I'm an O.G.

I like to consider myself as an O.G., an Old-school Gamer. I like the feel of the game play. Minimal buttons, simple control, and that subtle nostalgic feeling that I get reliving my childhood over and over again. Such a great feeling versus the same old polished pieces of crap that seems to be put out in the industry. And by that I mean for you to just think real hard and find a game within the past 18 months (hell, the past 36 months even) an original title that was good. I bet you that it will be less than 10 or so out of the 100's that are being cranked out for the herd that buys them out of the pure aspect of the title that it's trying to carry.

Now don't get me wrong, I like the new stuff, some of it at least. I give credit where credit's due. Little Big Planet and Wii Sports for example are great original titles (well, original title and technical demo on how to use a controller) and the fundamentals of it are phenomenal. But when I see a rehash of Metal of Honor or yet another Madden title, the ball falls short in my book. They seem so uninspired, so safe, closed to the cuff, and they know that it will play to those who don't want to stray from their precious safety bubble. I at least try to get out of that and look for stuff off the beaten path.

But I guess early video games have traveled the then unclaimed frontier and yet my bias towards that is where my allegiance will lie. Of course after the video game crash of 1983 what bold new outlook came into the picture? An 8-bit sprite of a plumber that ate mushrooms and stomped on killer turtle looking creatures to defeat a fire-breathing, badly drawn dragon to save a princess and her kingdom of toadstools; and it was good. And that brought forth a gauntlet of other games to peoples homes to play and kick butt in. And it brought forth competition from other manufacturers to overtake it's throne and the rest is history, video game history, and I'm proud to have had a part in it as well as being a product of it.

That resurgence of such brought back life to the culture that is what it is today. But we have lost track of such. Now it seems that creativity has taken a backseat to greed and demand for more of the same old lame old. Very little forward motion is happening and I fear that video games are not in the foreseeable future but will decline to a crashing halt.

We need to get back to our roots. Just the other day I went and bought out my old NES to play Wizard and Warriors for a couple of reasons. One was nostalgia and the fact that it was not available for download on the Wii Channel. Two was because I needed something other than the majority of the crap that is out in the market today. Three, well it didn't occur to me but after the fact it was the motivation of making this post trying to find my video game identity again. I was really in it, working on the game for about an hour and a half, on the last stage, and then my kids were playing in the living room as well and bumped into my console (probably a good time to mention that my NES was a top loader model) and glitched my game. Those types of games did not have save spots because it relied on a simple concept of replayability. It brought you back again and again even if you've beaten it to try and do it again. Of course I was mad that my work was lost and I had to start over again, but the fact of the matter is that I would happily start over again because of that factor. Games nowadays don't have that. They're practically disposable and you sell them or trade them in for other pieces of crap.

The fact of the matter is that we need games. Good games. Original games that us O.G.'s can pick up and cherish for a long time. Until next time, I'm gonna play me some Ocarina of Time that I just downloaded on my Wii.

(How funny, I just caught the irony of an old-school gamer playing Ocarina of time.)

BootLeG sampler.. siging out...

Tag, I'm it.

I was going to call this post "Becoming a Victim of a Chain Blog" but I don't think the wifie would've liked me so much putting that there. So I'm going along with her and calling this one"Tag, I'm it." She has a friend of hers that put on her blog 7 questions that she tagged 7 people (one of which was the wifie) and then asked those 7 bloggers to pass it on faster than the common cold. So in an effort to appease the wifie, I'm following suite. I'll try to act as serious as I can but then again this is me of course (and that couch is so comfy when I'm playing the Wii at night as I anticipate sleeping there after I post this and she reads it.)

So without further ado, let me post her questions and my answers. Eh, maybe it'll be fun... :P

1. What one talent do you not have, that you very much wish you did?

That's a tough question (good one to start with babe.) I suppose that I wish that I could have the talent to play the piano. I've started to learn when I was six way back when I went to Catholic school (that's another topic that I might touch on, I dunno, back to the question.) The piano sounds so great, it's in my opinion the best classical instrument ever invented. I loved it, except for the fact that when I got something wrong, the nuns would slap my hands with a ruler; yeah, they did that kind of crap, it wasn't folklore. I tried learning on my own, and I'm decent, not church choir decent, but decent enough to read, and comprehend. I just really wish that I could've continued with that.

2. What is the one thing people do that bothers you most?

Well, it's two things actually. One is smoking; I FRIGGIN' HATE SMOKING! PERIOD! END OF FRIGGIN' SENTENCE! The second is when people talk like they're ghetto. I don't care if you're from the projects or not, it's just not kosher in my book. Especially if you've never left the comforts of a suburban cul-de-sac ever in your life and you start talking like some hoodrat just cause you saw Friday or New Jack City. That ticks me off.

