Greetings robots! Like pretty much everyone else, I read for a long time, and now have finally decided to show myself in hopes of one day gaining your admiration and infiltrating your social group on the internets. Because you seem like good people.

To expand upon the tiny bit of information found on the side to produce an introduction:

My name is what it says above my posts, but most people just call me Ash. I am a twenty-two year old female who resides in Alabama and is pursuing a degree in English, the most worthless of degrees, to someday become a writer/journalist or be forced to teach high school English to pay off my school loans. I have an encyclopedic knowledge of things that will never get me anywhere in life outside of trivia game shows, I like the normal square bits of Capn' Crunch more than the crunchberries, a wood duck is my best friend and partner in crime, and I just ate three freezepops. I am not a particularly complicated person!

Writing and art are my true loves, and video games are the fathers of my many illegitimate children. But because I am an extremely poor college student, I can't afford very many new games (Mario Kart Wii will be my last purchase for who knows how long) so I mostly rely on retro gaming for my fix. I replay Earthbound and Secret of Mana at least once a year.

In fact, I am going through a new game of Earthbound at the moment, to help balance out the amount of schoolwork I am doing in preparation for finals so my brain won't completely evaporate away. I am also working on perfecting my Ikaruga here and there, with a side of some Bomberman Live and Brawl.


I wanted to make a cute picture with the Zapper pointed at him, but he just hopped on up there out of harm's way. Crafty bastard.

My love of video games started with Duck Hunt for the NES, the very first game I ever played, but I have several earlier memories of my mother (who is still an awesome gamer) playing video games that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The Zapper remains to be a peripheral with a large amount of sentimental value attached to it (we were born in the same year, after all). Although my roots are in a Nintendo console, I am at heart one of the many Children of Sega. I was raised mostly on the Genesis, only to be abandoned after the death of the Dreamcast. Even so, it remains my most beloved console; lovingly, I named her Audrey III, as I would open her case and make her mouth, "Feed me, Seymour!" as I stuck a game in.

I also currently own a SNES, Gamecube, PS2, Wii, and 360. I have currently owned an NES, Genesis, N64, Saturn, and a PS1. Someday I wish to get all of those back, and more, because there are so many great games of the past I seem to have missed out on.

I enjoy the shoot-em-up and puzzle genres (or combinations of the two!) a whole lot, but I am not extremely discriminate when it comes to what games I play. If it's good, then I'll play it! If it's bad, well, I'll probably still play it, because I keep telling myself that there must be something good in there. I am not very gifted with writing up game reviews and the like because of my tendency to search for the good in all things. Though I suppose it is a positive trait in the sense that in all my life, I have made very few video game related purchases that I truly regretted.


Unrelated image, it's just cute!

I could not tell you my favorite game if my life depended upon it. Or even narrow it down to five, or ten, or fifty. Future posts will no doubt give you more of an insight on specifics (you've already gotten two hints: my blog layout clearly tells you I am a big fan of Cave Story, and my Xbox Live name is in reference to ICO/Shadow of the Colossus!), if that is what you desire to know, but I can assure you, if it's good, I like it!

I suppose that wraps things up here, but I plan to contribute my fair share of blogs (I have an idea for the Guilty Pleasures theme that I need to get out there soon!), comments, pictures of ducks, and maybe even forum posts (no promises with that one, I always forget forums exist) in the future. Bear with me though, I'm a little shy, so it might take a while for me to get completely cozy here. Unless you buy me drinks. Lots of drinks!

So anyway, hi guys! Let's be friends.