Nearly a month has passed!

So much for this being a daily update right? Anyway, quite a few things have passed. Doctor's diagnoses, work troubles, etc. I've decided to turn this from less of a personal blog and more to a blog dedicated to gaming related exploits both in my career hunt and in my personal life. This is just a sign of things to come as I'm not feeling too well right now.

Game on everyone!
-Lost_angel25/Ninja_tank25

Diagnosis and Optimism

Well, be careful what you ask for. Throughout these last few weeks, I've been really frustrated with the fact that I haven't really known what it is causing the swelling in my legs and I finally get a diagnosis, lymphedema. To spare you the Googling, it's a condition where the lymphatic system in a part of your body (in my case, the legs) is shot and fluid doesn't get re-routed like its supposed to, causing swelling. pain, and reduced function. It is chronic and there is no cure. Heavy for a 26 year old, but life goes on I guess. There is a treatment for it that consists of this four time a week for four week thing I have to go to a physical therapist for, then after that, I have to keep my legs compressed and bandaged in order to keep them from returning to this size for...well, the rest of my life. I've come to terms with it and I'm willing to do what is needed to maintain my mobility, so I'm not gonna let it keep me down.

On the brighter side, possibly related to such a diagnosis, I've been filled with a bit of renewed purpose and my days have a bit of structure to them now. I have a bit more of a command of my sleep schedule now and I think I have a streaming schedule in mind. It's going to be three times a week, but the only day that I can guarantee at this point is Saturday since my work schedule changes every week. Remember, if you want to watch, it's twitch.tv/ninja_tank25. I'm not accepting donations at this time, but if you want to help, just spread the word and follow my stream! For now, I am playing Skyrim and getting sent to Sovngarde every 10 minutes, so it should be a good time. As for the time, on the days I do stream, it should be midday, so around 2 pm ~ 5 pm CST...so now-ish, so if you'll excuse me, I gotta get ready!

Game on!
-lost_angel25/ninja_tank25

Keeping my head up!

Hey everyone!

Sometimes no news is good news, and things have been relatively quiet as of late. I have still been sending in job applications and working when I can, that being said, I am actually off tonight because I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, this time for a physical therapist (fun!) I'm gonna be frank here, I'm a pretty large guy, like I know I'm overweight, and because of that, I actually don't like going to the doctor despite the fact that I have health concerns. Despite my efforts, losing weight is an utter pain and doctors tend to latch onto that as being the one cure-all for me and lose focus on the other symptoms that I have. They'll mention my weight and I have to fight the urge to go "Gee, I'm overweight? I could have sworn I was 190 when I left the house this morning..." Personal health aside, I'm not gonna NOT go to the doctor, but I'm not exactly expecting anything groundbreaking. I am getting a bit tired of the running around though. I don't have a car, so I use Lyft to get to these places, not to mention the actual costs of these visits, it's adding up, and when you combine it with my reduced hours, it could spell disaster. For now, I've been holding the ship together and paying my bills, so there's no need to sound the alarm just yet!

Between work, sleep, job applications, and running errands, I haven't had a lot of time for play, but luckily that changes tomorrow as I'll be able to relax for a bit after the doctor. If I do stream, it'll be around 5 PM CST at twitch.tv/ninja_tank25. Hopefully I'll see all 2 of you guys there!

Keep your head up!
-Lost_angel25/Ninja_tank25

Job Search Update

So much for the daily update right? Anyway, it turns out I did NOT get the job at the U of M and on top of that, my mystery medical condition appears to be getting worse. I can go without eating for around 18 hours but my weight appears to be increasing. My sleep schedule also appears to be increasingly sporadic and with my inconsistent eating habits comes indigestion and nausea, which cuts into to my work hours. I've been slowly going through my tax return, but made my first major purchase with it in the form of new dress clothes that I used to attend a career fair yesterday to continue the search for a new job. Things aren't too great right now and although I've paid my portion of the bill, there is a chance that the lights may get cut off today, so that's hanging over my head too. I'm charging my phone and preparing for the worse.

Sorry if this blog has been a bit of a downer lately, but once things improve on my end, I promise the content will lighten up. For now, just now that my spirits haven't been dampened by this and I am still putting in job applications and doing he best I can when I am awake and feeling my best. For my loyal reader(s), keep being awesome!

Game on!
Lost_angel25/Ninja_tank25

Updates and Murphy's Law

Sorry for the delay my, as of now, imaginary readers! I've had an eventful previous two days, so let's start with Thursday!

I get to the U of M for my interview, but because I walk everywhere, I arrived in a t-shirt and sweatpants. I had a dress shirt and slacks in my backpack though, so I run int the bathroom about 15 minutes before the interview and start changing. The slacks are a little tighter than usual around the legs, which is expected because I've been experiencing some swelling below the knee. What I did NOT expect however, was for my dress pants to split! In shock, I bent over to see what happened and the button holding my pants up pops off and flies to some unknown corner of the bathroom. Long story short, I ended up doing the interview in the dress shirt and my sweat pants. Fortunately, it looks like the interviewers didn't mind it too much and we even shared a laugh about the chain of unfortunate events. The interview itself went pretty well, even more so since one of my old supervisors from when I used to work there was one of the interviewers and gave a shining record of my work. I went out to eat with my family after that and ended up passing out on my couch for the remainder of the day.

As for Friday, I woke up early for an appointment with the Endocrinologist regarding my leg. That went pretty standard but they prescribed some type of weight loss medicine that I'm trying along with a few methods I can take to reduce the swelling in my legs. That being said, I gotta be careful with that medicine. The doc said it would make me sleepy, not put me down for the count! I woke hours later in a daze! And I am supposed to take this twice a day! I am gonna have to call my employer and try to figure something out with this. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, or at least I assume it was because I slept through most of it. I also treated myself and got Overwatch on PC so that's a thing now too! I'll try to start recording video and streaming soon, so be on the look out for links here. Until then, game on!

