Cleaning and Visitors

Hello everyone!

I hope you all have had a good week so far. My week was pretty busy but relaxing. I had my phone screening on Tuesday. I think it went pretty well, but I’m still waiting to hear back. Hopefully, they want to move forward, but if not it is what it is. I have other opportunities coming up that could keep me more local. I was also able to take my driving test this week. I passed and now I can get my license. It’s been a long time coming, but I’m ready to start driving. The rest of my week was spent cleaning. I was able to move everything from the rooms I needed to and now I can focus on actually cleaning the rooms to get them ready. So that’ll be one of my other projects during the week.

My aunt also flew up to Seattle and has been hanging out. It’s been fun to chat with her and help her out as I can. It’s been a long time since I last saw her so it’s been nice to be around her. We also planned a movie night to have while she’s here so that she can see people. I’m happy that she was able to make it up here even with covid. Slowly travel might get better and easier, but it all depends on how people treat covid. Currently it feels as though some people have forgotten what covid has already done to us. I’m happy that we’ve made progress, but that doesn’t mean we can relax.

Well till next week you guys! I hope you have a good week and that I have more info for you next week.

Prepping for Change

Hello everyone!

I hope you all have had a great week. My last week was pretty busy. I’m slowly making progress on job hunting and side projects. I’m making great progress on my latest Twine game. I need to try and be better about sticking to my schedule. I have made some excellent time on my various projects. The D&D game I’m running in Curse of Strahd had another player character die. So that’s 2 in 6 sessions both belonged to the same player. I have some plans to deal with that and I’m looking forward to their next character. We’ve been playing using Discord without cameras, so I also surprised them by using my camera to perform a Tarokka reading. In Curse of Strahd Tarokka is effectively Tarot. It has a built-in function with the campaign, so what I pulled for them makes a difference in the game. Hearing their reaction when I turned on the cam was awesome. I’m super excited for the next session.

I’ve also been cleaning out part of my grandparents’ house. My best friend from college will be moving up here relatively soon so I’m making sure he has a space. It’s been interesting moving stuff around the house and making space. I’m excited for him to join me up here, but also a bit stressed by it as I still am lacking in the job department. Speaking of which, I do have a phone screening coming up. I’m very excited for it and I’m hopeful in my chances. If I got this job it would be my first full time job in the industry and that would be really cool.

Well till next week you guys! I’ll, hopefully, have some good news for you next week. Have a good week you all.

Post Digital GDC

Hello everyone!

I hope you all have been doing well. These past few weeks have been really busy for me and have kept me active. Two weeks ago, I served as a Conference Associate at GDC (Game Developer’s Conference). I was also able to spend the last week working on finishing various projects, including a short project that I started at GDC. I made this short project in Twine as part of a writing exercise. It was a lot of fun to be a part of this exercise. I love seeing how different writers work and discussing their techniques is a lot of fun. This week I was also able to continue my run through of Curse of Strahd. The players all seemed to have a lot of fun last week so I’m looking forward to our next session. We’ll be doing one of my favorite aspects of the campaign in the next session.

GDC this year was a lot of fun. It was all online this year which meant my job was all about monitoring chats and zoom calls. This was also the first year that I was able to do the job of a floater. At a normal GDC floaters monitor and check in on other CA’s. This is to help make sure that they have everything they need and if things get too uncomfortable, they have someone to get help. In the digital format the floater served in this way still, but it was much easier. We were able to have multiple windows open at once allowing us to monitor the sessions directly. It was also nice to be back at GDC with the other Conference Associates, even if it wasn’t in person. It was a blast to just talk with them and play some games together. I look forward to the next GDC.

Well till next time you guys. I hope you have a wonderful week and that I have some exciting news soon.

Trip to Redding

Hello everyone!

I hope this week has been good for all of you. My week was pretty easy. I went on vacation to Redding, California. It’s the first vacation I’ve been on in a long time. For a while the idea of taking time off has been very stressful for me. While working, I never liked taking time off as I was worried, I’d waste my PTO, I’d miss some important work, or it would reflect badly on me. This vacation stressed me out as I have no job, so this would be taking time from me looking for a job or working on my portfolio. I was able to relax on the vacation though and have fun with my family. It reminded me that everyone needs to take time and unwind periodically. You shouldn’t go at 100% constantly and you should take the time you can to relax. It’s all about finding the balance and that is often my issue.

