciest teachers possible. Our first lesson is next week and I'm hoping I'll do well! My biggest concern is that it'll take me a while to learn the different driving modes (I don't think that's the right term but y'know - parking, neutral, etc.) and remember to use only one foot on the pedals (I already kNOW my left foot will try to do some shit).

Anyways, after the test I went to visit my best friend in her university (I'm a distance student for a London university, she actually goes to hers like a normal person) after she finished her chemistry exam (where none of those doing it looked alive after finishing that exam, tears were shed and the like) and we went to the mall to just hang out per our original plan, but only after we sat down to eat at a cafe did I break the news to her. I was actually hiding from her that I was studying for my theory exam, just so she focuses on her exam and doesn't worry about me, I basically slid the paper that says I passed across the table like I was announcing a pregnancy or something. Obviously she was happy for me, as she pushed me to get a license since we basically met a year ago, and we celebrated with some chocolate cake (photo bellow)! It's nice to have people who actually support me in my life, kinda reminds me how my ex was jealous and mean because I got accepted into my current university (she legit was saying shit like "why are you doing this to yourself?" when I told her the news all giddy and ecstatic because I got accepted into a prestigious university, and you can legit pinpoint this as a moment where I started falling out of love with her), and also these are people I want to hype up as much as possible!

Also something not connected to anything I talked about before – I'm thinking of modding my Sims 2 game, which is going to be a bit hard since I'm playing it emulated on the steam deck & it's going to be the first time I get mods for it (I started modding the Sims 3 & my Sims 4 game is basically more mods than actual game, if you show my copy of The Sims 4 to one of its developers they would NOT recognize it because even the UI & music are modded) and as a kid the mods never worked on my game so I basically only know only vanilla Sims 2. If anyone has quality of life mod recommendations for it, please drop them in the guestbook, I'd really appreciate it!

• Princess Maker Refined – I have played Princess Maker 2 & some games inspired by the franchise, but I never played the original that started it all. My biggest gripe so far with this game is that the words are a bit askew when playing on the Steam Deck, making the prologue especially hard to read (I know it's basically the same story every game, but this still bothers me). I might make gaming logs for this game because of how many paths it has!
• Postal REDUX + Postal: Brain Damage – the original Postal game has some very interesting horror motifs, especially in the loading screens between levels, and obviously I had to get them on sale. And I don't think I need to mention that I've been enjoying Postal 2 lately (considering my blog theme is... just Postal galore) and want to play more games in the franchise (yes, including the third game, I want to analyze it from a game dev perspective). Also I saw Brain Damage has some creepy stuff so I'm excited to delve into it!
• Catherine Classic – this is a game I watched a lot of playthroughs for as a teen, but because I barely remember the levels themselves I can play this game as if I never seen it before. Also Katherine deserves better, I'll die on that hill!
• Rusty Lake Paradise – I used to be obsessed with the Rusty Lake games when I was younger, to the point I was following the lore with every new game, but I fell off the wagon several years ago and I want to try and get back into the series. Also the creepy aesthetics are so lovely to look at, especially since the puzzles can be morbid & I live for that shit!
• Nancy Drew games: Danger on Deception Island, The White Wolf of Icicle Creek & The Secret of Shadow Ranch – I love point-n-click games with puzzles, and the Nancy Drew games were my bread & butter when it came to games where I had to scratch my brain for a bit. I want to re-live my childhood magic, and while I got some of the least creepy games, I remember the puzzles being fantastic in all three of these games so I got them on sale (I also got Danger by Design but it doesn't work on modern devices). I want to make a dedicated page to every single game, but it will take a while to go through all of them with my very large backlog.
• Cult of the Lamb – this game is what I would call a cutesy horror game, adorable character designs in a messed up setting. I actually already played the game on my Switch, but because I'm becoming a bit obsessed with getting full achievements on Steam, I had to get this game again. I'm ready to put the hours into this bad boy once again!
• 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel – on all levels, this game is definitely a horror game. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to play it and I'm afraid to ask.
• Iron Lung – the movie based off the game may not be playing anywhere near me, but that just gives me more time to play the actual game before it is digitally released! I'm going into this game fully blind, as I somehow missed watching of the playthroughs of this game when it came out, so hopefully I'll make a decent log about it.
• Harvester – this game is known for being creepy & violent, and very absurd in the best way possible, but I swear this game is haunting me (so I gotta play it). How, you ask? Because I suddenly remembered that I never added the game to my Steam wishlist while it's full price, and not half an hour later, it's for sale for less than 2$! Spooky as fuck if you ask me.

