General

I did kind of have some impromptu posts for the rest of the week, but due to an oopsie in cloud saving, I… had to pause it until I get that all sorted out. Technical difficulties aside, week has been long and busy, but so far weekly tasks have been pretty decent overall within and around Eorzea. Got some plans for the weekend, including for here, so looking forward to all that before the final stretch leading into Memorial Day weekend.

Happy Thursday y’all! Kick some tails and have a wonderful one!

Mother’s Day weekend went very well: both celebrating Mama K’s birthday on Saturday evening and seeing her yesterday for an early lunch on the water was all very fun and lovely. Aside from the festivities, really just caught up on missing two days of not playing Final Fantasy XIV last week, which ended up working out well and being a rather pleasant experience.

Friday evening, I did hit the threshold of completing Horizon Zero Dawn after 85 hours spanning 13 months, it was over. I have not enjoyed a game like that in quite some time and did start Horizon II: Forbidden West, so we’ll see what the journey will entail this time around. It’ll probably end up taking me another year unless I get a lot more aggressive playing it on the downtime periods in a patch cycles; next one being about a month or so before 7.4.

Some small work was done on the server Friday as well, and my Super Mario RPG sound box arrived then also, which includes both the Switch version along with a remastered version of the original soundtrack spanning four CD’s. Playing those back to back once I got them on the server too was a really fun and enjoyable time.

Not much else really, and unless I can think of a few pop-up posts, it will probably be quiet here for the week again. I do have a bit of backlog to still get posted, and I kind of want to sit down and finish out the rest of Star Bunny, but that will take a good chunk of an afternoon, which right now all the time that is not allocated to RL/work is pretty precious. We are hiring new folks to help so really hoping this insanity starts to curve back to where it was before the new year.

Y’all have a wonderful Monday and week ahead! Kick lots of tails!!

So, starting off, the last couple of days, I decided to just.. well… disconnect from practically all online places. Along with that, after yet another 10 hour day, I came home and decided to just not play Final Fantasy XIV and as soon as I made that decision, a huge wave of relief came over me. It was late enough, and I just didn’t have it in me to deal with it. Instead I just plopped down, played more Horizon Zero Dawn, and enjoyed a ton of plot development from a story that has had me engaged for so long now.

The very blunt/near brash answer is just the overall negativity was starting to wear my outer patience down and once that happens, I know/knew it was time for a break from it all. Knowing that engaging in it and realizing it wasn’t going to 1) solve anything and 2) just add to it was enough – just not worth it as I have way way too much going on. It takes a lot for this to happen though, and the last time was around the time I left social media – so nearly 1.5 years now(?)

I’m saying this as kind of a reminder to the world that it is okay to disconnect or do something else and alright to not always be engaged or ‘in the know’ for a spell if it becomes costly to one’s health – it doesn’t help things and just makes matters worse. I fear a lot of the current internet/community (so many backhanded/negative articles go along with this) has forgotten this and it just keeps building up. If we lose all the good that I keep saying still exists to all of this negativity, then the evil has already won – keep kicking the good tails!

There is good and positivity out there; I will continue to say this even if I feel my words only go within earshot, and we just need to stop letting ‘the bad’ continue to be louder, it’s really tiring.

Having said that… leaving some reset items unchecked within XIV will require having to return sometime over the weekend to wrap it up, even if I don’t necessarily want to. During Endwalker there was a plan put in place for this sort of ‘just in case’ scenario, so it’s fine – might take a little bit to adjust. Even if I’m rather fed up with how things are feeling, I’d like to be ready for 7.3 as much as possible.

The weekend will be fun though, celebrating both Mama K’s birthday along with Mother’s Day throughout both Saturday and Sunday. Planning on getting some media server work done this evening, along with finishing up preparations for both events. Hopefully a smidgen of rest and downtime for a cup of coffee here and there too.

Tell some fun tales today, kick lots of good tails, spread happiness, and y’all have a wonderful Friday/Mother’s Day Weekend ahead!

Another kind of ‘on par’ weekend. Lots more media server work, rested a bit, and had the usual Saturday evening dinner with a movie. It was nice, and the last one for a couple of weeks as Mother’s Day weekend is fast approaching.

