7 Days to the Wolves

2019 update: because I was not allowed to bring a camera in, I had to source this from the internet and it is not from that concert

 

A few days ago, I saw Nightwish/Sonata Arctica at the Sound Academy downtown.

Sonata Arctica warmed up the show, but Nightwish really was the real act, it was almost magical.

I say almost because, well, some people seemed keen on ruining the experience for others. I have something against Mosh Pits, and while I'll let other people mosh their heads off (quite literally, sometimes), it kinda sucks when you're sucked into one against your will. 

I arrived to line up for the show at about 6:30, which left me somewhere in the middle of the line by the time the doors opened. When I entered the actual concert room, I found that I could actually come rather close to the stage, not front row, but a damn good spot nonetheless.

So after waiting a while, Sonata Arctica finally came up, and they were fantastic! Near the end, they played a slower-ish song, and what really pisses me off is that people were moshing to this song, when it really shouldn't be moshed to. You'll find that some other bands, such as Dream Theater, openly discourage moshing, as people have gotten killed from getting trampled. 

And what I was a part of was hardly moshing at all, it was six buff guys ramming into the crowd from behind trying to start something up. And there's no escape, because the crowd moves like a a giant tidal wave. My head was spinning, and let's just say I'm glad I hadn't eaten anything all day. Definitely hadn't felt a near-death experience like that one in a while.

I learned my lesson, and had to move way the hell back from my prime location for Nightwish as I watched others get sucked into the monster known as the moshpit when they played 7 Days to the Wolves.

So, beside that little doozy, I am so glad I went out to go see two of my favourite bands, even if I was alone. I met some decent people, and I chilled with a bunch of long haired people (see, we look out for each other!) after the concert, even though we had to yell to understand each other.

Karma Aspiration Linger Entity Iodine Darwin Overcast 

Ulysses Grievous Hawt Spectre Ophilia Philharmonic Eyeless.

I want to not have been baitclicked

I still have not fixed the overwhelming HTML-based (I assume?) problem; the one that puts an enormous hurdle in front of an internaut user trying to comment on any one of my posts. Of course, more traffic to "my" website would probably solve it, but I miss hearing from my readeries, as I used to call you, so I delay in trying anything.

It gets ronery in here; just like it started; as the mreowr of the old decaying cat I cat-sit echoes through the empty main floor I still blog from.

I think my writing style took a hit; time to find it again.

And so the cherry on the bottom is I have to clean up after the cat now. Usually I let its owner take care of it, but one must pitch in when the felines start meowing at the apes.

A wholly similar topic to yesterday

Yesterday's blog post title had to do with how comfortable I felt sharing my innermost thoughts to the general blogging realm, if not the internet. I didn't write much about that, choosing to freewrite down some spare thoughts instead.

I'm here now instead of queuing up for Overwatch again. I figure it's generally a better use of my time to blog than to spend another hour cloud gaming: I'll be a better writer that way.

I enjoy the writing in Overwatch more than ever, though. I mean, the writing other players do in this case, not the lore writing (which is great as well). In lieu of a proper offline social life, I find that I smile and chuckle often whilst playing this multiplayer game simply because of the sometimes outrageous banter that happens in match chat. Off the top of my head, things like "you absolute cucumber" (what an insult!) or "dps diff" (which is complicated to explain but very simplistically means one team's damage dealers significantly outperformed the other teams') are common and either make me smile or make me reflect on my own gameplay to improve. The toxicity has gone down, in my experience, because the AI filter seems to pick up pretty well on actual toxic messages, so it's fun to read people chat and participate, too.

At the very least, you'll find me saying gl;hf often in multiplayer games because I strongly believe that bringing in sportsmanship in competitive e-sports games is a great idea considering the general negativity and sometimes downright filthy language that can be found in lobbies. I know I always appreciate it when positive players on either team contribute to a positive social experience; it makes spending time online worth it (and improving my hand eye coordination) worth it, in my opinion.

Now to go queue without even bother revising my post: that's the speedy spirit, Gabriel.

How personal can I get?

A kaleidoughscope of musings.

I am wondering; I'm kinda high. I'm in queue for an Overwatch rig which I will then use to queue an Overwatch game on.

I don't mind disclosing that I'm stoned. Baked. Fried. Gelé. I am often; it's a residual habit I have from the pandemic, where I decided that I wasn't going to spend lockdown sober. I'm glad I did not; I have no regrets from the pandemic.

I have no regrets about the pandemic for now. No, that's not true. My only regret is not working harder to build a life with someone, like an SO.

Well, my rig queue is up; what I was thinking before I forget is that I can always claim that an AI wrote something I did if I somehow get into hot water with the blogging authorities, which has yet to happen.

I will say that I was recently unbanned from Overwatch. I was banned by the automated system, probably because I play on cloud gaming. I have been cloud gaming almost exclusively for almost a year now.

On that note, I did recently restart my Nintendo Switch, and it still works.

I still love video games.

All is well in the world.