Looking forward to going back into the past

Another year comes to an end! I just realized that the website will soon reach 2 years old as well as the Youtube channel I made to support it. Naturally I find myself in a strange situation I never intended to be in; and that’s living the idiom of “tail wagging the dog”.

When I began this whole crazy experiment back in January of 2017, I had envisioned that I would update the website with a lot of content followed by support videos on Youtube to help drive traffic over. My previous update in November was a perfect example of what I had originally wanted to do, but the “bug” of views and likes made me skip the middle man and just post directly to Youtube.

I realized that I’ve messed up; and I now need to start focusing on getting the site back on track moving forward with 2019 and beyond. I haven’t figured out the proper way of approaching it yet, but I know for sure I’m going to be adding a lot of stuff not listed on the main channel to the site. It’s a start; and I think I will post “major” videos on Youtube if I feel it needs the exposure, or is talking about something so obscure it’s easier for those who want to spread the word to just see it directly. I need to make BoxInACorner an interesting place to visit, and not supplementary material as it stands now.

This goes onto my next subject; and that is diversifying what the site is all about. I had originally intended to talk about a wide array of interests that I had and go into the more esoteric corners of the internet. For whatever reason I forgot this, and it shows looking back at the all the updates I’ve posted in the previous years. It’s not completely ruled by gaming, but it’s certainly heavy leaning towards. I never did talk about a single interesting technology item I bought, never did talk about a single paranormal experience I had, nor mention anything even remotely personal or “rant” like. Maybe that last one doesn’t need to be there ever; but it’s still confusing (to myself) why those topics never seem to come up when I wanted to post something. That changes with 2019 going forward, and I hope the very few people that actually check out this site, as well as future folks who come here can appreciate the new direction going forward. I’m not abandoning gaming at all, however it’s just not going to be constantly about it as it appears to be now.

Speaking of gaming, I find myself more and more playing games of yesteryear than I do of modern ones. I find myself oddly loading up games that ran on Windows 95 machines and the original PlayStation. I also use my “gaming” PC simply for editing videos and watching documentaries. I find myself “progressively regressing” in that I find interest, comfort, and peace with playing the stuff already out rather than looking forward to things not yet existing. Save for a few ground breaking titles such as CyberPunk 2077 and (in my humble opinion) Stella Maiden on Android - there’s nothing that strikes me as interesting coming out soon. It’s a struggle to find something on a personal level that appeals to me. I think this is what stunted the content I wanted to put out for for the previous 2 years; always hoping to run into the gems and talking about them like Yakuza (series), Planet Master, Dungeon Maker, Fight’nRage and Destiny Child (which is now in English albeit censored to hell and back - play the Korean version!). I’m going to start making an attempt in the future to just play games (no matter how old they are) and sharing my experience with others. I did a video hardly anyone ever watched about Cybernator on the Snes a while back; and that was exactly something I need to load up again alongside older games on other platforms. It’s time to drop the insecurity of “the new” and just embrace what’s good and fun.

Some of you may have watched in abject terror back in May when I did a play through of Yakuza 6 and you saw my face. This was the last time I was “on screen” and showed myself. It was at the very end of my “cut” phase of leaning down since 2012. A lot physically has happened since then; in that I have done every thing possible in my power to reach a personal goal I set out years ago.

I’ve always been a small guy most of my life - about 5’6” and 140lbs. Back in 2012 I had reached a weight of 160lbs while having (which I can only presume) a body fat % of 20. Things needed to change, and I had sworn to myself that not only was I going to drop the excess weight, but I needed to get physically fit in the process. I had made the grievous mistake back in high school that cardio was king, and that running and dieting right would lead me to be healthy looking and overall fit. What it ended up doing was making me “skinny fat” and barely able to lift a 15lbs dumbbell. So let’s just say I have tried to deprogram myself from the stupidity programmed into me from my old Cross Country coach and have really gotten into strength and conditioning training. Finally at the end of 2018 I can stop loosing weight and start putting it back on.

So what does this have to do with anything related to the site? I’ve been dog tired to the point of sitting down at a keyboard makes my teeth sore. It’s also the reason why content on the site has been slower going and something I need to work on balancing with my fitness goals. If I’m too tired to even enjoy updating the website, that’s something that needs to be addressed. I find Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi work to be the most helpful for everyone in any walk of life to follow in terms of productivity. You can read more about it (abstract) here or clicking the picture below. You can also watch this funny video clip because it’s what I’ve been essentially looking like for the last 6 months (until I fixed my form and stopped being a moron). You should also watch this clip for those serious about getting back in shape.