The vacation itself though was very fun. It had some bumps but ultimately it was a good time. I was down in Redding checking out a new property my dad and stepmom are investing in. We were able to spend the week there with my siblings appearing at various points. It was the first vacation in a while that I had been able to join them on and it was a bit nostalgic of our past vacations for me. For the most part we stayed at the house and in the pool, but one day we went to Lake Shasta. It was my first time ever to the lake and it was very dried up. However, we were still able to go jet skiing on the lake. It was my first time ever going jet skiing and it was a lot of fun. I was probably a bit more cautious than I needed to be, but it was fun to go 40+ mph on the lake and explore around. I’ve always loved boating, so this was just boating by yourself.

Well till next time you guys. I hope you guys have a good week and that I have some exciting news for you next week.

4th of July

Hello everybody,

I hope you all had a good week. My week was pretty relaxing. I’m slowly making progress on a new Twine project. I figured I’d try my hand at cosmic horror as that is one of my favorite types of horror. I love seeing monsters that are just beyond reason and have unknown desires. Things that drive you mad without even having to try. I’m also continuing to learn how to code in Java. Most recently my lessons had me learning about loops. It’s interesting cause for the most part I know what the different terms mean, but now I’m learning how they actually work. It’s complicated, but I’m making progress. In my free time I’ve had my D&D campaigns. In my Curse of Strahd campaign, gothic horror story and setting, we had a player death. The player sadly had a run in with a bunch of monsters known as Shadows, think Dementors. They sapped away her strength and she died at least a semi peaceful death. The players new character though is going to be really interesting and I’m looking forward to introducing them. We’re about to start getting into the meat of that story so I’m excited to see how my players handle it.

Yesterday was also the 4th of July. I always loved the 4th of July ever since I was a kid. Launching fireworks and making an explosive show of light is just a lot of fun. I remember growing up and going to a farm to launch fireworks and have a big party. I also heard a new story of me as a kid launching fireworks. I always thought I used a punk to launch fireworks growing up, but apparently that’s not true. One of the times when I was little apparently instead of using a punk someone gave me their cigarette to light fireworks with. Now was that a smart idea I doubt it, but I love the image of me lighting fireworks with a cigarette. I’ll also say I don’t know how long I used the cigarette to light them or when it was taken from me, but it’s still hilarious. On a more serious note, though, as much as I love fireworks and the 4th of July I’d be okay if it went or changed. I know a lot of people don’t like celebrating it for various political reasons, but for me I’ve never cared about the Independence Day part of it. The 4th has always been an excuse to hang out with friends and family while we blow stuff up. I’m also well aware of the effect fireworks have on animals and veterans. I’d love if we could find something else to do on the 4th instead of fireworks that was fun for everyone. Maybe someday we’ll have more easily accessible laser light shows or something.

Well till next time my friends. I hope you all have a good week. Hopefully, soon enough I’ll have some more exciting news on my job hunt or side projects.

Moving Forward

Hello everybody!

I hope this past week has been good for all of you. My week was very busy. I’ve been making progress with job hunting. This week was also a good week for me to expand my skill set. I spent a good amount of time on learning code. Currently my lessons have me learning Java which has been interesting so far. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m looking forward to it. The rest of my week was spent on working on my portfolio. I’m currently working on a new Twine game so hopefully I can put these coding skills to work.

This weekend was also really busy. On Saturday, I hosted a movie night. It’s the first event I’ve hosted in a long time, and it was a lot of fun. It took a lot of work though to get it set up. We had to clean up around the house and do a lot of yard work, but once it was all done it was really nice. While the movie night itself had some hiccups, ultimately, we had a good time. For Sunday, we celebrated Father’s Day. That was a lot of fun and we ended up going to a restaurant named Crab Pot in downtown Seattle. It was lovely to spend time with my dad and celebrate Father’s Day with the family at a restaurant we love. While it might not have been the perfect day, we had some good times.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope that I’ll have some exciting news next week.

Graduation Season

Hello everybody!

