[Weekly - F/Sa] Week In Review

YEHA!!!! GO OLYMPICS!!!! \

Its actually the only time I've gotten my wife to watch TV with me while we work on small projects around the house. Its soooo much fun!!!!!!!

I love spending time with my wife that way where we're excited and hyped by watching excellence in people's professions and to watch God's children perform in such a way.



Otherwise, this week was lame. I'm really pretty convicted on watching too much netflix and not enough work. Its been hard though because we're trying to change our business model to be more of a SAAS company so my old projects that I need to get done, just are not exciting......... and the clients are difficult to work with but have paid the bills.

Really could use prayer and encouragement on it because I feel like I fail people and my family by avoiding the work.
 
As a side note, this thread is now two years old ;)


Admittedly, I'm still struggling, work has been hard to focus on. I watch HeavyArms a lot and I just have a hard time switching to work but then knowing i'm not interacting with him as much as i feel like i should so i feel guilty putting into a swing and hoping he sleeps.
Though there were a alot of "I"s in that sentence... too....
 
Atown said:
As a side note, this thread is now two years old ;)


Admittedly, I'm still struggling, work has been hard to focus on. I watch HeavyArms a lot and I just have a hard time switching to work but then knowing i'm not interacting with him as much as i feel like i should so i feel guilty putting into a swing and hoping he sleeps.
Though there were a alot of "I"s in that sentence... too....
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Red Five is a year old and Fulcrum is pregnant with (placeholder code name) Newbie. I feel this way every time I go to the laundry room where my workspace is set up. It's odd because I get to spend more time with them than lots of people get to spend with their spouses and kids, but because I'm working in such close proximity, it makes me feel like I suck at being a spouse/parent when I have to go do work instead of help, talk, and play.

All that to say... /brug

Oh, and this week has been a kind of rough. Sunday, my wife and I both felt unanimously and unshakingly convinced that we're being called (by the Spirit to take up a church position in Houston. But we haven't heard back from the church all week. Meanwhile, I now know without doubt that my current contract work is running out in March. So... that's no fun. But trusting God. But still no fun.

Yesterday, had our first sheep slaughtered. I paid close attention and forced myself to do so to determine if I think I could handle doing it myself down the road.

Also yesterday, kitchen sink seal broke again (has gone bad at least once a month since we moved here because the components being used were... bad). Bought a new drain basket assembly today while at Walmart. During which shopping trip, thought I had some letters with checks in them stolen from my car. Turns out that they had just gotten lost in the snow here, but they were found after I'd already paid two $25 check cancellation fees with the bank.

Oh. Snow pummeled us this week. So I went to run the ol' snowblower, and it stopped working.

So yeah. It's been a week. And I feel like today is more a 'roid raging Monday than a Friday. No gusta.

But "God's goodness is not dependent upon [my] circumstance." A good word from church a couple weeks ago. Been letting that one roll around in my head.
 
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Kendrik said:
Red Five is a year old and Fulcrum is pregnant with (placeholder code name) Newbie. I feel this way every time I go to the laundry room where my workspace is set up. It's odd because I get to spend more time with them than lots of people get to spend with their spouses and kids, but because I'm working in such close proximity, it makes me feel like I suck at being a spouse/parent when I have to go do work instead of help, talk, and play.
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It's posts like this that make me wish I was more vocal in the earlier years of my older daughter's life. The first 9 months were especially difficult because I was the primary caretaker of a small human after my wife went back to work shortly (6 weeks?) after giving birth. I had no idea what I was doing, I was doing it, for the most part, alone, and I had almost zero experience with kids because I was an only child and all my extended family was halfway across the country growing up (and even now).

I've come to the conclusion that it never feels like you're spending enough time with your kids and that tension is a sign that you still care, which is good. You have to strike a balance, of course, but you also can't let things fall apart around you to spend every waking moment with your little ones.

I've also come to the conclusion that the children never feel like you're spending enough time with them, either. They're tiny and they don't understand the AWFUL CRUSHING WEIGHT OF ADULT RESPONSIBILITY.

/cough

I've also come to the conclusion that there's just never enough time. Speaking of which, kids and wife are home and I have to cut this post short. :|
 
hahaha, it's true.

This week has been really rough being sick with a weird flu variant. To make things fun, we always buy a new game, within reason, to make being sick less of a drag and pass the time. this time we bought disgaea 2 instead of an AC game.

