Five months without a computer

So it has almost been five months without a computer for me and there's at least two more to go before I will have one again. Let me explain.

A lot has happened since my last post here. I moved to my current location at the beginning of June 2018 for work over a summer. I ended up staying and I'm still living here. I had a lot of work this entire time, almost too much sometimes. I eventually became stressed out, got sleeping problems and when I decided to start studying for my very last course to finish my bachelor's degree (I took a break when I started at my new job here) it got worse. Eventually I was able to cut down on hours at my work which helped a lot and I was able to focus more and prioritize better amongst studying, working and my free time. I still managed to squeeze in some gaming here and there which was a great relief.

During the time I've lived here, my laptop was sent for service a couple of times and then the pandemic hit. My computer stopped working again, but because of the global situation I have no way of getting my laptop repaired this time. Imagine being a gamer for decades and suddenly one day you can't even play the simplest of computer games, it's been rough. I am SO thankful that I bought a new phone before this happened. I've been doing everything important on my phone this entire time, like paying my bills and doing my taxes. I've also been able to play some small phone games, watch streams and movies and hanging out on social media. I guess every cloud had a silver lining though, because I've been doing other things that I necessarily wouldn't have done otherwise. For example, I started painting. With paint. I like creating art, but I've mostly just been creating digital art, pixel art or pencil drawings. This time gave me an opportunity to paint using watercolor and acrylic paint for the first time in a very, very long time. I've also started writing again, but just a little so far. A little on a couple of book ideas that I have, but mostly poems. I've always loved and appreciated creativity but I haven't been able to focus on my own in a very long time due to various reasons. I've also had a lot of time to think during this time (less work and no computer will do that to someone like me) and I feel like I've come somewhat closer to figuring out my goals. For a couple of years I've wanted to move abroad, but the pandemic is unforunateley causing me to have to put those plans on hold for a while, and I'm not sure for how long. Right now I feel like I'm standing at a crossroad. I feel more and more like it's time to move on and I would like to move away. There is one thing still keeping me here, but I am working on letting go of that so I can move on to something new, but it's emotional for me so it takes time. On the other hand I know I could become much happier somewhere else, but the pandemic is making everything more complicated and slows things down. And here I am, standing in the middle trying to let go of my past so I can move on to my future. I can't move abroad right now, but I don't think that I wanna stay here until I can do that either, but to move within this country I would need a new job but, you know, the pandemic. I guess I will keep doing what I'm doing until a new opportunity appears.

Oh right, and about my laptop: My vacation will be in August this year and with a little bit of luck I might be able to have my laptop repaired at that time (although it is not actually certain). I REALLY miss playing games with friends, streaming, watching movies and just spending time online in general. I really hope I will have it back by the end of August! When I eventually have a computer again, I will however keep doing creative stuff irl, not just on my computer. I'm glad that I had this opportunity to re-discover things I like but haven't done in years. And I will keep working towards my goal of moving abroad, but when or if that will become a real possibility remains to be seen.

More gaming and life updates

On the 6th of june I moved to a new place to live with a friend during the summer while working. As it turns out, I've decided to stay and continue to work here so I've been looking for an apartment of my own. I finally found one and I'm soon going to move yet again. It's funny how I didn't move to new places for many, many years in my life and then these last 5 years I've moved multiple times. Hopefully, this will be the last time in a while that I have to do this. As long as I'll have a job, I'm going to stick around for a while.

I've also been playing some computer games lately, and streaming them too. At the moment I mostly play World of Warcraft or Minecraft and that's what I've been streaming. I bought the Collector's Edition of Battle for Azeroth and have been leveling my main. I still haven't used my level booster and haven't decided on which race or class I'm going to use that for. Perhaps on a void elf?

Gaming and life updates

A lot has happened since my last post. For the last couple of years I've been working on my bachelor's degree in media technology, focusing on digital games. I have a bit of work left before I'm done and there's been some progress there. I'm still streaming sometimes, but not very often because I don't have a good computer for it right now, for reasons which you can read about in previous posts. Lately I have been playing many games. I started playing WoW again, so I've been doing a bit of that. I've also been playing Crusader Kings 2, a lot of Life is Feudal: Your Own, some Transport Tycoon Deluxe and The Sims Medieval. You might not know this, but I absolutely LOVE history, so I'm very happy to play games which have some historic content, takes place in history or have inspiration from real, historic events in them.

