Pardon the interruption

Hello, everyone. Some of you likely have noticed that I haven't updated this blog since July 8. Rest assured all is OK with me, my husband, my family--even my cat.

As for why it's been a whole week since I last published a post here, the answer is pretty straightforward: I've spent that time driving across the country (from Wisconsin to Texas) and moving into the cute little home my husband and I bought about a month ago.

The house in question is showcased in the photo above. Actually, so is my rather handsome (if I do say so myself) husband.

Want to see some more snapshots of my house, my husband, my cat, myself and some of the amazing things we've seen this year while living in various parts of the southern and southwestern US? Check out the photos I've shared on Instagram.

Don't worry, I'll return to publishing two or three blog posts a week shortly. In fact, things should get back to normal on Monday or Tuesday--as soon as we gain access to the Internet at our new abode.

Can you believe this is the beginning of The Gay Gamer's 11th year as a blog?

I certainly can't believe it. Regardless, it's true. I published my first post here all the way back on Feb. 1, 2007. I can't say my early write-ups were very good but, hey, you've got to start somewhere, right?

At any rate, I'm glad I launched this blog 11 years ago. I did it, by the way, because I desperately needed a place to geek out about all of the games and systems and related stuff that excited and interested me.

I also wanted to create a space where others would feel safe to do the same. Admittedly, I assumed at the time that the "others" in question would be limited to LGBT folk, so it's been a pleasant surprise to see a lot of "straight" people stop by this blog over the last 10-plus years as well.



Speaking of which, I'd like to thank everyone who has visited, followed or commented on this blog at some point or other between 2007 and now. I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

If you've never left a comment, by the way, why not start now? I respond to each and every one, and if I'm to be honest, I prefer engaging in those conversations to focusing on my own blatherings.

You don't have to limit those conversations to this blog, of course. I'm also active on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter, so give me a holler (or whatever) on any or all of those sites if you're up for such social-media shenanigans.

A little heads-up about me, this blog and 2017

You may have noticed me grousing here and on Twitter about being busy and stressed out over the last couple of months.

As annoying as it likely was, there were reasons for the whining. One of them: my husband and I decided to sell our house. Another: we decided to quit our jobs.

Now we're preparing to head out on an adventure that will take us to a number of different US towns and cities and will take up most, if not all, of 2017.

Don't worry, this doesn't mean I'm killing this blog. On the contrary, I'll likely publish posts more frequently than I have in years. And not only that, but the content of those posts should be meatier--or at least more interesting and informed--thanks to the fact I'll probably play many more games than I have in years.

Speaking of which, I'm planning to introduce a couple of new columns or series to this blog in early 2017.

I'm planning to do a lot more of the above in 2017

Rather than aping my "Aural Gratification," "Manual Stimulation" or "Nice Package!" series, though, these will be more akin to my "Year of the GameBoy" posts. In other words, they'll focus on specific game systems. Can you guess which ones?

One downside to this soon-to-start 2017 sabbatical: I won't have access to all of my many systems or games for nearly a year. The bulk of my "collection" will be in storage while the hubs and I are on the road.

Still, I'm bringing a bunch of games and systems with me. Specifically, I'm bringing my Japanese and North American 3DSes, my DS Lite, my Japanese PSone (I think), my Vita and my WonderSwan Color.

I'd love to bring my PSP, but its pesky UMDs pose a serious problem for a guy who has to cram a year's worth of treasured gaming possessions into a medium-sized duffel bag.

Anyway, that's what is in store for me, this blog and my gaming habits next year. If you'd like to keep track of the non-gaming portion of this upcoming adventure of mine, by the way, follow me on Instagram.

Feel free to DISQUS

While perusing my friend Anne's blog, Chic Pixel, late last week, I noticed that its comments section was different. Specifically, I noticed it was now using DISQUS, which I'd previous seen and used at blogs like Tiny Cartridge, rather than Blogger's built-in comments engine, as had previously been the case.

After putting Chic Pixel's new comments section through its paces (you know, by leaving a few comments), I decided I had to add DISQUS to this blog, too. The main reason: It allows for nested or tiered comments. In other words, should someone named, er, TheGayGamerFan leave a comment that says, "Awesome! I've been waiting for you to fix your broken comment system!!" I'll be able to reply to him/her directly without having to preface my response with something like, "Thanks, TheGayGamerFan..."

Don't worry if little or none of what I just said makes sense. Just do what I did while visiting Chic Pixel last week and leave a comment on this or any other of this blog's many posts. That should go a long way to helping you understand why this comments engine is better than the built-in one I was using before.

Note: Although I enabled "guest commenting" while setting up DISQUS earlier today, I'm not entirely sure if that means you can leave a comment here without signing up for DISQUS. If that's not the case and you do have to sign up for DISQUS to leave a comment, please accept my apologies. Believe me when I say, though, that registering for DISQUS is quick and painless, so please don't shy away from doing so.

