I had a great July, despite everything, by the way.
I briefly went back in 2015 I think on this blog but quit shortly into it, even on a high speed Universe and being on the dole it wasn't worth it.
Cut to now I have probably out-performed my younger self in a fraction of the time and have already posted not 1 but 2 'HoFs' or Hall of Fames wherein you fleetcrash someone. I will quit this eventually but want to see where it goes...
Just finishing up my first real bank holiday weekend since the fated Paddy's Weekend. The one with the cancelled house party on the Friday 13th, just after Leo announced lockdown, then work got weird and started dismantling the evening shift and shipping everyone over to my current workplace. As for this weekend, it was grand! I ate pizza and ice cream on Friday, Boojum burrito on Saturday and Chinese tonight. Actually managed a walk yesterday and a cycle today (Sunday the 2nd).
Me standing over my fave part of Galway.
I said a month ago that I restarted Ogame for the third time. The first time I played for maybe the guts of a year or so, joined an alliance, created a new one, managed that for a while, fought wars, made some online friends and had a good bit of fun. It was also hell trying to 'fleetsave' every morning (before school) lest my fleet get destroyed by a larger player. It eventually was but I didn't quit straight away, I kept playing and got better and even got some moons on some of my planets and had great plans but then went into vacation mode and never left it and my account was deleted. Oh well!
I briefly went back in 2015 I think on this blog but quit shortly into it, even on a high speed Universe and being on the dole it wasn't worth it.
I got DEATH STARS this time. At time of writing I've built one (1) and use it to fleet save.
Cut to now I have probably out-performed my younger self in a fraction of the time and have already posted not 1 but 2 'HoFs' or Hall of Fames wherein you fleetcrash someone. I will quit this eventually but want to see where it goes...
It's still a terrible game that no one should play. I swear I will never pick up for the 4th time, no matter how this time goes. I set myself a bunch of 'achievements' and I've already achieved most of them. Chief among them were post a HoF and get Death Stars and I achieved them easily enough.
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On 02-08-2020 --:--:--, the following fleets met in battle:
[color=#ff0000][b]Attacker[/b][/color] Fallooja
[color=#ff0000]________________________________________________[/color]
[color=#fc850c]Light Fighter 1.676[/color]
[color=#fc850c]Heavy Fighter 2[/color]
[color=#fc850c]Cruiser 352[/color]
[color=#fc850c]Battlecruiser 15[/color]
[color=#fc850c]Small Cargo 332[/color]
[color=#fc850c]Large Cargo 330[/color]
[color=#ff0000]_________________________________________[/color]
[color=#008000][b]Defender[/b][/color] Vaesir [[i]MIND[/i]]
[color=#008000]________________________________________________[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Large Cargo 31[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Cruiser 27[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Recycler 5[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Espionage Probe 2.616[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Solar Satellite 43[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Destroyer 40[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Pathfinder 12[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Rocket Launcher 17[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Light Laser 10[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Heavy Laser 10[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Gauss Cannon 15[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Ion Cannon 10[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Plasma Turret 20[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Small Shield Dome 1[/color]
[color=#1c84be]Large Shield Dome 1[/color]
[color=#008000]_________________________________________[/color]
After the battle ...
[color=#ff0000][b]Attacker[/b][/color] Fallooja
[color=#ff0000]________________________________________________[/color]
[color=#fc850c]Light Fighter 1.497 [b]( -179 )[/b][/color]
[color=#fc850c]Heavy Fighter 2 [b]( -0 )[/b][/color]
[color=#fc850c]Cruiser 339 [b]( -13 )[/b][/color]
[color=#fc850c]Battlecruiser 15 [b]( -0 )[/b][/color]
[color=#fc850c]Small Cargo 297 [b]( -35 )[/b][/color]
[color=#fc850c]Large Cargo 305 [b]( -25 )[/b][/color]
[color=#ff0000]_________________________________________[/color]
[color=#008000][b]Defender[/b][/color] Vaesir [[i]MIND[/i]]
[color=#008000]________________________________________________[/color]
Destroyed!
[color=#008000]_________________________________________[/color]
The attacker has won the battle!
The attacker captured:
[color=#3183e7][b]5.650.708[/b][/color] Metal, [color=#3183e7][b]5.650.708[/b][/color] Crystal and [color=#3183e7][b]5.650.708[/b][/color] Deuterium
The attacker lost a total of [color=#3183e7][b]1.533.000[/b][/color] units.
The defender lost a total of [color=#3183e7][b]12.829.500[/b][/color] units.
At these space coordinates now float [color=#3183e7][b]3.002.300[/b][/color] metal and [color=#3183e7][b]4.043.900[/b][/color] crystal.
