I've been thinking about leaving Facebook for a while, and now seems like as good a time as any. A friend of mine was talking to me recently about how he gave up Facebook for Lent (I typically joke that I'm giving up abstinence for Lent); how many more productive things could he be doing with his time than idly scrolling through status updates? Especially after this past election season, Facebook has become less of a place to share your interests and catch up with friends, and more of a place to shout opinions, post inflammatory links, and give your friends reasons to never speak to you again. Frankly, I think a lot of us could use a break.

This past weekend I got to meet up with a few of my fellow GameCola staffers for the biggest party I've been to since college. (Bear in mind that my definition of "party" typically includes people staying up until 3 AM playing games and drinking beer—that is, video and root, respectively. This one was no different.) The party itself was a blast, but it wasn't just playing The Cave or smashing up a llama piñata wearing a top hat and monocle that made the evening so enjoyable—it was spending time engaged in these activities with other people. At a distance, we forget that our friends are not solely the sum of their posts and tweets—I was playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii U with friends, not simply some people who write GameCola articles.

It's tough to return Facebook after that. Ha ha, you said something funny. I'd hit the Like button, but that would imply I wholeheartedly support the views expressed in your post, and it also shows favoritism if I don't Like every single thing that makes me laugh—at which point it looks like I like everything everybody posts, which robs me of my individuality. I could be overthinking this. I could also be tired of walking on eggshells every time I respond to a comment, for fear of inadvertently hitting a nerve when I'm trying to be helpful or silly—facial expressions and body language don't translate well into the text of a status update, and moods can shift so drastically by the time you're finally responding to something. Some people you haven't seen in years aren't the same people you used to know, though you couldn't tell from what they post. Things happen to people that they do not talk about online. I'm interacting with fragments of my friends anytime I'm on Facebook anymore; I miss the people.

It's not like I'm terribly difficult to locate online, and my phone still works—I'm not turning my back on the world here. I haven't been on AOL Instant Messenger for nearly a decade; I think Facebook can make do without me for a while.

For the record: I read every comment I receive, be it here, on YouTube, or anywhere else. I just don't respond to everything right away...as my viewers who've gotten a reply one year after leaving their comment can attest to.

I love the community that comments create. I thrive on feedback—preferably positive, but constructive will do in a pinch—and I've had some wonderful digressions and debates, sometimes over the course of several weeks, if not months. That doesn't mean I enjoy every single comment—or every single response I end up writing—but I make it a point to acknowledge anyone and everyone who offers anything I could possibly respond to. I've said it before: It's the coolest thing in the world that anybody reads what I write or watches what I record, let alone wants to take the time to say anything about it. Leaving a comment in return is the least I can do. It just takes an awful long time, sometimes.

I bring this up because I just went on a comment spree, checking back through this blog for comments to which I hadn't yet responded. That's how I usually operate—unless someone is being particularly belligerent or abusive, I'll typically wait to leave comments of my own until something really catches my eye that I'm excited to talk about, or I've got the time and gumption to sit down and fire off a bunch at once...or until I have this realization that it's been over a month, and I should really say hello to people congratulating me on a new blog. I can make a novella out of the simplest responses, so I tend to treat comment replies as another one of my side projects that I work on from time to time, rather than a daily or weekly thing that leaves me wondering where my free time went.

In short, I appreciate what you've got to say, though I might not always be quick about showing it.

As much as I like generating new content (blog posts, videos, etc.), sometimes I prefer to tinker around behind the scenes and administrate my creativity. That's mostly what I've been doing with my YouTube channel over the past year—you know it's been almost a year since my last real Mega Man video? I've released a couple of general channel-related videos since then, and spent much of the last several months working on a Space Quest 0 playthrough for GameCola's YouTube channel, but for the most part, I've been updating my video descriptions, compiling playlists, responding to comments, and posting weekly polls on my Facebook page.

That's also how I spent most of last night: Administrating. Formatting. Fiddling with things. A few days ago, following a long back-and-forth debate with one of my YouTube viewers about the strengths and weaknesses of Mega Man 3, I determined I really need to put my opinions of the game into a written format, to which I can refer people once I start running out of room in YouTube's relatively small comment boxes. I've got a lot of opinions that don't jive with the mainstream's—for example, I'll take Terminator over Terminator 2 any day, I think The Beatles are "okay," and I don't like green peppers—and it usually takes a whole heap of explanation until the murder in people's eyes starts to die down. You wouldn't believe how strongly people feel about green peppers.

Well, I sat down to write a short overview of the entire Mega Man series, reviewing each of the games I've played in a concise format that highlights, as objectively as possible, each game's strengths and weaknesses relative to the rest of the series. Bear in mind that the term "short overview" is being used here by a person who took something like 4000 words to review Mega Man 10, even before getting to the downloadable content. The idea was to put every aspect of a game on equal footing—graphics, novelty, replay value, story, etc.—so that the oft-overlooked flaws and the unsung merits of each game would get the attention I feel they deserve. Mega Man 3 in particular would benefit from this treatment, I thought; people love this game, and don't seem to acknowledge or notice even the rampant flaws and shortcomings that stand out to me.

