Lighter than Air

I finally just caved and bought myself a paid account here.

I still technically have a permanent account on LiveJournal. No surprise, really, since, well, permanent account, but I had been on LJ since high school. We're talking over a decade ago, now. And like many sites, it was great in the beginning, but as it developed, it developed into something that started to not give a crap about its userbase. Still, I was loyal, and bought a permaccount when they went on sale, figuring that if I'd been there that long, I was likely be be there longer.

It wasn't too long after that when I realized that it was just going to get worse. In the end, I actually regretted giving so much of my money to them, because I was increasingly uncomfortable about their policies and their actions.

Then Dreamwidth opened up. I've flipped back and forth between a couple of accounts on here, but ultimately, this is the one I'm happiest with. And since I've started to use this journal more, I figure it's only right that I give back when I've got the money (3-paycheque months are great for being able to do little things like that). I bought 6 months for myself, which will carry me through to the next 3-paycheque month, at which point I will probably buy yet another 6 months. And so on and so forth.

So now I've got a lot of icon slots to play with, and it's time to fill 'em up!

I spent a good chunk of yesterday playing more Minecraft. I started a new game, since my first practice game ended up getting annoying and difficult. The new game is better. I started off in a forested region, which meant lots of wood, something that was really lacking in my first game! I started off with a tiny house, expanded it, added floors, and now it's not the greatest, but it's pretty awesome. Two rooms on the ground floor, a bedroom up top, an observatory made entirely of glass, and connection to a series of tunnels I've been mining into the mountain behind me. I've found a way down to some lava-filled areas (which I'm trying to figure out how to get safely into, because I suspect there's a lot down there that I need), and I'm very quickly running out of iron, so I'm going to have to resort to using stone tools again if I don't find some soon.

But ultimately, this game is awesomely fun, and tremendously addictive!

I spent a while last night going through my old LJ and reading the video games notes that I took. Specifically, the ones for the Digimon World games for the Nintendo DS. I freaking loved those games. Still do, really, but it's been ages since I've played them. I ought to get back to them at some point. There's an amazing amount of theory behind them if you do a little bit of reading between the lines, and when I was first playing them through, some of the characters were actually spawning little plotbunnies and making me want to write fanfic.

I never did, but that's because I was falling out of fandoms at the time. At least, falling out of active participation and the writing of fanfic.

Of course, I was in a better position to play those games then than I am now. At the time, I worked in a job that didn't mind me playing video games between calls. I'd bring my DS to work, set it aside when calls came through, and play when there was nothing else to be done. I advanced pretty quickly in games in those days, provided they were games that were like Pokemon or Digimon, or other games that were light on the plot and heavy on dungeon-crawling.

In my current job, I can't even have books at my desk to amuse me between calls. My main amusement between calls comes from browsing articles on CNN. Which isn't bad, exactly, but it's not what I typically call amusement. I learn a lot, though, so I'll keep doing it until they decide to crack down and start blocking even legit news sites from being accessed.

Makes me also miss my overnight job. The company turned out to be run by asshats who still owe me over $1000 (and I'll never get it, because I can't afford a lawyer), but they let me do damn near anything on my shifts. I was from 10 PM to 8 AM, 4 days a week, and honestly, they didn't care if I brought a sleeping bag and napped on the floor, so long as I woke up to take any calls that might come through. Bringing in video games, even plot-heavy ones that demanded a lot of attention, would have been no problems. Some days I wish the company hadn't closed down, so I could still have that job. I'd get a lot further ahead in my hobbies, that's for sure!

But for now, I'm going to go upload some icons, play some Minecraft, and then get back to writing. It's my last day of vacation before I go back to work again, and I want to enjoy it as best I can.

(This is how I know that my mood is improving. A revived interest in old hobbies, and things that used to make my happy but that I haven't bothered with for a long time. If I start getting obsessed with video games and writing again, I know it's a good thing, because for so long I couldn't really be bothered with them. I was apathetic. Not so anymore, or at least not at the moment. And I'm going to milk that for all it's worth!)