On Deck and Upcoming

Figured today was a good time to go through what I’m currently playing and keeping an eye on in the coming six months. Thinking back on some of my posts in the past I can see that my preferences have shifted a little, and I might write about that more next month.

Payday 2

I’ve been generally poking around in Payday 2 lately. Just doing some casual solo runs knocking out easy achievements and playing with some UI mods. As my experience with other types of cooperative and horde-based gameplay loops has increased, it’s given me a slightly more interesting look at what makes the game tick and why I’ve picked it up and put it back down so many times over the years.

On the whole, I find it’s steadily improved as time has gone on, and there’s always something to do. At least until some combination of grind, difficulty, and repetition drives it back into the ground.

Payday 3

This is obviously at least partially driven by the upcoming release of Payday 3, a game I’ve been very casually keeping an eye on for many years now. Its upcoming (alleged) release in late September is something I’m watching with interest. On paper it sounds like a decent step forward for the franchise, but my trust in development studios pretty low at baseline, especially for something I know I’m looking forward too, and Starbreeze/Overkill is additionally sketchy at best.

I’m currently divided on whether or not I want to pick it up prior to release or not. I feel like I probably will, as it isn’t overly expensive as games go. I also feel like I’m interested in seeing where they can take the game as it evolves and doing my best to support it at release will help make that happen. There isn’t a lot of interest in my friend group, though, so it will likely be me playing by myself to some extent.

Elite: Dangerous

As the original inspiration for the name of my blog, I’ve been entertaining the idea of spending some more time with Elite after my move. It feels a little unlikely, as it seems that I need to replace the potentiometer in my throttle. If not for that I’d already have spent some time with it, but I just don’t see where I’ll have the time to order the parts and execute that repair in the next couple of weeks. We’ll see. I need to do more research into this.

Starfield

As an early September release, this is definitely on my watchlist. I will, however, not be preordering this title. It’s going to be like No Man’s Sky, where I wait and see how things play out at release before I commit to it. I love the idea. It’s definitely something I want to love, but Bethesda and I go all the way back to the initial release of Morrowind. An experience that was not a pleasant one for me.

Much like No Man’s Sky, I see a game that in my opinion is receiving way more hype than I think it deserves. It feels and smells too similar, so I’m keeping my distance for now. I had followed NMS closely enough that I wasn’t surprised at its launch state. It was, more or less, what I’d expected it to be, just poorly optimized.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

This is a much further out holiday release for the Switch. I’m a fan of the Monsters branch of the franchise, though, so I’m quite looking forward to seeing a new one queued up. Interested enough to pick it up? Eh, maybe. I don’t play games on my Switch all that often. Maybe that will change when my life and schedule shifts around over the next several months. I guess we’ll just have to see.

Most everything else on my watchlist is too far out or too up in the air to warrant more than a passing mention. I’m watching Palia with interest, including trying to get into the upcoming beta. That’s something I may play with friends given the chance. I’m also keeping an eye on Nightingale, but the continued delays are beginning to make me a bit wary of it. There isn’t a whole lot that comes to mind right now. All of the mentioned titles are where most of my attention is focused.

Y’all take care, and remember to consider your preorders carefully.

Transiversary – Continued Reflection

I’ve said to several people in the last week that something feels different now. The events of the last few weeks have eroded, torn down, and/or broken some of the restraints that used to hold me back. It’s hardly a sudden or unique experience. I can certainly look back over the last few years and see it happening in steps. All the blog posts where I argued about whether I should post it or not. Questioning if it was appropriate or something people even wanted to see. That’s actually what ultimately pushed me away from blogging.

I’ve actually been writing a lot over the last few months, and off and on for the last year. My transiversary date was chosen because of an unpublished blog draft I wrote the day I finally decided. What pushed me to stop publishing my work was just the very personal nature of it all. It felt weird to share so much of myself openly and publicly. That’s… not who I was.

Instead, I’ve been writing privately, with my thoughts often visible to only a select couple of people with whom I’m very close. Not quite daily, but pretty close to it. While I began writing blog posts as a way to hone a skill set and do something different, it eventually became a method of personal reflection. Useful on its own, but something gets lost by not sharing it with others.

Part of my change in experience these last few months has been the realization that I need to connect with people. Trying to come here and write a draft that only I see is surprisingly unsatisfying. The last few times I’ve tried it, all it did was make me want to go talk to someone about whatever I was thinking and feeling. Still useful to me, but not in the same way it used to.

