I hope life has been treating you well in these crazy and scary times.
Last couple years have been filled with ups and downs and all around here. I do feel thankful my family and I are doing well despite the madness that is our world.
Notable things.
- Started and have finished building a Casita in the back yard for our daughter and her boyfriend to live in now that she has graduated as an OT. This was a huge task that took a year with the wife and I taking the General Contractor role and doing as much work as we could on our own.
-Daughter Grad from OT school with a Doctorate ! Son has Grad from HS and just finished his first semester of college at the UofA
- Gaming events I have done since last blog.. Bangkok dota2 in Dec 2024 Birmingham dota2 event 2024 Shopify Rebellion event Jan 2025 Raleigh Dota2 event in early 2025
- Went to more shows Atmosphere in Tucson and Red Rocks Blackflag Ween Prof Sage Francis Hieroglyphics Living Legends Murs and a few local shows mostly Hip-hop
Still being a slave at the bakery James beard award winning bakery doing sourdough bread using 9 different locally grown wheat varietals. Random aside... I have never made more than 36k in a year ... ever and the last 10 years or so its been less than that by more than I care to say. For a hard worker that has excelled in all of my many jobs over the years its kind of embarrassing to admit... Though somehow Ive managed to raise two amazing kids and trap an amazing woman!!
What else.. Dreams..... This blog has allowed me to realize one of my biggest dreams getting to bring balloon art to the gaming world and community. And Ive been neglectful of keeping it up to date I am sorry.
I still have the dream of doing this full time. Honestly been feeling stuck on how to make that happen. Live events are so important building community ties and bonding in person is such a healthy and happy thing. It fills me and everyone I get the pleasure of talking to with such joy and hope its beyond words. Maybe TL needs a fulltime event guy who will help set up and manage booths at events and make balloons and tell everyone about what started the greatest Esports team in history... Community !!
This month is 2 years of no longer smoking pot.. Im pretty proud of that. Nothing wrong with it in my mind other than my abuse of it for over 30 years.
Had a scare the other day wife took me to the ER (she thought I might be having Cardiac issues) EKG, Chest xrays, Cat Scan blood work and all seems to be fine. With that scare I have decided to start going to the gym with my wife as well as making some healthier lifestyle changes. So that's exciting
How have you all been? I hope to see you all sometime down this road... 2026 events so far are just 2 one confirmed the other not
March Birmingham Dota2 event - In works not confirmed June Cologne for Cathedral of Counterstrike event - confirmed !
Not sure why they are not showing... I have such a problem with getting images on to blogs.... I am so much better in person than online lol.. at least I believe that is so.
Hey FuDD, thanks for coming back to check in And congratulations on your sobriety, as well as your kids' accomplishments!
Your comment about pay is really eye-opening. When I was making that kind of money, I was barely surviving as a single person. I can't imagine raising two kids. It's a testament to your ability to make every penny count. I'm sure you are very proud of making it work, and you fully deserve to be. Kudos 👏
On January 09 2026 07:36 FuDDx wrote: I still have the dream of doing this full time. Honestly been feeling stuck on how to make that happen. Live events are so important building community ties and bonding in person is such a healthy and happy thing. It fills me and everyone I get the pleasure of talking to with such joy and hope its beyond words. Maybe TL needs a fulltime event guy who will help set up and manage booths at events and make balloons and tell everyone about what started the greatest Esports team in history... Community !!
gaming outside IRL is 10000X more fun.
On January 09 2026 07:36 FuDDx wrote: I hope life has been treating you well in these crazy and scary times.
meh, they want everyone scared. scared people are easier to control.
On January 10 2026 02:19 Jealous wrote: Hey FuDD, thanks for coming back to check in And congratulations on your sobriety, as well as your kids' accomplishments!
Your comment about pay is really eye-opening. When I was making that kind of money, I was barely surviving as a single person. I can't imagine raising two kids. It's a testament to your ability to make every penny count. I'm sure you are very proud of making it work, and you fully deserve to be. Kudos 👏
Thanks man!
And to be clear if not for my wife I would be in a world of hurt. She is the more educated and way better pay(plus insurance) than I have. She is a professor at the University of Arizona.
On January 09 2026 07:36 FuDDx wrote: I still have the dream of doing this full time. Honestly been feeling stuck on how to make that happen. Live events are so important building community ties and bonding in person is such a healthy and happy thing. It fills me and everyone I get the pleasure of talking to with such joy and hope its beyond words. Maybe TL needs a fulltime event guy who will help set up and manage booths at events and make balloons and tell everyone about what started the greatest Esports team in history... Community !!
