In Which I conquer Roma as the Byzantines, and other stories

Good morning, my friend, reader of this post! Happy Saturday to you, and I wish you the best! How have you been! It is true, I have not written here for some time. Unfortunately, I had a sick season, and to make the storm worse, I had two games I am fond of: Europa Universalis 4, and Victoria 3, releasing new content in a short space of 8 days each, which made me rather busy, on the field of hobbies. You are aware I was struggling greatly with the civilization of Byzantium, to make it work once more, after the 1.36 update to the game. That update made Byzantium considerably harder in the beginning. Fortunately, after managing that, their game received also many nice bonuses and flavor! Their adventure has become ever more spectacular! In my recent game as them, after much trial and error, sweat and tears and rage and all the emotions, good and bad, I got the two new achievements for the civ, to atest to the success of my run! One of them is to own Venice while making the republic of Venice, an old enemy, not exist, that was done. The other was to own the five cities sacred to Orthodoxy: Alexandria, Rome, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, as cores and converted to Orthodoxy. That was also done. I am now in 1760 something, and reached a stalemate, because the Spanish are too strong to defeat that easily, and so are the french, and the Russians are my allies. I expanded as much as I could, therefore, and have no more places to go without risking my success. I found that to be, for now, a good moment to leave Europa and turn my face to Victoria. In the game, I have been playing a campaign as Russia, trying to reform the country... I always find some issue I need to tackle, alas. Either is the literacy rate, either the economy estagnates... so much pain!

My most recent run in Europa as Byzantium! I made it work, and it took me much effort to reach this point, so I have all right to be cocky!

In matters of real life, you would be very happy to hear I am managing my finances, finally once again, after moments of despair and that seemed like I was out of exits. I renegotiated my debt, and so I will wrap it up in the course of the next months. Hopefully, life will be kind and I won't need to spend more than I can. I am trying to be more wise... but the fact that this book I want to get is so expensive, that helps in weird ways... and as I play my games... I haven't drawn much, either, much to my sadness, nor have I read much. The fault is not entirely on videogames, I must blame my mind fogginess caused by the illness, too, that was only lifted very recently. I am still reading on the beautiful world of the 18th century, through the lives of some very fascinating characters. It was a golden era, that unfortunately, like the belle epoque, died in a gruesome way. Today we only have the privilege to gaze upon the past, with the adding burden of not being able to be in there. I wonder, can those times be reclaimed? In this recent age of barbarism, it is hard not to think, apart material prosperity, we are not in the best of times, specially when it comes to ideas. In this desert, many sects emerge, and many of those are quite brutal, in the left, as I mentioned time and time again, but also in the right, where I increasingly uncomfortably locate myself in. It is not loathing of modern times, just... aknowledging much was lost.

On a final note, I am helping, first timidly, true, an architecture studio in their research endeavors! I may even get some money from this partnership, which would constitute my first ever official gig! Will it work out? God knows, but I am optimistic, overall, if not a bit nervous to make it work. I am usually not on this mindset, may it last!

With that being said, I trust this is a nice time to wrap this post up? I have written a lot, fortunately! With that, also, I shall soon be back with more posts, hopefully about good things, such as Christmas, as it is the season, after all! When, precisely? That I cannot tell, but I will make an effort to make myself present this next week, at least twice, so help me God. Until then, thank you for listening/reading, that means the world to me, and I wish you the best!