Burbols in the Year 2023
Above: Nintendo Live 2023 at PAX in Seattle, WI Left: Our Christmas hotel stay at the luxurious Inn at SentryWorld. Something Sam and Steve have started doing together during the month of December (one of our advent calendar dailies, if you will) is to each write emails ofContinue reading...
Video Games for English Reading Skills
Reading can seem like a skill for some that feels elusive and/or challenging. Is this you? During my career as an English Second Language educator, I racked up a small list of the games I occasionally used to spark an interest in reading – at any age! AndContinue reading...
What Remains of Our Stories Through the “Finch Curse” Lens
The Video Game What Remains of Edith Finch is a Deeply Impactful & Emotional Experience – So Nice, I Played It Twice! What Remains of Edith Finch is a 2017 adventure game developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game is a collection of shortContinue reading...
Gaming for a Grateful Mind
If you like video games and struggle with the Big Sad Boss fight of daily life sometimes, read on for my suggestions of games with written reflection practices. Video Games Can Provide an Intentional Space for Creative Expression Historically, humans have used expressive writing to document and persuadeContinue reading...
Paired Games to Play with Your “Sore Loser” Partner
Sam and Steve often find themselves wanting to snuggle up on a couch together, controllers in hands, ready to be immerse in a video game together. Finding video games to play with your someone special can be really difficult. In a landscape of AAA hyper-competitive titles, it becomesContinue reading...
Kind Words – A Game for Cozy Encounters with Humanity
Lately, Steve and I have been taking more frequent mental health walks around our neighborhood. During one walk, I started telling Steve about how I could not understand why the indie video game Kind Words wasn’t more popular – especially in the “cozy” social media spaces I haveContinue reading...
Return the Gaming Console to My Hands, Please!
Recently, I had the opportunity to tell Jeff Grubb how much I loved his YouTube series Game Mess Mornings. I felt starstruck as we both chatted about our affinity and frustrations of video game journalism. For me, a lot of my specific frustrations come from the lacking ofContinue reading...
Samsung Z Flip5 – One Month Review
The new Samsung Galaxy ZFlip5 is definitely a head-turning phone. I battled so much with it’s novice allure that I occasionally even tried peer pressure on friends to get the first buy-in. Eventually though, I caved to the trade in and… this lead me down a rabbit holeContinue reading...
Overthought
Short fiction – 487 words Sipping on coffee this morning, Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” is all I hear in my mind as I stare blankly out my bay window. Ear worms are the worst kind of worms, I think. There’s no squishy feel to them andContinue reading...
Nintendo Live 2023
We won lottery tickets to the first ever North American Nintendo Live event held this year in Seattle, Washington. This event was tied into the larger PAX West 2023 event, which we will also write about in a separate post later. These events are like the annual DisneyContinue reading...