Cracking
The Code
Roleplaying Recap
Had a dope D&D session yesterday new a new chick to play our ranger! To start off the campaign my rouge/warlock character teamed up with the satyr ranger in pursuit of wanted criminal bard known throughout the lands as the "jester molester". King James wants him turned in alive for changing the words of his bible to "thou shall commit adultery" but while me and the ranger argue about killing him he plays a song so horrible we get teleported to Osgard, the "realm of the hunt"
After session zero we were set in a mystical plane where my character and the bard where repeatedly turned into elks, resurrected, and hunted for sport by the other two players: a goliath barbarian (aka the giant) and a leonin warrior on the back of his giant manticore! Meanwhile, the ranger decided to switch sides and become friends with the goddess of this magical plane. There were also some interesting clues we got from the dungeon master along the way, including a food chain where the manticores fear the nocturnal eagles while dragons hunt the eagles during the day.
After 2 weeks of failed escape attempts -- one which involved creating a diversion to steal the key from the giant and sneak through the castle -- I finally told the bard that "tonight we fight like hell" once we transformed into elks. A battle sequence ensued where I pursued the hunting dogs to the last breath while the bard decided to assault the goddess herself surrounded by protecters! Long story short though, we all end up sitting to dine together as a party and are tasked with retrieving a branch from the World Tree to fashion into bows and a magical wand so our ranger could teleport us back to the Material Plane.
There were definitely some hilarious things that came up through our sessions: a squirrel was transformed into a woman to be with our leonin player, our giant leveled up twice by sleeping with the goddess while the bard slept through his level up, and the ranger was able to successfully teleport us back home to collect our bounty. All of these happened while being pursued by nocturnal eagles, city guards, and army ants protecting the World Tree!
Out of the whole party the bard was the biggest trouble-maker: besides all the heinous crimes his character committed in the past, he managed to get flicked off by a kola, he managed to destroy the inn we were staying at by seducing the giant asking to "run away together", and his very last action was to telepathically ask the king for a beer before being executed! Even though I am a bit bummed the bard is dead, his players character next session should be even funnier. Things will definitely be more by-the-books going forward and I'm excited to see where things go. After all, I desperately need a break from life and nothing beats gaming Sunday morning.
Tech on the Rise
I started off this morning trying to get Linux working on my new computer rig. I experimented with a couple distros like Debian, Kali, and Endeavor but for some reason I haven't been able to get the installation all the way through, probably because I got impatient or confused too quickly. This time I'm trying Manjaro and I think I'll actually go online and look for an installation guide this time. Still haven't set up all my projects and codebases on the new PC even though there's a lot I have to work on: my graphics engine, the roleplaying app I desperately need to update, and a couple other undisclosed side-projects. Ideally I'll be able to have a Windows setup, a Linux workstation I can dual-boot into (for AOSP development), and a functional Apple development environment which I still haven't figured out yet (whether to use an emulator or new laptop since mine got discontinued).
Still super broke and trying to get back on my feet, although I did get a 50$ voucher for being in a app research study but that’s only good for online shopping. About to go to my delivery job shortly and looking forward to holiday lighting later this week, but I'm still applying to tech jobs in the meantime and leveraging my industry connections. If my prior resume was the one that got me to California I think that my latest one would have actually landed me the job there. The one thing this phase of my life is teaching me is that I never wanna hit rock bottom again since putting off working for a while really bit me in the ass, to the point where I don't have a car, I'm struggling to make rent, and my bank balance is actually negative! I'm a strong believer that growth is incremental, actions compound over time, and that virtuous and vicious cycles can either make or break you. I blew threw too much time partying in Vegas in California and now it's time for the grind.
I'm just going to take things one step at a time cause I know I'll rebound, just need to focus on what I'm good at and try to make more time for programming and music. It's almost winter and I thought I'd be out of the state by now but I know with enough perseverance anything is possible! Need to focus on growing the business, the band, and myself. The next day I think I'll have off, so I need to focus on getting my mobile development setup, my graphical tools running, my dual-boot working, and my future projects planned out, even though I feel like I desperately need a break from life.
Game of Life
Thinking of life as a game has been helping me through these times lately. D&D was fun today even if all it involved was a 3 week side-quest to get 2 jars of ink with a new character in the party. He goes by "Roy the spore boy" and is played by the same guy who’s old bard died once we turned him into King James and split the bounty on his head last session! The only reason the party is letting this new kid tag along is because his druid and paladin powers allow him to conjure drinkable water, which might be our only recourse if we decide to head South into the desert and establish a settlement near an oasis.
There's so many ways the story can go: my rouge character wants to start a business, the giant wants to build a bastion, the "spore boy" wants to establish a new religious order, and the ranger likely wants portals to travel to more planes. Now that I think about it, turning multi-verse travel into a business with the ranger could be very lucrative considering the looting possibilities in the Shadowfell and the pleasures of the Feywilds! But anything goes: we might be chased away by the local sultan or our wishes could all come true in the most unexpected ways; but it's just as likely we all become spore zombies and this whole sequence has an apocalyptic ending like in the Last of Us!
