Category Archives: Miscellaneous
I Could Be A Minimalist- The Hobby of Collecting and The Burden of Consumerism.
I have been a prisoner of consumerism for years now like most of us. As someone who went to school for business and sustainability, I am well aware of this problem. I knew a day would come when I would care a little less about consumerism. As days go on, I get closer to that goal. The big reason is because I plan to move. I don’t want more clutter. I don’t want to blow my whole paycheck on comic books and video games. Another reason I am getting closer to being over the addiction of retail therapy is because I have started investing. (Currently, I have $1,600 invested since around January.).
I was okay with consumerism for about 4 years because it was new to me. It started with buying Elemental Hero Yugioh cards to build decks I wanted to as a kid. Than I moved in with my mom and found my N64 games and wanted to start collecting N64 games. Than Jessica took me to her brother’s comic book store and that awoken the trifecta. I was obsessed with card games, video games and comic books. And over a 3-5 year run, I built a collection I was truly happy with. When I pop in my copy of Pokemon Stadium 2, or when I see my Daredevil #2 on my shelf, or when I duel my wife in a card game, I am truly happy with where my collection is. The problem with collecting is that it never ends. Even when you are happy with where you are. Even when you complete your original goals. Even when your priorities change in life. I am still looking forward to new comics each week or the holiday games.
And yes. My collection is not insane. Though, I have probably hit that point where if I never added another game I could still probably never play every game in my collection. I thought that would be a wake up call but it wasn’t. That’s mostly because collecting and gaming are two different hobbies. The first one makes you excited you scored a new 3D platformer that you will play for the next 15 hours. The other makes you excited you added 20 O.G. Xbox games for a dollar a piece to your collection. So, who cares that there is no way I’ll ever play every Gamecube game I own? Who cares if I have no interest in the sports games I buy? It’s two different hobbies. Each are equally satisfying in my opinion.
I had an epiphany last week. A month or so ago I bought a copy of Skyward Sword on Switch for $60 dollars. I have played about 2 hours into it (I’m at the first dungeon.). Why haven’t I played more you ask? Because Pokemon Unite, a free to play MOBA, released in the same time window. So I have put countless hours into a Free to Play game and two hours into the game I have paid for. Something is not adding up. And this trend is pretty consistent right now. I have been playing Final Fantasy 15, a game I own, over Gamepass, a service I pay $10 a month for. My phone apps and my computer apps (Hearthstone, MTG Arena, and Bloon Tower Defense 6) are all free to play at this point. I’m playing a bunch of free games and not the ones I am putting money into. And with the way the Nintendo Switch is set up, I do not even need a T.V. to play on my Switch. Other apps I use like Pokemon Showdown are also free. Not to mention I am bumming streaming service accounts like HBO Max, Disney and Crunchyroll.
So being a gamer does not even have to be expensive in 2021. There’s my massive collection of backlog games, movies and comics that would keep me busy without having to spend another buck. And in the digital era, I don’t even have to own the clutter. Marvel comics can be bought on an app. Shoenen Jump has an app. Gamepass has hundreds of thousands of games on there for 9.99 a month. So why own this junk?
Because I like it. There’s a lot more to go into such as the fact I actually own my stuff. Digital properties are prone to being censored upon rerelease, being pulled from e-stores at any point, and the fact you do not own the assets. I like being in a house that is composed of my favorite things. Things that remind me of my childhood. Things that make me happy in a world that is generally depressing currently. I look forward to playing, reading and watching these things with my future kids and with my wife, Jessica. Jessica and I have game nights, movie nights and card nights all the time. We enjoy them.
However, space and time are two major things that are hard to get back when they are gone. And money I invest into my collection is money I cannot invest in my retirement. Those three factors heavily encourage me to slow down. Now, in a month I have added 6 Gamecube games to the collection, but I used store credit so my wallet did not feel as burdened by it. I am liking the strategy of using store credit to fund my hobby. I will continue to do that until space becomes a real issue.
