Category: Real Life

Tracking all of the things (TV Series) related

I’ve never really been much of a movie or TV watcher, but some days my multiple sclerosis prevents me from doing much, and I like to have something to watch in the background other times while I knit, spin, draw, or game. Unfortunately I’m also horrible at remembering what I’ve seen, and I leave off on some shows depending on my mood / interests – only to completely forget I was even watching them when I eventually return.

So I stumbled into a discord conversation about this exact thing, and someone mentioned a website called ‘Serializd’ (which I believe is a TV series version of Letterboxd). I signed up, and spent an evening browsing through my netflix/crave histories attempting to remember shows that I’ve seen over the years. I love tracking statistics, and I really like the minimalistic view of this one, for now at least. Whether or not I keep up the tracking, we’ll just have to see. I also wish that both movies & tv were tracked together, but I imagine that’s a whole other ballgame to handle.

Anyone else using a website to track like this? How do you like it? How long have you used it? Let me know in comments!

Now back to your regular scheduled gaming posts…

The End of Streams – Again

It seems like no matter how hard I try, I just can’t get live streaming my gaming sessions to stick. There’s a number of reasons and some things are unavoidable like health problems, and being married to a first responder, being primary caregiver to two high needs kids, and keeping any sort of schedule just sort of flies out the window. I need schedules.

Some of the issues are within my control, but I can’t do anything about them. Things like my energy level, what time I stream, what I stream. It seems like every few years I try to make a dive at it again, manage for a few weeks, and then give it up for whatever reason it is that time around.

I used to write about video games professionally (back when magazines still existed). I used to work for a video game company (You remember Carbine Studios? NCSoft?) and I desperately cling to trying to do and be something besides just ‘mom’. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what I do, but there are many days I feel lost and very alone.

What’s the solution? Well, besides professional help and working on ‘me’ the only real solution is to just keep trying – but trying and growing in different ways that make sense given my situation. What does that even mean?

In my very specific case, that means I’m not going to try to live stream to twitch any more. I am going to try to record and post content to YouTube, on my own schedule, when I can. I can record sporadically throughout the day here and there when I have the moments, and do the audio at night when the house is a bit more quiet. I can learn how to edit, and still scratch that scheduling itch. I also want to continue to grow with my art, and I’ve been posting to Cara and Instagram, and doing a little bit of drawing every day. I’d like to get back on track with my reading journal, and posting updates over on my book blog. I have a lot of FOMO when it comes to streaming. I watch a lot of twitch streamers throughout the day while I do other things. I see their enthusiasm and love for their games and community. I see them get sponsorships, I see them get noticed.

Why write it all out here? Well. I just wanted to get it out, honestly. It was too long to put on Mastodon, and now I can just move forward.

Blaugust 2025 Group Project – You’d Never Guess, But…

I don’t normally participate in these group events with Blaugust, but I always enjoy reading them, so I figured why not. This one is a pretty easy one for me to speak up about. We’re supposed to write about something we don’t normally share on our blog, that we think our readers would never guess. So. What’s mine?

I have NOT been a ‘gamer’ my entire life. In fact, I didn’t even own a computer or use a personal computer until I moved out in 2000. I very clearly remember my first computer because it was only 25 years ago. I did take typing in school (I don’t think that’s a thing any more) but I don’t think that counts as ‘gaming’.

My brothers were the gamers, I have two younger ones and yes on occasion me and Mom would gather together and play Mario Kart and get my gamer brothers to help us out on the harder levels, but I did not grow up playing games, and I didn’t care about them at all. The one computer we had at home was “Dad’s” and we were allowed to use it in later years to check email, and sometimes use his BBS that he ran, but that was about it.

There are days when I feel like I could honestly step away from gaming all together and be perfectly happy. Then I remember that I met my husband through gaming, I met some of my closest friends through gaming. My past careers, working for Carbine Studios, writing for Beckett Massive Online Gamer – all gaming. It has played a significant part in my life, despite not having grown up doing any of it.

So there you have it. A huge (now) gamer, who was never a gamer growing up.

Other people doing this group project? Going to steal the links but here they are.

And Now for Something Completely Different..

I love ramen, but like a lot of people I don’t exactly have any experience with the noodles, and I never know what to buy or what I might enjoy. While I do like SOME heat, it really depends on the type of heat. For example, I love sriracha. I don’t like Franks.

