Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Readers Won't Read This

This week I'm doing a writing workshop with my 10 year old son. Last night was our first night where we nailed down our story with a quick outline. We decided to write the same story, but my son will write from his perspective and I'll write from mine using the same outline. Hopefully in the end, we'll have 2 stories we can put together to form 1 great story.

The part that you won't like is, I'm going to write my story here. For some reason the only way I can write is with my phone. I've been writing this way for over 5 years so it's become a habit for me. I could write faster and better using a normal computer, but my mind always draws a blank doing it that way. I figured if I'm going to write a story, I might as well slap it up on my blog. Unfortunately, it's not what my readers want to read.

It seems every time I write creatively nobody reads it. I pour my heart and soul into a grand masterpiece and nobody gives a crap about it. All they want to read is about gaming or some kind of angry rant. It's a bit demotivational  when I do it. When I do break out of my shell and post a creative piece I get hardly any hits and 0 comments or Retweets. Not that comments and Retweets are super important to how I feel about my writing, but it would be nice to get some real feedback on my stories.

Anyways, I'll be posting my story my son and I came up with. It's a bit kiddie because he is only 10, but we came up with a pretty cool idea for a story. At least I think it's a cool idea considering it's more of a pre-young adult type of story. This week I'll post a chapter a day. You'll get to read 4 chapters of the story and most likely that is it. Next week I'll talk a little about my son's story, our differences, and how we could make a better story if we kept writing it. As a reader you can help give feedback or even ideas to help the story. I'm not holding my breath though. You'll just have to skip my feed this week if you want my normal dick and fart jokes.

I hope you do read my story and help my son and I think of better ideas for the story. Thanks for reading.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A Year With #Wildstar

Even though $132 is a lot of money to fork out at once and I'm extremely skeptical with my commitment, I'm going to go through with it. I haven't played an MMO more than 3 months other than WoW in the past... Ever. This might be a stupid idea and I feel Carbine should pat me on the back, give me a hug, and tell me everything is going to be ok. A day doesn't go by without me worrying about my commitment towards a year with Wildstar, but I'm going to hold strong and do it.

I might start to talk about Wildstar a lot on this blog. I'm going to be more serious because I've lost the urge to be an idiot blogger. My childish jokes are getting old and I've lost the heart to do it anymore. I love writing so I figured I'll write normal blog posts like everyone else. I'll talk about my adventures in Wildstar for the next year. I understand if you choose not to read me anymore. I'm really excited about the game, but I wish they'd give me a hug.

That's all I have to say today. Tomorrow I'll talk about my PvP stuff.

Podcast Recap

I understand it might be hard for people to listen to podcasts. Life is busy or you're just not interested in listening to them. There are other factors I wouldn't go over, but I do understand it's not for everybody. For those who can't listen to podcasts I'd like to recap my last podcast for you because I feel it is a very important podcast, at least it was for me.

1. I had my great friend, The River, join me for the podcast. Unfortunately, he passed away last week and he was unable to listen to it. At the beginning of the podcast I talked a little about River. I know people hear it all the time when someone died, but River was truly a good man. He wasn't perfect and earlier in his life he did go to prison for robbery,  but he changed later in life. He became a giver instead of a taker. Reading his personal blog you can see he gave his heart and soul to his friends and family. He made it a point to help them and cheer them up even if it meant sacrificing a bit of himself. He was a great man.

If you only read his gaming blog you would've thought he was a womanizing dick, but that was just a fun facade he put on for his readers. As I said in the podcast, he loved to shock people to help them think outside of the box. Make them realize the stick is so far up their ass you can't even see the end nub. A misunderstood genius I thought of him. Through the years of knowing him I've tried to mimic his style to be as popular as him. I would read his comments and envy how much people loved reading his posts. How he could engage his audience and bring out the best or worst in them depending on what he wanted from them. I was jealous of him.

Now that he's gone I don't know what to do. Him and I used to banter back and forth to get a rise out of people. At times he was the only one to comment on my post because he knew what I was doing when others didn't. I'm not sure how to proceed from here.

2. River talked about his grandmother and grandfather he loved so much. He told me how they got him into gaming through poker and Monopoly. I'm sure that might have been the source of his gambling problem when he was younger... GRANDMAAAAA!

He talked about his love of DAoC and his guild. Some of those members he still played with in WoW up until he passed away. River was very passionate about his guild members. He might have been talking about how much fun he had in RvR, but in truth the fun was with his guild mates. That's why we play MMOs to socialize with people we enjoy talking to.

Sometimes we might play a game just for the people and not the game itself. Our desire to be surrounded by people we know and care about, can turn a meh game into the best game in the world. I could tell talking to River he really enjoyed the people in the games he played more than anything else. I feel the same way too. I've bought games just to be able to talk with people and share experiences with people I talk to daily on social networks. Like right now, Wildstar isn't the best game and it's not perfect, but at this point I'm playing with people I enjoy talking to. I enjoy Zeli, Abb, Belghast, Rae, Tam, Oak, Pete, Chris, Stargrace, ect, ect. That is just a few of the people and not even close to all of the people I wish I could play with, but right now Wildstar is the new hotness and I can enjoy their company while it lasts. Discussing MMOs with River, I knew he loved these games for this exact reason too.

