Exciting gaming news

As stated in my bio, I'm a pretty big gaming fan. These days, I split my gaming time between remote cloud (PC) gaming, and my Nintendo Switch. For cloud gaming, I connect to a data centre that runs the game I want to play and I stream the game to a derelict Mac that can't run anything modern BUT has a 27" screen. I use a cheap gaming mouse, and a standard keyboard, and I'm good to go. It's great because I have a decent gaming collection thanks to the free Epic games giveaways, and access to my Steam account with all the games I've bought since the mid 2000s.

That's a lot of games, plus the free-to-play options that are on GeForce Now (which is the client I use for cloud gaming). 

Well, there's going to be a bunch more games, now that Microsoft and Nvidia have signed an agreement just yesterday bringing all the Microsoft game studio games to the platform. It's not all publishers that allow their games to be cloud-based, but Microsoft is now one of them and so I'll be able to play AAA games like Skyrim and even Call of Duty (and that's because Microsoft bought recently bought Activision-Blizzard).

Users of GeForce Now, such as myself, speculate that having a behemoth like Microsoft partner with Nvidia means other publishers will now want their games to be on GeForce Now. You still need to buy the game to play it through cloud servers, so it would make sense for other publishers to want to cash in on gamers like me who don't plan to run modern games on expensive modern machines.

So yeah, I'm pretty excited that I'll have access to more games I enjoy! I just need to be careful with finding the right balance so that I don't spend my leisure hours only playing video games. 

I -am- looking forward to playing badminton this weekend!

The February weather

 I'mma write about the weather. Yeah, the weather. The way I see it, it's better than not writing at all.

So it's February. The winter thus far has been pretty dull. There's been snow, but not much of it overall. It tends to melt, so I think there's been a maximum of two weeks in a row where there was snow on the ground before it all melts due to strange weather phenomenons like near 10° Celsius earlier this month. It's not like I live in an area where we get chinooks (super warm winds that blow into Alberta from the Rockies); no, this is plain ol' southern Ontario weather with a touch of ever-increasing climate change.

The problem with having some snow, and then most of it melting off soon after, is that it leaves ice patches everywhere when it stays cold after, which is dangerous for biking. If there's lots of snow, it's also kind of dangerous because the snow compacts from all the traffic over time and basically turns into ice, too. But when the snow all melts, and it stays warm, if I bundle up, the wind doesn't bother me even if it can feel pretty chilly sometime.

Still, I'd say the winter is coming to an end soon. I'm looking forward to more outdoor activities, and the ease of moving around.

Toxic beat

 

 

Here's the Song of the Day. I was walking home from work when this shuffled on. I can't really speak to the lyrics, but the beat is hella catchy, as with all Parov Stelar releases.

The morning routine

I wake up and the sun is out. It is cold outside. The frost creeps up my bedroom window.

I go to the kitchen. I set the kettle to the "green tea" setting, which is a temperature below boiling. I fill the metal insert that goes into the metal teapot with a spoon full of ginger green tea, wait for the kettle to beep, pour the hot water into the teapot, and then wait up to 3 minutes for the tea to brew.

Sometimes I add lemon. Often times I add MCT oil, for some healthy fat. I almost never eat breakfast before noon, and I think the MCT give me energy.

And so my morning routines continue...

On stream of consciousness

I was imagining things I could write about on my blog whilst I was out for a walk yesterday, and I realized that a great majority of my blog posts are really written as is, with little forethought. There's the truly moment-to-moment writing I do with my freewrites, but my regular blog posts are generally written on a whim as well. I guess I try and stick to a topic more when I'm not doing freewrites, but that's one of the only differences.

I have pictures to upload. Stuff I've cooked, graffiti, and natural world things like wild mushrooms and tree cover in the fall. But, most of these pictures are now being taken on my cheap replacement phone (that I just haven't bothered to upgrade because it works fine). That's one thing I miss from my old Windows Phone: good quality pictures (up to 41 megapixels!).

I should get around to uploading photos here and there eventually, because while the photos are sometimes blurry, there's still a story I can tell with them. Really, I'm just a bit lazy and I don't like dealing with Bluetooth transfers and image uploads. There's not much automation there because again my phone is kind of old at this point.

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Snow is arriving! It's falling as I write. It's been a few weeks with little to no snow, so although I've enjoyed being able to bike, it's also nice having snow for the quieting effect it has. And it looks pretty, and it's winter after all.

Last note: I'm not listening to much music this month, but I did have a nice walk with some Melodic Progressive electronic playing in my headphones yesterday, and that was nice.

Y-Yoga & appreciation

I went to a yoga class this week, to a different YMCA than I usually go to for yoga. It was kinda neat to be in a different atmosphere. I was up high, literally, because it's on the fourth floor and out of the windows all I could see were skyscrapers. The downside of going to this Y is that the classes are 45 min instead of an hour, and the centre is just a bit farther away than my usual Y. So I probably won't go as often, because it's not the most convenient spot to get to via public transit, and now there's snow again and I tend not to bike when there's snow.

Still, my class was a positive experience. Although I usually just do my own thing and don't talk to people, I had a short conversation with someone named A. and they made me feel welcome. It's generally a friendly place, whatever Y I go to, so I'm not surprised.

On a different note, but still on that same positivity vibe, I had someone at work the other day tell me "I appreciate you" - even though I couldn't help them find what they were looking for. It was nice to hear, but for a second it seemed out of place because I'm used to hearing those three words together at support groups and the such. Only for a second did it feel weird though, because this customer seemed quite genuine and the fact that I still remember this even though it was a few days ago shows that spreading positive energy works.

Hey you! I appreciate you for being here!