#get acquainted

[depsidase]

[charincharge]

Can you recommend me some rowaelin fanfiction that you like? Other than your own

Oh gosh. There’s so much good Rowaelin fic. I would honestly just go through the master lists of these authors. I pretty much inject everything they write into my eyeballs.

@shyvioletcat

@westofmoon

@noodlecatposts

@highqueenofelfhame

@starseternalnighttriumphant

And if you haven’t started reading @cicada-bones RPOV of Heir of Fire called The Warrior and the Embers, you absolutely MUST.

If you’re looking for some great one shots, @louiseleblancdiggory has a BUNCH.

I’m sure there are more great Rowaelin writers out there, but those are the ones that immediately spring to mind.

[sek0st]

Mexico with the fishing & the thick highway from south America.. Warcraft 3 seems like the new duel guys.

[chlorophyll--a]

everybody hates accountability

that’s my best friend

[ivanbiba]

My Facebook page

Let's subscribe, comment, , discuss!

[aurimeanswind]

New Show, New Deal—Sunday Chats—3/11/18

Something-something-Amber is the Color of Our Energy.

It’s been a long week. Let’s chat.

Work/Life/Balance

Now that I have officially started my first full time job (a day job, separate from all the other things I do, don’t worry) it’s been a lesson in living this last week. A hard lesson. I have a lot to learn as far as work/life balance is concerned, but not only that, games, media, friends, and all that lies between.

It’s odd, because I think my momentum is building, right? It always feels like that when we lead up to a big event, for me, PAX East. For those who dont’ know, PAX East is my E3, as someone who has never been to E3. I plan private dinners, meetings, interviews, get to see a ton of people, and it’s the only event I annual get to spend time in as press, and it’s an opportunity I don’t take lightly. I wouldn’t know the people I do or be in the position I am now without PAX East.

So that’s a level of good, notable stress on the shoulders, on top of working a ton, and being exhausted, and my continuous inability to sleep. It’s all a mess, but it’s an exciting time, like I said, momentum building. It’s the most careful I can be about an update in my life. Laying in my bed Friday night I legitimately considered ending the podcast, shutting down IrrationalPassions.com, and calling it a day. Hang up my keyboard and quit on a dream that seems ever-more impossible to achieve.

I didn’t. But that gives you an idea of the stress and fear I live with everyday, haha. I don’t say this to scare you, reader, I give you this to let you know it’s all around. You and I, if you fall in this camp, both have been there. And for now I persevere, and I hope you do too.

I have so much exciting work to do, regardless. 

Tomorrow, at 9am Eastern Daylight Time, Get Acquainted launches into the world with it’s first episode.

I’m terrified, obviously. But excited too! Go subscribe on iTunes (and now Google Play too!) and that way it’ll push to your device automatically when it launches tomorrow morning.

It’s a bit rough, I have a lot to learn and grow, but my first guest was amazing and a great sport. 

Now, onto the business...

What’s On Tap

Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition

I talked about this on the podcast last night but for 15 dollars its a cool expansion wrapped up here.

Basically all of the second half of Chapter 14 has completely changed, creating a new dungeon, tons of new bosses, and adding a bunch of new cutscenes. 

It gives some new closure with some other characters, and is a really enjoyable new part of that game. It’s cool post-post game content, and they added Omega Weapon! Any Weapon-based bosses are my jam, so that got me excited.

Overwatch

Long story short, I got back into Overwatch, and that game is still great.

All the changes to Mercy have made me a worse Mercy player and that bums me out.

Yakuza 6

So much to say about this game. Check back with me on Friday for my full thoughts.

I’m having a very enjoyable time, in short.

Questions

If you want to ask me a question (for whatever reason) and be a part of Sunday Chats, look for my tweet every (or most every) Sunday afternoons with the hashtag #SundayChats in it. Respond with your question, and then we get busy. That’s it!

Well, I mean this question itself goes some places. But It’s hard to think of the best question I’ve ever been asked. I feel like I don’t casually get asked a lot of questions, it’s always in a formal interview setting or Sunday Chats, which is in itself formal in its own right, and those kind of more invasive or off hand or casual questions can tend to be the most memorable or the “best”.

But my friend Jono asked me very good question at the end of his interview with me, he asked me “what would you do if you knew you could not fail”. 

Currently, I think my answer would be the same. Go listen to Episode 44 of Puttin’ in Work for that full answer, and that very good conversation too. 

Honestly, and I know this is silly, but Pirates of the Caribbean. I feel like there was so much potential there. I’d love to see the two Davy Jones movies explored in that space! And that part of that game was lauded for its graphics and what it did. So I’d love to see them go back and really stylize the hell out of it.

But like, let’s be real just give me Frozen.

It seems like they are focusing on new worlds in Kingdom Hearts 3, which they should, and obviously Olympus needs to come back, but they’re actually doing the story of that Disney movie now, finally, so I’m down regardless. Fighting off the Titans attacking Mount Olympus is really cool.

