Hoo boy, time to figuratively blow the dust off this old blog and get some shit posted! My new i7-4790k will finally arrive here tomorrow, along with 16 GB of juicy DDR3-RAM. Which is exactly when Intel decided to finally announce their Broadwell processors, meaning next time I need to upgrade my system I'm gonna have to get myself yet another MoBo, but for the time being, this thing is one of the fastest gaming CPUs money can buy.
My old Q9550 has served me well over the years, but stuff like GTA V is just a little too much for that aged piece of hardware and I so love all those particles and postFX and high resolutions and what have you. Seeing as I have to work with videos more and more for the job, I can't sit around on some 8 year old machine, struggling to maintain at least 30 FPS on decent-ish visual settings.
Ironically, I may not be needing this beefy new setup to do my job for much longer, as I've just given up on my news job. Posting and translating interviews and gaming-related news was fun for a while, the pay was great, but it was also unreliable. Sometimes it'd be there in time for the rent, sometimes we'd sit there and eat nothing over the weekend because they'd pay up a week later than the month before with nobody giving me a warning.
And god forbid if I asked whether or not the payment had gone out on time. I'd get all sorts of reactions from asking me why I never put anything aside for a rainy day to how baffled everyone is at my completely unrealistic expectations. I know, doing a job in April and then getting paid for it at the end of June is considered "normal" nowadays, but I can't help but wonder how they're oh so surprised with me telling them I get in trouble if it takes them more than 3 weeks to pay up. Especially since there had never been any problems of that sort in the six years I had worked with those guys.
Oh well. At the end of the day, an employer is always just that. They're not a friend. You're always a disposable human recource, no matter what they say. Or as a friend put it: there's no column for loyalty in MS Excel.
On the plus side, I now have lots of time for jobs from other employers, whose offers I've been largely neglecting in favour of that whole newsy thing. Right now I'm fully booked till way into July. Guides, reviews, translations, quest text, you name it. Rent is paid, the next two or three months worth of rent will be in the bank by next week and depending on how noticeable my hardware upgrade may or may not turn out to be, we'll be able to upgrade Claire's rig, too, should she require it.
And beyond that? Time will tell. I honestly can't say whether or not the jobs will keep coming the way they are piling up right now. The joy of being a freelance writer. Ideally, I'll be able to impress enough people with my work to stay in demand. Failing that, I may have to go on a trip to ye olde job centre once the well of gaming-related writing dries up. Strangely enough, I'm not super worried about the future. Things have always worked out okay for us - - and as a native speaker of what's a foreign language around here, finding work shouldn't be too difficult, should the need ever arise.
They've released a dragon warframe on, well, Warframe. Those bastards! I've played a chunky, tanky old warframe called Rhino for as long as that thing had existed on there, eventually switched to Rhino's prime version and stuck with him forever since. Leveled the odd extra frame here and there on the side, but Rhino made me happy. Now there's Chroma. He's chunky enough to make Rhino look almost lean and agile by comparison. He's super powerful. AND HE'S A FUCKING DRAGON!
That little Clan Claire and I started on there a few years ago? They're called Double Dragon. Double. Fucking. Dragon. Sooo... yeah. Gonna have to play and upgrade one. No way around that. So here's my motivation to complete what little there is left to do for the Elder Scrolls Online guide stuff. You know, the thing where I originally said I could probably give out a few pointers on how to play a Dragon Knight. And then they made me level up a sorcerer from scratch. Write about the six major updates, pvp, the cash shop, now I'm looking into crafting, vampirism and lycanthropy. I can't remember the last time I made such a massive pile of money within such a short amount of time. Don't get me wrong - it's a ton of work, some of which is way more complex than I had ever anticipated. In the past, I'd write guides on how to set up the best leveling spec, how to get through the progress stages, that sort of thing, but now it's all spreadsheets and optimal endgame gear and how and where to find the best upgrades and enchantments and holy fuck, this stuff is difficult!
Not complaining. I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't consider this sort of thing the world's greatest job. However, there is this stupid, nagging voice at the back of my brain now, which keeps chanting, "Chrooooooooomaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" and I wanna set up an ideal build for that thing, slap a ton of upgrades on it, power-level the hell out of that thing and I have to force myself to concentrate on work-related stuff and not slack off with it. And I'm so weak!
Before I go, here's something scary for ya: Claire's (waaaay) late for her period. Which means nothing with her, sometimes she's late by a week, she even skipped a whole month once, her tubes are just special and fucked up like that. But, you know, you wanna be on the safe side and everything and it's a bit creepy how a bit of stuff comes out when you squeeze her tetays, so she pissed on a stick. More than one, even, several days apart, to be absolutely sure. And two unexpected things happened.
First off, it was negative each time. So I should reeeeeally drag her to a doctor, because something's seriously fucked up there with her hormone levels. What's weirder, we were actually sort of... disappointed?
We agreed from day one that we never, ever wanted to even go there. You know, kids n shit. We openly laugh at stressed out couples whose kids throw tantrums at the supermarket. Which isn't a nice thing to do, but neither is forcing everyone around you to put up with your spoiled brat.
But now, seven and a half years in, we're... you know, talking. Who would take care of what, how would we afford it, how much time would we have before we'd hafta find a bigger place, that sort of thing. Nothing is set in stone and before anything, we'll have to make sure that our future is somewhat secure, but is it ever? People are voting to abolish the human rights act. Get rid of human rights. They're for it. They've made a guy prime minister, who said wonderful things such as, "For too long we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens so long as you obey the law we will leave you alone." Not the best time to make babies. We should pack our shit and leave. Not sure where to go, though. They say Pluto is nice this time of year.
-Cat
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