If you see this, I am finally out of my nearly two week hiatus. Here is why I was spotty the past two weeks (not all Bubsy’s fault)

TLDR: at the very end of January, I got caught in an evacuation situation. I had to leave my home in short pajamas in 5 degree weather and even got pulled out by my neighbor after I tried running back in to get my possessions. The good news is no actual fire happened, but it was really, really close to actually turning into a very bad situation that would have lead to one, and a lot of electrical stuff got damaged in the incident to the point (away from my part of the neighborhood at least) I was basically out of SFG HQ since the start of the month while repairs were done.

I was sheltering with a good fellow I know, but unfortunately their wifi wasn’t quite up to par and weirdly didn’t like my switch 2 much at all, making internet a bit spotty with it. This WP site editor also had some occasional issues with it, which is why I didn’t even bother writing a single review since the end of Jan. That and the ludicrous amount of stress I was put under that entire time made my mind feel like scrambled eggs outside of my day-to-day IRL stuff, alongside my usual worries about ICE and whatnot with my MN friends. (I’m definitely gonna promote that itch bundle soon while explaining why MN is such an important state to me, but not this week, I need rest)

Since SFG HQ was away from the component that outright exploded, I have thankfully taken no damage nor any of my possessions, outside of mental stressors and whatnot. Needless to say, being forcefully out of your home for a while, not given clear ETAs on when it’s OK to go back in and have power restored to the neighborhood, etc etc really drove me bonkers. I never knew until now how easy it was to take a living space for granted, but I guess now I do. Especially the fact that I didn’t even take the whole scare seriously until after the fact to the point I almost went back inside to get my stuff, which if the incident led to a fire that spread to my area, would have been very bad and possibly even fatal to me.

Is a man with an extreme, on the record phobia of death not being bothered by a potential fire risk a sign of insanity, being too tired that night, or just materialistic obsession to make up for all of his possessions getting pawned off as a kid? Or is it just the fact I’ve kinda been burning myself out in general and this forced vacation, in a weird way, led me to just relax for a change?

I dunno, but either way I mostly did not like it. Even on slow weeks when I dont get a review out, I do want to take notes or write things down or take photos for said reviews. I didn’t do much of that at all last week and the minor setback post I made was the day before my first ETA to get the all clear and return to HQ… Only to basically get told “lol no” and having to wait a bit longer. There was a slim chance I might have been out for a very long time, and that might actually make me go literally insane if that ever happened. (and would pretty much force the PS4 games to not get done even longer, and everything reliant on wifi would be unreviewable)

Well, as I’m writing this it looks like I should be almost good to go soon. So if you see this up, expect business as usual later this week. I hope you enjoyed the filler I put out last week with my SFG impressions of the direct; that was quite fun! (EDIT: I am indeed back, all is good.)

As for opinion articles, since I wanted to do an update on them in a super big, grand Jan/Feb status updates that would dive into a personal situation with me and what i’ve learned a year since doing local community stuff politically, (and also thoughts on ICE in MN since TLDR on that: fuck ICE, and i hate they’re bothering people in my second home, including people I know from my vacation cabin days who have friends in the cities (or live there outright), and Minnmax is basically doing what I was hoping to do with a charity callout, so go check them out.

Get off my site if you unironically endorse people dying and a city being occupied which DOES NOT WANT IT. Worrying about IRL friends I’ve known since childhood this past month has not been fun for me mentally. Yes, it’s still just as bad as you thought it was weeks ago. Nothing has gotten better.)

But because of all this hell I am literally unable to think much of anything at all. It doesn’t help I got a stupid cold while cooped up here too, which is +1 reason why going solo is the best way to live. Thus, that status update is either gonna not come, be pared way back, or out of date. So, I’ll just sum up my plans for opinion pieces I also planned to reveal/note in that long, rambly update.

The huge Switch 2 BC article is… I think in my head, finally laid out? I have a good idea how to structure it and played so god damn many retro reissues that I think I’m confident in sorting through how they feel on the Switch 2 and which ones are weird/worse/bad on the device. It’s gonna be a huge one though so from outline to finished product I have no ETA. just another big piece I wanna do since I tested hundreds of games for this piece.

A year ago I also got on appblocking tools to force me to get a mental health break from social media. Bluesky is a doomer cesspit even if lately it seems to be slowly turning the tides in that aspect, (I think a lot of those extras from twitter got bored and left in recent months for Threads, from the looks of things) but other websites were easy to doomscroll or get stuck on before being able to focus on site stuff or just having me time. I wanna get an opinion piece done this month or next about that journey, my recommendations, and how I think it’s genuinely a net good for everyone to use them, to the point I’m even convinced all this panic leading to silly online age verification bills all over the world would be mitigated and they wouldn’t even be trying those bills, if Appblockers were made standard on all mobile devices and every parent/adult/teen knew about them and had access to them.

I’m dead serious, they’ve done that much good for my mental health, and I really want to try and encourage any of my readers to do a mental touch grass step they might not know about. If I can help destress people to focus on the days ahead, I’ll be glad if that works out well.

Lastly, another article idea I had, and I think this is the one I’m gonna try to focus hard on for the month (MN Itch bundle piece excluded). My LRG piece from last month had a big block about how nostalgia is a means for people to try and recreate their specific childhood situations, leading to them getting mad at X thing not being 100% the same as when they were a kid with less stressors. Being a huge pokemon fan with gripes about the series, but one who has mellowed out well, a lot in general the past year due to being more able to touch grass, I kinda sense that dark aura around why a lot of modern pokemon fans are mad about the IP no matter what it pumps out, and how it seems that toxicity is way out of control with the franchise.

So what better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pokemon by going over notable memories I have of it, and also pointing to the moments when I honestly stopped caring about the stuff that make people lose their minds over modern Pokemon and how it seems all of that is a nostalgia-driven cycle. I even forgive a game I hate and no longer think it shouldn’t exist. I can’t promise this will make it for pokemon day (but direct impressions will), but I think it’ll be a fun article. It may also be timely depending on how mad people get about whatever is shown off that day.

Anyhow, that’s a lot of rambles to say I’m all fine, I should be good to go with SFG HQ now, and this fire type did not catch on fire, thankfully. See you next week!