My poor, poor office chair.

Old gray chair, she ain't what she used to be!

Adminisk8or

11/20/2022

It's another cold November week here in my neck of the woods. Frankly, I don't recall a November ever being so cold as this one! We're hitting pretty consistent temperatures in the 10's to 30's Fahrenheit. Not fun.

But on to more essential things than climate and weather- let's talk about my office chair! ....okay, maybe it's not as important as that. For two decades, give or take a little, I grew up with this fabric-grey spacious office chair with wooden arm rests. It was really quite something. About 10 years ago, though, it's legs on it gave out, and my dad (who the chair belonged to at the time) jimmy-rigged up a piece of plywood on the bottom to be able to mount whatever legs he needed to it. As such, one of my Grandma's old kitchen chairs good legs became it's new life blood. After that point, the chair kind of got put in my room, where I would use it to study at my desk for homework... or avoid studying... haha. Life went on and I got married and took the chair with me- from our first apartment, to the one we live in right now, it has been oddly amazing. No really, for, what- a probably 25-30 year-old office chair? I mean, how many office chairs can you count on one hand that have lasted that long?

Well, as I say that, this week, as I was sitting in that chair, I noticed it seemed a little... skewompus. Later that same day, I discovered one of the caster sockets on it had actually broken the weld. So, after all this time, I finally decided to ditch it... and I gotta admit, I'm already missing it a little, but at the same time, I'm a rather good fan of my new chair, too. I only wish this one rocked like the last one did.

But moreover, I've mentioned, in a previous blog on this site, that I am a rather big fan of Uri's freeware RPG game, The Crooked Man.. He has made a small series of games, so to speak, that follow somewhat similar themes. This week, I finally went ahead and played The Sandman, and I gotta say, it's awesome! I will readily admit, personally, I'm still more of a fan of The Crooked Man, in terms of its underlying message and theme... but that is probably swayed a good deal by relatability. Still, this next-in-the-series game stands out as being really good and impressive! If there's nothing else it did better, it certainly improved on the less-than-awesome gameplay mechanics of its predecessor. And intriguingly enough, where the previous game had a fairly dark atmosphere and visuals, this one, while still mantaining that, also brings a very unexpected vibrance- but you'll have to see for yourself when you get halfway through the game. I suppose I should also mention, where some of the "bad endings" of the first game were, perhaps a bit silly and out of left field, this one... does slightly better at that. Actually, I'm not gonna lie, one of the bad endings in Sandman was SO unexpectedly far out, I could have sworn my jaw was hitting the floor because of how ridiculous and yet kinda awesome it was! No spoilers, you'll have to play for yourself! My only hint to you is, make two saves before handing over the jewel.

But in terms of the message of the game, while I feel it was a little less focused than Crooked Man, it was still good. What is your course of action when constant affliction is your lot? Do you just keep it all boiled inside? Do you escape to a world where you pretend it's all fine? Do you full-on retaliate and never accept what you're given? I don't want to spoil the ending(s) of this game, but I will say, I think it answers this question in some unexpectedly interesting ways.

So, think on that, and give it a good playthrough! I found it took me several hours- but that's because I'm a thorough completionist who literally clicks on anything I think might even remotely be a secret. For you, you might finish it in 2-3 hours. Until next week, see ya!