What I like about our dungeon masters style is that it's a mixture of fair, challenging, and comical -- which is very different how I'd run a campaign -- but actually makes you think hard about making good choices. I even envisioned an alternate D&D timeline I hope to document some day: instead of turning in the "jester molester" my rouge character sees the end of the world and actually goes back in time to save the bard by playing "royal bastards" together and causing a scandal in the court! In that timeframe I sneak into the princelings bed-chambers while the rest of the party gets recaptured one by one once outside the castle.
If I was dungeon master I feel I'd make a session run a lot like Game of Thrones: after a clever plot to obtain royal pardons the giant would agree to stand guard at the city gates, the ranger would become the royal huntress, the bard would serve as royal fool while being endlessly tormented by the older princeling, and my rogue character would assume the role of spymaster while exposing traitors, going on diplomatic missions, and engaging in love affairs. My story is full of interwoven plotlines and hilarious twists, but the funniest part is the "spore boy's" orc father is hunting the bard the whole time! (he was competing for our bounty and never witnessed the execution) if I ever find the time to refine and iterate on my old roleplaying system or even build a new app I might be able to share the full story.
Dual-Boot Masterpiece
I think I'm pretty much all set up with my computers now. Out of all the distros I've tried the best success I've had was with Fedora. In fact, when I got it installed I was able to include a bunch of custom software packages and an animated matrix theme to run on KDE. Until now I never thought a Linux machine could be used to write music but now I definitely can! If I ever wanted to pursue embedded development seriously this would be the perfect rig for it, especially if running a custom AOSP build.
Since Windows 11 was the first system that came preinstalled I also wanted to see if running a MacOS emulator would also be possible for this machine. Running the MacOS on native hardware is almost impossible and trying workarounds is even more tricky since they made the switch from Intel to their own chips. It's the one platform I haven't been able to figure out ever since Apple decided to cut support for my laptop despite all the workarounds I had to do to publish on the app store! (It's also a 100$ annual fee per year) I'm definitely not a fan of the "walled-garden" attitude to software development where -- unlike companies such Nokia or Google -- Apple pretty much disqualifies everything that isn't their own and keeps everything under closed doors despite their being better alternatives.
To settle the Windows versus Linux versus Apple debate: I'd have to say that each has their use cases but the first option is still my go-to since the vast majority of desktop software is written for Windows. You can run any game you want and It's not a bad OS either; you won't get random spinning icon bugs as you do with MacOS and you definitely won't get the same inconsistencies you see between Linux distros. But Linux is next in line for favorites and if you consider yourself a computer enthusiast is a must: I'd recommend KDE over GNOME cause it looks too much like a phone or tablet and I'd say there is no way around Linux if you intend on doing certain kinds of development, such as writing embedded or networking code.
Last in line is Apple. Despite my own prejudices it's a must have if you want to do any kind of development for iOS, iPads, or related products. I can go on and on why I don't like working with Apple, but as a mobile developer it is kind of a necessary evil you just have to accept to be relevant. Hopefully I can get a better laptop in the near future, at least the kind I can use to push apps to the app store!
Besides all that, I'm continuing the tech job search by finding and following up with good leads. Even if I find something in Chicago I'll still have west coast tech jobs on my radar in the coming future. I'm getting a hang of the recruiting, the interviewing process, and not taking things so personally. It is Thanksgiving today and getting super chilly out so I'm really hoping to get back into programming, even if it's just as a hobby for now while I'm indoors. Customizations took me a bit longer the I expected and I even got my LED lights to change color! But now it's time to reset my developer tools, project repositories, computer graphics and mobile development and to get back into the tech grind once more.
Snow Days Ahead
Winter came quick and suddenly this time of year. We got 8 inches of snow last night and it was definitely the heaviest snowfall I'd seen in a while. Thought I'd be out of the state by now but I know it's going to take more time to get out of this bitter cold. It got me thinking back to the days when I used to do roofing in freezing temperatures; my fingers and toes had it the worst, especially since my gloves had holes in them! If I'm doing holiday lighting in these temperatures it's probably going to be just as bad considering I have to walk to work without a car, but I know I'll manage it.
Might be postponing gaming for a bit, at least until the weather gets warmer. The best sessions are the ones we had when it was nice out surrounded by birds and wind chimes. Had this whole multi-verse travel business in mind but that might be the idea for a future plot. The whole reason this arc turned out so well was because we had a seed of an idea and the current dungeon master spun it into it's own plot! Since this whole thing started out as my sandbox, I might bring in someone new or even consider taking over as DM if these characters ever get reintroduced again.
I've been trying to make more time for music and the band when I can but everything's been just feeling pretty so slow since the weather took a turn for the worse. Getting back into programming has also been tedious but at least all my tools are setup for the job now. Balancing paychecks, bills, and credit cards at the moment and I keep applying to roles in tech but I'll see how that goes. We live in pretty strange times and the best I can do is write about my experiences.