Gaming aside, there's also some bigger news in my life. I still haven't purchased a new computer but I have to do so soon, because... I am moving! To summarize my previous living locations: I started out in the middle of the country, moved 40 kilometres south in 2013 to study for nine months, then moved back to my starting point over the summer 2014, then moved to the bottom part of this country, which is another 20 kilometres further away, so a total distance of 60 kilometres (6-8 hours away). I lived there until the autumn of 2017, at which point I moved back up to the middle part again while I was finishing up with my degree. As it turned out, I got a job over the summer just north of the town where I lived while I was studying, so now I am temporarily moving back down there again for the summer and first part of the autumn. If I'm going to keep working there I'll move down there permanently, if not I might move back to the middle part of the country again. So for now my furnitures and most of my things will stay up here and I'll only take the most necessary things with me, as I am going to share an apartment with a friend. I'll either buy or borrow other things I might need until I know for sure if I'm staying or moving again, no point in moving everything down there just to move it back up again a couple of months later if that's how it turns out.

As I have a lot of schoolwork right now, I might have a little less time to play and stream for the next couple of weeks and then of course I'm moving and start working, so not sure how much time I'll have for computer games in the near future. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a little bit of gaming somewhere.

Started streaming again

It's been a while since I was streaming because of life and, well... No computer. Still haven't bought a new one. I'm currently using and old Acer computer, but it works. Last time I was streaming WoW, but this time it's a little bit different. I recently started playing Open TTD (Transport Tycoon) again, so that's what I've been streaming for the last couple of days. But I'm thinking of streaming some LoL soon, which I don't think I've done before. However, I'm not competing for ranks so I will probably just be chilling out with some normal games and music.

On another topic, I've been going back and forth on whether I should play some WoW or not. Sometimes I miss it, but there's no point in renewing my subscription if I'm not going to play it a lot (that money could be used for better things). Until I've decided about that, Open TTD and LoL will have to do.

Isidria's Twitch

No computer

I haven't played a lot of computer games lately. After my laptop broke down (well, the wireless internet anyways) and I've had it fixed a few times now, I finally got my money back. Quite impressive since I've had it for three years. But it was expensive and it's been unreliable since I got it. I haven't yet gotten around to buy a new laptop since I've borrowed one. Unfortunately, it's old so I probably can't play games like World of Warcraft. It can barely keep Minecraft running and it's still a bit slow when I try to play that. Also, there are some dead pixels on the screen. And not just a few, but like three larger clusters of dead pixels, plus vertical lines of dead pixels so it's hard to read sometimes and impossible if you can't scroll. However, it's a laptop that works for doing basic stuff so it'll have to do until I can decide which laptop I am going to buy next. I'm thinking about buying another MSI, but there are other good laptops out there. We'll see.

Midsummer 2017

Happy midsummer! I haven't really celebrated this year and I've just had a quiet weekend. Haven't really had time to play a lot of computer games lately either since I've been busy working on my bachelor's degree. It went well though. For my thesis, I wrote about storytelling in mobile games combined with a pedometer and then created a game to explore that. It was somewhat interesting. Oh yeah, it's currently on Google Play Store, but not sure if I'm gonna keep it there or take it down since it was only published as a way for people to download it during my exam. However, now that I have a little time off I would like to get back to gaming but unfortunately there are some issues with my computer, so I have to get that fixed first which will take at least three weeks, I'm guessing. So sadly, no real gaming yet. Perhaps in july.

First Twitch stream

A couple of things has happened since the last blog entry... It started with installing and playing League of Legends, then Dungeon Keeper was free on Origin so I added that to my account (already had it on cd, but it's easier to have it online), then I played some Crusader Kings 2, back to LoL again and then, finally... I installed Legion! I also bought some game time three days ago and leveled up to 102 yesterday. I'm a night elf druid by heart so needless to say, I started in Val'sharah and so far, I like it. And something else is new, too... I broadcasted my very first Twitch stream! I've never streamed or posted videos online before, so there were a few things to learn, but I think I kinda managed to understand the basics. It was fun, but I feel that I still have a lot more to learn if I'm going to continue streaming and since I enjoyed it, I might give it a go.

You can find my Twitch channel here.

Usually when I install a new WoW expansion I like competeing with my friends and guildies for the new first max level and I always rush through it, and win. But since everyone's already hit 110 like five months ago, I feel no need to do that this time. I'm just gonna take my time and enjoy and explore the new content (which I usually only do on my alts after I've leveled up my main). It's gonna take even more time though, cause I have something else I like to do in WoW which honestly is quite time-consuming... I like submitting screenshots for WoWhead and my main character's bags are full of old gear that I haven't submitted yet, so it's going to take some time before I've done that and cleared the bags out. It's easier to just do a few items at a time, right after you've gotten them but, for some reason, I didn't the last time I played (which was over a year ago) so now the current me has to deal with it. Ah well, it's a nice feeling when it's done, having contributed to something, especially on those items where there are no pictures. I always like being able to see the items I'm looking up, that's why I started a few years ago, since there weren't always pictures of the items.

