Mashing buttons since 1984
Everyone’s favorite gaming-grandma, Old Grandma Hardcore, was on the first page of the Life section in Thursday’s Columbus Dispatch (registration might be required). It’s a fun read if you’ve never heard of OGHC, but if you have, it’s good to see that Grandma is still gaming like a champ.
Rock on, Grandma.
Today is not my unbirthday. So I’ll be celebrating it by not posting much today. Too busy not uncelebrating.
I know it’s short notice, but if you’re interested in participating in February’s Carnival of Gamers, get your submissions in right away. It’s less than a week away. If you’ve already submitted, you’re golden, as they’ve been received and forwarded to the Carnival host. If not, send it in!
Jason of jason-preston.com has volunteered to host the Carnival on short notice. Big thanks to everyone who agreed, it was nice to see everyone so willing to help out. We’ll be filling out some of the other spots for the future with some new bloggers, which I’m excited about. I’ll be updating the Carnival page soon.
Come and join the Carnival!
Blogging has been and will be light around these parts the next couple days, as tonight is the BCS National Championship game between my Ohio State Buckeyes and the Florida Gators. I’ll be blogging the highlights of the game at my OSU site, Men of the Scarlet and Gray (there’s an Open Thread at the site, all about the game, if you’re interested).
I’m super excited about the game, so gaming will be minimal until the euphoria (or heaven forbid, depression) after the game has worn off. Once I come down from the high of victory, we’ll resume the video game blogging as normal. I’ve got plans to revisit some of the DS games I’ve neglected (Contact, EBA, NSMB) along with my Christmas haul. I’ll also have site and Carnival updates. And a TV update, as well.
Speaking of TV, I can’t tell you how excited I am about seeing the Championship Game in HD. Fox seems to be doing a great job of sports in HD so I’m assuming this will be no different. It’s hard to watch programming now that isn’t in HD. That may sound like HD-snobbery (which it is) but I can’t believe the difference it makes. I think my buddy explained it best when he compared it to how our parents must have felt when they went from black and white to color TVs in their day. It’s that dramatic.
Update
Yeah, we lost. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, I’m over it.
I’m ready to get back to gaming.
I know this is no way to start off the new year, but with my busy holiday schedule, I never lined up a January host. So the Carnival will be taking a break this month. If you’ve previously volunteered to host a carnival, I’ll be contacting with you shortly. If you’re interested in hosting a carnival, drop me a line. You can use the Contact page to do so.
Keep an eye on the Carnival HQ page for updated information.
I love blog-memes, even though they’re almost universally hated. I’ve been tagged by Michael with one, asking for “Five Things” you probably don’t know about me. This was actually harder than it would seem. I’m a pretty reserved guy and don’t really talk much about myself. Anyway, on with the self-deprecation:
1. I cried during Schindler’s List. I can count the number of times I’ve cried in the past 15 years on one hand. I’m not a very emotional guy, especially about something like a movie, but Schindler’s List struck me to the core. I was 18 at the time and it really moved me.
2. I still collect baseball (and football and basketball) cards. I used to collect cards as a kid and I never really stopped. I have thousands of them. I’m not as dedicated as I used to be, but any time I’m at the grocery store and there’s a box of cards in the rack of my aisle, I’ll grab a couple packs and throw them in the cart.
3. I’m a huge Erasure fan. I like all sorts of music, but there’s something about synthesized Euro-pop that does it for me. My wife calls it “girlie music.” So be it. “Chains of Love” is secretly one of my favorite songs.
4. I once ate 28 cups of yogurt in less than an hour. When I was living in Spain, we had contest we called “the Yogurt Challenge.” You had to eat 24 cups of yogurt in 45 minutes without, uhm, visiting the bathroom, for another 15. I did all 24 of my yogurts, plus 4 that my buddy couldn’t finish. I held it down, too. I couldn’t eat yogurt for months, but I had the Yogurt Challenge record. Kobayashi has nothing on me!
5. I’m afraid of needles. Yep, I’m the big tough guy who is afraid of an itty-bitty prick. I hate getting shots and hate having my blood drawn even more. Thing is, I have to watch it go in. I can’t help myself. I can’t look away. I have to see it happen even though I’m dreading it the whole time. I can’t take it.
So that’s a little about me. That was actually a lot of fun. And now the best part, I get to tag a few people. I’m tagging the Monkey, Nat, Josh and Brinstar. You know, if you guys don’t hate blog memes and stuff.
If you’re a sports fan (more specifically a college football fan), you’re aware of a little game this weekend (just look at the countdown in the middle of this page. It’s been there for over a month.). That’s right, the Ohio State versus Michigan game is HUGE. HUGE is actually the understatement of the century. This game is going to be HUGER than HUGE. It’s something that’s never happened — an undefeated Ohio State team ranked #1 in the country playing an undefeated Michigan team ranked #2. It’s basically a mini-National Championship, a prelude to the BCS Title game in Glendale.
So I’ll be busy this week blogging at my other site, Men of the Scarlet and Gray. We’ve got a lot of content this week that will be taking up my time. We’ll also be participating in CSTV.com’s Battle of the Blogs. Our piece will be up on Thursday.
So I’ll try to keep the posting here, too, but it may be too much. This week is just chock-full of stuff going on. The game on Saturday, the release of the Wii six hours later and this football geek’s head is going to explode. It’s gonna be sweet.
I’ve got some Carnival updates coming soon, too. Unfortunately our December host dropped out but Michael at MMOGNation (Zonk from Slashdot Games) has agreed to take over the hosting duties for December. You can get your submissions in whenever you’re ready. I’ve updated the Carnival HQ page to reflect the changes.
