August 2024 Archives
Posted on August 31
Another August has come and gone, and with it, the Blaugust challenge for this year winds down. I like to do a recap post because I feel that helps poor Belghast tally things up for my blogging more easily.
Blaugust 2024 – Most Popular Posts Roundup
Posted on August 30
Today I wanted to look back on this month of Blaugust, which is almost over (!) – to see what the most “popular” posts were based on comments and interaction. I was somewhat surprised at the result!
Trying Out Soulmask – Tribal Survival
Posted on August 29
We’ve been on a real survival/RPG kick this year, trying so many of the great early access games that have dropped in this genre. While we didn’t need yet another, Syn suggested the newer addition on Steam called Soulmask.
Posted on August 28
It’s nothing new that when NMS changes up the way their universe is structured, this can affect all planets, including planets that people have built bases upon. I write this post in memory of a beautiful bubble paradise world that Syn and I adopted and spent many hours building our bases upon.
Posted on August 27
Just a quick blog post today to talk about something that always tends to reel me in – Twitch Drops. It doesn’t matter if I’ve been actively playing a game or not. Announce some Twitch Drops and I’ll tune in.
FFXIV: Dawntrail Fantasia Changes and Getting a Free Fantasia
Posted on August 26
With the graphic upgrades to player characters in FFXIV Dawntrail, there have been several changes to the fantasia feature in the game. I’ve used the free fantasia that was offered to players – mostly to allow you to tweak your character after the graphic changes – so I wanted to weigh in on this new experience.
Posted on August 25
Since I’m already talking about social media, I might as well discuss one of the smaller platforms that I still post on – Pillowfort. I’ve written about this site a few times in the past, most notably back in Blaugust of 2022 when the site got a significant face lift.
Posted on August 24
When Twitter started to morph into X, and finally took away TweetDeck, I knew it was time for me to head off to greener social media pastures. I’d already left on my main Aywren account, moving over to Mastodon – which I’ve been extremely happy with.
Posted on August 23
I shouldn’t be thinking about Guild Wars 2, but I am. Naturally, I’ve been keeping my eye on information around the newest expansion, Janthir Wilds, especially since they’re introducing housing. Similar to POF, which drew me back to the game with mounts that I enjoyed, housing tends to be a feature that calls me back to a game.
Tumblr is Working on Communities
Posted on August 22
For the past few months, the new Communities feature has been the big push at Tumblr. I got involved with testing this feature pretty early on as I established the first Final Fantasy XIV community there.
Posted on August 21
For the second year in a row, I attended the online Breyerfest event. This is a weekend of horse-related festivities that takes place live in the Kentucky Horse Park, which is streamed to those who purchase a digital ticket.
Posted on August 20
I wrote a post about the small daily sketchbook where I practice my traditional media work. But, in a fit of inspiration, I also went out and picked up other sketchbooks of different sizes and makes. These are primarily empty, but I wanted to talk about them because it’s a fun to think ahead on what you can use empty sketchbooks for!
Posted on August 19
In the previous post, I talked about my daily sketchbook habits where I’m nudging myself to practice using more traditional media for artwork. Today, I want to take a look at the specific media I’m currently working with.
Every Day Sketchbook Challenge
Posted on August 18
One of the challenges I’ve taken up this year is a practice in returning to traditional art media. Along with hand-writing journals, I wanted to focus on paper-drawing my art again, rather than using a digital tablet all the time.
FFXIV: Free Company Country Cottage Rework
Posted on August 17
Along with Dawntrail, FFXIV introduced a number of new housing items, and a new set of walls that I quickly became interested in – the Country Cottage Walls. After seeing a few other small houses using this in neighborhoods, I bought one for our Free Company house.
Blaugust Halfway Check: Creating a Blogging Buffer
Posted on August 15
I consider August 15 the halfway point of Blaugust – so congratulations if you’ve made it this far! Keep going!
Creator Appreciation – Marcus Aurelius and Meditations
Posted on August 14
I’ve been going through some rough patches on and off for the past couple of years, and on a search to find ideas and wisdom to help me get through the storm. Sometime last year, I happened upon a video that introduced me to Stoic philosophy, namely, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his book Meditations.
Steam Gaming Goals Mid-Year Update
Posted on August 13
Back in January, I set out with a few goals for 2024, which included two for my Steam backlog.
Gaming Confession: I Still Haven’t Finished Baldur’s Gate 3
Posted on August 12
The 1 year anniversary of Baldur’s Gate 3 - a game I had not planned to buy but got sucked into anyhow – was earlier this month. Not only have I never written about my adventures in BG3 (despite meaning to), I’ve still never finished the game yet.
FFXIV: Dawntrail May Break Me of Max-Level Altoholism
Posted on August 11
Folks who know my FFXIV habits know that I have way too many alts in a game that has no real need for alts. My Mateus crew is full up with 8 characters, and I have another couple free companies hanging out on other servers with numerous characters there.
7D2D: The Posse Returns for 1.0
Posted on August 10
The Posse has been playing 7D2D since we picked it up during a Steam sale back in 2014. While the last couple years have been quiet for us, we got the band back together for the 1.0 release.
Keeping a Commonplace Book – Online and Offline
Posted on August 9
Though I kept something called a “writer’s notebook” when I was in high school and college, little did I know then that what I was actually keeping is what’s known as a “commonplace book.” This is, essentially, a personal notebook where you jot down quotes and passages that you’ve read or heard that you want to remember.
Posted on August 8
Along with keeping a journal and planner by hand this year, I’ve gotten into writing out daily habit trackers as well. Previously, I used Habitica to do this, but now that I’m going much more analogue with things, I’ve moved away from using an app to using tried and true pen and paper.
Introduction to my Journals and Notebooks
Posted on August 7
As I’ve mentioned a few times during this Blaugust, I’ve taken up the habit of hand-writing in a journal this year. I didn’t plan for this to happen, it just sorta did, and I’m embracing it.
Introduction to my Fountain Pens
Posted on August 6
This year, I’ve been getting into a number of analogue things that I had no experience with before, nor did I expect to enjoy and get into. This included purchasing my first fountain pen.
HTML Blogging: Keeping Backups
Posted on August 5
When running your own static HTML site, it’s important to keep backups of your files. Depending on the host that you use, it may be up to you to keep a copy of your site on your computer and/or an external storage device (I suggest both). Even if your host does make automatic backups, it’s still best to save an archive for yourself.
Blogging in HTML – Two Years Later
Posted on August 4
Back in 2022, I decided to do something I never expected after having blogged under the WordPress umbrella for a very, very long time. I saw the business choices that WordPress.com was making, and didn’t like what was happening there. So, I decided to pull my blog content from their platform and re-code it into a static HTML website.
Posted on August 3
I love fishing in just about any game that I play, be it MMO, farming, or survival game. So, I loved the idea of the new fishing mini-game that they added to the latest patch in AFK Journey yesterday.
Posted on August 2
Almost every year when Blaugust comes around, I feel the need to write at least one post about RSS feeds or feed readers. This is because I still find this the most reliable way of getting my updates and news, especially since I’m no long part of the Twitter/X ecosystem.
Blaugust 2024: First Post of Blaugust
Posted on August 1
Welcome to Blaugust 2024 on Aywren’s Nook! I look forward to posting and seeing all the posts this year! One of the prompts this year is the “First Post of Blaugust” initiative, wherein we take a moment to open this month with an introduction of ourselves.