the october arc is over
I often think about when I was just starting college, playing Skyrim for the first time and suffering in all my classes because the Nintendo Switch made it virtually impossible for me to ever distance myself from the game. That fall, I spent hours as a student standing in a line to the best food on campus. There was never a time where the line didn’t snake out the door, but the reward was always worth it in the end. Standing in line at the dining hall, I’d either listen to a podcast or loop Secunda by Jeremy Soule, waiting till I finally got into the venue.
After spending 45 minutes in line, I was given the opportunity to shout my order amongst the crowd: “MAY I HAVE A KICKIN’ CHICKEN?!”... To which the employee behind the grill would respond with, “A PHILLY CHEESESTEAK?!” and that exchange would repeat for about 2 more times until my words could be heard.
After obtaining a Kicken’ Chicken, I would go back to my dorm to either work on a video or play some Skyrim. And that would always be my routine after getting through classes for the day. I don’t have a ton of memories where I did actual work that semester which should be worrisome, but don’t worry, I got my shit together the following spring. It’s weird to think that Skyrim was as old then as my first college semester is to me now… does that make sense? I guess all I’m trying to say is where’s Elder Scrolls VI?
Anyway, I have been hard at work this past year, but also not. At the start of the new year, I had beaten Alan Wake II. It was the last game I spent 2023 with and the first game I opened up the new year with. And from that point, my life took a trajectory that I could have never imagined. In the matter of a month, I had quit my old job, moved out of my hometown, moved into a new city with my girlfriend, and found my new job. After spending a year and a half in the most aimless limbo I had ever been in my life, it was wild to see how quickly everything manifested around me. Almost as if my writing was altering reality? (I clearly have Alan Wake II on the mind).
Things have been alright this past year. It’s weird because after graduating from college, I spent so long in “survival mode”, constantly worrying about when that chapter in my life would end and now that I’m finally out and where I want to be, I’ve been doing my best to enjoy the comfortability of not worrying how to get out of my parent’s house. So I have been enjoying the office life that I am currently living.
My usual morning routine consists of:
Getting up at 5 AM
Make coffee
Fitting in some reading or some Hotel Dusk
Make breakfast
Out the door for work
In the best possible way, my life got pretty boring. After previously working a full-time job at a grocery store and having an unpredictable schedule, I have enjoyed the stability and ordinariness of the schedule I’ve had this past year. There was a moment there where I regressed to Folgers coffee and was about to read one too many Murakami novels but then I snapped out of it and marched down to the coffee shop down the street and bought some beans. Oh and Murakami- there comes a point where you need to realize once you’ve read one of his books, you’ve read them all.
As my life fell into a very predictable routine, I felt it was time to start moving in the direction of a new video. There had been one game on my mind since last year and I want to produce a video that accurately demonstrates just how much this one particular game means to me. I have been working on this video slowly but gradually for the past 2 months and in its current state, it’s painfully obvious as you can see Halloween decorations begin to manifest around me as the video goes on. I originally planned to have the video out by October 20th, but that week someone totaled my car while it was parked on the street. So instead of working on my video, I have been shopping for a new car.
Since October rolled around, I have been making more of an effort to face my fears with Dead Space Remake and other survival horror games. I’m definitely getting more and more into the survival horror genre, a genre I was once too weenie for. A genre I have more access to thanks to games like Dead Space Remake, Resident Evil 4, and Alan Wake II.
I also spent this past summer consuming the entire 70s run of Columbo which has now become a quintessential show to my life. Because there’s nothing as comforting as sitting your ass down after a long day of work and watching Columbo catch a murderer through the power of advertising (Columbo S3, Ep4) or catch a murderer with a pair of gloves (Columbo S1, Ep4)
Other than that, I have nothing else to report on my end. If I were to give an update on my video, I’d say I’m still working on it, but I promise it’s coming. In the meantime, Happy Halloween 🎃
Peter Falk Circa 1990
Me Circa 2024
