PixlBit

Finally after all these months I finally get a chance to sit down and type out an honest to goodness blog in all of it’s life boring-ness. Once again I apologize to all you eager readers (yes all 1 of you) in my lack of content as of late. Alot has happened once again in my life that has taken me away from one of the few precious joys I can still indulge in without it being mired in controversy, social justice activism and general tomfoolery that seems to plague many hobbies as of late. Despite my best attempts to embrace the newer formats of social expression in the microblogging forms of the twitter, instagram, tumblr and the like, I still see myself as a tried and true blogger. Someone that still tries to interact with other humans by means of word expression than just bit-sized nummins of what passes in the microblogging world. Not that there is anything wrong with that for it serves a purpose. I’m just to set in my ways in being use to writing how I feel and sharing it on a wider, long winded format.

With that said though I fear that given how my life has become I can no longer partake in the usual social interaction that comes with blogs and now can only find myself having the time to write them (if I’m lucky) but not the time to read other blogs, let alone comment to all comments if I’m lucky enough to have someone ready and wish to share their thoughts. It’s even bad enough that I’ve been further hampered in my bloging exploits by having my MS Word program lock me out of using it due to me not having purchased a subscription to use it. (Apparely the version offered on “NSonicus Prime" was only a 1 year free subscription) I tried to use "google docs" like my "Little One" suggested but frak that the moment I found out I had to be connected online to use it, something I loath to do in case I have a service interruption and I lose all of my work. I'm sure most of you know where I'm coming from with this due to back in the olden days if we tried to write a blog on the webpage of the site we freqent and the web paged reset, there was a good chance all your hard work went up into digital oblivion.

So back to wordpad for me! So forgive me if you find various grammar errors this time around cause I don't got the time to proofread. It's not that I care, I just want to see how it all plays out....
Anyway I digress. You don't want to ready about what I'm dribbing on about now. You want to know what's kept me since my last blog posting in so many months. Allow me to elaborate in my usual "AFK" format. There's been a bit keeping me "away from keyboard" this time around.

My New Home
After much hammering out details, back room deals, debt consolidation, begging, pleading, bribing, backstabbing, signing away my first born and pinky swearing that I won't send the bank upriver, my family now have our own plot of land to call our very own. It wasn't easy mind you and it took alot of work to get the deal done, and that was just trying to find a house we actually wanted to buy. No such thing of a house bubble burst where i'm living. Most of the houses we tried for either were bought outright quickly or we lost out due to higher offers. Thankfully my family lucked out and were able to get this house that fit all of our wantings for a house. Hardwood floors, lots of space, a decent backyard, a full size basement I can call my own to make my own man cave/dungeon/game room/hobby room/study/fortress of solitude. But even after getting the house we had alot of work to do. Though the house was move in ready, we still had to make the effort in "making it our own" in buying furniture, decorations, linens, cook ware, managing the lawn. Remember we literally had nothing on us in setting up a home given that we sold/gave away most of what we had back in Nebraska. The house is still a work in progress so we'll see how things progress.

Work has now officially become work.
In my last blog methinks I spoke highly of the new job I recently got. It was the pefect job for me. Mostly clerical work with some manual labor involved and with little interaction with humans, be it follow employees or idiot customers. The job did seem like a step up from the basic blue collar work I was used to as a work merc where I used 60% of the grey matter lodged in me head and 40% of the physical labor I could best do without. But sadly like all good things....

The location I was assigned to decided to shut down and have operations moved to a new location. A location that was now a 30 minute drive away than my usual 10. Not bad really given that I could've been laid off but after working at this new location up to this point it makes me wonder if I was better off on unemployment. The new manager at this location is the old style manager where they'll try to dump as much of their work onto others so they can do "manager things" that are more important than what they are being asked to do. And given that I'm the only "other" worker there under his direct command he's seen fit to shovel on as much as he can and justify it with the usual "flexiblity" BS that is always used when changes happen at any given organization.

I swear if I hear anyone say "change is a good thing" I'm going to smack them in the mouth.

