The Bears Den

  the adventure begins... So... A lot of cool stuff has happened over in the D&D community since the beginning of the pandemic. The game has since rose to a greater level of popularity to new masses all over the world, with many taking in the 5th Edition Rule sets of Dungeons & Dragons as either their first introduction to the "Worlds Greatest Roleplaying Game" or a new avenue for veteran players for a more simple and streamlined player experience. We have all seen the releases of Unearthed Arcana content and subsequent supplement materials being released by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) which showcased major rules changes that could lead a new path for the future of D&D. There are two examples of this phenomenon being showcased in D&D's recent history:  In April 2019, we have seen the release of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, a campaign setting which introduced the idea of classes sharing the same subclass according to their chosen college within the Acad...

here we go again... Right. First blog post of the year. It was already very uneventful and full of work and all of a sudden a ton of bullshit suddenly came crashing through by the time my academic break for this trimester came rolling along. In the past month since the beginning of this wonderful year, we've had the rise and fall of the omicron variant; the Philippine General Elections; and now the whole world suddenly exploding again because the Russians decided to invade Ukraine after aggressively teasing it for the past few weeks prior to literally a few days ago as of writing.  Literally nothing much can be said about it, as it was already to be expected. I never really imagined 2022 to being the mega year the entire planet would pull its boot straps together and sing so hard all the problemos go away. Shit is still bound to happen. The most I have expected was further disappointments with maybe some pleasurable moments tucked somewhere in the side lines. Let's just say tha...

  it has been fun... i guess? Here we are. A few more weeks left into what can be considered as the second worst year in all of humanity. After that, we will be moving on into expecting so much out of 2022 that we will all cry into depression when we realize that the New Years celebrations do not equate to a ultimate reset button, but instead indicate a set reminder that it can been 1 year and we still have not yet solved the problems that has turned the entire planet into a burning shithole along with the thousands of new problems the world decided to push out on the way. To be completely frank, you can probably see that I am not that excited for the festivities to come a few days after Christmas Day. People may or may not agree with this, but I feel that we overhype the new year, especially knowing how dogshit late 2019 and the entirety of 2020 was. We have dealt with almost 2 or so years of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinated so many people, discovered new variants of the...

a lot of this stuff is online now I have just recently finished my college application for the University of Santo Tomas (UST), and hoo boy that entire process was very scary and now I am in the mercy of whoever is going to read my application and my high school, who is in charge of basically filling in the rest of the details and make life easier for us in the long run. This is just the beginning of a whole year of clusterfucks as I apply to 3 more colleges in the hopes of getting accepted into one and getting into a decent paying job that will give me the power and revenue to become financially independent and not die a phenetic failure To you all younsters and zoomers approaching the years of 10th-11th grade, or whatever equivalent thereof exists, let this older zoomer explain his trials and tribulations of dealing with the seemingly cruel process of applying or college. On the 12th Grade, you will basically be bombarded with a ton of people basically pushing you to finally decide o...

did you know: i included this blog in my resume for some reason  As of typing this very article, I am on the starting stages of applying to college. I have planned to apply for multiple colleges in the Philippines, planning to take up basically anything interesting that keeps me within the Humanities and Social Sciences. However, there is one thing that most colleges that I plan to apply to have in common. Some of them require me to ask for a recommendation from my teachers or guidance counselor; therefore, I need to provide them with my Curriculum Vitae (CV). When I first heard of those two Latin words, I had a very slim idea on what it meant. Curriculum means "Course" and Vitae  means "Life". Put the two together and what a CV basically means is a "Course of your Life". For the Freedom English Speakers out there, it's basically your resume. The basic purpose of having a CV on hand when applying for a new job or getting yourself into a good college is...

this is the most artistic thing i made on canva so far At this point of time, I have personally been playing Dungeons and Dragons for nearly 2 years now (or so I think). D&D has been a major part of how I have been able to survive the past events of the near apocalyptic 2020's and maintaining my own sanity as a flurries of shit either fly by or hit me straight in the face. From that very short and somewhat boring character creation session with my friends on a Greenwich Pizza Place, D&D has very much grown a precious and special place in my heart where I can be with friends and forget about the entire world for at least a few hours as I smite cults, yell at tieflings, and settle down for some fictional dwarvish drink. I listened to podcasts D&D sessions while I work, study and exercise, I fantasize with excitement on new characters and roleplay opportunities I could have with my friends, and even awkwardly try to step out of my own safezones and jump into new tables as ...

cycling is fun.     Cycling has always proven to be a fun and enjoyable sport that basically anyone can have a hand in. Everyone says that once you learn how to ride a bike for the first time, you basically never forget how for the rest of your life. Indeed, the bicycle is known as one of the most environmentally friendly alternatives in personal transport and a brilliantly practical tool for exercise. Every country has their own cycling cultures and sets of policies for cyclists; however, the Philippines isn't what I call a "friendly" place for casual cyclists.      You see, The Philippines developed in such a way that its infrastructure and roadway systems can only accommodate cars and motorized vehicles; cycling in the Urban Philippines can be very dangerous. This is true to a fact where cycling is mostly a professional sport rather than casual transport, with very limited routes and options for Filipino cyclists to choose from. Living in Angono, Rizal, for e...

  minimalist logo; nice.     If you all have been around the blog since the beginning (somehow), you all might've noticed that I keep a particular format whenever I write a new post in this blog. A "research paper" like title; a simple png image I made in Canva with 1 or two elements; and either a very long and droning wall of text, or a "short" essay. There isn't a lot, and I really like it that way.    It's just a weird thought that has occurred to me literally as I am writing this because of how surprising it was to discover how many people have actually took the time and read the things I have posted in this blog. Thank you all so much for that! Looking at the stats now, there are 386 people who have visited this blog and read my posts since its conception. I have never expected this, and The Bears Den is so far my most successful personal project.  I do not really care about views and popularity for each post, though I still keep a goal of a minim...

Finally off classes until August I think...      On the 7th of May, Academic Year 2020-2021 for me had ended. YugiBearz has survived 11th Grade as an introverted HUMSS student who has somehow survived everything for the past few years of high school purely through clutch rolls of the cosmic d20s, and yet still has absolutely no idea on how to function as an adult despite on being in that arbitrary age of 18 in July as I venture forth into 12th Grade as a senior, and figure out how the fuck college, employment, and general adulting works. In short, I am a mess.     Luckily, in-between the long stretches of education, development, and sheer social anxiety, there is a small sliver of hope that I have always looked forward to that has motivated me to keep on pushing on no matter how crappy the year was, and basically gave me a whole clean slate to start the next school year: Summer Vacation. Yet, as I grew older, the 2 months of "absolute freedom" of being...

Let's all be honest, they are weird, yet good. ----     Alright. I realized that frequent posting is important for the blog to kick off better, and also I have too many weird thoughts in my head that for some reason cannot be put into the long-winded articles I usually publish in the Bears Den. So, after 15 minutes of being pissed off when I attempted to write this article on my phone (the Blogspot app sucks; Canva runs shit on my phone.), and 2 or so weeks of haitus, I decided to just write on my usual set up... but SHORTER! So yeah, when I have weird footnotes in mind, I'll just be writing these "Shorts". Enjoy! ----      Throughout the pandemic, I have noticed that I have been eating a lot more instant noodles than I should. Don't get me wrong, I can cook other things, but it seems much easier for me to simply just put dried noodles in a bowl, fill it with hot water, wait, and just follow any other instructions on the packet. There have also been ...