Because every guitar needs a Lambda symbol.
-Hey punks
-It’s time for a giveaway!!!
To celebrate the new animal crossing, and all my new followers, I’m having an Animal Crossing: New Leaf + Nintendo 3DS giveaway!!
So if you win, you’ll get a new unused copy of AC: New Leaf, and a brand new black nintendo 3DS!
Rules are as follow:
- Since it’s a giveaway for my followers, you must be following me.
- You may reblog as many times as you want, but don’t spam anyone, because that’s just rude.
- Likes don’t count
- Giveaway blogs are not allowed, sideblogs are fine, as long as you actually use them ^-^
- I’ll only pay for free shipping inside USA and Canada! Otherwise, i’m sorry, but you have to pay for shipping. It’s pretty expensive.
This giveaway will end June 15th!!
Good luck!
Sweet raw cover of KKK Hiway by Mu330 for your enjoyment.
Source: Bandcamp
This PS One sounds like a tiny motorcycle, how cute.
These were taken on Free Comic Book Day (May 4th 2013). It was one hectic day of work and with all the kids there to see Batman, it was downright crazy!
Small Things
Despite the days (or weeks, or months) when life just sours on you there are those moments that counteract all of them. Probably the best part for me is how small those moments can be yet they can destroy such a large weight on your heart.
What that moment is can vary and will likely never be the same even if the weight on your chest is the same; what helps one day may not be a comfort the next. I would without any doubt in my mind say that I am very cynical and very pessimistic, but even I can find appreciation in the ease of finding an anchor in your shaky life if you just open yourself up enough to see it.
Sometimes it is just the realization that you can make forward motion on your own if you just get up and try; other times it is the concern and caring heart of another that can drive you. If you’re anything like me sometimes it is pure stubbornness that makes you put your foot out the door and tell the world that it hasn’t won yet.
Whatever the case may be I cherish each of those moments and tuck them away as a memory for another day. A memory that will remind me that no matter what the situation that I should be doing what I love and I should love doing it even if it isn’t exactly what I had in mind. Better yet, I always will.
Nothing
Her hand slid through my hair on the back of my head, it was nice. Her hand was soft and the extra air through my thick hair was refreshing.
Smack! My forehead slammed into the wooden pole holding up the rope bridge on the playground equipment.
Unfortunately her hand was not on my head for comfort or because she liked me, she decided that she wanted to cause me physical pain. It was a pain which was no laughing matter as I began to see spots and wonder if I had blood dripping down my face or if that was just a tingle. My nerves were screaming so either one would be likely.
“You’re so gross!” She screamed as she crossed her arms and stomped away in a huff.
I hadn’t done anything wrong, in case you were wondering what vile thing I had said or done, at least I didn’t view it as wrong. All I did on that day was admit that I had feelings for her, feelings that I had kept inside for a long time. I personally would have loved to have someone say such nice things to me, especially since everyone actually seemed to hate me.
“Well, shit” I said; tears welling up in my eyes as I plopped down in the moist gravel surrounding the pole my head just left its mark on.
Maybe I had gone about it in the wrong way, I shouldn’t have payed so much attention to what happened in those movies. I knew reality was different yet I chose to ignore that for my own special moment. I had it all planned and it seemed so great; but it certainly wasn’t a moment to remember fondly.
I stared out at all the other people going about their lives completely unaware, or uncaring, that I was there in pain both physically and mentally. I looked down at my nice clothes, the ones I had picked out so meticulously to impress her, that were now covered in dirt and slightly wet.
“What is wrong with me?” I asked to no one but myself, even I refusing to answer for fear of it.
I stood up, it was time to just move on. The bell was about to ring and nothing was going to change just sitting in the dirt and stewing about it.
Nothing was going to change…
RetroActive Looks More Forward These Days
On a regular basis I re-evaluate what I am doing with RetroActive and what it means. Originally I just wanted to make a web show that talked about the old games I still played ridiculously regularly; having given up on modern gaming for the most part at that time. As time went on I wanted to talk about new games I found, technical aspects, history and anything else that tickled my fancy (I hope you got a good mental image of that).
But I soon began to not care about the show nearly as much and wanted to be a catalyst, an administrator or just a general behind the scenes guy; RetroActive, I wanted to be more of a banner. This never panned out at all, it didn’t work when I was working under someone and it didn’t work when I decided to start out on my own. There are a lot of reasons for this really, some of which are: internal politics, lack of interest from other people, lack of motivation from other people and then my eventual lack of motivation to try and drive others.