As you can guess I was having none of that and decided to make my intentions known in the usual way I do when I deal with idiots: with snark, sarcasm and general no nonsense straight truth talk that doesn't do very well when your in a customer service job. You'd assume that the job I had wasn't a customer service job mind you because when I took the job i wasn't told it was. I was told that mostly the job cosisted of clerical work with some manual labor, ensuring that my stat numbers didn't throw off the overall numbers altogether and that the only human interaction I'd have with people would be on the phone during regular staff meetings and email sendings.
there was a reason why I took a job where my office was behind two chainlinked fences and a locked door and I doubt they hired me on for my sparkling personality and my great customer servcie skills. There's a reason why I worked blue collar warehouse work afterall...

But mysteriously now I'm being told the job I have is a "customer service" job where apparenlty I can't say no to my manager despite getting the feeling I'm being taken advantage of, and I don't mean in the sexual way either. It got so bad that the direct upper manager I answer to (who is gone now by the way) flat out told me to go ahead and do everything this lower manager says for me to do regardless if it's against the parent company's policies and procedures. Which meant I got so much on my workload that the upper management had to ask me why I was doing it in the first place.

It seems my manager didn't let them in on my situation before he left.

As things stand now I still have a job but I'm not sure for how long given that the lower managerment at the location I work at now seem to be trying to get me fired under the reasoning that I'm being insubordinate by not doing what they tell me to do when what they are telling me to do actually goes beyond the scope of my general duties and/or violate company policies in general. Though i'm being told I have to be "flexible" in my work and not follow the "straight and narrow" of my job I won't compromise my work eithic over the usual "flexible" BS when we all know that's just a justification reasoning to try to get you to do more work without getting properly compensated for it. I hate office politics, it's why I was a work merc for so long. In any event I come home exhausted most of the time not just from the heavy workload I now have but to deal with all the office politics that this new manager has brought forth, despite his statements that he hates it. The saga continues.....

Youtubing
Given that I've been busy these past few days I haven't had a chance to catch up on many of the shows I frequent online. So I've found myself binge watching various shows off and on when I get some free time. Aside from the usual affair I enjoy like RWBY, Red vs Blue and basic game related content, I've branched out and watched other things I have just kept an eye on but not normally subscribed to. Though I have subscribed to some of them now like "The Know" and "The AlternateTimeHub", others I'm not sure if I want to watch them anymore given the lack of content they are offering now due to them branching out into other endeavors with their channels. More and more of them are focusing on making less created videos and more into the "Let's Plays" and "LIve" events that I could care less about. It's gotten so bad that MatPat from Game Theory has his own YouTube Red channel where they try to do something done in games before to see if they'll work in real life. Think of it as RoosterTeeth's version of Immersion but locked behind a paywall of YouTube Red with other content, like the original "Game Theory" episodes becoming more sparce.

I get why folks are doing this. You have to broaden your appeal before your main content becomes, old, tired out and overplayed. And given how most people are now into interactive events like "Let's Plays" and "Live" segements of someone's channel, these content creators seem to be forgetting what made them awesome to some viewers to being with and bordering along the lines of becoming sellouts.There's a reason why I don't follow Michelle Phan on YouTube anymore. I liked the content, I liked the subject matter, I liked how their views were on the subject which was intelligent and thought provoking and not just them stating their own opinion and leaving it at that because they were in the know. Things change I know but remember what I said about someone saying change is good. And don't get me started when they begin to bleed their own social/political views into their online personas. Yes they have their own voice and their own right to express it. But again that's not why I watch them for that. If I want political/social commentary I'll watch FOX news/CNN. Gamers have already enough to deal with in GamerGate and everything it seems to emcompass now if only to keep trying to have some relevene these days...

