Author: Courtney Shek

I Got a Hobonichi Avec!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I was debating getting a Hobonichi for a while and when I saw they were releasing a half-year version I decided to bite the bullet and get one!

I am so excited to try out a new journalling style, I started getting back into writing a journal a few years ago and I think it would be good to try and get into the habbit of daily journalling. Currently, I only write once a week, if even, but I want to try journalling more often and what better way to do that than having a page-a-day journal?

I also like the way the Hobonichi has a weekly and monthly layout because it means I can incorporate some of my sticker planning which I got into a few years ago. I think having it all in one notebook will be handy and also hopefully force me to keep on top of everything.

So we’ll see how it goes, will probably do an update video later in the year on how I’m finding it and what I plan to do next year but for now, I’ll be waiting until July so I can finally start using it lol

Why I Stopped Playing Infinity Nikki

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In December, I decided to take a chance on Infinity Nikki because some people were posting about it on Bluesky and it was free to play. Since the first day I started, I was hooked. I even made a YouTube video on the second day I played because I was so obsessed. And I have been posting photos on Bluesky ever since. I don’t think I have been so captivated by a game since Disney Dreamlight Valley.

And now sadly I think my love of this game might have come to an end. At least for now. I suppose these things always happen, you fall in love with a game, play it non-stop and then you don’t touch it for ages. But this is not one of those things.

Infinity Nikki is an open-world gatcha game and has pretty regular updates so there is always new content to pull you in. And unlike Disney Dreamlight Valley, it is not going back on its promise to go free to play, it just is free. However due to the gatcha element, there are times when you are tempted to spend money. But the microtransactions are not what is putting me off either. It’s the 1.5 update.

So this is not a secret, so many people have been posting online about this and so I thought I’d put my two cents out there.

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How I Junk Journal | Junk Journal With Me

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I know I already made a blog post about junk journaling but I also decided to make a video to talk through how I usually do my spreads. Just in case anyone wanted to know.

I promise this will be the last time I talk about junk journaling for a while, I’ve just been enjoying it so much haha it’s just really easy and fun to do so I thought I would share.

I Started Learning Korean (Again)

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Last month, my friend Jasmine decided to sign up for Duolingo because we had discussed going on a girls’ trip to South Korea in a few years for everyone’s 30th. So she thought she’d better get a head start on learning some Korean for the trip lol. So naturally because she had posted about doing Duolingo, I thought it might be fun to pick up again.

A few years ago, I was using Duolingo to try to learn Korean and I had posted about it here. My plan was to work through the Duolingo courses and then go on to do some more independent learning through a textbook I had picked up. Needless to say I fell off learning with Duolingo lol.

To be fair, I lasted about a year and 3 months, I think my streak got to about 430 something before I stopped. Once you get busy and lose your streak it’s hard to keep up motivation for Duolingo. So I laid it to rest, plus, at the end of the day, I do not think that’s the way I was going to learn Korean.

But fast forward to now and I thought I might as well pick it up again because it’s more fun with friends. Because why not have your friends pinging you to do your Duolingo every day on top of a psycho killer owl?

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Recently Watched Netflix Shows 2024/2025

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It’s been a while since I made one of these posts! But I realised that I have watched quite a few one-season Netflix shows recently so thought I would share my thoughts on them. They are in order of watched most recent so I might have recency bias but I have enjoyed all of these a lot.

Running Point

An easy one to start with, I literally finished this a few days ago. I wasn’t sure what to think initially when I decided to watch this, but now I have watched it and I agree with what everyone online has been saying, that this is kind of like Ted Lasso for basketball.

Isla Gordon is put in the spotlight as she takes over her family’s basketball team, the LA Waves. The show is filled with dysfunctional family drama while Isla tries to girl boss her way to the playoffs. Thankfully, you don’t need to know anything about basketball to watch this show. I had no idea what was going on with that bit, lol, but I still really enjoyed this.

