Some of my most standout memories from my childhood are of TV. Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 80s the earliest shows I can remember watching were cartoons and my favorites to watch were Transformers, Go-Bots and He-Man. These memories are especially clear from when we moved to California in 1984-85. I was 5 years old or so. My friends and I would run around the neighborhood singing the Transformers theme song pretending to be Autobots or Decepticons. One of my friends even had the GoBot Command Center, which I’m still jealous about. Ah, to be that young again.
Grainy Photo of the GoBot Command Center. As faded as my memory.
There were other shows I recall from the 80s too. Silver Spoons being one and Saturday Morning Kung Fu another. But the one that I keep coming back to was the Wonder Years. It depicted the life of a boy growing up in Everywhere, America in the 60’s and early 70s, covering the ages of 12-17. Each year it was on took place 20 years from when it was airing. The funny thing being is that I never watched it and yet it wormed itself into my memory. Maybe it was the theme song.
One day soon after my dad passed, I found myself thinking about the show. When would have been my Wonder Years era? After some quick math I realized it had me passed by years ago. It would have had to kickoff in 2010 when I was 32 and cover the years 1990 thru 1995 which were tumultuous years for me. Like Kevin, I went through many changes and saw some crazy events. Not as monumental as the ones Kevin experienced but still up there. Waco, Ruby Ridge, Desert Storm. All things that would come back around in 2017.
Thinking on that moment, I began reminiscing about how different my kid’s childhoods have been. Even among themselves they have had contrasting experiences. The oldest grew up as I did with TV. Yet, the youngest has so many options, from Netflix to Amazon Video to Apple TV, it’s a miracle he has any favorite shows. The thing I notice most about him though is his patience. Whereas I and even his older siblings had to wait or scrounge virus-laden Torrent sites (Remember LimeWire??) for missing episodes of a show, he just has to find the right streaming service and he is on his way to consuming episode after episode. I’m not too concerned yet or worried an A.I. will replace his brain. I do have to wonder how it will all play out for him and his siblings later in life.
I’ve been actively trying to game more recently. For 30 years of my life I’ve gone through cycles where I get involved in a campaign and will get back into gaming for months and then life will happen and I can’t get into something else, or rather it’s hard to find players that want to play what I want to or run. So I game for a year or so and then back to years passing by before another campaign comes along. I’m trying to break that habit. I find I’m more creative when I am working on or playing in a campaign. It’s also a nice way to decompress after a hellish week and I can involve the family too. So my buddy Jon and I have come up with a Shared GM system where we run short campaigns, maybe 16 sessions at most before switching out and running something different. This has helped us both with burn out and scratching the creative itch. We used to play D&D and it’s not that I don’t enjoy D&D, but rather I want to try new things. This new system is great for that too. We even have a blog and podcast! With that…
Handy Gaming Links!
DicenPeanuts
My buddy Jon’s gaming blog. Thrilling stuff! Check it out. Do it!
DicenPeanuts Podcast
Home of the New Bastards Actual Plays and ill informed ranting.
Veins of the Earth
Super fun dungeon sub-terra setting book for the amazing Lamentations of the Flame Princess
On this day 7 years ago, Mass Effect 2 was released with critical acclaim and commercial success. Today is also the day I finally completed ME2. I know a lot of you will shake your head in disgust. If you think that’s bad, I can only imagine your reaction if I said this month I also finished ME1. Here is my nerd card. Let me get my hat and I will see myself out. There is a reason for this slack in gaming achievement but damned if I don’t fault you if you think it’s inexcusable. In my defense, I’ll say that time often gets away from me. A shame since we have so little of it.
Anyway, back to Mass Effect. I remember when I first heard about the game. Everyone was singing its praises from the epic storytelling to cool graphics. Even better it was an RPG set in space. Not since I was a kid swinging a stick and pretending it was a lightsaber had I been that stoked to try something out.
As soon as I could, I went to the local GameStop and asked for a copy of the game. The clerks face lit up when I told him what I wanted. Words poured out of his mouth as he went on and on about how great the game was. I could only smile and twirl my finger hoping he would notice to hurry up. Grabbing the game from him, I muttered a thanks and ran out the door. He was still talking when I drove away.
I wasted no time popping the disc into the X-Box when I got home. As soon as the homescreen loaded, I knew I was about to take a ride to Nirvana. Grinning from ear to ear, I pressed start, sitting back, letting the awesomeness that was Mass Effect sweep me off my feet and take me on a tour of the galaxy. After a night of playing, I saved the game and headed to bed. It would be a longtime before I played it again.
Life at the time was insane. I had recently been promoted at work and my marriage had hit a rough patch. My mother-in-law was also sick with cancer. Did I mention insane? Yes, so I never made it back to the Normandy and its badass crew. Sure, I was still a loyal fan. I bought an N7 hoodie, supported all the hype by posting on the Bioware forums and sung with the praise choir. But never fired up the game. Then came along Dragon Age: Origins.
Me in my N7 Hoodie
Dragon Age was everything I love about fantasy games. It had an amazing setting, a robust and at the time, unheard of character creation process and lore that was both interesting and relevant to the game. I was hooked. I recall thinking I should finish Mass Effect but Dragon Age snatched me in its jaws and dragged me away until Mass Effect was lost to the dreams of the Fade.
