About a week and a half ago I reached the conclusion that I had to take a mental vacation. 

No, I didn’t need an actual vacation, by which I mean packing my bags and going somewhere other than my home. While that would be nice, the pandemic situation and the reasons that led me to need a mental vacation couldn’t not allow that.

So, what do I mean by mental vacation? Some situations and tasks overloaded me, both physically and mentally. I kinda had a mental breakdown. My solution was to keep that stuff out of my brain for a couple of days.

What was that stuff?

The day after I was discharged from the army (the day I was discharged was Sunday so I couldn’t do much) I had to do an unhealthy amount of paperwork for various government services. Did I have to do them all at once? No. Did I tackle them all at once? Sure I did.

About a month before I was discharged, I was already looking for work, and I still am. I followed some really bad advice from people who have absolutely zero connection with the field I’m interested in, which was a very bad decision from my part. At least, that increased my wisdom a bit.

I’m also looking to do some extra studies. That could be another degree, an MSc, seminars, or anything in between. That took an unhealthy amount of research and paperwork.

The blog and everything else TTRPG related I do, was a nice escape. But that too sometimes can get a bit stressful. Especially when you’ve undertaken quite a few projects while also trying to catch up with about two year’s worth of blog work. The fact that my family has no idea what TTRPGs are (nor do they care to learn) and consider my work here a waste of time doesn’t help.

This is a small and very summed up example of the things that happened. They don’t sound that bad, I agree, but I tried to tackle them all at once and I was already facing some mental fatigue. Plus, I was(and still) under some mental pressure by a family member. That’s one of the bad things about living in Greece. There’s a lot of backwards thinking and that affects hobbies and new or unconventional types of jobs. But that’s a story I don’t want to talk about. At least for now.

One of the good things of the pandemic is that the Greek government was forced to make a huge chunk of its paperwork services available online. That probably saved me more than a day’s worth of standing in lines, waiting for my turn to just get a paper signed.

How I spent my vacation

First of all, I put all that stuff aside. I was lucky enough that none of the remaining stuff I had to do were pressuring me time wise. So I removed them from my brain and actively tried to not allow them entry back in until I finished my “vacation”. I didn’t have to try a lot, probably because subconsciously my brain had to step away from those things so they didn’t pop into my mind more than a handful of times. And those times, they were promptly escorted to the exit.

But let’s move to the fun part! My lovely girlfriend visited those days so I got to spend a ton of time with her. That helped immensely. We went on walks, which at the same time were Pokemon GO grinds (Our friend codes are below. Add us for gifts and friendship) and had some very delicious coffee from a local place.Speaking of delicious, we also had some divine sandwiches from a really cool place that’s something like a secret because it’s not very easy to find. But the taste of their sandwiches is out of this world.

She also helped me organize my office space a bit. And when I say a bit, she did a major overhaul and the place now actually looks good and I can find the stuff I want easily. 

We also got to play some D&D. Anastasios ran a oneshot, which was fun. There were two new players as well, who added a lot of chaos, making the whole situation even more enjoyable. I love playing with new players. They are good sources of inspiration because, since they don’t have any experience, (that means) they don’t follow any restrictions that experienced players may have developed over time.

I also got to play some Warhammer 40K. One of the players at the LGS played a 500 point tutorial game with me. We didn’t use any stratagems or command points because I had to grasp the basic stuff first. Then I played another game with Anastasios. It was more chaotic because none of us is very familiar with the rules but we had fun.

Speaking of gaming, I played some PC games as well. Nothing too new, since I am using an old-ish laptop that can explode at any time. I really need to get a proper computer. Not really for gaming but for me to be able to work on code properly. It will also make video editing easier.

Anyway, I went over a few titles and played a bit of each. I went back to Stardew Valley, a very relaxing game for me. Then I switched to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, in which I love exploring all possible ways of doing a quest, as well as looting absolutely everything. Finally, I tried Endless Legend. It’s a 4X type of game and I have a huge affinity for those. 

And now I’m back. That’s how the last couple of weeks went by. As expected, my vacation moved some things back and the moment I started working on stuff, more popped up. But the important part is that my brain is now in a better state and it’s not so exhausted that I get an anxiety attack the moment something new pops up, no matter how small that is.

So now that I’m back and, most importantly, better you will see, hopefully, a more regular schedule. I have a ton of things to write about and I hope you will enjoy them. But most importantly, don’t be like me. Stop before it’s too late and take care of yourselves.

And until next time, have fun!

If you like what I do here on the blog and want more, in the form of early access to the articles, sneak peeks, and exclusive content, you can consider supporting me on Patreon.

If you want to stay updated on everything we release (from the blog, YouTube channel, Podcast, etc), as well as get new content and discounts, you should subscribe to our mailing list.

Update: One day later, I opened the fridge to get some breakfast ingredients and then it hit me. I forgot to add our Pokemon GO codes! So here they are.

Chris: 6652 3534 4106
Nicole: 3930 0498 6619