Category: Misc

Happy New Year!

A long December and there’s reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last…

Greetings! It’s been a few….<ahem>weeks since my last post and I wanted to write up a quick update, if for no other reason than starting off the new year on the right foot. 2021 was a year full of ups and downs. There were many positives to be found in my third year on WordPress and second year on Twitch, along with some negatives as well. I found myself having a hard time feeling particularly motivated or engaged when it came to writing, especially the latter four months of the year where my output dropped to the point I have only managed to write three blog posts since September 26. I was still able to come up with different ideas that I liked, only to struggle to expand upon any of them as the times I would sit down at my computer to begin writing something, I ended up feeling unable to focus and compose any combination of words and phrases I was satisfied with. Stressing out about whether or not I’m able to do something consistently is counterproductive and I made it a point to not beat myself up too much about it – especially something I do purely for my own enjoyment. I ended up backing off a bit not only from WordPress, but also from social media and streaming a few different times over the year when I began to feel a bit overwhelmed. I’ve also noticed many others around the blogging community that have opted to go on hiatus over the course of the year, so it appeared I wasn’t alone in feeling like something was off and deciding to redirect some of that focus to rediscovering things that bring you joy and simply taking care of one’s self.

One consistent thing throughout 2021 was of course, video games. I found myself diving headfirst into gaming as an escape/diversion from everything else – endgame level grinding in Dragon Quest XI, obsessively working towards the platinum trophy in Returnal or simply playing Halo Infinite multiplayer for hours on end. There have been some great games that I played in 2021, whether released just this past year or not and I have been formulating a list of my favorites. I have a gaming blog, so it’s practically a rule that I make up an end of the year list, right? That should be completed sometime between now and this time next year…..keeping expectations in check and all.

It seems I’ve started rambling a bit, per usual, so I’d like to conclude this with wishing you all a happy new year full of great things and a sincere thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read/comment/share anything I’ve written on this site. It truly means a lot.

Have a great 2022 and thanks for reading!

Anniversary Time – Two Years!

It’s been a full two years now since I first started this blog site on WordPress and I just wanted to write up a quick post for the occasion and pause my usual self-criticism in an attempt to…god forbid, say something positive and more or less pat myself on the back for stepping outside my comfort zone even the slightest bit and managed to stick with for two entire years. 

It’s funny how, looking back at past posts or on the time I’ve invested into this blog site – between planning for, and sitting here trying my best to wrestle my usual spread shot of half-baked words and ideas into something intelligible. I feel like some significant improvements have been made and then other times….not so much. One of the things I am most satisfied with over the past two years would be the progress I feel like I’ve made in getting comfortable with writing(even if it is just about video games) and can look back and actually point to different things I’ve written that I can say I’m legitimately happy with.

I’ve loved video games since playing my first games on the NES, starting with Super Mario Bros.(most likely) as a little kid all the way to playing Super Mario 3D World on my Nintendo Switch this morning before work. I’ve always known others that would occasionally play video games, but it was always a foregone conclusion that they were something you would eventually grow out of and not something that would have any significant meaning in one’s life. One of the positive, yet unexpected results of this blogging/social experiment is managing to up build the smallest bit of self-confidence, along with making friends – something weirdly awkward and terrifying as an adult…unless that’s just me.

Moving forward, the plan is pretty much the same – keep writing on a consistent basis and try not to get so hung up on things like format or post structure and just….you know, write something and make a blog post of it from there. It’s happened far too many times that I’ve fallen into the “paralysis by analysis” trap and end up making the simplest blog post far more difficult than it needs to be. At the same time, I’ve also come to learn that it’s not really ever productive to sit down and force myself to stay in front of my computer screen until I had come up with something. If I simply don’t have anything to say, be it about a particular game or whatever, you can allow yourself to move on to something else you feel more…inspired to write about and not beat yourself up about it. There’s blog post ideas that I still enjoy thoroughly and will continue to write, as well as a few newer ones that I want to play around with over the next year. I still plan to sit down and dedicate some time to going through and working on some website improvements – layout, art, etc. as that kind of thing tends to get neglected a little too often with my thought process usually being “It’s working, so leave it alone”. 

And finally, I want to express a sincere thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, comment on, or show the slightest interest in anything I’ve managed to cobble together these past two years. I started this blog primarily as an outlet to talk about video games and something of an online journal, with the thought of people reading anything I posted never being something I anticipated. We’ve all heard the stories of people’s unfortunate experiences with toxic online communities, making me realize how fortunate I’ve been in finding a positive blogging/streaming community such as this to interact with on a near-daily basis. Here’s to another year of talking about video games….

Thanks for reading!