So, at the end of the day, I could become a minimalist, but I probably wont until I absolutely have to. I will cut back on spending, definitely. But I still enjoy adding to my collections and chipping away at the goals. However, I am probably done spending hundreds of dollars on collectibles. For now. My money situation and life situation just make it to where it does not make sense. So I am not a prisoner to consumerism anymore. I am just enjoying life and trying to be smarter in all decision making moments. Surely, I will fail at times, but I am always improving.
Virtual Game Night!
Tonight, as in here in a few minutes, Jessica and myself will attempt a virtual game with her uncle and aunt. Were going to be playing Letters from Whitechapel where 1 person plays as Jack the Ripper and 3 players play as detectives. We each own a copy so we will both have the board available to us. Outside of that, there’s always exploding kittens on our phone or even Jackbox games.
Let me know some fun family games that can be played over zoom/messenger. In June most of our game nights will be virtual like this so were open to some idea.
Anyway, thanks for reading and any suggestions. Have a great night everybody!
Streams Are Coming Back!
Hey guys. Thursday Night streams are making a come back! If you arent following our YouTube channel you’re missing out. Normally on Thursday nights we stream A Hat in Time content. We are planning on streaming random stuff over on Twitch so make sure you follow both the Dahubbz YouTube channel and Twich channel. Feel free to recommend solo games or Co-OP games. I dont usually play online multiplayer games though.
Anyway, if you ever make it to a stream, be sure to be apart of the chat.
Thank you guys and have a great night!
Anime Moms (Happy Mother’s Day)
It is Mother’s Day. I know it might be the second year in a row some of you wont see your moms. Hopefully that’s not the case for you guys.
Either way, I wanted to do a post celebrating anime moms and I could only think of a few. For starters, Ash’s mom is probably my favorite mom. Yes, she was in the background but she did steal the scenes she actually appeared in. In Yu Yu Hakusho, I remember his mom being really depressed during the initial arc. In Case Closed, Sinichi’s mom has the same playful vibes Ash’s mom did. Jessica wanted to give Naruto’s mom a shout out despite, well we know how that ended. But she died very nobly and for that, she deserves a mention. I’m sure theres plenty of moms in the opening acts of Shonun that kind of fade as the stories progress past the home lands of the hero. Slice of Life animes typically have moms but very few I’ve seen have been memorable.
So with that in mind, how about you guys recommend animes with awesome moms in honor of Mother’s Day. Anyway, remember to tell your mom you love her while you still got her.
Should You Blog Every Day? Quality vs Quantity?
This is a question I ask myself often. I normally am reviewing anime and mangas and talking about video games. I do some top fives and other random stuff too. So that’s a run down of what I do here. I’ve attempted daily blogging before. My longest streak was about 40ish days. Outside of random streaks, I’m lucky to blog a few times a week. Sometimes I can go months without blogging. Today, let’s dive into the pros and cons of daily blogging.
Full disclosure: I don’t have the answer to this question. By the end of this post, I still probably won’t know. However, maybe we will have a better understanding or maybe you’ll gleam something useful from this.
Pro: The biggest pro is honing your craft. There’s some caveats here though. You have to be challenging yourself to get better. Often this is why I quit daily blogging. I’m no longer challenging myself. However, if you take the time to get better at it, it becomes more rewarding. You will grow your reader base and get more interaction. For some people, they are natural born writers and story tellers. Others will have to strain to get better. Some will be in the middle. That’s okay. But like any thing you want to get good at, you’re going to have to practice.
The next pro should be that it is fun. Regardless of if you are good or bad, improving or stagnate, getting views from strangers or your cat’s alt account, blogging should be fun. If you are enjoying it, then I say keep going but be mindful of burnout.
Another potential positive is turning a hobby into a side hustle. Honestly, I cannot speak from experience, but many people make money on the side by blogging. If you are informative or entertaining you can market yourself as such. I can’t give any real pointers here except stand out or perfect your role.