Good decision in my humble, but accurate, opinion XD

Syndicate really did not seem updated or better than unity so we opted for another game that was on steam sale.

I did get some work done but I spent the entire week with HeavyArms so it was difficult. Got to watch some planet earth II which was interesting.....

but, finally got some client work out of the way and almost done with two others that have been bogging me down hard core. looking forward to being done with a lot.

focusing on a new saas product development with an team from india. they are microsoft Gold partners so It should go well.
 
I'm late, I'm late for a very important date thread!

The last 2 weeks of work have been especially draining for various reasons, but mostly involving workload, being spread too thin across too many issues, and feeling as though I'm not equipped to do anything well (or, frankly, to even get it done). Losing 2 team members in rapid succession has had a serious impact on our team. We'll soldier through as we always do, but the next few months are likely to be rough.

The family is healthy, for which I am very, very grateful. During the middle of winter, it felt as though we were sick more than we were well.

Speaking of weather, it's starting to warm up and it will soon be a great time to be a field tech (minus the crushing weight of the workload, of course).

The little one still isn't sleeping through the night, but some nights are better than others. She turns into a pumpkin near bedtime if she hasn't had a nap that day, but she fights sleep with the strength of an armed legion if she does. This too shall pass. She's still super charming and totes adorbs.

TL;DR: I'm still tired, work is still stressful, and my kids are still cute and tiring and sweet.
 
So things finally slowed to a manageable (but most definitely still not slow!) pace at work last week. There are projects coming up very soon that will likely result in work piling up again, but I'm enjoying the quiet before the storm.

This week is Spring Break, but my wife and I are both working this week, so it doesn't count for much. Man, I wish adults got a Spring Break. It will be nice to take a break from evening activities for a week, though. Maybe we'll do something fun this coming weekend.

Life is more or less holding steady. All family members are in good health. Work is less crazy. Still wishing I had more time to play games, but I suspect that will remain a constant for a very long time to come. :>
 
yeah... its weird, im trying to get everything to calm down more. even outsourcing more.

I'm hoping to move forward even more on a couple of projects, while keeping the family fed, but trying to invest in some other opportunities.

Really having to trust God that I'm moving the right since I dont know what I'm doing half the time.

i feel blah most days, but hoping to get growing.

I think my biggest struggle right now is my days disappear, and then when i do have free time, i feel like i should be working.
 
Atown said:
I think my biggest struggle right now is my days disappear, and then when i do have free time, i feel like i should be working.
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Oh wow, did this resonate with me. Free time is hard to come by these days and I always feel a tinge of guilt even when I'm enjoying my free time. Adult life, yo. Rated M for Lord have mercy.

So I'm late to the thread again, but I can feel slightly less bad about it since I spent most of my weekend frantically cleaning. Nope, no deadline and no one's coming to visit, but I finally "snapped" and decided to clean my bedroom on Saturday and the living room on Sunday. It's a drop in the bucket, but I admit it feels really nice seeing results after spending several hours cleaning.

Work is finally slowing to a reasonable pace, though that's likely to change with upcoming projects. Sounds like I'll have help, though, which is much appreciated.

Family is still not sick, praise God. My adorable little vectors and my wife and I have been healthy for multiple consecutive weeks, which may qualify as a minor miracle.

Missing playing games with my CGA and ToJ peeps. Thinking about picking up Warframe after @Elader Arkon mentioned that it was developed by the fantastic Digital Extremes. Then I think about all the games that I paid money for (including $25 for Persona 5 and I've yet to clear the first "chapter" of the game) and I find myself shying away from installing and learning the ropes of another free-to-play game.

When we're young, we have the time for games but not the money. We grow up, start families, get better jobs, and then we have the money for games but not the time. That sweet spot in between is so very short.

Grateful for all the many blessings God has given me and my family this week, but can't shake a bit of melancholy this week. Not "woe is me" or anything resembling depression by any means, but just feeling reflective and missing some seasons of my life that were over before I realized they were over.
 
Tried to respond to this Yesterday and the day before, buuuut here we are.

Last week and change was pretty big. Went down to Portland to spend Easter with family. Over the course of the visit, I was asked to lead lead a Seder dinner of a kind, which was neat. We got to have a couple good conversations with my sister in law that were quite helpful. Then had more such conversation when we stopped in for the night with friends on the way back. Conversations helping us nail down life direction.

Since then, parted ways with a church in Idaho that things were going well with. And have since applied for two churches in that city between here and Portland, with those conversations being positive, even if early on.

