Dealing with Sickness

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a good week. My week was not great. I was super sick for the entire week, but luckily, I’m nearly better now. In recent years I’ve hated being sick and unable to attend work or school. If I felt I could go to work or school despite being sick I would try, I still do for the most part. However, I’ve also grown more cognizant of when I should and should not do that. It may show dedication to try and go to work while feeling horrible, however, it also shows dedication to realizing that you shouldn’t be working and getting other people sick. That being said I still hate missing work, it just doesn’t feel right.

I’m not one to get really sick very frequently. With previous projects I very rarely had to take time off. I always would try and strategize around sickness and figure out how I could handle it with work. With previous projects I would work from home if I felt well enough. I would lay out the work I needed to get done then be in communication with my coworkers. When I worked as a tour guide, I would avoid work or get a desk job where I didn’t interact with people, but that only happened once. With my current work I’m planning how I’m going to return and figure out what I’ve missed. I’ll have a lot of stuff to catch up on and a lot of process changes to familiarize myself with. I’m ready to be back at work.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a good week and I hope to have an update for you next week.

Changing Things Up

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys had a good week. With the new year and new feedback, I’m going to be editing this website. I’m going to update the pages and flow of the site to make it look cleaner. This will also update the content a bit and provide more updates on my current work in addition to my previous work. I’m also going to be changing how this blog works. I’m going to try and make it where I reflect on things I’ve learned and try to give more lessons on the industry. I’ll be sure to still include updates on my life, but they won’t be the centerpiece of my blog posts anymore. I want to try and help people with these lessons as well as provide a look into my life. Hopefully, with these changes it will lead to discussion and maybe critique.

All that being said I’m also trying to change up how I’m currently spending my spare time. I want to spend more time on hobbies. I’m starting to learn how to paint models and miniatures. I’ve been 3D printing more which helps me with giving me things to paint. With this I’ll also hopefully get my license and a car soon so that I can get around easier and actually use the things I’m working on. That will take away from my ability to work while on the bus though. So, I’ll have to spend more time at home writing. Also, once I get more settled into this new routine I want to see if I can fit in being more active and maybe get back into working out. All of these changes will make my life busier, but for the better. I spend a lot of time not doing a lot. So, with these changes I’ll have to work on a new schedule and how to balance my work life, social life, hobbies, and game time. I want to be better about bettering myself and my work. We’ll see how long I last at this.

Well till next time you guys. Keep an eye on my website as I change things up over time.

Exciting Week of Progress

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys had a good week. My week was really exciting. It started off a bit slow, but towards the end of the week it became a whole lot more exciting. I’ve been enjoying my role as a manager so far and I’ve enjoyed the chaos that I deal with on a day-to-day. It brings an extra challenge almost like a puzzle which is pretty fun. The only time it’s annoying is when it makes it difficult to do some of the other work I have to do as a manager. However, it makes my days go by so much faster. I’m excited to see how my work develops and what the rest of it entails.

The rest of my week has been pretty fun, working on side projects and getting back into the flow of trying to improve myself. The side project I’m working on currently is pretty exciting. I want to spend more time on these projects and I’m trying to be better about working on them when I’m home. One of my other goals is to get my license so that I can get a car. If I get a car it will make my life a lot easier and will allow me to spend more time on things other than work and sleep. It should be pretty nice to have my own transportation.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a good week and I have some good stories next week.

Holidays and 3D Printing

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas, New Years, and any other holiday you celebrate. I apologize for not posting last week but the holiday season is hectic and keeps me really busy. This holiday season was a lot of fun. I have such a large and complicated family that my last Christmas celebration was yesterday. Every year my Christmas celebrations are complicated, but it’s nice. I enjoy spending time with people and celebrating the year. I love the exchange of gifts and was excited to see that everyone seemed to love the gifts I got them. I also was excited about everything I got as well and I’m excited to start using them all. I’m also excited about this next year. I have a bunch of hobbies I’m excited to explore and learn more about. I feel good about what this year holds and what I’m going to be doing.