Cons: The biggest con in my opinion is burnout. If you are unfamiliar, this just means it stops being fun. You no longer look forward to being a blogger. I can’t say this exactly happens to me, but it is something close to it. Nevertheless, burnout can be felt in any hobby, job or most things humans do. You’ll need to take a break, approach it from a different angle, or try a different activity for a bit in order to get a new found appreciation or outlook on blogging.
What happens to me more so, is just not having time. My blogs, when done properly, are time consuming. Here I am waiting until 10pm to write this post. If I want to get it out by 11:59pm tonight, I’m probably going to compromise something such as typing accuracy or proper wording so I’m understood. When you do not give yourself time to proof read or add nice touches to paragraphs you can have grammatical errors, sound confusing, or just write something that is unimpressive or boring. Within my 24 hours I try to hit 10,000 steps, workout, upload videos to 2 Youtube channels and the blog. consume something useful for either the channels or the blog (such as watch anime to review the next day.), work, and enjoy my actual life. Sometimes quality just dips because we are being pulled in a million directions. It happens.
Another thing to consider is running out of ideas. It may sound crazy with how spontanous and random life can be, but sometimes you run out of things to blog or film or talk about. Those days it is really up to you to go seize life. This is more of a problem with my Youtube channel than my blog, but it is something to keep in mind.
So there’s 3 Pros and 3 Cons for blogging everyday. On one hand, you can improve your skills, have a blast and maybe even make some money. On the other hand, you could get burned out, lose track of time or compromise other aspects of your life, or just flat out run out of things to blog about.
I highly recommend you consider all these aspects and how you can make the good outweigh the bad. If people leave suggestions for more pros and cons, or I think of some, I may do a follow up. For those curious, this should make day 5 of my new daily streak and something like 8 out of the last 9. I’m going strong with still plenty to talk about but time crunch and management is a real weakness of mine. I’m off tomorrow. Hopefully I can write a few post to get ahead of the game.
Anyway, as always thanks for reading. If this is your first time here, consider reading some of my other works.
My anime reviews: https://dahubbz.com/category/anime-review/
My manga reviews: https://dahubbz.com/category/manga-monday/
My Top 5: https://dahubbz.com/category/top-five/
My thoughts on Video Games: https://dahubbz.com/category/video-game/
Cool Things Are Coming Soon!
Hey guys, No reviews for today. I’ve watched the first three episodes of ODD Taxi on Crunchyroll but I have not had the time to write all my thoughts down since I was seeing my aunt who was down from Michigan. Here’s an excerpt though it is not final and may be revised between now and when it is published.
Taxi Driver vibes are hard to fend off as our main character’s occupation is taxi driving. However, were far too early to truly understand the main character’s, Odokawa, reason behind taxi driving. Though we do know he is sarcastic and brutally honest. He rarely leaves to doubt what’s on his mind. No, he’s not likeable and you’d have to have his sadistic sense of humor to love him. Yet, over time you find yourself rooting for him. I dont know if I would say he becomes more noble or more relatable (I really want to say he becomes more humanized since all the characters are animal.)
Jessica and I plan to start watching Tokyo Revengers and To You Eternity very soon.
Tonight we are going to do an A Hat in Time Randomizer stream. I’ll blog more about later but if it sounds interesting. Hop over to our Youtube channel here.
I really hope more of readers will gravitate to the Youtube streams and vise versa.
Anyway, look out for more anime reviews real soon. (Tomorrow is the NFL draft. Hopefully I can get stuff done before it starts.)!
Thanks for reading and have a nice day.
Highlighting Humble Bundle Video Games! (Ultimate Chicken Horse, Summer in Mara, ABZU and a ton of Lego Games!)
Hey guys, Humble Bundle has 4 pretty solid video game bundles going on right now.