Flash forward to January 19th, 2010. Mass Effect 2 Day. Like its predecessor, I was set to pick it up from Gamestop. Then something happened. I can’t remember. Too much time has passed. What I do recall is that I was still deep in the Fields of Ferelden, slaying Darkspawn and trying not to die at work. This was also the same year that my marriage was in a tailspin and I was doing everything I could not to recover.
At the same time, I was losing interest with work. I wasn’t being challenged and I didn’t have passion for anything. I spent the days looking forward to the night so I could run home, take a shower, kiss my kids and head to the bar. This would begin my slow decline at my job that would end with me giving everything away to move to the Northwest. Then Halo Reach launched. The love letter to Halo fans by Bungie. I went to Wal-Mart, grabbed a copy, took the day off and didn’t stop playing until I beat the game. I never even thought about Mass Effect.
A couple of years went by with me limping along with work, my marriage had somehow pulled itself out of the nose dive and was on the mend. Work was not. I noted the passing of Mass Effect 3 like a wistful cheater who thought about the one that got away because he was too stupid to change his ways. Then the news that the ending was shit. I remember thinking how great it would be to play again. To see what had happened to the beloved crew of the Normandy and help them save the galaxy. It was not to be.
Like in 2010, another Halo game arrived. This was Halo 4 and the return of the Master Chief. People got hype. I was there on day one to buy my copy, to spend another weekend playing until I beat the campaign. Which is odd. In the past this wouldn’t have happened as I was only a casual fan of the series. Well that’s not true. I played Halo 1 all the time with my kid brother but I wasn’t hardcore. Still Reach had hooked me and that’s been the case to this day. Things would change.
It was 2013 and before I knew it, I picked ME back up. I played and played, falling in love again with the misfits of the Normandy. Only for it to all come to a crashing stop as I left my job. The Normandy never made it to Ilos. My dad moved in, we packed our things and moved to Portland OR. And there the save would languish until January 2017, tenth year of ME1 and 7th year of ME2.
My friend Jon has been harassing me for years now about how I would never finish the game and I would argue that it wasn’t my fault, offering up various excuses to ignore the crew of my beloved Normandy. I have no idea why we neglect the things we love but there it is.
I am not sure want finally galvanized me to fire up my dusty 360 and join Shepard and the crew one last time to try to save the galaxy. Perhaps It’s my addiction with time as I was in my 20’s when this started and I am now in my 30’s. Regardless of the reason I am now firing up a brand new copy of ME3 to save the galaxy or die trying. Whatever the outcome, thank you Shepard for bringing me joy whenever I see you in action and for putting up with my neglect. FOREVER NORMANDY!!
Today is Coming of Age Day in Japan for those who turned 20 years old in the previous year. The occasion has put me in a nostalgic mood as lots of my life’s first milestones are also turning 20. There was the passing of my mother due to cancer who died before I could have an adult conversation with her. My first New Years in Florida, which would go on to be my home for 16 years. It would also be the year I got my driver’s license and first car. Along with the license I became friends with some amazing people who remain friends to this day. My choice of music that year was Metallica’s Load/Reload double album. The song, “Mama Said”, being a standout with my mom’s death still fresh in my mind. All taking place in 1997.
Yes, a year of changes. I almost said reckoning but that would come further down the road. No, 1997 even with all its up and downs, was a happy year. I can only hope that 2017 will be the same.
I just found out about Thunderbolt Fantasy and I can’t figure out why I’m only watching it now. The creator, Gen Urobuchi, is a phenomenal Japanese writer for all kinds of media, who in my opinion, is one of the most twisted creators out there. I first came across his work with the light novel Saya no Uta, a Lovecraftian Horror Story that frankly is nothing more than a Gordian knot of terror and tragedy. I highly recommend it.
Speaking of horror, I have been reading I Am Hero by Kengo Hanazawa. On the surface it appears to be just another Zombie Apocalypse story but in actuality, I think, is a clever exploration of the psychological issues and social pressures facing Japan’s people these days and Hanazawa does this masterfully with visceral illustrations that he plays out from the perspective of the “Hero” of the story, Hideo Suzuki, a 35 year-old Manga Creator who is both mentally ill and suffering 17 year-old disease. Any fan of psychological horror and zombies should love this book.
I would end this by mentioning the horror that is USA politics but that’s depressing. Stay strong people!
Saying hello to you from a frigid winter morning here in Washington. This is the first post of the New Year but I really don’t have anything to talk about. I mean I can make a fake news post. That’s a thing now, right?
Sad news. I found out that Black Crowes Keyboardist Eddie Harsch died back in November. Tragic. Too many greats swallowed up by the 2016 Reaper. The Black Crowes have a special place in my heart. I first heard them when I was a teen in southeast Oklahoma. Their southern rock sound getting inside my head in a different way than a lot of acts happening at the time. Maybe it had to do with my massive crush going on at the time. She was a hot mess and whenever I hear She Talks to Angels, I think of her. RIP Eddie. Your music helped me to fly away.
This is my first post on my new website, so I should make it memorable. Maybe a few pics of my dog? Nah. Everyone does that. Oh! I went to Japan for the first time this year! Finally! There was a time I thought I would never see it.