I really don’t know. I’m definitely down for that game and I’m looking forward to playing it, but I’m really worried about how long I am gonna play it, who I’ll have to play it with (outside of you Nato, of course) and what I’ll have to do in that game. 

So I’m looking forward to discovery what there is to do and see in that world. And honestly finally sitting down with a crew of four to play that game with.

Honestly, I don’t have one. I just looked up music albums fro 1993, and really nothing stands out to me. Obviously some artists do, but I barely listen to music before the year 2000.

Because I’m a lame millennial.

Sorry guys.

A very long list, obviously.

Honestly like, the thing I look forward to the most is the work. I love it. It’s a place i get to go and work and live my dream. For real. I get to meet developers, do interviews, write previews, network, party. It’s been even better since I’ve been taking a team there. 

Past that, just seeing friends and meeting people I admire. Like, Greg Miller is a good friend, honestly, but I barely get to see him every year, so that’s always a bit thing. My writing team? Same thing, they’re all really close friends who I talk to all the time, and I barely get to see them in a year. Not that that bothers me too much because I barely leave my house as is, but it’s still something I look forward to.

I really hope they figure out FF15 on Switch, I think that’d be dope. Even if it ends up being Pocket Edition. If it isn't? Probably not.

But Noctis in Smash Bros?

God willing.

Please.

Lord.

Two months, tops.

But Gus would have to enjoy the company of another living cat ever in his life even once for that to happen.

Hrm. 

An existential question and I don’t get many on Sunday Chats. 

I’d say at least 50%. I refuse to believe more than half of the 7 billion people are inherently “bad”. I’m not so ignorant to say that there is no “evil” or “bad” people. I think it manifests itself in subtle ways that just slowly corrupt your character. I’d say 70-80%, which I know is a bit margin. A margin of 700 million people, to be exact. But I think the trouble is the people who in some way aren’t good are more easily going to step on the folks that are. Because inherently the people who are good would rather give them the benefit of the doubt. And then they acrew power, and they play games like politics because it strokes that ego, that desire to rule, and then the folk farming, taking out garbage, and cleaning homes are the truly good people, happily filling in the gaps of our world, and the assholes are running the hotels, owning the companies, and, in our case, running our country. 

Some people would call it a food chain, others bullshit. I’d just say the good people of the world do trust each other, and they work together, and that’s something the shitty ones just don’t do I don’t think. Not really.

I know that all sounds super fantastical, but it’s my childish analogy that holds my worldview together. So, say what you will.

I’ll say this: I’d rather give someone the benefit of the doubt, a second change, and be wrong about them every single time then not give them that chance once and be wrong to do so. 

Doesn’t mean I can’t burn bridges. Doesn’t mean I don’t learn from my mistakes. Lord knows I hope I do, but everyone deserves at least one second chance.

Except our current president.

Fuck that guy.

Dude Jimmy Johns is a notional chain. Just because they aren’t in San Diego doesn’t mean they don’t exist!

It’s fine. It’s a decent sandwich shop, all cold cuts, that’s very fast, and pretty reasonably priced. 

Plus you can get their bread for 25c a loaf for day old, 50c for same day. It’s dope.

You’re Pole Dancing my man. I’m sure there are some good first-time tip videos on YouTube though!

Tomorrow. 9am. Give it a listen.

Oh and please go buy a shirt to Irrational Passions OTHER awesome new podcast called Input!

It’s our first IP Shirt in a long time!

https://teespring.com/official-input-tee#pid=369&cid=6565&sid=front

It supports our other new show and it’s awesome. I don’t try and sell things often, IP is still 100% free and so is Input, and buying this show directly supports the creators of Input. I’d appreciate you a ton of you bought it. 

That’s all I’ve got.

Thank you, as always, for reading. Always.

Do me a favor. Play some games. Keep enjoying what you have in life. And keep it real.

[aurimeanswind]

Get Acquainted—Sunday Chats—3/4/18

So I will be talking about this a lot over the next few days, but I have a brand new podcast that I want you all to check out.

Get Acquainted, with Alex O’Neill

My new show is called Get Acquainted, and it’s a one on one interview show. And I know. I get it. Everyone has one nowadays, but I’ve been working on this for a while, and I’m really excited about the conversations I’m going to have on it.

First and foremost, you can go subscribe to this show right now. It’s on iTunes and everyone, with just a little preview episode available to get you subscribed and ready for my first episode, next week.

You also get to hear the amazing music made just for this show by my friend Micah E. Wood, who you can go listen to more of his music on iTunes and Spotify as well! 

iTunes Link

If you can rate or review this while it’s just launching, that would be immensely helpful. My first guest is Andrea Rene and her episode will be releasing next week. This is going to be a monthly show with different guests on each podcast, and the format will evolve and change over time. 

I’m really excited to finally launch this show, and I hope you all like it!

Honestly that’s the big news I wanted to get out, so let’s go right to questions.

You can send your questions @ me when you see my tweet on Sunday afternoons with the hashtag #SundayChats in it!

