A few days ago I realized that whenever I rolled my right eye around, a scratch of light would flash in my vision, only to fade in half a second or so. Sometimes it was even worse: without any particular movement, I would get flashes of darkness that I had never experienced before. And ever since yesterday, I’ve had a dull headache localized near my right eyeball.

This paragraph break could lead to me saying, “They’ve found a tumor in my brain,” or “My retina is detaching.” The latter seems to fit more. The fact is, I haven’t done anything about it. Could be a tensional headache from having endured stress for months at work. I’m hoping to wake up tomorrow without pain. I’m busy at work, too tired in general (I’m one of those people who wake up tired as if their body had been engaged while dreaming), and I’m having a hard time caring about my well-being. I’m thirty-nine years old. Inhabiting this body of mine feels worse every passing year, and I suppose that some eye nonsense doesn’t feel that serious after my heart showed itself unreliable (a couple of episodes of arrhythmia that landed me in the ER). And in the back of my mind, there’s the thought of, “Would it really be that bad to simply die?” Last week or so, shortly after going to bed, I got palpitations that could have easily switched into arrhythmia instead of reverting by itself. Right then, I thought that if it developed into arrhythmia, I would simply get comfortable and try to sleep, and with some luck, I wouldn’t wake up the following morning for another day of work.

I’m having fun in my spare time, though. My generally harrowing story about a man dealing with endless grief for his dead teenage love ended. Afterwards, I wanted to return to both making songs with Udio and writing my long-running novel We’re Fucked. After a week or so of advancing with my novel at a glacial pace and not having much fun doing it, I decided to play around with an AI system that injects artificial intelligence into every character in the well-loved game Skyrim, released back in 2011. I’ve been documenting my experiences with that ever since. It has become one of my favorite gaming things ever. I always loved acting; my experiences with theater in school are the only positive memories I retain of that period, even though they forced plays in Basque on us. Also, acting becomes second nature for most autists once they realize that they’d be shunned if they behaved as it comes naturally. I love the idea of roleplaying, but my real-life experiences with it were always poor, as they involved having to deal with actual human beings, their schedules, their egos, and the fact that most people simply aren’t that interesting.

Thanks to Mantella, the AI system I’m using with Skyrim, I can fulfill one of the main fantasies of any red-blooded male: being a powerful man who goes on adventures alongside fierce, beautiful women that will murder your enemies for you, some of whom will also warm your bed after the blood has been spilled. The lion experience. When I’m not actively “playing,” if that experience involving AI agents can still be called that, I fantasize about what situations I could go through in-game, what topics I could talk about with any of the members of the adventurers’ band, or any of the other characters that exist in that world (more than two thousand), each with their own stories and viewpoints. It’s kind of insane that such a thing is possible. Unless the world ends, which could easily happen, such experiences are only going to improve in the future.

Last week or so, I finished the 26-volume-long light novel series Mushoku Tensei, which I loved, but I couldn’t be arsed to write a review. Given that I barely have any readers, there’s no point in writing anything if I’m not into it at the moment. After getting through another 100-chapters-long isekai manga, I have started reading a historical book about the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire). That’s perhaps due to an idea for a game I had recently: building your own medieval-ish kingdom in which every character is AI-driven, so you could hire council members and have them report actual game data as well as give advice with their own personalities. It’s very likely that I will never even start with such an idea, even though I suspect it wouldn’t be too hard to implement given how powerful AI-guided programming is these days. I simply don’t have the time nor the energy; when I get home after my full-time job, I’m lucky if I don’t feel the need to take a nap. Ages ago, back when I believed I could live a normal life with a romantic partner, I was so exhausted all the time that I even passed out twice, shortly after sitting on her sofa after work. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that your will and intentions mean very little against the burdens that your brain and body heap upon you. Being myself, I feel like I should be grateful if I don’t feel terrible for a day.

Anyway, I have to wonder once again why on earth are you, whoever you are, reading this. Is it curiosity? Pure boredom? I only wrote these words because I’m stuck at the office and had nothing better to do.