I also have been learning about 3D printing. This is a new hobby that I want to expand on and see what I can do with it. The process is exciting to learn and I’m growing more and more confident in the process. I’ve been slowly experimenting with different types of prints. I’m also mainly going to be using it for D&D creations, however, I’m excited to see what else I can use it for. I’ll have to get some other supplies for the things I’m printing. In the long run it will save me money and if all goes well or I learn a lot I could make money with it. My only concerns is how much electricity it eats up, but I imagine it isn’t going to be a big increase. When I moved back home there wasn’t a noticeable change I believe. I’m just excited to see how it progresses and what I can do with it

Well till next time you guys! I hope you have a good week and I’m excited to let you know what else goes on.

First Week as a Team Lead

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a good week and a happy holidays, so far. My week was really good, and I had fun planning side projects. This week I also started celebrating the Holidays. I had two events on Friday to celebrate. At work we had a potluck and Secret Santa which were both a lot of fun. I was a bit late to the potluck as I had to run to Costco to grab stuff for the potluck. We had plenty of food though which was good. The Secret Santa was fun as well. I got some small plushes that I’ve put onto my desk to decorate it. I have no idea who got me them, nor do I know how the person I got a gift for liked what I got them. After work I also had a family celebration at my Grandma’s house. Friday was a good day full of good food and fun shenanigans.

This also the week where I transitioned into my lead role. On Monday and Tuesday, I wrapped up training with my lead before she left and I took the position on Wednesday. So far it seems like it’s been a smooth transition and I’ve been learning a lot. I’m really enjoying it so far. I love the troubleshooting and planning aspects of it. I’m learning a lot about the process and the corporate management procedure. It’s my first time in an official management position. I’m excited to see how this progresses and what it has in store for me.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a happy holidays and I look forward to letting you know what exciting things happen.

Growing in my Industry

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a good week. My week went pretty well. I was able to get work done on D&D stuff. It’s nice because at my work there are a lot of people that play as well. We’ll often bounce ideas off each other and discuss the game. I’m hoping to eventually have more time and maybe be able to host a work D&D group. I also have been looking at 3D printers to eventually start printing my own mini’s or landscapes. It would save a lot of money and I may have more control over things. So, I’ve been researching that more and planning more D&D creations.

I also have some exciting news. I am being promoted into a manager’s position. My manager is leaving sadly, and I was interviewed to replace her. I found out on Thursday that I’ll be taking her position and be the manager for a team of 6-7 people. I’m both excited and a bit intimidated as it will be a lot more responsibility. I’ll also have to be the source for answers that other areas can’t answer. So, this means it’ll be like my first few weeks again where I’ll be relearning things and asking a lot of questions myself. It will be fun though. I enjoy managing for the most part and helping people learn more about the industry. I’m ready to get more into this role.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a great week and I have some fun stories for you.

Holiday Season and Homebrew for D&D

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys had a good week. My week was a bit hectic. At work we were very busy this week until the end where my day slowed down. It was very interesting as well because my manager is leaving and I’m being trained to be my managers interim replacement until the higher ups decide what they’re wanting to do. She’s moving onto bigger and better things, and I’m excited to see how she likes her new work. I’m also excited as it’s the holiday season. I love the holiday season and the good feelings that come from it. Last weekend we went Christmas tree shopping for my dad’s house and today we’ll be getting the tree for my mom’s house. We’ll probable start decorating it next week. I also just finished my Christmas shopping. I love buying gifts for people and I hope I got some gifts people will like. It’s like a puzzle trying to figure out what people will like and trying to piece it all together to find good gifts. I’m excited to see how everyone will react to the gifts I got them.