Movie-wise, sat down to finally watch Moana 2, and it was just a great if not more than the first one. Rather surprised to realize that it’s been a whopping eight years since the first one came out! I’m pretty certain I was still traveling the nation when it came out and watched it when I was home between travels.

Approached 400 albums on the server now, and while it is kind of slowing down, it’s still moving quite a bit. I do, however, need to really take care of other tasks on Saturdays soon – ideally before my trip in June. Else-wise, come the fall and Hurricane season, I’m probably going to end up in a crunch while beginning to phase in my 2026 project.

Should be a bit more activity here this week, and with that, y’all have a very wonderful week ahead! Happy Monday and kick some tails!

Kind of wanted to do a mid-week update, but was barely sitting down for the most part. It’s been just another chaotic week, and not sure it’s getting thinner for certain. Got some more audio work pre-planned for the weekend, but a bit of just downtime too. I think the weekend afterwards or the following is when the family is getting back together again for Mother’s Day festivities, so that’ll be fun.

Probably a bit more Horizon Zero Dawn over the weekend as well, if I can ever figure out how to seemlessly get those snapshots off the PS4, then I’ll share those too – the photo mode in that game is really robust!

Aside from all the usual, just tired mostly, and the inflammation/swelling is nearly gone too finally. One of these weekends I’ll get back to planning the big 2026 project that I still need to start on like really soon since it’s in phases.

Back to it then, y’all have a wonderful Friday and weekend ahead!

What I was hoping would be a relaxing weekend to mend the inflammation far better, and dabble around in the new Celestial Exploration turned into a run to get everything necessary to be done per usual.

I had to bring work home with me, the first time since I quit the industry the first time and just an ominous feeling with it, due to how last week ended. It wasn’t a lot and I knew I could get it done far quicker on my system at home than my work PC – which I cannot stand at all. The inflammation & swelling is starting to finally lessen; the pain is a lot more manageable with the swelling slowly following suit. It’ll probably be another few days until fully recovered but at least something is happening.

The PS4 upgrade went off without any major issues, and it got all up and running again with everything reinstalled where it was. There’s a noticeable difference, but I think it comes down to the speed of the rest of the hardware holding it back. It’s fine as it’s a bigger drive with the additional speed increase that has made traveling around Horizon a bit snappier.

Still kind of not feeling all that great about Final Fantasy XIV, sans space things, but just haven’t been able to get up there – I suspect it might be the next holiday weekend even before I make it up there just looking at how May is going to play out right now. In the meantime, just muscling through the weekly tasks hoping for something to turn the feelings about it all around still.

I may or may not get into the reasoning as to why, but it is kind of pushing me from wanting to be on as much right now. The longer breathers between reset are helping a bit.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was an absolute blast of a movie, by far the best of the three out now, so certainly gets my watch recommendation. Not sure what’s next to go and watch/catch up on, but got some time to ponder it until next weekend.

Going to be lighter on posts again this week as I had absolutely no time to figure it out again, and little to no time during the week to fill it out that I can tell right now. Y’all kick some tail, and have a wonderful last week/beginning of May ahead!

Aside from some small tumbles, the week is progressing fairly well thus so far. Couple of other anomalies creeped up: another PS4 controller has, in essence, about to give up the ghost again. I really need to find a far more robust controller to go to eventually. Along with that, a flare up has left me in a perpetual state of pain until that subsides (which it better darn soon!)

Trip has been planned and announced to the parties involved, and when, so that’s one more task tackled. Sonic 3 is coming tomorrow as I didn’t realize it came out last week, so there’s the Saturday movie and that should be a lot of fun like the last two.

Small projects for this weekend really – mostly upgrading the PS4 and reinstalling goodies on that, but also might go with Aikirees into S P A C E and check out Celestial Exploration. I’m not in a big hurry, but I would like to get involved a little bit before it’s all over with at the end of Dawntrail. Ishgard was a blast, even for the little I contributed, so this should be just as fun if not more with the improvements I’ve seen.

Best get back to it – a lot of work at the office; y’all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Kind of sort of a half-rest-half-cronch of a weekend. Saw the family for the holiday itself, and did an absurd amount of media server work. Far more than I was expecting to do, even if it’s supposed to be slowing down. A lot of RL events are approaching way faster than I am anticipating, so between now and Memorial Day weekend, I really need to get moving on tasks.

