Well well well, if it isnt Wednesday.
Ive just eaten some yoghurt and banana with cashew nuts and maple syrup.

There we go, I must be a real blogger now, Ive shared what I had for breakfast with the world.

And in all honesty I do feel Ive gotten a bit more comfortable with this morning blog routine. Ive jumped the main hurdles of anxiety, self doubt and cynicism that were holding me back at the start of the month and now I feel quite comfortable with this sort of mid-form rambling.

splinterlands I thank thee

Splinterlands really helps because instead of going in cold I quite often play my daily quest first and throw some battle links down which helps to break the 'blank canvas' effect. Somehow it sets a nice low bar for quality of content as well, so anything I write from then on feels like Im improving the post! hehe. Its all just about getting in to a routine and a bit of flow really. But these little comforting psychological tricks do seem to help me along...

Lets get straight to the battles of the day and then perhaps I'll eulogise a little more about the psychological benefits of blogging in tandem with battling...

SPLINTERLANDS!

Water quest today. Check out some of my battle highlights below:

My Sea Monster beats Grum in the poison ruleset
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_03f7105f9a8c4205b917f53fd948357a&ref=basilmarples

I was very pleased with my tactic here in the 'no ranged' ruleset. I used Bortus to nerf the magic and then stuck torhilo upfront while sneaking their backline. It could have back fired because they used oshannus who is super fast but torhilo managed to get a could of decent hits in.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_13897632f11990b92ed6575607c5b16f&ref=basilmarples

Again, I was really chuffed with this one. Keyla Frendul gives armour to all my little guys and I used a scavo to keep repairing the backline while my Sea Monster slowly ate through their entire team. I feel very pleased with myself :)
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_7c47c6ed1d12d0cc066e479e82fadca5&ref=basilmarples

This was a damn close battle. Keyla Frendul definitely saved my bacon. All that armour against a fire deck came in very handy!
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_860a5295bd67394156fcbac4ef4f9999&ref=basilmarples

Y Splinterlands So Gud?

well exactly
and no...
Im not going to explain why its such a great game.
There are plenty of people out there doing that already.

But listen. Imagine you're me (which if you believe in the nature of unified existence then you kind of are). You're a sensitive, creative type who doesnt cope well with stress or expectations in life and has therefore found themselves somewhat inert in society. You've managed to secure enough resources around you through luck/charm/privilege that you can just about get by without having to compromise yourself too much. However, a feeling of unfulfillment pervades and the discomfort with a lack of self sustainability gives an unpleasent flavour to this life of relative ease.
What am I doing with my life?
How will I survive if my support systems fail?
How can I make progress without getting over excited and compromising my health?

Splinterlands to the rescue

See I could be saying 'hive to the rescue' or 'crypto to the rescue' but the fact is, its splinterlands that has kept me here. When I go through dark times, or busy times, or times of ill health, I dont want to deal with complicated transactions, or articles about exciting crypto projects, or blogging and commenting on social networks. Its all just too much.

But gaming is different.

Consuming media in these dark times is a pretty damn good. Its certainly a great comfort, and gaming is up there with the best. The thing about gaming is that it gives you a sense of achievement in a way that film and tv don't. Games often use all the tricks in the book to give us little dopamine rewards for all of our wasted time. You levelled up! You gained a star! You are AMAZING!

thankyou thankyou thankyou, I feel great about my life, give me more

The problem is of course that at the end of a 9 week gaming session when your eyes are bleeding and your spine is fused to the sofa, you can start to question whether maybe perhaps the fleeting sense of achievement is actually blinkering you to the steady downward spiral of your life. Surely not? This feels good! Right? I defeated the Lich King and saved the Squirrel Kingdom. So what if my life is slowly drifting in to a deep dark hole and my bank balance is getting smaller as cost of living goes up and Im buying more DLC while getting older and less capable and less inspired every day. I'll just play through it again on ultra hard mode and see if that makes everything ok...

Bring on the Splinterlands!

I am actually building something.
Almost every day I complete my daily quest. Its not huge. I dont spend hours playing, I dont enter tournaments, Im not a smart trader. But Im building.
This is the thing that has kept me on the blockchain all these years even when I didn't have the will to scroll through hive blogs. Somehow splinterlands never failed to keep me engaged. Its just simple enough and repetitive enough and rewarding enough to have comforted me even through my weakest months. And somehow it has repaid my engagement with a genuine sense that Im working. I cant tell you how valuable this has felt to me. If I really had to, I could probably turn this in to a job, and that gives me an immeasurable sense of security. Sure it wouldn't be much of an income at the moment, but with each month passing my position strengthens as I increase my assets through daily rewards.

Who knows whether this crazy ride will last or what the future brings. But I can safely say that RIGHT NOW, Splinterlands gives me a sense of genuine work fulfilment that is low pressure and sustainable for my energy.

I am so grateful x x