Blapril ended a few weeks ago, and I never wrote a closing post. Why?
Well, sadly, real life comes first and I’m having some job issues right now.
Job situation
Given that our activity was considered essential during COVID times (the company I work for provides IT solutions to other companies), we didn’t have to close down when the alarm started. We just kept working from home, as we were doing the previous days as a precaution. But the reality is stubborn: some of our clients are still working, even if at slower rates, some of them are closed waiting to this situation to improve, and some of them had just closed definitely. All of this, of course, made a dent on my employer’s finances.
And suddenly, the bomb dropped. The boss called a multiconference and told us that the situation was not sustainable and I may lose my job in the following days.
Now, being essential is playing against us, because we can’t get the special treatment that both companies and workers in trouble are getting from the state due to the COVID. We have to go by the usual rules, which are more strict and expensive.
I spent a few days just trying to find alternatives and running the numbers: How much money do I have? How much I’m getting as severance? How much I’ve accumulated on public unemployment? Which expenses should I cut right now? Which ones could I cut if the times come? What can I do to find a job now? How long can I sustain like this?
Finally, we got to an intermediate solution. Unless the authorities rule against it (improbable) the company is declaring an “ERTE”: both I and another coworker are going to work half time. That means that my salary is cut in half, too, but I get to complement it with half unemployment. This probably would go for as long as six months. After that, it will depend on the company situation. It may come back to normal, or definitely getting fired but, at least, it would be 6 months later, and only having consumed 3 months of unemployment.
So… what about games?
It happened to me at other times and is no different this time. When things come hard, I don’t feel like gaming. I suddenly stopped for a few days and, as I was having a clearer picture of how things were, I’ve started playing more, but just offline games. I don’t feel like playing together with other people. So, I came back to Animal Crossing and I’ve started Persona 5, too.
Another hobby that I’ve restarted with a lot of energy is 3D printing. My machine was just accumulating dust, so I took it, cleaned it, oiled it, and set it up back in working status. I keep bouncing between printing ear savers and some silly things. Maybe I should be more serious about doing only useful things but… right now I need to do something fun for me, too.
Ok, then… blogging?
As I was writing before, Blapril ended. I failed at my self-imposed goal of 15 posts but that’s OK. It seems clear that 1 or 2 posts a week is a more realistic goal for me.
Massive thanks to Belghast for making it possible time after time, and to everyone who participated in it.
I still think that these events have a net positive impact. I came back, wrote a few posts, interacted with other bloggers, and had fun in the process. It’s true that this time the numbers may be lower than on past Blaugust editions but we should take into consideration the short time we had between the announcement and the beginning of the event. Also, being hard times, some people didn’t feel like participating and that’s OK.
About the future… Right now, writing a blog about MMO’s without playing online doesn’t make a lot of sense.
But, instead of closing it, I am going to try to broaden its scope. I am going to write about games in general, and probably about other hobbies too. Be it 3D printing, movies, music…
Maybe in time, I will refocus it more specifically, or maybe not. But the blog is still alive, I want to keep writing in English and I hope I’ll be able to find the theme to keep this working.