From GBA to N64 to SNES
It’s not been a particularly interesting few weeks for me, but, I have had the chance to play a few games!
One of the biggest parts of my life the last few weeks has been playing through some of my Archipelago games. For those that don’t know, Archipelago creates multiworld randomizers between supported and unsupported games ranging from Legend of Zelda to DOOM II, Pokemon Emerald to Pokemon Blue, and you can even throw in games like Golden Sun: The Lost Age! There are a multitude of games that you can try out with the system—just have your own ROM of games.
The few games I’ve been focusing on are Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen, Pokemon Blue, and Pokemon Emerald. There was a recent update for the FireRed/LeafGreen versions where it randomizes your starter town, and that made the beginning of the game very interesting. I started in Cerulean City and was essentially unable to progress past it until someone sent me either Surf and the badge for it or Rock Smash and the badge for it, and it was only until after sitting in BK mode (yes there’s Archipelago lore) for a few hours that I did get something. Randomizers are enjoyable because they can create a unique feeling on a game that’s been played multiple times before.
I’m looking forward to having more options developed for Golden Sun: The Lost Age!
So what has Dom been doing?
Working, mostly! I’m rolling out a whole new email branding that I’m going to present to leadership soon. We finalized branding back in the fall, and it wasn’t until just the last few weeks I could begin building out the email design to support that. For a while we’ve been fairly heavy handed on just two colors in our brand palette, and now that we’ve decided that some colors emulate certain kinds of events (educational, award, community, etc), I’m able to incorporate all the different colors of our brand more evenly. And that’s exciting! It lets me be more creative.
Before I started here there were a few people who had been in the marketing or communications role that did not have much experience in design, email marketing, or even social media marketing. It’s taken a bit to get where we are now (through meetings, suggestions, A/B testing, and the likes), but we’re finally there!
I’ve also put together quite a few email automated programs to help with member recruitment and retention, data cleanup, and list segmentation based on interactions with our website and emails. There’s a few times a year where I even just dedicate hours of a day—even after work is “ended”—to continuing and finishing up projects. If I get the creative juices flowing and I don’t jump on it then, sometimes I lose it and won’t be able to complete the project for a while. This week, in particular, I’ve worked some long days to finish designing and segmenting my lists for better overall reporting. Fun!
Work is looking strong with now, and I’ll exceed or hit most of my yearly goals, so that’s really exciting to see.
A new camera has joined the crew!
For those that don’t know this about me, I did dabble in photography from 2017-2020, and mostly took on event photography for work.
I pride myself on high quality photography for work, and I’ve noticed in my new role—okay, new since June 2022—while my iPhone 16 does…fine for what I’ve been doing, I’m pushing myself back into using a camera for work again. I currently have a defunct Nikon D3500, which worked for me back in 2018, but I’m excited to say that I’ve decided to dive headfirst into the mirrorless camera!
Canon EOS R6 Mark II
24.2 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor
Native ISO range of 100 to 102,400 (expandable to 50 and 204,800)
12 fps mechanical shutter, 40 fps electronic
6K video recording at 60 fps, 1080p at 180 fps
8 stops of 5-axis in body image stabilization
Dual Pixel CMOS AF II
Yes, this is a big purchase for me, but it’s going to help me in my work and raising the bar for my company’s quality for marketing. And no, iPhone photos just aren’t going to cut it for me anymore!
It’ll arrive in a week, and I’m so excited to begin event photography with a real camera again.
On the gaming horizon
Like I’d mentioned above, there’s quite a bit of Archipelago I’m playing, but, I’m looking at a few games for the next while.
Chrono Trigger
I’ve never actually played this game despite knowing a few things about it! What some people regard as one of the best RPGs to date, too! I have seen a few people playing it currently, and it’s been stuck in my mind to actually play for the first time. For this game, I won’t look anything up at all, and I’ll play it completely spoiler free.
I’m quite sure I’m going to like it.
Quest 64
I’m fully aware this game is kind of a meme, but, I remember renting it as a kid and playing it for a little bit before being absolutely obliterated by a monster. From what I’ve read it’s a fairly short game, so could even complete it in one day, I’m sure.
Will report back on it!
As always, feel free to follow me on social for some more real-time posting about my life, video games, and more.
