Category: IRL

A Tradition of Art

So I drew this thing:

Overall, I’m very satisfied with it. It aligns very well with the vision that I had before starting up. Of course, as an artist, I look at it and can immediately pick out a hundred little things I’d like to tweak or clean up. But I can’t; it’s already been submitted and published. So I won’t bother losing any sleep over it.

The ONE thing that I do want to grouse about is -in my opinion- the not entirely cohesive style. When I began this project, I decided to go more cartoony than I normally do. And I think that’s very clear over on the right side of the image. But as I made my way up and around through the various characters, I think I kind of lost sight that direction and faded a bit into my more usual style; I got a little too distracted by trying to figure out how to make each person at least somewhat recognizable and distinct. And it’s fine! It’s not a big deal! I don’t think anyone but me would even notice. But it bugs me just a little.

A Thing (Pre-)Happened

I pre-ordered my Nintendo Switch 2 today. It was… kind of a boring experience. Way more people came out than I’d expected (what with all the online bellyaching about prices), and I stood in line for an hour to secure my console.

Turns out an hour’s not so bad, though. My mom waited in a two-hour line to get a pre-order for my brother, and I’ve heard that people were in queues for up to eight hours trying to pre-order online. Crazy stuff. I guess Nintendo’s not dead quite yet, eh bellyachers?

And look, I know it seems weird that I’d get the Mario Kart bundle, since I’m not a Mario Kart player in really any capacity these days, but Mario Kart World looks freakin’ awesome. I’m honestly looking forward to just driving around the world looking for secrets and tucked-away details. Races? Who needs ’em?

I used the word “look” four times in that last paragraph. Now you’re going to fixate on that fact. Enjoy.

I also have more thoughts about Switch 2. Obvi. I haven’t written anything yet because I was thinking about doing a video on it, but I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen at this point. But, I mean, it’s the new Nintendo machine. I’m buying one and I’m pretty dang excited about it. This should come as no surprise to anybody. That’s kinda my jam, you know?

Coffee Table Bloodbath

A few weeks ago, I watched a movie called The Coffee Table. It’s a 2022 Spanish-language film available on Shudder (and maybe elsewhere) that had randomly caught my attention and sat on my watch list for weeks before I finally pulled the trigger on it.

This movie is about a couple who have recently had their first child, and they buy this gaudy-looking coffee table. The first 20-ish minutes are all build-up, then there is an incident wherein the baby receives a rather severe head-related injury from the coffee table. From that point, the movie is basically 100% building tension until it all comes to a head in the last five minutes. I don’t think I would ever recommend this movie, mostly because I don’t think that anyone I know would enjoy it, but I liked it.

So I watched this movie, and the very next day, I kid you not, I get a text telling me that my one-year-old nephew bashed his head open on the edge of a coffee table. Tears and blood everywhere, an all-around horrifying situation. Though I make it sound worse than it was; the poor little guy had to get four (I think) stitches, and as I record this he’s still got a pretty wicked scar where an eyebrow used to be, but as far as I’m aware he’s doing just fine. Had a rough time in the moment, but was happy and smiling just a couple hours later.

And that’s my latest story of an absolutely wild coincidence. I watched a movie called The Demon Disorder the following weekend and wondered to myself if I ought to send out a warning to keep my nephew away from anything that might possess him, but figured “eh, what are the chances of that?”

Just for the record, he was not possessed by anything the next day.

A Box of Discs

I did a big clean of my condo this week, and part of that was sorting through a number of boxes that I haven’t opened in years. One of those boxes held all of my physical PC games. Behold!

The un-labeled cases contain, in no particular order: Day of the Tentacle, Doom II, Relentless: Twinsen’s Adventure, Hidden & Dangerous: Devil’s Bridge, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

Final Fantasy VIII and Command & Conquer were late for picture day.

I would normally do some reminiscing or analysis here, but I think I’d rather just present this without commentary. Draw your own conclusions. Judge me as you will.

Deep Ryan Lore

A random thought pooped into my head today: it has been exactly 20 years since the first time I ever asked a girl on a date. Well, like, 20 years and a day? Or a week? I’m 98% sure it was on a Saturday, but whether it was the 19th or 26th, I haven’t got a clue. I can’t pinpoint these things that precisely.

Anyway, she turned me down. To make myself feel better, I bought a PlayStation 2. Oh, how different life might have been…

Coincidentally, it’s been 10 years (and a month) since my ex-wife walked out on me. Fortunately, there are currently no women in my life in that capacity, and thus my heart cannot possibly be broken this year. The cycle of pain ends! Hooray!

(Please note that I did notice the typo in the first paragraph and almost corrected it, but then I decided that it’s funnier as-is.)

Punching in the New Year

It’s 2025! And honestly, it’s going to be a pretty big year for me. I’ve been granted a big ol’ promotion to management at work, and before long I will have my very own swabbies to command. It’s going to be neat!

But really, what I came here to write about is Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star. I’ve been playing it somewhat obsessively lately, and yet I still know basically nothing about the manga that it’s based on. This game came out in early 2023, and while I did buy it day one, I only played it a bit before dropping it completely in favour of… I don’t know, getting fat, I guess.

When I picked it back up in October 2024, I only had like 20 stamps, which means I loaded it up on 20 different days. That’s not a lot for a game that I’ve owned for over two years, and I don’t really know how long I played on any of those days. I actually wish I had some metrics to prove it, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve (at least) doubled my total playtime over the last two months.