Aside from that, watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice for the Saturday dinner movie. It’s really fun, but is definitely all over the place. The energy is all still there from the first though, so it was pretty good. Looking forward to watching Sonic the Hedgehog 3 whenever the hard copy is available.

It’s more than likely going to be a more quiet week here, but hopefully I’ll be able to sneak in a few while everything else is happening. Hope everyone had a really nice and wonderful weekend regardless of said holiday, and y’all kick some tails this week!

I will say that unlike last week, this week has been the usual chaotic busy, but not as rough. I did manage to pull a pretty awful blunder the other day… and injure myself again on yet another day, but it’s been flowing at a decent pace.

Normally Easter Weekend is where the end of the season is unofficially made, but I kind of think (less fear, but it is there) that this is just going to be the new normal for our office. We’ve just exploded in growth from the early years to what we are now, which on the one paw is really awesome, but on the other I miss being able to reliably come home like I did. Parts of me keep reminding me as to why I quit the industry the first time, even though I know it’s not exactly the same this time around (2nd time was for a lot of sort of different reasons).

I just hope that it does start to wind down and we can control the flow of projects a lot better, even as we head into the next season as well. It would be nice to get back to a more steady flow like before and not be hitting 9.5-10+ hours every single day.

Hearing Switch 2 preorders might be going live as early as next week was nice to hear. In the interim, went ahead and got hard copies of both Horizon games for PS4, and will plan on swapping out the HDD to a SSD soon too. I’m planning on jumping into Forbidden West pretty shortly after completing Zero Dawn, even if it is a smidgen ways away soon. I keep going back and forth with myself about current Final Fantasy XIV affairs, and they’re not great feelings right now to say the least. I know we’re getting pretty close to 7.21, so hopefully that’ll help things.

Anyway, it’s late, but just wanted to hop in and toss some remarks and thoughts out. Y’all have a wonderful Friday and I hope y’all enjoy Aiki and I’s Fashion Report from last week posting in the morning too!

Last week was, for a lack of better words, miserable and rough. It was both negative in and out of Eorzea, and kind of had me rethinking moving on from my industry for a third time now. Just… everyone was so angry.

I keep thinking as we head into the summer months (our usual ‘slower’ season) that it will be like it’s supposed to be, but I’m not really even certain right now, and that’s not a great feeling. Mind you, this isn’t my first time dealing with this nor moving forward, so as much as it’s rough, it’s something that will be overcome – even if it takes a lot of kicking of tails to do so.

Weekend was pretty relaxing and normal per the course, some extra and dire needing cleaning too (finally!) Kind of holding out for the hard copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to watch, and I think that’s this month sometime last I heard, so hopefully soon. Doctor Who came back over the weekend, but will probably hold off until a few are out and watch those back to back.

I’m not entirely sure they’ll be a full week of adventures for this week. It kind of depends, and it may slow down as the ongoing weeks progress. There’s various reasons, both positive and not-so much, but between continuous and ongoing weekend tasks, and longer work hours crunching down the evenings (albeit, I do have a ‘hard stop’ time for work), I suspect it’ll affect here too.

I’m holding out for Cosmic Exploration/Shades’ Triangle to alleviate the community’s continuous ‘chilling’ atmosphere – at least in roulette content. I’ve stated it a lot in here but that shift from how things were as far back as Patch 5.2 & early 5.3 is really draining comparing it to now. Some of the banter from back then was such a hoot and made running dungeons all the much more fun, especially when things didn’t go perfectly.

Partial burnout is another concern that’s been creeping for a very long while now too. Staving it off hasn’t been -too- difficult, but is a variable I need to keep in check. I really do enjoy being in Eorzea with everyone, but there’s other (mostly RL) things that I’m starting to get into and enjoy as well. I realize taking breaks is good too, so not being around every day like the old days has helped.

That’s probably a bit rambly, and I’m fine, but just throwing it out there. I think that’s all for this weekend recap; another big week ahead as we head into the middle of April now. Really need to remember to do the Hatching-Tide event as well!