Back in the saddle again

Well, the 2011 Schochallagerdt Family Vacation is over. Actually, it ended a few hours ago--when my parents pulled away from our curb in their rental car and headed back to the airport.



Although my head feels as though it's full of cobwebs at the moment, I'm sure it will be cleared up by tomorrow. As such, expect this blog to return to normal--i.e., expect to see more than a single, measly post published to it per day--within the next 24 hours.

Hasta la vista, Google AdSense

As I'm sure you could tell as soon as you visited today, this is once again an ad-free blog.

I promised when I added Google AdSense to the site that if the ads didn't help me earn enough to buy an extra game or two a month I'd get rid of them.

Well, not only didn't the ads earn me enough to buy a game in the last month, they didn't earn me enough to buy a pack of gum! So, away they go.

Although I'll likely give them a second chance at some point in the future, for the time being this blog will be free of those oh-so-helpful ads that try to get you to buy heartburn meds or invest in retirement homes.  

Slow week ahead

Expect the next week to be a slow one, folks, as my parents--as well as the hub's dad and sister--are visiting for the first time in ages.

I originally intended to publish two posts a day--just as I always do--while they're here, but now I'm thinking it will be more intermittent than that. So, I may publish just a single post on Monday, nothing on Tuesday, two posts on Wednesday ... you get the drift, right?

Also, I would have published a few more posts yesterday and today, but I've been dealing with a nasty cold for the last two days and I'm so hopped up on medicine at the moment that I can barely think straight.

Additional evidence that my sister-in-law is all sorts of awesome

Did you notice anything new when you visited this blog yesterday or today? If not, may I suggest glancing up at the URL?

Yep, this blog is now, officially, thegaygamer.com--thanks to my awesome sister-in-law, Jan. (Those of you who have been coming here for a while may recall that she made the snazzy, sparkly header image that has greeted anyone who has visited this site since last summer.)



Here's how it came about: Jan recently asked me why I didn't have my own domain. I responded by saying that thegaygamer.com wasn't available. (I swear, the last time I looked--and I've looked semi-regularly since I started the blog in early 2007--it was owned by someone else!) She did some digging, discovered that it was, in fact, available, and promptly bought for me as an early (very early) birthday present. She also did all the behind-the-scenes wizardry that allows the blog to show up at both thegaygamer. blogspot.com and thegaygamer.com.

Isn't that awesome?

Full speed ahead!

Does it still take 30 seconds or longer for you to load this blog? I hope not!

I just got rid of some unneeded code (thanks to the assistance of a kind fellow named Peter McCartney) and that seems to have solved the problem on my end. Hopefully it's solved the problem on your end, too?

By the way, if something like this ever happens again--i.e., you can cover yourself in honey and have your cat lick it all off before the darn blog finishes loading--I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me know. I honestly didn't realize it was a problem until this morning, when someone decided to mention it in the comments section. (Thanks again, Justin!)

Anyway, thank you for your patience with this issue and sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused. Now that it's seemingly been put to rest, let's get back to business, shall we?

Sloooooooooooooow

Have you noticed anything new about this blog in the last week or so? No, I'm not talking about the ads (more on them in a minute, by the way); I'm talking about the length of time it takes to load the darn thing!

Silly me, I've been thinking all this time that it was just my computer. You know, maybe I had to restart it or clean out my cookies or something. Last night, though, the hubs wanted to check out the blog. For at least 30 seconds he sat staring at a sea of pink.

Even then, I thought it was probably just related to our router or something. (Yes, I'm naive.) Until this morning, when one of you told me the blog was loading slowly for you, too.

Unfortunately, I don't have a clue as to what would be causing this problem. It can't be the ads, since they weren't added until last night.

The good news is that I've posted a question about the situation in Blogger's help forum. Hopefully someone there will be able to help me sooner rather than later. If any of you have any ideas as to what could be slowing this blog to a crawl, please let me know. I'm certainly up for hearing any and all suggestions at this point.

As for those above-mentioned ads: I hope they don't completely bug any of you--or at least don't bug you enough that you stop coming to this blog.

Why did I add them to the blog after all of this time? Well, my answer is pretty simple, really: I thought they might help me bring in enough money to buy an extra game a month or something like that. If that doesn't happen, though, I'll drop them--no ifs, ands or buts.

Blogger: 1, The Gay Gamer: 0

I know what some of you are wondering: Where in the hell have you been for the last few days?

Actually, I've been right here, waiting to press "publish post." Unfortunately, I was unable to even access my blog's dashboard between Thursday morning and yesterday afternoon thanks to some behind-the-scenes drama at Blogger. (Read about it here.)

Although I'm able to access my dashboard and publish posts again, all is not yet back to normal on this here blog. Case in point: I lost a trio of posts as well as a number of comments thanks to the aforementioned drama.

Because I'm not sure if the folks at Blogger will be able to recover the lost posts (as they have for most other blogs) in the next few days or not, for the time being I'm going refrain from rewriting and republishing them.