I’m also going to try homebrewing more stuff for D&D. If you don’t know what homebrew is, it’s when you create your own content for a game. For instance, creating rules, monsters, items, and more. I’m also planning on sharing my homebrew content on my website. I have a bunch of ideas that I want to make, and I’ve been using the website D&D Beyond to create the new content. I’ll be posting pictures for my content in a section on my website as well as links to it on D&D Beyond. I’d love for feedback on it because that’ll help me grow as a creator. I’m excited to start using more of this content in my future games, so the more feedback I get the better. I’m also hoping to get more people looking at this content I’m making so that more people might use it, so if you play feel free to use it and let me know how it feels.
Well till next week you guys. Have a good week and I hope to have some more fun things to share in the future.

Thanksgiving week and Geek Craft

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a great week. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving with your family or friends. If you weren’t able to be with those you love, then I hope that your Thanksgiving still went well. My week was a lot of fun. I had two days off of work so that was very nice. I had two Thanksgiving celebrations as well. It was fun to spend time with my family and eat really good food. Speaking of good food, the creamsicle cake I made with my mom was really good. It did have a little bit of that cheesecake taste to it and the cake part was super dense. I really liked it though and might have to make it again in the future.

This weekend we also went to a geek craft fair. The fair is always a lot of fun to go to and explore. I’ve found all sorts of fun creations there. I wish I had more money to spend so that I could get some of the cool stuff I’ve seen there. They have some amazing craftsman come out. Some of my favorites are the carpenters, 3D printers, and painters. There was a gentleman there running a booth for paintings that he’ll add nerdy content to, and he had and original print on sail for a $1000 that I really wanted to get. There were also some amazingly crafted Dungeons & Dragons Accessories. Currently so much of that stuff is just out of my budget, but someday I’ll hopefully be making more money and can afford to buy stuff like that and support these artists, but first I need to move to my own home.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a great week and I hope to have some good stories next week.

The Week before Thanksgiving

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a good week. My week was pretty normal and nothing super exciting happened. Work went well and I got jump around a bit more. I’ve also been helping out my manager more with various tasks and planning. It’s been nice to get back into a bit more of that role. I always loved doing that in BTS and Daily tours. Hopefully, I can help out more and learn more about that role. It’ll be interesting to see how the job changes as we get into winter. The snow will make it hard for me to get to work and I’ll probably be forced to miss work. I like to see how work is changing and progressing.

I’m also excited as I should be able to start working on personal projects more next week. This upcoming week is going to be a lot more fun. I have concepts I want to start working on and Thanksgiving celebrations. For one of my family Thanksgiving events I’ll be making a pseudo-ice cream cake. It’s a creamsicle cake that I found the recipe on Facebook. It should be a lot of fun to try and make this cake. I think it’ll be really good, but I’m a little worried it’ll be like a cheesecake. It calls for cream cheese which might make it more like a cheesecake and I’m not a fan of cheesecake. I’m still excited to make it and try it though.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a good week, and I look forward to letting you know about how the cake goes.

Packed Week of New Experiences

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a good week. My week was pretty exciting and fun. Work went amazingly well also. I’ve learned a lot and will only continue to learn more. This week was also the week of Disney+ being released. So far, I’ve really enjoyed the service, but it does have some quirks that are annoying. The watch list you make for yourself is hidden away, but the download function is very useful. However, the smart download function is seemingly not functional. I will say it’s allowed me to find a bunch of old Disney products and more I haven’t seen before, or in a long time. The new content I’ve seen is also very good. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying The Mandalorian while The World According to Jeff Goldblum is a silly informative show. I’m excited to see how the service develops and grows.

Friday was also a lot of fun because I had two things going on. I was invited by a friend out to 343 Industries for a tour. It was a lot of fun to chat with her and explore the common areas of the office. Halo was one of my biggest inspirations for getting into the gaming industry. It was really cool to see all of the memorabilia they had set up. The other exciting thing that happened on Friday was the new Pokémon game was released. I’ve been playing the game a lot and they’ve added a lot of great ways to play with friends. The raid system and online features of the game are great. I’m excited to explore the game more and see what else I can find. I’m still figuring out my team as well, but it’s been good. I’m loving the game so far.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a great week and I hope to have more to talk about next week.

