(Image Credit: Edited entirely by me. Except for that Kirby Thanos, since that would be by from here.)
Love is in the air... Actually, that's incorrect, according to my social studies calculator. You see, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, argon, and boron are in the air (sometimes). Also, the air is in the air.
Why am I making such a strange and different post like this? Well, in case you didn't know, one year ago, I decided to get particularly festive for St. Green Boi Week. I published a YouTube video (or a blog post, I forgot) titled "Green", which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
Have you read it yet? A very beautiful wallpaper, I know. But that's not the point of it! The point was to be as festive as possible. Now that it's sometime close to Watermelon Swine's Day (that was the name of the holiday about red heart-shaped candy, right?), I decided to do the same. I will spread as much Water-swine's Day cheer as possible!
Now, how would I do this? By asking way too many rhetorical questions that it stalls the meaning of my writing and accidentally convinces dyslexic people to close their browser? Nope. I was considering making a joke post, where literally nothing that I said was serious. But I ultimately decided against it (just like how I did last year). But then, I had an even better idea. One that people have been wanting me to do for a long time. I haven't done it in about 10 months. It starts with the letter "c", and ends with the letter "b". It also has a letter "a" in the middle. Can you guess what it is?
It's a crab, of course! It can't be a collab. That would be weird. A crab, unlike a collab, is actually the color red. The main color of this holiday. Hey, I wonder if this holiday was named for someone's birthday? Huh... Talk about a brain teaser.
Which crab would that be? Well, you must remember my previous post, about the Super Bowl not having Sweet Victory at the Halftime Show. That crab would be Spongebob's boss, Eugene Crabs. Well, if you are a true meme fan like I am, you know that last year he got an awful lot of publicity for his music video "Crab Rave", which you can watch here.
But I can't just do anything else. My time is limited, and my chances to bring my blog back to life are as well. Well then, I guess I'll do something I'm very good at. Stories? Not this time. Memes? Didn't I just say no to that? Reviews of [insert title of Star Wars move/Nintendo game here]? I know that is super-unexpected (*gasp*), but nope and nope. It's actually just talking about whatever I feel like talking about.
This post will serve the purpose of catching me up again with my viewers. This is Arca, and I know it been a long time. You see, middle school hasn't been very nice to my time. And neither have I, to be perfectly honest. But that era is over, and a new one will soon begin. It isn't just RED. I guess you could call it a blog redemption... or a RED Dead Blogdemption.
Actually, well, I think that GREEN Shrek Blogdemption is a better name, even if it doesn't stick to the whole red-theme-thing.
(Image Credit: Edited entirely by me.)
Oh, what to talk about...
Pewdiepie v.s. T-Series
Yup, that's still a thing. It even fits the whole "RED" theme of this post, look at that! The subscriber gap between YouTube's two most subscribed channels keeps on narrowing, and Pewds (AKA the former king of the website) could be dethroned at any moment now as we speak! You literally can't spend a single second on YouTube, social media, or a middle school hallway without hearing people say "Subscribe to Pewdiepie!", referencing the whole disaster, or singing the lyrics to his song. I honestly support Pewdiepie, even if its just so that he can beat T-Series to an amount that can never be passed so that people can honestly stop talking about it. I'm kind of getting bored with it, honestly. Its been several months of this whole thing, and it even extended to this year's (mega-disappointing) Super Bowl. Mr. Beast wore "SUB 2 PEWDS" shirts in the stadium, and got broadcasted on live TV?! Yawn, guys, give me a break. Even though I do find it quite surprising that the once-undisputed King of YouTube is now becoming obsolete thanks to some Indian music video company that only sprung up within the past few months, yeesh.
R.I.P. Google+
Image source: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/17/google-plus-updates/
Speaking of things that have a red logo and are about to become obsolete... Google+! In the fall of last year, Google executives made a tear-jerking announcement: Their not-so-popular social media platform, Google Plus, was being shut down by Google in April of 2019. In other words, that's in less than 2 months from now! Now, most people probably don't care, as evidenced by the fact that Google themselves stated that over 99% of the site's users only went on for sessions not exceeding more than 5 seconds. There were, and still are, better, and much more popular social media platforms out there. But what made this one special to me (and to many of my peers and friends, specifically), was the impact that it had left on our late childhoods and early tweens.
I remember the first time that I had used the site was when trying to figure out how to download Minecraft PE betas on mobile, about five years ago. Dang, time passes so much... Now I'm no longer a child, but I still do remember visiting that site on a regular basis. To chat with my school friends, and even create our own communities together. In these communities, I have vivid memories of sharing memes, creating polls, and even running in virtual elections to try to become a moderator (some of which became particularly competitive). Even after the whole communities thing stumbled and fell, I still loved having what was, and still is, the only form of social media that I have. With Google+, after all, you only needed a Google+ account to sign up.
