August 2023

Hobbies – Round Two: Miniatures

stargrace August 6, 2023 No Comments

Miniatures are a relatively ‘new’ hobby of mine, but I’ve been obsessed with them for years. I don’t necessarily mean the little tokens that people paint for TTRPG or the ones that sit on giant tables depicting massive wars but I suppose they can fall under the umbrella, too. I mean miniature anything. Small. Tiny. Adorable. I love creating tiny scenes and all the little items that go into those scenes. My facebook is filled with miniature groups that I belong to, and it is my happy place.

I bought a few small kits to start with, but kit bashing is incredibly popular, and I can see why. So far I’ve only built one of the kits from start to finish. It took a few days, but I loved doing it. Even learning how to do the wiring so the lights work.

The kits I had purchased were VERY small, I think 1:12 range is more comfortable. My eyes are not the greatest and I need progressives so I’m constantly taking my glasses off so I can see what I’m looking at. Not to mention my hands can be very unsteady some days.

I tried to get into polymer clay miniatures, but it just wasn’t for me. I would much rather build with paper / wood / glue than create with clay and not for lack of trying.

Of course the other issue with having so many different hobbies is the storage issue. I like to keep everything neat and tidy in its own little section, but it’s all too easy to have things get out of hand. Especially when you add children and inquisitive cat to the equation.

There’s two more hobbies to go, and then after that maybe I’ll get back to writing about video games!

Knitting Yarn

Hobbies – Round One: Knitting (Little Sock Arms 1)

stargrace August 5, 2023 1 Comment

There are a lot of things I enjoy doing besides video games. For the longest time, I thought there were too many other things I enjoyed doing, and I would actively try to narrow them down only to feel their lure once again after some time had passed. Unfortunately, I do not have all of the free time in the world, and trying to make sure I dedicate time to everything rarely ever happens. One of the main hobbies in my life is knitting (and other fiber related activities, including spinning) and above is a sweater in progress that I’m knitting for my 5 year old daughter. Eventually it will have rainbow striped arms, and it might even be completed in time for use this fall / winter. I’m knitting it in fingering weight yarn which is perfect for socks but takes FOREVER for garments. I think the last time I knit such a garment I swore I’d never do it again – and yet, here I am.

I try to knit for at least 30m-1h each day, but if I can’t manage that even 10 minutes is enough to see a bit of progress. I feel like if I can just dedicate a little bit of time each day to the hobbies I enjoy, then slowly over time I might see results. Whether those results are getting better in a craft, or a completed piece, depends on the craft.

I love talking to other fiber lovers about the hobby, too. I love sharing projects, seeing what others are up to, and learning what yarns they enjoy using. I have any close friends who spin yarn, but I do know a handful who knit or crochet. It’s a subject I could go on about for some time. One of my major motivators is this blog, DailyCreativeThing. I’ve been following it for years now and it always makes me smile.

Have a crafty blog to suggest? Let me know in comments and I’ll add it to my to-read pile.

Gaming WoW Gold Making

What Does it Mean to be a Goblin

stargrace August 4, 2023 No Comments

I don’t play World of Warcraft the traditional way it was meant to be played. I don’t enjoy raids, I don’t do group content. I do like collecting pets, and other pet related activities – but what I REALLY like to do in World of Warcraft, is make gold. If you enjoy making gold the term ‘goblin’ is often used. It isn’t a mean comment, it just means you enjoy making gold. It doesn’t even necessarily mean you’re any good at it (although I am). Right now in WoW I have 50,000,000 gold in liquid form (that means actual gold, not stock). That’s over 14 years of game time if I were to convert it all to battlenet tokens right now. I’ve been paying with gold for anything digital that Blizzard releases for years now, and I do that with my gold making. Diablo digital deluxe? Gold. Hearthstone packs? Gold. 2 WoW subscriptions and all the expansions? Gold. It allows me a certain freedom and also lets me feel guilt-free if I decide to take a break unlike other games where I’m actively paying a monthly subscription with my credit card.

This amount of gold is practically nothing compared to some of the bigger goblins out there – but time IS money, and the more time you devote to your trade, the more gold you’re going to earn. Right now I spend less than one hour a day on goblin activities and I’ve been established for a number of years which is what makes all of this easier. It takes time and effort to get set up and to learn the market and figure out your role in it. Once you’re there, it gets easier.