Of course, there’s no real way to be sure that this is even transition related. As I’ve pointed out, the threads of this reach back several years within my blog posts. It’s extremely easy to think that what I’m currently going through and experiencing is contributing, and maybe it is, but it didn’t cause it. It only helped bring it to light and push it forward.

I’ve been receiving encouragement to share my writing. Well, to try and monetize it, actually, but one thing at a time. I’m still uncertain that this is really what people want to see. I’m just finally at a point in my life where I’m willing to at least give it a shot.

I’m making some bold moves over the next few months. They remind me a lot of when I started the blog, actually. “Why not?” I said. “Why shouldn’t I just try it and see what happens?” Didn’t work out so bad last time. Might as well give it another go, eh?

I’m just now realizing I didn’t do my usual sign off yesterday.

Y’all take care. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Transiversary – A Year in Hindsight

There’s a lot to be said about my journey to this point, and the person that started it a year ago seems like a stranger to me now. In a good way. For what it’s worth, I haven’t hit my one year HRT mark yet. I’ve come to the conclusion that my journey began the day I decided I was trans. Exactly one year ago today.

The early days were dark and uncertain. I didn’t know how to proceed. I couldn’t envision myself as a woman, only that I wanted to be one. I didn’t understand what that meant, or how to get started, and I certainly didn’t grasp exactly what I was going to gain and lose in the process.

I began by talking to the woman that will soon my be ex-wife about it. I felt after 13 years of marriage she deserved to know. By the time I made the choice I had already discussed it with her and decided that it was worth pursuing, even if it cost me my marriage. I had spent my entire life doing what society and other people wanted me to do, including her, and I was done with it. It was time to be who I wanted to be.

I followed that by outing myself to a couple of select friends. Jeff, who has been my best friend for years, and Rey who was my friend before all this happened and inadvertently cracked my egg. So many others I feel compelled to mention too, such as Jennifer and Renee who showed me it was okay to be myself. That I didn’t need to fear everyone I knew. I slowly eased into it a little at a time, slowly changing my wardrobe over beginning with underwear and followed by pants. I even tried some shirt and tank tops, but never really felt like they looked right on me.

The next big step for me was when June rolled around and I had my nails done in trans colors. I was Proud. I was awash in euphoria that day. Panicking because for the first time in my life I had obviously and outwardly expressed who I was. It was the first time in my life I had ever felt like I owned myself. That this was my body, my canvas for my own self expression. I was terrified of what people might think or say too, but I received nothing but compliments.

It was around this time that I began living in and around online communities like reddit. I was desperate to reach out and touch other people like me, because among all the joy I felt immensely alone. I had friends, for sure, and very supportive ones, but none that really knew the struggles and thoughts I was feeling. This is what drove me to go to pride in Chattanooga, where I would bump into Kai carrying a giant trans flag. I was like “these look like my people.” Having made that connection plugged me into the Chattanooga community a bit. This is also when I began using my preferred name.

Later that month I would finally set up my appointment for HRT, realizing that it was the only way to get what I really wanted. The weeks between setting up that appointment and actually taking my first dose was tense. I was afraid that I might never really have what I wanted and couldn’t believe I was actually going through with it. It wasn’t my first time I considered transition, but it was the first time it was actually happening.

There’s a lot to be said about the joy of experiencing my breast buds and generally exploring the new changes that were happening to me. All of which I loved and felt good about. My friends were all using my preferred name and pronouns. I had received no real backlash at the time from anyone but myself. Imposter syndrome was a real part of my existence. Some days I would feel joy and euphoria, others I would hate myself and think I was just a weird guy with painted fingernails, thinking I must be crazy to think I could ever have what I wanted.

The real trouble would begin in October. Kai was suddenly facing eviction and I, wanting only to help my trans friends, volunteered my spare bedroom against my ex’s wishes. We already faced a fair bit of financial difficulty, and my ex felt that this was due entirely to my transition and HRT. I was quite upset and felt attacked for doing something for myself that cost only around $60/month. We spent more than that on our weekly fast food meal.

That was the real beginning of the end of my marriage. The idea that my transition was making us have financial problems was thrown at me constantly, alongside misgendering and misnaming. Afraid to call me anything but her “partner” for fear of how she would look. Things came to a head the first time when she took it upon herself to divide our finances, thinking that this would somehow prove her point and allow her to spend all the money she wanted to spend on herself. Spoiler alert: this didn’t work out the way she thought it would.

