Marc Rivers, Author

As one might intuit from the title, I’ve been generally distracted the last few weeks by the men’s World Cup. Having played soccer in my youth (at the YMCA), I came to be a fan of the sport. It comforts my little ADHD brain to have it on, whether in the background or as a central focus. I don’t think I’m actively rooting against any particular countries in this year’s tournament (maybe a player, but not an entire team), so I should be able to enjoy the results, however they may shake out.

Other things are distracting me, too, beside the World Cup. As my last post intimated, I’m struggling to juggle the various responsibilities that come with being an adult laboring under capitalism. (Is the World Cup adding to that struggle? Perhaps. It’s a matter for philosophers.)

All that to say that I haven’t done as much writing lately as I’d like. I think about it quite often, but the act of sitting down and typing things out has been pushed to the side lately. It’s not a good start for my resolution to finish a chapter every two weeks, I admit. Hopefully this public self-examination will help me to refocus on my favorite hobby and not just put a game on to dull my senses for a while.

And speaking of games, I just replayed the OG Final Fantasy VII in (very early) anticipation of next year’s release of Final Fantasy VII: Revelation. I have full confidence the game is going to kick ass (and also that it will take up what precious little space is left on our PlayStation’s hard drive).

But while I was playing it, I got to wondering—why isn’t there a Final Fantasy tabletop roleplaying game? It seems like a bit of a no-brainer on its surface. So, I looked into it and discovered that there is, in fact, a Final Fantasy TTRPG. It’s just that it’s a TTRPG version of Final Fantasy XIV, which I’ve never played. (I simply do not have time for an MMO.) It’s also rather expensive, even by TTRPG standards, so that’s a deterrent to looking into it more. Even so, if I could get my hands on a cheaper version of the rulebook, I’d be curious enough to learn more about it.

I’ve been trying to make more time for reading, with varying degrees of success. I’m concurrently trying to work through The Fifth Season and The Kaiju Preservation Society (two very different books in terms of tone, let me tell you). I wish reading came as naturally to me as it did back in my school days (or even when I had an office job with downtime). The only way I’ll get back into that depth of habit is by doing. I can’t sit around and wish—gotta just crack open those books and read!

Anyway, thank you for reading through my gripe session. I’ll aim to have a more positive and interesting update in a couple of weeks. For now, I soldier on. I wish you all luck with doing the same.

Take care of each other. Admit when you need help, then reach out for it. Show grace to one another and do what you can to be better today than you were yesterday. We’ll talk again soon.

-Marc