This blog began as a personal account of my move to the UK. Originally using Graymatter (which corrupted), then Livejournal (which I outgrew), then WordPress.com to a final self-hosted WordPress, it’s been through a number of changes, most of which have something to do with pretension and the amount of work involved.
I loved writing small anecdotes about my experiences in England, how it differed from what I expected and how I felt at home. Since most of my expectations were based on research done on BBC America (so I could start to understand the accents better) and shows such as The Royle Family and Coupling, I suppose it differed quite a bit from what I expected. I wrote about how strange it feels, both nice and uncomfortable, to have total strangers in shops call you Love and Sweetness and Duck. I wrote about food, and how quaint everything was.* As my career progressed I wrote about the differences in the workplace, and specifically with tech teams, between the two countries. Slang and the misunderstandings that occur therefrom. (I still cannot hear someone use the word fag, as in “I’m stepping out back for a quick fag” without my shoulders tightening up. Interesting image though, thanks.)
It was a small blog, with short entries written without much thought – feelings and funny stories. It didn’t try to be pretentious.
Then I got into MMOs (damn you, Phil!) and slowly it became a gamer blog. The problem with that is that you start with personal stories and then other gamers start reading it. You like that, so you try to add more content. This is fine if you are good at reviewing, or you’re a theorycrafter, but to be honest I’m not. I’ll keep up with gaming news and the latest developments in game but I’m not really a min-maxer. I’ll look up the current build-of-the-month and religiously apply that, but that is other people’s work. It is part of the reason I no longer play EVE – you really have to know what you’re doing, and how the stats on everything associated with your ship works. You use spreadsheets to figure it all out…and that bores me to tears.
I stopped writing about games because I couldn’t move to that next level and be a “proper” game blogger. And this blog, which I’ve kept for over a decade, has fallen into disrepair. Things are dusty, and there are spiderwebs on the ceiling.
So I’m going to go back to what my flighty goldfish mind does best…writing about this and that. There will be nothing of consequence aside from the occasional rant, and most probably nothing of interest to see here. You have been warned.
*I have been forbidden to use the word “quaint” when referring to anything in the UK. Evidently they find that offensive. :)