Probably the hardest thing to balance was between RetroActive as a video show and it as a blog site. I really enjoy writing but the problem with only writing or writing too much, I have no idea how to reach an audience with it. If I knew how to gain an audience with writing a new post every day or every few days; I would start right now. Most of my recent videos have had a very lengthy written portion which is why I have almost stopped doing on camera work; if I really want to I can write an eight minute video with just me talking into a microphone. When RetroActive got picked up by Blistered Thumbs/Channel Awesome/That Guy With The Glasses I almost immediately stopped writing and started getting busy on videos. But I’ve decided I need to write more again, I am more at ease when I do. This is why I am trying to rejuvenate this blog as well as writing a new article for imretroactive.com yesterday.
The last conundrum I have faced is talking about retro titles versus new titles; should I limit myself because I am under a banner that dates my topics or should I branch out? Well honestly I’ve decided to branch out, but to keep it light. I enjoy reviewing retro inspired indie titles as it allows for me to look at something fresh; so those won’t stop, they offer a good change of pace. But with modern games I know I can never compete with people who get advance copies of games and essentially treat the playing and reviewing of the game as a job. For one I like to play my games at a pace where I am always having fun and secondly the market is saturated with enough modern game reviewers anyway.
Do expect more articles where I casually talk about a modern game(s), like the newest one on the site, or special videos where I talk about something interesting about a specific series (HINT). I hope they will provide me a new outlet and keep interesting content coming.
-Kevin
Another Rainy Tuesday
You never really realize how easy it is to get stuck. Over the past several years I have had several motivators for my daily life all of which I have barely seen come to any fruition; it has gotten to the point that I am not sure what to do about it.
Everyday I wake up ready to start the day but unsure of what to do and how to begin. Sure, small things change as time goes on; lately I wake up and immediately text someone close to me. But the days roll on the same; I complain about work, I want to start on a new RetroActive video but have no inspiration, I look at my guitar and have no idea what I want to sing about and then I open up Steam and consider losing myself in a game for a few hours.
Some days I do have work and that takes a big chunk out of my day and though I am as of right now not happy with my “day job” I can’t say I always mind having the day decided for me. Sometimes I am just glad to have the distraction of the busy mall and annoying SoCo trash.
But that is the thing, I’m not happy with that either. Constantly fighting for hours for minimal pay in two locations is hardly what I want out of life at 26. I have the unique privilege though of working around things that interest me; video games, music, geek culture, movies and the like; which helps keep things rolling off my back. I honestly can’t imagine how much worse I would feel if I had to wake up on my Saturday and drive to McDonalds to start my work day. I’m not knocking anyone who does this, some people really like not caring about their job and having the freedom to shrug it off, I personally just can’t handle that type of day.
RetroActive started several years ago as an escape for another unhappiness, my education. I was attending my second college where I felt like my education had failed me. I had previously dealt with a percussion instructor who wanted nothing more than to belittle every single student he had and now I was dealing with one who was drunk all day and controlling in all the wrong areas. There was nothing more discouraging than trying to explain that you want to attend a school on the coast and concentrate on world percussion while your teacher tunes you out, hands you another Marimba solo and explains why he doesn’t care while smelling of whisky.
RetroActive still to this day has been that release for me but due to so many years of hard work that was only swallowed up by drama, I slowly find myself needing more and more “right moment, right time” luck to even begin writing out a new episode. Then when I finish I am rarely super excited about what I created. I always have in the back in my mind that if I could concentrate on the show full time it would be much more enjoyable, the rest of the stress around it would be lifted since I would no longer juggle it. But $20 an episode (if I am really lucky) hardly makes that a reachable dream; an unfortunate reality I have seen for years.
I once wrote a song called Music is my best friend but it has been no friend to me,which sums up how I feel about playing music and have felt for years now. I have all but given up on world percussion, my custom and expensive Riq sits on a shelf collecting dust. I tried to get back into it a year ago and wrote out some lessons, deciding that would be a fun route, and that just fizzled away with other projects. Writing the songs I play on my guitar is still always so fun when I get it done but I am constantly plagued by a writers block, no idea what to say with my music anymore. When I do have something to say I can never get the chords to lay out right.
Bands have always been the buffer for me between the two worlds of serious classical/world percussion and writing my own music that has so much of me in it. I almost always play drums (because practiced drummers who want to play in a punk band are as rare as a launch Xbox 360 that hasn’t gotten the RROD) and while I’ve been wanting to be a front man for years, it is always a nice release anyway. I really don’t have much to complain about here, except I envy bands and people who are able to work together regularly and without drama. Cherish that as long as you possibly can!
So here I am again on a Tuesday afternoon before another night at work, listening to it rain and unsure of why I decided to ever write this super long post (a very TL;DR worthy post). It feels good to rant I suppose but nothing is solved and the day moves on just as it has for a long time; too long.
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I'm a musician, a video game enthusiast and just a rather opinionated person with a lack of direction. Here are my thoughts on those things and much more.
