Hey internet friend. As always I want to start by writing that Black Lives Matter! As usual if you want to skip to the dog picture, click here. I was going to write another tech post this weekend, but I did not. Honestly, internet amigo, I am going through some stuff right now. Personal stuff. Perhaps in the future there will be more detail, but I will just share that I wasn't feeling like writing about tech stuff this weekend. In fact, I highly suspect that what I am going through will be a future topic of extensive discussion. However, this post is going to be about RuneScape 3 and some other stuff I've been thinking about. Let's dive in!
Over the weekend I put in a bunch of time to grind out the skills required for the quests that would give me some additional magic spells. I spent the week raising my archaeology skill and then my magic skills to do the quests, and then finished them in a pretty long evening. I've also been spending some time mining to gather resources ahead of double XP weekend. My goal for the next one is to hit 99 in at least one skill, but I think I could probably get a few. Right now I have 97 agility, 96 herblore, 93 mining, 92 smithing and prayer, 89 defense, 88 ranged. I think it's possible to get 99 in most of those (except prayer, I am only shooting for 95 becaues it's expensive). Maybe some of the other skills I have in the 80s will get some attention during DXP as well. Cannot say for sure. Last time I didn't have much of a plan because I was still new. Now I've had time to stockpile materials and think of a plan. I am ready!
Speaking of saving up, somehow I have managed to build up another 60 million gold from doing dailies and getting lucky with treasure hunter. Don't ask me how, because I dropped a bunch of coin for chronotes to buy the archaeology outfit that gives an XP bonus (and honestly looks pretty cool). However, it feels like just a week or two ago when I spent all my money on this bow. Then I proceeded to start working on a bunch of stuff for magic. lol! I was very glad to recently finish off my mining skilling suit as well as my blacksmith outfit. Including the herblore outfit, I can get bonus XP on top of DXP for all those skills coming up. I like RS3 because it rewards you for hard work.
Shifting gears a bit, last week I started reading, "The will to change: men, masculinity, and love" by one of my favorite authors, bell hooks. This book is fantastic and is probably going to be one of the reasons that I start making TikTok videos again. While I am sure it is going to make a bunch of men angry, hooks points out that patriarchy (which could be defined as a male-dominated society but you are welcome to look up a definition that you find more suitable) isn't a great deal for men. It only allows us to feel one type of emotion (anger) and doesn't provide a blueprint for how to love and be a total person. At least not in the "...imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy" (pp. 17) that was and is the United States, even in the year 2023. To be clear, I agree that patriarchy is part of a larger problem, and that the institution of imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy should be dismantled.
I suspect that people are not going to like what I have to say on this subject, but I think it is worth exploring. In the book, hooks points out that one of her male partners was exposed to feminist literature at a young age but as he got older and more successful, and began to enjoy the few benefits of patriarchy, soon found himself no longer fighting or pressing back against it. This rings true for me, as I wrote for the Women and Gender Studies blog when I was an undergraduate. It was interesting to see some of the ideas that I put forward in those essays had already been suggested by hooks nearly a decade earlier. It is noted by the author that men need to participate in dismantling patriarchy as we are the ones who benefit from it the most.
Again, there is much more I want to write and share on this subject. However, that will be the topic of a future bonus post(s). I am planning on also writing another philosophical-type essay about working in offensive security and hacking for fun. For now though, I hope you enjoyed this longer post and it maybe even got you thinking about stuff.
I also want to give a shout out, just in case any of the recruiters who have been reaching out to me are reading this. I wanted to say thank you! Knowing that there are people who actually read this blog made me feel good. Great even! According to the information that Neocities keeps for me, I can see that these pages are getting hits. However, it was great to know that there are actual people reading and not just bots crawling. That made me feel great!
One final thanks to you, internet friend, for making it this far. Enjoy the dog picture reward, and I hope you have a nice day and a great week. Cheers!