Category: Real Life

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.

Happy Birthday

Today, my blog is 19 years old.

I’ve changed names (domains) over the years, taken breaks (especially when RL got crazy) but it has been a constant in my life. For almost more than half of it now. I think that’s awesome.

My very first post was about my Ratonga Bard in EverQuest II.

A LOT has changed since then, at least when it comes to real life. At that time I was living in Ottawa, and working at a sunglasses kiosk in the mall. I had graduated from high school in 2000 (they had grade 13 back then, I don’t think that exists any more either). In 19 years I have moved 5 more times, across the entire country (From Ontario, to BC, to Saskatchewan x2, to Nova Scotia). I got married (and have been married now for almost 10 years). I had 2 kids who are now 7 and 9. I worked for a video game magazine (which now no longer exists), and I worked for video game companies (which also, no longer exist.. hmm). I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and learned how to navigate that to the best of my abilities (still learning, in fact). I’ve lost friends, gained friends, and overall, have been very pleased with who I’ve turned out to be.

Here’s to 19 more years. I love this little space I’ve carved out for myself, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

A Little RL Update (Lack of Posts)

Real life has been a lot lately. My mother in law passed away this week, and that means the other half has to fly from NS to BC to handle things like the estate. I am trying to learn to deal with my grief, but I’m not good at that stuff. The entire household has also been quite sick for some time which just compounds the issues.

I have not been playing any World of Warcraft on any significant level, either, because my computer broke yesterday. I’ve ordered new parts, but I imagine it will be some time before they arrive. They say when it rains, it pours, and I suppose in this instance, that’s absolutely true.

Safe travels and happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

A Rough Go of Things

This summer has been difficult, both in game and out. I don’t make friends easily and a few years back there ended up being an incident that cost me almost all of mine – I’m awkward, blunt, and argumentative. Not conductive to keeping long term friends, really. So for the past few years I’ve been quite isolated, but still trying to do the best I can for my family.

Then I started falling out of love with the game that I had played for years. I couldn’t decide if it was because I didn’t have a community, or because the games were changing, or because I just wasn’t into it the way I used to. Maybe some combination of things. It’s easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom that seems to be life, but I also actively tried to get out of that mindset, but it just wasn’t working.

I am just not interested in playing World of Warcraft right now, despite the release of a brand new expansion. I haven’t even logged in. I removed everything off of the auction house and tucked it away. I’m debating leaving all of the Warcraft discords I belong to – and I started playing some GW2 but even that can’t seem to hold my attention. The one game I’m still playing with any sort of desire to log in, is EVE and Wurm Online. I’ve been spending more time doing art, both traditional and digital. I’ve been active on mastodon & bluesky after the disaster that is twitter / X. I just don’t want to support people like Musk. They certainly don’t deserve it.

Everyone is wrapped up in their own stuff, which is expected and reasonable. I’m not even sure why I’m rambling this here except that I needed to get the words out. I frequently (even at this age) think that people would just be better off if I wasn’t here, wasn’t creating issues, wasn’t being all emotional. Anyway. It has been a difficult summer. I’m hoping the cooler weather and the beginning of fall brings some relief, but I also homeschool so there is no real ‘break’ from everything. Guess we’ll see.