The Legend of Play!

I like to play.  I like to have fun with the world.  I like staring at road kill, photographing litter, climbing posts, trespassing train tracks, taking detours, getting my shoes wet in tall grass, running in the rain, sliding on ice, working next to concert bands, instigating pillow fights, having friends over after midnight to play video games, experimenting with food, listening to weird music, making up music on the piano, running, playing in parks, it never ends.

I'm going on an adventure this next week.  There will be a lot of work over that time, what with jodo grading coming up, and having a Lot of School Work to do.  However, there will be a lot of play.  In particular, video games.

Video games are art to me.  They're educational.  They're entertaining.  They connect people in ways different to other activities.  Or they can.  I wouldn't know about when they don't, as I'm a life-long Nintendork and don't dabble in other silly excuses for maturity and reality.  :D  (I tease, Sony fans, I tease.)  Anyway, when I started my undergraduate, I took a hiatus from gaming.  It used to be my core activity, and then I quit it over night.  I told myself I'd resume once my undergraduate was complete.  It came, but I went, did a little bit of globe trotting.  While abroad, I thought about restarting with a Nintendo DSi but didn't.  Eventually I acquired a Wii and did play a couple games, but disappeared again to school, where the Wii became more a conduit to high culture in film (i.e. Netflix).

Well, now's as good a time as any.  My Wii has finally become a venue for social interaction as I once hoped it would be.  It's wonderful to watch someone's face delight at Mario in 3D again, and it's exhilarating looking forward to a new era of Link and Zelda.

Boo!  My collection of Nintendo attire expands.

 This past week saw the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and in time for Christmas comes a special Legend of Zelda anniversary edition 3DS accompanied by The Ocarina of Time 3D.  I wear Triforce gauntlets.  I still remember walking and sometimes running through a little forested hill in New Zealand at the end of their summer (around Easter) imagining it was part of Hyrule and myself an elfish hero questing to save his princess.  I still remember finding my brother's old bow and arrows and going to my elementary school to send the missiles as far afield as they would fly, almost hitting a new friend.  I still remember going over to an old friend's smelly house and playing their golden cartridge on the NES and feeling overwhelmed by the world's scope and majesty (in only 8 bits!).

I hope to die before I stop playing, and I hope to let video games be a larger part of my play, though not at the complete expense of the real world.  I'm hoping to acquire at least one Hyrulian gem for Christmas, and then I can invite y'all over for a classic adventure, though it be accompanied by tall snowbanks, flying snow balls, and seasonal nostalgia.