The past few weeks have been crazy for me.  I lost my job at the beginning of the month which was, needless to say, quite a shock.  Since then I’ve begun laying the groundwork to go back to school for computer programming.  I used to dabble in this field a lot in middle school and high school – I went so far as to develop a Tekken 4 RPG in Visual Basic.  Now that I’m left needing a new direction in life, programming feels like the obvious option and I’m quite excited to see where it takes me.

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Not long after all that drama was EVO 2012.  Twitter was blowing up about it but I just wasn’t in the proper state of mind to watch it live.  Once things settled down I asked everyone to link me to their favorite matches.  Before I knew it I was sipping a cocktail while watching hours of competitive gaming in pure bliss.  Thanks to all of those who sent me links!

After the foul taste in my mouth from this year’s E3, EVO was a welcomed distraction. The event remains a pure celebration of games by a thriving and resourceful subset of gamers.  There were no unnecessary celebrity cameos or endorsements.  There was no pandering of investors.  There were no sensitive gender issues discussed ad nauseum as thousands attempted to define and correct countless years of ingrained prejudice in a single blog post.  No, there was just two players, two fight-sticks, and tons of hype:

The show was amazing and I’m confident I’ll be in a better place when I watch it next year.

If you missed EVO 2012, you can find a list of the videos I watched over at Bit-Speak.

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This past weekend was ConnectiCon, the biggest little convention held in the Nutmeg State.  Sarah was there promoting her webcomic, Rumbirds, and I tagged along to promote My Fair Hunter and Kotowari to anyone who seemed like a cool dude.  Here’s Nutgarden5 and myself playing Monster Hunter Freedom Unite with a friend we met at the show:

I didn’t get many photos of cosplayers, mostly because I’m a shy nerd and I don’t want to bother people.  Here are the only two I had the courage to ask photos of:

Female monster hunter in full Kirin attire

Elizabeth with blonde hair

So now you’re up to speed on my life in the chaotic month of July.  Things have been tumultuous but I’m glad to have had events like EVO and ConnectiCon to serve as a reminder of what is important to me as I get back on track.