Nerfed

It's almost five years since the first lockdown of the pandemic. Five years!

I was lucky, privileged, and got through it easier than so many, though it was a challenging time for my sons. No school, no organized sports, no interaction with their friends, and too much time in front of phones and gaming consoles. The youngest had just turned twelve and I struggled for ideas to get him out of the house and moving. 

One part of the solution was Pokémon Go.

The tables were turned: he was the master, me the student. We walked on every blade of grass in Girouard park and along every boulevard, chemin, and ruelle of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, hunting the little critters. The game design was brilliant: the more you walked, the better the Pokémon you found, walk further and the Pokémon you'd caught became stronger (known in the lingo of the app as 'training').

Over time I became even more absorbed by the game than he did (I'm now a level 40 Pokémon trainer, just sayin'), but it's still "one of our things" that we share. Back in the day, the strongest Pokémon for battling other trainers was a Galarian Stunfish and I caught a beautiful three-star example in 2021. I walked 1250 kilometers with it, most of them with my son beside me.

Last week my Stunfish finally powered up to its maximum value, a CP of 2474, and I was proud to show it to him. But strangely, it kept getting defeated easily in trainer battles. He did a quick check on a fan webpage.

'It's been nerfed,' he said, laughing. 

'What does that mean?'

'It was too strong in battles, so they weakened it. It used to rank 5 out of 5, but now, you won't believe it Dad, it's 0 out of 5.' He laughed again. This was clearly hilarious for anyone who hadn't walked his Stunfish for 1250 kilometers. 

'That was a lot of bloody walking for nothing,' I said.

'Those were good times Dad,' he said, smiling. 'Besides, you'll probably get a blog post out if it.'

A nerfed Galarian Stunfisk

Am I a writer?

In the Canada Writes Facebook group there was a debate recently about the definition of a writer, and there were opposing views. 'Anyone who writes,' said one group. 'Au contraire,' said the second group. 'That's an "aspiring writer". A writer is someone whose writing has appeared in a publication that has an editor, selection criteria, and other quality controls.' (i.e. self-publishing doesn't count).

Why do I care?  

Well, I'm not a software development leader anymore (so I no longer have much use for my LinkedIn account).

But I've had five stories published by reputable literary magazines, with a sixth one on the way. And I've been paid real money for some of this writing (though if I divided the fee by the time I spent on the piece the hourly rate would be hilariously small!)

So today, this nineteenth of November in the year twenty twenty-four, I'm putting a stake in the ground: I am a writer.

You can find my writing at my new website, www.LaurenceWrites.com. I'll continue to use this blog for occasional musings and diary entries.