Writing has always been a meh part of my life. I've always had the appreciation and understanding that writing is something helpful and useful in all aspects of life. Yet, when it comes to ACTUALLY sitting down and writing, I can stare at the screen for a bit, then find something else to do until my brain decides to kick into gear. That is what happened when I started writing this intro post. Here we go.
I go by the name Cheshire in the internet realm. You might have come across me somewhere sometime, or maybe not. Who knows! A little bit about me before info dump: I'm a xennial with a gen x sister who moved countries for a better life. I don't use pronouns, officially diagnosed with ADHD as a child (that followed my crazy butt into adulthood) AND decided to take myself off of the medication because it was too expensive. I've had to learn to deal with my attention problem for over 16 years and it is one hell of a roller coaster at times. Currently hold two degrees, one being a Certified (and licensed) Veterinary Technologist and the other degree being a Computer Game Design and Development. Activities that hold my attention: gaming, reading, writing, cooking/baking/making-messes-in-kitchen, robotics, building things, creating things, things things, you get the idea. My interests are VAST and if I'm not learning something then I feel like I'm failing in life.
Home location would be Illinois in the USA, in which I eventually moved to Georgia (USA). After completing my second degree, I moved to Mexico. During my university time in Georgia, I played an online game called Guild Wars 2. One of my favorite past times in that game was the game mode called World vs World. That is where I met my husband. We hit it off decently and one day he asked me if I wanted to visit Mexico. Was a bit skeptical at first but after taking some safety measures (thanks crazy CIA or FBI next door neighbor that loved my mom's company) I decided to visit. Obviously things went well, in fact so well I went for a second visit. When things just "feel right", you know. I've had a failed marriage in the past (more on that in a bit sorta) so I was REALLY hesitant before asking him if he wanted to get married. Yep, I proposed. Six years later and I'm sitting here typing in a blog about it. When I mentioned a better life earlier in this post, there's a few other things that I've enjoyed. One would be the affordability of fresh food and another would be the fact I don't get sick when eating out. No matter where I went, I'd get sick. Not here!
After I graduated and got my first degree, I was in a car accident. I wish I could say I was in a car when it happened but nah, not that lucky. Back then, I lived pretty close to my job and I would ride a bicycle to work. One day I didn't make it. I remember thinking of tasks I planned on doing for my job (worked as a vet tech with a vet at our local animal control) then next thing I know, I'm in a hospital bed with a bunch of lines attached to me with strangers looking at me. Not to get into a lot of details here, but upon admittance, I was given a 30% chance of surviving. I had fractures in my skull, bleeding from somewhere in my brain, and overall just banged up. Clearly I pulled through but had lasting effects, such as a lack in taste, smell, and parts of my memory just gone. There's a part on my left calf that I can't feel to this day, severely dulled pain receptors on my left arm/hand, and a fun "party" trick of popping my jaw on the left side. I can taste salty, bitter, tangy, sour, sweet, and other things like that but since smell plays a huge role in "tasting" food, I just don't get the same sensations as others do. Still, could have been worse.
First marriage I was in failed. I met the guy before my accident, then got married after the accident. Now, I don't know if previous me was just really naive or gullible, but current me did not care for this guy. He was pretty abusive, both physical and emotional. Not going to get into the details here but if you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, good luck. That might sound pretty cold and callus but until one recognizes that there is more to life than the abuse, it doesn't matter what anyone says or does. I can tell you that life is better without the abuse, but there will be downhill rides. I would also say that life gets better, but you have to work for it or at least embrace it. When I "woke up" from that situation, things were rough when I tried to stand on two feet. Life got better overall though, but I had to work for it. I made sure I was overall happy and that life is too short, so take chances (reasonable ones!).
I adore pets. Currently have an outdoor cat that adopted us and a rescue boxer/husky mix. Overall no issues between the two of them.