The fun part is that I was actually gifted Fitness Boxing 3 for Xmas, but I haven’t even installed it yet because I’m still so wrapped up in Fist of the North Star. That has spurred me on to play even more, with the intent of unlocking everything so that I can move onto the next game. I’m at 69% (nice) of achievements unlocked, which really means nothing because the first 40% or so were handed out like candy on Halloween and now the rest will take a looong time to earn. But that’s fine! This is exactly the kind of game that I should be grinding for achievements.

At the end of the day, I’m really just happy that I’ve settled myself into a very consistent training groove. I’m at the point where I actually look forward to exercising most days, which is saying a lot, as someone who used to call exercise “socially acceptable self-harm.” Between this and the whole promotion thing, I’m actually quite proud of myself lately. That’s not something that I ever expected to be.

2025, I think, is going to be a pretty good year.

Words and Such

I haven’t really been in the writing mood too much as of late. I know, not a great business model for a blogger, but also… I do this for fun, not for glory.

In an effort to post something, here’s a point-form list of things that I maybe would have written more about in another timeline and that may be of moderate interest. I may still write about some of them at length, but probably not.

  • I’ve been playing the new Ys game in short bursts since it released a couple weeks ago. As you may know, I’m a big, big fan of the Ys series, and Ys X: Nordics is not disappointing so far. The first few chapters were a bit slow, but it’s taking off now, and I really like the two-member party system. It’s very unique, if a bit limited in options.
  • Work has been kind of insanely busy lately. Which is a good thing, because it helps to keep me on task. Also, it’s becoming more and more apparent to me how well-respected (and maybe even well-liked) I am within the organization. As someone who’s had low self-esteem for basically his whole life, it’s really quite nice to feel confident and dependable.
  • I bought a stupidly expensive alarm clock from Nintendo recently, and I don’t regret a penny of it. I never expected such a weird thing could bring me such joy. Will likely do more words about this at some point.
  • Went to see Venom: The Last Dance recently. I’m still not sure exactly how I feel about it or why (I haven’t given it all that much consideration), but I may have been kinda bored for most of the runtime? Definitely the least enjoyable of the trilogy, in my opinion, even though the climax and epilogue were satisfying.
  • After years of sleeping on the couch with the TV on just about every night, I’ve been sleeping in my bed like a normal-ass person over the last week. I’m not really sleeping much better (still waking up at least once a night), but I am feeling a little more well-rested, and my back is definitely thanking me.
  • A couple of co-workers have been singing the praises of the roguelike poker game, Balatro, so I decided to give it a whirl on their recommendations. I’m trying my best, but I don’t know if it’s right for me. Even the tutorial felt overwhelming. And here I was thinking that I was getting over my fear of roguelikes.
  • I was going to put a link to a relevant post in the paragraph above, but it turns out that I never published it. I guess that’s something I probably should do, seems silly to have written out a full 2000-plus-word post that’s just sitting in limbo. Actually, there are at least two of those…
  • Taking a more proactive role in managing both my eating and exercise regimens throughout the year has done wonders for my health, both physical and mental. It’s been a long road, but I’ve far surpassed my weight loss goal and I’ve been feeling fantastic. It would be nice to have someone, you know, notice, but oh well! External validation is for chumps, anyway.
  • I went on a short vacation with my family at the end of September. I don’t think I wrote a single word about it, but it was awesome. Nothing terribly exciting, but it was great to simply get away and be somewhere different for a while. And also to have that QT with the people who are closest to me, of course. That’s always good.

History of TE: 2004

Did you know that June 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Mega Man Battle Network 4? Well I did. Or at least, I had a hunch, since for whatever reason my brain has been laser-focused on memories of playing that particular game – despite the fact that I didn’t really like it.

But I’m not here to type a retrospective about MMBN4. No, sir. I already did that almost a decade ago, and haven’t revisited the game since.

Today I want to just rattle off a few interesting points about 2004. It was a big year for me! Lots happened! Firstly, there was the MMBN4 release. That was big, but not for the reason you think! See, I played the Japanese ROM for a while before the NA version came out (there was a six-month delay), and because it’s an RPG, the fact that I couldn’t read Japanese was kind of a big deal. So I started trying to tech myself katakana. It obviously didn’t really take, but I was able to learn enough to read some text in the game, and I still remember a handful of the characters to this day! I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that the best part of MMBN4 is that it made me engage in self-improvement, in some tiny way.

Continue reading History of TE: 2004

Absolutely Not a Book Review

Early this year, I decided to write a little list of things I want to accomplish throughout the year. Not resolutions, per se, but just a few things that I would like to do. Things that may or may not improve me or my life. I even wrote them out on a sheet of paper, checklist-style, and stuck it to my fridge so that it’s always at the forefront of my mind.

I won’t share the whole list, because quite frankly, it’s none of your damn business. However, one of the items on that list is to read six books. Not a lofty goal by any means, but a goal no less. Something small to strive for. And of course, me being me, I dove into this task by choosing the most difficult book that I own: Alien Phenomenology, or What It’s Like to Be a Thing by Ian Bogost.

Now, I have read this book before, several years ago, and I remembered it being a very intellectually challenging read. My line of thought here was that I’ve become much more interested in philosophy in the intervening years, so maybe it’d make more sense to me this time around. I don’t think it worked out quite that way! In all honesty, I thought that I’d written something about this book the first time I read it, which I was planning to pop in a link to and call it a day. But I hadn’t written about it before! Oops!

Continue reading Absolutely Not a Book Review