So I’m excited about this week. I’m excited about the Wii. I’m excited about “The Game.” It’s Ohio State/Michigan. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.
And if you’re wondering, I don’t really care much about the state of Michigan.
In lieu of new content, I’m going to post my to-do list here, so each time I see this post I’ll be motivated to actually produce something more than three word sentences about zombies. I actually have a lot of “stubs” for posts, in draft form, that I will be finishing. They’re little snippets and ideas about things that are interesting me at the moment. I wish I had more time to work on them, but I have been busy with Real Life©, my new 360 and other blogging endeavors that require a lot of my Buttonmashing time. But I don’t want to neglect my readers, so this is a little teaser of things to come.
So yeah, that’s a lot of stuff. I’ve got my work cut out for me. I’ll be pounding away at this list for a few weeks but if I can pull myself away from the 360 for a bit this weekend (after the amazing OSU/Texas game Saturday night and the Cleveland Browns opener) I’ll get some of it done.
Thanks for sticking around and hopefully the new stuff will be worth the wait!
I’m not lazy, I swear!
I’ve seen this in a few places (most recently at Troy’s new blog, Flash of Steel) and wanted to comment on it. There is an article at GameDailyBIZ about starting and maintaining a successful blog. It zeroes in on gaming blogs, but it’s applicable to blogs in general. As blogging is a phenomenon I’m interested in, I was interested to see what new tips I could glean. While there’s nothing really new here, it’s a decent read if you’re interested in blogging. The article lists three steps to a good blog (gaming or otherwise):
Step 1: Create a blog that’s worthy to be read
Readers already choose between a massive number of quality enthusiast press publications. As a result, a fledgling blog has virtually no chance of making it big if it doesn’t provide readers an experience that can’t be found somewhere else.
This is the real trick. This is like making a list on how to be a good golfer and starting the list with “have an excellent golf swing.” It’s the simple fact that no one will read your blog if you’re not providing them with something fresh. There are a ton of gaming blogs you can read out there, and while most are worth a read in their own right, there are a lot more blogs worth skipping. Providing an experience not found elsewhere is tough to do. Regurgitating all the news that comes across the wire won’t do it. There’s other places where people are doing for that already. Casting a wide net and trying to post about everything is also going to be hard to maintain. Find your voice and go with that.
Step 2: Get People to Read Your Blog
This can actually be the easy part of starting a blog, but go about it the wrong way and you will alienate readers much faster than you can garner them. Places like Digg and Slashdot abhor “blog-whoring” and I pretty much avoid submitting my blog to them at all costs (save for links to the monthly Carnival). I have been linked by Slashdot, which is quite a “nerd high,” but each time I’ve been linked there it has been by Zonk, not from my personal submissions. (It is a huge honor to be linked by them, but it has always been a surprise to have Slashdot show up in the referrer logs.) There are other ways to drive people to your site. Using your URL in forum sigs, your email sig, submitting to the Carnival and the Roundtable are all ways to get readers to your blog without blatantly blog whoring. Getting your site URL out there with subtlety is a talent, but persitence will be rewarded here. Make friends with other bloggers, link to their sites, use trackback judiciously and don’t appear desperate and you’ll do just fine.
Step 3: Get People to Bookmark Your Blog
Post Often
If you want to become one of the big time bloggers, you’ve got to consider this a full time
jobhobby. The best blogs post often, post consistently, and even post on weekends. It is difficult to do this, especially since you will likely not see a sustainable income from your blog for quite some time.
While this advice is by far the most important, I’ve modified it a bit. I think the moment you treat blogging as a full-time job (unless it is your job, natch), you’ve lost sight of why you’re blogging in the first place. Your motivation for blogging should be that your topic of choice is something you’re passionate about. Nevertheless, you’ve got to provide new content on a consistent basis. I’ve found both in reading and writing a blog that consistent posting is the most important aspect of a blog. I’ve tried to get a post a day here on buttonmashing.com, but some times that just not possible. Even still, you’ve got to work hard and produce good stuff. Getting quality stuff out regularly will keep people coming back.
This will actually become easier as you develop your voice and you earn a regular readership. You’ll get feedback from your regulars and that will spur you on to create more content. Is a postive feedback loop that you’ll come to love. Nothing is more exciting than getting your first comments and first subscriptions to your feed. It’s fun and will definitely motivate you to blog even more. The hitch is to maintain that motivation over a long period of time. It’s not easy but it pays off in the long run.
So have a read, start a blog, and have fun doing it. That’s what it’s all about anyway.
Before I caught the blogging “bug,” I was an active Epinions user. For those who don’t know what Epinions is, it’s basically a community-driven product review site. Users write reviews on products and services and other members rate the “helpfulness” of those reviews. There is also a way to comment on reviews, discussing what has been written, what have you. It was Web 2.0, only it started during Web 1.0. Anyway, for a while, I was averaging 3-4 reviews a week on the site. For whatever reason, I liked the idea that people were reading (and rating highly) my reviews and that, in some small way, I was affecting people’s purchasing decisions. It was a lot of fun.
Recently, for some reason, I’ve been bitten with the reviewing bug again. I don’t know what it was, the urge to write a review about my new-ish monitor, or my new headphones or something has taken over.
I’m posting this because I even though I doubt this will effect buttonmashing.com but I plan on writing an occasional review or two, departing from the normal kind of content I’ve been putting down lately. I’m also pointing out to see if there are any Epinionators out there among the buttonMashing readers? I know the guys that run NetJak are former (current?) Epinion users and they’ve visited the site a few times, but I was wondering if any other readers out there that are (or were) Epinion users.