And We’re Back

I return!

I’ve tried to write this post at least twice now, over the past year-ish. So now I’m going to try and just write the short, FAQish and/or bullet points filled version of my comeback post.

Where did you go?

I mean, still Seattle. Moved out of the place I was in last time I posted, shared a building with good friends for a bit, and then moved to Capitol Hill to make it easier for my girlfriend and I to see each other.

Wait, girlfriend?

Yep. And we’re monogamous, so you all missed your chance. I know, you’re heartbroken.

So, like, what happened?

A bunch of people close to me died in quick succession at the start 2021. Okay, three, but that’s still a lot. Jabberwocky made a feint for being the 4th, but pulled through, thankfully. There was also a pandemic, you might have noticed, and that was Not Good for my mental health. Neither was that apartment. So I couldn’t bring myself to write much.

Oh no, Jabberwocky!

Odd for that to be the thing you pulled out of there, but okay. No you’re avoiding the bigger thing. At any rate, she’s still alive and well and has just fought off a long infection. As my friend puts it, she’ll probably never die just out of pure anger. I maintain she’ll bite, tail whip, and fight Death itself when it tries to come at her. She probably already has. So while she’s an old lady at this point, she’s doing pretty well.

What else happened while you were away?

Ah, finally, bullet points!

• Transferred to an IT service desk job at the company I was working for. Got promoted after my first year. Did a pretty damn good job. Though I developed a skillset that gave me a lot of job security. Found out I was incorrect when 5 of the 8 members of the US team, including me, were laid off at the very start of May. It was, if I’m being totally honest, a pretty bad place to work by the end there, so probably for the best. Still, I like my teammates from there and am sad I won’t get to work with them anymore. Hell is best faced with a good team at your back, and it makes you closer and bond and shit.
• Started dating a wonderful woman, been together for over a year, feels good. I promise this isn’t meant as a humblebrag, I Just want to give an important life event its due.
• Got on much better brain meds that have seemingly kept working.
• Got out of shape, back in, back out, back in. Something like that. Consistent working out is hard, though thankfully I’m currently on an upswing.
• Managed to not get COVID, at least as far as I and a multitude of anxiety-induced tests can tell.
• Also got vaccinated, boosted, etc. If you’re not vaccinated: what the hell, go do that. I’ll wait. Go!
• Started a podcast! And it’s a good one! That’s still going! :O

Podcast?

Yeah! It’s a Castles & Crusades actual play podcast called Primary Attribute. You can check it out at https://www.primaryattribute.com . We’ve been at it a good long while now and have hit over 100 episodes. Castles & Crusades plays a lot like older editions of D&D, but we somehow turned it into something of a dating and civic maintenance simulator alongside the standard adventuring and occasional (*sniff* *single tear*) combat.

Also the audio for the first dozen-ish episodes sucks ass, so be warned. At least some remastering is in the works. I’ll post here when that’s done, if you want to hold out. Or try starting with Episode 83, “All Dream Copse are Bastards.” If you do that, let me know how jumping in there goes for you!

It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and for direct RSS subscription or download from the site itself. If you have a favorite platform we’re not on, let me know and I’ll see if I can make it happen.

Did you break the podcast details out into their own section to escape the bullet points?

You can’t prove anything.

Hey, I thought you said this was going to be short!

Yeah, but my morning pages practice has a word count of 500 words and I wanted to hit that. And we did! Mission accomplished, everyone go home.

Wait, are you going to start posting again?

That’s the hope! There’s a lot of stuff I’ve wanted to write over the past couple years, but I felt like I needed to do this first. Does that make sense? No! But here we are.

And we’ll actually wrap here. See ya soon.