Endgame Viable

Contents

Morning!

I’ve long since lost count of how many chemo infusions I’ve gotten, but ChatGPT calculates today will be my 20th since I started last July, which sounds right to me.

For the post this morning, I’m going to review my topic notes and throw out some accumulating thoughts. Many of the topics I’ve written down just don’t warrant a post, and I can cover them in the size of a tweet.

Taboo Blog Subjects

Roger wrote: Which Subjects Won’t You Write About? — Contains Moderate Peril,

This is easy: Work, family, friends, politics (sincerely, at least, or in a persuasive or rhetorical way), religion (ditto), feelings.

Admittedly it took me a while to learn, but we’re not writing into a vacuum on the Internet, and there are some topics where I just don’t want to deal with any potential feedback. It’s similar to how I wouldn’t blurt out certain topics in a real-life conversation. If we lived in a world where blog comments never evolved, it might be another story.

Superpowers

The recent Blaugust group project was about superpowers, but I can’t answer this whimsically because, 1) superpowers aren’t real, and 2) I’d pick the most pragmatic one, which, for my current life situation, would be regeneration. We all live in frail vessels that routinely break down.

Real Life

I stumbled on this post: The Internet Doesn’t Exist - Matt’s Blog.

All of this is to say that The Internet is yours, and it is mine, and despite the title, it is real life. And because that is true, it requires us to treat it as such. Don’t be an asshole on the Internet, even if you can get away with it.

I agree with the conclusion, but I strongly disagree that the Internet is real life, a hypothesis I’ve been developing for the last 5 years or so. It’s more accurate to call it a shared fantasy (or delusion).

Statistics

Prior to this Blaugust, I developed an AI skill which analyzes my raw web access logs from AWS (the massive logs where there’s one line for every request to your web site) and generates a nifty statistics report. Finally I can answer the age-old question, “Why did the bar go up or down seemingly at random that one day?” I can just ask AI.

Reviewing the stats I can say with some high confidence that I need to reimagine my Recluse Reports or retire them. A regular potpourri “newsletter” post is apparently an awful idea, which stinks because it’s my favorite and simpliest, least time-consuming way to write.

Blog Longevity

I think Roger may have been referring to this post: What happens to our blogs when we die? | Michael Harley. I marked that post as well, as it hits pretty close to home for me, and it’s a subject I’ve thought about many times before.

I have a local copy of almost everything I’ve ever written on the Internet going back to 1998 (not counting emails) when I had my first domains, and in addition to that, my intention every time I post something is for it to stay exactly where it is on the Internet forever. But, you know, easier said than done. I did recently break many links on my real name site and have yet to think of a way to restore them.

The point is I have thoughts about it, most of which revolve around somehow leveraging the Internet Archive. If anything is going to survive far into the future, that’s surely one of the top candidates.

Final Fantasy XIV

I played through two more quests in FFXIV last night: Agriculture Shock and Sage Council. One took 30 minutes, the second took almost an hour.

When people speak of liking the Main Scenario Quest of FFXIV, I’m almost positive they mean that there are certain moments within the MSQ that are good and memorable. I would argue that the overall majority of story time in the MSQ is a bit dull, punctuated by moments of greatness here and there, which are often delivered by quality voice acting peformances.

The cut scene at the end of Sage Council was one of those highlights of the MSQ, in my opinion. (The part before, where you have to find 8 people to click on, could go jump in a lake, though.) I have to admit I’ve largely forgotten Moenbryda’s role in Heavensward and certainly forgotten what relationship she had with Urianger. Anyway it was a rare moment of character development for Urianger (or anyone, really).

ChatGPT calculated I have about a month of Endwalker story remaining, if I can manage to play two quests a night. And about three months of Dawntrail story ahead of that, at the same pace. Theoretically I can comfortably catch up before Evercold arrives in January 2027.

Of course I’ll be burned out completely by then, manage only a handful of quests at the start of Evercold, then stop playing for four years again.

P.S. I spent OVER AN HOUR finding that screenshot for this post, which nobody is going to understand anyway, and now I’m in danger of being late today. What an utter waste of time finding non-AI images for blog posts is. Arg. Frustrating. Rage against the non-AI machine! Convenience surpasses all human ethical concerns!