I mean the big one is Grand Theft Auto. I’ve played 2, 4, and 5, and I think all of them are like, fine. This infatuation with GTA V is so beyond me. I hate to sound so stuck up, but it’s a series I’ve just never had much patience for. There is supreme quality and technical design there, but none of the entries have stuck with me. That being said, all of the more seminal ones (Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA 3) I haven’t played, so I could be missing a lot of the core of that series. 

I’ve also, and this is me just really thinking about it for a moment, but I’ve never really loved the Battlefield series? By which I mostly mean the “modern” Battlefield games. I loved the original, 1942 was the first FPS I ever played, and it is super special to me. I enjoyed 1943, but most of all I adored Bad Company 2. I like the original, but BC2 is where it’s at. But Battlefield 3/4 and most recently 1, all haven’t really done much for me .I’ve bounced off of all of them, but the idea of another WW2 Battlefield game, which is rumored to be this year’s, actually has me excited. If they can get 1942 vibes again.

I mean Max Scoville once gave me pogs out of his pockets. But I dunno, they’re just bits of cardboard really, right?

So porgs. I liked the porgs. As someone who didn’t love everything about The Last Jedi, I liked porgs a whole lot.

Absolutely. There are multiple pieces that I’ve gone back to and completely rewritten. In fact most of them still aren’t published because I’d probably rewrite most of them again if given the chance. Hell I’ve written something on Persona 4 Golden about six times.

Which I think is similar to the situation you’re in, right? As Night in the Woods is your favorite game Steven, I feel you when I channel that to write about mine, Persona 4. 

But a project that’s special to you should take time. Sometimes the ideas come and go and you feel good about them, but you don’t want to rush something you feel you only have one crack at. Get Acquainted is a show I have had rummaging around for two full years, and I’m finally in a place where I feel I can do it. So take your time.

This is tricky. It’s different for different things. I mean if it was numbers and clicks and views, i’d have quit this gig a long time ago haha. I think projects where I can see my own personal growth in them, like the run of five episodes for the latest Alex Talks. I can see the change from the first to the last as far as editing ability and my hosting capability. So I take that as a success. 

Plus a lot of people had very kind things to say about that series, and that makes me feel really good. 

I think it’s a combination of all of the above. Ultimately if you’re really proud of a thing and think it’s genuinely cool, even if no one sees or hears it, it’s a quality thing you made. Then, when you’re applying for jobs and trying to show the work you’ve made, you can send them a link to whatever that thing is, and you know exactly the right people have seen and appreciated it. If it’s worth sharing it’ll get its use in its own ways, in my experience.

I mean, I think in a perfect world that is what Patreon was for. But then it blew up, and why wouldn’t it, since it’s such a strong idea and works so well for creators. But I feel like also those huge creators make it harder for those smaller ones to thrive on that service. Like the notion that has been going around a lot: is Patreon just a small pool of contributors or is it still brining new people to its service? I don’t know, but it seems like there isn’t enough love to go around.

I want smaller creators to be able to thrive on Patreon, and hopefully they find their audiences grow on that service.

Pretty stoked. New show launching, PAX East is going to be huge for us, and I’m reviewing Yakuza 6.

Get ready.

I’ve been seeing them! Folks can check them out here:

I’d probably take Anna Kendrick, because she seems like she’d be down, and I’m in love with her.

Oh god yes. Feed me your Kingdom Hearts questions.

My favorite world is tricky, but it may be something like The Land of Dragons from KH2. But honestly so many playthroughs later of KH2 I don’t love any of it’s worlds really, save for The World That Never Was. KH1 had really good, big worlds with tons of exploration, but the platforming was so all over the place in that game that getting around them was a bit nightmarish.

Haha I guess I am just jaded on KH worlds after playing through them so much. Space Paranoids.

I don’t love many of the Disney key blades, but I love the Ultima Weapon in KH2, it looks excellent, and I’ve always been a huge fan of Oathkeeper. I love it’s look and what i represents. Of course if you were to ask any of my KH brethren, it’d be Oblivion, hands down, and I like that one quite a bit.

Honestly, Chain of Memories has one of the absolute best stories in that entire franchise. I wish you didn’t have to get through a really poor card game to get to it.

But I love the story of KH2 the most. Especially the ending. Birth by Sleep is a close third of those two though. 

World Specific I love the Peter Pan one from KH1, and I really like Hunchback of Notre Dame in KH3D.

I like order of release over chronological order. Honestly I don’t know why it’s such a big argument. I think feeling those games evolve is just such a treat, all the way from the first to 0.2, it’s such a great feeling of how those games changed.

Plus, some things are supposed to be told out of order? Stories have prequels come out in the middle to freshen things for a later context. I always think of Metal Gear Solid 3. Enriches that story so much, but you should play that game first. 

Anyway. Yes I need yours. See tweets for details.

I’m really excited about this new show, and I know this may seem like a bit of an unceremonious announcement, but I’ve been stressing about this for so long I just need to get it out there.

Go subscribe to Get Acquainted, and tune in next week for the first official episode!

Cheers! Keep it real!

[shelistic-blog]

Only you have control over one person and that is you. It is guaranteed that one person in this world will love you and that is you. Don't seek validation from others.