State of the Nabil, November Issue

November already. Where does the time go? I hope everyone had a happy Halloween, and is having a happy Day of the Dead today.

Projects

Who knows what will actually come to fruition, of course, but I do have some projects and ideas I’ve been working on and thinking about lately.

• I’m taking a stab at learning Swift, and using it to build a small app to do something I’ve wanted for a while.
• I’m toying with RPG Maker to try my hand at making a simple RPG. Gotta start somewhere.
• Fiddling with a new website, Symbolic.Space, which I’m thinking of using as a playground/portfolio for UX/IX experiments. Nothing there yet (will let y’all know when that changes), so far just an opportunity to get acquainted with nginx, as I’d always run Apache before.
• Trying to write more. It’s November, which is National Novel Writing Month. I’m feeling pretty out of practice and blocked, so I’m not sure I’m up to the task of doing a 50,000 word novel in a month, but I do think it’s a good excuse to get into a routine of writing exercises and more writing in general, some of which may include more blog posts. (Not committing to a certain number of blog posts, though. As my brother pointed out, whether it’s good enough to post or share is irrelevant to the real goal of getting back into writing regularly.)
• I’m thinking about revising my blog design to solve certain desires better, but I’ve not committed any real time to it yet.

Health

I’ve been struggling to get my latest bout of depression under control. It’s been a slog. I’ve been on edge, feeling easily alienated, and struggling to find the energy to commit to social things even with people I like and enjoy. I know the steps I need to take to get back on track (basically: find a manageable routine and stick with it, and make sure that includes regular exercise in some form, periods of productivity, and periods of relaxation/fun), just haven’t managed to get that to stick yet. I’m working on it.

Entertainment

My go-to game for a while now has been Final Fantasy XIV, which I’ve played semi-regularly for a few years (basically since 2.0 came out). Despite the fact that you can play every class on one character, I’m still a bit of an altaholic (i.e. someone who compulsively keeps making new characters), so I have characters on a few different servers to try and stay connected with friends who play/played. I’m mostly on the Goblin server these days, but I’m open to rolling a character anywhere someone cares to invite me. I’ve also created a Steam group for people who are playing or interested in playing, so maybe we can try and coordinate and play together, share tips and tricks, et cetera.

I’ve also been playing Xenoblade Chronicles, which has been scratching that single-player RPG itch quite nicely. Xenogears was one of my favorite games of all time, and this is sort of a spiritual successor by the same developers. I’d still love to see Xenogears itself remastered for modern systems, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

My brother and I have been discussing holding a weekly game night, where we get a group of friends to play a multiplayer game together. We’ve not landed on a particular game yet, nor really organized at all, really, but it seems like fun. This mostly came out of missing a sense of online community and connectedness that we used to feel when we were MUDding with our friends (IRL and in game) and had our cadre of regular gaming buddies. If you’d be interested in joining in on this, let me know. (Some games we’re currently considering include FFXIV, Guild Wars 2, Borderlands:TPS, and Overwatch, but we’re open to other ideas.)

Keep Breathing

There are definitely things I’ve not mentioned in this update, but this is probably a good spot to wrap up for now. Life, on the whole, hasn’t been bad. I need to get my shit in order, definitely, but things are alright. Just need to remember to keep breathing, keep moving forward. Good advice for us all, eh?