What I’m up to right now.

On the blog front…

In the process of putting more focus on the blog again. Spending time re-working the design and backend by upgrading to WordPress premium so I can upload themes and plugins I find online to improve. I think we’re in a good spot on this front, which is exciting!

Anyway, I guess this is the first official “Now” page update that is me giving my readers a warm welcome to a new era!

Some changes I’ve made along the way:

• The Blogroll page now has a long list of content. It’s not really complete, but is a solid sampling of the websites and people I read and watch throughout my days. I do need to actually go through and link to them, but that’s a step for another day.
  • I am also wondering if I want to add any extra commentary or write a specific blog post for some of those to better recommend them. This is a thought I’ll stew on…
• I made a handful of QOL improvements on the admin and backend side of things to make writing and updating this blog more enjoyable. I’ll have to write a post about this in the next month or so once things get settled and share how it all operates.
• Umami analytics are integrated as a supplemental data source to Jetpack. Mudry.me as a domain gets traffic to URLs that WordPress doesn’t naturally surface, and I really want to see those for some long-term future proofing instead of handing them to a generic 404 page.
• The “Now” page has a little description above the current entry. Forever going to tweak that, but I think it’s good context for anyone reading.

In terms of what I am enjoying…

• TV
  • New seasons of Ted Lasso and Dark Matter are my main focuses for shows that light my brain up right now. Trying to watch as they air so I can feel a part of the discourse, but ultimately watching as I can.
  • Big Brother has been airing and it’s really my summer reality TV obsession. As of this writing (9/12) I am a few episodes behind, but I usually catch up in bigger binges as I can. Just gotta avoid the spoilers.
    • Big Brother also really is a sign that my season of reality TV kicks off. Survivor and Bachelor are surely on the horizon.
  • I recently started watching Clarkson’s Farm. This has become my new binge watch show of the moment; I am kind of obsessed. There’s something about British television & humor mixed with the seriousness & realities of owning + operating a farm that make this show great.
• Games
  • Blue Prince – We picked this back up again and are making lots of progress. I don’t really know how to talk about this game without spoiling, so I guess for now this is where I stop writing about it other than to say I am obsessed.
  • Star Wars: Zero Company – Was just added to my Steam Family Library. Only ~8 hours in or so and have been finding the start of this game quite fun. Curious if I’ll make it all the way through or just be happy with what I’ve been able to play so far. Time will tell.
  • World of Warcraft – I’ve recently reinstalled this game, as well as the beta for World of Warcraft forever. My subscription currently runs through January of 2028, so I have plenty of time to tinker around with maybe getting back into an MMO again. With the recent BlizzCon news, I think this might be my MMO of choice for a while, but we’ll see!
  • Big Walk – One of my gaming friend groups and I completed the main story of Big Walk together at the very start of the month. This game is such an incredibly heartwarming time together. It’s something I think I’ll have to write my thoughts on sometime soon, because I cannot stop thinking about it.

Other life happenings…

• Patriots football season has officially begun as of this last Wednesday. Breaking out the jerseys and the all the merch to decorate the living room with.
• Massive tree branches keep falling in our backyard, which is wild. So far none have fallen while we’ve been out there, but I keep worrying that it’s only a matter of time before I or someone else suffers a really dumb head injury. I keep joking we should have hard hats at the ready at our back door, just in case.
• There’s a stray cat in our back yard which we’ve named “Toast”. We’ve started leaving food out for it. We do not think we’ll actually take it in though (heaven knows my cat Marvin would be not happy + we just don’t want to chance him getting sick nor getting another cat infected with FIV)
• I’m losing my job in December. I wrote a quick Fleet about that which you can read here. Expected as the contract finally comes to an end, but still frustrating and anxiety driving as we go into the. Overall a bittersweet moment: I really enjoy the people I work with, but know deep down I’ve been craving a change for something new for a while. Maybe this will be a helpful kick towards whatever that ends up being

And I am sure there’s more to write about in terms of what’s happening “now” — but we’ll leave that for another day and another update to this page.

Until then…

-Nick