3. Where is the one place you'd like most to visit before you leave this earth behind, and what about that place most draws you to it?

I really don't know. I guess main land Japan if anything. Tokyo to be precise, but Japan all around. I love the culture there and the history of the island nation. I loved it when I was in Okinawa way back when, and I wish that I could go back there for pleasure instead of business some time soon.

4. What flaw do you most dislike in yourself?

I guess my ability to try to appease everyone. I should try to just please myself instead of anyone else. (And as I was typing that I just realized how out of context that could've went, oui.) But most importantly I should not try to seek approval or acceptance from everyone, just to those that are important to me and myself as well.

5. What career did you most want as a child, and if you are not doing that now, what changed your mind?

I wanted to be a mathematician when I grew up as a kid. I loved math. I was borrowing books on Calculus and Trigonometry from the library when I was in 6th grade trying to understand and learn from them. I still have a strong love of mathematics, but as I grew older, my appetite changed and reality set in to the tune that my family couldn't afford college for me. So that ship had sailed, but the passion lives on. Either that or the guy who invented spellcheck, cause honestly if it wasn't for that I'd be doomed. I can't spell worth a damn. :P

6. Why do you blog, what purpose to you hope to achieve by blogging?

I originally wanted to blog to put my voice and spin on things that interested me. In that it was music, videogames, entertainment, technology, and my day to day live. I still do want to continue doing such, and I try to make a conscious effort to attempt to blog about something on those subjects every time I step in and also try to make an effort to blog as frequently as possible to not make this a moot effort.

7. What one modern invention would you mind giving up the most, and why did you choose that one?

I wouldn't know. It's kind of hard to think of such. I suppose the best answer would be the snuggie. It's so friggin' stupid. The people that have them are brainwashed idiots that should just surcome to the inventor's twisted marketing of it, drink the Kool-Aid, and end the insanity so the rest of us could live in peace. That or WMD's, they're just not kosher.

And since I'm abiding by the rules governing this shenanigan, let me introduce you to my own list of questions. Oh, and wifie, quip pro quo on this one...

1: Coke or Pepsi, and why one is better than the other?

2: What is your stance on the capital punishment?

3: If you were stranded in a deserted island what modern convenience would you miss the most and why?

4: What fictional work (book, tv show, movie, etc.) would you say your life most resembles?

5: What goal do you want to accomplish most on your bucket list?

6: What feedback can you give me to improve this blog?

7: And the most important question of all in my list of seven; cake or bacon? Explain.

Please repost/reply, follow suite if you follow and I would love to see what you have to say.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

p.s. I had to use spellcheck like 20 gabillion times typing that, told ya I'm a math nut not a word guy...

All of Live's Best Laid Plans

I sometime don't know what stuff I try to get myself into at times. I try to start up something (this blog for instance,) and when other things in life takes priority or if there is a sudden change of lifestyle, crap starts to hit the fan.

During the past few months I've been trying to do other things on the side. And when I mean on the side, I mean other stuff outside of my family, work, and this blog. One of which was another project with a friend of mine to review all things that makes us tick. We were going to put on a weekly commentary on weird shit from the Generation-X one off made for TV movie to the correlation of all the different gameshows that are on air or previously were. Needless to say, it's still haven't made the light of day and I still want to try it sometime. The thing is I have no time. Literally the way we have our schedules are so out of wack it's not even funny. It sucks, because I really thought that it would take off on the shear originality and randomnisity of it all. But alas, I suppose it was just never meant to be.

Another thing that came to my attention in recent weeks is that I was 'invited' to be part of a band that some of my co-workers wanted my talents for. They found out I've played bass (albeit I no longer have them) and they were in need of a bassist. I know, I know, that would've been sweet, but how are you gonna play without a bass. Two kickers here people. Number one, they had a bass for me to play and were willing to let me use it while playing. Number two, we have the same days off and the lieu of a schedule mishap was throw out of the window. The only problem is, there's no communication on when the practice is so for the past three weeks, there hasn't been jack on any practice time so yet another thing thrown out the window.

I mean, c'mon man... I just don't get it. It's hard enough to try to keep up with this (and trust me I am going to try to keep up on this more,) but to add on more crap to the picture?!? It's just insanity in my picture.

So this is my rant on some of the things (not all of them) that what I've been trying to do beyond all the other things I'm already doing, and the lack of time and/or communication on trying to get it done. The burden of trying to spread myself too thin. Don't get me wrong I'm great at multitasking, but when it requires a near act of God to try to get things moving... It's pretty damn hard. Yeah, why couldn't I've just said that in the beginning and it would've saved me some time and headache: 'it's pretty damn hard.'

Simplicity is bliss...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...