A lot has changed since I last wrote an update here and I've been trying out some other things for journaling, logging, and overall life management. At the end of my last post I had made a note that I wanted to be better about keeping things up here, and I haven't really, but I have kept the spirit up in my own notebook and journaling
The major change here is that my second son was born in early January (and is what threw things into some chaos earlier than we were thinking it would). He was born a month early and, while we were mostly ready, it still was a shock to our systems. He's well, and you can hardly tell that he was even early but, the month of planning and routine and all that we thought we had went out the window.
We were going to go bowling, and my wife started to feel really light headed. Checked her blood pressure and thought that we should go to the hospital to be safe. A night or two under observation for that and the call was made to induce, then needed another few days of watching and monitoring. Overall we were in the hospital, unexpectedly, for like a week. Through two big bits of snow too.
Our firstborn is doing well with things within reason. It's been a challenge for him to adjust to the new baby, our attention being diverted, potty training, changes at daycare, and moving into a new bed. On top of that, it all started when we were very quickly gone and his grandma was over here for a long time while we were just gone. We're working through things there
I was able to take some time off of work - around 7 weeks straight from the middle of January until the start of March. Lots of time there spent making sure things at home were okay, getting as much sleep as possible, etc. etc. but I've been back at it for about a month now and that's been a whole other sack of eggs
One of the good things that happened was that my techo came in before all the hospital stuff started so I've been on a good roll with logging and all in that. Daily lists, keeping things on schedule and all have gone well. A lot of good thoughts going into that too, but in shorter pieces than what I'd write here (or have written here)
It's helped me really look at how I'm doing mentally and be able to share that with those who need to know, and it's helped me keep good track of what's been going on with things like which games I'm playing, which books I'm reading, etc.
I've made a point of taking a break from social media since Jan 20th when TikTok put on this big performative thank you to Trump and the tech bros were all there at the inauguration where Elon did his big nazi manuevers. I'm over this admin and their dumbass shit - so much of this harms the everyday person and none of it makes any damn sense. But they're just leaning into the grift.. I don't want to get into it
Anyway, with Facebook and Twitter shutdown, Instagram hollowed out, and my reluctance to open TikTok I've had a lot more time to put towards gaming and reading. I'm on book 9 or 10 of the year already and have finished a few RPGs. More on that later
Pausing here for a minute while I go check on the new kiddo while wife goes to get the older one from daycare...
So yeah, it's been good staying organized and I think it's become more or less a habit now
The pinball kick from before is still holding on, but finding time to get out and play has been understandably challenging. Older son isn't quite into it, though he's interested, but he's at a phase where he wants to have me watch him and not play myself. I've been looking at the marketplace still and am considering getting a machine for the garage this year or next, even if it's an older/less popular game. It gets my foot in the door on trades and will still be fun to play with
Earlier in the year I listened to an audiobook of Fight Magic Items, which was a dive into the history of JRPGs and that got me itching to go back and experience some of that history. So far I've played through Final Fantasy and have started Phantasy Star. I've also been playing modern RPGs through a Cyberpunk kick in February and some time spent in Final Fantasy XIV. I've finally gotten myself out of Stormblood and into Shadowbringers and I'm feeling very into that whole story and new setting
Wife and I started up Metaphor Refantazio to help scratch the Persona itch, but put it on the backburner to instead work our way through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. That's been really fun to go through in the evenings and I'm getting myself very into the story - we've stopped doing side quests (aside from the Queen's Blood matches)
Still a constant for me and there's been progress. I'm out to more friends around home and have been just more accepting of myself overall. I got a new pair of boots (Demonia Swings) that gave me just full on bad-ass euphoria even just sitting downstairs in the office. I've also talked to my primary care doc about how I've been feeling and she suggested some cousiling places I could call. I left a message with one, but they never got back to me
I'm feeling better about "owning" the feelings and it's helped. Journaling daily in the offline has also helped with coming to terms with a lot, I think
While I was on my parental leave, I made my way back to Handmade Hero by Casey Muratori, and have been really trying to work on game development and game engine concepts. It's been long, and slow, but this is the longest I've kept up with one of these projects in a long while, and I'm giving myself the permission to go off the rails and not work totally towards a plan. Right now I've got a small "Go" engine that I'm probably going to commit to version control then scrap while I keep going through Handmade's videos
I've also started to rekindle my interest in the breadboard PC projects and OSDev projects. UEFI bootloading and writing an OS for ARM or RISC-V feel like next targets for me on the latter front, and I've gotten myself an arduino mega to help me debug things on the former. Slow pacing and just doing what I can, when I feel like it. Again, giving myself permission to not make it my life
The last of the project side of things is that I'm trying to dedicate a bit of time each week/month towards music. My music buddy at work is full in on his stuff and it's giving me a good trickle of inspriation to go ahead and keep at it. I've got one track in the works currently that's aiming to be hyperpopy. In a similar theme, I'm giving myself permission to follow tutorials/examples/lift from others for this, so I don't get stuck in the "everything needs to be totally original" mindset, and I'm giving myself permission to make something "bad" to avoid the "tweak it randomly for months on end until I'm burnt out" dilemma
That's been what's new. I didn't forget about this other project, but a lot happened real quick and it was shelved for a good bit. There have been a lot of political things going on, and keeping my space carved out online free of corps, ads, algorithms, etc. feels important to me
So, see you next time
Cheers.