maprys.net

looking back

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve written anything, huh? It didn’t help that 2020 was quite the awful, stressful, eventful year, but I can’t say it was all bad.

Over the past 4-5 years I’d been getting plugged into the fighting game community (FGC) in my area. Pre-2020, I’d had a lot of fun making friends at local FG events and seeing my skills and Guilty Gear growing. I was thankful for the number of monthly events that were relatively close to me, but I disliked that 100% of them were tournament focused. With 3 hours of driving time or less, I could have 3 Saturdays out of the month filled with tournaments. This was amazing, but I found myself wanting more non-tournament time with my new fighting game friends. That’s when I decided to see if I could run my own weekly event for casual training and friendship. Event Horizon Games in Garner was the first place I reached out to. They were extremely accommodating and within a couple months, Monday Fight Club (MFC) was averaging 15-20 people weekly! I’m happy to report that I had lots of regulars, some driving from as far as Durham every week.

Unfortunately the pandemic has put a big fat hold on MFC. Added to this annoyance came sad news in December that Event Horizon Games would be closing. MFC will have to find a new home, but I’ll make sure we can keep playing in some form or fashion.

Organizing Monday Fight Club has been a wonderful learning experience. It’s given me the confidence to attempt future events and maybe even tournaments! I’ve had plenty of help from knowledgeable folks in the local scene. I’m forever grateful for their input and encouragement. There are good times ahead for the FGC both locally and globally.

My amazing wife graduated from culinary school this past semester. I am overflowing with pride in her accomplishments – overflowing straight onto the bathroom scale! It has been such a joy seeing her set a career course with excitement.

I look forward to bragging about the delicious dishes she prepares to any ear that will listen.

I bought a 1991 Volkswagen Golf GTI 16v that I cruised around in for a year before selling. Of course I found out it needed massively expensive work after I bought it. This realization lead me to prematurely panic sell the car.

I miss putting around in that insanely loud, rattly go-kart. It was such a joy to drive. Maybe there’s another fun car in the future. Fingers crossed!

Speaking of vehicles, I’ve also bought and sold a motorcycle since last I wrote! I had a great time riding, but discovered it ultimately wasn’t for me. Happy that I was able to try it.

Arcade games are so cool y’all! After spending the last few years with two Sega Blast City arcade cabinets and a handful of games, I can tell you the hobby is rad. Expensive, but rad as hell.

I started out by having a big game room upstairs with the machines and a giant 70” TV. It was fun for a time, but then I started going up there less and less. There was a spell where I hardly touched the arcade machines (heaven forbid) for over a month.

The decision was finally made (due to pressure from my wife) to move all my game stuff downstairs by building out a full fledged and always connected gaming room. The upstairs situation was only ever half done because I was always having to plug and unplug various consoles based on what I wanted to play. This time around I’m building a full rack of hardware with matrix A/V switches, power bars, and network cables so I can have everything hooked up constantly. It’s still unfinished at the moment, but rest assured it’s going to be awesome and I’ll probably write about it once I’ve got the bugs ironed out.

I even have another arcade machine on the way! Stay tuned …

Okay, that’s probably enough for these little shotgun updates. If you’re still reading this far into the article, I commend you for dealing with my horrible writing. It’s a good thing writing prose isn’t my day job.

I hope to write more in the coming days/weeks/months (we probably all say that, don’t we?) about whatever comes to mind. Check back if that piques your interest. Until then, stay safe my friends!