Offseason Camblings, Part Four: 'Tis the Season

Ah, Christmas times, when I forget to remember what people want and end up just getting them food or gift cards for Christmas. Actually, that’s not an entirely accurate statement, I actually didn’t get anyone any gift cards this year, or books. Books are things I was getting for the brothers pretty regularly but with Tanz in Aussieland and Jord just about to pull the trigger on building his computer, I figure I can safely get Tanz nothing ’cause I’m a jerk and Jord something computer related… Considering he does read these I probably shouldn’t have said anything but I’m pretty sure I already told him that I’ve got it, he’s planning on performing the build on Friday Night, so I’ll be on standby as technical support…and he may very well get the thing then and there. I’ll probably do some post-christmas shopping online looking for miscellaneous things I’ve been after that I constantly forget to remember to tell people. Stuff that I can’t even exactly remember right now because I just spent like 5–10 minutes reading random stuff on Reddit. Yes, it is slow enough to be doing both a new post and a delving into the depths of Reddit. 

 

Now for something completely different. Imma talk video game for a bit, so folk who don’t care can skip this paragraph. With that warning out of the way, now comes “Past and present favourites, why and how; a discussion of entertainment and appeal.” …I really like that title, I should make that a recurring things. Anyway, for the first instalment we’re gonna go way back, so far back that I doubt anyone will remember this. It’s one of my first gaming memories and it took place on an old Macintosh Apple computer, the type that used the big (in girth, not memory) floppy disks and used an old joystick. I can’t remember the name of the game in question right this second, so I’m gonna see if google knows what I’m talking about. … … … Alright, I’m like 90% sure that it was just called “Bruce Lee” and while I remember it playing in black and green I can’t seem to find any images online of it with that specific colour combination. *Shrug* Oh well. Anyway, it mostly consisted of running around, avoiding traps and kicking/avoiding enemies as you made your way through a series of increasingly difficult levels/maps/screens/boards, whatever you want to call them. It ended up looping around back to the start but it took a while to figure that out due primarily to the trial and error approach that the game forced you to take in order to progress. I did eventually get to the point where it looped around and after doing that a couple times I got bored of it and don’t recall ever touching it again. As far as I can tell, the primary appeal to me was to just see how far I could get while avoiding danger from all over the place, learning new things and figuring out how to overcome obstacles, it was all about besting the challenge laid before me. It was quite a while before I figured everything out, having to start back at the beginning after failing… I don’t recall if there was a lives system, I think there was but I’m not sure. Regardless, after I did eventually figure out everything and got back to the first screen I’m pretty sure there was either a sense of disappointment or bewilderment, resulting in me going through it again just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. After that was exhausted I was done with the game, I had proven that I could do it repeatedly, there was no need to do it any more. That being said, it could very easily have been what started my love of challenge in games, to overcome the obstacles laid before me and prove that I could do it leading me down the road to Dark Souls and Monster Hunter eventually, which are similarly action based games about overcoming challenges. I don’t know if that’s the oldest game I remember playing, but it’s definitely one that left an impression on me. It also might be the one that I was playing this one early friday morning in December/November when I declined delivering paper and my mom had to do it and I constantly feel super guilty about it when it pops into my head (which happens more frequently than I’d like), sorry mom, I was a dumb kid. 

 

…Well that happened, I could probably make that a regular thing, considering I barely remember it and I wrote a good chunk about it. But yeah, slow day in a paint store, I haven’t seen a customer in several hours, ’cause who the butt wants to buy paint right before Christmas? Nobody in their right mind, that’s who. After today I’m off ’til the 27th, which is nice, and I expect that day/week to be pretty well completely dead, so that’ll be a fun week, especially since Cheesefest ’16 is happening that week and for whatever reason I’ve been informed that I’m not allowed to ever miss a Cheesefest. Something about being my “brainchild” when all I said was “I wanna try a whole bunch of different cheeses some time, maybe get a bunch of people together to do it with”…which actually is pretty much exactly what it is, though with the added “pair them with wines” due to Ma not being able to enjoy cheese without wine, plus it turned out it’s pretty interesting to see how the combination of flavours works together. That being said, I still can’t stand alcohol so I tend to not partake in the wine part of cheesefest, but boy do I enjoy the cheeses. I’ve learned a decent amount about the pairings by proxy, but no personal experience. Hmm, come to think of it, Lish would probably enjoy that sort of thing, I wonder if she’d be interested, I should ask. I’ll probably forget to do that though, ’cause as soon as I finish typing these things they’re straight gone from my brain. It’s weird, people bring up things I’ve said in these posts and I just stare at them blankly, wheels in my head slowly turning trying to recall if I even said that. I think it’s probably ’cause these posts are so much like my actual thought pattern, and who actively remembers what they were thinking about 2–3 days ago? No one that I know, that’s for certain. 

 

Unrelated, the darkness has begun to recede as we pass by the solstice signifying both the official start of winter and the coming of light, that is to say the sunset will slowly start getting later, which is good ’cause It’s currently 5pm and super dark out there. Oh, speaking of evenings, a couple days ago, I wanna say Monday, it was like the perfect winter evening. Not too cold out so my face wasn’t freezing off, smell of wood smoke in the air signifiying the use of fireplaces and mentally representing comfort and warmth, a beautifully clear sky with stars and the moon making their presence known, I really enjoyed that walk home, I may have been a little hopped up on caffeine… regardless, it was a lovely evening and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I do love this time of you, and it’d be nice to have someone to share it with, hence blog post. I mean, I’m normally an intensely private person due to a combination of “why would anyone care about this dumb stuff” and “People frighten me (really/not really, I’m just super introverted)” but there are definitely times when I find myself wanting to share moments that strike me as either beautiful or exciting but lack people to share them with. I know I’m not a great communicator, and that’s something I want to work on, so that’s probably a big part of it and if we delve too deep I’m liable to lapse into unnecessary sadness, so we’re gonna go ahead and avoid that. Also I’ve gotta close soon, so I need to wrap this up anyway. 

 

Cheers, and Merry Christmas,

 

~Cam