On January 19 2026 04:54 FuDDx wrote: Its hard not to be scared these days.
2,300 people were murdered in NYC in 1990. 300 were murdered last year even though the population is far higher than it was in 1990. You are much safer in NYC than you ever were in the 1970s and 1980s.
i remain unafraid by watching all the propaganda from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s when the government and all mainstream news orgs were trying to tell everyone in NA that we were minutes away from a nuclear apocalypse. We were minutes away from all life on earth extinguishing. Ya, ok guys.. whatever. They did this to justify sky high military budgets. The whole thing was BS. Not a single nuclear missile was very fired.
The same thing is happening today. Here is some great Hollywood propaganda
Great song... 2 minutes from total destruction of the entire planet
On January 19 2026 04:54 FuDDx wrote: Its hard not to be scared these days.
2,300 people were murdered in NYC in 1990. 300 were murdered last year even though the population is far higher than it was in 1990. You are much safer in NYC than you ever were in the 1970s and 1980s.
i remain unafraid by watching all the propaganda from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s when the government and all mainstream news orgs were trying to tell everyone in NA that we were minutes away from a nuclear apocalypse. We were minutes away from all life on earth extinguishing. Ya, ok guys.. whatever. They did this to justify sky high military budgets. The whole thing was BS. Not a single nuclear missile was very fired.
About 10 years ago in college, I was taught a statistic in my sociology class:
"In the same time period that violent crime went down 4x, media reporting on violent crime went up 4x."
That's because news stories about violence, crime, and fear-mongering in general generate more views, clicks, etc. Because these media companies want to make money from advertising, they will push anything that generates viewership, which means they will peddle anything to get more money, no matter how sensationalistic, alarmist, or disruptive to society's trust in itself.
I am old enough to have seen Wargames when it came out. And old enough to have bought Iron Maiden tapes when they were new. And watched the Bionicwoman on tv (granted reruns)
When I say scary times I am not talking about nuclear war. Or an uptick in crimes on the streets.. I was raised very poor by drug addicted and dealing biker dad and a stripper mom. I lived in the crime areas and here in my city I still live in a not the best area. I know how to move around and not get hung up with street level crime.
Scary to me is Minneapolis and the ICE agents there.
Brother Ali and BK-1 do a short talk here on the Travelers Podcast. Which is a perspective I believe more than the media.
From a US perspective I think what's really scary is that if the Donald would really mess with Greenland, the simplest and most logical response of the rest of NATO would be to simply bankrupt the US.
On January 30 2026 02:25 FuDDx wrote: Not just ICE and the current Orange fuck in office or his administration but things like The Phillipenes with Dutertes war on drugs and the killings etc there. Syria under Bashar al-Assad regime Ukraine... Somalia/ South Sudan .. Israel/Palestine Nigeria and I am sure many other places... these are the things I find scary.
dawg, we're living in easy times. you're prolly watching too much news. less than 4M people have died in military conflicts ... that's civilians plus military personnel from 1989 to 2024.
compare this with other eras from 1900 to 1935: 22.5M
from 1935 to 1970: 80M
from 1970 to 2005: 20M
Stop watching mainstream news ... it'll rot your brain. Check out some off the beaten path news sources.
the media does this with violence in the USA as well. There were 2000+ murders in NYC in 1990 at a much lower population. How many murders were there last year? Is there a lotta yappin' going on? ya sure, hardly any one is getting killed.
It is a great time to be alive. Relax and enjoy the show!
If you're an American male over 30 your biggest problem is prolly making sure your cortisol levels are naturally low, your testosterone levels are naturally high, your resting heart rate is low, and your body fat percentage is low. Worrying about what is going on in Sudan will just unnecessarily activate your sympathetic nervous system.
Watching the people in here talk about global politics kinda reminds me of the Risk game between Newman and Kramer.
EPT
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James beard award winning bakery doing sourdough bread using 9 different locally grown wheat varietals. Random aside... I have never made more than 36k in a year ... ever and the last 10 years or so its been less than that by more than I care to say. For a hard worker that has excelled in all of my many jobs over the years its kind of embarrassing to admit... Though somehow Ive managed to raise two amazing kids and trap an amazing woman!!
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