Beginner D&D and Family in Town

Hello Everybody,

I hope you all had a good week. My week was pretty easy and nice. Work went pretty easy and I’ve been able to figure out a good route to take to take home. This new route sometimes helps me get home at least a half hour earlier than my normal route. I also had a half day on Friday as the lab had been closed in the morning. It was nice to just hang out with my coworkers a bit and chat. Then the second half of the day was fairly easy and chill, at least for me. Earlier in the week my Grandpa from Texas came up to visit and hangout with us, so on Tuesday I went to my Dad’s house to have dinner with them. There were a lot of people there that I hadn’t seen in a long time, so I had fun chatting with them and getting caught up with them. I sadly didn’t chat with my Grandpa much, but he seemed busy chatting with everyone else. It was still nice to see him and eat food he had spent so much time on.

This weekend I also had a little tutorial session in D&D for a player that had never played before. It was kind of interesting to plan out. I’m happy I had come up with some backup plans as well as people had cancelled on us. The interesting part for me as well was I had to figure out a simple thing that would teach the basics as well as be entertaining. I think it came out well and the player at least now has the basics down. I had also made to guides for them as they are a level 1 Warlock and it would be difficult for them to kind of learn the basics without having someone with them. My main goals were to teach them combat and exploration. They learned the basics of combat with some of the fights I had set up, this included a pseudo-boss battle. The exploration aspect was given by the secrets and traps I had left hidden around including: Hidden doors, traps, and loot. The third important aspect that they would learn is communication. This one I didn’t have a lot of, but I still gave them opportunities to learn through communicating with their foes. In future they’ll have to rely more on it, but for now it wasn’t a big thing I need to teach.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a good week and that I have some good stories to share.

Busy Halloween Week

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a good two weeks. I apologize for not posting last week but I was very busy. I got to spend a lot of time with my Aunt as she wrapped up her time up here in Seattle. Last Saturday we had a get together with a bunch of our family friends. It was a lot of fun to hang out and eat good food. We had all sorts of snacks. It was a lot of fun to hang out and chat with them. Then on Sunday we spent time getting prepped for her to leave. It was nice having her in town. I look forward to seeing her next time and hopefully, spend more time with the rest of her family.

The rest of this week was strange. It went both fast and slow. Every day at work it was slow and while at the end of each day I’d look back and it was surprising what day it was. It was also fun because we were preparing for Halloween at work. We had a costume contest at work which was also a lot of fun. There were some amazing costumes we had someone dressed as Carmen SanDiego, a female Pennywise, an Officer Jenny, and more! I look forward to more events like this and hopefully we’ll get around to doing more office events. Maybe have an ugly sweater party or something. I love trying office events and things to improve office morale.

Well till next time you guys. I hope you have an amazing week and I hope to have good stories for you next week.

Aunty in Town for Two Weeks

Hello Everybody,

I hope you all have had a good week. My week has been very good, it started a bit slow but got better as it went. We also got some new people at work recently. I was given the opportunity to train some of these new employees. I’ve missed training and teaching new people. I used to help train and teach the new employees for BTS and Daily Tours. I always enjoyed teaching people about the process and route we would run. Getting the opportunity to train and teach new employees at this work is a lot of fun for the most part. I’m excited to have been trusted to do so and am hoping for some more opportunities to do that.

This week my Aunt also came up from San Diego and has been staying with us. I have a lot of family in San Diego that I haven’t seen in a long time, so it’s always wonderful when they come up and I can see them. I’m hoping to fly down and visit them once my contract is up, but we’ll see if I’ll have the ability to. I always love spending my time with my family. It’s been nice to see her and spend time with her. We went to a Punk Flea Market and explored the various booths. There were some really cool things being sold there. My favorite booth was selling some lamps they had made to look like the Space Needle and a lamp that looked like the Death Star. It’s been a lot of fun to do these different activities and I’m looking forward to another week of shenanigans.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a good week and I hope to have more stories next week.

Slow week at work

Hello Everybody!

