Climbing Mt. Gagazet

Being situated right at the foot of the mountains, the city of Boulder has quite a few hiking trails that lead out into the wilderness. I’m normally not one for hiking, but there is one hike that I take at least once per year up to a certain spot on the Flatirons (the distinctive local rock formations that are often used as Boulder’s emblem). This spot was shown to me by a friend about a decade ago, and I like to think of it as my personal place on the Flatirons since it’s rare for me to run into other people there. Of course, being who I am, I had to give that place a name, so I call it Mt. Gagazet, which is a Final Fantasy 10 reference. Mt. Gagazet looks out on Boulder and the surrounding lands. The only sounds up there are the distant hum of the city, birds chirping, and the occasional rock climbers scaling the cliff face. I also have a tradition that when I get up to my spot I play the song Learning to Breath by Switchfoot (no idea why I do this, but it seems fitting). For twenty to thirty minutes I’ll sit atop Mt. Gagazet, staring off into the distance and thinking about whatever’s on my mind, until I decide it’s time to leave and then I’ll start the trek back down. I don’t climb Mt. Gagazet often, but it’s a refreshing thing to do, and I never come back thinking that I’d wasted my time.

Suggested Readings

UPDATE: This feature is now active. Check it out on the right side of the page.

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With spam bots having forever warped the statistics of this blog’s popular posts, I’m thinking I’ll just remove that gadget and replace it with another one that lists posts I’ve selected myself. If I can get it to look the way I want I’ll call it something like “Suggested Readings” or something like that. The posts selected for it will be ones that stand out in my mind and I think would be worthwhile for others to read. Keep an eye on the right side of this blog for this new feature (if I can make it work).

Attack of the French Spam Bots

This blog normally gets a few hits per day, mostly from the United States but there are always a few each week from other parts of the world. Being the obsessive person that I am, I check the analytics of this blog each time I log in to publish a new post, so whenever there’s a substantial change to those analytics I notice it. For the past several weeks there’s been an increase in traffic, which would normally be a good thing, as I’d like more people to visit this blog, however I believe this increase is due to my blog falling victim to spam bots originating in France. According to the tools available in Blogger, the vast majority of daily visits now originate in France and the traffic sources all go back to websites that redirect the user to sexual services advertisements. At first I was perplexed and almost amused, as I figured this surge in spam visitors would go away after awhile, but now I find it very annoying. It all started around the time that I published my writing piece on the Top Posts of this blog, and unfortunately it has greatly distorted the statistics of which posts have gotten the most views. Were this a big-name blog with a vast readership, this spam attack would hardly alter the statistics of any given post, but the fact of the matter is that this blog has a small readership, so it doesn’t take many spam hits to throw everything off. Of course, for you, the reader, this is a non-issues since you don’t see any of the analytics of this website, but for me it’s something to get worked up about, as I treat this blog like it’s my child and I don’t like anyone messing with my children—even if it’s not doing me any real harm.

Unfortunately there’s not much I can do about these spam bots, as Blogger doesn’t have any tools for blocking them. The only real countermeasure I have is to temporarily revert posts back to draft form for a number of days and adjust the URLs before republishing them, which is why you may have noticed that certain posts have been disappearing and reappearing lately. This however has had only minimal success, so it would seem that I’m out of luck on this matter. Hopefully my new website will have some actual defenses against this sort of thing.

Exhaustion

I am tired. My new job sucks the life out of me. I knew this was going to happen—I experienced it in my last job too—but it is so much worse this time. Sitting at that desk, staring at that screen, typing and clicking all day long while seeing the hours steadily taken away from me; it’s a profoundly demoralizing thing. All the best parts of me are being thrown away, and all of it is done for the sake of a paycheck. I go to bed every night exhausted, and not the satisfying exhaustion that comes from having spent yourself doing something worthwhile. No, this is the exhaustion that comes from having your soul ripped out of you and trampled underfoot as your life is stolen away, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second.