For those of you who don’t know, Humble Bundle is a pretty awesome website that sells mostly software bundles. These softwares can range from video games to editing software. Through Humble Bundle alone, I have got Sony Vegas 15, RPG Maker VX, and plenty of awesome games. So it is certainly worth looking at. My brother, who introduced me to Humble Bundle, says he stopped using once they started offering more then just games. He said they never featured game bundles anymore. Well, this week highlights why it is important to pop in every once in a while. That said, each bundle will have a priced tier. It is pay what you want to pay but there are incentives in the form of (video games in this instance) to motivate you to buy the highest tier. You determine how your money is spent, as it can be divided among the publisher, charity, and Humble Bundle themselves.
We will get started with the Spring into VR Bundle. I personally have no way of playing VR, but I might buy a tier to stash the games for later. This bundle is one of the more expensive ones. The $1 tier only has one game, Detached. The tiers then jump up $14.82. The games are as follows Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality, Swords of Gurrah, and Espire 1: VR Operative. Some solid titles, but nothing that really blows me away. This isn’t a good deal though because for just 18 cents more, you can get the next tier. At the $15 tier you can get Job Simulator, Sairento VR, and Borderlands 2 VR. Job Simulator looks interesting but I’m not sold on it. Sairento looks neat and Borderlands 2 is Bonderlands 2, which is to say its pretty darn good.
Verdict: If you are going to shop this Bundle, either grab the $1 or the $15 bundle. There’s no sense in just getting the $14.82 bundle.
Link: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/spring-into-vr-bundle?hmb_source=&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_1_layout_index_1_layout_type_threes_tile_index_1_c_springintovrbundle_bundle
Approximate Time Remaining to Claim Bundle: 1 Day 23 Hours
Next up, let’s look at the New Couch Classics Bundle. Door Kickers: Action Squad starts off this bundle as the lone representative in the $1 dollar tier. For one dollar, this game looks solid enough, bragging about
- High detail retro graphics
- 6 playable characters, each with unique gameplay and level up options
- Unique in-game Strategic Abilities system
- 84 non linear levels to complete
- 60 weapons and gear items
- 20+ enemy types and 4 mission objectives
- Zombie invasion mode allowing you to play the game again in a new way
- Couch and Online Cooperative Multiplayer
Pulled Straight From the Humble Bundle Page
Moving up to the $8.07 tier, this bundle really picks up the heat. Ultimate Chicken Horse, Nine Parchments and 20XX is probably the best single tier so far. Nine Parchments doesn’t have a description so based off the video it looks like a top down co-op RPG. Ultimate Chicken Horse is probably the game I’m most interested in all of today’s bundles. It plays like a Super Mario Maker game. Someone designs over-the-top 2D platforming stages and then parties of players can attempt to navigate the thought provoking and death defying courses. 20XX looks like a recreation of the Megaman franchise with modern rogue influence game philosophy. The highest tier here is $10. Not bad. Wargroove, Lethal League and Biped come included in this tier. Wargroove looks like a solid tactical RPG but I don’t really have much experience in the genre. Lethal League Blaze is a unique looking fighting game where you try to defeat each other using an anti-gravity ball. Certainly looks worth checking out if you want a different style fighting game. Lastly is Biped. Biped is a potential sleeper hit. The game is a physics based 3D Co-Op adventure game. This has a Wes & Jess stream written all over it. I will probably be picking this one up.
Verdict: Personally, I’m looking at the 8 dollar tier but Bipeds alone could easily sway me into the $10 tier. Either are a great value here.
