What better time than now?

I keep telling myself I'm going to post here way more than once every couple days, but I kind of don't want to run the risk of this turning into a less-functional Tumblr analog. I'm also extremely lazy, so, that probably also explains things a bit.

Pulled it together over the last few days enough to really get something out of the time I took off. Wednesday started off bad, but all in all, I was pretty much able to get some time to just disconnect from the bullshit of day to day living and chill out. Kept up my workout routine through too, which is often not the case when I take any length of time off work. I'm feeling pretty good all things considered, though I am already starting to dread going back to work on Monday. I’ve had some time to really digest my feelings about work during this mini-vacation, and I think I'm going to do something that might be pretty risky, and attempt to start talking to people about unionizing. It's a touchy subject in games, and people are often conditioned to put their passion before their well-being, but I've had too many conversations this past nine months or so that have told me that people are burned out, tired, and severely underappreciated. Like the song says, it has to somewhere, has to start sometime. 

I don't know if I really have the rizz to become a labor leader or anything, and I know if I pursue this I'll face retaliation from upstairs, but fuck it, I'm already miserable. Plus, it's not like they can fire me for trying to start a union, since that's protected by the law here. Not that my employer gives a shit about the law. Let's see what happens. Maybe I can't find any allies or anyone willing to put their necks out, maybe people are too indoctrinated by the corporate cult we work under. 

I also beat Nioh 3 and I think it's awesome. By and large, it's not super hard, but that last boss kicked my ass. I think it took me fifty, maybe sixty attempts, but finally beating him felt amazing. I got so close a couple times then choked at around 10%, and I was within probably a half-second of dying on the final attempt, but I got him. Doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to get the result. Maybe that's the lesson.

Downright Talkin'

Wanted to find time to talk about this last night, but got a little sidetracked and when I did write something it was pretty late, so, you know how it goes. Listened to episode 1086 of Uhh Yeah Dude, they're 20th anniversary episode, and couldn't help being a little emotional over it all. I know it's a little bit silly, but UYD has been such a constant in my life through a lot of ups and downs, moves, general life changes, all of it. Those guys started when I was 15, and in a lot of ways I've grown up listening to them. I still regularly dip back into the archives and relive some of those old bits. They haven't all aged well - 2006 was a very different time after all - and the guys themselves acknowledge that, but there's still so many wonderful old gags that still make me laugh just as hard as they did when I was a teenager. UYD for life.

Yesterday was also Valentine's Day, which I tried my best to ignore. One of the worst parts about being an immigrant in a country where you don't speak the language well is the reduced social opportunities. I miss dating, I miss getting to meet people, and I hope this is the last time I'm alone on the 14th for a while. I probably need to come up with a healthier way of coping with it in the future.

Been getting back into watching pro wrestling as well. Used to be a really hardcore super fan as a kid and through college, even through the first year or two after where I was faced with perpetual underemployment. But I fell off it pretty hard once I had stable work, and never really went back. It just demands so much of your free time, and the WWE's ties to shitty demagogues was also offputting in a huge sense. So I've been trying out AEW instead. Some folks there who I recognise, some I don't, but I'm immediately a big fan of both Thekla and Kyle Fletcher. We'll see how long I stick to watching it, but Dynamite and Grand Slam were both a lot of fun.

Never got around to talking about State of Play from Thursday, but I thought it was a pretty killer showcase. I'm a huge DOA fan, and I'm so excited that they're bringing the series back; I just hope they do the right thing and remove the stuff that is so offputting about the game while maintaining what makes it so much fun and so accessible. It's shaping up to be a great year for fighting games with Tokon and Invincible coming out too, and at some point, I wanna give 2XKO more of a shot. I liked what I played, but Nioh took up all my gaming time. I think Beast of Reincarnation and Saros both look awesome too, and the release calendar as a whole is so stacked. My backlog only gets bigger.

Picked up Final Fantasy Tactics after beating Nioh. Never played it back in the day and always wanted to, so that's on the docket for this evening. Hopefully helps distract me from the dread of going back to the office tomorrow.

Seatbelts.