I also thought that I bought more horror games (my mistake, I have the memory of a goldfish) and I actually bought Mouthwashing and SOMA back in December of last year. But these are the games I got recently, expect me to talk about them sometime soon, if there is a game you want me to talk more about in depth, feel free to add a message in my guestbook!

To explain everything, I need to explain my job – I'm an escape room operator, which means I'm the person who checks in guests into the escape room & takes payment, explain the story & rules for it, watch them do all of the puzzles and that they don't go above the one hour limit, & then greet them again when they exit & make sure they had fun. And I work in two different rooms, but they're owned basically by the same bosses.

This means my job involves a lot of costumer service, involving small groups in closed spaces. While not as stressful as most jobs where you have to deal with people, you still need to be the best host possible because people come here to enjoy themselves. My two bosses think my brain is too small to get that, which leads me to the first point:

I've had complaints from customers – and that's a given, not everyone is going to like you, that's just how people are. But the first case involved someone SHOVING A CAMERA IN MY FACE FUCKING FILMING ME and got offended when I told them to stop. I still tried to be as civil as possible, but the customer lied about me to my boss (let's call her 🛎) and said I was rude & that their holiday was ruined (they were really happy clams at the end of the game, and even thanked me in person for 'fixing things'... gosh I hate people like that). Of course my dumb bitch of a boss sided with the customer! Because why would the customer lie? 🥺 Oh, but she's too lazy to check the mics & cameras, or my friend who was visiting me at work who was a witness to how this customer berated me to tears. But nope, I got a shitty phone call from 🛎 that made me want to quit the place.

Another customer complaint was the fact that I 'took them out of the room too early in the middle of the game' – the group were shitfaced drunk and didn't realize they finished all of the riddles. I wish I was joking. (not to mention they actually vandalized the last room, but who caaaares) They complained in their review, and of course, my other boss (let's call him ⚡) told me how that's not okay, and also said I was lying when I tried to explain my side.

The last customer complaint happened yesterday, and I'm not gonna lie, I am to blame for what happened. The group consisted of a mum, an auntie & and a little girl (the mum said she was eight years old but she looked no older than five) came to the more family friendly room I operate. I tried my best to make the room as accessible for the child as possible, as I always do when I got kids with their family (less loud noises, make sure the room is on easy mode, stuff like that). But this little girl was the type of kid that constantly needs attention and never was told 'no' in her life, so the entire time she's in the room she makes sure both adults watch her when she does silly things and would even pull physically from doing the actual riddles if they didn't do what she told them to do (which was either watch her dance or play with something in the room). Which is a cute thing kids do, I get that, but there is a time limit on how long you may be in the room; and that means that by the time the hour passed, they weren't even halfthrough the riddles on the easiest difficulty possible. So I did what I was taught when I was studying under one of my coworkers, and I told them that because the hour passed and there are guests right after them, that I unfortunately have to let them out (mind you, the whole days was BOOKED & I was pulling a double shift at this point because my coworker's cat had to go to the vet (very valid reason, I would never tell a pet owner to come to work when something happens to their baby).Obviously, they were upset and I tried to comfort the girl and let them have the snacks from the last room & take commemerative photos, but it legit seems like this girl learned for the first time that not everything is gonna go her way, which I really think sets her up to failure but it's not my place to tell parents that they have no idea how to raise their kid.

But when the customer called to tell my boss that, obviously she had to make it seem like I was crass (I heard part of that call, ⚡ doesn't know I was on the line for a bit) & was mean to her child, and that I done nothing to make the event better. Again, this can be checked by looking at the cameras and listening to mics, but we have established that my bosses don't care about the truth - they need a powertrip or two. But here were my boss was right – I shouldn't have let them out of the room as soon as the hour passed, and asked me why the hell I've done it without calling him first. I explained to him what I told you, dear reader, that that's what I was taught – and again, he called me a liar (without actually checking with the person who taught me that - curious!).

After that chat, he sent me a semi-official message where he noted a few things, let's go over them quick: that I have trouble being with customers (I mostly have raving 5 star reviews on the website, but sure), that I don't tell guests that I can make them extra snacks (??? yeah because they usually don't finish the first portion, 90% of the trash's weight in the end of the day is discarded popcorn no one ate), that I don't enlighten guests on riddles they didn't understand at the end of the game (I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THE RIDDLES AT THE END OF THE GAME SOME PEOPLE CAN'T MAKE ME SHUT UP - LEGIT PULLING SHIT OUT OF YOUR ASS), and that I don't wear the uniform jacket (I'm sorry, the uniform jacket? The one you never washed and gave me an allergic reaction, that jacket? Also I explained to him WHY I don't wear that, and he still haven't washed that by the by).

But hey, if I get fired – I'm gonna get reimbursement~! B)