Steady as We Go

Writing when I can, catching up on the last 5 years of gaming on my rest days, still annoyed by appointments but they're not as overwhelming as when I was doing physio.  So...just in the grind.  Trying to ignore, ya know...the whole world since...fuck me, I guess I wasn't cynical enough about this species.

Pain's been worse and been better.  Still trying to get the insurance to give me MRIs with the hopes of launching me back down the surgery path, next round of RFAs are set to start at the end of July, so I'll need a week recovery for each side, but outside of that just trying to keep things chill as I delve into the Welf Gala proper.

Some really fun party crashers coming up I get to spend some time with...it's one of those moments where I wish I could film people's reactions when they read it.

Quick Fire Reviews on Every Game I've Played Since Diving Back In:

Mario vs Rabbids:  Spark of Hope = 7 (too easy, first game was better)

Unicorn Overlord = 9 (just what I needed for a tactical fantasy adventure)

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim  = 8.5 (not much game to it, but the story was super fun to work through with plot twists galore)

Yakuza Like a Dragon = 7 (nothing great, nothing horrible, too long, which is a massive trend I've noticed, first game in the series I've played, so none of the big character moments hit for me)

Astro Bot = 9 (I'm not a platform guy, but haptic features were super fun)

Hogwarts Legacy = 7 (amazing first five hours exploring Hogwarts and Hogsmeade that just kinda becomes an open world game with too many quests and so so characters)

Midnight Suns = 7 (yikes dialogue, enjoy card battlers so...it's my jam)

Guardians of the Galaxy = 9 (this game was so much better than I was expecting, surprised to find out it sold so poorly, it's a blast of a 20 hours well spent)

Horizon:  Forbidden West = 7.5 (too long, too huge, the weapon upgrade aspect was a massive grind, killing big enemies was either boring based on OP freeze into spikes or just took forever chipping at health bars, how many siblings did I save in side quests?  A dozen?  Main quest was fun, but it was only 1/3 of the game) 

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 = 10 (GOTY, my favorite game since at least God of War 2018, maybe the Witcher 3, still thinking about it, itching for DLC and Sequel and maybe even the first New Game Plus I've bothered with since Mass Effect 2, will be writing FM7 to its soundtrack)

Dragon Age Veilguard = 3 (i have never played a game, especially an RPG which we can admit trends towards more intellectual players, that thought I had a 50 IQ before.  MIND NUMBING.  Every bit of dialogue is exposition repeating itself over and over, I didn't hate some of the companions which is the best we can say about that, the romance was HR PG nonsense, it somehow made me look fondly on Mass Effect Andromeda in comparison, I guess it was pretty at least)

Spider Man Miles Morales = 7.5 (fun little appetizer focusing on smaller scale spider man stories)

Spider Man 2 = 8 (it makes you feel like spider man, moving through the city is fun, the plot had a few fun moments, boss battles had too many stages since they were just the same thing over and over, Peter was super boring, too much open world crap again)

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle = 8.5 (not what I expected gameplay wise, but once I coped, had a ton of fun, best Indiana Jones story since Last Crusade, Troy Baker killed the voice, Disguises are so OP they trivialize the game, again a lot of open world find 30 ancient dildos crap, no, really they totally look like ancient dildos!)

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart = 8.5 (it's a very pretty Ratchet and Clank game and hey, it's only about 15 hours long!  It's a miracle!)

Improving and Back At It

Just wanted to say I am back to writing, here and there, and the pain has returned to not-fun but manageable levels for me.  Physio is probably a thing of the past, since I'm scared of a repeat and just having that appointment every week and needing a couple days in bed to recover after was playing havoc on its own.

So, yeah, hoping for some boring normal over this summer and just tapping away at the phone pumping out new scenes.  Really enjoying the one I'm writing now, in fact...and the next one I get to introduce a new Welf for ya'll!

Generally Not So Great Update

I'm really tired of typing posts like this, but...I do have a open and honest pact with you all about my progress, the ups AND the downs.

Short story:  hurt myself at physio on the 18th of April.  Not even like an exercise, just trying to lie down face first on a table weirdly enough.  Felt a pop in my mid back and by the time I got home...

Spent about ten days stuck in bed in incredible pain, basically in the fetal position on my right side moving as little as possible.  Considered going to ER, but given how ineffective they've been for me over the years, didn't want to torture myself in a chair for hours to be told there was nothing to be done since I'm not dying or bleeding.

Feeling on the higher side of my "normal" pain range now.  Hence me being able to type this really quick.

So...not much new writing, probably have an RFA coming up soon, and pretty bummed out.

Am improving day to day and I did finish a key scene before I hurt myself, have one setup (literally!) chapter left to write before the political chaos erupts! (beyond Moira's familial machinations which I know you all love soooooo much)

I guess the good news of not having physio any more would be that I'll have tons more free time to write (and play video games since this interrupted my BG3 plans something horribly...) and it felt like something I had to try to see if it helped.

Just typing this out made me feel better...and want to write.

Richard Raley:  eternal optimist.  Probably with a curse word and a bodily fluid reference thrown in there somewhere...

Okay, Spring Doctor Hell Survived

I'm still going to have minimum 5 appointments a month (4 physio, 1 spine guys) for a while longer but all the extra stuff looks like it will be out of the way come Tuesday.

I have gotten almost no work done for the last 6 weeks.  It's been...physio, procedure, physio, check up, physio, dentist, etc. one after another, then recovery from them to keep the spine from taking a downturn.  I fit like 3 days of work in April, one of which I up a deleted like two thousand words as soon as I finished writing them cuz they sucked...always so much fun!

I've also been reading reviews, answering email, posting here, stuff like that.

But...now I'm going to be taking a step back.  Get more into a writing mindset and try to get some chapters written.  If you have a question for the Q&A, ask, but it might be a week or more before I respond.

Outside of that, glad 99.9% of you enjoyed the new book, here's hoping WAR TO END ALL WARS, MOST OBVIOUS TRAP, and VICKY VON WELF AND THE MAXIMUS MASQUERADE (yeah, I'm changing the title) can keep the good times rolling.

Outside of that the sequel...I bought a PS5 to get ahead of the tariffs and I have 5 years of console gaming to catch up on.

Could be months until y'all see me again...and that's just playing Balder's Gate 3...

Seismic Semester Q&A

 Ask away.  Might take a day or two for me to respond when real life gets in the way, but I'll try to be quicker than that.  Obviously I expect most questions to be about the new book, but if you have something else, go for it.  I, as always, reserve the right to throw out some RAFOs when needed.