And it’s not just my soul that is suffering—my body has been feeling the effects as well. My eyes ache from staring at the computer screen for hours on end. My wrists again need braces to keep the carpal tunnel at bay. My exercise routine, the thing that for the last year kept me in good form and productive, now works against me. I go to the gym to burn off calories and keep my muscles in working order, but it’s not easy to train one’s body when you’re in low spirits, and I leave the gym much more physically drained than in the past. Were it an option I would just cut out my gym routine altogether, however it is a necessary part of my life, seeing as how I don’t get any exercise while sitting at a desk all day. Despite be committed to exercise and watching what I eat, my health is already starting to worsen and I’m putting on weight. This job won’t kill me, but it’s doing its best to make me feel closer to death. Thankfully my mind is still intact, but even it will eventually start showing signs of decay if things continue as they are. With so much intellectual stimulation having been axed from my life by necessity, I am simply not getting the mental workout I used to. Writing remains the last bastion of significant mental stimulation, and I will continue to write so long as I can, but I find it is getting harder and harder. Having to carry the corpses of my body and my spirit at the same time is a colossal undertaking for my mind, and sooner or later it too will find its strength depleted. When that day comes, I will truly be a man who has lost his spark.

Guaranteed Income

Though I think it’s a hopelessly idealistic and impractical system to implement in America, I can’t deny that I’m very receptive to the idea of a guaranteed income. There are a number of variants of this scheme, but the basic idea is that the government replaces all welfare programs with a guaranteed income it pays to citizens. The income is low, so no one will get rich off of it alone, but it is high enough to cover a person’s basic expenses like food and shelter, thus freeing people up from needing jobs to stay alive. If a person wants a middle class lifestyle or better, they can get a job, start a business, or do whatever they like to earn additional income, and once they achieve a certain level of prosperity from their efforts the guaranteed income from the government should cease, seeing as how the person won’t need it at that point. Obviously the system would be ripe for abuse and with how incompetent and wasteful the American government is I wouldn’t trust it to run such a program, but if it could actually work it would be a dream come true for people like me who spend their days shackled by traditional jobs that steal away our lives in exchange for money. Yes, some people would just loaf around all day watching TV, Youtube, or Netflix, but some of us would finally be free to unleash our full potential on the world. Imagine the creativity, innovation, and positive contributions of a legion of people who are actually doing what they love doing, rather than what they must do by necessity. It wouldn’t be a utopian society—the inherent flaws of man will forever keep him from being totally free of his inner demons—but it would be a start.

“At least you’re not sitting around all day.”

Among the few frustrations of being unemployed is dealing with the stereotype that you’re not making good use of your time when you’re unemployed. I remember speaking to another guy not too long ago who is currently unemployed and looking for work, and when he heard that I had been hired by current employer he congratulated me and spoke of what a good thing traditional employment was, saying “At least you’re not sitting around all day.” I let it slide, but that line of thinking is one of the things in this world that really agitates me. As a person whose two greatest periods of personal growth and flourishing have come during my two times of extended unemployment, I take great offense to the notion that if you don’t have a job/career then you are somehow wasting your life. For me, jobs have always been the things that were the wastes of time, sapping my life force and keeping me from achieving my potential. Both times when I was unemployed for an extended period I experienced a personal renaissance, growing both intellectually and spiritually, and knocking out a ton of life goals. It was during these times that I learned many of my crafts and got to see the world for myself, rather than viewing it through a TV or computer screen. When I was unemployed there weren’t enough hours in the day, in the sense that I was doing so much and yet I always felt I was on the cusp of achieving even more. When I am employed there also aren’t enough hours in the day, but in the sense that I’m being robbed of so much my time that it’s difficult to get great things done. Going back to what that guy said, perhaps the most ironic thing about his statement is that now that I’ve got a job again I’m sitting around more than ever. I spend my day in a chair at a desk working on spreadsheets and being far more (personally) unproductive than I ever was when I was unemployed.

Efficiency

With the necessary evil of traditional employment once again stripping away over a third of my day, I now must be extremely efficient in how I spend the rest of the time available to me. There are a lot of things that I enjoy but sadly must be cut to preserve the high priority items. Online and physical readings have been drastically curtailed. Personal projects are indefinitely postponed for the most part. Time with video games has taken a massive hit (thankfully I’m near the end of Late to the Party). In every aspect of my life I’m looking to cut corners or multitask. While I know that this process will yield the fruit of me cutting out some of the excessive and unproductive activities in my life, on the whole this process will be a net loss. I was already productive and time savvy before I got this job, and now I’m losing a lot of meat along with the fat.

