Time to bring in the new year with a new post for 2023. I’m mixing things up again by changing the format of my audio and written blogs to be more concise; and throwing away the “introduction” I did back in 2022. I figure if you’re on my site you know why you’re here, so I’m going to acknowledge that and proceed likewise. Final reminder for my returning visitors that everything and anything I post on the blogs might have NSFW stuff in it mixed in.

Over the years I’ve poked fun at the generic and pedantic advice most motivational books can give you. But one person who has never given a shred of useless insight is David Goggins, a man I hold in high regard ever since I learned of him and his journey through life. Old timers may remember that a while back I suggested everyone check out his earlier book “Can’t Hurt Me”. Now that he has a new one out, it’s only natural I advise you all check it out as well. Please believe me when I say David’s stories and knowledge is a good blueprint into looking at the way you see your own way of doing things and making adjustments as needed. Perspective is something I have preached over the years constantly when folks tend to start feeling sorry for themselves, when in reality the ability to change their circumstances is quite within reach than they think it is.

One of my vows for this year was to go back to my roots a bit and start talking about various topics without a theme between them. I was gun shy last year suggesting content that didn’t have a YouTube video associated with it; but I realized that hamstringed me a bit in terms of stuff I could talk about. So we’re treating things like it’s 2018 again and I’m giving you a website suggestion. Abandoned Kansai is a urbex blog focused on the uglier (yet still beautiful in ways) ruins of Japan. Florian (the host) travels to a lot of abandoned and destitute places; taking pictures and creating a story about the process along the way. What I like about his journeys is that he doesn’t filter out his words for a generic public, and says things how they are as how he feels them. This creates a genuine feeling of reading someone’s travel notes versus someone creating something for an audience. We’re along for the ride, not being given a ride if that makes sense. In any case there’s a lot to read and take in if you head on over there. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll love every moment of Japanese dystopia!

Just because I’m getting older doesn’t mean I don’t try and keep up with all the kids these days. Still living on the internet can have its perks and draw backs. And over the years I actually have the strange insight of living through the start of and conclusion of internet memes. Often times nowadays, we generally click on something funny or interesting and then think nothing of it once the punchline goes away (or its intended purpose is served). This “single use” joke mechanism is convenient for all of us to inject humor in our daily lives, but it actually comes at the expense of something or someone. To be clear I’m not going on some moral high ground tangent here, I’m simply just saying that everything has a start and finish to it. And instead of another boring documentary on World War II, how about we watch a documentary on old memes instead? I hope you enjoy.

Some gaming news to start off the year. By the time you read this blog, it will be (at least) the start of February. So coming out this month, Like a Dragon Ishin should be released and you can enjoy the goodness that is a total remake of an older spin off game in the (now popular) Yakuza series. I’m a total fanboy when it comes to anything Yakuza, and since there hasn’t been a new game released for quite a while (outside of Judgement which is really its own thing frankly), I’m pretty excited about the game. There’s not much to say other than I hope you have as much fun with it as I’m going to have, and if you become a fan of the series; there’s a lot waiting for you in the backlog.

One of my ambitions if the KickStarter was successful last year was to create an entire featured artist category on my site. The section would have contained artists that I heave featured over the years and then I would continue to add more as time went on. My rules were that I would not have anymore than 1 featured image (out of respect to the artist) and I would always link to their funding pages (Like a Patreon, etc) if at all possible so that folks could support them for their work. Since this isn’t a possibility anymore (at least for now), I’m just going to add an artist I really like at the end of every blog post for the year moving forward. So this kicking off the inaugural post is Secretly Saucy - a furry artist who specializes in extra thicc but cuddly waifus.