Sickness has been going about the house. I've currently got a head/chest cold that I could live without.

Tomorrow, we find out our baby's gender. Super excited about that too.
 
Hi all,

A bit of a story with this post... I was talking with my son about gaming stuff and something came up where he said maybe it would be worth sharing with "that church group you game with." I was like, "Huh?" ...*thinking*... "You mean CGA?" and he replied, "Yeah, them."

Well first off, it was rather cool that he had such a strong memory of CGA (and by extension, connection between my gaming and Christ and other Christians) being something important to me after so many years (he was still just in grade school at the time, and now he's graduating high school next month). But then the only reply that came to mind was, "Oh, well, I don't know... I haven't been there for a long time. Everyone seems to have grown up and not have much time for gaming anymore, so it seems like it might be rude and insensitive to go back to posting as a full-time gamer."

It was an honest, rational answer and not without thought put behind it because I've continued to revisit from time to time and wrestled with that very issue of trying to judge of whether it's ok to start posting again about the wonderfullness of gaming. Because while it's important for joy and blessings to be shared, one of the major times where it's not always a good or edifying thing is when it's an interruption of someone else's grief.

But as reasonable as the logic seemed, it was nagging at me today that it's really based more on appearance rather than anything directly stated, and maybe the appearance is untrue or perhaps has become an unintentional self-perpetuating prolongment of grief if I'm not just some lone weirdo and others might also be looking to return but similarly held back by not knowing if honest enthusiasm might end up being hurtful or offensive. So maybe rather than trying to make a judgement call myself, it would better serve to go through the awkwardness of just asking directly what the environment is here now and what's the current vision of respectful, productive discourse that best meets the groups needs at this particular time? Is it still an aspiration to cover a wide spectrum of gaming interests and availability or have things settled down into being more focused on serving particular needs or times of life more deeply than broader focus allows?
 
Firedove said:
So maybe rather than trying to make a judgement call myself, it would better serve to go through the awkwardness of just asking directly what the environment is here now and what's the current vision of respectful, productive discourse that best meets the groups needs at this particular time? Is it still an aspiration to cover a wide spectrum of gaming interests and availability or have things settled down into being more focused on serving particular needs or times of life more deeply than broader focus allows?
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First, let me say, "Welcome back!" Please rest assured that the door is always open to folks returning after any length of absence.

I first got involved in the Christian gaming community almost 19 years ago when I founded Tribe of Judah in May 1999. At that time I was single, between high school and college, and children were a long, long way off. Fast forward to today and I'm married with two young children, work a full-time job, and have much, much less free time than I did two decades ago.

That being said, the CGA is still an important part of my life, primarily because of the relationships I've established over the years. I don't have nearly as much time to play games, but I love playing with friends during those rare opportunities and talking with friends, both in real time on our Discord and here on the forums.

I would post more, but my younger child is hungry and it's dinner time. (Over the last several years, I've come to make my peace with posting "partial posts" rather than wait for an opportunity to post everything I want to say--because that opportunity rarely comes at all and almost never comes in a timely manner.)

But to answer your questions in short: Online gaming in general has shifted away from a few "monolith" games around which most communities gather and more toward a wide range of games. In response to that shift, there's been a gradual change in our own community to focus less on specific games and more on serving as the connecting point for Christian gamers.

It's time for dinner, but I encourage you to stop by the CGA Discord server (you can find details here) at your first opportunity and say hello. Forums are our asynchronous form of communication; our Discord server is our synchronous option.

Again, welcome back, don't ever feel like you have to apologize for returning after any length of absence, and enjoy your time here!
 
Can I Just +1 to Tek? Gaming doesn't get the central focus for me that it used to. Kiddo, pregnant wife, work, tryna find work, y'know. But may enthusiasm for gaming never die!

As for the forums, they still get used, but a lot of chatter has moved to Discord. That's where you'll see more gaming enthusiasm, and just general conversation. The forums still have a place, and still clearly do get used, but raving about this game or that game hasn't happened as much lately. I'd say this is definitely a case where is does not indicate ought. Bring on the enthusiasm, and welcome back to posting! :D
 
Thanks for the welcome. I'm not likely to do much with Discord because it's not an environment I enjoy socializing with, but asynchronous communication is very important to me so I am very happy to contribute to forums even if they're not the most popular option these days.

