It’s been a really long time since I’ve done a tag post, and even longer still since the last time it was a sunshine blogger award. To be fair, the super happy love award was something I wrote months before I actually published it, so it feels like longer than it actually was. Anyway, let’s dive straight into things.

Da Rulez:

  • Thank person wot nominated you
  • Answer the 11 questions
  • Nominate 11 victims
  • Subject them to 11 questions

Thank you to Megan Marie from A Geeky Gal for the nomination! She is one of the quintessential geek/nerd culture bloggers creating content for a very wide range of topics. You can’t go wrong reading any of her posts and she serves as a great example from which to model one’s self to learn and grow their own content creator abilities. I’m fairly certain that just about anyone who reads my blog will already know who she is, but if you don’t I’ve included some links so you can check out her stuff. At the time of writing she is on break, but I’m sure she’ll be back in a few weeks time. Megan is back, so go show her some love.

What are 3 interesting facts about yourself?

I’m not an interesting person and I think I exhausted the most interesting stuff about myself already in previous posts, so…uh…

I’ve had surgery on both my lungs

I don’t actually know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve had surgery on both my moist breathing bags. It sounds a lot worse than it actually is, but it has resulted in me having minor chronic chest pain and also makes coughing a huge pain.

I’m 6’3″ (~188cm tall)

I dunno…folks like tall people I guess? I’m tall. Really grasping at straws here for three facts about myself.

I’ve been drawing since before I can remember

Including this one because of a question I received from Jett while streaming several weeks ago. I was asked how long I’ve been drawing and I can’t really remember how long it’s been. I’ve enjoyed drawing ever since I was a wee sprog. And slowly over years of practice I’ve gotten better. I still wish my style had evolved into something that is viewed as good in the traditional sense, but there is charm to my goofy expressive cartoons.

Where would you like to be in 10 years?

Is retired an acceptable answer? Seriously though, continuing to spend half of my waking hours working on things I don’t give a shit about hasn’t become any less grating. Unfortunately, I need food and food costs money.

As a more serious answer, I really don’t know. Things change so much on a year by year basis and my circumstances could be completely different in a decade versus now, so I wouldn’t know where to place future me.

What are your goals for the next month?

I wrote this post at the end of August, so I think all of those will be completed by the time anyone besides me reads it.

How has your blog changed since it was first created?

In the most literal sense I’ve changed the visuals of it from a mostly white design to the blue-grey design I have now. As far as content goes, I’ve started incorporating art as part of my blog, which is something I had never envisioned when I started. Furthermore, I’ve also dialed back on writing reviews which was originally what I started the blog to write. Turns out constantly reviewing games wasn’t actually that enjoyable. No wonder most critics are cynical and jaded.

If someone wanted to understand you, what game would they play?

Go play Hollow Knight, Bioshock, Advance Wars 2, Fantasy Strike, and Slay the Spire. That’ll give you a very good impression of the kinds of experiences I respond well to and what kind of a person I am.

What is your favorite video game quote?

I don’t know that I have one. Let me ask Mir if there is a line I quote from a particular video game quite often without realizing it.

. . .

“I feel everything!”, said by the Handyman enemy from Bioshock Infinite. They say it with such a deliberately weird cadence because they’re chronically in pain and I adopted it as a joke about my own internal pain, which I occasionally throw out at random. Bit of dark humour that.

What game are you most looking forward to?

I really don’t know. The problem is that a lot of games that have caught my eye don’t have a release date, so I catalog them and then forget they exist.

Let’s see what’s on my wishlist…

Oh!

Patrick’s Parabox. I really enjoyed the demo I played earlier this year and hope that the full game is just as engaging as what I already played.

What game are you currently playing?

I’m replaying the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It is the first Zelda game I played, so I have a lot of nostalgia for it despite every single dungeon being painfully boring. Wind Waker leans way too heavily into streamlined dungeon design which makes every one really boring to navigate. Each has a centralized room (or rooms) which you’ll re-enter numerous times thanks to looping hallways. This creates dungeons where you solve a linear sequence of puzzles room after room. It’s fine, but it lacks the kind of spacial awareness puzzles I appreciate from many of Zelda’s infamous water temples.

All of that said, I do really like the exploratory elements of the over-world. Charting a course around the ocean and stopping in on the various islands to solve puzzles, complete combat challenges, or play mini-games really help to break up the somewhat repetitive nature of the game’s main story. Plus, about a third of the way into the game you’re given free reign on how you move through the world, which allows for a lot of side tangents as part of the journey.

All said, it has been a really enjoyable return to the Great Sea.

If your favorite character had a modern song as their theme, what song would it be?

Uh…pass.

I’m not equipped with enough knowledge of current music to answer this one and I don’t have the patience to sift through hours of creatively bankrupt, factor produced garbage to find an appropriate answer.

What is one thing you want to change about your blog?

I want to get rid of the ads and with any luck that will have already come true well before this post is readable by the public.

What blog posts do you read the most?

I almost exclusively read about video games while cruising through blogging related posts. Specifically I like posts that discuss game design the most. Quietshisto fairly consistently delivers on those kinds of posts, but I’ve seen others dabble in that sphere as well which has been nice. A well explained, but equally concise, opinion piece is also appreciated.

That about wraps things up here. Time to nominate my own victims and ask them questions.

Questions:

  1. What are your Game of the Year contenders thus far? Note, you may include any game you’ve played this year rather than exclusively limiting yourself to games from 2020. If you would rather answer about films, books, or television please do.
  2. What is the one thing you’re super proud that you’ve accomplished, or are in the process of accomplishing with the extra time afforded by quarantine?
  3. What is your favourite colour? Also, why?
  4. Is there a game that you repeatedly come back to from your childhood that you enjoy playing to this day? Tell us about it. Same as above, feel free to use a film, book, or television show in place of a game if you’d rather talk about one of those.
  5. Have you ever played a game that got worse the longer you played it? What was it, and why did it grate on you the longer you played?
  6. What’s the dumbest shit you’ve read recently? All social media is a gold mine for terrible hot takes, so share your favourite.
  7. Do you have any favourite Youtubers? If so, who are they and why do you enjoy them?
  8. What is the strangest thing you’ve eaten?
  9. Which of the seasons is your favourite? Why?
  10. Cat, dog, or big chungus?
  11. Pancake, waffle, egg, bacon, oatmeal, hashbrown, cereal, sausage, toast. Choose three to create the ultimate breakfast combination and defend your choice like your life depends on it because bacon, eggs, and toast is the only correct answer.

Victims:

Quietshisto
Meghan
AK
Mckliz
Krikket
Omni
Genni
Dan
GD
Ian
Irina