Y’all have a wonderful week ahead! As always, we got this and kick so much tails!

I was expecting a harder couple of weeks until we found a new person to come aboard, but I did not expect what this week throw at us. I can sum it up as ‘damage control’ became my title to just keep everything moving. It was exhausting to say the least. Thankfully the new feller comes aboard today, so I’m hoping things start to downturn back to somewhat normalcy as we head into the summer season. That’s when we get a smidgen slower.

Usual weekend adventures, kind of stayed the course. Watched Pom Poko which was a hoot and incredibly fun! Bit more cleaning I suppose. Going to begin a sub-project soon, that is kind of sort of a prologue to 2026’s big project – kind of a huge reorganization project that… well probably should have been done about 6 years ago. It’ll be nice once it’s done though for certain, but it’s going to look rather comical in said office while it’s being done.

Trainscape hit a lot of problems like near simultaneously, one was my own clumsy mistake, which ultimately left me down to only one operation train from three. I’m leaning towards just shelving it for now as it’s gone from being fun, to just a chore to maintain. I love watching them run though, and the weekly cleaning isn’t too rough, but all the little issues that keep adding up have given me pause to continue it right now.

The Media Server is coming to a conclusion, and it’s been great. Aside from some personal ‘oopsies’, my experience with Linux Mint has been pretty positive, and I can certainly recommend it for anyone wanting to dabble into Linux to get away from Windows – just, be prepared to go into it understanding it’s not Windows, and it should be pretty smooth of a process. Brush up on how permissions work too as that can become confusing pretty quick (I still have a bit to learn there as well!)

Switch 2 & The Non-USA World Tour

So. Real quick in regards to this, and I do hope this ages like sour milk in the future. “President” Trump has been on a ridiculous Tariff spree, which has caused so much unnecessary headaches for just about everyone/thing in the global market. For literally no reason aside from his own ego. I mean, he’s done a lot of other terrible things to the country, but let’s stick with this for the moment. The Switch 2 release date was announced (June 5th) and aside from an exhaustive amount of complaining about the cost of games (I still assume this is only 1st party related), preorders were to go-live for the entire world on April 9th.

…Except the Moldy Cheese-ball of a president decided to go ballistic again with more Tariffs, which now has caused Nintendo to delay the preorders starting here until a later date to more than likely up the cost to counter these new Tariffs assuming the idiot goes through with them. Yes, this does irk me a bit; the whole thing irks me. It reminds me of the incidents during his first tenure in office where folks (especially in the FFXIV community) we’re trying to write off the notion with ‘keep your politics out of my Fantasy.’ So. Fun Fact about most if not all Final Fantasies, they’re all political in some way! Quite honestly, most games that have some sort of story are political in some way, so this notion is just absurd in it’s own right.

So, why bring that up now? Well because it is, in essence, repeating history with politics not only part of gaming, but literally affecting it in RL as well now. What frustrates me more though is that while this could have all been avoided if he didn’t get into office, and the cost for certain aspects of it is a bit steeper than most folks expected, I am just so gosh darn excited to see and eventually get one! The console looks so fun and I (even if I feel as I’m in the minority) and looking forward to it – politics/costs/tariffs be darned!

While I do hope the delay is temporary here state-side, and the cost doesn’t shoot through the roof, I just… want to enjoy seeing what I can and continue to be fascinated at how much more potent this critter is compared to the first Switch without seeing a sea of anger about it everywhere I look. The console itself is just bonkers to me and I’m already planning on which games I’d upgrade for it – Mario Kart World Tour looks so fun as well!

Anyway, enough of that, there’s enough politics and anger out there, just… try and see some light in the darkness, it’s there and it’s going to grow rapidly especially with the fire that was started over the weekend.

With 7.2 for the most part behind us, it’s back to the normal weekly routines until 8.0, and that’s fine. RL being so brutal last week made our routine a lot harder to get done. We did, but it wasn’t easy. There’s little things around HQ that we’d like to get done, and we’ll probably spend an afternoon down the road looking into that – maybe Memorial Day weekend would be good. I really don’t know if I’ll post long-remarks comments about anything in 7.2, but it did make a good lasting impression. I can also feel the warmth of the community once again, and that’s something I’ve sorely missed. Maybe all that downtime between 7.1 and 7.2 did the community good being able to socialize a lot more.