As much as I'd like to sit and sulk about all of the above, I don't think that would be the best course of action. (We are just talking about blog posts, after all.) Instead, why don't we get back to geeking out about games?

Saucy or simple?

I'm a bit torn when it comes to choosing a headline for a post--a Q&A with Anna Anthropy, aka auntie pixelante--that's going to be published this coming week.

Should I go for something "saucy": auntie pixelante's goal for Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars: to give gamers 'a big, fat orgasm'

Or should I go for "simple": Ten questions with auntie pixelante

It probably won't surprise anyone to hear that I prefer the saucy option, but I have to admit that it also gives me pause. Is it too sensational? Does it scream, a little too loudly, "click on me! PLEASE!!"

Regarding that latter comment, the fact is that I do want people to click on it. Not because I'm desperate for hits, pageviews, etc., but because I think Anthropy is a brilliant woman and I want as many people as possible to read what she has to say about her latest creation, Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars.

The question, then, is will the saucy headline draw people in or turn them away? 

Of course, the same could be asked of the simple option. Sure, it's the complete opposite of sensational, but it's kind of boring, too. Also, it doesn't really give any indication as to the content of the post.

What do all of you think? Should I go with saucy or simple--and why do you think I should use that option?

I have a confession ...

I wasn't busy with work last week. In reality, I was in Hawaii (Kauai, specifically) on vacation.

Sorry for lying. I did it because someone (*cough* my sister-in-law Jan *cough*) made me feel paranoid about telling people via the Interwebs that David (the hubs) and I were going on vacation. I wanted to warn all of you that things would be a bit slow while I was gone, though, so I fibbed and said I was overrun with work.

Anyway, we're back, so expect things to return to normal this week.

(Another) slow week ahead

The past week or two have been a bit lean in terms of posts, haven't they? Sorry about that. I've got a lot of looming deadlines at the moment, and when that happens I tend to concentrate on the writing that pays rather than on the writing that doesn't. (What a concept, eh?)



Anyway, next week will, sadly, be even leaner, although I promise to publish at least one post per day. Also, things will be back to normal the following week, so at least there's that.

Follow me

I know this is hard to believe, but I don't actually spend all of my time blogging about games or reading about them on other blogs. (Oh, or playing them.) Lately, for instance, I've been tweeting about them, too. (Don't tell the husband.)

What? You didn't know I'm on Twitter? Well, I am! Here's where you can go to follow me, if you're interested: 

https://twitter.com/thegaygamer

Speaking of following: If you're a regular reader of this here blog, you may want to do yourself a favor and click on the little "follow" button on the right side of the screen. (You may have to scroll down a bit to see it.)

Don't worry if you're not at all interested in following me on either site. I won't mind. OK, maybe I will--just a little--but I won't cry. At least, not much...

See also: 'Tweets of the day'

RE: 10 video games that made my life gayer

Well, it seems I've stumped a few of you with the "10 video games that made my life gayer" series that I started yesterday. (Here's the first one and here's the second.) Specifically, my use of the word gayer seems to have stumped a few of you. Sorry about that.

I probably should have started the first post in the series with this disclaimer: "In this post, and in all subsequent '10 video games that made my life gayer' posts, gayer will be used in the old-fashioned sense, as in happier or merrier."

Actually, I considered doing just that early on, but it seemed so awkward; I'd much rather get right to the meat of the post. That said, I think I'll put the above-mentioned disclaimer at the end of each of these posts from now on.

(By the way, as I mentioned in a recent comment, I'd definitely be up for writing a few posts about video games that literally made me gayer--i.e., more homosexual--but I'm not entirely sure at this point which games would be included in such a series.)

Sorry, (Explorer and) Safari fans

I recently realized that this site looks a bit wonky when viewed via Internet Explorer and Safari. Sorry about that.

My advice: Access it through Chrome or Firefox instead--especially if you want a wonk-free blogging experience.

I'll be back ...

... to normal next week.

I wasn't able to post as often as I would have liked this week due to having a lot on my plate professionally. (A blogger has to pay the bills, you know.) Next week should be much better, though, so expect things to get back to normal then.

Normally I'd post once or twice over the weekend, but I just got my copy of Dragon Quest IX (booyah!) and, honestly, I'd rather spend some quality time with it than with all of you. (Please don't take that personally.)

Ta-da!

You know how I mentioned (a few days ago) that this blog would soon sport a sparkly new header/banner? Well, here it is!

It was made by the bestest sister-in-law in the world. (Thanks again, Jan!) Isn't it fabulous?

By the way, the joystick-wielding "dude" (as my sister-in-law likes to call him) on the left side of the header is Takakazu Abe, meme-inspiring star of Junichi Yamakawa's one-shot bara manga, Kuso Miso Technique (link NSFW).

See also: 'Coming soon: a sparkly (literally) new header!'

Coming soon: a sparkly (literally) new header!

Just a quick post to let all of you know that this blog will soon sport--thanks to my talented sister-in-law--a sparkly new banner/header.

Hopefully you'll like it. I know I do!