buttonmashing

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Carnival of Gamers

America’s Pastime my foot!

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First I have to watch the Cleveland Indians collapse and lose their chances at Baseball’s post-season. Now, because of the playoffs on Fox, I have to wait three weeks for the next episode of Prison Break. Holy cow, who did I piss off to deserve this? I guess I’ll survive, but it will be tough. Man, Prison Break is good stuff. I don’t care if it’s testorone-heavy action with badly cliched stereotypes, targeted at the male demographic. This is good stuff. All I have to say is someone needs to open a can of “Prison-Shiv” on T-Bag. That guy didn’t have to off the rookie guard. I have a feeling someone is gonna put him down. So many questions left unanswered until later this month. I’ve still go Lost, but these next three weeks will drag on without my Prison Break fix.

On the buttonmashing.com front, I’ve been a little slow with posts lately. I’ve just been busy with RL things. I mentioned earlier that I was doing some housekeeping around the site, and I’m still working on that, it’s just slow going. I’m looking at some new themes, some new plugins and a basic dust up around here. I’ve been happy with the current look but it’s not exactly what I wanted. I’m thinking of going with the K2 theme, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m planning on some other changes but, like I said, it’s going a little slower than I’d like.

Also, there’s only a few days left to get your submission in to the Carnival of Gamers #6. Don’t delay, send your submission in today!

Gather ’round, carnies

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It’s that time again — Carnival time. The Carnival of Gamers #6 will be setting up camp over at AFK Gamer. This month’s ringleader is the illustrious Foton, one of my favorite bloggers. You can hit up the Carnival link up above if you’ve got questions about the Carnival. If you’ve got something you want to submit, you can do so by sending an email to carniegrue@gmail.com. I look forward to what Foton has in store for this Carnival.

I’ve updated the Carnival HQ page, but if you’re interested in more information about blog Carnivals, this is a good place to start.

Carnival #5 has arrived!

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I had plans to head to the Ohio State Fair yesterday. Unfortunately, the buttonDaughter has been afflicted with dual ear infections. It sucks for her but she seems to be on the mend. We didn’t make it to the Fair but we have plans to go soon. For now I’ll have to be content with The Carnival of Gamers #5 over at Unfettered Blather.

Update: Well down, Botswana, another Carnival has come and some good stuff has been posted. I don’t know if it’s the summer months, or what, but the submissions seem to be a little down this month. There were a few new faces, which is always good to see, but I had hoped for some of the old stand-bys to participate as well. No biggie, hopefully next months will attract a few more people, what with the summer winding down and Foton being the host. That’s gotta count for something!

I enjoyed every last one of the posts. I was surprised that there were only a couple GTA:SA posts. I guess people are just tired of it. I know I am (even though I submitted one of my GTA rants)! Personally, peterb’s piece on why consoles are better (which has been mentioned elsewhere) was my favorite.

Shortly thereafter, I stopped playing it. This week, I bought Myst III: Exile for Xbox at The Exchange. I had also bought Silent Hill 3 for the PS2, another game I already owned for the PC.

The reason is simple. I can play the console versions of these games from my couch.

True, that.

The Carnival of Gamers approaches

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August is State Fair time in our beautiful state of Ohio. That means two things — the butter cow and fair food. If there is anything better than greasy fair food (served by greasy carnies) I don’t know what it is. Just behold the fried twinkie!

August also brings us the Carnival of Gamers #5! If you have a blog and you want to join, don’t hesistate! All your Carnival questions can be answered at the Carnival HQ. We’ve switched to the monthly format, which I think is more conducive to the submission of well written and witty blog posts. Hmmm, I guess that excludes me.

Oh well, I submitting something anyway.

Now for a change of pace

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Just like the rest of the gaming world, I’m growing tired of the whole GTA/Rockstar/Jack Thompson/Hillary Clinton fiasco. I will endeavor to avoid future beatings of that dead horse. There’s only so many times you can whip a rotting carcass.

So switching gears, I wanted to remind everyone about the Carnival of Gaming #5 over at Unfettered Blather. You’ve got more than a week to get your submissions into Botswana, so don’t delay! There’s been enough controversy streaming through the gamingsphere so there’s no excuse not to submit something. But I’ve got an inkling Carnival #5 is going to be the Carnival that C.J. (and J.T. + H.C.) carjacked.

I forgot to link to Cathode Tan’s excellent second interview, this time with Jeff Freeman, a favorite blogger of mine. Another great interview from Josh. (who still has not received an answer to his Carnival Quiz. Search me.)

Also, Corvus did a sweet buttonmashing sketch for me. I hope to use it in future buttonmashing.com items. Thanks again, Corvus!

So enough with the GTA buzzkill already. Gosh!

On Carnivals and Roundtables

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So we’ve had three successful Carnivals of Gamers, currently gearing up for the fourth, and I’ve been thinking about the current Carnival schedule. Is twice a month too often? I usually try to post at least one “Carnival-worthy” post before the deadline, but twice a month can be a lot. It may not be this way for everyone, but I was contemplating a suggestion to go to a monthly Carnival.

This came on the heels of Corvus’ idea of a monthly roundtable discussion. His idea is to have a central theme that everyone blogs about and then those posts would be passed around, Carnival style. I really like this idea, I will participate as occasion allows, but I wanted to know, from those who’ve participated in the Carnival of Gamers if we should hold the Carnival once a month, as well. That would give everyone time to participate and it would give the host a little more time to get the Carnival together.

This is something that I’ve been mulling over in my mind. What do my fellow carnies (and those of you who read the Carnival) think?

Update: It appears that the consensus is that the Carnival would benefit going to a monthly format. As it stands now, the 4th Carnival will continue as scheduled (tomorrow) and then Carnival #5 will fall on August 4th (the first Thursday). Hopefully Unfettered Blather won’t be adversely affected by the date change. AFK Gamer will then host #6 in September.