The attacker captured a total of [color=#fc850c][b]16.952.124[/b][/color] units.
The chance for a moon to be created from the debris was [color=#fc850c][b]23[/b][/color]%.
The attacker(s) captured the debris.
[size=16][color=#3183e7]Summary of profit/losses:[/color][/size]
[size=14][color=#3183e7]Summary attackers(s)[/color][/size]
Metal: [color=#fc850c][b]7.636.008[/b][/color]
Crystal: [color=#fc850c][b]9.204.608[/b][/color]
Deuterium: [color=#fc850c][b]5.624.708[/b][/color]
The attacker(s) made a profit of [color=#fc850c][b]22.465.324[/b][/color] units.
[size=14][color=#3183e7]Summary defender(s)[/color][/size]
Metal: [color=#ff0000][b]-10.441.708[/b][/color]
Crystal: [color=#ff0000][b]-12.277.708[/b][/color]
Deuterium: [color=#ff0000][b]-7.062.208[/b][/color]
The defender(s) lost a total of [color=#fc850c][b]29.781.624[/b][/color] units.
[size=10][url=https://ogotcha.universeview.be/en]Powered by OGotcha CR Converter 4.3.1[/url][/size][/align]
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But anyway.
I keep meaning to write. Or type up my writing. The latter seems more likely; if I just set it up so there's a pile of writing on one side and I don't know a bin on the other I can type up the biotch over a few weeks and have something in front of me.
The other thing is to start writing again, anything. My method which served me well for whatever, most of 2019, was a big pile of printing paper and a pen. Do 1 page a night, free form, no real planning, just pure pen to paper and it worked. Got like 250-300 pages done, which averaging somewhere between 130-180 words a page means over 50,000 words done, a book's worth. Certainly I got book 1 of the Elven Wars done.
I continued a bit in 2020 but stopped in February, well before Covid was a thing. It never really crossed my mind to use the 'new normal' as time to write as I wasn't exactly burned out I was just done for a while. Feeling the itch again a bit and have new ideas; one thing I've wanted to do is write Necut on one side and some sort of Irish fiction on the other. Some sort of detective/crime/social commentary thing is brewing up in my head. Stay posted.
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Driving. I need to book lessons or some such. I know nothing of how to even switch a car on or anything. What is the clutch? No idea. That'll be fun.
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Final Fantasy XIII? I stopped in March, as I suspected. Slightly before where I stopped in 2010! I need to go back. As good as I was in 2010, I'm better now. I think I just burned myself out on that and every video game during my self-quarantine in April.
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Cue May, lockdowns and night shift. Night shift, I realised, must have fundamentally altered me.
Day shift I hated because I had to be in bed by like 10 or winding down and asleep by 11 in order to be shooting out of bed at 7 in the morning and rushing around to get ready for 8. Then I'd have work which was stressful last year for the most part and return home totally wrecked, put Theo to bed and maybe have a little bit of time to myself before doing it all over again. The pro's included actually being able to hang out with Theo for a long time, put him to bed myself which I love doing and yes I guess having some daylight sun. Also my schedule included much less exercise and were structured around going out, usually on a Friday, being nicely hungover on Saturday and playing video games and getting well earned chill before starting to get ready for the week again on Sunday.
Day shift I hated because I had to be in bed by like 10 or winding down and asleep by 11 in order to be shooting out of bed at 7 in the morning and rushing around to get ready for 8. Then I'd have work which was stressful last year for the most part and return home totally wrecked, put Theo to bed and maybe have a little bit of time to myself before doing it all over again. The pro's included actually being able to hang out with Theo for a long time, put him to bed myself which I love doing and yes I guess having some daylight sun. Also my schedule included much less exercise and were structured around going out, usually on a Friday, being nicely hungover on Saturday and playing video games and getting well earned chill before starting to get ready for the week again on Sunday.
Evening shift was really good and really bad for six months, September 2019 to March 2020. Really good because my work got a lot easier, more fun and more rewarding, if occasionally stressful. I adored waking up at like 10, 11 or 12 in the day, chilling and drinking coffee and doing my exercise before Theo got back from school. I also liked getting home at 1, 2 or 3 in the night and having a little bit of time to myself there too. It was easy to sleep and get up, hassle free. It also suited going out, I'd go out and have way more energy and be in a much better place etc. Also the weekends seemed longer and just as deserved. The big cons were I barely saw Theo at all, just for the tiny but before I went to work in the evening and after he came back from school and I obviously couldn't put him to bed, which I really missed doing.
