Thoughts On Escapism

Moving is stressful.  House hunting is stressful.  Moving to a location currently undergoing a housing crisis is freakin’ panic inducing.  So yeah, going through some rough times.  And I’ve noticed something.  It’s changed the way I play.

When I get stressed, I often forego the more involved story oriented games or strategic pieces I usually enjoy for either puzzlers or simple hack and slashers.  This is something I’ve known for a long time.  When I’m stressed, I like to concentrate on something else entirely, such as with puzzlers, or just turn it off for some mindless, mechanical fun, as with simple action games.  That works for me.  It helps me manage my stress.

And I’ve been doing that now.  But I’ve also been gravitating towards another type of game.  I didn’t even notice my tastes were swinging in this direction at first, or that there was all that much in common between these games.  After a little while, though, it struck me.

Let’s illustrate what I’ve been going through here.  After a nearly fruitless visit, in which the only place I had scheduled to look at didn’t get taken between the time I set up the appointment and the time I made the visit was the one that was only available for two weeks, I spent the night playing Tropico, where I built lots of housing.  Then I played Civilization, and built many cities full of happy, happy citizens.  I came home and felt the urge to start up Animal Crossing, where you just show up and land yourself a house right away.  Then came SimCity, where I ended up building more residential districts than my city could actually support.

I hadn’t planned out any of that.  I wasn’t trying to play games to feed my fantasy of easy housing.  And yet, that’s apparently where my subconscious led me to.  And you know what?  It did make me feel better.   Perhaps there is something to be said about escapism.

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Hey, boys and girls.  It’s been a while.  And I know it’s been hard, having to go without my unique, charming wit for so long.  It’s been hard for me too, having all these great thoughts and being forced to deprive the world of their wonder.  Sometimes, being so awesome is a curse.

I don’t like to fill this blog up with too much of my meatspace issues, but this one is going to affect future posting, so I figured I owed it to any one who cares enough to read this to let you know what’s going on.  Obviously, I hadn’t been posting.  This had been expected.  I’ve had things happen.  Some things good, some bad, but all things that kept me away from the computer, disrupting the whole posting deal.  And unfortunately, it’s looking like that’s going to continue.  Most of the future things are looking positive, though, for those of you that care.  After one of the most dehumanizing experiences I’ve put myself through, a three year long fruitless job search, I’ve finally managed to find a workplace that recognizes my obvious greatness and landed myself a new job.  Halfway across the state.  So I’ve got some major life changes ahead of me, as I spend the next couple weeks finding housing, putting my life into little boxes, and getting myself set up in a whole new community.  It’s not going to be quick, and it’s not going to be easy.  And it’s going to mean I’m not going to have time to create content.  The blog’s not going anywhere, but it’s going to be a little while until I’m able to put anything new up here.  Most likely, at least until the end of the month.  Until then, though, we’re going to be in a bit of stasis here.

So yeah, that’s the scoop.  I’m moving onto bigger and better things in life, and it’s going to take me a little while to get situated.  Until then, I’m not going to be able to publicly compliment myself over the internet.  But rest assured, we will be back, with all the same quality content you know and love.