Things were getting really tense heading into to December. It was while I was trying to process the state of my marriage that I would cross paths with Rhea and find her discord community, the place I now call my home, as well as my wonderful sisters in the Cookie Cult. It was through the love, friendship, and acceptance I found here that I would begin to learn what was missing from my life. I tried to explain how I was feeling to her coming up on the six month HRT mark, and finally had enough and asked for divorce.

It wasn’t just that, but the fact that I was becoming a different person. I was finally accepting my new identity as Rachel. I was starting to believe it. I had some decent A cups going. I could see her in the mirror more often than not. I was myself. I was emotional, crying for the first time in two decades and loving it. The first few months of the year were very emotionally charged for me. I was often a soupy mess who couldn’t quite figure out what exactly she wanted. I had spent the last nearly four decades of my life practicing strict control over myself, my desires, and my life, and found that control falling apart in my hands.

I wanted things, and could no longer stop myself from wanting them. Before 2023, I had often thought of myself as asexual, and suddenly found out that this isn’t really true. This flood of intense emotions and feelings was debilitating, as I still tried to reign them in and suppress them as I had always done, and all that did was create a self-destructive cycle, even pushing me to leave that discord server at one point, as I couldn’t bear to face those closest to me.

However, everyone here has been nothing but kind to me. Reaching out when I was hurt. Making sure I was looking after myself. And slowly but surely we come to today. Reflecting on all that’s transpired in the last year I realize I’m more Rachel now than I’ve ever been. I’ve felt love, hot tears, new desires, and obtained loss. Even six months ago feels like a lifetime ago to me.

And I find that recently I’m making choices differently. I’ve largely given up the control I used to impose on myself. My responses are more authentic and less filtered. Where once I would have restrained myself out of uncertainty, I no longer care. I’m more likely to ask and do what I want, and simply revel in being who I am. There’s a certain joy to be had in that. It’s not without consequence, as I’m much less risk averse, but I’m finally ready to live my life rather than simply let it pass by as I was doing a year ago.

Transition is easily the best decision I’ve ever made for myself.

Logo Change

I’m not entirely certain I’m onboard with this new logo, but I finally got around to doing something different. It’s a bit more frivolous and loose than the original and has a different color palette. Definitely busier than the original. I’ve been threatening to change it for years, and now seemed like a good time to try something.

I think I’ll just let it sit for a while and see if it grows on me or not.

Y’all take care.

A Little Twitch on the Side

I’m going to skip writing about New World for a day. Four days on the same topic is a bit intense compared to what I usually do. In the week leading up to New World’s launch, I was slowly putting a plan together to try something I haven’t in a long time; streaming.

There’s a lot of reasons I never bothered. The first was that early attempts to do something as simple as record video for YouTube proved to be too much strain on my PC. Older games and non-3D games tended to be okay, but there was a noticeable issue with trying to render graphics and encode video at the same time. I just figured there wasn’t much point in trying to stream if I could barely encode to a local drive.

The second major barrier has always been network connection. I live in the middle of nowhere, and this has consequences. There’s only a single non-satellite provider to my address, and with a low population density we tend to get passed up on upgrades. We do live on a major highway, though, and there’s a cruel irony to knowing that some of the lines that run in front of the house are fiber with no local uplink. We have had an upgrade or two in the last decade though, so I figured maybe, just maybe, the current state could handle the burden.

It only recently occured to me that with a laptop that’s almost as capable as my desktop, that I could easily play on one device and encode/upload on the other. Considering how cheap USB capture cards are, I figured it was worth at least trying. After monkeying around with cables and adapters I managed to actually get a video signal and go live. On my end, at least, everything seemed to be fine.

I had my oldest child pull it up while I was live to see if it was at least working, though I ended up inviting my best friend to watch it and see what the quality looked like while I played New World, thought it was also so he could get an idea of what the game looked and sounded like. That test at least suggested it was possible, though I had to reconfigure my sound setup a bit. My mic audio was getting lost somewhere along the way.

I don’t know if there’s any long term plan here, it was more to see if I could than anything else. The reality of my current work schedule heavily limits what I can do. I get about 40 minutes or so that can be streamed on a weekday, and that’s only because I’m actively making an effort to do so. So far I’ve spent that time on New World, because it happens to be what I’m playing.