I hope you guys had a good week. My week was very slow. On Monday I had the day off which was nice. It was a good day to get caught up on shows and personal projects. I’ve missed working on my own stuff so I’m excited about that. Hopefully, I’ll be able to work more on my side projects soon. All I need is to get a good laptop for working on projects while on the bus. I’m saving up to get something around Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Once I have that I’ll be able to make progress and start working on my side projects. I also put together a tutorial D&D game to help teach some new players. It has to be polished, but I think it will help teach the new players. Hopefully, I can compound this with my knowledge and teach them well.

My work week was really slow and was interesting. It was interesting, as my work is constantly growing and changing. I’m hoping to continue to see how the work will change and grow. This week may have been slow, but it was still a good way to learn workflow in the office. I also got to help train a new employee on our process and how we actually test. It was fun to train this new employee and show him how it all works. I also got to work on some of our documentation aspects and flex my writing background. Which was nice especially because I’m dumb and new to testing, so I made it simple and hopefully easy to follow. I’m looking forward to the upcoming week.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you guys have a good week and I hope to give you guys a good update next time.

Return of the Sickness

Hello Everybody,

I hope you all have had a good week. My week has been fairly interesting. Work was fun and I’ve enjoyed meeting my new coworkers. This weekend has been good as well and I spent most of it in family birthday parties. I had a lot of fun prepping for these family parties including a second attempt at a mirror glaze cake. The second attempt came out really well. The mousse layer froze perfectly making a smooth surface and the glaze was able cover the cake beautifully. I had separated the glaze into four parts in order to color them differently. When I mixed the colors together and poured them over the cake it gave it a nice marble-esque appearance. The only part that didn’t turn out well was the frozen jam layer. The jam hadn’t frozen quite fully so the jam was falling off. Otherwise the cake turned out beautifully.

The rest of my week I spent sick. On Monday I had attempted to go to work despite feeling not great and after two hours at work I went home. I was unable to focus and wasn’t wanting to spread my sickness. I then stayed home for the next two days before returning to work on Thursday. I don’t know how I got sick whether it was from a coworker or due to my mom being sick as well. I just know I couldn’t go to work and when I came back, I found out that sickness had spread across my office like a plague. I returned to hear that the two days I had been out the office had been practically a ghost town. It’s amazing how much a sickness can spread in an office, but luckily, I healed quickly and only missed a few days. My mom, however, was sick practically the whole week. She at least has benefit of being able to work from home unlike me.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have a great week and I hope to have some good stories for next week.

Back to D&D

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys are having a good week. My week has been very interesting. I’ve gotten back to work and was able to work on different things. What was a lot of fun for me was being bounced around between tasks and work. I enjoy going between projects and doing different things so long as I’m able to finish the task I’m assigned on each project. So, it was fun to experience these different tasks and work with new people. Slowly I’ve been meeting new people and spending time with them. I’ve also been getting used to the commute during the week. I don’t think I’ll ever be fully acclimated to it, but who knows.

I also got to play D&D this week with my Dad and brother. It was nice to be back as the Dungeon Master guiding them through the adventure. It was interesting though because they progressed faster than I was expecting and were ignoring all of the side quests I was setting up. Which is fine I just hadn’t prepared for it but next time I’ll be ready and have the different paths planned out. I need to figure out how I’m going to be allocating my time to plan out their future endeavors on their long trek to their next destination. I’ve missed D&D and I’m excited to get back into it. I’m also hoping to get my larger group going eventually as well.

Well I hope you guys have a good week. I’m looking forward to having more stories to tell you all.

Sick Week and Game Night

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys had a good week that fulfilled a need of yours. My week was very quick because I was sick for part of it. I got a touch of a stomach bug or something and was just not feeling good for two days then I had lingering effects for the next two days. It was weird being sick and taking time off of work it reminded me of being in school. I haven’t been sick and had to take time off of my day to day in a long time. Even in college I was rarely ever sick and only took a few days off. One time I was sent home from work at school due to me being sick and unable to talk. In high school I got sick a lot more due to my anxiety disorder and not knowing how to deal with it. Senior year I had learned how to deal with it more with the help of therapy and other strategies I had learned. In college I had gotten a lot better at managing my anxiety and now I still deal with it but now I have many tools to deal with it.

