2024 Checkin

Gosh it's already almost March and here I am ready to reflect on where I am at the start of this year. Time never slows down. I figured I'd update here on the blog with a couple things I have going on, if for no other reason than for my own historical record and to break the ice on this post editor so I can get into the swing of writing and reflection more regularly (which doesn't often come easy for me).

Reclaim Hosting

This will be the first year in which I am no longer employed by Reclaim Hosting. That might come as a shock to the very few who read this blog (or not, I'm not sure actually) so I figured it's worth a moments reflection. You can probably tell by the tone and theme of posts here that Reclaim Arcade has the majority of my attention these days. 2 years ago I reduced my involvement in hosting to focus on continuing to build that and had a deadline of the end of 2023 to decide what my next steps were. The writing was on the wall as I'm happy to say Reclaim Arcade continues to grow but also keeps me quite busy so with very much bittersweet emotions I have stepped down from my ownership role at Reclaim Hosting. It's nothing but good energy between me and the entire team and I wish them all the best.

Particularly I want to take a moment without getting too sappy to sincerely say just how much Jim Groom means to me. This parting has at times felt really weird because him and I have worked so closely for so long (and so well I might add). Jim saw something in me back in 2011 that few others did. I learned early on that if Jim came up with an idea that seemed crazy, I should never dismiss it. The arcade I'm sitting in currently as I write this post wouldn't have ever been a thing without him throwing out the idea of us buying Centipede and putting it in the office in 2018. He changed my life for the better and made spaces in our work for my ambitions to shine and I'll miss the regular day to day of being a part of that. I'm looking forward to watching where Reclaim Hosting goes and thankful that as I close that chapter of my life I can continue the relationships and connections I've made through it all. #reclaim4life

Retro Makers Group

I've given talks at a local makerspace run by the central library on arcade repair a few times in the past 2 years and approached them about perhaps putting together a group for makers interested in retro technology. They were all for it and we so we organized and had our first Retro Makers Group (we sorely need a better name) this month. We had ~15 individuals for that first meeting with a wealth of talent in the room from software and mechanical engineers to artists and metalworkers. The group has determined the first joint project will be a tabletop arcade cabinet with a custom game that can link up multiple cabinets together for coop play. We'll see how ambitious of a goal that might be but overall I'm just stoked because you could see these people have the fire in their belly to build. We've got a Facebook group and Discord for organizing and while we're still learning more about each other I'm hopeful to see this continue to grow and turn into something really exciting.

Twitch

I've gotten a lot more comfortable live streaming our pinball tournaments to Twitch using the rig that I spoke about it my last post. I haven't had a 100% perfect stream in terms of technical difficulties but we're close and I'm enjoying the challenge. Meanwhile with enough streaming and viewership we've moved into an affiliate tier there. It would be interesting to see if we could get to a point where the streaming could at least partially pay for the gear it requires, but certainly not a goal for me.

PC Gaming

It's been a long time since I played games on a computer but I got a gaming laptop for some of my streaming experiments and as a side effect with some great recommendations from an employee I've enjoyed unwinding and playing some games in the evening. I've recognized I'm very much a puzzle and story oriented gamer. Zero interest in the multiplayer coop stuff, not huge into RPG or strategy games (although I did play through Super Mario RPG on the Switch recently purely out of nostalgia, as good as I remember it being). Portal: Revolution is a free mod for Portal 2 and it's absolutely unreal and stands up as its own game. I don't know why this doesn't cost money because it was an absolute joy to play. The Talos Principle is another fun new to me series that was recommended and has a very Portal feel in some of the mechanics. The second one just came out but since I had never heard of it I started on the first one which apparently came out in 2014 but still looks amazing. Finally I've been enjoying the recently released Islands of Insight which feels a bit like The Witness with absolutely tons of puzzles in a huge world that is beautiful. There was supposed to be some attempts at a coop thing which is not my bag but mostly you just see other players running around but you don't have to interact with anyone so I treat it as a single player game :).

Spartan

March is almost here and that commitment I made in Fall of last year is coming up quick. As a small progress report I got a personal trainer I've been meeting with twice a week and that's going well. I've also done a few trail runs with the person that is doing the race with me and we seem very similarly matched in terms of pace and abilities so that gives me some hope. What I haven't been great at is food and general consumption. I still drink regularly and eat mostly whatever I want and wasn't really able (or willing I guess) to add a diet into the routine with the stress of a lot of other things going on. I suppose I'm at peace with it, I feel strong enough to make it through this, though it's really going to test me. I'll certainly report back here afterwards!

Epilogue

To wrap things up here, that's just a small taste of what's going on in my life! Each probably deserves its own post but who has time for that? I leave Saturday for a week long vacation, a cruise to the Carribean,  and I'm so looking forward to some warmth and time away from work to relax and reflect. I hope as the new year is well under way you all are finding a balance. Godspeed!