Here's to Bel!

So I just learned a couple days ago that Belghast died of complications from chemotherapy while fighting cancer. Man, it really shows you how checked out I am from blogging these days, but with the Blaugust event coming up, I stumbled into the unfortunate information. That said, I feel like I need to pay respects, even if its belated!

First, I really appreciate the example of his drive! Blaugust alone really cast a long shadow, and I feel it brought a lot of welcome attention to nerd and game blogging. Long live, Blaugust! I've participated multiple times myself, and he really started a unique community that is continuing on now without him. Honestly, it's pretty cool that the torch for Blaugust 2026 is still being carried! Good on those who are intimately involved. You rock!

Second, when you look at his last post on Tales of the Aggronaut, Man, look at that, he posted right up until the end. Round 7 of chemo, July 1st, a post on PoE 2 mapping, and (as from what I'm understanding) then the next day he was gone. Just floored. His dedication was top tier!

On a personal level, I have two thoughts. One, the similarities between our situations is uncanny in a way. He had a different, more aggressive, type of cancer than I do, but with my own battle going on still, it brings it all home to me. Two, just to be honest, I think Belghast was one of those that I don't know if we always saw eye to eye on things; we ran a bit in different circles; and yet we played similar games and did similar things. He loved MMOs first (much like me) and also ARPG games, but whereas he was really drawn to the hardcore complexity of Path of Exile 2, I was pretty turned off from the game.  On the other hand, I could play Diablo IV for what it is and fully enjoy it, but Bel was critical of the game (for what it could be). 

People come to the TFN blog for old Wizard101 information, nostalgia, or to be simply entertained by me doing dumb stuff like building Turkey Bases in Dune. The truth of the matter is, if I was a developer for a game that Belghast was playing, he would be one that I'd tune into for more critical opinions on the game that I needed to hear. He was good at what he did, and so yes, a bright light in the blogging community has gone out, and it is definitely notable here on TFN. Sorry it has taken me so long to note it!

Here's to Bel and Happy Dueling!

A dose of real life: Chemo, Xeriscape, Poetry, Birthdays, and D&D!

Well, dang, it's been a hot minute hasn't it? It feels like a good time to update you all on what's going down in the life of Tom. Let's get to it.

First up, the cancer . . . I'm doing chemo again, and I'm back in a regular three-week cycle:

- Week1: Get infusion on a Friday, Feel like garbage from that Saturday through Tuesday. Bounce back Wednesday through the first Friday.

- Week 2: Avoid people while I'm immune compromised. I'm working from home, and I stay in my little bubble.

- Week 3: Life is good! Kick in those steroids on Thursday and brace myself for "the suck" of week 1 all over again.

Bring it Chemo x 2!

As for other trial prospects, my oncologist and I decided to skip the BiPave trial I was looking at in case insurance didn't come through. Currently I'm hinging secondary bets on Daraxonrasib getting wider approval. It's got some funky possible side effects, including bleeding from the pores of your face, but it targets my particularly difficult kind of KRAS cancer mutation. If worse comes to worse, there's always that!

Next up, I gotta talk about my front non-lawn, y'all. I've been having EXTREME stress about my front lawn ever since we moved into the new house and I realized that it was a bark chip nightmare full of weeds and old grass that was never fully dealt with. 

Knowing that it was a huge point of stress for me, my wife turned to my father-in-law, and he hooked us up with a family-loan so we could get it redone in xeriscape. 

It turned this:

So stressful to look at for me

. . . into this:

Night and day

One less thing to worry about is good for my soul. I couldn't be happier about it.

Thirdly, my apologies to my acquaintances who hate AI -- sincerely -- but I discovered that I could use it to build a mobile game I pitched to my old company. I talk all about my internal conflicts about it in my last post. 

I'm now on my sixth prototype build of the game with a roadmap to launch on Android and possibly PC. It's been something I've been able to work on after hours and during my chemo recovery. I wish I had the money to pay and artist and a programmer to help me tag team this game, but ChatGPT it is for the time being. It's been incredibly enlightening. 

Poetry Slammers is becoming real!

Fourthly, I can't believe my youngest turned 17. Remember when I announced his birth all the way back when? Crazy. Such a good kid. Going to watch him play the mellophone in the local 4th of July parade tomorrow.

I like how I appear taller than him in this picture . . . I'm not.

Finally, I've been playing a lot of ye old dungeons and dragons. We finished up our first three-month long campaign and now we've shifted tables to a new DM. They gave us the option of rolling up new level five characters, but I've decided to just stick with good ol' Thotham my soul knife. 

To those ends, I've printed up a comic book of his adventures (again, with the help of AI), and a short run of 12 copies will soon be delivered to me so I can pass them out to the people I played the game with and have a couple copies for myself. So fun to give them all some kind of memorabilia of our time around the table.

Yup, pretty AI looking. Fun to make though!

So there's all the news that's fit to print about me. I'm now two years into my journey here back in Utah, and it's been a weird ride so far. Thanks for reading and as always . . .

Happy Dueling!