So I guess we’ll see. Maybe it’ll be something I continue doing from time to time like blogging. Maybe it’ll just be something I did. At the very least I enjoyed the puzzle presented by getting all the various inputs and outputs sorted out and set up, and it’s nice to know it’s at least possible now.

Y’all take care. Check it out, or don’t. My best friend informed me that I sound much more “country” on stream than I do in person.

Kids – Extracurricular Activities

It’s interesting to watch how my children react to each others experiences. There is an absolute abundance of after-school activities these days, and my oldest two each tried one in fifth grade. The oldest did the robotics club and the middle child did chorus. The last one ended up getting cancelled due to covid, though they’re taking it in middle school as well.

The youngest is beginning to feel a bit left out and has been bringing me permission slips for a variety of them. First was one for dance, which hasn’t had tryout yet. Not exactly sure how that will work out, but I’ll at least let them try it. If there’s one thing I understand it’s wanting to try something new, and you can never really tell if you’ll like it till you’ve tried it.

Yesterday there was one for storytelling and a complaint that “I’ve never got to do a club before and everyone else has.” Since there’s always a chance the tryouts for dance won’t work out, I figured why not?

I suppose this is what happens you have a school that brands itself as an “Elementary School of the Arts.” I certainly don’t remember there being all of this before middle school, but I was an outcast and problem child. The last thing that school wanted was for me to be around any more than necessary.

What’s really interesting are the choices that they made on their own. I’m not one to make suggestions or point them in a particular direction. All of these were activities that they were presumably told about at school (or suggested by teachers), brought home, and deliberately asked about. Each one of them has chosen something unique and well-suited to their general demeanor and interests.

I certainly wish there had been a storytelling club around when I was younger. There’s no guarantee it would have been helpful, but I wasn’t much older than they are when I was writing fiction, and I’ve always appreciated a decent story.

Keeping it minimalist today. Y’all take care.

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Hey, it’s Blaugust time! The goal is to simply promote and stimulate the blogging community by encouraging people of all skill levels and backgrounds to post. The official post can be found here and it’s never too late to start.

Podcasts – A Snapshot of Interests

This is something of a Blaugust tradition for me now. I believe it was originally a prompt at some point, and I just kept doing it. Aside from letting people see and hear about things I don’t always talk about, it provides and interesting time to reflect on how my interests have changed over time. I think I’m going to address it in several different sections this year. The Ever Present, the Removed, and the Added.

The Ever Present

There are only two podcasts to mention here. While there have been others that lasted quite a long time, only two have never left my feed since they were introduced.

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe

This is the big one. I’ve listened to this podcast for almost as long as I’ve listened to podcasts. I wanted to learn more about science and how we know what know, so I picked a single-host science-related podcast that I don’t recall the name of. They happened to have a guest on from SGU and I looked it up and have listened ever since. It’s about science, scientific skepticism, logic, and not only how we know but how our knowing can go wrong. It was exactly what I wanted and since it covers current news as well, I find it’s been great to continue listening to.

Massively OP Podcast

Bree and Justin hardly need mentioning, as most of my readers are probably aware of them. While not on my list as long as SGU, MOP has held its own. I was already a somewhat long term listener when I began blogging in 2018. It hardly seems like it’s been that long. It was added because I wanted a reliable source of MMO related news that had a measurable level of integrity, and stayed because that’s what they provide and it’s fun to listen to. Even when it’s a 15 minute rant about SWG. Especially when it is.

The Removed

I can specifically think of two in this category as well. One was a long time favorite that just wasn’t engaging my interest any more, and the other one was just lost the in COVID weeds along the way as various time crunches and routine changes led me to skip it.

Freakonomics Radio

It’s hard to say what exactly went wrong here. I expressed concern a year ago, when it was still on the list but I wasn’t really feeling it. It occasionally provided interesting or unique perspectives on topics that were interesting or important. There are a lot of socio-political things and movements I wouldn’t otherwise be aware of if it weren’t for the podcast. Still between the frequent re-broadcasts and some subtle content changes, I felt like it was time to make some changes to check out other podcasts and this one didn’t make the cut.

Planet Money

Quite frankly this one was cut largely as a matter of time and COVID fatigue. I agree that there was a lot to be said, but it became such a constant topic across all the media I consumed that I felt like I needed a break. My podcast list is so full now that I have to make a special effort just to stay caught up, but I may consider adding this one back at some point.