3. Listening to the podcast and River talking about his most memorable moment in WoW when Ragnaros pops out of the lava and says, "With fire be purged!" I get chills up my spine. Not only do I remember the moment I first saw that, the way River says it with passion, erupts emotions in me. Those are the moments we play games for. Moments that flare up emotions like a nasty bug bite begging to be scratched until it bleeds.  When people talk about gaming memories they will always remember them just like real life moments that spark emotions.

4. At the end of the podcast River was waiting to tell me a story. Again, this story was about the people he played with and not really the game. He told me about drama in his guild with a guy he later became good friends with. Years later when he really met the guy in real life, River was more excited about that meeting than the game. He told me how he lost boots in WoW accidentally to this guy even though he had the most DKP; I'm guessing it was a screw up on the raid leader. River told me how the guy and several other guild mates met in real life and how the guy disenchanted the boots right at that moment. River laughed his ass off about that and later drew a penis on the guys back when he passed out drunk. A moment outside of gaming that was only made possible through gaming.

The podcast made me realize why I love gaming so much. It's a time I get to relax and talk with potential real life friends, even if I never meet them in real life. Not coming face to face doesn't lessen the friendship. I always think what I would say to you all if we really met. It would be awkward at first, but after flashing my naked ass at you, we would all chuckle and have fun... OK not really, but it would be funny and you wouldn't forget my hot ass!

I wish I got to meet River, but I'm not sad about it because I had the chance to get to know him through the years. There might be miles separating us all, but we can still be just as good of friends as if we lived next to each other. Even better friends, because I don't have to see you and put up with your shit daily. When I tell you all I appreciate you I mean it. You all make my day better even when you refuse to play a specific game with me.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Dear River

Dear River,

I'm gonna miss you bud! I might not have ever set foot in your house, but you will always stay in my heart.

For over a half of a decade you've made my life better. I always looked forward to chatting with you over Twitter or blog post comments. From the first day I started reading your blog and talking with you, I knew you were going to be a great friend. Talking with you always made me smile.

I'm sad that you're gone. I can't even imagine how your family and real friends feel. You made me a better person from afar, I'm sure the ones close to you feel the same. You were a social butterfly and a person people could look up to. Unfortunately for me, I only new a fragment of who you were.

I spent hours reading all the posts about you on Facebook to try to get to know a part of you I'll never have the privilege of knowing. You seriously lived your life to the fullest and made other happy in the process. You brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people. I'm sure if your friends forget to smile all they'll need to do is think of you to smile again. You were a great man and you'll be dearly missed.

I wanted to tell you I'm sorry. Over the years we've talk we always wanted to do a podcast together. I regret not finding the time to do The Donkey Show with you. What makes it worse is, I finally did a podcast with you and I neglected to find the time to edit and post it before you passed away. I feel horrible about it. All those years planning to do a podcast together and I fail at making our dream a reality for you. I'm deeply sorry.

I haven't had the heart yet to finish editing it. I want to post it so people can hear how passionate you were about games, but I need time before I can do it. I promise you, I will post it for you. I know you worried about sounding stupid on it and wished you were funnier, but trust me, you did awesome. You were passionate on the podcast and that is all that matters. When people listen to it they'll be able to connect with you through your passion. I know I did.

One of your blogger idles started a meme of sorts in honor of you. Syp suggested we all post half naked women on our blogs in honor of you. It was a great idea even though he wussed out and put a picture of a dog up. I guess some people don't understand why you actually did that. It wasn't the women, it was the love of life and bringing smiles to people's faces. Shit, you even posted 1/2 naked men on your blog for the same reason. I understand you and that is why we got a long so well. You knew that life was about living it the way you wanted and not being a stick in the mud.

You know after seeing the 100's of pictures of you on Facebook, I discovered I was a wuss too. I don't have the balls to live my life as much as you did. You showed people like me how to live and made us all smile while you were living for us. I envy you a lot for it. I look at you an wish I was more like you. I'm sure a lot of your real friends and family feel the same as I do. You were free to enjoy life. By all the pictures and stories about you, you lived the way life should be lived. You were and still are, a role model to me. I see I should be more like you and relax to live life to its fullest.

I want to end this post by saying thank you. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for encouraging me through the years to keep blogging. Thank you for making me laugh and smile. Thank you for chatting with me. Thank you for not changing who you are. You were an amazing man and looked pretty good as a woman too. I'll miss you bud, but I won't stop smiling because I'll always remember you.

Act 1: Pong

Now that Boomers are finally dying off, the rest of the world can relax and play their video games without being harassed. Video games are e...