I admit it, I saw these carbonara noodles on tiktok, and they looked amazing. I decided to buy them on amazon, and they are WAY too expensive – I purchased them at $18 for 5, and now they’re at $25 for 5. Thankfully, my grocery store also supplies various versions of these noodles. The downside is that they’ve been out of stock FOREVER. They’re also only $8 for the package. Anyway, I was ordering groceries for the week, and I saw they finally had them in stock so of course I bought some. I made them, I ate them, I loved them. I made them with breaded cooked chicken breast, and a runny egg (I also mixed the sauce with some Japanese mayo). Fantastic. Highly recommended. I think one of my favourite features is that the spicy sauce can be applied with as much or as little as you want. I normally use it very sparingly. Other days I might want a little more heat.

Sometimes, it’s just nice to have something simple to eat that doesn’t require all sorts of preparation or thought.

Now returning you to your regular scheduled gaming posts..

Blaugust Day 1: Introduction

No idea what Blaugust is? Go read about it first (TL;DR I post every day for the month of August, and I’ve been doing it as part of a community for years now).

I don’t really post a lot of real life things here on my blog, keeping it to my hobbies (art, gaming, fiber arts like knitting and spinning, cross stitch) but every so often something creeps up and I talk about it. There’s no real explicit reason for this secrecy except that I’ve got young kids, and my husband is a first responder, so privacy is something we very much value. I figured for my first Blaugust post, I’d do a little bit of an introduction for anyone following along.

I’m a mid 40’s mom of two young kids, and like I said my partner is a first responder who tends to work very long hours. In between homeschooling and tending to the kids (who have complex needs) I like to play video games, read, knit, and things along those lines. When I was younger (not even much younger, but let’s say pre-children) I was not a very nice person. I have a temper – and I’d like to think that it is since having kids that I’ve morphed into my final form, who I am pretty happy with, overall.

I love animals (sometimes more than people) and I try to make an effort to let others know I’m thinking of them or that they’re important. I tend to retain weird information about people but rarely let others into my private circle. I have lived all over the world. My father was air force, and we were posted to Germany when I was 7. I have lived (and driven) from one end of Canada to the other. While most people I speak to have lived in only a small handful of provinces, some even living in their home province for their entire life – I love that I’ve moved so much. I have a very well rounded idea of what I like as far as a ‘home’ goes, and what I don’t like. That idea has grown and evolved over the years, especially after we had kids.

Because my partner is a first responder I find it difficult to keep tabs on some people. My hours of availability are sporadic, which carries over into my gaming. I’m not a night owl, and tend to game EU hours despite living in Canada. I do try, but I’m not very good at reaching out. The first responder side of things can be stressful. My partner has seen and dealt with situations that no one should ever be exposed to. He has saved more lives and helped more people than most will ever know. He has given so much of himself over to this job. I am incredibly proud of him, despite not saying it nearly as frequently as I should. Again, privacy issues. The stories I have could fill numerous books.

I feel awkward when I’m talking to people. I overexplain situations and give far too much information (like I’m doing here, in this post). I have maybe two close friends I speak to on a daily basis, and everyone else I’d categorize as acquaintances. I think I am probably not worth the time. Did I mention imposter syndrome? Well, stick that up there too.

As far as gaming goes, I prefer the meta game to the actual game. In World of Warcraft (my main game of choice) that means gold making. I have been playing since it released, in some form or another. I take breaks here and there, but I always return. I love collecting things, and old world content – but I also love the QoL changes that have happened over the years, and thus any form of ‘classic’ is just not for me.

I also love RimWorld, and Wurm Online, my two other most played games. Wurm is very niche, but has a dedicated and passionate player base. I’ve been playing that as long as Warcraft. RimWorld is single player, and I love it whether it’s modded or not. That game just speaks to my soul.

I’m a very prolific reader, preferring most evenings to curl up with a book instead of any games at all. I’ve recently started diving into audiobooks in the morning while I post my auction house stuff in WoW. I don’t think it will ever surpass reading for me, but it’s a neat way to explore books.

I think that’s about it for now, this post is already far longer than I intended it to be (yep, I ramble). I hope everyone enjoys their own participation of Blaugust, no matter how many or how few posts you manage to eek out. Let’s have a great one! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.