Tag State of the Blog

WordPress Weirdness

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I haven’t been able to blog for the past few days, up to maybe two weeks. Why not? Because WordPress wouldn’t let me log in. In the past, my login would be kinda funky, where I wouldn’t be able to make comments sometimes, and could only get into the blog dashboard from the “create new blog” button on the top floaty banner that WordPress puts up to get new people to make blogs (hopefully paying money for the privilege).

If you’re constantly logged in to your WordPress account, you don’t see this, you see the links to your own dashboard, login, etc. But they changed it. Now, pressing that new blog button takes you straight to the new blog setup process, without having you create a new account first. (In the past, that would first prompt one to make a new WordPress account, as you’d expect, since pretty much every other website in existence does this – I’d use this opportunity to get into my site.)

To get around this, I tried to log in, as one does. You can log in via the menu next to the Follow button, which seems to default to the lower-right part of the page. (You can also do other things, like Report a site.) But, as soon as I logged in, I was logged back out again. So that was frustrating.

In a profound amount of stupidity, I didn’t try the next obvious thing, until just now: don’t just click that Log In button, but say “that’s not me,” which then takes you to a normal login screen, to manually input username and password. Once I did that (well, reset my password, as I forgot), I was finally able to get in. And my last post wasn’t approved apparently. But it got a like, so I guess it posted anyways? And I had a trackback that also wasn’t approved, but apparently existed still? What would have happened if I had denied my approval in either situation? I don’t know. Very weird, WordPress.

August and September

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I got a lot done this month. Or at least it seems so. Not everything I thought I might do, but still a bunch.

First off, I did accomplish my goal of having a proper Blaugust, writing a new post every day. Some of them weren’t the best posts, but there was only one that was completely no-effort, so good on me. Having the prompts really helped some days. I didn’t write about everything I wanted to, but I did get to most of it. Like, I didn’t get to reviewing the Princess Connect anime, but at least I watched the first three episodes (and almost wrote about them, but then I remembered something else more timely).

I actually started two new games. First, Harspace: Shipbreakers, which I wrote about the other day; and then Assassins Creed: Odyssey, which I haven’t yet. Both are good, fun games. Both took me away from the other games I’m playing, and made me wish I had more hours in the day to play.

I also kept up with the dailies, and more, in my other games. Just dailies in ESO and STO, and significantly more in the mobile games I’ve been playing. Pokemon Masters really has revamped things with its latest major update, and it’s more fun to play; plus, it has its anniversary celebration going on right now.

I actually got back into Granblue Fantasy in a real way, for some reason. I guess it was the extra quests with the summer celebration. But I put actual effort into Rise of Beasts, and actually participated in guild wars (I think I broke my (admittedly pathetic) record for honors). I was planning on 40-boxing Sarasa up to 5*, but decided to just use the classic method after looking at all the materials I didn’t have that I still needed.

As for next month, there are definitely some thing’s I’m looking forward to. Crusader Kings 3 just came out today, and I’m itching to get into it. Genshin Impact should come out this month, I think, and that’s something else worth investigating, if I don’t think it will infest my computer with CCP funny business (it’s not Tencent, but it’s still mainlander Chinese I’m pretty sure). Craftopia is coming to early access soon, and that looks like it might be my jam.

A Year Of This Blog

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Looks like it’s been a year since I’ve opened this blog. The actual anniversary was a few days ago, but I missed it. Oops. I actually wanted to post something on that day, but I had the day off and forgot.

I originally made the blog to participate in Blaugust. It’s almost that time of year again (as you’d expect), but I’m not truly participating in the strictest sense. Because Blaugust has changed, man. Sure, I can follow along, but why would I do that? Just because we just did the whole “post for 30 days” thing back in April, doesn’t mean I can’t do it again.

So I think I will do just that. There are a lot of things I want to write about. I just didn’t have the drive to actually write them. Because I’m lazy. Hell, I was going to write something yesterday. Since I’m so lazy, and have the ADD, I won’t do things unless there’s a specific goal I’m working towards. I know that’s basic motivational psychology, but there you go. So, I will write. Every day of August. I didn’t quite make it last year, I think I missed a day or two, but I did it in April, so I know it’s possible. I just have to do it.

