Path of Exile and Meeting Someone

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Good Afternoon, Folks. Today was a chemo day, and I am racked out on the sofa attempting to write a blog post. I’ve been playing an excessive amount of Path of Exile, because the game has sort of become my default action. I have been playing the SRS Broken Elegy Guardian that I crafted and doing a ton of shallow delve with it for levels. I had been pushing to level 96, and I accomplished that last night, all for the purpose of being able to take the six life node 10% health bonus. After playing with it a bit, I decided that I was probably better off with the Life Recoup nodes. With a bit of life recoup I feel exceptionally tanky and am ready to start mapping again.

Part of why I am playing my Minions character from the Mirage league is that, at least currently, I intend on going for a Minions Witch build for the Path of Exile II League Start. I don’t really have a strong template for the character, so I am going to mostly yolo my way through choosing the Minion nodes and attempting to path somewhat optimally through them all. I have past characters that I could potentially rely on for pathing, but I am uncertain if the tree is the same as it was when I last played fire-based SRS. That said, I am really looking forward to the Path of Exile II League start because so much of the game has changed. I am going to play Minions in part because I am pretty sure I can get all the way through the endgame on it, having done it multiple times in the past.

In other news… I’ve met someone. We’ve spent the last few weeks talking nonstop, and our meeting was extremely random. I periodically hang out on Reddit, and the algorithm seems to like to feed me people from the selfies forum. This is not something I follow but it seems like the algorithm thinks that everyone wants to see these. It happened to feed me a selfie of Vera, her discord handle not her real name. Not going to be sharing her real name here. I messaged and said that I thought she was cute, and this started up a conversation that has never really stopped. We transitioned off Reddit Chat to Telegram, and now also on Discord. She was posting in the forum because she wanted a quick boost to her self esteem because she was feeling a bit down on herself, an I happened to be a random stranger who gave her that.

The thing is… every time we talk about any subject we are shockingly compatible on pretty much everything from the anime that we like, to the movies we like to watch, to the fact that we both love peanut butter. There are so many points of commonality than that, but it is truly shocking just how many there are. She is very much a Geek, but while I tend to be a technophile, she is way more of a mechanical engineering geek. She built her own damned full home battery system and runs her house mostly on solar for example. She is my little Gadget from Rescue Rangers, and I kind of love this. Where we differ, we seem to compliment each other’s skills rather than going off in a wildly different direction. She kind of loves all of the nonsense that I have been up to with 3d Printing, and I hope some day we can use our joint skills to build some really cool nonsense together.

There however lies the logistical nightmare. Vera is soon to be 34, is the mother of two boys 18 and 10, and happens to live on the other fucking side of the planet in the Philippines. We both know that nothing is going to happen before I am clear from cancer and recovered from it. However I know that personally I am going to be a wildly different human being on the other side of this. If we manage to make it this next year, and are as close as we seem to be right now… then we will start to whittle through those logistical nightmares. I am pretty well glued where I am for the next seven years, because I am too close to a full retirement to risk giving that up. She has her own stuff going on in the PH, but would be interested in maybe moving here pending we can navigate that particular nightmare of visas. It is a lot…. but neither of us are in any rush we got our own issues going on.

The real thing however is that I am extremely happy right now. Happier than I have been in a long time. We’ve exchanged countless voice and video calls, so we know for certain that we are both real human beings. I am sitting here miserable post chemo, but this spark keeps me warm inside. She wants to figure out how to build a portal, so she can teleport to my side and take care of me when I am like this. Nothing is ever going to change the fact that I have this thirty year hole in my life thank to the death of my spouse, and that there is part of my heart that will only ever belong to her. That said… I want to live again. I want to be excited for life again. This is making me happy so for the moment that is all that really matters to me. None of the logistics are unsolvable problems, so if we get to that point I think we can work through them together.