First Snowfall

The first snowfall of the season arrived where I live a little later than usual this year, and when it did it took a note from Batman and leapt upon us from out of the shadows. One day it was up around seventy degrees and the next day it was only a bit above freezing and a snowstorm passed through town. It was as if the winter weather was an old friend who was running late and decided to make up for his tardiness by arriving in dramatic fashion. Crashing unexpectedly through the front door, he shouted “Hey, sorry I’m late everyone! I know we got some catching up to do, so I thought I’d immediately turn off the heat and start dumping some snow on ya!”

Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir

A bit over a week ago I dabbled in a game called Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir for about two or three hours on easy difficulty. I never finished it, and never intended to in the first place, as it’s a game I just wanted to briefly try but not really sink much time into since I had other things I was more interested in working on. Consequently, I’m not going to place this short discussion of Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir in my Late to the Party series of posts, but instead treat it as a standalone video game writing piece. I can’t give any serious or in-depth judgment—such a thing would extremely unfair—but I can quickly talk about the little piece of it I played.

Election Aftermath, Pt 2

I stated last week that I would wait until at least this week before publishing my thoughts on the recent presidential election, if ever. Part of that was my recognition that any writing done in the immediate aftermath would likely be tainted by the heat of the moment, and part of it was my doubt about whether I should even write at all. With time and introspection, I’ve decided that there are, in fact, two things that I want to write about, so this week I’m publishing a pair of election-related posts for your reading consideration. Today’s writing piece is centered on Hillary Clinton. I already did a writing piece on Donald Trump earlier this year, so I believe I’m overdue to write something related to her. Specifically, I though I’d do a short writing piece about how improbable her loss should have been and what that says about her as a political candidate.

Election Aftermath, Part 1

I stated last week that I would wait until at least this week before publishing my thoughts on the recent presidential election, if ever. Part of that was my recognition that any writing done in the immediate aftermath would likely be tainted by the heat of the moment, and part of it was my doubt about whether I should even write at all. With time and introspection, I’ve decided that there are, in fact, two things that I want to write about, so this week I’m publishing a pair of election-related posts for your reading consideration. Today’s writing piece is merely my experience from Wednesday, November 9, 2016.

Platinum #8

Last week I earned the Platinum Trophy on PSN for the game The Order: 1886. This brings my total count of Platinum Trophies to eight. For those that don’t know, trophies are an online game functionality that was introduced on PlayStation back around 2008 (on Xbox a similar system exists, called Achievements, which launched about a year prior to Trophies). Trophies are unlocked by completing particular tasks in games, with each game having its own unique list of them. These trophies are also broken down into the categories of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, and generally speaking Silvers are harder to earn than Bronzes, and Golds are harder to earn than Silvers. Platinum Trophies are earned by unlocking all other trophies for a game, and for some people are a badge of pride, symbolizing that they have thoroughly played a particular game. Personally, trophies aren’t that big a deal for me, hence why I only have eight Platinums, but if I really like a game and acquiring the Platinum doesn’t look too hard, I may give it a shot. If the Platinum is too hard or will take too long, however, I’m fine passing it by. My pride as a gamer isn’t dependent on how many trophies I earn, and if the trophies system disappeared tomorrow I wouldn’t throw a fit about it. Still, I can’t deny there’s a small bit of satisfaction in earning them, and there’s one or two other games that I’m thinking about trying to earn the Platinum for.

Just for the curious, below are the other seven games for which I have the Platinum Trophy:
Uncharted
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Infamous
Infamous 2
Assassin’s Creed 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Bloodbath

Well, that escalated quickly. You might remember that one week ago I published a rather cryptic writing piece about engaging in battle with a new foe. As is often the case, I substantially embellished everything to make it sound like I was marching off to fight a dragon, which would have been worthy of song, but my sparring partners were mere men. This past Saturday I had a chat with a pair of Jehova’s Witnesses (JWs) that showed up at my door. I knew they were coming because they had left a note for my landlord on the door a week ago. JWs are very interesting cult and talking with them requires a fair amount of preparation on particular subjects, but since I knew they would be showing up on Saturday I had a little time to prepare.

Late to the Party - Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture

I love video games, but it's rare for me to play them right when they are first released. Normally it takes me a somewhere from a few months to a few years to get around to playing to a game. I've got a considerable backlog of games that I've been meaning to play and it hasn't been until recently that I've been able to start chipping away at the list. With that in mind, I've created a series of posts called Late to the Party, wherein I discuss the games that came out in the preceding years that I'm finally getting around to experiencing. Today's entry in the series is Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, which was one of the free games available in November 2016 for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Downloadable games like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture are normally not available for rental unless they get a disc release in the future, and unfortunately this means I pass over most of them, but thanks to PlayStation Plus I got a chance to play a game that I otherwise would never experience.