For those not in the know or have no idea whom I’m speaking of, my wife does stream (intermittently) over at Twitch.tv

Here’s a small clip of her recently (not terribly exciting stuff).

In a nutshell Clover has been going through the same existential crisis (link to a YouTuber perspective) I have been going through in terms of gaming and personal health. For her in particular it’s more related to mental than physical. After taking it easy in the last 2 months after finishing up her 100 days of consecutive streaming - Clover has come to the (tentative) conclusion that moving forward she needs to re-evaluate her time in front of the computer. I won’t say more than that cause it will better if she gave the words directly from her mouth. I will say however that 2019 will see a happier, more dynamic Clover when she actually decides to come onto the stream; cause it will be coming from a place of pure interest rather than obligation as it has been.

Finally let’s close out 2018 with a huge thank you to all of the kind followers over on the YouTube channel as well as the followers / subscribers on Twitch. You guys keep us going, and I can’t stress the important of a simple thank you sent our way once in a while. We promise to finally update the “About us” page in 2019 with full body photos. I need to get SWOLE quick and Clover needs that School Girl Outfit purchased. We’ll see you in 2019!

It's a Red Dead Horizon Where The Soul Still Burns

One of the biggest gaming launches in recent years is upon the masses in the form of Red Dead Redemption 2. Being released on October 26 2018; fans of open world games like GTA or the previous installment will be in for hours upon hours of a gaming goodness. Oddly enough; RDR2 is being released right before Halloween week and will be a mainstream AAA title that isn’t focused on the “spooby” side of things for once. If you’ve been living under a rock (or just really haven’t been keeping up with gaming news); you can check out the press on RDR2 here or click on the spiffy image below. (It’s an age gated site - just enter something to show you still live with your parents but are attaining higher education!)

Dungeon Maker fans - I am still alive and kicking. As a matter of fact; I’m still answering questions about the game in the YouTube comments section. As a reminder (and a notice) for fans of the game who happen to stumble upon this website; I’m taking a break from it simply because I’m waiting for things to “settle” down. What I mean by this is that I never expected GameCoaster (the developer) to support the game so much post launch in the form of content updates as well as balance patches. It’s the balance patches that are really throwing me off; since making any detailed guide that isn’t overly generic will be “patched out” eventually and essentially a waste of time. If the developers can slow down a bit and give us an official word that they will solely working on additional cosmetic and bug fixes only for a while; I’ll get back on the horse (ha!) and start making detailed guides again. I want to make sure my advice stays around for a long time similar to my initial ones; and I can only do that with a relatively stable meta than what it is now. As always however; if you have questions - just send me a message on YT (or even here if you’re brave enough) and I’ll get back to you on it. However; with the English Reddit / TouchArcade forums and now a Discord server for the game with active communities - I doubt anyone really cares what this old man has to say anymore.

Yet more gaming news; THE SOUL STILL BURNS in Soul Calibur VI. Fans of the series have long awaiting its return after the ill fated (and somewhat imbalanced) Soul Calibur V. So far impressions of the game have been favorable and a lot of people in the SC community are looking toward a well received game that will rejuvenate the franchise and bring in more new blood. As someone who admittedly has never played a SC since SC II and has been a bench watcher - I’ll continue my ultimate scrub status by watching way better people kick in ass in the game in the form of tournaments. If you have a competitive streak about you and like fighting games; I highly suggest you check it out.

Let’s move away from games and walk on the more obscure side of life. I never heard of a “McMansion” before 2 weeks ago. Apparently it’s a thing; and apparently someone who makes fun of such things is really good at it. I mean really, really good at it. Who I’m talking about is Kate Wagner who runs McMansionHell.com and is an absolutely fun afternoon read if you’re as new to it as I am (or was). I would try and describe my fascination with the entire thing, but it’s best to see with your own eyes what I’m talking about by visiting the site directly and giving Kate the praise she deserves for bringing the world attention to this. I won’t look at those overpriced homes driving from the 99 cent store the same way ever again; hopefully you won’t either. Click the link below for a TED talks with Kate.

That’s it for the October update folks. We’ll see you next month when everyone is getting ready to get lbs heavier in the stomach and 2 lbs lighter loosing all their teeth fighting in Black Friday!

Yakuza, Giant Boobs, And 100 Days of Streaming

It's been a long streak of hot summer days here at the o'l BoxInACorner tree house. Time to get you lovely folks updated with what's been going on with us and some information you may find interesting. Let's get started with my most beloved gaming series that ironically brings in the least amount of attention - Yakuza.

