Cruise with me baby

I'm not entirely sure why, but I've rarely shared any photos of myself here or on Twitter. Of course, I also rarely share them on Facebook or Flickr, so maybe I'm just not a "share photos of myself with the masses" kind of guy.

Still, after seeing the photos my sister-in-law snapped of me and my husband, David, during out recent cruise, I felt compelled to share a few of them here. Hopefully you'll get a kick out of them.

And if not? Well, things will return to normal tomorrow morning. I promise.

This photo (above) was taken while our ship, the Island Princess, made its way through a segment of the Panama Canal. Why am I so peppy, you ask? I'm guessing it's because I was on my third soda of the day--and it was only 10 am.

In this photo, David and I are demonstrating our prowess (or not) at paddle tennis. I'm pretty sure we were the only people on the entire ship (of just under 2,000 passengers) to try our hands at this rather idiotic sport.

Do you see the look on David's face in the photo above? That's the face of a guy who has beaten his husband at ping pong (or "table tennis," if that's how you roll) in 1,000 out of 1,024 matches. Sigh.

Me and the hubs working on our tans (or not) in Aruba. You can't really tell by looking at this photo, but I was sweating like a pig at the time. What can I say? My body was meant for cooler temps.

I don't know about you, but I think this last photo should be used to promote tourism in Aruba.

So, there you have it: 10 days of fun whittled down to five photographs. Do you feel as though you know me a bit better as a result? Probably not, but at least now you know I'm an actual human being and not just a NSFW bara manga character.

I'm baaaaaaaaack

Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know this, and some of the rest of you likely figured it out for other reasons, but for everyone else: I just returned from a two-week vacation that took me and my husband from Seattle to Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Grand Cayman, Panama and back again (via the "Island Princess" cruise ship).

Don't worry, I'm not trying to brag. I'm only bringing it up because I'm guessing a portion of you guys and gals noticed that things were a bit "off" around here during the last two weeks (I rarely Tweeted, I didn't comment on any recent announcements, etc.) and I wanted to make sure you know things will get back to normal as of today.

I also wanted to touch on a few of the aforementioned announcements that I typically would have talked about had I not been sleeping in, stuffing my face and otherwise chillaxing aboard the Internet-challenged Island Princess. Speaking of which, here are the gaming-related announcements that have caught my eye since we returned home on Friday evening:

* Animal Crossing's 3DS sequel finally gets a North American subtitle: "New Leaf"--Well, it's certainly better than "Jump Out," isn't it? Still, it sounds a bit odd. Not that I really care; I would have pre-ordered it even if Nintendo had decided to call it Animal Crossing 3DS.

* Daigasso! Band Brothers to make a triumphant return in 2013--During the latest Japanese Nintendo Direct broadcast, Satoru Iwata (with a little help from Barbara the Bat) revealed that another entry in this series of portable music games is being prepped for the 3DS and will see the light of day (in Japan) sometime next year. Which means I have to get off my butt and buy a Japanese 3DS pronto.

* The Denpa Men 2 is coming to North America, too--Unfortunately, the folks at Genius Sonority have yet to say when me and my countrymen (and countrywomen) will be getting our grubby little hands on this follow-up to the 3DS eShop title that has attracted more than 40 hours of my attention so far, but that's OK. After all, they haven't even released the original in Europe yet. Still, I hope The Denpa Men 2 earns a spot in our region's eShop sooner rather than later.

* Dragon Quest VII remake 3DS-bound--And not only that, but it'll be released in February. In Japan only for the moment, of course. Not much information has been released about this effort thus far, but what has been released suggests it will be a full, polygonal remake of Square Enix's two-disc PlayStation RPG. Anyway, here's hoping this Dragon Quest title doesn't get stuck in Japan like Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D and Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest 3 did.

* The pink-and-white 3DS XL will see a stateside release in a few weeks--Can you believe it? I honestly thought Nintendo of America would wait until February (you know, for Valentine's Day) to bring this beauty of a system to our shores. Does this mean I'm getting one? I guess you'll have to wait and see. (Gilt.com seems to be the only place you can purchase this system right now, by the way.)

So, did I miss anything? If so, please let me know. Also, let me know what you think of any or all of the tidbits discussed above.