Today is also ‘Churning Mists Day’ – the day Aikirees made it to Churning Mists for the first time six years ago, so Aiki and I will (hopefully) have a little tale for that up today later on! The rest of the week will probably be filled with more of the Leporine stories as their adventures slowly approach Heavensward.

I’ve made this long enough! Kick tails and Happy Monday y’all!

This will be a quiet week as we really just focused on Patch 7.2 content this weekend, so nothing was able to be scheduled out. Next week will return to normal though!

Completed most of 7.2 content, with the only thing remaining being the new Cornservant quests. Arcadion 5-8 was very fun, but a lot more challenging than the first 4. M5 being probably my favorite 8-player raid as of right now primarily for the aesthetics & music of it if not anything else. It in itself is a pretty potent challenge, but it’s just so gosh darn fun! Player-wise, it has been overall pretty warm, which that has been a really nice change of pace. The only major incidentals were my first attempt on the Trial, and M8 was very cold. Aiki’s M8 went just disastrously, but once the remaining party regrouped, it went alright.

Audio project hit the ‘S’ lettering now, and that does include Square Enix Music. This will be a monumental hurdle to get over as over the years I have collected a lot of SE soundtracks. The good is it’s just mostly checking the tags and adding artwork before sending it off to the Media Server. Probably a next weekend project amongst catching up on a few neglected tasks that I pushed off this weekend.

I did watch another Studio Ghibli, this one being The Wind Rises. It was good, a bit slow in parts, but overall had a saddening tone to it. Still would certainly recommend it, but just be ready for some feels. Not much else aside from that happening. RL is still chaotic, but we did hire a new person, so once they get on board and up to speed hopefully things will level back out – it is winding down our busy season, so that will help tremendously.

Happy Monday y’all! Kick tails, and have a wonderful week leading into April!

Less-paced weekend this time around, which was a nice change. Mostly worked on getting more music onto the media server now that it’s up to full steam. Being able to access it from work is a really nice boon as well, not a planned perk but a very nice one to say the least. It took a smidgen to get it up and running the way I wanted it to (Linux Permissions are still a bit nebulous to me), but once it was there, it went smoothly. Kind of broke another part of it as well, but that was quickly rectified once I figured out how to circumvent the issue that I created.

Not much else on that front, but just on the Studio Ghibli kick; might just go ahead and watch the remaining ones I haven’t seen. Porco Rosso was the weekend’s movie and that was such a fun adventure! Think that’s all there as well, RL has kicked back up, but as for personal projects, kind of winding them down for the year: I have a trip to plan and I want to be fully prepared for hurricane season this year. Being blindsided by Milton last year took a toll and in the event of another mult-day power loss, I want to be sure to be able to alleviate that far better.

With the RL kick-up, it kind of concerns me with Patch 7.2 and beyond. It worked out really well in Endwalker, but… with the shifting of (some) power of authority over to me at work, it also means more responsibility/hours. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do and if I didn’t, I’d have left the industry… again. However, it is a bit frustrating from time to time since I miss my old daily schedule.

As for Patch 7.2 itself, Aiki and I are pretty much ready to go. We have a long-term plan still in place all the way to 8.0, and it’s going pretty well overall. Cosmic Exploration and other things like that could add a bump or so, but I don’t foresee anything out of the ordinary (RL willing of course) causing issues. Outside of that, I think for a bit y’all will probably see less of our adventures here, and more of the Leporine’s. Not that we’re disappearing or anything, but our adventures have taken us to the normal ‘main schedule sequence’ and that will not end until 7.5 when all of our equipment is augmented sans probably the relic this time.

Aiki and I will pop up (cousins too) on the semi-regular regardless, including Fashion Reports when we do those, but I think their story is more steady at the moment. Speaking of Fashion Reports, there should be one this week as this current week’s was a hoot! Also, no, have not forgotten about concluding Aiki’s journey, but that’s going to require a smidgen more time (and Data Center traveling) to complete.