Years passed, and I began turning to the site as less of a social haven with my peers, and more of a giant momentum-builder for my blog. Normally, the way that my posts would rack up views would either be by telling my friends, random Google searches from strangers, or occasionally, if I was lucky, by my mom sharing it with her hundreds of avid Facebook friends. But with Google+, I could advertise my blog efficiently, effectively, and to exactly the right audience that I wanted to. If I created a post about that awesome new Minecraft update, for example, I could share it with the Minecraft Community Page, and get lots of views from an army of 9-year-olds. If I made a Nintendo news post, I could post it to the Nintendo community and get quite a lot of views from curious fans, and so on and so forth.
Now that Google+ is gone, that means that I will no longer be able to use it as a publicity-generator for my blog. Maybe I'll look to another platform, such as Reddit or Discord, but unfortunately, most of the fan communities there have strict rules against any sort of advertising or self-promotion, so I guess I'm out of luck. Now, more than ever would be a good time tot share my blog with your friends if you enjoy it!
Anyways, here's a monody for Google+ to lament its death, in haiku form (the only type of poem that I'm currently even decent at):
Goodbye, Google's son
You were nothing in the crowd
But something to me
Finally, a Nintendo Direct! YIPEE!
Even though the very existence of a new Nintendo Direct livestream is already a reason to rejoice, the fact that the one on February 13 was particularly awesome makes me even happier. While I am fully aware that some people were disappointed by it ("no updates on Pokemon or Animal Crossing? Boo!"), it definitely succeeded my expectations. I don't understand why people were expecting something particularly massive or groundbreaking, for a few reasons. One, it is only February and the beginning of the year. We haven't had a Nintendo Direct in months, so it's understandable that they would to end the year with the big stuff (AKA keep the big holiday releases in their own time-appropriate Directs later on). Also, the Switch is in a rare position; most of the major Nintendo franchises that people want have either already made their way to the Switch (through a port or sequel), or have gotten announced and confirmed for the years to come.
At this point, I for one, as a younger Nintendo fan of this generation, am definitely satisfied with the Switch's library and upcoming games so far. Before this Direct, there was only one game that I extremely badly wanted that hadn't been announced or confirmed yet, which was Super Mario Maker. I played the port of the original Wii U version on the 3DS, and I fell in love with the amount of creativity and customization that it offered. I yearned for it to come to Switch, even if it was just a port, and right from the start of the Direct, Nintendo delivered! It wasn't just a port, but a full on sequel to the original, overflowing with so many new features and level-design opportunities that they literally showed a new feature every two seconds of the reveal trailer! It may not have 3D level designing like I predicted in my E3 2018 post (at least it hasn't been confirmed as of yet), but this is still purely awesome, and my favorite thing from the entire Direct!
Other announcements that I liked included the announcement of the co-op platformer Unravel 2 for the Switch (I was already considering buying the PS4 version of the game), the free DLC for both Captain Toad and Starlink: Battle for Atlas, the announcement of Dragon Quest Builders 3, and the free demo for Yoshi's Crafted World. Other game announcements that I particularly loved were a gorgeous HD remake of the 25-year-old Gameboy game The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (which I am hyped to play this year), and Tetris 99, which is traditional Tetris turned into a free-to-play online battle royale game exclusive to the Switch (which I downloaded right away and am having a blast playing). While you do technically need to be a Switch Online member to play it, that wasn't an issue for me, since I already am.
Overall, the Direct did not disappoint, at least for me, and its looking like 2019 will be a better year for Nintendo gamers than 2018, and maybe even 2017, was!
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Anyways, that's all for this post. Be sure to subscribe if you liked it and want to be the first to know when I make a new post through email notifications. Please share it with others, since that really helps to grow my audience of readers. I know I haven't been posting very frequently in recent months, but expect that soon to page. Now, expect for me to (maybe) post once a week, at least for some time. My upcoming posts include a somewhat-delayed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie review, which I'm hoping will be my next one.
If you like my blog and want to read another similar blog, be sure to check out Burak's Blog. It's made by one of my closest friends and a member of The AABO Show YouTube channel, and he always makes entertaining content. His posts are a bit shorter than mine, but that's the point of his blog; It won't take much of your time to put a smile on your face, and that's great. Did I mention that he also posts more frequently than I do? You can see his blog here: http://biloglu.blogspot.com/
Also, Burak, if you're reading this, I know you want to do a collab post. Maybe sometime later, on the weekend. For example, I'd love it if you'd contribute maybe a few paragraphs on your opinion of Spider-Verse in my next post. And yes, I am looking forward to finally finishing that Overcooked Review on your blog (written in the point of view of Gordon Ramsay).
Also check out my YouTube channel, where I recently posted a school ELA vocabulary project as a submission for the NY Time's 6th Annual 15-second Vocabulary Video contest. My word was "dank." Enough said. You can watch it below, or at this link: https://youtu.be/7nYsAfCTUHU
My little brother, Onur (who starred in the video above), also has his own blog, and he sometimes posts about Nintendo. Check that out as well: http://onur3.blogspot.com/
That's all for this post. See you all next time! BBBYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
Hey, pssst..... Did you really scroll down this much? Congratulations. You have given yourself a redemption. If you like the sublime taste of yan-apple cider, here's something for you: https://bit.ly/2T6Ub3q
Arca, I'm up for it.
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