GameRig Rebuilding
Given that I'm starting out from scratch to rebuild my GameRig set ups, it's taking me awhile to get all I want. Though I still have all my games/systems I'm having a tough time trying to find the right TV's that I used to have. Though over time I've found somethings I've been hunting for, there is still alot to be done to get everything sorted out. I not only have to worry about games and systems to set up but also books to put away, old videogame magazines to find places for and just being able to find places to put all my stuff away. I do have plenty of room but I still need shelving, tables, desks for everything. And that's not even including how to set up my man cave to accomodate all of what I have. There is only 1 working outlet down here that doesn't require having the lights left on at all times, it is a basement afterall, so trying to set up shop with the power source I have isn't as ideal like it was back in my old dungeon back in Nebraska. In truth the basement could use a bit more modernings but I hope I can work around that process as I'm slowly trying to set up shop.

I'm also thinking about reviving my ideas of trying to make my own YouTube videos on my gaming interest, given that it seems that most are moving away from talking about games and just livestreaming them on twitch or youtube and trying to get donations out of it. I pray to all that is holy that I don't catch that "Let's Play" bug. Sure my "Little One" and I have our own running commentary moments when we're happening to play a game and one of us is happening to be watching. But we considered that more like "riffing on the fly" than actual content that people online would like to see. I highly doubt anyone would want to watch it, let alone find it entertaining. Even "Teh Wife" though we were just crazy as we responded to our own comments as I played "Slender: The Arrival" on PS3 back in the fall.

Even if it was cute that my "Little One" kept herself tightly wrapped up in a blanket during the whole playthrough , claiming it was cold in the house and not because she was scared in anyway.

And don't get me started on her reaction to "P.T."

General family obligations
I can't go too much into detail on this one but take my word for it. Family is very important to me so if there is a circumstance or situation that involves family, I drop everything and see to that first. it's how it should be for any family so that too has taken alot of my time. Despite blogging being an enjoyable escape and fun venture in making me feel like I'm a legit writer, it plays second fiddle when "teh wife", the "Little One" or the rest of my family need me.

Still gaming
And of course despite all of the above I still try to find time to game on. Though I haven't been able to play my Xbox One for awhile, the rest of the game systems are set up in various degrees of operation. While some are starting to fail given their age, others have bitten the dust. One of the systems to finally give up the ghost it would seem is my Sega 32X. It simply will not play any 32X games despite my best efforts. It'll still allow pass through of regular genesis games but there's no real point in having it set up that way if the 32X won't work to begin with. I might see about a replacement one day but given their price used doesn't make it a top priority just yet. If anything I'll need a few TV to fully set up things the way I want them. Right now I can game on the XBox 360, PS3, PS2, Original Xbox, Dreamcast, Wii, Wii U, Gamecube, SNES, N64, Genesis/Sega CD, Saturn and the PS1.

Just need to see about getting a 60" for the last gen/one current gen title and a 13" Sony Trinitron for the less played systems. I right now have a 36" Sony Trinitron XBR so I'm atleast 1/3 of the way in enjoying gaming the way I'd like to. I haven't had a chance to enjoy any current game titles as of late (Doom, I want you so bad), but I can scratch up enough cash to get games on sale from time to time.

Plus I haven't even touched two months worth of free games from Microsoft's Games with Gold offeringed

and that's about it for me to this point. Hope this explains why I have been so scares online and just haven't been around as much as I use to. I also hope you enjoyed reading up on what I've been up to even if it hasn't been about gaming in general. Perhaps I'll get back into the swing of things and blog again on a regular basis. I can't promise anything at this point given how I've done so in the past, only to break that promise as life has a way of taking you "AFK". I still do have alot to say when it comes to my gaming hobby and how it's changing once again. I even had a few opinions on some issues but sadly i'm getting the feeling that such things are not welcome in this world of black and white stances. True I may not take the middle ground either but at the same time I don't mind raising hell either.

We shall see what happeneds. till then I hope everyone is having fun and enjoying themselves this summer afternoon. Now if you'll excuse me I need to finally get around to beating Bioshock Infinite and debate if I should bother writing up some blog subjects that have already been beaten to death by video comentaries.
Ta-ta
"N"