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Off-Topic: Toronto To Host The 2016 NBA All-Star Game

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Even before the Toronto Raptors became a thing, I dreamed for a day when the NBA All-Star game would be hosted in my neck of the woods. As a child, I loved watching the NBA’s finest duke it out in a once-a-year dream match. More importantly, I’ve been obsessed with the NBA dunk contest ever since Harold Minor blew my mind with the legendary between-the-legs dunk. Sure, the contest has been more terrible than not in the last decade or so, though it’s monumental enough of an event for me that I haven’t missed watching one live on television since.

With the news of Toronto getting the 2016 all-star game as a means of celebrating the franchise’s 20th anniversary, my childhood dream has come true.

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Off-Topic: Tangential Ranting From A Reformed Sneaker Fiend

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stack 001While I have owned hundreds of video games in my lifetime, I’ve never considered myself a collector of video games. To me, having a collection of games was merely a side effect of playing a lot of games. Also, I almost never buy games just for the sake of having them, as I generally have a plan to play everything I own eventually. To me, my one true collection was/is my sneaker stash.

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Off-Topic: Royals By Lorde and the Rare Phenomenon of Genre-Neutral Hit Music

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I’ll never forget the moment when I first heard Royals by Lorde. Steff and I were in the car. As I tend to do, I flip between radio stations playing all different types of music. Stopping on our local alternative rock station, I was caught off-guard by the sounds of Lorde’s harmony over 808 drums. “Why is this station playing this song?” I asked. “No idea,” Steff replied.

Since then, it’s not just our alternative station playing it. Come to our neck of the woods and you can find Royals on our urban station, pop stations, rock stations and even our adult contemporary station. She’s managed to create what I call a ‘genre-neutral hit’.

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Off-Topic: Creative Bankruptcy

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There was a period in my life when drawing was a passion of mine. Armed with a piece of paper and a pencil, I would spend hours drawing assorted pieces. Then one day, I stopped. At a certain point, I could no longer find it in me to just let the pencil go where it needed to. Instead of a blank canvas being an opportunity to explore, it became an insurmountable obstacle. I haven’t drawn anything in earnest since.

There was also a period in my life where making hip-hop beats was a passion of mine. If you’ve ever listened to The Recurring Bosscast, then you’ve heard a few of the 100+ beats I created during my run. Though the process was never easy – especially since I was never formally trained in music – I honed my craft to the point where I was really proud of the jams I created. But just like my penchant for drawing, my ability to just go with it disappeared. Instead, I’d sit in front of FL Studio, making a lot of noise, while not piecing anything together to form a composition. I haven’t created any new music in years.

What happened?

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Check Out My Gaming Library

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Darkadia

For the past decade or so, I’ve maintained an Excel file that lists every video game I own. While it works fine for personal purposes, I’ve wanted to do more with it for a while now. Recently, through some quick Google searching, I found this cool site called Darkadia that provides a cool way to display my collection online while providing a number of practical ways to sort them.

If you’d like, head over to my Darkadia profile and check out the hundreds of games I own or have played throughout my lifetime. Over time, I’ll be fleshing it out with more games and more detailed entries. Besides this post, you’ll find a direct link to my profile right up on the main navigation.

I really like Darkadia so far. It was very quick to set up, has a lot of features I like and am looking forward to what’s on the road map for the future. At this point, the site is free, though a paid version with more features is on the way. I’d actually consider the paid version if the price is right for the upgrades. If you like what you see of mine, consider making your own through Darkadia!


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Fighting Game Knowledge And Paying It Forward

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One of the people I admire the most in the fighting game community is Ryan Gutierrez. Best known as Gootecks, he’s recognized as being a top Street Fighter III: Third Strike player, as well as a top Street Fighter IV player in the game’s early days. While he could have continued to pursue that path, he made a conscious decision to be a content creator with an eye on tutorials and advice for newcomers. Part of that decision probably was because he saw it as a more stable means of making an income from being a part of the FGC. However, he also recognized the importance of growing the community, which he’s most vocal about in the early days of his podcast. Without bringing new players into the scene, the FGC would have continued down the path of being a tiny niche market that was stuck playing the same old games for a decade. Without guys like Gootecks paying it foward, I may have missed out on some of the best and most rewarding times I’ve ever had playing video games.

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Off-Topic: From C to Shining C

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As I continue down the path of guitar proficiency, I still reflect heavily on that one fateful day over 20 years ago when my dad tried to teach me how to play. He sat me down with his full-sized acoustic, and asked me to play a C chord until I got a feel for it. On that day, I never did get that feel. Instead, I felt the pain of the strings slicing through my fingers, the pain of my hands contorting in an awkward manner, and the pain of my childhood dreams being crushed by the presumed reality that I’d never be good enough. Until Steff gave me the Rocksmith guitar bundle last year as a Christmas present, I hadn’t picked up a guitar in earnest since.

In the last few months, I’ve overcome the once insurmountable psychological hump I created for myself back then and am enjoying the instrument with the limited skills I currently have. I definitely see myself continuing to work at it from this day forward. However, I can’t help but think about how I could have grasped the concept of guitar playing back then had certain things been handled differently.

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Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess Review

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Having gone to two Video Games Live shows to date, I figured that my experience with The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess would be very similar to that. Despite both being orchestral shows, they’re very different in feel. In the case of the latter, having a narrower scope to work with definitely worked in its favour.

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Off-Topic: Being Past My Prime

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“I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” – Toby Keith

That guy on the left in the grainy screen grab is me, circa 2003. Back then, being the best baller I could be meant the world to me. I put in countless hours to make the best of my abilities, which I put to great use as a member of house leagues, school teams and on streetball courts around my city. Heck, I even took part in the And1 Mixtape Tour’s open run when they came to Toronto, where I got to play in front of thousands at the Air Canada Centre.

When I step on the court now, my mind still thinks that I’m 18 years old. However, I’m struggling to come to grips with the fact that my body clearly isn’t where it used to be.

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Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the Execution Barrier

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Though I don’t talk about it much on this blog, I am no slouch in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series. Having invested hundreds of hours into it, I wreak havoc online and it’s generally the game I do best at in tournaments. Say what I will about having the #1 ranked Rose in Canada on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network,  my best tournament placing to-date across any game is 25th in MvC 3 at T12; a point that arguably holds more weight in my fighting game resume.

Having said that, I have a glaring hole in my skill-set that keeps me from ascending to the upper echelon of players: my inability to land the biggest combos.

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