Semantic Nonsense: Thanks 3D

Another year, another recap blog post thinly disguised as a half-assed attempt at being nice for a change. Get used to it folks, you’ll be seeing it again next year.

I’m thankful for WordPress

The biggest change to Damage Control since it’s inception was this year’s transition from Moveable Type to WordPress. Accompanying it was a great new design, one of the best (and cheapest) back ends in web content business and a host of new features already put to work.

Angela worked long and hard to get this changed over and up and running (I helped a little, but she did like, 100 things for every one I could be bothered to accomplish), so this first portion of thankfulness is aimed squarely at her.

I’m thankful for abdicating control

They used to say that “states are the incubators of democracy.” In this day and age, it seems the real incubator is the Internet, and I’m not just talking about the democracy option in “Twitch Plays Pokemon.”

Placing my gaming backlog priority in the hands of you readers has been a fun and surprising experiment the novelty of which I hope hasn’t worn thin just three times in. It has helped me tackle games faster than I was on my own, which has been a tremendous help.

I’m thankful for the PSP

Damage Control remarked the end of Sony’s first handheld this year, and I’ll say again the PSP has done alright by me.

I owned a PSP long before I owned a Nintendo DS, mostly because I was really sore about missing the boat on Valkyrie Profile, and the enhanced remake offered me the chance to finally play the game, as it and the PSP cost less than used copies of its PSOne release.

PSOne, by the way, is a less stupid name than XBox One because it was actually the first PlayStation.

I’ve enjoyed countless hours with my PSP. Though in the end my library of DS games is double the size of of my UMD collection, I would never change getting the PSP first; I cam to appreciate its game much sooner than I did those of the DS.

I’m thankful for license rescues

My occasional series, Anime Legends, has petered out this year. One of the reasons for that is the scraps left in Bandai’s wake have slowly but surely been picked up by others. I planned an entry this year on Blue Submarine No. 6, only to discover it had already been picked up by Discotek Media.

Later this year, I’d discover that all of the Gundam series (yes ALL of them, even the ones Bandai declined to publish in North America like Double Zeta) will be re-released thanks to the tag team efforts of Sunrise and Right Stuf, who did a bang-up job with the reissue of Martian Successor Nadesico.

I’m hoping this trend will continue and all the Anime Legends live again, better than ever. It’s off to a great start so far.

I’m thankful for Robin Williams and Harold Ramis

While many people pass each year, including leaders, philanthropists and scientists who changed the world, for some reason I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about two skilled writers and actors whose work left an indelible impression on me.

As most readers have realized, I watch a lot of movies. And some of the best I saw growing up were the responsibility of these two men. They had a profound impact on my fragile little psyche, expertly if unintentionally forming my popular culture tastes and sense of humor.

To lose both of them in one year is certainly a big deal, and the details of both of their deaths are less than ideal. Rather than dwell on that, I’ll just be thankful for all they’ve made, for they’re held in high regard by far more people than just me.