There has been a lot going on in my life as of late. In February I was laid off from my job, crappy as it may have been, and that was weighing on me pretty heavily. I have learned over the years to not go into my personal life all that much, as the hits roll in much better when I’m blogging about gaming (plus who really cares?) but I felt that I had enough here to make a note, if nothing else just for myself.
So naturally I filed for unemployment and naturally, that took forever to get anywhere. Thankfully I had just received a rather large tax return so I wasn’t super stressed out right away. In the meantime I was looking for work, playing video games (yay spare time!) and of course, blogging. I live in a house with a couple of roommates (one of which is my best friend) and one of those roommates had decided it was his time to go. This coincided with my Sister being unhappy with where she is staying, so we’ve all come to the agreement that her and her husband will move in with me. This is good for more than one reason, the obvious one being that none of my bills go up because there will still the same amount of roommates, but also because 1) I love my Sister and her company and 2) her husband is a fellow gaming nerd. They aren’t due to move in until later in the month but I thought it was worth jotting down.
The other portion of that is that they (my sister and her husband) own a Tech repair/support business here in town, and up until now they were still getting established. They have been running for a while now and seem to be building up a reputation in the valley. Because of this fact, they had expressed a desire to expand, and with that comes the need for more hands. For now I’m just helping out (I’m actually writing this from the office), but I’m hoping that with continued growth this can turn into a full-time position, and that will balance my life out again.
In other news, I have made a couple of adjustments to the site. You may have noticed that I utilize the random banner feature, so that each time you visit the page (or refresh or visit sub-pages) that the banner changes randomly. I only had up a couple of banners previously, just testing it out. I have now added a couple more images so that there is more randomization options.
I’ve also discontinued the “state of the game” column as I notated in my last post, and as such I have changed the page dedicated to that to be something that I can continue to use. My plan is to go through all of my old posts and find anything that has a running theme or is a continuing story line (such as play-throughs of games or posts that use similar titles/formats) and add links to those posts from that page which is now titled “Ongoing Series Posts”.
That’s all I wanted to share. As always, thanks for reading!
Me Vs. Myself and I 
It looks great around here 🙂
I’m sorry about your job. I know your stress all too well. Its not a secure job market for anyone these days, not by any means, no matter how many degrees and skills you have to offer. Companies have been getting out of the business of “lifetime positions” for years. In 2014 this seems especially true.
This is also why I dislike the annoucements of the nation unemployment rate. I wonder who they announce it for. Those who are unemployed or underemployed certainly don’t want to hear it.
Also, Ive found the readership doesn’t decrease so much as shift to another demographic when the content changes. You may see a dip on these articles, but if you continue to post them you’ll see a rise from a different audience. I think mine has settled on the political gamer, but it fluctuates! The personal touch is always a bit more humanizing and I think readers appreciate it because its easier for them to identify you as a person, possibly going through something they are as they play their games.
Anyway, stay in there. If you ever want to wile out in a game online, let me know.
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Well despite your change of direction (apologies I didn’t start reading you until you made the switch) with XP Chronicles, you still have a post or two about gaming, and then more about the social aspects or our community. It’s still all related and I’d still consider yours a “gamer” blog.
Appreciate the support. Things are looking up. I try not to post the doom and gloom like I did in years past, and rather focus on just the good, so this is why I waited to say anything.
I’m always down for new in-game friends! Add me on Steam and B.net, everything you’d need to know to get ahold of me is on the contact page. I’m not sure what games you play but we can discuss!
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That’s a lot to take in, but I am glad things are on the up-and-up!
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I have a tattoo on my arm of a cat standing upon the words “feet first”. My mother told me that I’m like a cat, always landing on my feet. It’s true that I have had some sour grapes in life, but I try to stay positive, knowing that I’ll eventually climb out of whatever hole I’ve fallen in. Thanks for the encouragement!
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aww.. i liked the state of the game..pooey. good to read a round up of what everyone’s doing
Glad the job and house situation worked out for you too… well work maybe. It would be a lot less stress.
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It’s going to continue, I just found that I was having a harder time filling it in as of late, as the games I had been playing were just more of the same, little to write about. I still intend to have the round up, but it won’t be titled as such and on any particular day. I used that as a tool to keep me on some sort of schedule, but with the community involvement that has blossomed this year, I have been more inspired to write and that means SoTG has served its purpose. I’m not going anywhere, just re-tooling that small portion of my blog.
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I find the multi blog works best. You may not post as often to each, but it keeps readers from digging through post the don’t care about.
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Well judging by the fact that more people responded to my personal life post than they do my gaming posts (on average, there are exceptions), I’d say I haven’t posted anything people don’t care about at this point, but your point is taken. I don’t feel I’d ever have the time for another blog, so I’m going to stick with my “little bit of everything, whole lot of nothing” format.
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I guess it also depends on what the topics are you are mixing. Most people that want to read my Monster Hunter blog are not interested in Linux.
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That makes sense. Yeah if I had a blog about cooking or something I’d probably separate it. But this is my all-things-nerd blog, and that’s probably the only one I’ll ever need.
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