After starting work on this massive series of reviews (which you can find here), I got to thinking about ways to make it look nicer. More accessible. Easier to read. And I started tinkering. Formatted a whole bunch of pages—covering the entire Classic series as far as I've played it, with the X series next on the list—and got things organized and ready so that I could hop on and easily plug in a few more opinions whenever I had the time and felt up to it. This is something that'll be in progress for a while, so expect a bunch of blank spaces and plenty of revisions.

That's one of the nice parts about making these reviews a separate feature on this website, instead of cramming them all into a blog post or two—there's no digging back through the archives to find them, and I don't have to spend days, weeks, or months toiling away at something behind-the-scenes, only to publish it once it's ready, and have all my hard work disappear into someone's RSS feed after an hour or two. There's an obvious link next to the "HOME" and "BLOG" buttons at the top of the page, and folks can check in whenever they're bored to see if I've made any updates—they don't have to wait for a finished product.

Ah, and I mentioned RSS feeds. While I've been content to keep this website pretty simple (tricking out Exfanding Your Horizons with all the bells and whistles was fun, but also a tremendous amount of effort to teach myself how to do everything, and then research why nothing I did was working), being on my administrative kick last night was the push I needed to burn this blog's RSS feed to FeedBurner and polish up the blog's sidebar a bit. Now I'm that much closer to looking like I care about this blog as much as I really do—I assure you the simplicity really is a deliberate choice, and (mostly) not a matter of laziness.

One of the most memorable holidays of my college career was the Valentine's Day where I—a single guy—along with four single girls, sat down to watch the romantic film Chocolat, drink cayenne pepper-infused hot chocolate like they make in the movie (surprisingly delicious), and lament how pathetic all of us were for being single.

Think about that for a moment.

Though I'm happily married now (and if you don't believe me, follow this link for the start of the 4-part engagement story and 8-part wedding story), I recall very strongly what it was like to be single. Throughout the years, I've heard a lot of grumbling and moping every time Valentine's Day rolls around, and while I admit to suffering from boo-hoo-itus on a few occasions, I've generally made it a point to embrace and make the most of Singles' Awareness Day when it arrives.

After all, once you enter into a relationship, you may never be single again.

We as a species are adept at longing for whatever we don't have. When I was single, I wanted a girlfriend. When I had a girlfriend, I wanted to be sing—ouch—::ahem:: um...singing to her. Lovingly. Of course, dear. There are ups and downs to any situation; it's often our priorities—our own selfishness, even—that make being in or out of a relationship more desirable.

I can't help but think of Philippians 4:11-12, where Paul says, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Translation from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible).

Maybe you've got a romantic getaway planned for Valentine's Day. Maybe you just want to get away from Valentine's Day. While one person is at home alone, missing the feel of that Special Someone in their arms, another person is out at a restaurant with their spouse, missing their favorite TV show and the feel of a $100 bill in their wallet. It's easy enough for anybody to be miserable.

You know what I was doing for Valentine's Day about a decade ago? Playing video games and watching movies with my best guy friends. You know what I'm probably doing for Valentine's Day this year? Playing video games and watching movies with my best gal friend. (We're terribly romantic. We also had our fancy dinner out yesterday, 'cuz you apparently can't get reservations on Valentine's Day if you don't call two months in advance. But I digress.)

Valentine's Day is only as much of an obligation or lonely reminder as we make it out to be. We're only human, so it's not like we can shut off our emotions if we're feeling depressed or overwhelmed...but we don't have to wallow in them.

Holiday or not, I hope you find something to make this Thursday awesome.

In the spirit of using this blog as a a base of operations for my creative endeavors all across the Internet, here's a recap of my online collaborations and contributions to the advancement of human civilization in January 2013:

This Blog:
- New Beginnings
- Gaming for the Right Reasons
- Do you ever get the urge to write, but when you actually sit down to write, you don't have anything to say?
- On Public Visibility
- The Case for Christ
- A New Hopelessness
- There and Back Again

Exfanding Your Horizons
- We're on hiatus.

GameCola
- [NSFW] Spam Attack: Concerned for Our Spambots

YouTube
- Space Quest 0 - Part 8: Aelienation
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Part 12: Spreadable Vowels
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Part 13: The Thrill of Romance
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Part 14: Just a "Mino"r Headache
- Megathon 2012: Rockman (Famicom) / Mega Man (NES)
- Megathon 2012: Rockman 2 (Famicom) / Mega Man 2 (NES)

In addition, I thought it might be interesting (more for myself than for you, but you never know) to track my monthly progress through my Backloggery, where I'm keeping note of all the video games I own, have beaten, and/or someday intend to beat.

The Backloggery:

Started:
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)
- Mega Man Legends (PS)
- Fallacy of Dawn (PC)
- Final Fantasy VII (PC)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (GBC)

Beat:
- Scribblenauts (NDS)
- Street Fighter X Mega Man (PC)
- Mega Man Legends (PS)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (GBC)

Completed:
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (GBC)

I feel terrifically accomplished just by looking at this list—and this doesn't even cover the things I've been working on behind-the-scenes, such as my playthrough of Mega Man 7, or that one time I made dinner with a bag of salad instead of a can of Chef Boyardee. A good variety of writing topics (including a few more serious ones than usual), plenty of videos, exposure to a couple of games I should've played years ago, real progress through my video game backlog, and a healthy ("healthy" being a relative term) amount of Mega Man. Overall, I'd say 2013 is off to a great start!