I started getting into gold making in BFA when the auction house mount was on a vendor for 5 million. My husband was away at depot for 6 months, and I was home with a newborn baby. I used gold making to get me through the incredibly long and lonely days, and it just sort of took off from there. Prior to that I had zero gold making knowledge. I used to ask my husband for gold to help me be able to afford to craft. Needless to say I no longer have that problem, lol.

I personally like to use my gold for good. I like to gift things to friends and family, help out guilds, and I never forget what it was like NOT to have that extra gold. It’s supposed to be a fun game after all, so I would rather help people have fun and not have to stress about an in-game currency when real life makes us stress so much already. Along those same lines, I also don’t enjoy making gold in a method that would bring harm to others. I don’t bait on the auction house or try to talk people out of their money. It’s simply not needed. I WILL spend time sniping auctions, but if someone messages me and kindly requests an item back without instigating an argument, I tend to give it back. After all, mistakes can happen.

My gold making habits tend to carry over into other games, but WoW is the only one I’ve managed to create such an extensive system on. Unfortunately, when I’m bored with gold making it also usually means I’m bored of the game, and need a break. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you don’t make a lot of gold if you’re not playing the game.

Anyway, there’s an introduction into my role as a goblin, and a bit of an explanation. As always, happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Learning to Spearfish!

stargrace August 3, 2023 No Comments

I’ve been back in FFXIV for just over a week now, picking up with the beginning of Endwalker and meandering my way through the story. In my down time, I have always loved crafting & gathering jobs in the game, so it wasn’t too long before I learned that spearfishing had been revamped in 6.1 – and that I had not even picked it up prior to the revamp.

It’s a mini game that opens these days. You find a node much like you would with botany and mining, and you have to use your spear on fish that swim by. I thought the game was pretty fun, and a nice change from the regular fishing that I have all but forgotten how to do. I picked up a few hermit crabs that I needed for a provision mission, and a handful of other fish that I put on the auction house. I don’t have a lot of gil in game (probably one of the few games where I spend most of my time broke) but I’m trying to save up so that I can enter the housing market. We’ll see how that goes. My husband has also returned to the game, so he’s been working through the older expansions with a handful of friends, and I’m now waiting for him to catch up in Endwalker. Overall? It has been some nice casual gaming, and a perfect way to spend a few evenings.

Real Life

Blaugust Day 2 – What’s in a Name

stargrace August 2, 2023 No Comments

Week one of the 2023 Blaugust festival is a ‘Welcome to Blaugust’ theme, and while I’ve never really been known to write on any sort of schedule or adhere to any sort of prompts, I do think that what you decide to call your blog is probably one of the very first steps you take. My own blog name has changed over the years, and is now hopefully in its final form.

I started out as MmoQuests – because I was blogging about (you guessed it) quests. In Mmorpgs. Usually EQ2. Over the years this changed, and I started writing about games in general, and then I started writing about my art, and cooking, and life. I decided to switch the site to NomadicGamersEh. I’ve always felt like a bit of a nomad when it came to gaming, playing one thing or another until I grow bored and move on. I also had hopes of doing some TTRPG blogging with the family, but that didn’t exactly work out (hence the ‘S’ in gamers). Since I’m Canadian, I thought I’d be even MORE witty, and put ‘eh’ on the end. Why? I’m not even really sure.

Last night I realized I STILL wasn’t happy with the name. It’s difficult to motivate yourself to write on a site when you’re not in love with the name, it can demotivate you. I decided to finally settle on NomadicGamer.ca – dropped the S, and went with .ca for my Canadian nod. Plus .com is still being squatted on. I used to own that one too on a wordpress hosted site, but I gave up the name years ago when money was tight. Now they want $3k for it and .ca will suit me just fine, thanks. I also own NomadicReader.com where I do book reviews, though I don’t post on that site nearly enough.

Hopefully this name sticks around a while. Blaugust is always a great time of year to do some general blog maintenance, update those links, and just make sure everything is running as it should be. I need to design a new header, but aside from that I think it’s all looking the way it should.

Tomorrow, we get back to posting about games! Palia is on the menu for later today, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is in the works for tomorrow. Not to mention those 2 new books I just picked up.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Hobbies – Round Two: Miniatures

Hobbies – Round One: Knitting (Little Sock Arms 1)

What Does it Mean to be a Goblin

Learning to Spearfish!

Blaugust Day 2 – What’s in a Name

You Missed

Leveling Up With Timewalking

The Construction of Quail Landing

Making Gold – One Sale at a Time

Timewalking, Gets me Every Time