I am thankful for you. The first post of 2024

Hello friends! I hope you had a great holiday season, and a wonderful New Years. Over here work was  very steady, this was after a few years of a shaky market. A lot of my coworkers were let go, half the office was moved to Canada, and the remaining half (myself included) went to remote work. It was a nail biting few years, but I can say we're on steady ground now. My family had a modest but loving Christmas. I pray that good things came your way too. I wanted to start the blog for 2024 a little bit differently, and be a little more transparent with you. After a decade of writing here it turned out that 2023 was the most productive year I'd had in ages. There were two major reasons for that. First was writing a deep dive on the God of War series at the start of last year. It actually ran from January to March. This got me thinking about my favorite games of all time, which meant digging up, and reposting a classic 1UP series. The 1UP reposts through the summer, and winter helped fill up a large portion of the year, and hopefully gave you something fun to read. The other major thing that happened in 2023 was the release of Street Fighter 6.

I was so impressed by the work that Capcom had put into the game that it literally reignited the passion that I had for the franchise. It became an obsession that made me work extra hours all day, every day for months on end. This was both to play through all the content they had given us, and also to make a case as to why SF6 should be considered for game of the year. What I didn’t share with you was that putting together the series actually made me physically ill. I would get up early, work all day, and then immediately start writing, researching, and gathering screenshots for the 30-part series until the the early morning hours. I did this each day, every day, and even put in my time on weekends. When I was about 75% finished writing it I got extremely sick. If it weren't for an appointment I had already made with my doc I probably would have gone to the ER.

I was doing so poorly that I had to be honest about what I was facing. As painful as it was for me, it was equally scary for my wife, and kid. I needed to let the others I care about know what was happening. I messaged my brothers, mother, and best friend to let them know what I was going through. I reassured them that I was also getting medical attention. I didn’t share these details this with anybody else online, not even on my FB, or other social media pages. You were among the few to know. Thankfully I recovered, had a clean bill from my doctor, and a specialist, and became much more proactive about my health. What I went through I wouldn’t wish on anybody. Please listen to your body, and do not push yourself when you are exhausted. I slowed down my pace, and managed to finish the SF6 series. I also brought back 1UP posts to fill out the blogs for the rest of the year, and well through 2024.

That health scare got me thinking about the people, and things I love. I wanted to share much more about that on this blog. It was the entire reason I had started posting in the first place. Just one of the things I wanted to do through 2024 was talk a little about my fighting game collection. Although I wasn’t as active a collector as I was through the 1990’s I knew that I was sitting on some real gems. I began to bring my fighting game material out of the garage, and make room for it in my apartment. It took me a couple of weeks in September to do so. I planned on documenting, and sharing that collection here throughout the year.

The other thing that I wanted to talk about was how grateful I was to have visitors on the blog, on my social media, and even the people that occasionally shared the links on game forums. Whether you agreed, or disagreed with my posts, I'm glad for the conversations. I had more visitors through 2023 than at any other point in the history of my page. In fact I surpassed 500K views before the fall. One thing I considered were putting ads on my page to help make some money, but thought against it. There were so many independent game sites that Patreon, and a few ads sponsoring their pages. A lot of these people were serious about game journalism, and covering the industry. I didn't want that pressure. I’d rather write about the things I’m passionate about, without being focused on a deadline, or worrying about it becoming too niche. That is to say I didn't want this blog to be a main source of income. I wanted my page to continue to feel like a personal blog. One day I might post fan art of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and the next it might be a Chinese restaurant I wanted to talk about. If you enjoyed my stories then you were welcome to, but not obliged to support me on Patreon as well.

Speaking of not being in it for the money I’ve always enjoyed a handful of $1 monthly sponsors. Special thanks to Kevin, kasatushi, James B, Patrick, Mark, Tommy, Ben, James D, Allessandro, and Jeff. Thanks to those that followed me, but were not sponsoring as well. I had lost as many patrons as I had maintained these past few years. I’d like to let everyone know that their donations carried me through some of my toughest times. There were a lot of very personal things that had happened to me, and my family that not a lot of people knew about. Aside from my health scare in 2023 the hardest years for my family happened not too long ago. If you scroll to the bottom of my blog you will see a few years where the posts were sparse. It looked like I was washed out then, completely out of things to talk about. That wasn’t the whole story. A couple of years after I got married I started this blog, and began bringing over articles from 1UP, and Capcom-Unity. Things were going well with my newfound family, and my little slice of the web.

As my family was just getting settled the home that we were living in was sold out from under us. We were scrambling to find a place to live. Unfortunately my mother was in the process of selling her home as well, and we couldn’t find an apartment that we could afford with such short notice. A friend asked his parents if he could host us in the den of their second home. We lived in a single room of that house for a few years. It wasn’t easy, we had to keep up appearances that everything was fine to our relatives. We knew that our welcome could run out at any time. You can imagine that I had to put the blog on the back burner then. I was working long hours, and helping my wife with her mental health issues. I wouldn’t collect my patron’s donations until the end of the year so that I could make sure my family got a Christmas present. On more than one occasion I used the funds to pay for meds. I was humbled that I managed to keep patrons during my least productive years, and completely understood why many of them left as well.

Thankfully an affordable apartment opened up near my mom’s old house a few years ago. We moved in, and began trying to put our lives back together. Then COVID-19 happened. My job let a lot of staff go, including my supervisor, and manager. I managed to survive the cuts, and I began working from home. After a decade of therapy, new medication, and treatment my wife was in a much better place. Which meant that I was in a better place as well. This allowed me to put my focus back on blogging, and gaming. I cannot promise that 2024 will be the greatest year on this page. There was a lot I wanted to do, including doing more art. I honestly haven't touched my sketchbook in years! My goal was to post at least twice a week right here. I'd bring in classic 1UP articles until I had new content ready. New posts would most likely appear on Fridays. At the same time I would be helping my wife get back into podcasting. I’ll try to share those links here as well when we begin posting. I am thankful for everyone that has ever visited the blog. Thankful for those that left a comment, or dropped a message on social media. Please be safe, share your stories, and let’s try to make this year something to talk about!

As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!