What is 'Restarting the
Tutorial'?
This is a personal project and diary
of starting again. The Tutorial is always something in either a video game or a
sport where you are introduced to the elements of that environment. This is a
bit of a pun on the City of Heroes environment where every new character usually
re-does the tutorial to get their character to level 2. Its repetitive,
annoying, but is essential for good character, life and power
development.
This is where I am in real
life.
Who
are you in real life?
A 32
year old guy living in Perth WA,trying to raise a family, grow a generation of
Heroes in the MMORPG City of Heroes, and
put my life and health back together after a serious illness. I am essentially a
the start again and while I have garnered a lifetime of skills and abilities, in
my mind I am starting afresh in the basics of diet, health, martial arts and
family life.
Who are you in City
of Heroes?
Despite what you think,I am not a Scrapper or Tanker
as I tend to find them dull or over-powered (read: no fun). I have build a Dual
Blade/Dark Amour Scrapper but haven't had the feel or need to take her out for a
spin. (I modelled her on one of my wife's fiction characters.) No, my first
Character to hit 50 was a Dark/Dark Defender that I regularly play on Justice.
Took almost a year to hit 50 which seems to be the way of MMOs that its hard to
get the first one to 50, but I keep pulling out of the closet for Hami Raids and
new content. Dark/Dark is easily one of the most poor solo/best team players out
there...and I love teaming.
I now keep playing a Storm/Psi Defender that is somewhat
keyed to PvP, so nearly finished on that one. I feel that this character is more
ninja-esque in that she has the ability to lay traps, confuse, hide and then
deal damage of the mind. Plus she looks cool when taking out stalkers in Siren's
Call.
I have been toying with various Villain on CoV, but I find
Villains such a grind compared to City of Heroes, and I am not really sure why.
Probably the differing story arcs help a lot. Currently I have an AR/Cold
Domination Corruptor, that is stuck in the high 30s. I really should get her to
50 to unlock the VEATS
What is this Sudden Illness
you speak of?
This is a
tricky thing to answer. I have actually had this all of my life, but was
diagnosed in the last six months. It is called a Coarctation of the Aorta. This is not an illness per
se, but a birth defect that has impacted my ability my whole life until now.
Simply, I have a natural narrowing in my Aorta that has impacted the blood-flow
from the top half of my body to the bottom half. This is usually detected in
infancy and corrected straight away, but I am one of the unbeknownst masses who
managed to survive and develop with it. Unfortunately its one of those things
that are generally asymptomatic until many other factors such as smoking, weight
gain and sedentary lifestyle and these people succumb in their late 40's and
50's, of a sudden heart attack.
What are the symptoms of this
condition?
This is what gets so many people.
The post-ductal coarctation are generally considered asymptomatic (no
discernable symptoms) that only really manifest later in life. It really falls
into two catagories but sufferers can have;
Heart murmur as an infant/child
Poor Endurance on sustained exertion (I talking in single
minutes here)
Pressure headaches on exercise
Sustained cramps in legs or extremities (When these
manifest in children and teens, they can be mistaken for 'growing
pains.')
Absence of femoral pulses
To
compensate for this problem, the body as it grows will develop a whole new set
of blood vessels in the chest to push blood down. It sounds quite amazing,
however as you get older and more prone to weight gain and lack of exercise,
your blood pressure will start
elevating. The problem is the blood pressure is higher in
the top half o your body above the Coarcation while quite low in the bottom
half. This results in;
If it all gets too much, the heart or the Aorta will go,
and when it happens, its one of those 'instant' things that no-one can save you
from.
Dude...Honestly, there are
people who have survived cancer younger than you. Why are you on LiveJournal
bleating?
This is a project of my own choosing, not yours.
Everyone has a personal story to share, and this is mine. As I have stated, my
life has started again, thankfully with minimal damage and a new outlook on
life. This is something I have to maintain and I have had previous success with
private journals, so along with weightloss and a new lease on life, maybe this
will inspire others to do the same. Or maybe not and you can waste your pathetic
life flaming me. Believe me Ive had worse.
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