Night shift was and is totally different. The work is fine, I feel way less stressed out in my current place, my supervisors are great, I feel valued and respected still and I work with a much larger, really cool team of people. The first few weeks were ROUGH as I didn't have all that much to do but stare at my screen studying for stuff which was ultimately cancelled and I couldn't sleep well at all. I would usually get a lift in and walk home those first few weeks and I just could not sleep. Eventually I got blackout curtains which helped a bit, already wore ear plugs for years so grand... but I added more which I still use: melatonin drops and CBD tea. The melly probably knocks me out more so, but the CBD tea is nice as it ended my reliance on anti inflammatories. For the last two years or so I've been a fairly regular user of ibuprofen to combat swollen feet and my back woes, both aggravated right before going to sleep, but now with the tea I get from a small shop in Galway in the post I am golden. I get my sleep every night and it's perfect.
As for pros and cons: pros include the night shift rate, a chill workplace and getting to cycle/walk in and out of work in the relative calm of the night and early morning. I also don't mind the lifestyle too much that I've built up, mainly in getting up around 5pm every day (rarely earlier, sometimes later) and going to bed by 10 in the morning max. I also get to hang out with Theo and put him to bed much like I did when on days but actually have some energy. I also have a little bit of time to myself before and after work. Cons include something I alluded to earlier: fundamental change, alteration, of self. I find I haven't wanted to play any games much despite buying a big gaming PC. Maybe this will pass. I had an epiphany when walking around yesterday: this is like when I was in Finland and my sleep schedule inverted to a complete 'night shift' and I was walking around abandoned fields in Turku at 4 in the morning wondering what the heck. Maybe this will pass soon and some sense of normality will return.
Perhaps my insistence on 'staying in schedule' is a blessing and a curse: some of my cohorts try to get up on the weekend and even during the week and 'make something of the day'. Like they'll go to bed after work at like 9 in the morning, get up a few hours later, do whatever, then go back to bed and then get up in time for work. Madness! My heart would explode, I'd go mad. It might be creatively beneficial or interesting to live through I have no idea but I do NOT want to find out. I had to switch back to day shift a week or two ago to do some training and it was hell trying to stay up and get up... f that.
Perhaps my insistence on 'staying in schedule' is a blessing and a curse: some of my cohorts try to get up on the weekend and even during the week and 'make something of the day'. Like they'll go to bed after work at like 9 in the morning, get up a few hours later, do whatever, then go back to bed and then get up in time for work. Madness! My heart would explode, I'd go mad. It might be creatively beneficial or interesting to live through I have no idea but I do NOT want to find out. I had to switch back to day shift a week or two ago to do some training and it was hell trying to stay up and get up... f that.
Other than that work is grand, I've saved up a load and hop to just keep motoring on, learning whatever I can.
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Perhaps if I set some gaming goals here I may go and achieve them. I have a log elsewhere of what I'm playing but if I post here maybe I will be more proactive. I think playing during lockdown/quarantine/April killed me off a bit but I will bounce back with:
- Ogame. ??? I'd like to get a moon and Sensor Phalanx some people. Then I'll be truly done. It is a game that is designed to be played lazily eventually, but I haven't gotten to that point yet.
- Final Fantasy XIII. September? I'm at Chapter 10 out of 13. I have a full guide printed out that i was following closely because f this game. Might go back and just get it done. My 'mights' are not so wishy washy. I will go back and get it done.
- Final Fantasy IX. End of August? I briefly went back to this for... some reason there and played about 3/4 of it, hoping to get a bunch of achievements I missed out on first time round on PC a few years ago. Some of them are almost impossible so I don't know. I'll go back to it in a week or two and high speed through some more of it. Even just get the half dozen I can get and leave it again for another time.
- Some others? I'd like to play some of the AAA games I've foolishly purchased over the years. GTA 5? RDR 2? A bunch of indie titles that looked cool? Also games that aren't out yet like Cyberpunk?
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Travel: I only really wanted to go to Prague in April and Italy at some point in the year; I see the Green List and see what the government is doing at airports. It's all just not worth it. Everything is stilted and awkward and not the same. They had the Races here and I can only imagine it was the worst one anyone has ever attended, I would bet on it.
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Exercise: the sit-ups, dips, bike crunches and planks have served me well so far this last 12 months. Also dumb bells and the barbell. I do these four times a week in a variety of sets and take the weekend off and a day off in the middle. I do this for three weeks and take a week off. Rinse and repeat. I've only noticed bigger results when I've eaten more so am trying to do that as much as possible. I take pre-workout, creatine and protein but am not sure what impact they are having. The caffeine in the pre certainly helps me get started. Cycling in the last month has also had a big impact. I've not run since March but may bring it back very soon.
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This is all I have to ramble about (for now).
