Pocky Central

Apologies for the long delay. Again. Things have been kind of hectic.

Some people have asked me, “Why aren’t you going to cons anymore?”

The answer is simple, yet complex.

The simple version: A lack of time, a lack of money, and a desire to avoid the fandom for a while.

The complex version:

I’m trying to devote more of my time to me, and those close to me. While I love my friends at the cons, I would rather see them in a non-convention setting, so I can spend more time with them. This may sound stupid, but because I know so many people, I have to try to divide my time amongst a lot of people, and that’s not fair to them or me.

Money-wise, I want to try to save more. I want to eventually get my own home, and that means spending a lot less. Cons, for me, are huge money sinks, even if I don’t buy anything in the Dealer’s Room or the Artist’s Alley. Hotel, travel, food and such add up quick.

Finally, the fandom. Contrary to what some believe, and to some of what I’ve said, I don’t hate my fandom. But at the same time, I’m kind of tired of it. I need a break, a chance to get back some of the excitement I used to feel. I will admit that some of the recent changes, on top of my growing older, have changed some of my views on the fandom.

I think, once I get my life on the track I want it to be on, I will be heading back to anime cons in a year or two.

First, my apologies for the long delay between posts. A variety of things has kept me from putting my ideas down on ‘paper’.

Before I get to the other posts I’ve had brewing in my head, let me talk about why I’m keeping this blog at all.

The main reason is that I wanted to have a place to post my writings that wasn’t a publically owned set up, like LiveJournal. Nothing against LiveJournal or the people who post there - it’s a good set up. I just wanted more control, and the ability to archive.

The second reason is that I wanted to give myself a reason to post - my original idea was to post once a day, everyday, barring emergencies or complete lack of access. This has, unfortunately, fallen to the wayside, due to a variety of reasons.

So I’m going to redefine my ‘mission’ slightly. From now on, I’m going to try to write at least one post a week, preferably more.This will help with my dry spells (which come from my own forgetfulness, laziness, and scheduling issues) and my occasional tendency to go on writing jags.

I will hopefully have a number of posts up in the coming week, to make up for my missing the past week and some. I apologize to the people reading via RSS for the incoming flood. (The posts will be post-dated, just like before)

And by recent, I mean the past ten years or so.

There used to be (and still is, to a point) a large multitude of game genres. Adventure, sports, role-playing, shooting (the side-scrolling kind, not the first person kind), you name it. Lots of different people were making games for lots of different audiences, and chances were you could find something you wanted to play.

Fast forward to today.

These days, there seem to be four major game genres, for both PCs (and by this, I mean Windows machines, Macs, and yes, even Linux boxes) and consoles.

Those four genres are First Person Shooters (FPS), Real-Time Strategy (RTS), Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), and Sports (sorry, no need acronym here).

Let’s look at these, one at a time, in no particular order.

Sports: there is no way to get around the fact that the sports genre is possibly the highest selling one of them all right now. Look at Madden, look at the NBA games, and the various driving games. I don’t know exact numbers, but I do know that there are tournaments dedicated to Madden with big prizes. That’s got to count for something.

MMORPGs: World of Warcraft. Everquest 2. Ragnarok Online. City of Heroes/Villains. There are hundreds of MMORPGs (and similar MMO-(type of game)s) out in the world now. Some are pay-to-play. Others are free-to-play, pay-for-neat-stuff. In the end, they’re all ’social’ games, where you play with other people. And some call them the ‘wave of the future’.
RTSs: Starcraft. Warcraft. Command and Conquer, Age of (noun of your choice). There are a lot of real time strategy games, some good, many not so good. While they’ve waned in popularity, they’re still fairly profitable. Some of the games are still very popular, like Starcraft, which is played at world level tournaments.
FPSs: There are simply too many to list. But since they’ve been called ‘killing trainers’ by some, I don’t think I really need to go into them. (If I do, let me know, and I will, though)
Of these, I only personally enjoy one - MMORPGs. I’ve never really liked sports games on consoles or PCs, with the exception of goofy ones, like Mario Tennis or Need For Speed. FPS games give me headaches, and unlike most Koreans (or so I am told), I suck at RTS games.