The Added

Come to think of it, there are currently two of these as well. One has been on the list quite a bit longer, while the other is a recent addition only about a month ago. I got caught up and found a gap in my schedule, so I went and found something to fill it.

Paint Bravely

One of the YouTube channels that got me into miniature painting was Goobertown Hobbies. Somewhere around the six month mark Brent mentioned that he was doing a podcast and I had time to for something new in my podcast schedule, so figured I’d give it a go. I personally listen to the audio version, but it’s technically a vodcast. Much like my blog it’s a very random, rambly, and conversational affair with a loose and chaotic structure. It’s mostly about miniature painting and occasionally about the larger tabletop miniature industry and community. Unlike everything else on the list, this one is every other week instead of weekly.

Behind the Bastards

This is my most recent addition. It was actually a recommendation/mention from a friend living in London. I had some extra time every other week so I figured I’d give it a shot. The primary point is to discuss the lives and actions of relatively evil and twisted people and organizations. Some historical and some contemporary. As history tends to do, it has a habit of leaving me in a combination of stunned silence and swearing at the car radio. They do a very good job of explaining why the people and groups they discuss are bastards, including Reinhard Heydrich, a literal Nazi that even Hitler thought was a bit extra, to people with a much more positive public image like Bill Gates. It’s usually a lot of material, two episodes/week around an hour plus apiece, but morbidly fascinating.

End Transmission

So that’s where we’re at currently, SGU, MOP, Paint Bravely, and Behind the Bastards. Considering I usually only listen in the car headed to and from work, that’s only about three and a half hours of space trying to fit what can easily be 4 to 6 hours of content. I’ve been able to make it work so far my extending my listening time to other areas such as bath time. It doesn’t mix well with other mentally active tasks such as gaming or writing, though.

It will be interesting to see where I end up a year from now, but that’s enough about me for a day. Y’all take care. Don’t do anything that might get you on Behind the Bastards.

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Hey, it’s Blaugust time! The goal is to simply promote and stimulate the blogging community by encouraging people of all skill levels and backgrounds to post. The official post can be found here and it’s never too late to start.

Planning – Finding More Time

I’ve been giving a fair amount of thought to what my schedule needs to look like going forward. It’s less about finding time to write and more about finding time to do things worth writing about. Schools are starting up again soon and this places me back on a very rigid schedule.

This typically involves making sure the kids get on the bus then coming home and going straight to bed so I can cram seven hours of sleep in before it’s time to get back up to get them off the bus. This time spent waiting on the bus in the afternoon is one of my more persistent dead zones of productivity. The transportation department will not stop at the end of my driveway for perfectly valid safety reasons. This means I must drive a few hundred feet up the road to a safer location, but one that’s well outside network range. This means that my ability to play most games is limited at best.

I’ve considered getting an external extender to broadcast out to the corner to solve this problem, but I have reservations about broadcasting my local network access that far from the house. I don’t exactly consider my network insecure, but I’m mildly paranoid. Still, it’s not off the list. This would give me the ability to play games that are otherwise unavailable to me during this time. Alternatively I could just stick to titles where this isn’t an issue. The point is to simply take what is typically staring into space time and make something more productive out of it. It’s the only real block of “free time” that I’ll have to work with during the week.

Once the bus drop-offs are done I typically have to busy myself with getting dinner finished and getting ready for work. One of these days I may be able to return to a 45 hour work week, but right now that would take a housing market crash and considering how the last one went I can’t say that I actually want that to happen.

Shoplifted from owlturd.com.

I also need to figure out what to do with my weekend. I typically try to reduce my sleeping time during the day on Friday so I can take an extended nap Friday night and having something vaguely approximating daylight hours on Saturday. The real problem here is one of discipline. I haven’t been very good at enforcing my limits and instead do a lot more sleeping and a lot less anything else. Perhaps I should opt for an early morning nap on Saturday instead of a split schedule, that way I could get some things done Friday night as well.

That said, I don’t think my wife would appreciate me clickety clacking away in the middle of the night. I might sleep like the dead, but she does not.

I may actually try that last idea this weekend and see how it goes. Those are the only two opportunities I see at the moment. I have plenty of topics I could write about, if only I could get a little grunt work done up front. Spending too much time writing about things I want to do is getting slightly frustrating. Need to actually feel like I’m getting something done.

Y’all take care. Make sure you’re getting plenty of sleep.

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Hey, it’s Blaugust time! The goal is to simply promote and stimulate the blogging community by encouraging people of all skill levels and backgrounds to post. The official post can be found here and it’s never too late to start.