As for myself, I probably don't actually get any more recreational gaming time in than anyone else, but as before, my day job and my primary ministerial calling are still game-oriented so the constant immersion, accumulated connections and experience, and having work and play cross-support each other rather than being competing interests has had the effect of putting me more and more out of sync with the average gamer over time, which is not necessarily an inherently bad or good thing in itself, but definitely has a lot of potential to be socially awkward if I don't keep my esotericness in check.

In recent years, my main focus has been on building a publishing start-up to offer apprenticeship programs for disabled persons wanting to work in digital media. That work helped get me a scholarship from Google for a Mobile Development program that I'm going through now, and then I got on board with Nintendo as an authorized 3DS developer, so I'm doing a lot of upstream-swimming type work trying to improve mobile gaming and services to better accommodate underserved usability and lifestyle needs, which might sound somewhat glamorous on the surface but the underlying reality is more like several-month-long stretches of depressing isolation working on and financing things myself punctuated by occasional rounds of intense argument with influential outside interests who have a strong attachment to keeping status quo.

While I'd still consider myself a full-time gamer (with overtime!), I'm not really devoted to any particular game anymore, being more into keeping an extensive library instead to pick out certain things on an as-needed basis rather than maintaining any long-term commitment. I have been thinking of restarting my Everquest 2 guild, but more in the context of as a social support tool for people I work with rather than having a strong interest in the game itself.

So I guess my enthusiasm these days is mostly for the potential of gaming as a whole as a valuable enrichment medium rather than having a specific place where I'm currently living in the game world myself, but I get pretty into it as an augmentation of "real" life rather than as an escape from or in competition with it.
 
It's already Friday again? Whoof. Spending a solid half of this week being quite sick probably made time seem quicker than it was.

So yeah, that happened. We also found out the gender of our baby--having a second boy. (You know, barring a misread.)

Stuff blew up at work while I was sick, but managed to get it back up and running.

Hoping to hear from churches sooner than later that I've had initial contact with, but that may be a couple weeks out yet depending on how they handle their search processes.
 
Yay! It's a Boy! Congrats! I have 3 boys myself, although my boys are not so much boys as teenagers now! Wow! Where'd the time go? So do you have any possible Boy Names up for options? And does your son really have any concept that he has a sibling on the way? :D Details... I NEED DETAILS! :p

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Work is slowing to a manageable pace, which is nice. I don't expect it to last, though.

Started looking at IT security courses and certifications as part of an effort to explore possible trajectories for my career.

Older child caught a cold this week and missed 2 days of school, marking the end of a relatively long streak of good health in our family. She's almost entirely over it now, though.

Trying to make my house look less like a tornado hit it, but it's difficult when my wife and I both work full-time and our younger child fights sleep at bedtime and my wife and I are zapped at the end of the day. Pray for strength for both of us, please! We adore our kiddos, but oh my word are they demanding and strong-willed. Properly channeled, a strong will could be a great benefit later in life, but it's exhausting for us right now.

Still missing gaming but always grateful for this community, both here on the forums and on our Discord!
 
PeekABoo said:
Yay! It's a Boy! Congrats! I have 3 boys myself, although my boys are not so much boys as teenagers now! Wow! Where'd the time go? So do you have any possible Boy Names up for options? And does your son really have any concept that he has a sibling on the way? :D Details... I NEED DETAILS! :p
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We have a definite first name. We were anticipating a girl, so we were good with a girl name, but we're still sorting out middle name.

I don't use my kids' or wife's name on public forums, even though they're not hard to figure out given that I'm not secretive about mine. So, I've refer to my first son (just about 15 months old now--no concept of a sibling on the way, though his just-turned-four cousin is here most days, so he's at least used to having to share a bit) online as Red Five. New baby is getting Spectre-6 to keep with the Star Wars naming convention. Haha
 
Nice! I'm a Star Wars fan too! The Force is Strong in You! :D You'll need to use Jedi Mind Tricks to control your oldest when your youngest comes along! :p

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Work continues at a manageable pace, which I pray continues. I've picked a set of courses to explore pursuing an IT security certification, but it's too soon to tell if it's a field I'd actually like to work in (as opposed to just being attracted to the ideal of the job, as I was with journalism).

Older child's cold from last week either turned into strep or was strep all along. Took her to the doctor on Wednesday, got the antibiotic, and she bounced back after the first dose. Now we just have to remember to give her the remainder of the doses. (Haven't missed one so far!)

All in all, a relatively normal week with the exception of the big kiddo's strep.
 
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