So, after dragging my feet about it, I broke down and created a discord channel for my blog and for Twitch! I figured it would be a fun idea to connect with folks outside of streams and the blog. Nothing fancy, just a chill space for chill vibes and fun chats! It’s kind of an extension of my Twitch channel, since we tend to have a lot of good discussions that get cut off because I refuse to do a 10 hour stream.
Happy New Year!! I took a bit of a break for the holidays so I could really spend quality time with my family. I only get to see them once a year so I like to make the most of my time with them when I do make the journey home. I got to spend a lot of time with my youngest brother and Mom, and I managed to get them both hooked on the Netflix series, You. I didn’t really write much when I was home, since I didn’t really feel up to it, however nothing gets you in the mood for writing like a 13 hour train ride. So, I was able to bang out a few posts on the journey home.
Most of 2019 was a bit hectic for me, what with me constantly switching jobs, which seriously stressed me the hell out. Thankfully the place I was contracting at made me an official offer just before the holidays, so I was able to close out 2019 on a high note! Having a full time job has really taken a huge weight off my shoulders and I really feel much more motivated to write now that I don’t have to worry about job security.
Content to Expect in 2020
There were a lot of things I wanted to accomplish in 2019 that kind of fell to the wayside, but now that things have finally stabilized I’m ready to hit the ground running in 2020. Before the break I ran a poll to gauge the kind of content you guys would like to see from me in 2020 and I wanted to take a moment to break down the results.
Many of you already know this story, but if you’re new here I figured this was as good a time as any to tell it again. I started Nice Job Breaking It, Hero back when I was in my last year of grad school. I was working on a Capstone Research project about unintended injury rates among middle school aged adolescents in four South American countries, and I was getting burned out on all the literature reviews and methodology drafting and all the other riveting aspects of academic writing. So, on a whim I opened up WordPress with the intention of starting a blog, mind you, I’d tried starting a blog before (over on Blogger), but I never could manage to keep up with it. So, I figured this would be about the same. I’d write for a week or two and then my blog would fall to the wayside forgotten and abandoned in some dark corner of the internet. I wasn’t thinking long term, I just needed something to take my mind off the stuffy research paper I was working on, and I figured writing about anything other than broken bones and accidental falls was a welcome change.
So, on August 11, 2015 I wrote my very first post, all 92 words of it… my statement to the big wide internet. An introduction, short sweet and to the point, but it was mine. I’m not gonna lie, those first couple of posts were rough. I’ve read through them a few times and there are so many things I want to go back and change, but, I won’t, those posts as cringeworthy as they seem are a memorial of sorts to the me of the past. It’s kind of nice to look back on those older posts and remember just how much fun I had writing them. I didn’t have a lot of followers and my view counts rarely ever hit double digits, but, I still took pride in what I wrote. I still do.
It’s been four years since I started this blog and it’s still mind boggling to me how far Nice Job Breaking It, Hero has come since then. I’ve grown as a writer, as reviewer, and as a person and this site has grown along with me. Through all the ups and downs, the hiatuses, big life events, this has been one of the biggest mainstays. Despite taking a lot of time off from it in these later years, I truly love blogging. I love sharing my thoughts on things that I love and engaging with everyone in the WordPress community. I’ve made some great friends and fellow allies over the years and I wouldn’t trade any of it for all the world. But, I will admit that Nice Job Breaking It, Hero has outgrown the basic free domain and it’s name.
Yes, after giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided to make some changes. The first being upgrading the site from the Basic WordPress plan to one of the Paid plans. I’ve seen a lot of bloggers take the plunge and I figure it’s been a long time coming, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon. But, with it comes the second and by far the most important change (at least in my opinion)… I’m changing the name of the blog from Nice Job Breaking It, Hero to Blerdy Otome, the domain will also be changing as well, but, I’ll update that when I take the plunge the new address is blerdyotome.com! This isn’t something I’m doing on a whim, I’ve been thinking about it for a very long time. When I was first considering a name for my blog I was really into TV Tropes, so of course I pilfered one of my favorite tropes for the title of my blog, because I suck at titles. But, more than that, the trope ‘Nice Job Breaking It, Hero’ kind of fit where I was in my life at the time.
The hero has accomplished their goal; they’ve killed the Big Bad, or defeated them forever, or at least scored a major blow against the antagonist. They’ve done what they set out to do…
…but not so fast! It turns out that by the very act of success, they’ve unwittingly made things worse.
