A Recent Journey of Reflection

“Don't take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive.” Yup, that’s right. I’m starting this baby off with a Van Wilder quote. (Another amazing early 2000’s comedy film masterpiece as far as I’m concerned) Like most other quotes I’ve heard in my life, when this one first graced my youthful and mostly ignorant ears, it passed over me while only producing a slight chuckle and then vanishing into a forgotten realm of nothingness. This is my fancy pants writer way of saying I forgot about the quote. That is until a recent rewatch of Van Wilder where instead of this quote passing by; it latched on somewhere in my brain. Something was telling me to really listen to the words and understand the message being conveyed. The first thing that jumps out to me is finding the humor or joy in things. Something that we are all in desperate need of finding these days with so much negativity and fear mongering dominating the air waves. (More on this later) The second thing I realized was life is short. Way too short. As I’ve pointed out multiple times in previous blogs, I’m 35 (going on 36 in a few weeks) and time only seems to be going faster as I age. I don’t want to spend the limited time I have here arguing with strangers online or worrying about my 401k dropping for a little bit when retirement is on the distant horizon. I also want to enjoy things without pressuring myself into feeling like I’ll begin to resent my passions or hobbies. (Hence my extended time off since uploading my last blog) This, in particular, is something I would have found myself apologizing for my absence in the past. However, I don’t apologize for taking time off and rediscovering myself in certain ways. Through things like my recent gaming, my new career path, my restarted gym routine or hundreds of other examples. My point is this: I’m not sorry for being myself and prioritizing the things that add enjoyment to my life and/or subtracting the things that serve no purpose to me specifically. While this blog in no way, shape or form has reached the point of resentment, you will find that I take time off periodically here and there in order for me to really get excited about spewing my brain stew online for your enjoyment. That being said, I will attempt to be more vocal about my absence in the future though. Alright, enough melodrama already Prowler. Let’s move on, shall we?

I'm back!

Believe it or not but even with changing employment after 13 years of the same old, same old, I found a way to continue gaming on the side and oh boy, did I ever dive into a plethora of different categories. Let’s see if I can list them all: Super Mario Wonder, Pokemon Legends Arceus, It Takes Two, Golden Sun, Sonic Unleashed Recompiled, Baldur’s Gate 3, Duke Nukem 3D, Dying Light, Skyrim, Balatro, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Sonic Colors and Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze. I’m sure there’s more but you get the idea. Interestingly enough that the only games on that list that I actually completed were Super Mario Wonder, Golden Sun and Duke Nukem 3D. I’ve been kicking around the idea of writing some game reviews for a few of those as well. (Stay tuned if I pull the trigger to do so in the near future!) One thing that I’ve noticed over time with my gaming is that I’ve become happier to just play whatever game scratches whatever itch I currently have. I don’t force myself to play a game due to FOMO (*fear of missing out* for those unfamiliar with my killer acronym game) or because it’s what everybody can’t stop talking about. For example, Pokemon Legends Arceus is a game I hadn’t thought about in years but Nintendo recently dropped a preview for the newest Legends game so I decided to revisit Arceus because I remember how much fun I had playing that game when it first came out. It’s honestly been a breath of fresh air to sit down and play exactly what I’m in the mood for while tuning out all the problems of the real world, even if just for a little while. This is absolutely something I’ll continue to do going forward and I highly recommend anyone out there struggling with their love of gaming or any hobby in general to find their roots and dive back into whatever makes you the happiest!

Recent Games

The Future

One thing that I alluded to earlier was how much I’ve noticed that negativity and doomsday scenarios seem to dominate social media or YouTube thumbnails or even just glancing at news headlines. We are just obsessed as a society with the worst of the worst and I found myself getting caught up in it as well for a while before it dawned on me how much worse I felt whenever I engaged with this type of content. For example, the Nintendo Switch 2 was officially announced not that long ago and I watched the video on YouTube a couple hours after the initial announcement. My first thoughts were how excited I was about a new Mario Kart finally coming out, a brand-new 3D Donkey Kong game, a new Metroid Prime, etc. I texted my friends who I constantly play Mario Kart with about how excited I was for the announcement. Then I made the mistake of going online to see what others thought and that’s where I learned that no one seemed to care about a new Mario Kart or Donkey Kong. The only thing everyone and their mother seemed to be focused on was the price tag of the Switch 2 and how outraged they were that gaming is becoming more expensive. Now I’m not naïve enough to realize that for a lot of people out there, this price tag is very high and will prevent them from playing this console or these games for quite some time. Heck, I’ve been in their shoes before as well. (Trust me, I’m no millionaire) However, it really just crushes the kid in me to see where priorities are at these days. We seem so removed from the joy and excitement of a new announcement or trailer promoting our favorite games and franchises and instead just hyper focus on picking apart any small detail that the fan base can dig their claws into to proclaim why they won’t be touching this game or how trash the product is. (I know this firsthand being a Sonic fan above all. Bless any member of Sonic Team that is brave enough to see what Sonic fans think whenever they announce a new game…) I realize I’m only one person and maybe this is the equivalent of casting a pebble into the ocean but I really want to shift my focus of both this website and any future YouTube videos I create to focus on the positivity of gaming and even life in general. There’s so much crap, evil and negativity in this world already and if I can create a space that brings joy to even one person, I feel I’ll have made a difference. After all, you shouldn’t take life to seriously. You’ll never get out alive.

Appreciate and love you all that have stuck with me so far! I’m always looking for suggestions for content, topics, games or anything else you’d like to see from me so make sure to leave a comment or head to the contact page to message me directly!