This begins my personal blog where I’ll put things I’d like to remember. I have a pretty shitty memory as it is, so as I piece everything together I hope to be able to hold on to it for a long time to come instead of being scared it will just disappear one day.
By the title you can probably gather that I feel I’m coming out of a lost decade. This post will be both about that decade and also a bit of a general introduction to me as a person. It’s my one year anniversary where I work and that means that after July I’ll officially be in my longest position I’ve ever held. My boss speaks highly of me. I’ve accidentally made myself an important part of the team. Things are going well there.
Speaking as someone who owns a less-than-a-month old Steam Deck OLED but is mostly and Xbox guy, I honestly don’t know how to feel. Portable Windows still sounds painful but an ecosystem would be pretty nice…
This week has been filled with old habits and trying new things. Join me as I try to take my favorite PS5 “zone out” game portable, find comfort returning to the magazine aisle, and get drawn back in to my first British soap love thanks to hot shirtless men now that it’s on YouTube.
Currently Playing: Spider-Man 2
Starting things off this week, I’m finally playing this year’s Spender-Man sequel. I’ve been dying to play this one, but finding the where for that to happen proved tricky.
A couple of years ago I got some quality time with a PS5 and PlayStation Plus subscription. The Spider-Man games were on sub at the time, so I decided to try them out. It’s maybe the perfect kind of game for when I just need to zone out and kill some time swinging around the city and collecting stuff.
But, I had a problem: I no longer had access to a PS5. I did get a steam deck last month, though.
Steam has it listed with a green check-mark for Steam Deck play-ability. But based on the Oblivion anecdotes, I was skeptical. So I head to the sub-reddits and try and see how well (or poor) the game runs and see if it’s feasible. My hopes were seemingly dashed.
Alas, I think to myself, I guess I’ll just go download the first or second entry and play that instead.
But then I didn’t. The green check-mark was taunting me and the lax return policy with Steam gave me courage. So, I downloaded it.
The default settings were trash. The dynamic up-scaling was enabled and left everything looking so rasterized and jagged as I moved that I got where the hate was coming from. And on ultra-low settings?!
But then I turned that off and everything was fine. I even turned up the settings to the regular “low.”
There’s occasional slowdown and the quality of the PC port seems to be iffy (though it has apparently improved with patches). But, as someone who’s main driver for all gaming was a Switch for 5+ years, It’s decidedly Fine.
If I had other means to play this game, I would. But I’m enjoying it. And, one perk of getting it on Steam is that, if (lord willing) I ever manage to get a real gaming rig, I know it’ll look gorge.
Currently Reading: Wired Magazine
My favorite thing as a kid–and yes, i suppose this gives a good bit about me away–was the magazine aisle at the store. Oh, mom thought she was getting a little helper for the grocery shop this week? Nah, your boy was in the magazine aisle reading EGM, Wired, and Nintendo Power, trying to decide which one I would beg my mom for.
Usually it was Wired because the neon, over-designed, phone-book-sized periodical really spoke to me. The long-form magazine articles breathed life into technical topics that I’m sure I didn’t quite grasp as an 11 year old standing in front of the brightly lit magazines on aisle 7 of Kroger in Centerville, GA.
Well, a quarter century has passed, and I’m comforted that Wired has been pretty dedicated to covering how technology is encroaching on society in all aspects. That in addition to political reporting from a tech magazine I didn’t know I would both rely on and cherish led me to buy a physical print subscription to Wired a few months ago.
My second issue came in the mail last week and it’s very nice to have something to grab, learn about something interesting, and pass the time while not connected to an endless stream of notifications.
Currently Watching: Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks title card
I have no shame when it comes to my love of British soaps.
Hollyoaks was actually the first one I ever saw–back when it was streaming on Hulu. It sucked me in by the number of hot, gay men featured in prominent stories. Though, to be fair, there’s plenty of queer love to go around and not just gratuitous man meat.
I dropped off after Hulu removed the show from its line-up because pirating a soap from across the pond is just too much effort and i couldn’t be asked.
This means that I can actually watch the gayest UK soap again!
Hollyoaks characters Dillon Ray and Lucas Hay in a still from the show.
The show has been putting a lot of gay stories on as front-burner plots again, and I’m here for it. They also tend to lay on the gratuitous male nudity a little bit, which is even better.
Bonus Track: Bitch on Heels
This week’s Bonus Track is “Bitch on Heels” by The Vivienne.
It’s inexplicably a song written by Diane Warren and it get stuck in my head all the time.
thinking about this twink that was born in 1995 who told me—when I went back to help a debate workshop as a 24 year old alum (6 years his senior)—that i was OLD
My co-worker’s sister died and it’s brought a lot of emotions up in me from when my mom died. Ends up, I think I’m just not great at dealing with death or loss.
Aside from that, I got a mystery injury that inflamed my left sciatic nerve branch. Walking around with a limp like the real “cool dude” I am while I try not to eat at work because using the bathroom cranks the pain up to an 11 when I have to sit down on something hard—especially at that angle.
Usually, I’d complain loudly about this at work, but instead I’m just kinda suffering in silence this week. With everything going on in the office, it didn’t feel right. Not that it’s a competition, but “my booty hurts” doesn’t really hold a candle to “my sister just lost her long struggle with cancer.”
I did manage to finally get my temporary tag in Alabama this morning. That’s been stressing me out. They still don’t have my title even though I’ve requested it twice now. But I just bought myself another 20 days to annoy the lienholder until they send it.
Things are looking up there…ish. My dad has it in his head that if I don’t formally cancel my registration in Georgia both of our licenses will somehow get suspended.
On the plus side, I’ve been keeping to more of a budget. So hopefully things will settle down soon.
Meanwhile, here’s some media I’ve been into recently.
Currently Watching
Taskmaster was my jam during peak-pandemic times. I’ve fallen off a bit since season 17 (didn’t finish and didn’t start 18), but I had to see how Jason Mantzoukas would fare. Loving it so far.
Currently Listening
This cover of “Take On Me” by Thunder Jackson has been stuck in my head all day today. I love a good dissonant cover.
I really want to get EmuDeck setup properly after tinkering around with it installed on the internal drive and tapping out so I could make room for WWE 2K25.
The Penguin was a great show, and I love being able to see the script behind the show or movie.
Currently Playing
I’ve been mostly on a backlog kick older games thanks to getting a Steam Deck recently.
WWE 2K25, Balatro, Crash 4, My Time at Sandrock, and Cyberpunk 2077 are the newest games I have. But, I’ve really enjoyed spending some time with Another Crab’s Treasure.
I’m pretty new to the soulslike genre, but I’ve been intrigued, so I picked this one up on a steep discount. Am I good at it? No. In fact, I’ve had to restart twice now just getting the hang of things.
But, it’s a lot of fun and keeps a tone that makes me less likely to jump off a bridge after I’ve died for the 50-11th time.
In the meantime, peace out losers, I’m going to Dog World!