And, since making prompts seems to be the thing to do, here’s a list of things I will probably write about:

  • A series on Bang Dream Girls’ Band Party (something like MoeGamer does with games, though not good like him)
  • Finally write out my potential historical timeline for Deus Ex
  • Give my review of the first season of Picard, which I’ve been promising since that ended
  • Do an impressions post on the Greymore expansion of ESO
  • Review the Destroy All Humans remaster
  • Review the Princess Connect anime (and thus actually watch it)
  • Reflect on the various summer events and stories in the games I play
  • Complain (?) about the heat
  • Complain some more about grinds
  • Talk about food
  • Solve world hunger
  • Bring peace on Earth
  • Talk about Stellaris

Blapril 2020 Results

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Looks like I did it. Did 37 posts between Mar 29 and May 9 (inclusive). Including 30 posts in the actual month of April, one every day. Even if some of those were posted the last minute (I think one literally).

Not only were my posts frequent, but they were varied. Some were even about things other than video games! But all of it was about stuff I cared about, which is the important thing I think. That’s the point of this blog, after all: it’s my sounding-board to the world. And some other people read it, so that’s nice too.

Now, what for the future of the blog? I don’t know. Not just because I don’t know the future. But what will I care about sufficient to write about? I mean, there’s stuff I get heated about, but I’m not going to write about. I still haven’t done my Picard review, after all, and I’m still mad about that show. I do hope, though, that it won’t die, again. It’s not like I don’t have a lot of free time, even at work, to at least think of stuff to write about. So, we’ll see.

AAR’s and Playthroughs: A Minor Change

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I’ve come across a problem in the way I do these AAR’s and other comprehensive playthroughs: I don’t remember stuff. My usual method is to just take screenshots of important moments, and talk about them. Trouble is, I get so caught up in the game that I forget to take screenshots sometimes. And other times I do take the shot, but then forget precisely why I took that shot. So, the story is incomplete, and a bit messy.

So, I’m going to do something I should have been doing from the start: taking notes! In a game like Crusader Kings II, it’s pretty easy, since everything has a date, and some of the stuff is even recorded in-game. Other games can be harder, but it’s all doable.

The main reason I haven’t been doing it is because of burnout, or at least the potential for doing so, especially in a long game. You see, I’ve gone this route before. Many years ago, I decided to do an in-character blog of a fresh Skyrim run, basically a journal of sorts. I don’t know where I got the idea from, but there it was. Like I’ve said in a post earlier, I got pretty far ahead in the playthrough, compared to where I was in the blog. And as I played, I stopped to take notes. Physically, of course (I might even have bought a journal for this purpose, though maybe not; I don’t remember). This was soon after the game came out, and I’d already played through the whole thing twice. Between the note-taking killing my excitement, and my growing realization that the game was actually quite bad, I just lost interest.

But that won’t happen this time. Mostly because “this time” isn’t a big long RPG playthrough, but individual games and campaigns in a single game. I might do a long report of some rpg in the future, but I doubt it. And it probably won’t be in a “write every day” goal-month. But we’ll see.

A Time For Self-Improvement

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At the beginning of a new time period, it is common for humans to reflect on the past time period, and make goals for improving performance in the new time period. As such, I would like to join my fellow humans this new time period:

  1. Video games have got to go. Video games are pure wastes of time, and like my fellow humans I have little time to waste these days. So busy with so many things!
  2. Star Trek has got to go. In present optimistic times, the last thing we need is an optimistic hope for a bright future, where all of fellow humans are better humans. Fortunately CBS and the current head of Star Trek, Alex Kurtzman, are doing wonderfully, turning Trek into the bleak modern generic sci-fi we humans love. However, there is all that Star Trek from the past that still exists, readily available in multiple formats. I will just have to quit all that.
  3. Anime and manga have got to go. Anime presents an unrealistic expectation for fellow humans, giving feelings of things like moe and beauty and cuteness and happiness. Instead, the ugly generic Cal-Arts western cartoons are for me.
  4. The Internet has got to go. I have too much interaction with my fellow humans as-is, especially these days; I don’t need to waste time online. And, considering most of my interactions with my fellow humans is about the above three things, I can join my fellow humans in setting and attaining efficiency improvement goals this way.

Blapril Participation Post!

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I’ve decided to participate in Blapril. How exciting!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “This guy hasn’t posted any thing at all in the past month. How is he going to do something every day?” This is valid. But never you mind the recent past; look even further. I averaged a post every day my very first month, I can handle this this month. Especially since I’ve had a whole month of ideas and games (games!) to build up. Of course, I can’t guarantee quality, but that’s always been the case.