-Lost_angel25/Ninja_tank25

Internet Issues and Illness

So, as I stated before, I work from home. This comes with its own set of pros and cons. One of the cons is that if your internet at home doesn't work properly, you can't really work. Well, that just so happened to be the case this weekend. Between my own health issues, which I am going to a doctor for, and this, I've lost many...many hours. Luckily Comcast is supposed to be coming by today to take a look and see what is happening. The odd thing is though, the internet connectivity issue only affects my work computer. Due to company regulations, my computer has to be hardwired and my work must be done over a VPN. Standard for what I expected, but a few days ago, the one program I absolutely NEED to work would time out randomly at intervals ranging from 5~20 minutes. This is very bad because I chat with customers all over the world, and time outs make it look like I closed the window on them, sometimes at very inopportune times. That being said, my metrics and adherence (amount of time I spend working vs. amount of time I am scheduled) were tanking so I called out so I could get Comcast out here. The problem is...I'm not sure how much help they will be. This isn't some judgment of Comcast's customer service or anything like that, it's just that VPN issues can be tricky and require coordination with the company's IT department as well. Hopefully, I'll get everything figured out. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the off days and the downtime, but I also enjoy paying my bills.

In typical Murphy's Law fashion, I've fallen a bit ill in multiple ways. I'll spare the details, but let's put it like this, I've had to visit 3 separate specialists over the course of 2 weeks with two appointments planned for this week. Thank goodness for insurance, am I right!? Still...I really just want a return to normalcy. One of the conditions may be related to stress, and there is plenty of that to go around. You'd think a job at home would be less stressful, not more, but it comes with its own challenges that can weigh on you. Not to mention external issues like my health (stressing about my health is hurting my health...go figure), my roommates, paying bills, etc. Hopefully, by the end of this week, everything will improve drastically. Best case scenario, I'll have a new job, my tax refund will come in and make up for some of the hours I've lost at work, and I'll be well on my way to moving to a new house! Only time will tell, but for now, we wait for Comcast...I'd sign off with "game on!" but I didn't really cover anything about gaming here, so how about a hope that everything is going well for you instead?

Best Wishes,
Lost_angel25/Ninja_tank25

An Opportunity Arises!

Hello reader(s)! I didn't exactly forget to post, but I was waiting for something noteworthy to happen. You guys probably don't want to hear about random stuff like what I had for breakfast...at least I assume not. Anyway, as the title suggests, a bit of good news did come my way!

I got a phone call from the University of Memphis, my alma mater, about a job I applied for months ago. They want to give me an interview. I'm hoping things go well because, while it will still be in IT, the schedule will be much closer to a standard work day instead of all night, and it comes with the nice benefit of paying double what I make now along with the benefits that come with working a salaried position at a university. Here's hoping I get it!

As for everything else, I pretty much spent my off day lazing about and playing video games so not much there. I'll have to stream or record myself more often though, it'd definitely add some content to this blog. I also made some progress on my Unity project (screenshots or videos coming in the future) so that was pretty exciting as well. Sorry I don't have a great deal of things to discuss here, but it was a pretty chill day, and I'll take chill over the catastrophe that was this past Thursday. See you guys again soon, and remember...

Game on!
-Ninja_tank25/Lost_angel25

First Post - Let me introduce myself!

Hey everyone, and by everyone I mean the one or two people actually reading this. As the title implies, this blog is going to be chronicling my search for employment suited to my hopes and dreams along my own random nerdery along the way and I'll start by trying to make sure I get a post in every day...as for the blogger, here's a brief breakdown of who I am.

This is me!

Handsome fellow, I know, but I recently graduated from the University of Memphis where I worked as in IT, hence the headset. With graduation came the loss of that job however since it was a student job, so I looked around for a bit till a local staffing agency offered me another position in IT that I can do from home! Don't applaud just yet though, working from home is a bit draining and I'm a people person, so while I'm doing this, I'm looking for a job in my dream field, video games!

I know what you're thinking, and I am thinking it too, it might be a bit of a stretch, but I've put in job applications across the USA and a few outside of it showcasing my degree and a bit of my work on Github. (Seriously, if you wanna check it out, it's all here). I'm also teaching myself how to use Unity as well as a few more languages like C#, Javascript, and Lua. The job I have now is a night shift, and I don't mean the closing shift, I mean I don't get off till 6 AM most nights, so my days are normally spent asleep! Aside from that though, my off time is spent learning the aforementioned skills, hanging with my friends, playing both digital and analog games (Yes, I have a Pathfinder/D&D character), and listening to music. That's about all you're going to get out of me for the formal stuff, so let's move to the fun part.

I've referred to myself in the past as a renaissance gamer because I really can't think of a genre or platform that I don't like. Of course I have my favorites, but gaming is gaming because it's fun, not because of the boxes we put them in. As of late, I've been playing a lot of Overwatch (PS4), and WoW...I'm a bit of a Blizzard fan. I do enjoy other games though so if you have a Steam, feel free to drop a friend request to lost_angel25. I do also stream occasionally at twitch.tv/ninja_tank25. Any other games or platforms you can think of, feel free to leave a request and I am sure I have an account on there. 

First post, that wasn't so bad right? I'm not really sure what direction I'm going to take this in. Maybe I'll blog about the adventures of Ca'el Lightsworn, my LG dwarf cleric in Pathfinder...or just about what I did that day...it's really interesting to try to manage a blog because you can literally go whatever direction you want! Looking forward to hearing from you guys and keeping this going as long as I can! Now I need a sign off...how about game on! That works!

Game on!

-Lost_angel25