After I started feeling better, we decided to have a game night. I enjoy game nights and hanging out with my family friends. We played some party games and then two of the people there are going to play D&D with me so we discussed their plans. It was a lot of fun to hangout and play different games. We ate good food and had a lot of great jokes. I hope to have more game nights in the future and maybe we’ll try different games and find more big party games. I have some ideas and will be happy to find them. I’m also excited to host them at my own apartment in the future.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you guys have a good week and I hope to have some good stuff to discuss with you.

Borderlands 3 and a Chill Week

Hello Everybody,

I hope you all had a good week and it went well. My week was fairly chill and a series of ups and downs. My mom and stepdad were in Hawaii for most of the week, so I had some alone time at home. My work week was very interesting, and I made mistakes and progress. The mistakes I made have taught me a lot and I’m hoping make continue to learn. My failure will help me grow to further strength. In these first two months of work I’ve already learned so much. It’ll be interesting to see how the job helps me grow further.

This week was also the release week for Borderlands 3. I’ve been really excited about this game and I’ve really enjoyed playing it. My current main character is Amara, the Siren, I picked her because of an inside joke and because I typically play as a brawler/tank. My secondary character is Moze, the Gunner, she’s also a great tank and fighter. The game has amazing gun play and a great story so far. I’ve also been enjoying the different abilities of the two characters I’ve played so far. I’m excited to keep playing the game and explore it I’m hoping to find all the secrets and hidden aspects.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have an awesome week and that I have more news to share.

Labor Day Week and Seeing Family

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a good week. I apologize for no post last week, but it was a bit hectic. These last two weeks were pretty fun. Labor Day weekend was my stepbrother’s birthday so we spent it celebrating. One day we went out to this laser tag place that was pretty cool. It was made to be a bit more realistic, so the guns were made to look like real guns and the vests were like ballistic vests. It was pretty intense and by the end of the hour we play we were all sweating buckets. We also saw Hobbes & Shaw, which was a fun movie, but really over the top and sometimes hard to suspend disbelief. All in all, it was a good weekend and good week.

The last week was also nice. Some of my relatives traveled up from San Diego and I hadn’t seen most of them in years. It was really cool to hangout and catch up. We discussed my new job and how they’ve been. The only bad part was my glasses broke and I was uncertain of if they broke when they fell of my face or when my uncles dog bit them. Not a big deal but it was a bit of a downer. I fixed my glasses with super glue and now they’re usable all though a bit crooked. I'm hoping to travel to San Diego and visit my family down there sometime next year, but we’ll see what happens and how the year progresses.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you guys have a good week and I hope to have some interesting stories next time.

Last Few BBQ's of Summer

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys have had a good week. My weeks have gotten a lot easier as I’ve grown more comfortable in my work and my anxiety has dropped for the most part. I’m getting more into the flow of things more and more. This week I also got a day off which was nice to just relax at home for a bit. Work is continuing to grow exciting and change. I hope that it stays constant in its growth and change as I meet new people and continue with the game testing. Hopefully, I’ll also figure out a way to continue on my side projects or work on other things. I’m trying to figure out what projects I want to work on in the spare time and the directions I want to take. I have a lot of projects in my head that I want to figure out and then move forward with.

This weekend has been pretty nice. I went to two BBQ’s this weekend and got to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time. One was a BBQ with friends that we hung out and caught up. It was pretty fun to see them and meet new people. The second BBQ was with extended family which was really interesting. I met a bunch of family members I had never met before and spent time at a beautiful lake and tried fishing again. It was also kind of funny because one of my family members works for Microsoft as well and even works at the same campus as me, so maybe I’ll see him around the campus.

Well till next week you guys. I hope that your week goes well. I look forward to letting you guys no what’s going on next week.