…and I’m Feeling Good? Forming New Habits…
I am, finally! I will take it as a victory that in over 4 years, I caught COVID just the once, but… it still sucked. I stayed isolated as best I can, with very limited masked contact, and even after a negative test appeared, I still felt gross. I was calling my doctor and doing research (which is harder to do online, nowadays) and understood that I’d have some lingering symptoms after the contagious period had ended. Mostly a persistent and unproductive dry cough that would surprise me at the worst times.
But now that seems to gone, for the most part. It wasn’t easy to tell exactly when it had gone since I don’t talk aloud to myself very often, but when I was able to make it through more than a few minutes streaming and not muting the mic, I felt pretty confident. And feeling good is great! It means I feel more comfortable being around others, period. Masked, when appropriate, but the main thing I hate is getting other people sick.
MagicCon: Chicago
The main reason I wanted to feel better was because I was planning (now confirmed) heading to MagicCon: Chicago! I have visited Chicago twice now, once for C2E2 right before the pandemic and then in 2023 to record the Rivals of Waterdeep finale, so this will be a fun trip. It will be in February, so I’m gonna freeze my ass off, but still have fun.
I won’t say that I’m fully diving back into the hobby. Most of my Magic: The Gathering knowledge comes from the MicroProse video game, so I’m catching up new formats and new mechanics. A friend kindly gifted me the Doctor Who Commander decks, and I have some Foundations packs. So I’m all set. I just need folks–at my skill level–to play with! Which, once I understand SpellTable, I should be able to do remotely.
But mostly this is about flexing my “yearly travel” muscles, hanging out with friends, and getting to do some fun MtG and D&D creator stuff. I can’t wait!
WPR Interview
Totally random, but I was interviewed by Wisconsin Public Radio! I spend less and less time on X–the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter–these days, but I posted about when I got a surprise delivery of spices from Penzeys.
The above is Bluesky, where I spend way more time. But a reporter saw my tweet and reached out for a short call/interview. I didn’t realize that Penzeys was Wisconsin-based, but because of that, she just had to do a story: Wisconsin’s Penzeys sends ‘Resist!’ spice blend to DC ahead of Trump inaugural.
We had a nice conversation and I took some new pictures and texted them over and I don’t think I sounded like too much of a fool. As much as I’d love to be on a podcast, I feel like I rarely interview well. Being a streamer, I don’t hold back my words, but thankfully she recorded our conversation and made sense of it all.
Froghemoth Elder
I’ll be real, I just wanted to have a wacky heading on my blog, so that qualifies. I’m on WizKids‘ creator roster, so I get sent some of their items to showcase on stream and social media, and this one was… a little surprising. The Froghemoth Elder from their D&D Icons of the Realm set. The monster is from Quests from the Infinite Staircase, and I don’t think I’d want any of my characters encountering one.
I’m not that into mini painting as I don’t have a great workspace for it, nor are my eyes the best for it, but I do like their pre-painted miniatures. However, at nearly 8 inches tall, I don’t think this can be called “mini”. It’s also horrifically delightful.
Posting Schedule
Last thing to say is that I would like to post here more. It’s the first place I regularly updated online, and then when social media kicked in, I fell off of it. However, more than ever it seems important that we have a place online that we somewhat own, and isn’t owned by billionaires who only see us as potential sources of data mining and advertising revenue.
Once a week might be too ambitious, but maybe it’s the goal for 2025. I’d already tried to write once a month, which ended up having them seem like “catch up” posts. Hopefully I can get back to writing a couple hundred words whenever I feel.
And hopefully, y’all will keep reading? I guess we’ll see. 💖
