September Thoughts 13 September, 2024

Another much needed post. Once again, miscellaneous troubles cause hesitancy to update. Stress, anxiety and insomnia has come back full force, derailing any plans I had for the month. The end of summer and colder weather has also obstructed my usual photography opportunities. It’s been over a month since I’ve picked up my camera, and longer still since my last expedition in Aylesbury.

Now I’m realising how important those photo expeditions were for my mental health. Without them, that feeling is more and more alien. If there’s anything I have to a hobby that I inherently love, it’s that. I don’t know why and how photography became such an important part of my regimen.

Of course, the other hobby is video games. After spending much of the year bickering and complaining about gamer fatigue, I’ve been on quite the roll:

In particular, Persona 3 Reload and Outer Wilds was quite the one-two punch. Both games are surprisingly similar in that they explore the theme death - both thematically and through gameplay - and while I’d like to write more about them, I think it’s a conversation for another time.

This reignition of passion for gaming has made me want to write more about games in general. I’ve tested the waters with a lengthy review of Capcom vs. SNK 2 on Backloggd, but writing reviews by itself is challenging. With games that take well over 10 hours, it can be difficult to write as succinctly as say, a forty-minute album or two-hour film. Sometimes I have major thoughts on what to write about when playing the game, but after the credits roll they’re long forgotten - resulting in the common feeling of staring at a blank word document, not knowing what to write. It makes me feel like I’m not cut out for writing sometimes.

For instance, I have a draft for a review of Videoverse saved, but an in-depth review would need a huge introspective on pre-social media internet and online gaming forum culture in order to really convey what I mean. One day, I swear…

That’s all for today. I have a work programme soon, so I may be busy once again.