Reintroduction

Hi. 

You probably don't know me.  That's OK!  I've been gone for a long time.  To make a long story short, I was involved in this community for several years. I've hosted Friday Night Fights, I've hosted and attended NARPs, I've met most of the principal staff members of the site at one time or another.  I've kind of always been around, in the background, in the periphery.  

Lurking.

Synonyms for Lurking include Stalking, Creeping, and... y'know what? Let's just move on.

That's kind of a funny name for it, isn't it?  Sounds like something that should be illegal.  Certainly no positive connotations to be had there.  But that's what I've been, and that's what I've done.  I never really stopped checking Destructoid on a daily basis, but I stopped making comments, stopped interacting with people on the site itself.  I still talk to folks, but mostly on Twitter or other social media.  I've written about it before, but it's a lot harder for me to put myself out and make friends than I assume it is for "normal" folks.  The thing is, I made some really great friends here.  Thankfully, I'll never know the stomach-churning horror of what it's like to anticipate going into a real battle, with real stakes and real lives on the line.  The closest I've come is the time I spent in Halo: Reach, headshotting waves of Covenant soldiers and talking crap with people I knew only by their reputation.  And yet, that shared, simulated experience has led to some of the most meaningful friendships I've had in real life.  I never would have met most of the people I interact with now if it hadn't been for the inexpensive Xbox 360 I bought as Target closed them out nearly 6 years ago.  

I've been fortunate enough to attend several PAXes and have met most of Destructoid's staff in person.  What was even better was meeting some of the friends I'd made online and learning that they were cool people in real life as well. Knutaf has been kind enough to open his house to a passal of rowdies every year for nearly a decade.  And it's at his place where I first got to know folks like SteezyXL, Corduroy Turtle, Beyamor, Occams, and M. Randy Dixon.  I also live in central California, which means I occasionally get to hang out with folks like Swishiee, Law, and Spencer, even though I'm probably as old as all three of them mashed together.  Going back to look up links to throw in there, I keep finding things like this, reminders of good times I've had with some really great people.  2012 was probably the best year of PAX so far... it was still under the radar, so it wasn't so hard to get tickets, but a lot of friends were able to get together and meet up in real life. I look forward to the week of PAX Prime (Err, West, now, I guess) more than any other.  I've written about it before, but there's an energy at PAX that's hard to describe.  Something about being in an enormous building stuffed with like-minded, friendly people that everyone should experience at least once in their lives.  

That's me in the front, orange shirt, holding the poster.  But that's a story for another day.

If you know me at all, it's probably because of the time I spent working on the C-blog recap team several years ago.  I'm still in contact with most of the folks I worked with back then, though these days it's mostly on Twitter.  If you get a chance, give those folks some love.  It's not an easy job, and they're all volunteers.  I recapped for a little over a year, and looking back on some of my old posts, they, too, remind me of a lot of good times.  Don't get me wrong, I'm in a much better place in my life than I was when I was doing recaps.  In the past 6 years I've gotten married, we've moved into a house together, and I've changed jobs.  And that brings me to why I'm writing this blog, here and now.  

I love to write, and I think I'm reasonably good at it.  I haven't done it in a long time though, and I feel the rust as I try to re-engage some mental gears I haven't used in a while.  Like any other creative endeavor, it's something that you get better at the more you do it, but it's also something that you need to practice doing to maintain your skill level. 

I've seen countless people I respected and enjoyed reading move on to bigger and better things after putting time and effort in via the C-blogs.  I met Bbain back in 2012, not long after he had just signed up at Dtoid.  Now he's a regular contributer here.  Law went on to become a professional writer at Twinfinite, and even Mom is now freelancing at Cliqist and HeyPoorPlayer. Now that I'm unfettered by gainful employment, I'd love to follow that same path.  And so, in deference to the Reader's Digests I used to flip through for the cartons and funny stories, I pledge to write at least one article a week, of enduring significance.  It's been a long time since I've written anything regularly, but I need to start somewhere.  I hope you guys don't mind if I restart, and if I do it here.

Still on phase one, I'm afraid.

 P.S. -If your name didn't come up here, it isn't because I hate you.  I've met and interacted with way more cool people than I can count.  Stupid Monkeysphere.

LOOK WHO CAME:

Kevin McClusky   

Larx   48

Occams   38

Nic Rowen   27

Jiraya   24

vxxy   11

Luckrequired   10

Fuzunga   10

Robo Panda Z   10

Gajknight   10

DeadMoon   7

BlazeWii   7

TheBlondeBass   6

ShadeOfLight   5

Whispering Willow   4

JPF720   3

Sharukurusu   2

Davidz   1

RedHeadPeak   1

Avoclefo   1

Batthink   1

Chris Carter   1