I hope you all have been having a wonderful week. My week was okay a little frustrating but ultimately informative. It’s really starting to hit me that I need to write now and focus. Not saying I haven’t been, but I haven’t been taking my career in writing as seriously as I should and that’s my fault. I’m planning out a new schedule to help me focus on my career and building my portfolio. I’m looking to learn coding and keep working on myself. I did have some cool stuff happen this week though as well. I’m getting ready to start Curse of Strahd on Tuesday. Curse of Strahd is one of the classic D&D campaigns and I’m excited to finally get to play it. My oldest sister also graduated college and we celebrated that today.

It’s super exciting to have my sister graduate. I’m extremely proud of her and what she’s done. Her future looks bright and I’m looking forward to witnessing it. My other sibling are also making progress in their school and careers. I’m pumped by it all. It was weird being the first one done with school. Having gone to Full Sail where everything is accelerated made it weird to see other graduation season’s come and go. To see what paths people have taken is really exciting to me. My path was quick and direct, but others have taken a longer more circuitous path, and both can lead to amazing results. Hopefully, my siblings and I are all on our way to our own definition of success.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a wonderful week, and I hope to have something exciting to talk about next time. Once again congrats to my sister, and I look forward to seeing what you do.

Pastimes and Hobbies

Hello Everybody!

This past week for me was pretty chill. Had a BBQ with some of my vaccinated friends and family. During which I played a lot of cornhole and ate a lot of good food. I’m excited that we are getting closer to normal and inch by inch being able to have larger gatherings. I also applied for some jobs that I’m really excited about. Hopefully, I’ll hear back soon enough and get an interview. I’ve found I aim more for an interview than the actual job sometimes. I guess to me an interview means growth. The more interviews though mean I’m growing and the more I get the farther along I get in my career. Getting a job afterword’s just solidifies the growth. Interviews are nice as well because they’re a great way to learn and gain insight into what ways you can improve. I’ve always loved good feedback and interviews are a great way to get it.

I’m also really excited because I’ll be starting a new D&D campaign soon. We’ll be running Curse of Strahd a classic D&D campaign of gothic horror. In the campaign players are spirited away to the land of Barovia with the goal of defeating a vampire lord named Count Strahd Von Zarovich. It’s one of the more famous campaigns and I’ve always wanted to play it so I’m very excited to finally get a chance to play especially as a DM. I’m excited to see how this turns out and if it’ll be spooky or not for the players. I’m also slowly making progress on my backlog of minis to paint. I’m currently working on decorations for a town. I keep needing to remind myself that there’s no rush to have enough pieces to make a city or castle. I’d be excited to make those, but that’s time and money I don’t have. Someday I’ll be able to do it, but not for a hot minute.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I hope to have some good news for you all then.

The Return

Hello everybody!

It’s been quiet awhile since I last made a post. I apologize for not posting, but as you all are aware this past year has been a bit hectic. When we last spoke I was beginning a job at Bungie as a Contract Generalist Tester. My contract has now ended and I am on the hunt for the next job. During this time I also moved into my grand parents as we clean it and prep it to sell. We are now so close to selling it and I’m so very excited to see it in a great spot. I’ve also been able to help with some side projects. All in all the last year has been eventful.

Some brief insight into my time at Bungie. As stated I functioned as a Contract Generalist Tester for Destiny 2. The initial part of my contract was focused on the Beyond Light expansion. Namely, I worked on the Deep Stone Crypt raid. It was really exciting and fun to be a part of this team working on the next pinnacle activity in Destiny. I was also able to assist with other parts of the expansion. With it’s release I transitioned into working on the Vault of Glass reprise in Season of the Splicer. Now that was extremely weird for me. I remember playing a lot of Vault of Glass in Destiny when it first released and now I worked on it in Destiny 2. I really enjoyed being able to take my player experience to help remake the raid. All in all it was an amazing learning experience and I met some amazing people.

Well till next time you guys. I’ll try to return to my weekly schedule of posting, but life is still a bit hectic. I hope you all are making the best of the current situation.

A Busy Time

Hello everyone,

I hope you all have been staying safe in these crazy times. I apologize for not posting in awhile, it’s been a bit crazy as of late. Life for me has been going well, a bit stressful at times but good. My new job treats me well and I work with some great people. However, as with everything, anxiety worms it’s way in. I face fear of failure and impostor syndrome. These feelings aren’t uncommon for me, but are things I’ve learned to fight through. I’m confident in myself if only to spite my own anxiety. I’m hoping that as my life continues I grow to be more confident and sure of myself.