For those very, very few brave souls that followed me on Youtube for my Yakuza play-throughs - let me say from the bottom of my soul; thank you. Yakuza has always been a labor of love due to the sheer lack of popularity it warrants for me and it saddens me to say that I won't be doing a series on the upcoming Yakuza Kiwami 2. As a tremendous fan of this particular genre of game, the play-through I did of Yakuza 6 brought me in an "astounding" 100ish views in its entirety. That was a lot of hours setting up the stream, making sure I don't look like a doughnut on camera and uploading the videos while making sure they processed correctly. I think the populace has spoken and I will gracefully back away from uploading my play-through and focusing more of being a fan and just enjoying the game in private. Yakuza Kiwami 2 will be released world wide at the end of August - specifically the 28th - so if you're remotely curious about the series (and I believe you should be), please check it out. It's available on PS4 only.

Moving onto more private and public information at the same time, Clover will be undergoing additional surgery on her "girls" the 2nd week of September. If you haven't read the first blog on the issue; you can do so for old time's sake clicking here. Recovery time will vary, but the last time she did this she was out for 2 weeks. We're hoping with newly acquired knowledge on how the process goes as well as industrial strength painkillers - she'll be able to make a quicker recovery and be back to streaming.

Speaking of streaming - Clover has reached her 20th day of continuous streaming on Twitch and will try to keep up the schedule until she reaches 100 days. The reasons she's doing this is purely experimental; as the common advice on growing an audience has been consistency rather than quality on Twitch. So someone streaming themselves taking out the trash would be more popular than someone who streams absolutely fantastic content once a month. At least that's what we've been told - and thus our testing of the theory! If you want us to keep on trucking with our content on all platforms; please stop by and say hi and an encouraging word. Without verbal support we don't know if we're even remotely reaching out to anyone. Subbing to Clover on Twitch will always be a huge bonus, but never necessary.

Finally onto stuff outside the realm of games and streams - I've recently picked up a YouTube series that I personally found fascinating. It's on the history (and failures) of theme parks. It's called "Defunctland" and you can watch it by clicking the logo below.

The amount of passion, effort and content of the series reminds me how long I have to go to make any worthwhile interesting on my YouTube channel. I hope to one day break away from the gaming related stuff and do more topical things; but I'm going to need a subject I'm passionate about to talk on - and a co-host to bounce ideas off of. Both hard things to get, but I can always dream!  In any case, I hope you guys find the content interesting as much as I did.

Dog Days Of Summer Are Here

Not going to lie folks - it's been slow around here. Really slow. So much in fact that I've been desperately going outside my comfort zones to find anything to play to pass the time. Here is what I've gathered so far that's worth a look in the near future however.

Shining Resonance Refrain is getting a release date on multiple platforms on July 10. It's a remaster of the PS3 version with all the DLC added and some other bonus stuff added in.

For the really niche folks out there that like games in the 5% category, there's also a classic dungeon crawler called The Lost Child which is even releasing earlier on PS4 / Nintendo Switch on June 19th 2018.

Moving onto other news; Clover is going back on her own vow never to attend another Anime Expo after last year and is going again to Anime Expo 2018.

For those who don't know the story, Clover attended last year for a single day to go to a concert but had to wait in line for a total of 7 hours (5 for her pass and another 2 waiting to get into her concert). It became a popular meme called "line-con" and you can read about the horror of other folks that were there here.

Because of last year's fiasco, management at Anime Expo this year have decided to upgrade to RFID chips to help accelerate the process of checking people in and out, as well as mailing out most attendee badges. However, this will not address the obvious problem of sheer attendee numbers in the area; as well as people visiting from abroad.

Los Angeles is one crowded ass place. No matter of technology is going to remove the sheer amount of human flesh that will be attending the con. For those of you from different countries or aren't aware of the density of people in the region; let me give you some humbling statistics.

California's Population in 2018 = 39,776,830

Canada's Population in 2018 = 36,927,520

Los Angeles Population in 2018 = 3,976,322

Our state has more human beings that the entire country of Canada; our neighbors to the north. Los Angeles has about 10% of the entire state's population (or if you prefer more than 10% of Canada's population) within a radius of 503 square miles. Keep in mind these statistics that you see above are hopelessly outdated and do not count a lot of non-documented residents that didn't participate in any census (residents for California and Los Angeles).

Let's just say we all hope Clover the best this year in attending, and hopefully she won't have another waiting in line somewhere story.

Finally I want to say that Okami HD streaming may or may not continue depending on Clover. If it dies, it will be added to the pile of games lost in streaming limbo - but at least it's not as bad as Final Fantasy X. Hopefully next month we'll have more interesting news; see you then! Here's a chicken girl eating corn for no reason. (If anyone knows who the artist is please let me know!)