Catching Up: Now U Know Gaming

Catching Up: Now U Know Gaming

This one isn't a particularly important update, but it illustrates how much work goes into even smaller projects behind the scenes – and it comes with a little story!

Shortly before moving back home from college, I went to MAGfest 2017 with a close friend of mine (who is no longer on social media, so I can't link anything here). Instead of flying, we drove there and back over two days, and we were bored to tears. Pretty much the entire way up, all we could do to keep ourselves alive was recite increasingly mangled versions of the DK Rap as we laughed ourselves into hysterics.

Luckily, just before we headed back, we thought about starting a fake gaming facts blog, as a riff on things like Did You Know Gaming and Supper Mario Broth. That kind of parody account was dime a dozen back then (and still kind of is), but it at least gave us something else to do on the ride back, rather than singing for the hundredth time:

🎵 His Coconut Gun 🎶 🎶 Can Fire In Gun 🎵 🎵 If He Shoots Gun 🎶 🎶 It's Gonna Gun 🎵

Instead, we came up with 180+ jokes. I wrote them all down, in case we actually did something with the idea. You'd think they would be trash, since we were basically delirious at the time... but most of them are still really good!

After reviewing the material, we made it official, and started Now U Know Gaming. Together we alternated posting about 30 of them before we both had more important things to do (and eventually fell out of contact). The account has languished ever since... but I felt like we never got to the really good ones, and now I want to finish the job. So, at some point, I will!

Long story short, here's the deal: there's a ton of material already written. All I have to do is get a relevant image prepared for each one, and post them. This wouldn't be too hard, except as always, I make things too complicated. So the plan is:

Batch queue them so that a bunch (not all!) of them are shuffled and ready to go. That way, there's less maintenance in the long term.

Cross-publish to Twitter and Mastodon. When I initially ran it, I wasn't satisfied with the crossposter I was using, so I want to find another one... or write one from scratch.

Tweak the graphic design kit I made so that it looks a little more professional and is easier to work with.

Of course, between working full-time and on other projects, this hasn't really been a priority. But I'm not letting this one slip through the cracks. Now U Know Gaming will return someday!

I Can’t Believe It’s Not On Nintendo Switch!

Lost In Skyway Metro | 6FN-F3B-N7G

A full adventure in one level! Search high and low for a way out of this massive city full of buildings, construction, and subway tunnels to explore. Find enough Key Coins to purchase a subway ticket home!

This took over 30 hours to make, and it's one of my biggest and best levels yet. I hope you enjoy ✨

Catcing Up: Nonbinary

Every time I write about my gender, I struggle with the same issue of not fully understanding it myself. And yet, the more I think about it and try to put it into words, the more I discover, and the more confident I get.

Nonbinary is still the closest I've come to hitting the mark. I'm not a man, and I'm not a woman... I'm Will!

The colors I wore for Pride Month.

I'm fairly certain that being autistic is a strong factor in my gender identity – but that also makes my experiences more difficult to describe. For a long time, I didn't understand gender at all, but I always knew that I felt Other in some way. Watching movies and TV as a kid, I always felt far removed from both the boys and the girls, for reasons I couldn't explain. And any time someone said "man up" or "boys will be boys" in my direction, I always had this weird feeling like, "But... why does anyone care? Why can't I just be me?" The few times I managed to ask, I still couldn't make sense of the answers.

Beyond that... I usually never thought much about it. Gender was never all that important to me unless somebody else brought it up. Instead, I always put more value on "being yourself," since my parents encouraged it of me so much. So even though "nonbinary" is more of an umbrella term, I feel it fits me best – since it gives me enough room to be myself, without having to consider how masculine or feminine I present myself as. It's just a reflection of who I already am!

Outside of that "other"ness, my dysphoria seems to be fairly minimal. As such, I haven't felt the need to change my appearance in real life. This is mostly for convenience's sake, as I'm too lazy to shop for new clothes, and too anxious to deal with people giving me funny looks. Besides, I still use the same name, and I don't mind hearing people call me "he"; heck, most people don't even bring up gender at all. As far as the average onlooker is concerned, I'm just another guy. And so, I "pass" by being completely invisible – much like how I go about the rest of my life, really. (I do recognize how much of a privilege this is.)

Even so, I've been open about my gender with the people close to me, including my friends and my mom. The only people in my circle who don't know are my workplace (which has protective policies for gender identity – I'm just erring on the side of caution) and the rest of my family (not because I'm hiding it; we'll get to that later).

But still, nothing's really changed. I haven't changed my name, my pronouns, my appearance, my mannerisms... I haven't transitioned. In that sense, I almost feel like a fraud. Am I transgender or not? Do I even count as nonbinary? Am I just appropriating this label because it's hip? How long will it be until people figure out The Truth and shun me forever? (Anxiety makes you say really mean things to yourself, sometimes.)

But it's not fake. Calling myself nonbinary may be a small change, but it fits me better than "male" ever did. It's another important step toward figuring out who I am and how the world sees me. And besides, this decision has influenced me in small, subtle ways – by allowing me to define myself the way I want to, rather than what others might expect of me. In choosing my own path, I'm free to be more myself than I've ever been.

And it rocks ✨

ladiesss

Fell way behind on Catching Up (I haven’t even posted Friday’s yet), so here’s the deal: All five remaining topics will still be covered before the end of the year, but they won’t be on a set MWF schedule. I was already having trouble keeping the schedule, but I’m having extra trouble finding the time to write due to the holidays (and a family emergency – everything worked out okay on that front). Luckily I’m about to have a few days off with no other plans, so there’s still plenty of time to get the rest done!

Next time I do a series, though, I’m definitely gonna wait until they’re all written to post them. also there will be fewer of them