That’s all I can think of right now, happy Monday and Patch 7.2 eve y’all! Have fun in the new content, but please do pace oneself and remember to eat/drink/take breaks if anyone out there is hitting the ground running right after maintenance. As always for new patches, please don’t spoil it for anyone, and have a great adventure!

The trainscape officially cleared Phase 1 last Monday on my day off, also watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2022 version), and that was awesome! Haven’t watched it since the 2001 Director’s Edition on DVD, so it was a huge difference in a positive way. Probably should have watched it less tired, but still very much enjoyed it. Been on a Studio Ghibli trend lately too, so also watched My Neighbor Totoro as well – loved it.

The Media Server project hit the major milestone of being functional. I decided to go with Linux Mint for it, but with it being Linux, it’s a massive learning curve as I don’t know Linux all that well. It’s still got some tweaks to work out, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s been going – even with the curve, but I am learning a lot along the way.

Talked to the folks and saw them over the weekend too, it’s been a spell so it was mostly nice. Planning future events too around patch cycles, which is looking pretty good as well. Speaking of Final Fantasy XIV and patches, just a little less than 2 weeks until 7.2, and we’re pretty much ready to go – just… not all that thrilled for it. Don’t get me wrong there’s things in it that look really fun, but for the first time in I can’t even recall, I just don’t care overall for the story. Hoping something in this one or leads off with anything to pique up my ears in 7.3 at the very least. We’ll see.

This time five years ago marked when the birth of EOCA was conceived, as well as me joining the Adamantoise Alliance & The Aether Event Center. There’s folks I still remember upon looking over these photos once again: Chococo, Rhaza, Kami, April, Sean, Kiba, Morrigan, and I think a couple of really old Burgundy members were there as well. I was invited to the early party for this show – Saint Patrick’s Day Murder Mystery – as a VIP for some of the preliminary work on mapping I did, but this event marked the beginning of it all officially.

I can’t believe it’s already been five years now, and some of these folks are still long time friends that I keep in touch with. That was a really magical time, and I do miss it, but I know as time moves forward so do we all in our own ways. Those memories, amongst many others, I’ll cherish for as long as I live.

Ah old memories, Happy Monday y’all! Kick some tails today! We got this!

Taking the day off, but the weekend was rather productive. Two-parter story going up this week and I’m pretty happy to have been able to get back to writing. It took a smidgen longer than expected so ended up pushing back some things, but that’s alright.

Trainscape is incredibly close to concluding Phase I, which is good as I can just enjoy it running with just doing the usual weekly maintenance on the wheels/tracks to keep it running smoothly. An item got delayed in the mail as of writing this, which has (of course) slowed it down again. I know all projects have their delays and unexpected dilemmas come up, but this one has got to take the cake. However, the learning from it has way outpaced the problems, and the reward is endless enjoyment of trains.

The day off was initially supposed to happen sooner, and not on the weekend of when we Time Warp forward a hour, but that was just how it landed. The idea was to relax 100% today, but I wanted to return to the audio project which has evolved into a media server project – something I’ve been yearning to do for years and it just happened a part given to me by Mama Kosmikros has given it a sporting chance.

Final level of Sea of Stars now, and I think I’m starting to get close to the end of Horizon: Zero Dawn – nearly 60 hours in. I’ve taken my time in that game, so it’s kind of comical to run around at level 50 seeing the story that recommends level 21. After this one is done, I very much want to seek out Forbidden West to continue Aloy’s journey – it’s been really fun.

Final Fantasy XIV progress is still chugging along until 7.2. RL is making it really hard to continue with my weekly schedule, which I’m hoping doesn’t affect progressing moving on, but only time will tell. It’s all good things, but I still need my relaxing time as well. The ‘Status of Things’ from last week is still full in effect and probably will be for some time into the foreseeable future. I just hope it doesn’t waver my enjoyment of adventuring through Eorzea that much more.

I think that’s all for now. Y’all kick tails and have a wonderful Monday & week ahead!

I really, really didn’t want my first Status of the year to be rough, but well, it’s going to be. Disclaimer as this is kind of my way of venting and not necessarily directed at any person(s) in particular as that seems to be a concern. This time its just observations that I’ve noticed over the last few months and collectively just want to talk about.