TL;DR of my two degrees section. Always loved animals and wanted to be a veterinarian when I grew up. Decided to do veterinary technologist first to see if I even liked the field and decided to stick to that. After car accident, I had my "midlife crisis" and switched gears. I still hold my license and have thought about working here in Mexico, but that's a whole other chapter in another book somewhere on my shelf. In total, I worked in the field for about 16 years or more (started at 14 with a LOT of limitations and restrictions) but decided to explore something else I was passionate about. Somehow, I managed to get into a university in Georgia and got my second degree done. To this day, I still don't know how I managed to go to school full time and work full time. I had to schedule my classes around my night shift ER vet tech life, plus have about an hour a week dedicated to my decompression. Freaking miracle. Post graduation from my game design/development degree gave me serious burnout. I've tried kickstarting my brain to get back into it but all I ever get is "eh I'll do it later" from myself. More on this later. I do have a portfolio, which hosts more of university games, game jams, and post game play writeups.
Gaming is obviously a thing I like. As of right now, I write game guides for Guild Wars 2 and Warframe in hopes of applying to their partnerships at the end of this year (2023). In order to do that, I need to have at least 1k views on my blog site Cheshire Gaming every month from 2 months ago going forward. That's just the basics. I do streaming during the week over on Twitch, in which I'm switching between Guild Wars 2 and Warframe. I'm really enthusiastic about these games and just want to share that enthusiasm with others. On Fridays, my community plays some ARMA 3 post stream session to which we derp so hard against the enemy factions. Saturdays are ttrpg nights for my community and we are currently playing through a mash up of The Crimson Throne and The Jade Regent from Pathfinder 1e. You might see those post session recaps here on this site. Feel free to read them! When I'm not doing anything related to these, I slowly refine a ttrpg of my own design. Usually this occurs once a month until I can get a grip on my other aspects spiraling out of control.
Reading is fun. I'm slowly creating a list of books I enjoy for others to check out. Overall I like dark, horror, chaotic, fantasy, space, futuristic, kinds of things. Just check out the list in order to get a better idea. Also manga!
Along with reading goes writing. Not much of a writer outside of game guides, post session recaps, project progressions, mind dumping, or ttrpg scribbles. I have been asked by my sister and a few friends to write a book about my life. Still deciding if I want to do that or not....
Cooking and baking is a basic requirement to living. I don't do as much cooking as I would like to here, but since my husband has explicitly told me that my cooking gets expensive, authentic Mexican food it is. However, I do get to make salsas, butters, pickled toppings, and ketchups. Things like that. Those are super fun to do. Baking is more of a me thing. If you've ever visited or known someone from Mexico, they might tell you that they don't use their oven for baking. They use it for storing pots and pans. It was a bit weird for me at first, but when you can go to an actual bakery and get freshly made biscuits...you can't really beat that. For me, I bake things I can't buy at the store or if I can make it cheaper/better. I've started selling some baked goods on Sundays outside the nearby church for some extra cash for the week. Perhaps I can share some recipes/pics at some point. Fun fact: I don't usually eat the things I bake. Never did and I still don't know why to this day.
Last thing is that I like to just create and make things. I've got a bunch of projects that are started and got abandoned at some stage in their lives. There's two skinned furbies for an Alexa type creation, a few 3d printed models that need painting, a half-done crochet blanket that might see completion within a few years, the list goes on. If you've got ADHD, you know what I'm talking about. I plan on getting back on track with these projects once I've gotten a hold of everything else going on, which may never be. I do have a Kofi shop because Etsy hates me (long story short: they won't take my card/bank info for unknown reasons), to which I make wooden wands, dice bags, and blank journals. Eventually I'll dabble in a few other creations but that will be way in the future. Click here if you want to check it out!
Whew that was a lot. There's way more to this but if you've made it this far then that is more than I could have ever asked. If you want a general, overall list of where to find me on what website/platform, you can check out the About Me page. That will have the most updates as life chugs along.
Finally, it's a pleasure to meet you/me ❤
Note: Not quite sure how #hashtags work with Blogger but if they do - #Blaugust - this takes you to a google search of "#Blaugust" via Firefox because yes. Honestly, who the frick knows. Leroy Jenkins!
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