The Loop – Beginning to Burnout

I have often wondered what level of introspection and self-analysis is healthy. I certainly spend a fair amount of time on it. Overdoing it can certainly lead to either analysis paralysis and burnout, with a tendency toward the latter in my case.

When I look far enough back, the way I normally see this working is that I would find something new or interesting to do. Two things generally needed to happen up front. I had to learn enough to make some educated choices about what equipment/material/tools/software/etc and then actually acquire them.

The first step created a tendency toward hyperfocusing on a subject. Watching and reading all the things. Since it tended to be an all consuming task, it usually only took two or three days for me determine where I thought I should start. There have certainly been times where I never got past this step. I could easily get lost in details like finding the perfect name. If I get stuck, then after spending a few days thinking about it non-stop I find my motivation and energy spent. This is the origin of my “it’s better to just pick something and get started now” method.

Many projects tended to fail in the second step. Having identified the requisite “stuff,” I would realize I couldn’t afford all that and begin seeking alternatives. This typically leads back to the previous step, but sometimes makes it as far as deciding I have the ability to use a DIY or makeshift tool. At times it has created a self-sufficiency loop where I find and attempt to pick up a different new interest in order to make the thing I need for the previous one. While this does occasionally lead somewhere interesting and productive, it also tends to leave me feel like I’m not really going anywhere.

Fortunately blogging cleared both of these hurdles fairly easily. A few days checking out platforms and picking a name, little to no financial barrier, and we were off.

The list of things I’ve dabbled in is immense. It’s also worth mentioning that while gaming as a whole is a longer-lived activity, specific games tended to fall into this same loop. It’s been consistent enough that I eventually game to refer to it as the “two week loop.” For any given interest the entire loop from beginning to burnout typically took about two weeks. I actually use it as something of a benchmark for newish things in my life. Does it make it past the two week mark? I’ve tried forcing myself to wait a couple of week before in order to find out, but that typically just leaves me frustrated. I often try to find small ways to get some progress without unloading a ton of money.

With blogging I specifically took the other route. Try to get started and see if I could make it past the two week mark. Part of the reason why I started in the first place was to try and prove to myself that I could. If I could prove to myself that it was at least possible, then that meant I could break out of that cycle at least some of time. Some of the time was enough.

The interesting side effect of proving that I could is that it’s become less of an issue overall. I’ve acquired far fewer “new interests” over the last several years. Yeah, it’s still visible in my gaming habits, but I’m generally okay with that, and it isn’t always the case. The alternative would be forcing myself to play a game I’m not interested in. While that can be useful in other contexts, it seems somewhat silly with regard to entertainment.

Among the fewer interests I have taken, they also tend to be longer lived. I can only assume this is partially due to the recognition and acknowledgement of it. Once I realize what I was doing and knew it was possible to work around it I began to actively watch myself and try not to fall into the same old traps. Slowly moving the bar forward in little baby steps. Will it ever go away? No, that’s not really how life works. Things come and go, people change, interests fade.

Okay, that’s enough of all that. Sixth post in a row. Eight more until the two week mark.

Y’all take care.

My Cup Overfloweth – The Real Neat Versatile Blogger Award

So I am aware of three explicit tags for some combination of the Real Neat and/or Versatile blogger award:

Bhagpuss – Ah! Recognition!

Tessa – The Versatile Blogger Award

Solarayo – Real Neat Blogger Award Thingy

Naithin – The Real Neat Versatile Blogger Award

I do rather appreciate the nomination. They make for quite useful prompts when I have more time than inspiration. So thank you, all three of you! If I’ve missed anyone along the way I apologize.

The (Rather Flexible) Rules:

1. 1. 1. Thank the person or people who’ve nominated you.
      2. Answer the 7 questions from your nominator.
         1. I’ll actually be doing 14, 7 from Naithin and 7 from Solarayo
      3. Tell everyone 7 things about yourself.
      4. Write another 7 questions for people you tag or inspire.
      5. Tag up to 7 other people. (I won’t be doing this one.)

