I’ve known for a long time that I would eventually grow up, but I also knew I would never grow OLD, the extent of which I’m still trying to figure out.

I like a lot of things that I’m outside the age demographic for. I mean, c’mon, the only reason I ever go into a bookstore is so I can buy manga. As a 27 year old man, though, I’m also a fan of things I’m outside the GENDER demographic for.

Christina and I have been really hardcore back into anime lately (thanks in large part to how awesome Anime Boston  was this year) and she’s been buying up a ton of stuff from Right Stuf, which has all kinds of series on the cheap.

Gasp! A new blog post that ISN’T a repost from Bits ‘n’ Bytes? Has the world gone mad?

It’s no secret I’ve been scarce since I started writing for BnB a couple of months ago. I’ve been trying to keep up with writing for both blogs, which oftentimes is a Herculean task with all the other things I have going on every day. I haven’t written about BnB yet over here, and since it’s a big part of my life now I felt I should document it not only for myself, but to give you guys an idea of why the scales are tipped the way they are.

Warning, though, this is going to be a bit more personal than my usual “this is how I feel about video games” post.

The other day Christina and I were at Target, since we’re adults and sometimes have to go buy things like household cleaners and storage bins and other things that aren’t really all that fun. Still, though, we have a routine each time we go in: we get what we need, stop by the action figures, swing by the video games and DVDs, and then before we hit the registers to check out, look at the trading cards. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a pack of WoW cards to try for a loot card, or we’ll each get a pack of the new Pokémon cards, or Christina finds an interesting new unknown thing to buy.

This time, though, we found something WAY more awesome: a pack of the Animal Crossing e-Reader cards. For the GameCube game. From 2002.

As long-time readers may remember, I listed Phantasy Star Online as one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve been playing it pretty much non-stop for the past three days, and I’ve been wondering why. I can only play it single player, and it’s redundant as hell, but I can’t put it down.

A little backstory, though, before I get into it: while I did play a lot of PSO on the Dreamcast when it was released, I mostly played it on the GameCube with some friends of mine from the Animal Crossing website I used to work for. I had the GameCube broadband adapter and everything! However, when I was buying my original Xbox, I had to make up a little extra money, and since my friends had all stopped playing, I traded in my GameCube version and my broadband adapter, since PSO was available on Xbox as well so I figured I’d just buy it again, no harm no foul.

It was a big mistake, of course, and I’ve regretted it since, especially since I NEVER trade in games. Now my Dreamcast looks really bad on my new TV and my Xbox isn’t even hooked up. I’ve wanted the GameCube version for a while, so I could play it on my Wii with component cables and everything, but it regularly went for about $50 on eBay which I had a hard time justifying to myself. Last week, though, I finally re-purchased it and I’m having a blast re-living it.

This is a serious post. I say “serious” in a way that doesn’t necessarily mean serious in the traditional sense, because I’m going to discuss something that many people would consider stupid bullshit in a serious tone.

Anyway, right now I feel like I’m struggling to find my identity as a gamer. My life is VASTLY different than it was five years ago, and now that things are more or less the way they’re going to be until Christina and I decide to have a kid, I’m really trying to come to terms with where video games fit in my life.

When I was younger I played video games all the time. I don’t mean “younger” like a teenager, either. When I lived on my own, when I was at home I had a controller in my hand and I was playing a video game. The rate at which I consumed electronic entertainment back then was staggering in retrospect. I had disposable income and no one to tell me how to spend it, not to mention the perk of working at GameStop and being able to take home games as a “rental” whenever I wanted. It was never something I had to think about. I played video games.

Now, though, at times it almost feels like a chore to pick up a controller and start playing, and that scares me.

Hey, check it out, I’m still alive! Sorry for the shortage of posts for the past couple of weeks, but with the holidays and stuff with work I’ve been pretty busy. I work at a grocery store, so even though I don’t work with customers I still had a lot to do, plus I’m filling in for our HR person (and feeding her animals!) while she’s on vacation so it’s been a little crazy.

I hope you all had a great holiday! We sure did. It was our first “married Christmas” and it was full of food, family, great gifts and good times. It was actually the first Christmas I can remember where I didn’t receive a video game as a gift, unless you count the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition that Christina gave me, but I don’t because it’s a better edition of a game I already have.

That leads me into what I wanted to talk about today: For 2011, Christina and I are taking a self-imposed exile from buying video games. While there are going to be some exceptions, of course (Zelda: Skyward Sword, Pokémon Black and White, and of course the 3DS) for the most part we’ll be letting new releases pass us by. We’re doing this for several reasons.

So today I saw the new trailer for Poker Night at the Inventory, a game I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and when I logged into Steam (which I haven’t done in a LONG time) to pre-purchase it my friends list was littered with people I no longer speak to for reasons I’d rather not go into. After clearing out my friends list, I got to thinking about how I’m in a brand new stage in my life and I’m really happy with how things are going.

For one thing, we go out with other people more often and don’t rely on online interactions for our social needs. We’ve got some pretty cool friends we spend time with and while they’re not all nerds and into the same things we are, they’re very fun to spend time with and they don’t seem to mind that my wife and I are the nerds of the group. Having adult relationships is fun!

Today Christina and I changed our Xbox Live Gamertags. I’ve used the name “Joe Sunrider” regularly as my online identity since 2002, and it wasn’t really an easy decision to change it. I’ll let Christina tell her story if she chooses, but I wanted to go into what prompted my change.

I’ve always been a shy person. I have a hard time looking people in the eye and I generally keep to myself. I think it’s a mild form of social anxiety, and since I started playing on Xbox Live a few years ago I’ve been just as nervous entering that online world as I have been out in the real world. I typically don’t use my headset, and when I heard people saying my name over voice chat it always made me uneasy.

I realized recently it was social anxiety keeping me from fully enjoying online gaming. I thought about why I had no problem in MMOs, but with Xbox Live I was uncomfortable. I didn’t think it was voice chat, because I call restaurants and other places all the time on the phone where I don’t know people. I realized it was because on Xbox Live, my first name was out there for everyone to see, whereas in an MMO my identity is hidden behind a false name.

It’s every guy gamer’s dream to someday find a young woman who is as passionate about games as they are, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after. It’s a fantasy for most, but for some lucky guys like me, it’s a reality. While it is super awesome and rad to the max, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things you need to be aware of before you start 2-player mode until death do you part.

I’m certainly not complaining; far from it. I’ve dated girls who aren’t into games and girls who think games are just okay, and dating (or in my case marrying) a girl who is a legit gamer is definitely the way to go. The point of this article, my dear brothers, is to bring some things to your attention that you may not have thought of.

Today we got to do the food tasting for the wedding. This in itself was almost reason enough to get married. Oh man. They bring out all this food and wine, and it’s all free, and then you pick what you want for your wedding. There were like, six appetizers, six entrees and two kinds of cake.

And later tonight we’re going to see Scott Pilgrim. Booyah. Today is awesome.