Lockdown Blues Part Three

Here we are in the third week of the third national lockdown. For the third time another period of time being stuck indoors with nothing better to do than twiddle the thumbs and watch endless reruns of The Walking Dead, Z-Nation, Friends, Humans, Star Trek and Nashville. Oh, and that inauguration.

Folkestone is a place where nothing ever happens

Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens. Nathan Coley. Photo by Thierry Bal.

Every time I blog I promise I’ll blog more often. It never happens. I think I have a valid excuse this time though, literally nothing has happened in the life of Gary since the last time I sat down to write on here. OK so I may have written a bit more on the Western film script and got involved in the launch of a game server but other than that…

Folkestone is a wonderful place to live, so many things to see, places to go, establishments to eat and drink at, but not during a national lockdown. I’m only allowed one exercise walk per day and the rest of the time I’m expected to sit in the house and entertain myself. So for the past three weeks my life has literally been get up, do a bit of writing, play a game or two on the PC or Playstation, go for a walk, eat, play some more, go to bed. My wife still goes out to work every day as she’s a key worker but I’m shielding so I don’t even have work to go to that would help pass the time.

Good news on the health front

I did get a bit of good news back in December, after more blood tests it was declared I’m still in remission which means I have six more months worry-free before the next load of tests in June. I also had another consultation with the cardiothoracic surgeon who still wants to open my chest up again to fix the broken bits of my ribcage after my failed Pectus Excavatum surgery in 2012. The surgery has been postponed though until at least the summer because, you guessed it, Covid-19.  During lockdown I seemed to have gained another condition that doesn’t look like it’s going to get better any time soon, Lockdown Belly, or as some like to call it my Covid Curves. I really need Covid to disappear soon so I can rejoin the gym. I cancelled my membership after my cancer diagnosis and when I got the all-clear we were in our first national lockdown so I haven’t rejoined since.

Biden and Bye Bye Baby

It looks like the USA are heading back in the right direction following the election and inauguration of Joe Biden. Trump was perhaps the worst president in US history, the whole world could see it but half of America thought he was a (false) messiah. Even a large number of Republicans have turned against him but his strong “army” of followers have set a dangerous precedent and threatened the very concept of democracy. As a Brit it’s easy to see from the outside just how dangerous he was (and still is) with his lies and attitude. But enough about US politics, I’m sure we’ve all heard enough. I just hope the US now heals and puts right all the wrongs of the last four years. And didn’t Garth Brooks do a great job!

Gaming in the Wild West

Apparently it’s now good for your mental health to play games. A study by Oxford University academics “found that people who played more games tended to report greater “wellbeing”, casting further doubt on reports that video gaming can harm mental health”. Well that’s a bloody good job isn’t it, it’s pretty much all I’ve been doing since Christmas.

I’ve also gotten involved in the launch of a new server for roleplaying games. We’re launching a Red Dead Redemption 2 Online server for people to roleplay. I’ve been busy working on the marketing and gameplay side of things while my friend has been working with developers to create the scripts and mods required to play the game. We’re hoping to beta test the server towards the end of summer before an official launch towards the end of the year. I already have my character name for when it does go live, Morgan Reed, he is the main protagonist in my The Lawman Legacy movie script. I will not be playing him in the movie though, I have someone else in mind, someone very well known who was one of the regular actors in one of the TV shows I mentioned in the first paragraph. If you can guess who he is (write your guess in the comments below) I will use your name for another character in the movie. There are three prominent characters in the movie who I still haven’t officially named. Should the server be successful we may expand into hosting other online RP games in the future.

Wrap-up

So a fairly unproductive few months here in the JJ household, here’s hoping things return to normal soon. I hope you all are staying safe, wearing your masks, washing your hands, staying home, etc, etc, etc. Once the vaccine has been fully rolled out to everyone I hope we can consign Covid-19 to the history books. I won’t hold my breath though as long as Boris is in charge…