Introduction Post:
Hey there! My name is Josh and I go by JshBet8 (Josh-Bet-8) online! Happily married to my best friend Jaykn8. ❤️
I'm a healthcare worker and gamer at heart and love enjoying and celebrating diverse, inclusive circles through fun and educational spaces! I also stream!🌈
New to Mastodon and would be delighted to meet new people. I'll post interests below! Have a great day! 🌎
#lgbt #lgbtq #gaymer #catdad #meditation #healthcare #science #literature #scifi #twitch #introduction
@vindaloowho Welcome!! This platform seems very inclusive and cool so far! One of my favorite parts of healthcare is empowerment. Helping a family member or patient achieve their goals!
Thank you for the shirt compliment! One of my friends made these shirts for Pokemon GO Fest and gave them to us over brunch. 😁
@egregious What an incredible cause!! And you are absolute right. It's amazing how much good supplies will do when distributed with equity in mind.
I've worked at institutions before where we work to donate medical products to countries-in-need as well as repurpose retired products (where actual medical use is no longer an option) into educational systems to help train the next generation of caregivers.
@siv Welcome in! Cool to see other practitioners of dharma here!
I primarily meditate with techniques involving samatha / vipassana practice! My main inspirations are:
- My IRL teacher
- Thich Nhat Hanh
- Sayadaw U Tejaniya
- Bhante G
- Joseph Goldstein
Favorite Suttas are:
- Four Foundations of Mindfulness
- Mindfulness of Breathing
- Heart Sutra
I also dabble in metta practice and some mantra work!
@siv Sounds pretty similar to myself! I also started primarily from a secular standpoint. My teacher is based out of the Western Vipassana movement with roots in Theravada primarily.
I also regularly read more than I practice. I've been working with gentle open awareness with less emphasis on any strong concentration through striving and more of observing as the practice unfolds.
I work with cultivating mindfulness while at the same time observing if any hindrances arrive to the mind.
@JshBet8 it’s great you have access to a teacher in your area. In-person options are very limited in my geographic area, but I was fortunate to find some to guide me through some study of the Zen tradition.
I’ve historically gravitated to the open awareness/insight type practices, but it feels lately like my focus is what needs more improvement so I’m trying to spend more time on the concentration side of the style spectrum.
@siv One benefit of the push into virtual spaces is that meditation teaching and teachers are more accessible than ever! I agree though that a physical access to teaching spaces can be valuable. The pandemic sort of interrupted me going in person but I do practice still!
Focusing on that concentration technique can be valuable especially for monkey-mind and strengthening the stability of the insight process. Plus concentration practice often can bring the side-effect of joy and pleasantness!
@Johnlooswins Thank you for the warm welcome! Good to be here. I play a lot of Soulsborne games and just finished Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order and the ending was INCREDIBLE! Very exciting - it's rare I am agape at game reveals these days.
Also playing:
- Dark Souls III (finished Elden Ring earlier and am a huge fan of Dark Souls I)
- Rimworld (colony manager game)
- Heroes of Aethric for mobile (lil RPG game)
- Mario Kart 8 & Stardew Valley with the husband!
How about you?
Fallen Order is great! I'm a huge fan of the Soulsborne games (except Sekiro) and also love retro RPGs, survival horror, the occasional smart FPS, and currently am ass-deep in Returnal. Also just booted up Horizon Zero Dawn (catching up on a lot of PS4 games since I never had one but now have a PS5) 😄
@Johnlooswins oh my gosh how is Returnal? I had another friend recommend it and I would probably have to get it for ps5. Not a Sekiro fan? It is gonna be the next one I try. 😂 I'm streaming through Dark Souls III currently and plan on trying Bloodborne soon.
Favorite Soulsborne? My husband loves retro RPGs especially older final fantasy games.
Sekiro was too much parrying for me, I'm really bad at parrying 😆
I think original Dark Souls is probably my favorite Soulsborne, and one of my fave of all time. Other all-timers are Last of Us, Zelda A Link To The Past, Final Fantasy 6, Braid, and the Metro series
@Johnlooswins I have a friend that is like on NG+37 for Sekiro. Haha he's obsessed!!
Audibly said "Yesss!" with you saying Dark Souls 1 was your favorite. Me too!! I've played it so much. Even took a swing at a level 1 run! Shotel is my favorite weapon but can't deny the power of the great scythe.
My husband and I both agree that VI is one of the best Final Fantasys. Especially Kefka and the final villain battle song!! We also love IX for the art/sound& X for the iconic story and presentation
FF VI is true art imho. Some of the best storytelling I've experienced in any meeting.
And dang! A level 1 run with a shotel? That's next level! I never could get the hang of the shotel, that's really impressive!
@Johnlooswins I'm not sure if level 1 shotel is even possible! I think the dex might be too low. I went reinforced club & ghost blade defending on the needs.