Anyways.. Time to get back to WoW and clear out those bags and maybe start another Twitch stream...

No Legion yet

Leeegiooon.... It's still waiting to be installed and I really wanna play it! But unfortunately I still don't have time because after I install it I'm gonna be on like 24/7 and I just don't have that time right now. However, I've kinda substituted it with other games to satisfy my gaming addiction until I can get back to WoW. This weekend I've mostly played Banished since it's been some months since I last spent time on that. It was fun and I'll probably relax with some more Banished this week.

World of Warcraft: Legion

I didn't think I would play WoW for some time. But...I did it, I ordered a Collector's Edition of Legion! The problem is that I really don't have time to play right now and it will probably be a couple of weeks before I can, which is weird beacuse.. Ever since Cataclysm I've always been the first of my friends and guild members to hit max level after a release, it's something I really enjoy for some reason. The thrill of competing for world first or server first (not that I ever got one, but still). I haven't been too far off though. And this time I'll be really far behind everyone else. I guess I could take this expansion and explore it a bit more while leveling. I usually just rush my main to hit max level and then explore the new content more deeply while leveling my alts. Hopefully I'll have time to play from the start of the release during the next expansion and get back to my old fast-leveling-style again.

Back again

Yeah, so... Apparently that wasn't my thing. With the virtual-WoW-perspective. It's also a bit harder to write about WoW when you don't currently play it, so I'm just gonna go back to writing about all the games that I do play. I tend to choose a game and play mostly that one for a period of time, unlike the way I used to play in the past when I would play lots of different games during a week or even a day. So, from now on, this blog is going to be about more than just World of Warcraft, with pictures, problems, tips and just texts about progress.

Game on!

Relaxing

I've returned to Draenor and there is a lot to do, but recently I have been relaxing a bit. When I first arrived here I was rushing through different zones, helping many people out while exploring areas a little too fast. Somehow you don't get to enjoy new experiences as much when you rush through things. I have been meeting elder people all around the world lately, in celebration of the lunar festival, but at a slower pace than I have for the last couple of weeks. A few days ago I even stopped to admire the amazing sky with all the stars shining down on my garrison. Life is beautiful!

Home sweet home

Today I took a stroll through Darnassus. I've been away for a couple of months now, exploring new areas and helping  some of the indigenous out with various tasks. They apprechiated my help so much that they even allowed me to build a garrison of my own there. Although it's nice to be home, I am already preparing for a new trip to this new place since I feel they still need my help. When I first arrived there, I found a dread raven and a dread hatchling searching for companions. We took a liking to each other and they are now accompanying me on my travels.

Today is also Valentine's Day and I just accepted a quest from a gentleman to present a lady with a charm bracelet. Love is in the air!

Possibly a new project?

It's been a long time since I posted anything in this blog. I think it's a bit unnecessary to have two blogs about the same thing (although they are on different websites and languages), so I came up with a new idea:

I'll keep the other blog as a regular blog and transform this blog into a blog written by the virtual me.

Weird? Yes. Uninteresting? Possibly. Fun? Time will tell.

I'm not sure yet if I will keep this as a virtual-me-blog forever or not, but for now I would just like to try something new.

So, as of now this blog will no longer be about me but my online characters, as if written by them. It will probably mostly be about World of Warcraft and I haven't decided yet if I shall include other games or not. We'll see.

If you wan't to read about my life outside the world of gaming, you will find that HERE. That blog will be written in swedish though, so you might need to translate it.

Into the world of gaming!

New laptop, new life

It's been a while but I'm finally living in a new city! My college education started eleven days ago and I've settled in, into my new apartment which I share with another student and also, temporarily, his brother (as in, we've got separate rooms but share kitchen and bathroom). I ordered a laptop to use for studies and work and it arrived yesterday. A word of advice: You might think a laptop is small and that you can take your bike to get it. Think again. ;)
It turned out the package was almost as tall as my bike and kinda wide too, which made it very difficult to transport. After walking 25% of the road home trying to lead my bike and keep the package from falling off it, I discovered that it was possible to put it over the bicycle handlebar and the kinda-small-basket I had on the front, all as long as I grabbed the large plastic bag with my hands and kept holding it with a tight grip while I was also holding the handlebar. Tricky tricky, but we all made it home in one piece. The laptop I bought is a MSI GS70 2PE-something. It's 17" so unfortunatley I think it would be very hard to use on the trains here sine the laptop is too big.. But we'll see. I don't plan on taking the train any time soon anyways.

