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There were no donuts today (the picture is from yesterday), but apparently, there is a holiday for donuts, and, unfortunately, it’s in June. We had donuts brought in by an angel of a co-worker yesterday, which got me thinking that there might need to be a holiday for it and that I shall create it! Luckily, another had this idea (long) before I did.

 

 

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Mmmm… donut…

It wasn’t Homer. It was a bit before our times. Check it out here (and mark your calendars!)

National Donut Day

This bit of silly writing was inspired by a prompt over on the Desk community site. The Desk app recently got some big love by being included in Apple’s Apps of The Year list. Huzzah!

Anybody out there ever had an idea and was close to acting to making it happen and then discovering, it’s been done (and, did you do it anyway?) Sometimes, doing it anyway can yield surprising success.

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Dear Anime,

Thanks for being such a fun form of entertainment, anime. It’s because of you that I can’t sometimes find some pretty unusual stories and even situations that would be highly unlikely to occur in real life. Even when you get a bit heavy on the fan-service, you still manage to have some grain of pretty unique situations. I also like your associated art forms, such as Manga and the cosplay that inevitably arises. Continue reading →

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Is there a period in your own personal life that you think of as the good old days? Tell us a story about those innocent and/or exciting times (or lack thereof).

Salad Days | The Daily Post

That question got me to thinking about some of my earliest gaming memories. Was it really better before online gaming came along? Some gamers lament that things were simpler then, especially since playing with friends meant everybody on the same couch in front of a TV. For me, it was not that simple, or even always that much fun.

My brothers and I were indeed lucky to game together during one of the most well-known time periods; the days of the Atari 2600. Our collection grew pretty sizeable over the years, due in small part to the fact that an uncle also had some games as well. But, I digress a bit. The experience of playing games is what I’m remembering. That was not terrible, but it was not as ideal as I would have liked. For one thing, I was the eldest of 3, and it was sometimes tricky to convince the other 2 to play with me, especially on competitive games, of which there were many, as I, due to a bit of an age gap, was usually better, and would often win (in games that had winning conditions, like sports titles). The loser would sometimes just plain quit playing, leaving me to play alone for a while.

I grew less and less willing to want to play video games with them, and didn’t really see that getting better over the years, even through the golden age of the NES and later systems. It really wasn’t until Xbox came along that it started to get a bit better. I think more gaming with the 3 of us able to play together helped, and online play made it possible to play even separated by distance. I still think it’s better now, even though I’m mostly solitary gaming again, but now, I have friends who I can connect with online sometimes, and sometimes those sessions are hugely fun. Even though I do play in a well-known MMO, I do not fall heavily on either the solo adventurer side or always grouped raider. I just flow as the situation demands it and I think that I’m better able to deal either way.

This is all to hopefully say, it wasn’t, for me, “the good old days,” but that doesn’t mean it was all bad, and it’s definitely not terrible now. I’m going to keep on gaming and having adventures.

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“Where’s My Super Suit?”

 

That line from The Incredibles totally caught my eye in the WordPress Reader, so I stopped, and gave it a read. It then further drew me in since I’d heard some of the rumblings while I was wandering around the Anaheim Convention Center area during this most recent Blizzcon conference. There was a rumor circulating a bit that the just-announced new game in the works, Overwatch, was just the remnants of the scrapped Titan project. Now, since I had heard otherise, from a person who had friends on the Overwatch team, I felt the need to pipe up and comment. You can check out my comment at the linked article above, or you can jump to the comment, and the reply by the author by visiting this link.

 

There’s not been official word yet on what happened to Titan, and I believe it will be quite some time before there is. What, dear reader, do you think? Let me know by commenting or posting.

 

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…to Blizzcon! The first (and, sadly, only) time I went was waaaaay back in 2008.

 

Blizzcon badge and swag
Blizzcon ’08 badge and some of the swag

 

It was a lot of fun. I wasn’t sure what to expect, since I was not yet a convention veteran, felt super awkward even trying to meet up with guildies (which didn’t work out) or even people who play WoW on my realm (found a few, and it was fun!). It was the first time I got a chance to see Video Games Live, live (it was awesome!!!) There’s actually a lot more going on there as we, such as pro-gaming tournaments, and art exhibits (Blizzard has some very talented artists) and panels for each game currently available, or in development. There’s quite a bit on the plate this year, so I’m lucky to have gotten a physical ticket this year (watched the stream all other years since).

Here’s a taste of what I’m looking forward to this time:

I’m probably still too shy to personally thank the game developers for all their work, so, perhaps one of them will see this post, but, if not, maybe I’ll be able to muster the courage to do so if I run into any in one of the halls (they tend to roam around when not busy). Blizzard’s games have long been some of my favorites, and I do hope that continues for a long time.

For now, I’m getting ready to pick up my badge. Hoping to run into old (and new) friends soon.