With everything going on as well right now my life feels to both be busy but also not. I’m waiting for the day when it will be safe to be around friends and family. For whatever reason I feel that when Covid is done my life will calm down a bit. I’d love to go to the office and meet my coworkers in person. I feel that Covid makes life for me feel both busy and slow due to how much life has been thrown out of wack. I now have more time to work on my side projects, but also feel I have so much to do. Slowly but surely making my schedule a bit more steady.

Well til next time you guys. I hope you have a good week and stay safe.

Change the World

Hello everybody,

           I hope you all have had a good few weeks. I apologize for not posting the last few weeks, but it’s been crazy. My life has been changing a lot lately but frankly the change occurring in the world is a lot more important than what’s going on with me. This is a time of change and we need to make it happen. With the death of George Floyd this has awakened something across the globe that has long been ignored. Everyone has different perspectives on this change and in my opinion if you feel this change is unwarranted or unnecessary, I simply want to know how you can view this as wrong? I won’t unfriend you as I prefer to see all the opinions I can, but in this case to say these protests are wrong is simply incorrect. It is no longer a matter of opinion, not that it ever was, this is fact and to argue against it is to ignore truth for a reality built on the misuse of humans.

           I could give my opinion on how the protest should go, but I don’t have that right. I have white privilege and throughout history my people have started wars for much less. We need to take this time to grow and listen as white folks. I want for this world to be a place where peaceful protests work, and police are trusted. We can’t afford to just be not racist this is a time to be anti-racist and actively fight against it. Let’s keep the momentum going and change this world to a better place. Please go out and support the Black Lives Matter movement and donate money if possible. I also apologize for being so late on this there’s no real excuse, so I won’t make one. Let’s all be better humans.

          Well till next time everyone. I hope that we all go out and make the world a better place.

New Job and the Time Between

Hello Everyone.

I hope you all had a good past few weeks. I’ve been doing well lately. Today was my first day with Bungie and I’ve begun the training process and have already been able to meet cool people. I’m very excited to see how this job progresses and who all I meet. I will say as with any major change I’m dealing with anxiety. I’m worried about messing up and not making a good impression. However, I’m trying to counter this by reminding myself that I can do it and that it will get better. Soon enough my anxiety will calm down hopefully. I’m also hoping that I’ll be able to meet them all in person safely.

The last week I took off between my two jobs. It was nice to have that break and be able to relax a bit. I was able to paint more figures and print a lot. I also got to spend time with my friends more. I never really understood mental health days as I never felt I needed one. This last week though helped show me how helpful just taking time to relax can be. I would love to say people should try to take the time during this quarantine to relax and focus on themselves. However, I know how stressful this entire situation is and how hard it can be for people to relax. I will always say do what is best for you and your family but remember take a moment to breathe and relax. Try to forget your problems for a moment so that you can heal. It is easier said than done.

Well till next time you guys. I hope you have a good week and are staying safe. I hope to have more news for you in the future.

New Opportunities

Hello everybody,

I hope you all have had a good past few weeks and are making it through the quarantine safely. I apologize for my irregular posting schedule everything has been so wild. I do have some exciting news though. I’ve been hired by Bungie as a Contract Generalist Tester. I’m sad to leave Microsoft but I think Bungie will be a great place for me to grow and learn more. I’ll be on a team that directly makes content and I’ll be testing it. It should be a great way to learn and grow in my field.

While I love these new opportunities, they are good and bad. While I’ll be meeting and working with a lot of new people, I’ll also be leaving some people behind. I’ve added people on social media and will hopefully be able to keep in touch. This also comes at a relatively bad time due to the pandemic. I’ll be leaving my work in a bad time, but it has to be done. I can only hope we can end the quarantine safely soon. This will hopefully allow us to return to work safely soon and be in a better place to be in the office.

Well till next time you guys. I hope that you have a good week and that I have more to tell you.

