An update that managed to get posted before midnight? Must be a damned miracle. Unfortunately that’s the only fortunate news I have for this update.

You’ve probably seen my tweet back on the fifteenth but if you’re still unaware I put in my letter of resignation that day and have been searching for alternate employment since.

Yeah, I quit without having another job lined up. I’m well aware how dumb that was. I would try to say I needed to make sure I was properly motivated or that I like living on the edge- which is a damn lie- but the honest answer is that I reached my limit at work and handing it in on the fifteenth ensured my employers had two weeks of notice.

My letter listed the 31st as my last day, so we have about ten days for me to finish finding a job. It’s not too bad, though. I’ve already had an interview for a job I think I would enjoy quite a bit and while there is a slight pay cut it’s based on the fact that I won’t have ten hours of overtime scheduled every week.

There’s a high likelihood of overtime in this position too but with starting pay being a bit higher and three days off most weeks I’ll be in a much better position for focusing on other things.

You know, like my writing.

Of course, I’m still waiting for them to call me back. They liked me well enough to reach out to me to set up the interview and it seemed to go well so I’m hoping the delay is only because my interview was on a Friday afternoon and that I’ll here back sometime tomorrow. If I don’t I figure I’ll just give them a call myself to see if I need to resume my search.

Just didn’t feel right to be applying to other places and trying to get interviews when I’m just waiting to hear back from them.

And if I don’t get the job? Well, worse comes to worse I can always do deliveries of some kind. I have a car and if it takes me running food, cannabis, or medical supplies around the city to pay my bills then so be it.

Actually, the medical courier job I saw seemed like it might be a good fit for me too so I’ll probably try that first. I’m not too worried about it because I have those ten days with my current employer and another paycheck and a half coming from them.

Things might get a bit tight but like I said there are plenty of jobs I can do just because I have a car so I have no problem doing them until I find something more reliable. Hell, maybe I’ll end up doing them to make ends meet only to realize I really enjoy the work. We’ll have to see.

Now, you’re probably wondering how this has anything to do with yourself and why Eyazahrid has been rambling on about the fact that he needs to generate a source of income for the imminent future.

Good question.

Because I need to pay my bills and none of my lottery tickets have done me any good securing my financial future- sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? – is a very high priority. Such a high priority, in fact, that it comes before Sealkeeper or any of my other projects.

What this means for you as readers- and audience members, if you watch my streams- is that Sealkeeper is going on a soft hiatus. Chapter 90 will be up in nine or so hours but after that it may be a few weeks until I have more chapters coming out.

Streams have a slightly higher chance of continuing on any given day simply because I use games to unwind and I can stream just about anything. Nearly did one tonight, actually, but despite having already prepped tomorrow’s chapter yesterday my other weekly tasks seem to be taking more than their due time tonight.

Probably because I wrote so much about my current employment status.

Whoops.

Not too much more to cover with this update, I suppose.

More than a little nervous about tomorrows chapter because the expectations have been set pretty high if the reviews are anything to go by. I’m not sure why everyone seemed to love it so much- though I really need to figure that out- but I hope whatever I did right in that one I also did in chapter 90.

For the stream I’d really like to have a main game we play most weeks- actually, I’ve been wanting that since before I ever streamed- but I have no idea what I’d want to play that frequently.

I’m thinking I might need to get into an MMO again, though I haven’t played one in quite a long time. ESO was fun enough, I suppose, even if I only ran around with the Blade of Woe murdering everyone and ransacking houses but I’m tempted to give FF14 a try to see how that is. I couldn’t back when I was playing games all the time but now that I work I could definitely try out some subscription games.

Actually played EQ2 a long time ago, I wonder how that’s going these days. Terra was an old favorite too.

All I really know is that I won’t be going to WoW ever, but that leaves us with plenty of options. If you have a suggestion- or a preference between those I’ve already mentioned- please let me know.

I need something with some longevity so I can dedicate some effort to it.

All that said, let’s wrap this up with some Bonsai.

As you can see she’s grown quite a bit since you last saw her. Her sister, on the other hand, well….

She hasn’t grown all that much. With the latest branches coming in near the top I may remove some of those lower down but we’ll see. They both hit the eight month mark in about four days and that’s sad.

Not because of their age but because I can remember their birthday- plantday?- but I can’t remember those of my siblings or parents.

Or my cat, apparently. My brother told me recently that she’s already six years old. I hadn’t exactly been keeping track, to be honest, but that sounded a bit high.

He wasn’t wrong, apparently it’s been six years.

My sense of time aside, let’s finish this up because I’ve somehow managed to work on this for the last two hours. Don’t ask, I have no idea.

I don’t have a teaser for you this week- again- but I did recently show both a clean Command Center and my setup being, you know, less than set up. With that in mind, let’s get some more pictures up in this post. Why? Because I took ’em so I might as well use ’em.

Besides, I’m sure you’re all terribly curious.

Okay, maybe not. I’m going to show you anyway.

The command center is no more, my writing/work desk having been removed from my room, leaving everything pretty empty. It’s also a damn furnace in there so I haven’t spent much time after I got everything set up.

Learning that none of my spare keyboards apparently work may have had some influence on that decision. I have a new one coming in Tuesday to remedy that. We’ll be back to gaming soon enough.

Well, I could just use my gaming keyboard with the gaming pc but I’m a lazy bastard and already have it set up on the writing desk. Moving it between the two for the next few days- as I’ll be doing with my chair- is just too troublesome.

Here’s a picture showing where the rest of the command center used to be, now replaced only by the same emptiness in my heart that I harness to create my cliffhangers.

I’ve spared you the close-up of the computer were you’d be granted the image of a horrendous tangle of wires. Ended up with a handful of wires to….something…after I had set it up again but I guess they weren’t that important if I can’t figure out why I had them in the first place.

My writing desk- actually, you may note that this desk used to be the one the gaming setup was on a few updates ago- has been moved out into the loft where there isn’t a fan but it also isn’t the fiery pits of hell, which is nice. The separation also helps keep me from being too distracted.

It’s not entirely effective, but I did sit down yesterday and manage to get a thousand words down which is a lot better than progress had been over the last week. A good sign, perhaps?

Actually pretty fond of this setup, I’ve been thinking about doing it for months. I always pictured it with the smaller desk but this is probably better. What you see on the screen is actually what I’m typing right now, which means I really need to hurry up and finish this. Seriously, I had so much time before midnight that I actually mentioned it in the first damn sentence- and no, I’m not changing that or the date of the update title- but by the time this is up it’s going to be quarter to one.

Ah, fuck it. What’s the harm in one more?

There you are, my current setup. I’m sure you were all dying to know after seeing the picture of my pc on the floor Friday.

Now I need to end this damn thing so I can finish the prep for chapter 90. Remember when i said it was done? Well, not quite. Proofread the chapter- also known as eliminating all the red squiggles in the document- but I still need to upload it to Fanfiction.net and ensure the formatting is correct. Shouldn’t take too long.

I hope.

Either way, this has gone on much longer than I expected and I need to get to work and then get to bed so I can get to work that pays the bills in the morning.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid