M. Tarah Henry @Lobst@scalie.club

#introductions

Hi, everyone; I'm tarah, otherwise known as lobst. I've drawn a few comics that people have seemed to enjoy, and programmed a game demo that won 10th-place in a 140+ entry game jam despite having no sound. My ability to finish any individual project has been stymied by mental health problems for over a year, but I've been seeking treatment and making progress. I've also been streaming videogames on weekends. Watch this space!

https://lobstworks.com/
https://lobst.itch.io/

Think I'll make that new FFXIV alt during my stream today! I'll be starting at the top of the hour, feel free to come by and hang out: https://twitch.tv/lobst 🔸

Also, I didn't notice anyone on Akizeme! (for what I'd seen of it, at least) who'd even remotely deserve that label, at least by my metric. It speaks to how well that event was organized, IMO 🔸

This term doesn't refer to just anyone who's occasionally foul-mouthed or pushes boundaries, I'm specifically talking about the type of streamer who clearly thinks they're broadcasting to an audience exclusively made up of easily-distracted children 🔸

Whenever I'm exposed to a random videogame livestream and the host's entire M.O. is to pepper his sentences with edgelord humor and the word "fuck", to me that host is the avatar of a concept I call Twitch Man. As in "Ah, they've invited Twitch Man on to play" 🔸

Found an ASUS TUF laptop new/on discount that checks all the boxes, so I pulled the trigger on it rather than waiting for post-COVID computer manufacturing infrastructure to spin back up to meet my incredibly specific needs. It's a gaming laptop with the WASD keyboard keys highlighted, but the backlight is at least multicolor and not Virtual Boy red (which was my main concern)

It's also got to last; I lucked out with my 2015 Aspire but also had to replace a few parts over the years. I side-eye Lenovo after the machine I had to send back, and I've heard Dell machines aren't great about this.

Man, if they just had a current-gen Aspire 7 in stock/at MSRP it would suit my needs perfectly

It's looking like "what's available at the start of June" is going to be a bunch of models from last year or earlier, because everybody's buying a new computer to work from home and manufacturers aren't running at capacity (which I support, they really shouldn't). My absolute bare-minimum is 9th-gen i5/3rd-gen Ryzen + GeForce 1650 + 10-key input + SATA bay; hopefully the better companies plan to restock or release new models at some point soon

I think I might want to start a second character in FFXIV as a horrible little gremlin (lalafell), -but- only if any mutuals have an active FC for me to join; otherwise I'll continue soloing as my current character without issue 🔸

Oh hey, it's Tuesday! I'll be resuming my playthrough of Yakuza 0 with a slightly shorter stream at the top of the hour: https://twitch.tv/lobst 🔸

Anyway, good game, and it's on the list of fighters I'll be sticking with; it feels like a nice re-entry into MLP:FiM's design aesthetic and writing tone for someone like me, who saw an opportunity to stop following the show at the season 3 finale and immediately took it 🔸

I'm not blameless in this, of course; an hour-plus into Story Mode (starting the snow village dungeon) and I finally start to think "hmm, perhaps I should look into using this 'Magic' mechanic I've heard so much about" 🔸

I put some time into Them's Fightin' Herds earlier tonight; I'm still relatively unfamiliar with the genre, but it's the first one of these I've played where the lowest-difficulty AI player casually destroys me with relentless blocking and air-juggle combo maneuvers 🔸

I have a Duolingo (LovelyBoost) but it sure as hell isn't my only resource, I prefer things that more explicitly encourage note-taking and self-study; I'm a few chapters into the Tae Kim grammar guide, and I have some textbook scans I've also been reviewing🔸

Over the last month I've been throwing myself all the way back into studying Japanese using free resources, mostly for the challenge and fun of it. It's been a humbling experience, but also highly enjoyable for me 🔸