Personal

I know. It’s a pretty dramatic title. In truth, I’m not that angry. But I have been furiously fretting on my keyboard as I work to pen two milestones for this site. One, the first full review for a game I’ve finished since starting my site. Technically, that could apply to Perfect Dark, but that review’s scope was compromised due to me playing it with a friend on a restricted schedule. The upcoming review for Aliens: Infestation is a game I chose and played through on my own, and as such I’ll be covering it in its entirety. I have a lot of criticism for the game, so I suppose it is somewhat wrathful. But I will try to be measured, all the same.

Second, I’ve come up with my first non-review topic to write about! I won’t say here what it is, because I think it will be an amusing reveal. However, it is tangentially related to the aforementioned upcoming review, so there’s a hint. It is gaming related. As for when these can be expected… I don’t want to make promises. This isn’t my job, so I’m not beholden to any financial incentives, and I have to prioritize career-searching with my free time.

I’ve realized in the past that when I sit down to write something, I generally want to finish it in the same sitting. There’s a sense of anxiety that if I don’t, I will lose my drive to write on the subject, or forget details I wanted to expound upon surrounding a work of art. My memory isn’t great to begin with, and my (professionally diagnosed) ADHD probably doesn’t help that.

However, this comes at a cost. I’m meticulously analytical and detail-focused, and I try to be as thorough as possible in my writing. When I first began writing media analyses, I was driven by frustrations I felt from the work of others. I often thought critics didn’t examine something in its totality and as a result overlooked how various elements of a work interacted with each other. I might characterize it as disliking “reductive” reasoning.

I didn’t want to compromise my perspective on something in any way. I wanted to treat anything I wrote as if it were the “final” say on something. More broad than anyone else, while achieving a generally high level of detail that was also unmatched.

That sounds arrogant, but that’s because I’m describing a goal. Goals are idealistic. They’re not usually what you actually achieve. That description of my work doesn’t even adhere to my own philosophy. “Final” say? I’ve changed my opinion on things many times before, so how can I completely trust my present impressions of something? And I’m well aware that the critical space has many talented people that could give me a run for my money in terms of quality, knowledge, and introspection. I can only hope that I inspire others in the same way.

All that is to say that I set very high standards for myself. Even if someone comes away with thinking something I wrote is shitty, which is their right, I want them to at least trust that it wasn’t for lack of trying. To make this evident, I often take several hours to construct a review. Considering there’s no pot of gold for me at the end of that rainbow (yet), I still have to pay the piper and acknowledge my old approach wasn’t good for me.

It cuts into financial productivity, even though I hope one day that isn’t the case, and it’s a huge drain on my mental health. So I’m changing my process to a more gradual one that’s less concerned with deadlines and instead seeks gradual progress. I’ll get there when I get there, in other words.

The only concerns there are the ones I mentioned previously, which is my analysis quality decreasing from the increased distance to my subject. In truth, I didn’t even fully take advantage of that before, either. There were many times in the past where, after hours of writing, I wrapped up my review in a hurry because I had run so completely out of steam. In my efforts to achieve thoroughness, I ended up compromising my writing anyway!

The alternative would have been forcing myself onwards and watching my writing quality deteriorate as exhaustion and resentment set in. I’m only human, so all I can do is my best. And I feel this new approach will help more than hinder. So I’m giving myself unlimited time, but making sure I don’t actually need it by working regularly. I can still give you all estimations, however. Infestation ought to be published by next Sunday, with the other article following within half a week to a full week of that publication date. Again, it’s possible they’re pushed out further. But you’ll be getting updates.

Other than that, not too much news. My friend Stevie finished The Grand Battle in Custom Robo V2, but I still have to get some silver and gold trophies before I can access the final two tournaments. While the game overstays its welcome in the post-game, V2 is a very strong entry in the series and does a phenomenal job filling in the Nintendo 64’s missing niche of complex fighting games. I would have racked up hundreds of hours in this game as a kid, were it ever released here. It’s such a shame. I think I might currently consider it only second to the GameCube entry, and that’s still a debatable position. For me, the aesthetics, music, and writing of the GameCube game are simply too unmatched by the rest of the series.

I’m still playing Elden Ring. Exploring my second cycle and finding new things in the base game, hoping to work up the nerve to take down the final boss of the DLC. My pace may be frustratingly slow to others, but so long as I’m having fun, I see no problem. I intend to play some more after I publish this post. I’ve also been enjoying VaatiVidya’s content on YouTube.

Lots of Yu-Gi-Oh! playing. Ice Barrier hit Master Duel, and as I wrote about last week, I’m a big longtime fan. The water/wind attribute exclusive event is underway, and I’ve been decimating the competition with my build. In fairness, they’re pretty overpowered in this format. Competitors have access to a loaner deck, but it’s naturally less optimized than my custom build, so I have an advantage. It’s a reward for my loyalty to Ice Barrier, god damn it.

I’m trying to get the Shaddoll alternate arts before they leave the shop. I didn’t want to build them yet, but FOMO got me by the balls. I also caught up on all of the solo content, having put off a bunch of loaner duels until now. The U.A. one was the most fun, with one duel incorporating my beloved War Rock, and another introducing me to the Star archetype, which seems like it could be a fun, cheap casual deck. Nothing much to comment on with regards to Duel Links.

My girlfriend continues to beat me in Mario Party somehow. It must have broke my brain because I began playing through minigame island in Mario Party 1. I knew full well that my run would end the same way it always has upon reaching the Boo and tug-of-war control stick rotating games. And it did. Instead of decreasing the required RPM, Nintendo somehow thought it would be preferable to have the game launch with a warning banner begging you to not rotate the stick with the palm of your hand. Nintendo, people did not do that because they wanted to. They did it because you never gave them another option. Fuck off with that “thumb and index finger” shit. It’s not possible to win with those methods and you know it. Go rotate into your graves, you scumbags.

I decided to abandon Tales of the Tempest. I fucked up my 100% run, and I’m also lost with regards to the story and shit now. I’ll have to start over and torture myself again another time. Obviously, I completed Aliens: Infestation. I might start a new GBA, DS, or 3DS game, or return to one I’ve started already. Not sure. No news on other mediums, though I did read a chapter or two of D.Gray-Man recently.

Professional

Scams, scams, scams! Holy shit. They’re fucking everywhere. There’s more scam job openings than real ones at this point, and it’s almost enough to make me sympathetic to the scammers. Almost. You know, it’s one thing to try and steal my identity or bank account. It’s especially egregious to steal my fucking time. Nothing makes my blood boil more than completing an assessment only to find out the offer was fake. Hours of my finite mortal time wasted on something with zero value or enjoyment. I legitimately think that’s low-key the most evil part of the entire operation. If these people don’t burn in hell, I can only hope someone or something brings it to them in the living world.

Ahem. I woke up to a message from a recruiter on LinkedIn a few days ago asking me to forward my resume to her email. I did my due diligence and checked out her profile. Her account was years old, and she had legitimate connections and postings. Naturally, I sent her my resume. Hours later, I receive a reply on LinkedIn saying to disregard the message as her account was hacked. I was floored. Not at the scam, but at her lack of responsibility in mitigating the damages.

For those who don’t know, messaging someone on LinkedIn creates a conversation record in your inbox even before receiving a reply. Therefore, this recruiter should have had access to every single account her hacker reached out to. The only professional actions from her would have been to first reset her password, second, to copy and paste a message to every single person in her inbox explaining the situation (i.e. not waiting for them to message you first, like I did,) and third, contact LinkedIn to report the situation.

Because of her passivity, I ended up giving my personal information to literal criminals. When I politely but sternly pointed out her delayed response’s outcome, she replied saying that she had already contacted LinkedIn and suggested it would have been impossible for her to reply to every contact, as over a hundred messages were sent out. This is not an excuse. A hundred messages is nothing when it comes to copy-pasting replies. She knew before LinkedIn did, and thus it falls on her to act first in resolving the situation.

It also has to be considered that, barring some sitewide security breach on LinkedIn I’m unaware of, it was likely her lack of diligence that resulted in her being hacked. When site backends being breached isn’t the cause of a password leak, it’s usually because someone didn’t properly evaluate a phishing link or some other kind of scam, or they were committing a faux-pas such as using a universal password. Meanwhile, this unprofessional recruiter has a job while I can’t fucking find one. So frustrating.

And that wasn’t even the last unprofessional recruiter I worked with that week. Another recruiter reached out to me inquiring as to my interest in a content analyst position. I did similar vetting. Her profile checked out as legitimate, and I requested a phone call to further verify. Everything appeared above board, and she claimed to have secured me an interview for last Friday. I was to expect a calendar invite with the requisite video call link later that Thursday. Yes, they scheduled the interview for the very next day. As an unemployed person, I don’t really have the leverage to not jump at the first proposed date.

The invite email never arrives, and I reach out. She assures me it’s already been sent, but claims she will ask for a duplicate invite. Friday morning rolls around, and still no invite. I ask once more what’s going on. Radio silence. No information on whether the interview is still going to be conducted, or even if she’s trying to square things with her client. As far as I know, I’ve been completely abandoned for no explained reason. All I wanted was acknowledgement in exchange for me wasting my valuable time with this charade and damaging my sleep schedule. What a fucking joke. Employers ask for the highest of standards while exhibiting only the lowest. Everyone knows something is wrong with our systems, but no one is interested in doing anything about it.

Public

The anime continues to edge towards completion. I wanted to have it done by this entry, but I was too busy. Sorry, folks. Last Sunday set the new record for my daily site views, which is cool. After souring my mood writing the previous section of this blog post, I think I’m going to go unwind with some video games. Hey, I guess this ended up being pretty wrathful after all! Awesome. Anyway, I wish all of you good luck, and a wonderful life. More than anyone, I wish that for my girlfriend, whose constant love and adoration anchors me to contentment and positivity. I love you.