Putting this at the end so Twitter picks it up.

A Quick Update

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Just a quick update, since I’m not dead. January gaming was just basically ESO, with dailies in Dragalia Lost and playing the events in STO and Granblue Fantasy. Made a new character in ESO (2H/S+B Nightblade Tank), kinda on a whim (since some bloggers I knew were talking about how ESO’s combat was kinda not satisfying, which wasn’t my experience – but I’ve only played ranged until now, which has a completely different feel than melee; so I wanted to see what was up with that). So yah, that’s what’s up there.

In terms of “posts I’ve been meaning to do but haven’t because REASONS,” I have watched the last two episodes of Picard. The second episode was somewhat better than the first, but the third was the worst so far. Long story short, I just don’t care about the characters or the world that’s been set up. I’ll keep watching for now, since this is the end of the pilot, so to speak; or the first area of an RPG. But it’s been almost 1/3 of the season (3/10 episodes). This wasn’t necessary, and everything could have been done in one episode, maybe 1.5. And it would have made me happier, since a lot of the stuff that annoyed me could have been cut without any repercussions to the overall story. Not all the annoying stuff, but most of it.

I’ll have another post tomorrow about Love Your Backlog Week – but I need to get my backlog organized! (Hopefully GOG’s unification of my stuff will help.)

The End of Blaugust

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It’s the last of of August, which means it’s the last day of Blaugust. So, what does this mean?

As far as my goals…I had 31 posts (this being 32). I might not have made all of them within the proper calendar day in my time zone (sometimes you just get into playing games so much, and then it’s “oh crap, it’s 11:43pm, gotta make that post!”), but I did have a post for every day, so that’s great. Also I’m pretty pleased with the quality of the posts, for the most part. Not too many low effort short posts (there are some low-effort longer ones…).

It was even mostly about video games, which surprised me. I didn’t think I would have that much to say. I have even more to say, more ideas, that I’ve come up with that I just haven’t had the time to think about enough to jot down. So that’s comforting. I have more to do, so the blog won’t close down.

I do wish I had taken even more time to play more games, but ESO just sucked me right in. Unfortunately, there’s not too much to talk about there, yet, aside from what I’ve already done. I expect that, as I get deeper into the story, and stop being a scrub, I’ll get more to talk about. Or at least post screenshots about.

I’ve already known that I like to post a lot of screenshots, with a pithy/snarky line or two. I do that a lot at other places I post. I’ve tried to keep most of that out of the blog, so far. Part of it is that it kinda detracts from my point, sometimes, when I actually have a point. And part of it is that my humor doesn’t always transfer – this blogging community I’ve stumbled into is rather different than other places I hang out. But maybe in the future I’ll post more of that. Once I figure out how to make captions more caption-y with this layout.

So there it is. I think I done gud. I’m not hanging up my hat yet, though without pressure things will get a bit lighter around here. But not dead. Unfortunately for those few that read this.

Some Quick Blog Housekeeping

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I’ve finally gotten around to updating the blog itself. It still has that default picture at the top, but at least this looks like a proper blog. I hate all that infinite scrolling nonsense, and not having stuff on the sidebars. Apparently I had to switch from “modern business” theme or some-such. Now this looks like the old-fashioned blogs I’m used to.

I’ve also set up some nifty stuff on the side, now that I can. I even put up an RSS button. Which I did because, for the first time since I started reading blogs back in 2001, I also got an RSS reader. WordPress has a nifty “follow” function (also a button for that, too, on the side there), but that only works for WordPress blogs. Unfortunately, some people don’t have RSS set up. I’ve finally gotten around to looking up most of the Blaugust participants (figured that was a good way to start), and some of them I’d like to follow, I can’t. It’s slightly annoying.

I couldn’t figure out how to set up a proper blogroll. The “Links” widget for WordPress doesn’t seem like it’s editable, even though it looks like it should be (or I’m dumb and can’t figure it out – very possible!). So I just went with the Blogs I’m Following, which only works for WordPress blogs. So sorry.

I still don’t get Twitter. I thought I got it, then what I got changed. I’m not a social person, even online, so so far it’s just there to announce my blog posts. Thinking on it, I probably should be following the blogs I follow in the normal fashion on Twitter, too.