I was still kind of getting my bearings with this whole adulting thing and more times than not I wound up making more mistakes than I’d care to admit. And, it still kind of fits, since I’m still just kind of making things up as I go along, sometimes I make it and sometimes I break it, so that even with the name changing, this blog will still kind of embody the spirit of the old Nice Job Breaking It, Hero name.
So, the new name… Blerdy Otome
I think the new name perfectly defines who I am, I’m a Black nerd and I’m a woman… pretty simple. My focus will still be on otome games and visual novels, like it has been in the past, but, I want to expand my horizons a bit to encompass a wider range of Japanese culture topics and nerdy exploits. So expect more diverse topics in the near future.
Thank you for sticking it out with me this long. I know I have been a little hectic and erratic lately, but your kind words and comments and things have really meant a lot to me. This blog would not be what it is without you guys and I can’t thank you enough. I’m always trying to improve myself and this sight so if you have any suggestions or want to talk or anything, feel free to reach out to me, I’m def down for it. I’m also going to make a conscious effort to be more active on my social media channels and in commenting on others blogs and things, so expect to see a lot of comments from me coming at you real soon. Like A LOT. Thanks for being super special awesome and I’m excited to share this new phase of my journey with you all. Thank you!!
*I’ll be making the change tomorrow, May 4th, 2019 (EST)!!*
Well, it’s the end of the year and time for another reflections post… but, honestly, 2017 was a shit show from start to finish and I’m glad to see the bitch die… I mean, fuck 2017… wait, that’s not right either, *ahem* let’s try this again…
With 2017 winding down, it’s time for me to look back on the year, and reflect on all the things I learned these past 12 months. (Nailed it) I’ve been running Nice Job Breaking It, Hero for a little over two years now and in that time I have seen many changes in my life, both personally and professionally. Of course not all of these changes were positive, I had quite a few setbacks this year, but I still managed to come out relatively unscathed.
Last year, I dubbed 2017 my Mt. Silver Year and at the time I wasn’t aware of what an uphill battle it was going to be. Much like the Mt. Silver from the games, this was my toughest challenge yet, but through pluck and sheer determination, I made it to the summit and honestly, there’s still so much more out there to explore and do! But, in order to reach the next summit, I first have to take a step back and start anew, that was one of the hardest lessons to learn this year. You can’t just keep adding paint to an already full canvas, in order to gain some prospective a fresh approach is needed. And so, I dub 2018 my Pallet Town Year….
These past few years I spent my time building my foundation, experimenting with various colors and hues, some worked, others, not so much. I’ve learned from those experiences and now I think I’m finally ready to create something new, not for likes or views, but for me. Not saying that that wasn’t what I was doing before, but somewhere along the way, I lost sight of what I wanted and now I mean to reclaim that “spark”. But, before I can start in on that new blank canvas, I have to take a step back and evaluate all the wonderful things that happened this year.
Time has not been on my side lately, so I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time as I’d like to gaming. On top of that writing full game reviews take a lot of time and effort, which I’m kind of short on right now… So, I came up with a solution: Bite-Sized Game Reviews. These will be much shorter and less formal than my existing reviews (Full Reviews, Individual Route Reviews, and First Thoughts), which will hopefully mean that I can post more regularly… in theory, I make no promises.
So, what are Bite-Sized reviews? Well, they are similar to what I do with my First Thoughts and Impressions posts, except they will be significantly shorter, two or three paragraphs (at the most), maybe even bullet points, nothing fancy, I’ll just hit the important points, give my two cents and that’s about it, pretty self explanatory. These are meant to be snacks, just enough to give you a good idea of what the game is about, without all the nitty gritty analysis bits.
Now, I won’t do these for every single game I play, these are mostly for the games I know I have no intention of finishing anytime soon. So rather than having you guys wait for a review that I may or may not write, you can nibble on these little tidbits… Yeah, it’s kind of a cop out, but if it means more consistent content, then it’s alright in my book.
I know I’m literally springing this on you guys at the last possible moment, but procrastination is a way of life. As a consolation of sorts, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to announce the first Bite-Sized Review game…. *drumroll* Liar: Office Deception! Yeah, I do pay attention to your emails, DMs, and comments….
But, that’s it for this announcement! Be on the look out for the first official Bite-Sized Review later on this week and catch you guys on the flip side!
What do you think of the new review series? Think it could be helpful or should I just focus on writing full game reviews? Do you have a game suggestion? Wanna chat? Drop a line in the comments section (I promise, I don’t bite…much). As always THANK YOU FOR READING!!
