Retro Gamer Boy

Hello RGB fans! Wow, I can’t believe that the last time I posted here was over a year ago. Shows you how good I am at being a blogger (read “not good at all”). I have been gaming just as much but have not had much worth posting about. Recently, however, things have happened that warrant a post. I’ve moved!

You see, I spent the greater part of my life living in the OKC metro area, 15 years to be precise. There were good times and bad times, and I really did learn a lot about life as I matured there. It’s where my wife and I got married, it’s where we almost got divorced, it’s where we became parents – 5 times, it’s where I received my best paying jobs and where I was unceremoniously released from a company that did a major reduction in force (many years ago), it was even the place that I held my father’s hand as he died. But, as the old adage says, “the only thing that is constant in life is change”.

After working for a managerial role for a large university for 3 years, I started to become disillusioned with the place I called home. I watched as the state continued to shrink the funds for education in an already tight budget and witnessed the school in the city where my wife and I had our own dream home be reduced to 4 day school week, once again deny my special needs son the paraprofessional he desperately needed. I saw that my employer was not having any bigger budgets soon so my project would continue to be grossly underfunded and my salary (and the salaries of my staff) continue to stay flat. I started to look for new positions but found that I was making about as much as someone in my career could make if they remained in Oklahoma as no other positions had even comparable salaries. I started to look beyond the borders of my beloved home state and found a few. I was almost given a position in the Western Georgia/Eastern Alabama area. I had been pushed very high up the chain for a position in Pittsburgh. I had been considered for a position in Chicago. I had been considered for a position in Arizona, and even Austin, TX. However, the company that pursued me most actively was one in the Kansas City, MO area. Only 5 hours away from Oklahoma City.

After a few weeks of intense interviews, I decided that the position was the best I could get for the distance I needed to travel. Not to mention, it paid a pretty penny higher than my current role without the stress of the managerial role. My wife and I discussed it, agreed, and everything changed.

We now live in an affluent suburb of KCMO. I have gigabit internet. I have 1/3 of a basement for an office/studio/man cave. My children are in one of the top school districts in the entire USA (and the top one in this area), and we have a whole new city to explore. I wish I could say it has all been easy going but it has not. However, the tide has turned and things are looking good (for now at least). As my family and I get unpacked, organized, and find our rhythm in this new place, I hope to get more retro stuff out.

Some plans:

• I’m playing Castlevania Symphony of the Night: XBox version so I’ll write a review of it
• I’ve watched several “Let’s Play” videos on YouTube and may write my own soon enough
• I am teaching my children how to play the old school games via emulators and my oldest already seems to have quite a flair for getting good at retro games

I also, have stepped down from teaching, at least for a bit. So that means I hope to have more time for my main job and of course… more time for gaming.