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<title>The Internet Vagabond :: Life in Progress: January, 2025</title>
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<span class="first">T</span>he
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<span class="first">I</span>nternet
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<span class="first">V</span>agabond
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<article>
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<h1 id="life-in-progress-january-2025">Life in Progress: January, 2025</h1>
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<p>My <a href="/now">now page</a> is growing too verbose. Instead, I’ll leave that page as a
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summary of what this/these page(s) will explore. I’ll start with a retrospective
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of 2024, up to now, the beginning of 2025. Maybe a bit of ambitions too.</p>
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<h2 id="2024-retrospective">2024 Retrospective</h2>
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<p>2024 was a significant year. The most notable change being that I was laid off
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in April. The remaining 8 months were quite nice. Before April, the year doesn’t
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feel much different or significant. From what I remember, I was stressed,
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unhappy, and overall dissatisfied with my situation. I was in the process of
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saving money to leave, when I was laid off and paid a generous (enough)
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severance. It’s nice when the universe solves problems.</p>
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<p>Much of April and May was time spent decompressing. A bit too much drinking,
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from what I recall. I began receiving unemployment payments, and looking for
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jobs, though only half-heartedly. I was already decided I would start my own
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business. I also started my playthrough of <strong>Fallout 3</strong>.</p>
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<p>At the end of May, I entered into a game jam, and made my first video game,
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<a href="https://vagabondazulien.itch.io/lander">L4-N-DER Training Simulator</a>. One thing
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I do remember from the beginning of the year was speaking with some friends
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about trying to publish a video game on Itch. I made the game using
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<a href="https://fennel-lang.org/">Fennel</a> and the <a href="https://www.love2d.org/">LÖVE 2D game
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engine</a>. It was incredibly rewarding, and a great
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learning experience. This game would be the first of 5 that I published on my
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Itch page this year.</p>
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<p>Much of the summer was spent procrastinating starting my own business, and
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golfing. At the beginning of summer, in June, my grandmother passed away. She
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was about 2 weeks from her birthday, and so we round up and say she lived to 98.
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I spent some time helping to clean and clear up her house too. In the beginning
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of July I traveled to New York City to see Rezz. I also started properly
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exploring WordPress, and working to understand better the business I was still
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going to start. Around August, I began playing <strong>Morrowind</strong> for the first time.</p>
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<p>In the fall is when I “got serious” about my business. I signed up for the New
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York State Self-Employment Assistance Program (SEAP), and through them signed up
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with SCORE to speak with a mentor and begin some small business training. I made
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my first WordPress site, for a relative (and for free). I also entered into 3
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more game jams during this period, publishing
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<a href="https://vagabondazulien.itch.io/ticsweeper">TICSweeper</a> (a Minesweeper clone
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mde with the TIC-80); <a href="https://vagabondazulien.itch.io/runr">RUNR</a> (another
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TIC-80 game); and <a href="https://vagabondazulien.itch.io/escape-the-crash">Escape The
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Crash</a>. <em>Escape</em> was based on
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some work of mine over the summer to better understand and implement ray-casting
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in the TIC-80, which I then translated for use in Fennel and LÖVE. At the end of
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fall, my remaining grandmother severely injured herself, placing her in town
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through the end of the year. For the second year in a row, much of the holidays
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would be spent visiting a rehabilitation center (the same one as my first
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grandmother’s). Since the pandemic, I don’t think I’ve had a “normal” holiday
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season.</p>
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<p>At the end of the year, I formally started my business, <a href="https://www.niblock.tech">Niblock Technology
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Solutions</a>, and began working on websites for two
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additional clients. Exploring this new world has been exciting, and there are a
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lot of new challenges. I love working with others to solve problems, and I’m
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looking forward to it. I’m also beginning work on a second business idea for a
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game shop. I want to build a community space for people to play games, enjoy
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company, and relax. Rounding the year out was my first playthrough of <strong>Deus
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Ex</strong>.</p>
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<h2 id="now-january-2025">Now: January, 2025</h2>
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<p>Now. Plenty of plans and ambitions.</p>
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<p>Easiest: I started a playthrough of <strong>Oblivion</strong>. Similar to <strong>Fallout 3</strong> and
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<strong>Morrowind</strong>, my goal is to complete the main story and all DLC’s. This time
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around, I explored a new modding setup, using <a href="https://lutris.net/">Lutris</a> to
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install and manage the game (from GOG), and all the modding tools. For all three
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of these games I want to write up a brief retrospective about my experiences and
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any of the setup required for playing them on Linux. I already have two articles
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for Oblivion (<a href="/2021/11/20/oblivion-linux.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="/2021/12/09/oblivion-linux-2.html">Part
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2</a>) detailing using Steam and Proton. I think
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the Lutris approach is a bit nicer.</p>
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<p><em>Escape The Crash</em> was fun to make, but it’s not done yet. I want to add in a
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floor, sound effects, a skybox, and objectives. And an actual ending condition.</p>
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<p>Game-making in general I want to continue. I’ve started looking into the
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<a href="https://dragonruby.org/">DragonRuby game engine</a>. I also want to learn (more)
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Godot. I have no shortage of ideas, only my regular struggles with motivation
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and focus.</p>
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<p>I’ve fallen into a few bad habits, and my health is worse for them. Its absurdly
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easy for me to put on weight, and equally as difficult to lose it again. At my
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heaviest I was over 320 pounds, and I’m now at a much better 240. I want to
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bring that number down to 200, but I also want to remove as much significance
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from that number as I can. It should be a metric, not a grade.</p>
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<p>I’ve also set for myself several music goals. I want to get better at
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sight-reading, and so I have a goal to read a new piece of music each week. I
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also want to explore music production, and try making my own 45-60 minute mix.</p>
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<p>There are the business goals. I need to have an income that supports my
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lifestyle, which means more clients and (hopefully) more businesses!</p>
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<p>Finally, I want to write more. I think about writing, but rarely follow-through.
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As all my other ambitions develop, sharing them with the world will help me
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formally catalog my successes. Plus, if I have something useful and helpful to
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share, then I want to!</p>
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<div class="author_info">
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Bill Niblock
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2025-01-03
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<br />
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[
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<a href="/topics/life">life</a>
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]
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<div><a href="https://www.theinternetvagabond.com/now">Life In Progress</a></div>
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This site is a small slice of internet real-estate that I use for
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My name is <span class="p-name">Bill Niblock</span>. <span
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class="p-note">I'm a computer scientist by education, a technologist
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by trade, a gamer by hobby, and a philosopher by accident. I
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live in <span class="p-locality">Buffalo</span>, <span class="p-region">
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New York</span>, <span class="p-country-name">USA</span>.<br />
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<br />
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My PGP Key is <span class="u-key" id="key">CCE7 3682 331B 5614 9FAB
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7383 7359 80B2 6381 C91E</span>.
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