Back to Work

Back to the slave shift. Back to the grind. Back to everything I want to escape. Back to unproductive days in front of the screens of others. Back to hours wasted on meaningless tedium. Back to being robbed of life’s most precious resource. Back to my soul slowly dying inside of me. Back to talents shriveling in atrophy. Back to appearing positive on the outside but feeling dead inside. Back to the worst part of my existence. Back to work.

We Are Pigeons

Like I said yesterday, I won’t be publishing anything about the elections results for at least a week, if at all. Instead, I’ve got a story for you.

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On the right side of this website you’ll see in image in the About Me box that I use as my profile photo on Blogger and a few other services. There’s an interesting tale as to how I started using the We Are Pigeons image, and I thought I’d share it today.

Election Day

Today the American Republic stands at a juncture point. Today we choose who will lead us for the next four years, with the two leading candidates having demonstrated themselves to be supremely unfit for this role. On one hand we have a corrupt politician who has proven herself above the law, and on the other hand we have a populist buffoon who can’t keep his mouth shut. Neither is trustworthy, but after today one of them will be our president-elect. May God have mercy on us.

A Date with Destiny

I hardly slept Saturday night. It was the realization that I have a date with destiny. Assuming my information is correct, this next Saturday I will be contending with a foe I have read and heard much about, but up to this point never actually engaged with myself. This may be the first of many encounters, or it may be both the first and the last. As I type these words a panoply of strategies and tactics are surging through my mind, each with their own merits and I am struggling to nail down a battle plan. I will seek the wisdom of others, and I have a few days to prepare, but no one can anticipate every possible scenario. This next Saturday, destiny will come to me, whether I am ready or not. I shall not falter. I must not.

Late to the Party - LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I love video games, but it's rare for me to play them right when they are first released. Normally it takes me a somewhere from a few months to a few years to get around to playing to a game. I've got a considerable backlog of games that I've been meaning to play and it hasn't been until recently that I've been able to start chipping away at the list. With that in mind, I've created a series of posts called Late to the Party, wherein I discuss the games that came out in the preceding years that I'm finally getting around to experiencing. Today's entry in the series is LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, referred to hereafter as just The Force Awakens.

Bethesda Reviews

A decent-sized ruckus erupted recently when Bethesda, the publisher of such notable games as Dishonored, Fallout, Doom, and Skyrim, published a blog post stating that they would not be sending out advanced copies of their next two games to the media. It’s a very short post that only takes a minute to read, and I’ve included a screenshot of it below for those who are curious about it.

20 Weeks

Last week I published my 400th writing piece to this blog. In doing so I passed yet another milestone, but it also got me thinking again about the future of El Progreso Del Peregrino. Back in June, approximately 100 writing pieces ago, I published a post about how I was starting to feel that it was time to move on from this blog and create a new website. That feeling has been building steadily since then, and lately I find myself dwelling on it more and more. Thinking about doing something will only take you so far, however. If idea is to become reality, it requires action. With that in mind, I’ve set a new goal. The goal is to have created a new website before the publishing of my 500th post to this blog. The new website doesn’t have to be live, or have all the content of El Progreso Del Peregrino transferred over yet, or have its layout finalized—it just has to exist. Of course, I’d love it if the new site was live and had all the old blog’s content and looked amazing, but I know it will be a slow process, so I’ve giving myself a reasonable amount of leeway with this goal. Assuming I keep to my pace of 5 posts published each week, it will take 20 weeks for me to reach my 500th writing piece. I thus have 20 weeks to take a dream and make it real. 20 weeks to begin a new era of writing, and change the world forever (ok, maybe not change the world forever, but humor me in this fantasy).

Nintendo Switch

Two weeks ago it looked like the official announcement of Red Dead Redemption 2 was going to be the video game story of that week, but then on October 20th Nintendo stole the thunder with the reveal of their next console, the Nintendo Switch. I assume that as this point just about everyone has seen the reveal trailer for the Switch, but just in case anyone hasn’t, I’ve embedded it below. Disappointingly, the Switch trailer did not utilize the music of a certain Will Smith song by the same name.