I'm Mark

For over 25 years I worked in IT, and I'd worked my way up to solutions architect. That meant designing the systems large organisations depend on, and making sure they stayed secure and kept doing what they were told. It was good work, and I loved it. Then my CRPS got worse.

I have CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome), a chronic condition where the nervous system keeps sending pain signals to the brain... forever. Its cause isn't fully understood, but it's usually triggered by trauma. I've had it since I was a kid and the final beating I received.

It's permanent, it's unpredictable, and it's now retiring me early on ill-health grounds. I didn't choose that ending to my career, but it was taken out of my hands.

Stopping like that leaves a big hole in your life, and a quietness and loneliness I wasn't expecting. Streaming is how I fill that gap. Whilst I stream in the evenings right now, I hope to do a bit more during the day in the future. I've gamed for as long as I can remember, going back to the ZX Spectrum, and it turns out it's better with company.

So that's SODDENGECKO: sharp play when I can manage it, co-op chaos with friends when I can't, clean setups, and a lot of tinkering behind the scenes. 25 years of building systems doesn't switch off, and I still love building server infrastructure.

Some days are better than others. A stream might run short, start late, or not happen at all, and when that happens I'll say so rather than pretend otherwise.