• Nathin’s Questions

  • If you were to start another blog, or branch off your current blog into a whole new direction, what would it be about?
    • I would probably try to separate the more economic and research related content into its own thing. While there is some cross-over because I’m studying MMOs, they are not exactly intended for the same audience.
  • What mix of mechanics or genres would form your absolute dream game?
    • Mostly SWG with some touches of FFXIV crafting, gathering, and story and a fully open API similar to EVE. That last one is something that really helps out researchers. You could easily set up a public API to collect data without identifying specific characters or players.
  • What thing (game, book, movie, anything) have you experienced recently, thinking it should be right up your alley — only to find it very much was not?
    • It’s been a minute, but as much I enjoyed and spent time playing XCOM: EU, I have very little time in XCOM 2. Just… never got into it I guess.
  • The opposite! Have you been convinced to try anything you thought you wouldn’t enjoy, only to discover you very much loved it after all? What was it?
    • My Intro to Geology class has been surprisingly interesting. I took it mostly because I didn’t want to take Chem Principles 2 and my other “science” options were very limited.
  • What new thing do you most want to achieve with your blog this year?
    • The bar is low. I would like to change my banner.
  • What’s on your wishlist that you most want to buy, but for whatever reason you haven’t yet pulled the trigger on purchasing yet?
    • At this exact moment, Deep Rock Galactic, because Naithin. Been on my wishlist for about two years and one week and for reasons I can’t entirely explain never got bought.
  • When this whole lockdown thing is over; and the shops/services currently closed reopen, what is the first thing you’ll visit/do?
    • So, nothing that I’ve wanted or needed to go to is closed. So probably go to work, which I’m also still doing.

• Solarayo’s Questions

  • Do you ever listen to video game soundtracks outside of gaming sessions? If so, which ones?
    • Yes. Most of them are FF and/or other SNES era RPGs, but I have a particular fondness for the Lufia II soundtrack among others. Maybe I’ll consider a more exhaustive listing in another post.
  • What’s a game that you loved growing up, but find it harder to enjoy now whether due to a change in tastes or now outdated mechanics and graphics?
    • FFVII, especially the Steam port. I could learn to live with the rather ancient character art, but I was rather thoroughly plagued by what I called the O-face glitch. All non-party characters looked like this and I couldn’t even.
    • 
  • Which game console do you feel has the greatest library of titles to choose from?
    • Probably PS1. It had a wonderful mix of games across a wide variety of genres. This would be very closely followed by the SNES, which had an absolute plethora of RPGs that I adore.
  • Name a video game character that has made a positive impact in your life?
    • Not sure I really have an answer for this one, though there probably have been some.
  • If you could sit down to a conversation with any fictional character(book, movie, or game) who would it be and where would this conversation occur?
    • Havelock Vetinari. Patrician’s Palace, Ankh Morpork. I would probably not survive, but hey, why not?
  • If you could travel to any video game location for a hard-earned vacation, where would you go?
    • The End of Time from Chrono Trigger. Seems like the perfect place to lay down and sleep until I’m sick of solitude.
  • Quarantine Question: What’s your go-to movie or tv show?
    • I don’t really watch a lot of movies or TV shows. The one piece of media I make a concerted effort to consume each week is the Massively OP podcast.

 

• Things About Me
  1. I am an intensely private person and actively suspicious of others, especially in the “real world.” My only real friends are my brother and my former co-worker. I take a slightly different approach with the blog and Blaugust discord, which constitute most of my online interaction.
  2. While I hail from and live in the rural US South, I’m actually not the least bit religious. I’m not really anti-religion either, I just believe that the notion of one group being correct and all others being wrong is preposterous. I say, let everyone make whatever choice makes sense for their life, insofar as the basic human rights of others remains intact.
  3. I drink almost exclusively diet soft drinks. The primary purpose is to serve as a vehicle for caffeine while containing no calories. Artificial sweeteners don’t have any strange taste or aftertaste, so I’ve embraced them whole-heartedly.
  4. I also tend to use the same few character names in MMOs. Most of them were randomly generated in EverQuest and I just kept using them. I could write a post explaining my naming conventions and you could probably find me in just about any MMO. There is one exception, Instin. It is used much less frequently than the others, but it hails from an old fantasy story I tried to write a couple of decades ago.
  5. I have mistyped blogger as blooger entirely too many times while working on this post.

Okay, that’s enough. I’ve reached the point where I’m beginning to wish I was doing something else, which means it’s time to stop. I’m not tagging anybody. I think we’ve had enough of these for a while so we’ll let them all wrap up and settle down.

Y’all take care.

 

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Hey, it’s Blapril time! The goal is to simply promote and stimulate the blogging community by encouraging people of all skill levels and backgrounds to post. The official post can be found here and it’s never too late to start.