I defeated all the bosses except Gwyn, Manus, and Kalameet. I probably could defeat Gwyn but I didn't want to get dragged into NG+ and Manus/Kalameet proved too strong for me!
As for Final Fantasy VI, my husband made a lil melted crayon painting of Kefka. What a chaotic antagonist. 😆
Kalameet kicks my ass even when I'm fully loaded up, what a beast. And yeah, a shotel is hard enough to use when you're juiced up let alone at a low level, haha.
Also, forgot to cover off on Half-Life which is one of my absolute fave series of all time. The original is still such an incredibly paced and satisfying FPS. The opening is the video game equivalent of Orson Welles' famous 10-min opening tracking shot in Touch of Evil. Just a brilliant artistic feat thats still unmatched.
@Johnlooswins Completely agreed about Half Life 1. If DOOM and Wolfenstein 3D are the grandparents of PC shooters, then Half-Life 1 is the son of those two.
It modernized story telling in multiple ways:
- Story without cutscenes
- Prominent friendly NPCs instead of all enemies
- WASD modernization of controls
The game felt great to play. Have you tried Black Mesa - the remake of HL1? I streamed it earlier this year. It was a love letter to the game. Highly recommended.
@JshBet8 haven't tried Black Mesa yet but dying to! And I heard Alyx is fantastic but not able to play that yet.
Yeah, Half-Life really pushed the FPS genre out of its early traits, like abstract architecture/levels, run-and-gun over story, and bare bones story. It was the first game I played that truly felt fully immersive in its design and storytelling
@ctconnors Hey nice to meet you! Ironically we both aren't currently playing Pokemon. 😆 One of my buddies from California made us those shirts for GOfest! Favorite is HeartGold though!
I'm a big Dark Souls fan and similar. I just love the adventure the games bring. I tend to stream some of my adventures as well.
Also like Mario games especially the platformers and Kart. RimWorld for PC (my current colony is a mess). Half-Life games.
He's a JRPG fan! Especially vintage final fantasy!
You?
@ctconnors also saw you're a star wars fan! I just finished Jedi Fallen Order and WHAT AN ENDING!!
Knights of the Old Republic II has one of my favorite characters (Kreia) and Jedi Outcast/Academy were awesome. Also reading Darth Plageius right now. Finished Andor a few weeks ago and have been watching Rebels on and off.
@ctconnors I know!! The end of fallen order had me gagged!! I refused to look at any sequel news until after I finished the first game because I was afraid of spoilers. I'll definitely be playing it (and likely streaming it) in March. I liked the skin ingame that made BD1 look like WALL-E. 😆
We started bad batch but didn't finish it. Worth giving a second chance? And which Diablo? I played a ton of II. Sorceress and Necromancer!
@JshBet8 @ctconnors I am SO disappointed that we only got one major update and then they dropped the game. ACNH had so much more potential than any in the series before it.
I had a lot of fun with the time I spent in it. Greatly enjoyed the vast customization. But I really wish they'd done more, especially with how well it sold.
@micahdraws @ctconnors I'm shocked they didn't because of the heavy monetization potential they had. But Nintendo always kind of does their own thing and I bet the pandemic massively disrupted their dev cycle. I bet they learned a lot from this release and they'll be back with the next console generation.
It seems like they are moving further into customization and away from silly organic animal dialog which is a shame but the outdoor customization was amazing in New Horizons.
@micahdraws Yeah honestly it would have been a very successful battle pass model, not saying it should but the busywork innate in Animal Crossing would have kept a monetization model alive.
Then again, Animal Crossing is best without FOMO. Doesn't fit the theme. So paid dlc packs would be good. But I can't believe they just did one!!
@JshBet8 @ctconnors I haven't played *since* the original GC version (Mr. Resetti scared me the first time after we had a power blip!) since I haven't had a console for it
(I have fond memories of sending items to friends by taking a digital photo of the screen with a transfer code and emailing it to them)
Is it mostly the same game these days or has it done a lot of evolving?
@ctconnors @bobcgames Kyle is awesome!! I have him in my New Horizons save. My favorite smug personality in that game might be Julian though. 🦄
I also have Marshal in my New Leaf save!
@bobcgames @ctconnors the game is significantly different. There's a lot more storage space and imo the best change is you can decorate outside with furniture and do pathing. Lots more creative control.
Downside is I feel they made the villagers almost too agreeable. I liked some spicy words and drama in my village. 😆
@JshBet8 @ctconnors Yeah, I'd agree with that
My village always had one or two villagers who were usually grumpy, and it was part of the charm of the game?
JshBet8 🎮👑🏳️🌈
VindalooWho
egregious
Greg
Julio 🏳️🌈 🇨🇺 🇪🇸 🇺🇸
Carlos
Zach
Jawn Luice
Christopher 🏳️🌈🦭
theRICHARDexp
MicahDraws
Bob Conway
Curtis