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COVID check-in - how are you all going?
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TOPIC: COVID check-in - how are you all going?

COVID check-in - how are you all going? 3 years, 2 months ago #4594

2020 Wasn't a particularly active year for the emuscene forums, but I still feel a strong connection with this site (once upon a time I was a mod with my own sub-domain) and quickly want to share some love with the community.

Hope you're all surviving COVID and that your minds/bodies/spirits/personal lives are in good shape.

FWIW I'm doing alright. My city's been COVID-free for roughly 6 months, my wife and I are gainfully employed (I just got a small promotion) and we were able to extend our house recently so that my mum can stay with us (gets her away from living near a hot spot and it's been quite snug having her around with the kids...etc). Without getting all emo, my life had some pretty big lows about a decade ago so I'm really glad to be where I'm at right now despite all that's going on.

If anybody's struggling or simply wants a bit of a chat (e.g. is lonely being locked up...etc) then I wanna share my best wishes with you. Also, hopefully this thread can serve as a bit of a catch-up thread for those who haven't talked to each other for a while.

This site's always been a safe place with smart, like-minded, level-headed people so hopefully we can get some good discussions going on her (a few of my regular haunts have degraded into some pretty toxic, polarised political/social brawls... which I reckon this site's always been above). Let's not go there though. Long live Mac Emu Scene! Glad to see it's survived the pandemic this far and I hope all of you punters are doing well!

Re: COVID check-in - how are you all going? 3 years, 2 months ago #4596

It was a very quiet year indeed around these parts.

I'm doing fine, too. Down here in Melbourne we had one of the strictest, longest lockdowns in the world, but as a super-introverted homebody my mental health was largely unaffected by the loss of freedom and social connection, and now we've had nothing more than isolated outbreaks over the past few months — so my wife and I have been able to see my parents and most of our friends, which I think is helping her cope better. As scary as things got here at the worst point, though, it's been much scarier seeing what's happening elsewhere in the world. I hope those of you in countries with high COVID numbers are coping okay and staying safe.

My work took a nosedive when the pandemic started, but the Australian government's JobKeeper subsidy made up my lost income and I actually ended up having a good year as a freelancer. Turns out stay-at-home orders are a boon for most tech companies, and I got lots of copywriting and editing work from one of my long-term clients (Telstra). I spent the rest of my time getting my next book and my games history podcast going again, and have set the foundations for what I hope will be a great 2021 for me professionally.

On a personal note, I recently got back into emulation again. I bought a GPD XD Plus towards the end of 2020 and am having a wonderful time playing N64, PS1, GBA, and SNES games on there. It runs Android, so there's a lot of emulators available, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with Amiga and Atari ST emulation — as well as various other systems. Hopefully I can find something that lets me use one of the analogue sticks as a mouse.
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