New Job, New Routine, New Friends

Hey everyone! If you haven't heard, I have a new job! Unfortunately my new job has be being extremely exhausted after work most days which makes it quite difficult to do much of anything... including my blogging. Now, I truly do enjoy typing and sharing my stories with the world, but when you're so tired that you can't even bring yourself to spend some time typing for a bit is quite something.

For anybody wondering, I'm now working at the Thunder Creek Pork Plant in Moose Jaw. Historically, I haven't done MUCH for physical work. Instead, I've done a lot of cashiering and customer servicing and whatnot of that type... this work requires much more lifting and using of the arm muscles that I haven't had much of previous to now. So as a result, I end up being quite tired and sore at the end of the day especially given the fact that I have to get up by 5:00 AM at the latest if I want to have enough time to comfortably get ready for work in the morning.

So how crazy is that? I still like to stay up much later than I probably should whether or not I have to get up so early in the morning... though I find that because what I do for by entire work day is pick up and move meat around, I don't exactly need to be in the best mood and super awake and all that. Basically I still like to stay up late and watch shows and YouTube and Twitch and things, but I often don't have the energy or willpower to get anything else done while I'm here.

Luckily with this new job and new routines around it, I've surprisingly managed to find new friends! Never did I ever think I would find people that I would get along with working in a pork plant of all things, but strangely enough there are people there who enjoy joking around and even playing games outside of work. I've been needing to find new friends to game with for quite a while now and suddenly finding people I can chat about games with and play games with is such a rush that I haven't had for quite a while now. I finally feel like I have interesting things to talk about again!

So for the time-being I'm looking for an office job to take advantage of my schooling and get a higher pay to better support the family, but in the mean-time I'm much happier than I ever thought I'd be working in a cold pork plant. It's definitely something to get us by for now that I can stick with if I for some reason can't find what I'm looking for in an office. With that, wish me luck in my continuing search and let us see if we can get back on track with everything we're wanting to do.

In the mean time, have a great day everyone! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Get Ready For The Best Time

Are you ready for the best time? What better time could there be then now to begin anew with all the stories and videos and reviews and everything that I've been working on?

Now, I could have made some posts and some videos over the past few weeks, but I just wasn't feeling it. I didn't think that forcing myself to make a video while sick would be of the best quality that I'm looking for. I didn't think that making myself stay up while tired would make for the best quality thoughts put onto a page. And to top it all off... the Summer Games Done Quick marathon started which played for a week straight. So I effectively took a vacation from my content production and in only a couple days I'll be taking another week for a REAL family vacation.

This is great you see, because I have been sick for like the past month. Well, I was sick for a couple weeks followed by having a lingering cough for a week followed by... Well it's mostly gone but still a little bit there. And I'm sure the whole reason I got sick in the first place was because of the new influx of germs from Isabelle and all her adorable little friends coming and going from daycare all the time.

There was also the major adjustment which I'm still working on right now of Carley starting her new job which was part time at various different hours, but now is a full-time position all the time five nights a week... nights. Now I do love that Carley is so happy working and getting herself out of the house, building connections and relationships, and generally being happier. The hardest part is that we have to learn to exist together within the same household still seeing each other at least a little bit every once in awhile. If you have never worked opposite hours from your significant other, you wouldn't believe how difficult it can be to not see your significant other except for like two days a week. The rest of the time, one of you is tired and the other is not, or one of you stays up later than you should to see the other followed by being exhausted the next day. There really is no great in-between point. But for us, it is what is best for us right now.

So hey, I'm going to upload a few things while I have the time today, go on vacation, then get to work on finally making something of my everything I want to do with this here blog and everything else I do. During the time I'm gone, I will do my best to at least take down some thoughts of what has gone on each and every day which I would then be able to turn into a blog post very quickly after coming back.

I have to say, I love the job that I have and I love being able to share my life and my experiences with all of you fine people out there. Please continue to share with me any ideas you have for Content that you would like to see or hear. I have lots of great ideas but your feedback is the most important to me for what you want to see. You can always comment right on each blog page, comment on any of the links that I share out there, or even email me at Kyle.Welykholowa@gmail.com.

Enjoy yourselves out there, and look forward to more great content coming at you soon! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Google+ Shut Down - Let's Start Something New

Have you heard Google+ is shut down? Crazy, I know. I've been using Google+ for quite a while now to help with posting my links to blog posts, YouTube videos, and Twitch streams; now I find myself needing other places to post these things. I found that a lot of the viewership on my blog came from posting links to groups on Google+, but instead I've just finished searching for Facebook groups to share my work with. Because Facebook is so usable and widely used by so many people, I'm hoping that I may not only find new places to share things, but also might find new things to look at myself as well as the possibility of making new friends.

With everything that has been going on in the past few months I've really let myself go. I mean in terms of my content production not only of blog posts, but in everything else as well. I haven't done any recordings or streams or posted much of anything really in the last little while. With this new month and with things going so well at home I'm hoping that the end of Winter will signify the start of something new for me. I'm looking to drive new traffic to the site and have much more entertainment for all of you. Sure I keep saying it, but I can feel it coming down the pipeline this time; this first post is the start of it all.

I've decided that something I will be changing with the way that I do things is that I'm going to finish more things before moving on to new ones. What I mean by this is that I have many Age of Wonders videos that I haven't yet posted even though they're from many months ago... I have at least 10 extra games and apps on my phone right now that I haven't yet reviewed before moving on to new games... and worst of all is that I have so many pictures and videos from so long ago that I haven't yet done anything with and now I'm running out of space on my phone to store it all. So with this planned change of pace, the way I make my new content will change as well as the way I do some things around the house with trying to finish more things before starting new ones.

If anybody has any suggestions on more places to post my works of creativity or any other wonderful suggestions to help me out, I would be greatly appreciative of any and all assistance on ways I can improve and get more interest out there. I've got a lot of upcoming plans not only for gaming content but also for spending time with my fam jam which I hope will come up with some wonderful stories for you all in the future.

Age of Wonders Livestream - June 8, 2018 =4=

Today I decided to do a little bit of livestreaming and the game of choice was Age of Wonders, always one of my favourites. At some point I'll figure what sort of strategies I want to go with when starting new scenarios to hopefully get a much better start than I have in the past.

I've been playing some Play By Email games with some people over on the Good Old Games forums recently which has been quite a blast remembering just how easy it can be to mess up a game or take a bad engagement.

So here's some of my practice time in trying to learn some better strategy.

=== What's The Date Today? ===

     Carley and I went on a date today for the first time in a while. Today I remembered that it's really easy to forget to spend proper time together outside of the house. We tend to get into habits where we watch TV and play games and do the same old things over and over again. Now that's not a bad thing to be happy with what we have and what we do.

     Sometimes we get so busy with me working, Carley taking care of Isabelle, and then trying to spend the rest of our time with friends, that we run out of time to spend doing special things together. So today we finally got a chance to go to a movie together and we had a wonderful time. It was really nice to be able to do something for once rather than just sitting around (though I do really enjoy the regular things we do as well).

     Having dates together is something so easy at first when you start dating somebody. It's so simple to make anything into a date when you don't live together. You actually have to try to plan things out and spend time with each other at someone's house or outside somewhere. A little tip for everybody out there who may be in a relationship or thinking about getting into one: it's way too easy to forget how to spend that special time together once you live together. As simple as it might seem to hang out together in the same room, that's not always good enough. Sometimes you have to go out of your way to do something special for your partner; make breakfast in bed for them, get some flowers, or maybe write a poem.

     So here we are having a great time together after going out to our movie this evening. We decided to finish playing The Walking Dead: The New Frontier tonight so that we can move on to different games. What a wonderful series; but that's of course for another time when I'm reviewing another game.

Have a wonderful night everybody, and don't forget to show your loved ones how much you care.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Blizzard is dropping the Battle Net brand.

     After years and years of playing some of my favourite games on the good old Battle.net, Blizzard will be dropping the brand and changing it to be Blizzard Tech. To me, this doesn't really change much except to put some nostalgic thoughts of playing games like Diablo II online with friends and other random strangers across the internet.

     I'm always intrigued when it comes to changing up branding and seeing where things go from there. It always seems to be a bit of a gamble to me. That, and I see some brands like Coke changing it up quite often. I can't imagine having an entire brand rely on me coming up with some sales-pitch with the hopes that it captivates the target audience. There's the very real chance that it fails miserably and you actually lose customers in the process.