Mixtape Mondays: Spectacle Politique

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Good Morning, Folks! Also, Happy Memorial Day to those who celebrate both the meaning behind it… and just the fact that we as laborers get the day off. Normally, I would not make a post on a holiday, but given that this series is called Mixtape Mondays, and I have a Mixtape in the hopper ready to go, I am doing the thing and making the post. For those new to this series, Mixtapes are probably the artifact of the 80s and 90s that I am the most nostalgic about. It used to be a currency that you traded with your friends, and at least for me attempted to use them as part of a largely unappreciated complex mating ritual. Since I no longer have cassette tapes, and my dual tape deck is no longer a super power… I now make these largely for me and for you, my readers. When you listen to one of my mixes, you are hearing a part of my soul, because I spend so much time laboring over the correct order of the tracks so that they flow nicely and become what we used to refer to as a “listen through” album. I might be nonchalant about most of the things on this blog, but these mixes mean an awful lot to me on a fundamental level. You can always find the full archive of what is not 30 mixtapes over on the landing page for this series.

30 – Spectacle Politique

I love Eurovision, but that relationship has become a bit more complicated of late, especially with so many countries and contestants boycotting this past year. There are, however, a whole slew of songs from recent Eurovision outings that live rent-free in my head. There have been a lot of great moments that were honored, but also a lot of songs that I feel like deserved to win but were not really given the love that they deserved. There are two tracks that did, in fact, go on to win, but I included them because I love them as well. What you end up with is a really solid mix that is super good to “listen through”. I’ve played through it several times and farmed it out to my team of beta testers, who I thank greatly for putting up with my nonsense. Sometimes I have some greater purpose or nostalgia behind a mix, but this one is just a list of bangers that I think everyone should know about. I will be honest that sometimes I think of Eurovision as this bubble where only things exist there, without realizing that every single one of these artists has a rich career outside of the contest. Side note… apparently, I really like Finnish music because I included four artists in this list from that country. Onwards to the track list, and I am including the country of origin just to make it interesting for folks.

Track List

  • 01 – Viva, Moldova – Satoshi – Moldova
  • 02 – Rim Tim Tagi Dim – Baby Lasagna – Croatia
  • 03 – Ich Komme – Erika Vikman – Finland
  • 04 – Eins, Zwei, Drei – Look Mum No Computer – United Kingdom
  • 05 – The Show – REDDI – Denmark
  • 06 – Zitte E Buoni – Måneskin – Italy
  • 07 – Cha Cha Cha – Kaarija – Finland
  • 08 – Choke Me – Alexandra Căpitănescu – Romania
  • 09 – Blood & Glitter – Lord of the Lost – Germany
  • 10 – Jezebel – The Rasmus – Finland
  • 11 – Dark Side – Blind Channel – Finland
  • 12 – Doomsday Blue – Bambie Thug – Ireland
  • 13 – Stefania – Kalush Orchestra – Ukraine
  • 14 – Bara Bada Bastu – Kaj – Sweden
  • 15 – Milkshake Man – Go-Jo – Australia

Listen to it yourself

So there you have another one of my Mixtapes. This one was not necessarily premeditated like so many of mine are, but largely just something that popped into my head the other day. I wanted this mix for myself, and like always, I end up sharing it with you, my readers. This round of chemo has been a bear, and I start back with my fifth round tomorrow… and I never felt like I fully recovered this time. It is supposed to keep ramping up from here, so I feel like the back half of the chemo is going to be a nightmare. Thanks for all of the support, but I will probably get more scarce as some days I just don’t have it in me to sit down and write. I am banging this out on my laptop downstairs, and its keyboard is sort of shit for long-term typing. This is what happens when you buy a laptop and prioritize gaming prowess over its ability to be a functional laptop.

I still have the challenge from Ace in the back of my head, but honestly am not even sure how to approach a mix for They Might Be Giants.

AggroChat #569 – Eggplant Cousins

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Featuring: Ace, Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks! We had a stacked show last night and had a bit of a rolling start as Thalen joined in a little late.  We start off with Tam talking about re-exploring Xenogears, and then Ace finding their groove in Dead as Disco.  Tam has a kid who is rapidly becoming a Pokémon fiend and, as a result, has been exploring the latest entry, Pokémon Violet.  Ace convinced Bel to ignore his fear of deep water and play some Subnautica 2 Multiplayer. Bel and Kodra discuss their plans for the upcoming Path of Exile II League Start this next Friday, and Tam discusses his enjoyment of Zero Parades.  Finally, we have some pen and paper talk about Eclipse Phase 2nd Edition and Public Access Kickstarter Edition. Lastly, a few rapid-fire topics as we join the Landsraad in Dune Awakening and Destiny 2 enters maintenance mode.