Social Media Paradox

At this point, I am pretty much done/permanent hiatus from social media. My link for Mastodon will still be maintained here, but… I’m basically done. I may come back when Donald Trump leaves office once and for all, but until then I just don’t have it in me. I did try to give it one real good push back in the fall of 2024, but everyone was just so… angry. There was almost nothing positive or productive being talked about – not none, just minimal at best. Most of my interaction was either dismissed or cold shouldered, which I assume was my own doing for leaving for a near year, so I knew my time was done. Again not all, just… not a lot.

That in itself is very disheartening as I have met so many wonderful people on social media from both Twitter and Mastodon. The thought of poking around on Bluesky has crossed my mind (realizing I know that backtracks my original thoughts on it), but it sounds like the follower count craze and exhausting clout chasing exist there too. Not to mention the perpetual anger that the internet has gladly come to embrace. I just don’t have the time or energy to spend on all of it.

Anger, Anger, Anger

Why.. just… Why!? Why is there so much anger out there now? Look I get the world is not a friendly place currently, but why add to it!? When I mean kick tails, I mean get out there and make a difference! Take that anger and use it for something good! It becomes so tiring to keep seeing this over and over and over again. Make the cycle stop, please. This also has bled into Final Fantasy XIV…

The above was from a Jeuno raid that I, personally, did. The poor feller was having a rough evening, and let’s be real for a moment EVERYONE HAS THIS HAPPEN. I do not care if one has ran the content 1,000 times or once, you’re going to mess up. Bashing & bullying someone this harshly is garbage behavior. Miss Laureine had a similar incident happen where her party’s tank was kicked in a World of Warcraft fashion for messing up a mechanic. She, of course, did not vote yes to kick, but it still went through all because someone was having a petty tantrum about the mistake.

Do not take one’s own anger, go into a piece of party content, and do this. Just… go play something on your own please until you can come play nicely with the rest of us who usually are wanting to have a fun time after a long day’s work. It’s not just this either, there’s been a lot of coldness in group content as well, and from someone who has been around since Stormblood, it makes it a lot harder to want to continue to play a game that I/we have enjoyed for such a long time.

Other whispers of anger being directed at Dawntrail itself is also incredibly exhausting. If one doesn’t like the content, just don’t play. I will never understand why this is such a difficult thought to process. I honestly don’t like the current MSQ either, but there’s parts of Heavensward, Stormblood, Endwalker, and yes even Shadowbringers (albeit very minor) that I didn’t like as well. I still play nearly daily because I enjoy the game regardless – even the parts I disliked I knew would eventually lead into a part I did. So please shush about this and move on – I am so tired of hearing doomsaying nearing the level of WoW: Cataclysm. The mention of lack of content is mind boggling – there’s so much to do; so unless one has been around since A Realm Reborn, I can’t see how it all has been tackled.

Content creators and even folks who write articles in regards to XIV that I used to enjoy are starting to slip down this slope too, it’s all just… so tiring to see.

I was going to add a couple more things, but I stopped myself, as it just wasn’t helpful energy. I know it’s really rough for a lot of folks out there right now; really I truly get it. There’s a ton of anger floating out there about what to do, but please just take a moment and remember we’re all having our own battles, and just to lend out a hand or an ear can go such a long way – far more so than a fist or harsh words. Please, hug people, tell them it will be alright, and get together to kick a lot of tails.

We all got this in the end and it will be beautiful.

It’s been a spell since I’ve been able to sit down and write some things. Overall it’s been good, but just chaotically busy across the spectrum. RL has, and probably will be for the foreseeable future, incredibly busy. Been also trying to see family more frequently like it used to be, and that has been really nice.

We’ll go into Final Fantasy XIV in a moment, but for elsewhere: nearing the end of Sea of Stars – its just tying up loose ends and items at this point before taking on the final dungeon. It’s been an incredible game/story the entire way, so I am wanting to see it through till the end still. Cannot recommend it enough. Horizon Zero Dawn is mostly progressing main story now, albeit 30+ levels higher than it is so it’s been a rather comical progress now. Haven’t decided on what to tackle after these two are done, but I know I’ll find something pretty quick in my backlog!