Link: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/new-couch-classics?hmb_source=&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_1_layout_index_1_layout_type_threes_tile_index_2_c_newcouchclassics_bundle
Approximate Time Remaining to Claim Bundle: 8 Days 23 Hours
![Amazon.com: Ultimate Chicken Horse - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code]: Video Games](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71KOgQQus0L._SL1500_.jpg)
Next up is the Lego Built to Bundle. In the $1 tier we have The Lego NINJAGO Movie Video Game. In the $9.50 tier we have Lego Worlds, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 Deluxe, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers and LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. Lastly, in the $10 tier we have LEGO DC Super Villains Deluxe Edition and LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Premium Edition. Honestly, I have not played a single one of these LEGO games but I have played LEGO games in the past such as Lego City Undercover and the Lego Star Wars Games on PS2. This bundle is an amazing value if you like: the Lego games, any of the licensed properties such as Ninjago or Batman, or want some fun couch co-op or family fun games. I honestly don’t think you can go wrong.
Verdict: If you fall into any of the “likes” above, go ahead and get the $10 bundle. The value is insane and you know what you’re getting because these games are going to be the same quality throughout.
Link: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/lego-built-to-bundle?hmb_source=&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_1_layout_index_1_layout_type_threes_tile_index_3_c_legobuilttobundle_bundle
Approximate Time Remaining to Claim Bundle: 10 Days 23 Hours
The last bundle for us to look at today is the Down to Earth Bundle. This is the bundle I was originally going to do a write up on before I noticed all 4 bundles were pretty great on their on. Like most of the previous bundles, this bundle starts off with a strong $1 tier. Figment is super interesting action adventure game set in the depths of the mind giving the game a unique level design. Yono and the Celestial Elephants is a fun looking action puzzle game. I’ve had my eye on it for a while now. Up next, the $11.88 tier. Personally, this tier looks a little weak to me. Abzu is probably the headliner here. It looks gorgeous. ARIDA: Backland’s Awakening looks kinda budgety. Never Alone looks like it plays like Limbo. Moving up to the $14 tier.
This is such a hard tier to gauge. Beyond Blue looks great graphically but I don’t know if the gameplay excites me enough. Lost Ember is a game that allows you to explore Earth by playing as any creature you come across. Sounds amazing. The last game is Summer in Mara. I remember following this game on Kickstarter. You play as a young girl exploring an island. The game will look amazing to Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon fans. As the core gameplay is tending to your island. You will have to grow crops, explore the sea, and traverse the land. Summer in Mara is the game that is tempting me the most.
Verdict: The high end games here are very genre dependent. Even though a lot of the games (ABZU, Lost Ember, and Summer in Mara) all look good, they may not be up your alley. You’ll just have to check them out for you.
Link: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/earth-day-bundle?hmb_source=&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_1_layout_index_2_layout_type_threes_tile_index_1_c_earthday_bundle
Approximate Time Remaining to Claim Bundle: 3 Days 23 Hours
So those are the games. Let me know if any of these look interesting to you and what bundles you’ll be checking out.
Best Bundle for the value: Lego’s $10 tier. Couch Co-Op’s $10 tier. Down to Earth $1 tier.
Games to check out: Summer in Mara, Ultimate Chicken Horse, Biped, Yono and the Celestial Elephants, any of the Lego games and ABZU.
So there’s just a few of my thoughts. Thank you guys for reading! Have a great day!
A Christmas Memory!
Today, I just want to reminisce about a memory of my mom. My mom is kind of notorious at this point for just deciding what she is going to buy you instead of listening to what you ask (She will still ask you what you want though). At first this kind of got on my nerves. Then I realized it made Christmas exciting. One year, I just asked for a bunch of cool designed T’s centering around video games. She managed to buy just one of the correct shirts. The rest she just completely guessed on. For the most part she was in the ball park. However, some how one shirt she bought twice. And another of the shirts was a size too small, so Jessica just got that one. This year, she asked what underwear I use. I gave her the brand, size, and style. Well, she got the size and style right but bought a completely different brand. I definitely no longer hold this against her because, again, it adds a layer of surprise.