Experimenting and Learning

Hello Everybody,

This last week has been pretty interesting. I’ve been working from home which has been very interesting. I’m having to learn better ways to make sure people are on track while also focusing on improving communication and time tracking. I’ve been lucky with working from home. I have all sorts of tools at my disposal and my work translates easily to working from home. I think it will also help me when we return to the office. Every day this quarantine persists it allows us more opportunities to grow and build our skills. Sadly, it also means more and more people will be met with consequences. I both am ready for the quarantine to end and enjoying it.

I’ve been using this quarantine to experiment with some of my hobbies. I’ve learned a lot about 3D printing namely and some of the work that goes into it. I just wish I knew more people that printed so I could ask for their help in maintaining a printer. For instance, I felt my prints were coming out with issues and was worried about the belts that drive the printer. The only problem is I don’t know how tight the belts should be. So, I’ve been experimenting and learning more about how the printers work. I’ve also been painting more of the models I’ve printed. I need to get more decorations for the landscapes, but I’m getting better and better.

Well till next week you guys. I hope to have some exciting stuff to discuss for next week.

Working from Home

Hello Everybody,

I apologize for not posting the last few weeks, but everything kind of exploded. These past few weeks have been both stressful and nice. With everything that’s been going on with me health wise I was almost forced to quit my job. Luckily, they declared we would be working from home. So then that began, and my life changed again. I gained the benefits of working from home and being able to hang out with my family more. However, I also gained the stress of work at home and now it was harder to separate work and home. I feel this quarantine has been hard on a lot of us. I’m lucky where I can work from home and have different hobbies I like to do at home. I’m also perfectly fine not socializing with people in person. I know many people who are not that lucky. I have close friends and family with no jobs now or have been hit hard by pandemic. I’m hoping to find some more ways to hang out with friends and family during this pandemic.

This pandemic has also allowed me to spend more time on my favorite pass times. I’ve been working on my models and painting. I made some lovely looking wells and then also made some less lovely bandits. I also have caught up on my shows. I watched all of Star Trek the Next Generation and the Star Trek Nemesis movie. I’ve been wanting to watch Picard, so I had to get a bit of the backstory as I had never watched the entire series. I’m also going to be working on some review’s as I haven’t done one of those in so long. I’m trying to get better of putting more time into writing and creating.

Well til next time you guys. Stay safe, and I hope to have some good stories for you.

Fear of Impending Sickness

Hello Everybody,

I hope you all had a good last week. My week has been really interesting. I had started to feel better and go to work. On my first day back, I learned that Microsoft was requiring employees to get tested for tuberculosis because of an employee being diagnosed with it. So, I went to the hospital and got tested and told them I had pneumonia. I also told them what hospital I had my tests run at so they could get anything they need. I then returned to work until Wednesday when I got a call being told the doctor was worried that I had TB and I had to do further testing and I wasn’t allowed to go to work until they were done. It’s annoying, but understandable. I only hope the tests go quickly so I can return to work soon.

With all of this tuberculosis testing it’s been interesting to compare to everything happening with the corona virus. The fears have continued to spread making quite the impact. I find it fascinating to see how different companies are reacting to and dealing with it. Microsoft has begun to implement changes as well. My work will be going through different changes to help stop the spread of corona virus. Game design can be a place that leads to sickness more so than other industries. We are often sharing items or interacting closely together. We try to keep stations clean, but still we find ourselves in bouts of illness. In my office we have had waves of the flu and other illness’s. My recommendations would be to use hand sanitizer frequently and cleaning your workstation.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a good week and that I can tell you something fun.

Sickness Versus Progress

Hello Everybody,

I’m sorry for not posting last week. These last two weeks have been a bit difficult for me as I’ve been sick and unable to do anything. It seems when I had the flu a month ago it weakened my immune system. This led to a really bad cold which then developed into pneumonia. I hate missing this much work, but sadly nothing can be done. I’m luckily almost all better I just have to finish the medicine I have. I’ll be returning to work and have to catch up on everything I’ve missed. I’m curious to see how my body will deal with being more active at work. Hopefully, I’ll be fine, but I’ll definitely be keeping it simple and using hand sanitizer more.