Other parts of RL is the trainscape, which aside from one major setback, has been a nice learning and constructive continuous hobby to resurrect. It’s getting to a ‘self-sustaining’ point now until I decide to start the next phase, and even with it being early in the stages is a really nice little project to watch run as-is. Ideally do need to get to other other projects that have been placed on the backburner for a long spell now eventually, but nothing is on a major deadline like last year’s and that is a nice feeling to have.

I think I’ll discuss more of Final Fantasy XIV in a new ‘Status of Things’ post, but overall it’s been going well. The Valentione’s event was short but absolutely adorable. Being able to recreate an old photo from a few years back with Aikirees when she was a Miqo’te was really fun to do as well. We’re kind of on a breather until Patch 7.2 for the most part now aside from the basic weeklies. I doubt I’ll proceed with posting about the Vana’Diel raid now, or anything else of that longevity as I just don’t have the time to do it like last year for better or for worse.

It shouldn’t impact posts returning to the daily but we’ll see – weekends are probably going to be more impacted for the rest of the year, which is when I usually schedule posts, so it could.

We did finally do the new Hildibrand content, and I’d like to talk a little about it, but best not to go into it. I would like to eventually get posted all of our silly Hildibrand outfit posts from Endwalker and continue that into Dawntrail, but just haven’t had a moment to think about continuing it. Just… I don’t know, there’s something amiss right now but it’s not what anyone is thinking or assuming. Only time will tell I suppose.

Oh, movies and things from the Saturday evenings. The notable couple I watched were ‘Catch Me if You Can,’ and ‘The Black Cauldron.’ Both I highly enjoyed but for very different reasons. Definitely recommend those if y’all haven’t seen them. Not a whole lot on the horizon that perks my ears up just yet, but have been kind of out of the loop on upcoming stuffs, so it can change on a whim really quick.

Probably enough rambling for a Monday Morning. Y’all have an absolutely wonderful one, kick some tail!

Just kind of a quick one to say ‘still here, but very busy’ sort of update. I have a few things/thoughts in a holding pattern until I can get them written out and posted here. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind with very little desk time. The trainscape hit the first milestone last weekend, so that’ll free up that time to work on catching up here as well as moving onto other smaller projects that I’ve been holding off on.

Happy Thursday y’all! Y’all got this, and kick tails!

There’s a couple of others things I’d like to post about from the happenings this week, but they’ll take a smidgen to get my thoughts on beforehand, and this week has been a rather rough one. However, just right-quick thoughts on the Switch 2 I can do.

The official announcement of the Switch 2 after an absurd amount of rumors over the years is both a relieve and also just exhausting. However, the console itself looks like a nice uptick from its current predecessor and the fact it can play everything the Switch can is a colossal boon. I am excited for it, and I’ll more than likely jump to the Switch 2 near its launch assuming that I’m not knee deep in a project or a cost that would deter such a plan.

The official launch video that Nintendo put out is both really nicely put together, but to me a bit somber. I have a launch Switch, and the only difference is that I changed the reddish/cyan Joycons out for neon green/pink many a years ago. When I was early in my traveler year, my mom – Mama Kosmikros (or Mama K) asked what I wanted for Christmas the year it came out. I was with my trainer at the time and he was coming home for the holidays, and since we lived so close it worked out for me too. So, when Mama K asked me this, I responded with just simply ‘a Nintendo Switch.’

We return home for the holidays: my trainer spends it with his family, and me with mine. I swap the early tales of my journey thus so far with the family, and spent a lot of time with them since I know I’ll not see them all again for quite some time thereafter. Christmas Day rolls around and there was just the one box for me, and it was the Switch. I was so excited to take that back out with me, and I had two games from the get-go (neither of this writing have I still completed): The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. I played Breath of the Wild a lot before heading back out and a lot while with the trainer.

Once I was out on my own traveling the country, the Switch became an integral part of my daily life. I’ve played so many games on it, and continue to do so to this day – and was a lifesaver during the latest Hurricane, Milton, when power was very limited. To see the Switch 2 coming this year and saying goodbye to such a wonderful console that has been like a good friend all these years makes me a bit sad.

When the time comes, I won’t fully say farewell to my Switch; it’ll still play a part in my life in some way shape or form, and I’ll be sure to take good care of it for many more years hereafter as well.