Self-care is important these days, no matter what form the healing process takes.

Zelda is an excellent form of a personally applied panacea, in my humble purview

I feel as if it’s worth prefacing this next statement with a rambunctiously obvious acknowledgement that in no way, shape, or form do I think is ridiculously enlightening, clever, or terribly original in my observation and statement there after, but within the context of the last couple of weeks especially, I can’t say emphatically with enough force, fervor, or excessive gusto what is simply true, resoundingly clear, and a sentiment that terrifyingly haunts me so strongly, as these accursed and terribly tormented weeks continue to relentlessly drag on: having to work all the time is a god damn travesty.

I can’t even fathom how people in Florida feel, keeping the current subject at hand in focus

I share the overwhelmingly obvious in reference to work upon the contingent notion that I’m a busy body: I’d rather be dead than bored, and I find a lot of worth in finding something full time that makes one feel fulfilled, but it is rarely the case in the modern day trappings of our shared ideological bent that what we do with the majority of our time to generate income is what we really want to be doing. I bring this up now as opposed to many other moments I’m confounded by a lack of free time cause of a poorer mood and what feels as if a heavier weight as a result of the disparity of energy that come with it. I’m not usually one to fixate too heavily on non-gaming related activities here on Active Time Event, as it is the reason of any season I inhabit. Which works out perfectly in terms of stress normally, cause I have a conduit with which to funnel my better energies into. However, due to the unfortunate reality of my world weary state as of late, I seem to do nothing but slumber on recent weekends, when my free time is normally abundant, as the vibe has been nothing but sour, so sleep wins out in terms of preferred activity. With things being as they are, it has been nothing short of an impossible marvel that I’ve been able to continue posting on ATE everyday for well over a month now, and at this point, I’m more committed to the effort to see how long the streak can go more so than anything else, with the fair mention that giving back to the gaming community is still a worthwhile endeavor, even if not all who normally inhabit the realm are worthy of such charity.

It’s not that Sonic fans aren’t welcome, but they are certainly not the demographic in mind when I mention such concepts as “normal” and “worthy”

I game everyday, just like I write everyday, though some of the games I play are a part of my “dailies”, which represent both long term everyday affairs mixed in with kind of a checklist of daily activities of sorts to keep me “on point”, as it were, as my personal pendulum swing goes from hyper productive to ultra numbed out if I’m not careful. As far as writing is concerned, I make notes in a philosophy journal on days I don’t even get an article up, but since I’ve been on a decent tear, I’ve been able to keep ATE active for most of the summer unabated. I occasionally have to break my posts into bite size portions when I don’t necessarily have the time I’d prefer to cover a topic at hand, which is never fun, but I’m assuming the people who are entertained or curious enough about my work in an authentic way don’t mind returning to see what conclusions I arrive at, whether that be the same day, or one far off in the distant future thereafter, in the case of intense busyness preventing me from further extrapolating my thoughts that day.


***intense busyness subject to debate

I’ve mentioned in the past that writing about gaming, I think, is more than just writing about things you’ve done in gaming, or at least, the most interesting approaches certainly are. I don’t think doing straight reports of what one has done is necessarily uncouth, as it were, but I think the medium is deserving of far more respect than what amounts to activity logs, though as someone who understands having to fight through exhaustion and time limits, why such things occur are perfectly reasonable, all things considered. In an ideal world, everyone would have perfect focus, be completely uninhibited by the clock, and possess amazing levels of linguistic prowess when tackling any topic at hand. The ideal world remains within dreams and fantasies, of course, and what one is left with is the dire standards of the 24 hour cycle, with a soul wrenching and spirit strangulating sense of sado-masochism not befit of any rational standard if one were given the options. As conscious entities, we have options, but often times, none of them are great, so we must pick the lesser of all evils in an attempt to stave off the most immense pains we can imagine, just for a chance to fight another day.


…as there is always another absurdist abyss with which to stare into…

I really am not sure if it is my own bizarre existence that predicates a more individualistic outlook on the matter, or if I share a perspective far closer to the grand majority than I wrongly assume be not the case, but I think both the gaming industry and the enthusiasts who enjoy it are perhaps at the limit in terms of what they are able to handle, and will have to reformat how they deal with the realities of gaming at some point in some fashion in the future. I know this sounds terribly vague, and I am aware I have the curious penchant for crutching too heavily on both the vague standard of the metaphysical and an over reliance on theoretical philosophy far too often on ATE, but the standards of gaming, both how it is produced, and how it is consumed, just do not seem sustainable at its current rate, and is in dire need of a redress moving forward. Will it happen soon? I am not sure. Will we even be aware of the shift when it starts to happen? This I can also not tell. But I do know that standards eventually have to change, and the times can not remain the same as they do now forever. Whatever mode of transformation this takes I’m here for it, but change is quite regularly a painful process, but ultimately worthwhile in its machinations by the end.

Perhaps my sense of foreboding on the topic is too dramatic a soothsaying, though my intuitions usually provide keen solace and relatively accurate assessments after the fact.

I excitedly await to see what I mean.

~Pashford