How the fuck am I supposed to go back to work in 12 days like everything is okay?

I am hanging in there. My kiddo has had a lot of ups and downs already during her NICU stay, but she's trending positively right now and turning into a chubby little baby calzone

I appreciate it, dude. It definitely isn't what we expected it hoped for, but it's turned into the best possible outcome for this situation and I'm grateful that everyone is doing as well as they can be right now

I absolutely can't wait for her to come home. She'll be three weeks old on Monday (31 weeks adjusted on Thursday) and I haven't missed a day with her yet. It's already been a bit of a rollercoaster, but the care team really has made this experience as comfortable as possible for all of us

I honestly don't think I've ever cried so much in my life. It's always a mixture of emotions, but my dogs are absolutely over trying to console me some days lol. They're in for a rude awakening when their sister finally comes home and will cry for literally anything she needs

This past month or so has been the longest year of my life. Between my wife being hospitalized and my daughter's emergency delivery much earlier than expected, I've made daily trips to the hospital 39 days in a row and counting. I'm very grateful for the NICU staff and everything they've done for us

Screenshot of RE9 results screen. Game mode Insanitt | Play time 7:12:45

Screenshot from Resident Evil Requiem showing all Challenges completed aka 100% completion

Game #11 - Resident Evil Requiem

Progress on any games mostly came to a halt due to a major life emergency, but I was able to play a little RE9 here and there. I held off on this update until I 100%ed it. Runs pretty good on Switch 2. Amazon screwed me out of my PS5 steelbook so that's been fun.

It's a trick, don't fall for it

That description alone makes me want to preorder it before I even watch the trailer

I have like five more Metroid games to complete (6 with First Hunt lol) and then I'll finally have completed every game in the series. I'm absolutely putting off the original game as long as possible, but I am determined to finally play through it

Metroid Prime 3 clear screen. BacBackground is black at the top and bottom with a pale blue-osh white gradient in the middle. The text reads "MISSION FINAL, Difficulty - Normal, Percentage Complete 100%, Total Time 14:48"

Game #10 - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

I haven't played through this game since MP Trilogy launched on Wii. I didn't feel like dealing with motion controls, so I went with PrimeHack on SteamDeck. While it was mostly a great time, I think I lean more towards Prime 1 and the 2D games these days

Fusion Hard Mode LET'S GO

Metroid II Return of Samus results screen. The background is black with a few white dots for stars. "The End" is in the center in a blue, rounded font. Samus is in a running pose on the righthand side of the screen. The bottom text reads "TIME 06:04"

Game #9 - Metroid II: Return of Samus

I never thought I'd actually play through the GameBoy version of Metroid II, but thankfully a couple different colorized romhacks exist now. AM2R really prepared me for this one and I have a newfound respect for it. Definitely won't miss the "music" though lol

Metroid Prime Remastered clear screen. Background is a stylized black and blue with fuzzy scan visor text. Samus in her varia suit without a helmet is on the lefthand side of the image. The bottom right corner features the clear game text info. Important text reads "MISSION FINAL Percentage Complete 94% Total Time 15:56"

Game #8 - Metroid Prime Remastered

I genuinely forgot how great this game is. I haven't gotten past the opening hours on a replay since I beat the GCN original back in college. Fantastic experience, made me realize how much I don't like the cartoony ZSS in MP2+3. Glad MP4 returned to this artstyle

Metroid Other M clear screen. Black background with greenish text saying "Your rate for collecting items is 100%"

Screenshot of Metroid Other M Redux featuring Samus in her purple Gravity Suit from Metroid Prime (or maybe Smash Bros?) in the Other M save room. This suit is not featured in the original game

Game #7 - Metroid Other M Redux

I found out there was not one but TWO mods for M:OM so I had to try out Redux. The edited cutscenes, gameplay changes, and model swaps made the experience way better than vanilla, but at its core it's still Other M. 100% featuring the blandest clear screen ever

I started with the 40XXV and it's gotten a bit out of hand since then, but they're all great devices

Hmu if you need any help setting it up. I spent way too much time (and money) getting into the hobby during the fall lol

Do it so I can talk to someone about them lol

I didn't get the Halo vibe personally except maybe for the Federation troop dialogue. It just felt like a lesser Prime 3 with Nintendo's shoehorned open world mandate like in all their big IPs

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes game clear screenshot. Background is Samus in her varia suit with a black and blue gradient filter over the whole image. Foreground text reads "MISSION FINAL Percentage Complete 90% Total Time 22:44 Hard Mode Active Rough Sketch Gallery unlocked!" Press A to continue.

Game #6 - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

This was the one main Prime game I never finished back in the day because I didn't vibe with it. I gave it another shot, loved it at first, but ultimately it was a fun, yet miserable experience. I heard the Wii version is better, but I wanted the GCN experience

I felt it was about 6 or 7/10 myself. I liked it for what it was given the development hell. Could have been much better, but I didn't regret the time I put into it

Back to the library?

Screenshot of AM2R's results screen. The background is a black and dark purple dotted with stars. A darkish side profile of Samus in her Gravity Suit is on the left. The white text to her right says "CLEAR TIME 07:00:24 ITEM COLLECTION 100%"

Game #5 - AM2R

I was a little lukewarm on this one for a bit, but it started clicking more once I realized you find upgrades far less linearly than I expected. I ended up going for the 100% items and only needed to look up the last few. Solid fan game, but I think I still prefer Samus Returns more

My mom found something that's close enough to them and stocks up on them regularly to make hers

I think I found them, but I'll hyu if they're duds. Thanks, dude!

I need to play AM2R still. I have the port master stuff for it, but I need to get the files to convert it. Maybe that's what I'll play next lol

Thank. I looked back at my original save file and I cleared it with like 40% pickups because I remember being frustrated with the difficulty. It's still a hard game, but I must have gotten a bit better at this type of game since then

Mission result screen from Metroid Dread. Background is a black to dark blue gradient with the Metroid logo in the middle. The foreground text details each tracked stat. The important bits are "Difficulty Normal Mode, Clear Time 11:04:18, Item Collection 100%"

Game #4 - Metroid Dread

I have played this since it came out so it was nice to run back through it. Definitely the hardest game in the series by a long shot, but I went for 100% pickups out of spite. One day I'll beat hard mode, maybe.

Clear screen from Super Metroid. The background is black with blue stars and a grey and slightly darker grey Metroid logo. The text covering it reads " SEE YOU NEXT MISSION YOUR RATE FOR COLLECTING ITEMS IS 79% "

Game #3 - Super Metroid

Definitely one of my favs, but dear lort I hate trying to do wall jumps and space jumps in this game. Clear time was about 7h30 so I'm surprised I finished it in about a day. I think I have one more Metroid game in me before I'm burned out since I beat Prime 4 before NYE

Screenshot of the results screen from Metroid Fusion. Samus is in her orange Fusion Suit against a starry space background. The foreground text reads "CLEAR TIME 4:26 YOUR RATE FOR COLLECTING ITEMS IS 63% See you next mission"

Game #2 - Metroid Fusion

Almost finished this last night, but I forgot the strat for SA-X at the end and got annoyed. I always forget how much harder Fusion is than Zero Mission. I still think this is my favorite Metroid game due to all the overt body horror themes despite the linearity/difficulty