Hey Dr. Nick! Uh, I mean, Jamie!
I have a review half written myself for Banner Saga. I'm just so busy it's hard to tear myself away and enter video game land. But I think about it often.
On 05/19/2016 at 12:27 PM by Jamie Alston See More From This User » |
I felt compelled to post something around here because it's been nearly 2 months since my last Review Rewind, and over a year since my last blog post. I always start to feel a bit guilty when I haven't had much activity on Pixlbit (though I have been in and out of reading\commenting on your blogs).
As most of you can probably testify to, life's responsibilities make it difficult to really focus on producing quality written creations. Between work, volunteering, and being an awesome husband to my boss wife, finding the time\energy\motivation to write\edit a review has become a fantastical feat of strength only to be attempted by the most daring of men. It doesn't help that the subject of cooking came up recently. Translation-- I better learn how to do it or terrible things may start happening to my precious game collection by forces I can't comprehend.
Oh sure, I have a few minutes of inspiration here and there. I get a surge of excitement at the thought of writing up a review of whatever game I have in mind. But it all turns to mush when I start thinking about putting my thoughts into written words and really getting into the meat & potatoes of said game. Add to that my borderline obsessive need to take my own screenshots for the review and suddenly I start realizing how much time in a week (maybe two) it would take for me just to pull everything together and maybe have something worth reading materialize from my efforts. In the end, I usually end up surrendering to the inescapable reality-- "maybe next week".
I know the proceeding paragraphs may have seemed bleak, but it's not meant to be. I'm Just acknowledging the facts as they actually happen. Meanwhile, I've been steadily purchasing more games or game stuff for me to research\enjoy\review over the past month or so. I post them on my Instagram all the time. I've been thinking that perhaps it would be fun to post them here as well. It'd be a good way to fill in the gaps between reviews (which I refuse to retire from completely).
'Course...I still gotta find the time to upload them from my phone on to the computer. Sure, I could just write a blog about it, but I hate posting blogs without photos to give readers something visual that they might enjoy. Hmmm...then again, I'm sure Flickr or one of those other photo hosting sites probably have an app available where I could just upload them and insert them into a blog from the PC that way. So yeah...things are looking up already.
Anyway, just wanted to pass through and confirm that I'm still around. No matter how busy life gets, I'll always have a special place in my heart for review writing. Even if I can't do it as often as in my early 1Up blogging days.
I went through a long spell of not blogging. Life is just so dang busy! But I've been trying to write short blogs at least once a week about whatever I'm doing (for me, trying out an iPhone game for a few minutes and writing about it is easy subject matter for me). That's been working fairly well for me.
You know, I've been toying around with idea of playing and reviewing short or super simple games since it should take as long to write about it. Of course, I've also been telling myself that I need to be more concise in my future reviews so that I don't end up spending so much time trying to get into every detail.
Heck, there are times when I've forgotten a few major details that wanted to mention in previous reviews, but it come out just fine anyway. It's shown me that I don't need to try and cover every possible aspect. Kinda hard to fight the compulsion though.
Writing is hard and time consuming. My next major project is to study some writing to make it easier. I'm collecting grammar books right now.
I use Flickr to post photos here. The process is a little bit obscure over there. Tami (Rangergirl) told me how to do it a long while ago.
I've been using Flickr for YEARS now. It made it much easier to store and post photos for my 1Up blog back then. It threw me for a loop when Flickr updated the look and feel of the site because they changed the method for copying the url to your photos for posting elsewhere. At first, I thought the feature was completely gone. I had too Google it to figure out how to do it again. Ironically, I still forget from time to time.
I always try to read you great posts whenever I can. Glad to see that you are still a review-writing beast. You and The Last Ninja. That guy is kicking my tail with his retro reviews.
you will need four boneless porkchops, one onion sliced and sparated into rings, one can of cream of mushroom soup (get the good stuff, like Campbell's, the generic stuff isn't a very good substitute), milk (whole milk works best, you don't want your sauce too watery), and some seasonings. I'll make you a list of what I like to use and you can experiment.
Lightly brown the pork chops on both sides over medium heat in a large frying pan. Cover with sliced onions. Sprinkle chops with seasonings of your choice. Mix soup with about 3/4 of a CAN (not a cup) of milk and spoon over chops untll chops are covered. Cover pan and simmer on lowest heat setting for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I usually serve them with rice pilaf and peas.
As for seasonings, I generally use salt, pepper, marjoram, thyme, rosemary (crush in the palm of your hand first before using), and sage. I don't measure, but a pinch of each per porkchop seems to work pretty well. You can try other herbs and spices once you get the hang of things.
I've been a busy guy, too. I still love to play games but don't blog at nearly the volume i did when I was on 1UP, sadly. My wife enjoys watching my games/listening to the music, but I can't neglect her, and would never want to. :) All good.
Hey, I just noticed you're in Baltimore? Howdy, neighbor! I just got here a year and a half ago myself.
Welcome back man. Good to see you again.
I know the feeling. I haven't really felt the urge to write anything of worth in about a year as well. I start a piece, then think it's garbage and scrap it.
Hopefully we get some inspiration too, as I only recently got into your Review Rewind series. Sorry it took so long, but Ive been really enjoying it so far. I got hooked by your recent Metroid review and it's made me really want to dust off my old console *cough* emulators *cough* *cough* and try some of the games I've never heard of.
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