There are no coordinates or maps in Minecraft bedrock edition, so figuring out where you are and where you want to go requires some actual crafting. When my husband and I started out we decided to leave the little beginner island and head west until we found an area we wanted to settle in. Above is the very slow map I’ve started to develop of the area. My castle in the broken square at the top in the center, my husband’s log cabin is the structure along the river a bit south of that. I’m hoping to continue making the map (I need more frames) until I’ve mapped out all of the surrounding area. Maybe I’ll spot something interesting.
As soon as I had children, there suddenly became this whole section of my life where I had very little control. Simple things, like sleep, became something that was dependent on my babies instead. The lack of control over my own life was daunting – so I started organizing the few things I had control over. I would organize by putting things into lists, charts, graphs, and regain control over the aspects of my life that were still mine to control. Doing this helped me control my anxiety which was probably at its peak during those beginning months right after a new baby.
I use the same tactics for blogging. I don’t pre-determine what I’m going to write about but I do jot down ideas, rough schedules, save up screenshots for future posts, and all of that good stuff. It helps me feel in control, gives me some semblance of organization in a world where I have very little of it. Charts and graphs and lists actually help calm me down, which is why I’m pretty devoted to my bulletjournal, or importing excel sheets like the one above of my world of warcraft battle pets.
For a long time I felt ashamed of these lists. I felt like a ‘normal’ person wouldn’t need to write down the tiny parts of their day into a list to get them completed. Over the years I’ve decided to simply be who I am, and if that means I function better with these little bits of organization, so be it.
My google sheets folder is filled with things like the list above. Which characters I have on which servers in which games doing which crafts. Market details for games like Wurm Unlimited. Little bits and bobs that make almost no sense to anyone else, but for me, are tiny little life preservers urging me along.
If you use any of these sort of tactics to get through your day, you should not be made to feel ashamed of them. We’re all just doing what we can and there’s nothing wrong with that.
When was the last time a game took you by surprise? A game that wasn’t even on your radar and you had barely acknowledged as being out there – suddenly you’re playing it (or reading about it) and you stop and think ‘wow, this is really something special’. I find that we tend to research these purchases far more than we research anything else we spend money on, and that tends to leave us reluctant to splurge on something we’re not 100% sure about.
I don’t look into many of my games before buying them. I sign up for humblebundle monthly just so that I get a surprise selection of games I’ve never heard of each month, and in those bundles there’s usually one or two REALLY neat ones that catch my attention.
Yoku’s Island Express is one such game. It came from the latest humblebundle and I had never heard of it before. It released May 2018, so it has been out a while.
The reason I love it is because I’m a sucker for pinball games. That’s right folks, I LOVE pinball. Rollers of the Realm? I was all over that one. Yoku’s Island Express uses pinball mechanics and it’s just an absolutely beautiful game. One I typically wouldn’t have even given the time of day, because lets face it it’s niche and none of my friends have played it.
So what are your surprise games? Ones that you had never heard of that just caught you off guard. Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
Besides participating in Blaugust and tossing a mentor-esc post or two (or more) about that in here for the month, I also have a few set goals I’d like to acomplish gaming-wise. I’m currently playing World of Warcraft and Minecraft – minecraft is the bedrock edition with some friends, WoW I’m playing on both the Hyjal and Argent Dawn servers (Horde vs. Alliance). I’d like a weekly goal to complete the Celestial Tournament in WoW, along with the various battle pet dungeons so I can finish collecting the pets that come from those instances. I’m also keeping up with my auction house runs, I have a character on each account doing that at the moment.
I’m hoping to finish collecting the pets from the two latest zones, I think I’ve gotten all of the ones from the under water one, now I just need to finish the mech zone. It’s a smaller zone and easier to navigate for sure.
In minecraft I’m working on building myself a castle and then some farms. I’d like to find some cats and explore the latest update since I’ve never played the default game before.
I’d also like to make my way through some of my steam library. I have so many games that I’ve never played before, and since I subscribe to the monthly humble bundle I’m always gaining more, too. I started off by playing ‘Cinders‘ which is really quite beautiful even though it released back in 2012. It’s a visual novel where you make choices and follow a certain well known fairy tale and make decisions that can change the way you might remember the story. I purchased it for the artwork, and have zero regrets. So far the tale has been well done, and I can’t wait to see what my next decision will be. Empathetic? Make my sisters suffer? Depends on my mood.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
I’m going to start this post off by saying that there’s a pretty hefty stigma concerning monetizing your blog. A lot of people don’t believe in it, don’t want it, and don’t appreciate those who do. That’s perfectly OK, we’re all allowed to do as we wish with our little areas of the internet – but this post is for those who DO want to monetize so I’d appreciate any comments left being useful to that line of thought.
I have no issue posting advertisements on my site. I’ve done it for years, and it helps pay for things like hosting costs and domain names. Writing is a hobby for me and if I don’t make any money off of it that’s OK too, but I’d rather have those costs taken care of.
One important thing I learned from the get-go was to be reachable. You can find an email address on my mail sidebar for contact information so that any prospective advertisers can reach me. I get a handful of emails every month with requests, and I answer every one of them. I don’t always say yes, but I’ll get into details about that a bit later on. So if you’re looking for people to reach out to you, make sure they can.
Consistency is another key factor. You’ll want to be making regular posts, showing up in google searches, and all that good stuff. I don’t do anything special for this in regards to my own site, but it may be something you want to focus on.
You don’t HAVE to say yes – but it sure doesn’t hurt to listen to the pitch. Over the years I’ve heard a few different ones, but the most common I get is:
A post they write (sometimes they’ll pay more if you write the post), with a link or two to their product/site (gambling sites are pretty common), that’s relevant to your site (in my case, gaming). You leave it up as a regular post, sometimes for a set duration, and basically just forget about it. I’ve received anywhere from $75-250USD per post. I have a set amount of money that I’ll accept in these cases, and I turn them down if they’re not willing to meet my fee. I used to feel bad about accepting these paid advertisements – but honestly, it hasn’t affected my traffic and I haven’t seen any negative effects. In my top years I would have 1-2 a month, with lots of posts spacing them out.
I used to get requests for sidebar advertisements, or a page with a listed donor / sponsor, but these have become pretty far and few between over the years.
Occasionally I’ll get a request to test a product or to check something out. One year it was a VPN service, and I have no problems writing a review about something. I make sure to mention that I’ve gotten the product for free (even though it is not currently law here in Canada) just for honesty sake. Again, it’s just an advertised or sponsored post here and there that doesn’t interrupt the natural flow of my site – you’ll have to figure out what works for you, and try to blend it seamlessly.
We feel bad about a lot of stuff in life, and we tend to be really harsh critics of ourselves. I used to try to hide any advertisements that I was getting towards my blog, but honestly, I’m proud that I’ve managed to make a bit of side cash from it. As long as I’m not passing viruses or negative vibes to any readers (be sure to check out the links yourself, safely, before any linking occurs!) a post here and there is hardly a cause for concern.
A Pixel Nomad 