Life Update!

I’ve ALREADY begun to slack on this blog, what else is new? Personally, I think I had very good reason to! December was one of my busiest months last year. Since I have started expanding the video concepts and creating full game let’s plays, my strict video capacity has really been two per month. I can, for the most part, delegate about two weeks to each video: spend a day researching, a week playing the game, a few days writing the script and recording audio, and then Lissa, my fabulous editor, needs time to EDIT, obviously- but, we’ve gotten it down to a well-oiled machine. Except for in December.

In December, I attempted to push out three videos instead of my usual two. This is because one of my video concepts, Nintendogs, was going to be a little bit of a lighter-load video. There’s gameplay, yeah…. a week’s worth? Nah. More research, of course, but still, with my two sims videos I had planned, it would have worked out perfect. The catch was that I was to leave town for the holidays, on the 23rd, so I was trying to complete three videos in three weeks. However, when it came time to film the Nintendogs gameplay, I ran into…. you guessed it! A technical issue. Long story short, I discovered that recording 3DS gameplay using custom firmware was only possible with 3DS games, not regular ole’ DS games. Super sick. You know, I knew there was going to come a time where I would want to get a mod chip installed in the 3DS, but I didn’t know it was going to be so soon. But now, we’re workin’ on it. Just you wait, there will be so much DS content in the future, you’ll get tired of it.

So, I had to pivot and do three Sims videos in the month of December. I like to space them out more, typically, and include other games here and there, but that’s how it worked out. It also worked out to where I edited the Sims Medieval by myself, but I did, thankfully, get it all done in time before the holidays.

After the holidays, I came back to LA and decided it was time to adopt a cat. After my beloved cat, Tiny, passed last year at 18 years old, I knew I would want to make space in my heart for another little animal. However, with my busy schedule and knowing I was to be out of town for the holidays, I decided to wait until I was back in town and ready to dedicate serious time to kitty activities. My friend, Leo, and I went to a few shelters in the Los Angeles area, but didn’t have any luck. The first shelter we went to, and all of them frankly, didn’t really have very many cats available for adoption. Apparently, and I had no idea this was a thing, there’s a “kitty season” in the Spring/Summer, when a ton of cats have a baby boom, I guess. So there was a limited selection, but I did find one old lady that I really loved. She was very timid, and very grumpy, though, and did not want to come out of the cage and meet me. I was waiting for her to give me a sign, show me a LITTLE something that could help convince me to take her home, when a couple came in and adopted her right from under my nose. Those bitches. So, I went over to another cat I was considering. She wasn’t elderly, but a few years old, and very lively. Guess what? That SAME couple came in and adopted her, too. Right in front of me. I felt targeted, honestly.

That day, I visited a few more shelters, but had no luck. The few cats that were available had mountains of health problems, it seemed, and although there was a time when I would have been willing to take that on, I just can’t financially handle a cat that needs most of their teeth removed. Not right that second, anyway. Maybe after tax season, ya know. But the only other cat I saw that day that I loved was a girl with some really bad dental issues, and after dealing with that with Tiny, I just thought that right NOW wasn’t the time.

I went home sadder than I’ve ever been, it felt like. That night I joined a few local stray, foster, and TNR groups in my area. I also contemplated adopting a cat through a rescue, or just waiting a few weeks to visit the shelters again. But, the following night, I saw a beautiful baby kitten girl on a stray group. Her mom had given birth in a family’s backyard three months prior, and they decided to keep the mom and one of the kittens and offload the others. Oh my god, she was gorgeous. A beautiful, fluffy baby. I messaged the woman who posted her, and went that same night to pick her up.

Baby girl was shy. She was way more timid than the other cats in the litter, supposedly. After a few days of hiding, she turned into a totally different cat. She is super active and lively, we play pretty much all day, even while I’m working, and she lays on me at night. It’s exactly what I needed to make my place feel less lonely. She did amazing during her first vet visit, and now, she just needs a brother or sister. In due time.

I think I’ve decided on the name ‘Mimi’, because everything else just doesn’t fit. But naming her Margaret, and calling her Mimi for short, works for a kitty, and then we can do Madge or Marge when she’s an old lady. We’ll see, for whatever reason I’m still just not sold on it.

But, that has been my life the last two months! This month, I was only able to push out one video, and that’s going to be Moonstone Island. Playing through a farming game is a lot more work than a sims game or Nintendogs, since I, of course, want to get through at least the first year. I couldn’t put this game down, kitty and I had a lot of fun playing it, so I hope it was worth the wait.