Month: June 2026

My Hobby is Now Too Expensive

| Ben

My first exposure to gaming (that I remember anyway) was when I was 5 years old. That Christmas, my parents bought my sister and me a NES. I have been hooked since. I’ve owned most of Nintendo’s consoles up to the Nintendo DSi. That was a long time ago though. Sure, I wanted to get more consoles, but it seemed like the more I bought them, the less I used them. My last Nintendo purchase was the first Nintendo Switch.

It was then I realised that there was a big problem. The price of the console was pretty hefty and I bought games, played them for a little while, and then would put it down for months. Gaming, in general, is really expensive here in Australia. I was easily paying around $100 per game, playing it for a few hours, and then forgetting it existed. These were first-party games, too.

I finally gave up once I noticed that Nintendo started charging people three times and full price for the same game on separate consoles with no or a few changes. I decided to pass on the Switch 2 for this reason and my Switch 1 has been sitting in the same place for about a year now. I pick it up about 4 times per year to play something like Animal Crossing for about 30 minutes.

Now that the prices for everything technology-related is going up due to the gross overuse of AI, other console makers are raising their prices. I bought an Xbox Series X for about $700 when it was released. Now, the price for the same console is around $850. Do I have to remind you that this is for the same console that was released several years ago?!

I started playing Xbox from the Xbox 360, but I think I am done. The price for new consoles, games, and subscriptions keep going up. You know what else is going up? The price for electricity, water, food, and everything else is going up too. Financial stress is starting to show its ugly face and now, it’s a question whether gaming is worth the money.

Sure, I’m getting older but gaming is a way for me to step away from everybody stressors and my stressful job and immerse myself in a world where that stress disappears, even for a few hours.

The Steam Machine was something I was interested in and thought it might be affordable. Here in Australia, it’s not. It’s easily $1,500 and I’m not prepared to pay that much for something that is underpowered and overpriced. It has a nice form factor, but its internals make it not worth it. I’ll pass on that.

That’s going to be the theme going forward: I’ll pass. Gaming has gotten to be something that is too expensive. I guess I will need to find a new hobby or something… or just hold on to my consoles for a bit longer and hope support for it doesn’t disappear quickly.

Anyway, rant over.

Happy Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈

| Ben

I know I’m a little late to the party, but Happy Pride Month.

Photo by Steve A Johnson on Unsplash

If you’re LGBTIQ+, be proud of the skin you’re in and remember all the people who made any advancement possible. It’s an ongoing process, and hopefully one day, people will all be treated equally.

If you’re straight and you don’t understand why this is even necessary, I suggest you take the time to ask one of your LGBTIQ+ friends what they’ve encountered in their lives. Likely, there is going to some story they can tell you regarding the injustice, bullying, or something like that. It happens today. This is why we still have pride month.

I grew up in a small town in Texas where people didn’t really accept anything that was outside that 1950’s sort of life. You had to have a partner of the opposite sex, be religious, and be terrible towards anybody who is different. Luckily, I moved out shortly after I graduated high school and experienced the world. I didn’t fully accept who I was until a decade passed that. I’m okay and though I tell people that I’m gay, I’m more bisexual than anything. Probably, pansexual would be a better way to put it. Gay, to me, is just easier and I don’t really care if people think I’m gay. No big deal (again, for me).

I’m not especially great with words, but I really hope that you just be kind to everyone, but realise, too, that LGBTIQ+ people have unique struggles and I think a lot of them/us just want you to understand that. It’s not about changing the way YOU are and the people you’re attracted to, but to focus on acceptance.

That’s all from me! Please take care of yourselves and the people you care about.

20 Years… Already?

| Ben

20 years ago, I decided to finally move to Australia because it was starting to get very expensive to travel between the USA and Australia 2-3 times per year so I could spend time with the person who I loved at the time and to study as an international student.

I originally came to Australia in early 2001 to be with my partner at the time. We had met in the USA a year or so earlier and he was traveling a lot to come and see me. I finally told him that I would be happy to work 3 jobs for 6 months, go to Australia and spend 6 months with him. So I did that until 2006.

On one of my trips, I walked into a international student sort of hub where they would hook up people with study programs, so that’s what I did. They did a lot of the heavy lifting for me, and in 2006, I came to Australia as an international student. Studied, got my degree, then applied for a partner visa.

Australian flag
Have I mentioned how much I love Australia? I love Australia.

I was granted a transitional partner visa in 2008, and around 2010, it was made into a permanent partner visa. My partner at the time was away a lot for work, and I spent a lot of time by myself, which was very hard for me mentally. But that had started while I was studying. Though I valued my partner’s work ethic, I missed him being around physically. So I was sad, depressed, and very anxious. (My ex and I are still friends and speaking of that, he’s coming by soon. It’s the first time that my husband and he meet.)

Anyway, in 2012, a friend of mine talked me into getting Australian citizenship. I was wondering why I would need it in the first place, but I thought about not having to renew my permanent residence every few years. So I went for it. It happened so quickly.

I haven’t really looked back since then. I absolutely love this country. Nowhere is perfect, but, to me, Australia is definitely a wonderful place to live and I feel so lucky to be able to call Australia home now.

A lot of people ask me if I plan to go back to the USA to live and I just don’t think it’s likely. I’ve studied more and I’ve got a good, secure job here. I’ve got a new partner (who was also an international student and a migrant). I’ve got a sweet sausage dog. And this work-life balance I have over here is incredible. I love it!

USA flag
I still have some love for the USA, but it’s only because my family is there.

Having said that, I do miss my family a lot. I didn’t come here with an unsupportive family and friends. This is probably the hardest part of my life, but then I remember that the people who I have dated (or married) have gone through the same thing, and I’ve got a little bit of support here.

I’ve booked my tickets back to the USA for about 2 months at the end of the year. It will be so good to spend time with them while I’m there, but I always make it clear that I must come back to Australia because I’ve left little parts of my heart over here.

Anyway, happy 20 years to me!

Ps: This isn’t the exact date for 20 years, that’s on the 6th!

Move, moving, moved!

| Ben

Welcome to my new (and questionably improved) weblog, all three of you lovely bots! (And if you’re not a bot, and I have insulted you, don’t take it personally. I love real people more than web crawling spiders.

I’ve taken a bulk of the old posts and media with me and as far as I know, everything looks okay but with any sort of move, little messes may occur. I do know that I’ve lost a lot of my little bits of customisation, but hopefully I’ll get my crap together and fix it up.

Just know that I appreciate, love, and thank you for following me (even if you are just crawling my weblog to train your crappy AI…).

Hopefully I will be saying more soon. Much love!