Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Real Talk: My path to Minimalism. [ LONG ]

Massive *eye roll* here
 
Google "Minimalism" and you are going to get a ton of definitions, a ton of pics of IKEA-like spaces, and a ton of cheesy one-liners like above.  BUT, after a major life shakeup, I examined my life, and decided to why not give it a try.  I'm going to throw everything out there, behind the semi-anonymity of the internetz, just to give everyone a glimpse of my path towards this new life choice, and how it has affected me.  Things are gonna get personal, and very real.  I'm writing all this off the cuff, so to speak, so expect a bit of rant as I just type out whatever comes to mind...

   I think the best place to start is with MY definition of what minimalism means to me.  To boil things down, it was an examination of all the consumer-driven aspects (i.e. my stuff) of my life, and how my "things" affected my overall happiness.  It's about getting rid of anything that doesn't add to my wellbeing or happiness, to the point where, I've surrounded myself with ONLY the things that make me happy.  The beauty of this lifestyle choice, is that there is no right or wrong answer.  No right way or wrong way to go about doing it.  What my concept of "minimalist living" is/looks like will not look like yours.  It's also affected by the fact that my family doesn't really share in my choice of minimalism, and that's fine too.  THEIR stuff doesn't really affect my happiness... though I admit, I get grumpy at the ENTIRE ROOM dedicated to my daughter's legos that she currently doesn't use, but that's a different story.  But again, my minimalist journey cannot, and will not look exactly like your own, or like those seen online.  It just CAN'T, as our stations in life are always completely unique.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Why I LIKE Fighting Games...



 
It wasn't long ago that I got bitten by the Street Fighter Nostalgic bug.  (brought on by Jasco Games' UFS card game)  I hadn't really touched a single Fighting Game since probably the 90's, where I was forced to hangout at the local bowling alley, because my parents were in a bowling league.  The only things saving me from immense BOREDOM was: cheese-fries, and 4 arcade cabinets... one of which was Street Fighter II.

  Now, I'm a very PASSIONATE person, mentally, I go from very high-highs, to very low-lows.  I can pick something up, and drop it just as quickly.  I've gone through this several times already in my short time within the Fighting Game Community. (FGC)  As such, I've been trying to examine exactly what it is I like about Fighting Games as a whole, as a genre.  I've already outlined the nostalgic part for me, but what else is there?