Hey Hey All You Wonderful Heroes and Travelers (gosh, it’s been awhile since I said that), I hope you guys didn’t miss me too much! This post signifies my official return to blogging, I meant to come back sooner, but, I quite liked the break so I wound up staying away much longer than I planned. Though, granted, I was still pretty active on Twitter and Instagram. I’ve also been crocheting up a storm for my Etsy store, Poke’s Amigumuri Pals, and on top of that I’ve been out and about, exploring and growing, which left very little time for blogging…. but, I am back and I hope to resume blogging as usual next week. In the meantime, I’ll be posting a few Kickstarter campaign posts and some demo reviews (hopefully I can get them done before Otakon).
What’s New
My Blogiverary is on the horizon (August 11th), apparently, I’ve been blogging for two years, though, I could have sworn it was much longer than that… I plan on doing something special for that. What that special something will be, I have no clue, but whatever it is, it will be epic!!
I opened up my very own Etsy store, Poke’s Amigumuri Pals for all my amigurumi (crochet) dolls. The store specializes in faceless dolls (but, I can give them faces if someone is dead set on it). I am open to commissions and custom orders, so if you have a game character, anime character, or whatever that you want to own in doll form, just shoot me a message and I can work with you!
Most of you guys should know that I am a writer for the anime news site, MANGA.TOKYO, which also contributed to the blogging hiatus (just a bit though). I’ve written a few articles for them so far, and there are more on the way (just gotta find the time to crank em out), but the real news is that I’ll be covering the anime convention, Otakon as press for the site this weekend! This is my first time doing something like this, and while I’m nervous as hell, it should be a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to it!
Added a Ko-fi button to the sidebar, because this blog is a labor of love, I don’t receive any money for anything that I write here (though occasionally a dev will throw me a review copy of a game) I come out of pocket for everything, so if you like what you see consider donating. But, it’s optional, so don’t feel obligated in any way!
Slowly Chuggin’ Along
I’m one of those, 9-5 office workers now, so the bulk of my blogging and crocheting gets done either during the commute to and from work or when I get home (right before I conk out for the day). That being said, I’m still going to be a bit slow with updates, but I’ll do my best! Just bear with me for a bit longer.
I’d like to thank all of you for your love and support over these past few months, shit really hit the fan for me at one point, and while everything isn’t smooth sailing, I can honestly say that I am happy and a lot of that has to do with you guys! Every comment, tweet, message, and email means a lot to me (yes, I do read them, even if I don’t respond), so thank you guys for being so super special awesome!!
I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I first started Nice Job Breaking It, Hero and it has been such an amazing journey, full of so much growth! In my first Year End Wrap-Up post, I dubbed 2016 my New Bark year, because this time last year, I was just starting my blogging journey here on WordPress. I was new to all of this, back then I was racking in a cool 10-20 views a day… and let me tell you, it was discouraging sometimes. There were days when my site didn’t get any views at all! Ya’ll I wanted to give up so many times, especially when Grad School was kicking my ass, but I didn’t! I fought every step of the way, I wrote, I networked, I put in the time and the results blew me away!
Edit (9/28): Cheritz has made an official announcement about the bans on their Tumblr page, HERE!
First, I want to say thank you to Aurora6290 for sending me this tip! As many of you knowMystic Messenger players have been receiving Permanent Bans for reasons not associated with the Time Modification Cheat. Current ban triggers are as follows:
Using Hourglasses to replay multiple missed chats, as far as I’ve heard using Hourglasses to replay one missed chat at a time has not resulted in a banned account.
Pausing or remaining idle for too long during chat rooms, though the exact amount of time idle that triggers the ban has yet to be disclosed.
Quitting or closing the app in the middle of a chat room also results in a ban notice.
The recent influx of non-time manipulation related bans has caused a bit of a stir in the community and applaud all of you that took the time to reach out to Cheritz about the issue. Well, Cheritz was listening and they have reached out to all affected players.
Cheritz will be reviewing all of the improperly banned account reports and will be taking action to lift the bans for those accounts. In addition to lifting the ban on all the wrongfully banned accounts, Cheritz will also be compensating afflicted players. Compensation will be calculated based on the number of days the specific account was inactive.
Cheritz has already released the update to lift the ban on affected accounts!Here’s a link to the account that first posted the news…. HERE!
So what do you think about the recent backlash? If you have any more information to share on the recent Mystic Messenger bans please feel free to drop a line on this post! As always THANK YOU FOR READING!! If you like what you see, like this post or follow Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!