Topics Discussed:

  • Xenogears
  • Dead as Disco
  • Pokemon Violet
  • Subnautica 2 Multiplayer
  • Path of Exile 2 League Start Plans
  • Zero Parades
  • Eclipse Phase 2nd Edition
  • Public Access Kickstarter Edition
  • Dune Awakening Landsraad
  • Destiny 2 Ending

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Kombating Mortals and More

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Mortal Kombat II

Good Morning, Folks. With my brain as muddled as it currently is, I have spent quite a bit more time watching media than I normally do. This morning, I thought I would talk a bit about some of the things that I have watched recently. In 2021, we got an update to the Mortal Kombat franchise that took into account a lot of the changes that have been made since the first movie came out in the 90s. It was a bit of a reboot of the entire movie franchise, and this year, we got the official sequel that builds directly upon that 2021 movie. I’m always a bit hesitant when I sit down to watch a video game adaptation, but this movie was a heck of a lot of fun. Was it high-brow theater? Hell no. Did it drop constant references to the franchise as a whole and make it fun? Heck yes.

The real winner of the movie, though, was Karl Urban as Johnny Cage. Cage is that character that you love to hate… but also secretly love, and he has been that way since the first game. Urban nails the role of Cage so perfectly, and I say this as someone who has never watched The Boys, so I have no frame of reference to his Butcher character. Truth be told, I have pretty much liked Urban in every role he has played. I even liked him as Bones in the Star Trek reboot series. Back to Mortal Kombat II however, if you have ever been a fan of the game series, I highly suggest this movie. Especially if you have played any of the more recent outings where they tweaked the core storyline a bit. The only thing that was missing that I would have liked to have seen was Reptile. We did get a great version of Baraka, which has been one of my favorite characters since the second game in the 90s.

Daredevil Born Again Season 2

I also finished Daredevil Born Again season two, and it was a bit of a mixed bag. So much of that season is so oppressive and keeps Daredevil from getting to be Daredevil. That said it is all building to something pretty great, and when that happens in the last few episodes, it becomes a pretty phenomenal series. The longer I have sat with the conclusion to this series, the more I have appreciated it. I was not fully on board as I was watching this show, and I complained a bit on social media about it. However, they nailed the landing big time. It is going to be a bit of a chore to get through those first episodes, or at least it was for me. Right now we live in a real world where everything is going wrong…. so to watch a show where things keep going from bad to worse is a bit of a large ask at the moment. The payoff really does make it worth the effort.

The Punisher: One Last Kill

Unfortunately, we are ending on a bit of a downer. I have loved The Punisher since I bought my first episode of Spiderman that featured him, which I found in a thrift store in the 80s. I was there for the limited run comic, the standard series, and even War Zone. Probably my favorite version of the character comes from the youtube short Dirty Laundry, featuring Thomas Jane. That said, my second favorite is the Jon Berenthal version, but unfortunately, One Last Kill is a fucking mess. This is one of the more confusing projects that I have seen… it is being released like it is a movie, but it is only around 45 minutes in total runtime. It feels like the first episode of a television series, but there is no more of it coming as far as I am aware. Maybe this was a teaser for the next Punisher series, setting up the key conflict… but what we get is mostly a bunch of gunplay pornography without a satisfying climax. I do not recommend it, because you will only come away unsatisfied, I fear.

Other than that, I have been catching up on Frieren Season Two and watching a lot of Regular Show. I had never watched the series from start to finish, and I find Regular Show just about the perfect comfort television to have on in the background. It was always something that I enjoyed, but I only really caught episodes out of order while watching Cartoon Network, as they replayed past episodes. At some point, I will probably go through my backlog of movies, and for those who are interested, I have been reviewing what I watch over on Letterboxd. That essentially has been what I have been up to in my media viewing habits. If you have any strong opinions that conflict with mine, feel free to post them below. I read every comment, I just don’t always respond to them.