     In this case (for long-time customers like myself), I imagine it'll be a little bit weird for a bit. Ultimately though, I think it makes a ton of sense; and I think a little bit of weirdness is a minor concern considering new customers will have an easier time adjusting to and finding the new system.

     Really, this is simply a thought-provoking announcement to me. Something which makes me remember the past with games like StarCraft and WarCraft, and look forward to the future. Oh how I love watching the beautiful progression of technology since my birth in 1992. It's amazing to me how I've grown up with it and through it and I cannot imagine how older generations must think about it when they remember their past.

     That's all for now. Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle

Sometimes it's just a short post about my thoughts.

     I've been told that people like reading my thoughts even if it's just something simple. So much so, that I should make a post every day, even if it's on nothing of interest. Well... I'll try to have something interesting to think about as often as possible. I can't promise having something to post about every day. Nor can I promise to have something interesting to think about on those days that I do post something. But I can make an effort to write more posts.

     I've thought about this a lot actually. If only I could be paid to write about my thoughts every day. Well... in theory... I COULD... but if that did happen, it would certainly take work and time. Not that that's a bad thing. I have a fantasy of finding something to enjoy doing every day and making money at it. Being successful at something I've created myself rather than being successful at a job that someone else came up with. I thought it was just a want to be a famous streamer or something... but after giving it some thought I realize that it's not just about a silly idea of playing games for a living... if I could play games, or write about things, or make artwork for a living and get paid for it... I think I would be really happy. I think it's that old creative me wanting to come out again.

     I used to be really creative. One of my best creations was a ship made out of popsicle sticks which I'll show a picture of. I've also had a couple drawings and paintings that I was really proud of that I unfortunately never got any pictures of and have been lost to the depths of moving multiple times. So now that I've had this time to think about things to myself, I have a better understanding of myself. Every time something new and significant happens, learn something new about myself and think that I must know all there is to know about me. And yet... I keep learning more about myself with every event. I'm a creative person. I know this... I just forgot about it.

     How can you forget about being creative? I know... it seems so silly that THAT could be possible; to forget something so significant about yourself. But when I think about it... it's not just something that I'm coming up with to try to be an interesting person. I'm not just making up stories to try to cope with having a crummy month earlier. I've done creative things that I've been proud of and others have recognized me for in the past. When I was a child, I used to play games with my friends that were all in our imagination. I loved being in impov in highschool. My favourite classes were the ones where we got to make funny videos and things. And heck, I still play table top games by myself, just because I think it's fun to think about everything going on even if it's on my own.

     I guess a person forgets about these kinds of things when being in school and worrying about money makes you think that you have to fit into some kind of cookie-cutter 9-5 job. I've tried really hard to understand these things and fit in and set myself up to be a guy with a good job and everything absolutely average and normal and all that. I think what really gave me this realization was watching a stream recently. LethalFrag gave this wonderful speech which really makes sense and I took to heart. He said, "If you don't like what you're doing, you're not going to enjoy your life. So find something you like to do, and do it. If you like cleaning and want to be a janitor for the rest of your life, be a janitor!" It's so simple. I don't know exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I do know that I want it to be something creative.

     Alright... so this wasn't quite as short as I thought it was going to be. Enjoy everybody and have a great day! ^_^

~ Kyle

Streaming

Oh how I do so love streaming. It's one of the things that actually makes me enjoy playing a lot of the games I play. Because even though most of the time nobody watches, I still imagine people watching me and having a good time.

Seriously, if I could do one thing for the rest of my life, if would probably be to stream games for a living. Now of course I know that's probably impractical. That kind of thing doesn't happen to everybody now, right? But somewhere in the back of my head, I imagine myself being a popular streamer on twitch one day.

So maybe it's a stupid dream, but I still like having it. And even if I never get to that point I'll still enjoy doing it just in case I manage to make some friends one day or heck, perhaps I'll just make somebody's day. And that's all I can really ask for. Is to brighten someone's day, just a little bit.

Come check out my stream at www.twitch.tv/DaemonVirus1. ^_^

~ Kyle