In Which the Audiobook gets good

Hello my dear friend, and reader of this post! And I wish you an excellent Saturday! May it be alright, overall... of course, do let me know how are you, and How is the weather? As for myself, I am okay, today. Yesterday was not that productive, but I have a good faith that today may follow a better path. I played some matches of Age of Empires 3, one was decisively lost, the other was narrowly won. Playing in hard difficulty can be a challenge, but playing on moderate is too easy for me at this point. I don't want to grind on the extreme level difficulty, but I also strive for balance and a touch of challenge. I think the hard one is an overall satisfying position. While playing my latest match, I was listening to the new book I am reading about Marie Antoinette, and the book has gained traction with me! You know that I am fond of her majesty the queen. All the moments of her life had richness and value, but the book explores, here, specially the last part of her life, her intellectual and political positions, giving it another different take to the story, which I appreciate! She was no mere victim, but she fought until the end for her and her family, from her desire of privacy and autonomy of actions, with her private life at the Trianon, and the purchase of Saint-Cloud, to her desire of survival and have a say on her path and the destiny of the nation, with her letters and negotiations with the deputies that were on par with the preservation of the monarchy, albeit with a constitution. I think much was lost even in that point in the revolution, where the king still had a fighting chance. I would have rather the position of before, in Versailles. There were necessary reforms aplenty to be done, such as in the taxation system, the deregulation of the custom unions and guilds, needed for economic progress and even artistic pursuit, so it goes, and you know from my plays in Victoria 3 that I am no enemy to reforms, but the way things derailed in France, it is way way far from what any balanced person would have desired. It is a huge multitude of factors that no one that is honest can sum up satisfactorily in a single conversation. The book took me a while to get into, but now, I will happily read - listen, actually - it till its conclusion. This 2023, hard and unhappy as it was, could be considered the year of the book! I have read more than I was expecting, in fact, more than I ever did, I would even risk.

This Santa really does not get Chess, he sat down on the table and all the pieces were disassembled, what a bother!

On another note, I think, overall, the Christmas season is going quite alright, and we pray that the next days may keep being as good. I am still to receive my Christmas gifts from some folk, as they would help me greatly, but that is fine. I want to visit Grandma once again so I can take pictures of the Christmas decorations, there. I wish I could say "see her" also, but I never know in which mood will I find her, and when she decides to be muttering and mean, that causes cracks in our relationship, that is strained. I do want to go there... get out of the house a bit, since I've spent my time this week, here. Ideally, specially because of the season, I would spend some days there, but not only the relationship is strained, but the stuff I have to pack to take there, that is very annoying.

I think this is a good point to wrap things up? It is hard to have a good notion of scale, when writing through a phone. This habit has become the norm this year, as I grew somewhat used to the browser's layout. Of course, writing on a computer is better, but you know that sitting down for too long causes me to be sore, and I need to rest. I think better sometimes when I have the position to lay down and rest, and the liberty to use the phone whenever I want is much appreciated. Yes, I think this is a good point to wrap things up. Don't distress yourself, though, as I shall return at some point in the next few days, maybe the beginning of next week, after Sunday. Until then, I wish you the best, once again, happy Christmas season, and see you real real soon.