So what about puzzle games? Role playing games? Platformers and the others? I’ll get to those some other time. (But I will say - I love them all)

When I was in high school, I had a keen interest in both the choir and the musical theater. I eventually joined both, though at admittedly different times. (Choir was freshman and sophomore years, musical theater was senior) While I love to sing, I don’t fool myself into thinking I’ve got any kind of talent for it. The same goes for acting.

So it was to my great surprise that I was given a bit role in our school’s production of Fiddler on the Roof, kind of at the last minute. I was originally part of the chorus, i.e. the people who sing backup and such to the primary characters. It was still kind of interesting that I was an Asian Russian Jew. (thinking about it makes my chin itch, the ‘beard’ I wore was really ragged)

I ended up being Yussel the hatmaker, who ends up making a hat for Motel, the tailor. I had a bit line in that, and I also ended up being half of the ‘it was a horse/it was a mule’ argument in the opening act. It was quite exciting, and a lot of fun. (One of my best friends, J1, still brings it up from time to time to our mutual amusement)

Since then, I’ve always had an interest in musical theater. I don’t know if I’d want to be on stage again, but I definitely want to see more shows. On my list, right now are Avenue Q, Spamalot, The Producers, Rent, and many others. The problem being that I don’t live in New York, and I don’t have many friends who want to go with. (or so it seems)

But sometimes I wonder what would happen if the part of Mr. Bloom (of the Producers) was played by a Korean.

Computers. Nearly everyone I know uses them in one way or another. I for one can’t imagine my life without at least one. (I own four right now, long story)

I got into computers when I was very young, thanks to the influence of one of my earliest friends, D, and his father, who worked for a local computer company at the time. Thanks to them, I got my first exposure to a computer - an Apple ][ to be precise.

Soon after, my family bought me a Commodore Vic 20, which I happily messed around with. I played a game or two, but I mainly tried to figure out Basic. In the end, I discovered that programming was fun, but tough. This led to me becoming even more interested in computers, and eventually getting an Apple ][ C, which only fairly recently left my home. (My uncle, who works with computers as well, took it to his place)

Fast forward to high school, where I’m fairly computer savvy and a fully-fledged computer geek. (Not a nerd - I couldn’t tell you how the chips worked or anything, but I could fix an error you had, and I was pretty good at games) Sometime in my senior year (Grade 12 for you folks up in lovely Canada), I decided that I loved computers enough to make them a major part of my life.

Even though I’m not an I.T. professional (I kind of missing saying ‘I’m a computer tech’) anymore, I do try to keep up with the latest news and information on them. Which means I’m scanning around for stuff on XP, Vista, going from XP to Vista, and the problems thereof. I also look at Mac news, just so I know what’s going on in general.

I don’t have a Mac because they’re too expensive for what you’re getting, in my opinion. But they’re very pretty.

I’ve even tinkered with the idea of getting my A Plus certification, just because.

Yes, I’m strange.

One of my hobbies is cooking. I’m not very good at it, though I do hope to get better at it.

I’m very fond of cooking for several reasons. The biggest reason is that I like to feed my friends. I enjoy hearing them dig into a dish that I’ve worked on. I like knowing that I’ve created something that brings a bit of joy to the people I care about. And with luck, it actually tastes good.

Another reason that I like cooking is that I like working with my hands. Normally I dislike my hands and my work area being messy, but with food I don’t mind it at all (with the possible exception of some types of offal). But it feels good knowing that the various bowls and plates of raw ingredients that are sitting on my kitchen counter are going to end up as a finished dish.

The final reason is possibly the most obvious - I like to eat. So I tend to create dishes that I would want to eat myself. This leads me to make a lot of pasta sauces, stews, and meat dishes. (Sorry, vegetarians) So far, I’ve yet to get any complaints, although that may be because my friends are too kind to tell me that my cooking is bad.

I’m willing to try just about any recipe, though I’ve had bad luck when it comes to baked goods and desserts. That hasn’t really stopped me from trying to make them, but the results are often thrown away before anyone else can sample how bad they’ve come out.