One of the worst parts of sickness is being unable or lacking the energy to do anything. I wish when I was sick, I was still able to work on my hobbies. I think that when sick it’s important to take care of yourself and others. As I’ve mentioned in my previous blog posts where I was sick. Taking care of yourself is very important, but it also means you can’t or shouldn’t work on anything. So, I spent most of the week watching TV and getting caught up on my shows. I’m ready to be in a better position to keep making progress on side projects and work.

Well till next time you guys. I hope to have something better to tell you next week.

The Power of Networking

Hello Everybody,

I hope you all had a good week. Mine was hectic, but good. One of the other managers was out of town for the week. This meant another manager and I had to step in and take care of his team. It made my life a lot busier, but in a good way. I enjoy working with different people and seeing how they react to different management styles. It was also interesting to see how that manager handled his team and kept them moving. Each team and person is like a puzzle. I love to figure out how to solve puzzle to increase productivity and get to know each member.

This brings us to the act of networking and its importance. If you aren’t familiar with the term “networking” it’s the act of meeting new people and connecting with them. However, to truly network with someone you have to do more than exchange names and business cards. You want to leave a lasting good impression on them. This can be done in many ways. For example, the last two years I worked at GDC as a part of the Conference Associates. This meant I met a lot of people and we worked together. My goal was to show my work ethic and then also connect with people and be friends. I met so many amazing people and each one has improved or helped me in some way. This is why networking is so important and necessary to your life in the industry.

Well till next time you guys. I hope you have a good week, and I hope to have a good story for you next week.

A Good Work Life Balance

Hello Everybody,

I hope you all have had a good week; my week went fairly well. During the week I had to figure out more of my balance between work, hobbies, and relaxing. Work takes up so much of my time that it can be difficult to find much time for anything else. Even on the weekends my days will get filled with different things for me to work on. I’ve been printing and painting miniatures, working on stories, doing chores, etc. This makes it difficult to find time to just relax. I’ve been managing to keep to my goal so far though. The only thing I haven’t made much progress on is getting my license. I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to get out and practice driving. Hopefully, I’ll get back into the swing of driving and then take the test so I can get a car. Then maybe I’ll have more time to perfect the balance.

One of the most important things that anyone can do is have a good work life balance, at least in my opinion. You should never let work become your life as I think it can cause resentment and unhappiness. If you do let work become your life, I think it will also cause your productivity and effectiveness to drop at work. That’s why the balance is important. You need that time to relax and step away from work. You need a hobby or two outside of work. To be your best self you need to be able to spend time with friends and family. These better your life and work so much. On different projects I’ve struggled with the balance and found if I focused too much on one the other aspects of my life suffered. There are days where your motivation for a project spikes and that’s good. Those are the days where you can make the most progress on that project and I think that when your work life balance is good you have more moments like that.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a good week and that I have something fun to talk about.

Returning to Work and the Importance of Soft Skills

Hello Everybody,

I hope you all had a good week, mine was pretty good. It was nice to be back at work and get caught up on what I missed. It was interesting as well to hear how many people had also missed work. My supervisor was out sick for the week as well. Then it seems a lot of my other coworkers were out too. Work has been interesting and it’s fun to see the different impacts people have on the environment they are in. I have coworkers that when they are gone it can cause other people to ask less questions. I have coworkers that are good at keeping moral up. I have become someone that is a go to for certain tasks and making jokes. Several coworkers were debating on who’s better with meme’s myself or the shift lead. It was pretty funny to hear how they were discussing it and the points that they were bringing up, sadly, I left before I heard their decision.

That is why soft skills are so important. In school I learned how important it was to make yourself integral to the team you are on. I also spent time working in public facing jobs where I got to build my soft skills. Those skills are so important in every way. They’ve helped me greatly on every project I’ve worked on. The soft skills have helped in management, working with the public, and making mistakes. Hard skills are easy to learn, but soft skills have to be built in time. All of the soft skills I have learned came from working and learning. In school I learned the importance of critique, feedback, changing, listening, and how to enjoy the process. With work as tour guide and intern to now I’ve learned how important it is to ask questions, communicate, help others even if it’s not your specific job, how to teach, and how to follow directions. If you struggle with soft skills a good place to start is to learn how to listen and take feedback, then learn how to communicate and ask questions. These are key factors to the success of any creator and any job.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a good week and I hope to have something fun to tell you next week.