I enjoyed the reappearance of Brenda Song in my life, better known as London Tipton from the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. It was a nice surprise. I also enjoy the dysfunctional family dynamics of the Gordon family including a secret half brother no-one knew about until now. I am looking forward to seeing where it goes, but also sad I have to wait for another season. At least there will be another season, I know Netflix can be flaky with this kind of thing so we shall ride the wave as long as they allow us. Omg that was totally an unintentional pun lol.

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Junk Journaling

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I have started doing a little bit of junk journaling in my regular journal. I tried to do this before in previous years’ journals but it always felt like such a chore. But this year? Something has unlocked in my brain and I am finding it fun. Not sure what has changed between the past and now, but I have been enjoying adding some creativity to my journal.

So, what is junk journaling? It’s a kind of scrapbooking where you just use junk. Did you go shopping today? Do you have a receipt or a shopping bag? Perfect, if you stick it in a notebook, then you are on your way to junk journaling.

My junk journaling isn’t the traditional sense of junk journaling because I don’t really use junk. But I suppose I haven’t really been doing things where I have accumulated “junk”. Junk doesn’t necessarily mean rubbish; it can be anything you have from that day that you think would fit in your journal. I mostly print photos from my phone and then use decorative stickers and things to pad out my pages.

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I’m Making YouTube Shorts Now

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This seems like a weird thing to advertise but I’m doing it anyway.

A couple of months ago, I had an idea for an Instagram Reel and decided to make it. But I am not really a short-form content kind of girlie. Like I don’t watch Shorts/Reels/TikToks unless someone sends them to me. And usually if I am posting an Instagram Reel, it’s a pole or aerial video which I wouldn’t count as a Reel because to me it’s just a video.

But in February I sat down to film a proper Reel and I didn’t hate it. Now, when I say I made a Reel, it’s not me doing any dancing or memes or anything – it’s literally me colouring lol. But I thought it would be a fun video to make and it was shorter than a YouTube video so a YouTube Short it will be.

Now I know you’re confused because I said it was an Instagram Reel idea but I just said I made it a YouTube Short lol. Well, they’re all the same thing, and yes this initially was just for my Instagram but because I have a YouTube channel, I thought why not put it there too?

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My Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Thoughts

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I completely forgot about the direct today but I have watched it now and thought I’d share my thoughts here. Also three blog posts in the space of a week? Crazy lol.

First of all, here are the bullet points I made while watching, I will put some final thoughts below but if you want a quick overview of what was going on in my mind at the time then please enjoy:

  • Starting out strong with Mario Kart – a classic.
  • Driving anywhere in the world is kind of crazy, I will definitely be taking some scenic drives.
  • 24 drivers?? Yikes. Can barely keep track of 12 half the time.
  • Knockout is a cool gameplay mode, I can’t wait to immediately lose since I am not good at Mario Kart lol.
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Games I’m Excited About From the Nintendo Direct

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Jumping straight in with the blogging thing, I thought I’d talk about some of the games in the Nintendo Direct that caught my eye.

I haven’t really been playing my Switch recently due to having abandoned any game that isn’t Infinity Nikki. But I miss handheld gaming and I’m not ready to invest in a Steam deck so I think it’s worth seeing what Nintendo has in store for us. Especially with the Switch 2 right around the corner.

Most of the time, directs do not appeal to me because I play very few games lol. If it’s not Animal Crossing or the odd Pokémon game, Nintendo does not hold much for me. That being said as a child, I grew up exclusively on Nintendo and my DS was my best friend so maybe I need to give them more credit.

So here are the few games which caught my attention in the latest direct:

Because I am in the cosy gaming space, I have seen a lot of people on my timelines BEGGING for this game. I want to say I’m not one of them. But I am looking forward to it.

I had Tomodachi Life for DS and I thought it was fun and cute at the time. I even had a Tumblr blog dedicated to my Miis and everything.

That being said the downfall of the game is it got very repetitive very quickly. Which makes sense, given that the game could only be programmed to have a finite number of scenarios which your Miis went through etc. So I stopped playing once I thought I’d seen everything.

I worry the same thing will happen with this game. It’ll get repetitive too soon and it won’t be worth the cost. I think the concept might do well as a mobile game with constant updates but I guess we will see. I don’t think I want to get too committed to buying it until we have more information.

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