Today we had out first seminar, but other than that, we've mostly been playing board games for these past two weeks. No, seriously. I'm studying digital games and this class is an introduction to that, to learn us how to think and analyze games.

By the way, it still echoes in my apartment of 32 square meters, due to lack of furniture (I only have my bed, computer station, chest of drawers, tv-bench and two chairs, inluding my gaming one) so I'm going to order a sofa bed next year (when I can afford one) and also a coffee table. This laptop set me back a lot financially so it's probably gonna be a couple of months or so before i can really afford to buy anything. But hey, who needs furniture when you've got a brand-new gaming laptop? :)

Long time no see

It's been quite a while since I wrote anything in this blog and I could blame it on a busy summer, but that would not be entirely true. So let's sum it up real quick:

Last time I was active was during the last part of April. In May I "graduated" from my one-year-education with top grades and moved back to my former city for the summer. During July (and in August for sure), I found out that I got accepted to one of the eleven educations I applied to. Unfortunatley I didn't get my first choice of game programming, or my second choice of game graphics, but will now instead study "digital games" for three years and earn my "Degree of Bachelor of Science, with a Main field of study in Media Technology". Not a 100% game programming education, but I can still use it to become a game developer, which is my goal.  I've got a new apartment but can't move in until September 1, which also happens to be the very same day my education starts, so moving across the country (I will move even further away from my home town this year) and unpack all the furniture and start the education all in the same day will be a bit tricky.

From time to time I've had a lot to do this summer, but for the past few weeks it's actually been a lot of gaming since most of the more "serious" stuff has already been taken care of. My brother showed me a game named "Banished", which I had never heard of before. According to it's own wiki page, it's a "city-building strategy game for PC", which is a fair description. Think Age of Empires, but without the war part. You start out with a small settlement and from there you can build pastures, orchards, forest huts, hunting huts, gathering huts, houses, blacksmiths, mines, hospitals, etc.. You get the picture. Transform your settlement into a thriving metropolis but make sure to have a way to survive the plague/winter/ fire or other disaster that may strike your settlement. When you've reached your goal with the city/village/continent there's a bunch of achievements for you to get if you've ran out of ideas with your map. I think it's a really fun game and I've probably spent a lot more time on that game alone than I should (sorry, League of Legends). I have actually only played LoL a handful of times this summer, even though I was thinking of starting a serious 5v5 team in May. Guess I haven't felt like playing it as much as I pictured.

Well that's basically my life summed up, from May until now. I have 1½ weeks left before the move and I think I'm going to spend that on hanging out with friends, playing some games, maybe squeeze in a little more blogging and, of course, do the final packing. Most of my stuff are still in boxes and I pretty much just have to pack kitchen stuff, clothes, and my computer so that shouldn't take too long. Actually I'm half-way through that too.

Until next time!

School break almost over

Tomorrow will be my last day on the school break and I haven't really accomplished much this week. I handed in my application for the fall a couple of days ago and I REALLY hope I will get in to at least one of the educations I choosed. I focused on game development, with programming as my first priority and game design as my second. I will probably know in a couple of months if any of them accepted me.
I will spend the day tomorrow preparing for school and possibly fit some gaming in there somewhere.

Oh, I almost forgot.. I got my first pentakill on LoL two days ago.. Unfortunately it was a bot game, so it doesn't really count.. Next goal: Getting penta on PvP! :)

Bloglovin'

You can now find this blog at Bloglovin'!

Busy day, busy week

Well, technically I had a slow morning, watching "2 Broke girls" and checking my websites, but tomorrow is the final day to hand in applications for the educations that will start in the fall, so that is what I am going to do this evening. I also have some minor things that needs to be done, and I haven't yet decided in which order to take them on. I have a lot on my plate right now but hey, I'm still on school break! :)

Thursday

And as usual, I have math until lunch. Tomorrow at noon, school ends and we will have one week off. Can't wait! I don't really have any plans, I just really need a break! I'm going to take a few days off, then I have a lot of studying to do.

Wordpress

Today we're working with wordpress in our virtual Lubuntu machines. Last time we did that, I found out that I apparently already had a wordpress blog! 30 seconds ago I got a message on it, wishing me happy anniversary since I registered it one year ago. Who knew!? I'm thinking about updating that site and run it in swedish, but since I already have this blog, I'm not sure if I wan't to spend more time on that. I'll make a few posts tho and time will tell what happens. If you wan't to take a look at my page, you can find it HERE.