However, my favorite story, the one that stands out the most to me, is by far Christmas of 2014. I was a huge Wii U and 360 fan at this time. My 360 collection was massive and on the Wii U I had a lot of the highlights: Windwaker, 3D World, Smash Bros and a few more. Mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas and by far the games I wanted the most were Madden 15, Borderlands Pre-Sequel and Far Cry 4. Far Cry 4 had just come out around my birthday but I had to get Pokemon Alpha Sapphire. So it was high on my want list. My mom got me 3 video games that year.
Opening the first game: Madden 15. Nailed it.
Opening the second game: Borderlands Pre Sequel. We are rolling.
Down to the last game. It can only be one thing. My most anticipated game of the year (Left for me to get of course.) My dad actually got the original Far Cry on the Wii for my brother and I. We played it, we loved and we hated it due to motion controls. We skipped Far Cry 2. Far Cry 3 was released and became an instant classic. I was so confused. Everyone at my school loved it. Needless to say, I was determined to get my copy of Far Cry 4. Last present, here we go.
Opening the third game: NINTENDOLAND! More like NintenNO Land… I pulled my mother over to said and gave her a mental evaluation. I asked her how in the world she got Nintendoland out of Far Cry 4. I mean, I was even on the phone with my mom when she was in Gamestop. Her response, and I cannot make this up, “I thought you would have more fun with Nintendoland.”
This blew me away. At the time, she was definitely wrong. Borderlands, Bioshock, Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War, these were the games I loved playing back in 2014. I was a 19 year old college student. To think I would have more fun with a game that seemingly required 2 players was mind blowing. For the rest of the Christas break I did subject Jessica and family members to play it with me. Ultimately, I did learn to enjoy the game even though I mostly played the one player games like Yoshi and F-Zero. As time went on, I would bring my Wii U to friends and family houses and Nintendoland became a rotation favorite.
I went to Michigan to visit my cousin. He had a friend over and we played 4 player Nintendoland. They each said if they knew how fun this game was, they might would have bought the Wii U. This little game is far from great but it is a fun one for parties, casuals and hardcore games alike.
To this day, I still play Nintendoland and I have still yet to play Far Cry 4. The world is funny like that. The game is good and enjoyable, but the story attached is priceless. I hope you guys enjoyed this.
What is your favorite gift from Christmas past? What a gift you had to pretend to like? Got any stories like this? Share down below!
Happy Holidays and thanks for reading!
Spread Awareness
Today, were discussing something a little serious, Prostate cancer.
If the stores around your area are like mine, you will never see that little blue ribbon. That’s a shame. September 3 and there’s already pink Breast Cancer Awareness ribbons and shirts set up in some stores, which is great. I discovered this last year when I was working at Dollar General and we started selling Breast Cancer Awareness pens at the counter at the start of September. I asked the manager on duty why don’t we sell Prostate Awareness month merchandise. She did not know. Again this year, I see no Prostate Awareness Month merchandise. I understand breast cancer is huge, and according to Cancer.org 231,840 new cases of breast cancer occur every year, and that 40,290 women a year will pass away due to breast cancer, but we have to raise aware about prostate cancer(and all the other cancers for that matter).
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men in the U.S. and the second leading cause of death for men in the U.S according to cancer.org. About 1 in every 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. The statics and the information are out there.
Educate yourself about all the cancers and catch them while they’re early. My mom has tumors in several parts of her body and has to regularly go get them checked up on. Shes had them for 6 years and, thankfully, they are not cancerous.
Other cancers spotlighted this month are:
Childhood Cancer
Gynecologic Cancer
Hodgkin Lymphoma
Luekemia
Lymphoma
Ovarian Cancer
Thyroid Cancer
I got my information from Key Stats on Prostate Cancer and Key Stats on Breast Cancer
Here is what the ribbon looks like:
Light blue ribbon as symbol of prostate cancer awareness, Graves Disease
If you cannot donate to a cause, than spread the word. Write your own post, share this post, or make pins or bracelets, take an elder man in your family to get a check up, anything helps.
Da_Hubbz 