That Cornshaq and company are in the midst of the Stars of Dreamland Kirby marathon, playing through as many Kirby games as they can in 48 hours to raise money for the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter. So if you like Kirby, animals, or both, check it out and consider making a donation if you can.
Though I don’t talk about it a whole lot from post to post–it is in the About Emptyeye page–I’m currently in remission from T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma (I’m still about two months away from officially being able to call myself a “Cancer Survivor”, though if it hasn’t come back by now, knock on wood, it’s unlikely to). One of the things I occasionally struggle with from a psychological standpoint is “Why did I get through it?”, particularly when celebrities are brought down from various cancers before their time, with Patrick Swayze being the most recent one.
Somewhat strangely, I first became conscious of this after I had been in remission for nearly two years with the death of John “Earthquake” Tenta. I think that part of this was that John was a regular poster to the WrestleCrap forums before his passing (Despite being a pro wrestler himself–indeed, despite working a couple of the gimmicks that got inducted into WrestleCrap’s pages!–John very much loved the site and its administrator). Now, John Tenta was a huge man both figuratively and literally (He would note that his was a “natural” strength, meaning he stayed away from the steroids–”performance-enhancing drugs”, we’d call them today–that are so prevalent in pro wrestling (Whether anyone admits it or not)), and he had himself beaten cancer once. So when he relapsed, myself, and most of the WrestleCrap regulars, were certain that he could do it again. Even as his health declined, and one of the people caring for him made a post to the effect of “John isn’t doing too well” with the implication that he may not be long for this Earth, I remember thinking, “But…I got through cancer, and I’m some scrawny 22-year-old (At the time). Surely John Tenta, the mighty Earthquake, can beat it too…”
Of course, ultimately, he couldn’t. Which is not to say anything bad about John, nor indeed anyone else that succumbed to the disease. As Lance Armstrong noted in “It’s Not About the Bike“, cancer doesn’t discriminate, and it doesn’t care who you are or what your attitude is. As he put it, some of the most cheerful, hopeful, optimistic people die of the disease, while some of the most bitter and miserable people survive it (And believe me, I had some miserable moments going through treatment).
I’m not sure that I’ve ever entirely come to grips with this, honestly.
This is another “Look at these cool causes!” post, this time regarding video games and playing them for charities of various sorts. The most famous “group” of this type is probably The Speed Gamers, who have done roughly a dozen marathons of varying lengths for various series, most recently a 72-hour Mega Man marathon. But there are various other groups that either do or will be doing the same thing with other series. One that’s just starting up is Bonus Stage Marathons, who have Cornshaq (One of my favorite Youtube gamers) among their ranks. On September 25th, they’ll be starting a marathon on the Kirby series of games for the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, so if you like Kirby, make sure to check that out.
The real reason I bring this up, though, is to indulge in some shameless and perhaps premature self-promotion. Over New Year’s weekend, at MAGFest, I’ll be taking part in The Speed Demos Archive Charity Marathon. Its theme is classic games (Admittedly, the definition of “classic” is rather loose in a couple of cases), and I’ll be doing runs of Battletoads (Even when I’m no longer That Battletoads Guy, even on SDA, I’m apparently still That Battletoads Guy. Such is my gift. Such is my curse.), Rygar, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (The even-harder-than-Battletoads-in-my-eyes original NES game), Marble Madness and Kung Fu. All told, that’s roughly an hour and a half of the marathon that I’ll be playing. Not a super long time, truth be told, but Battletoads and TMNT is one of the harder one-two punches in the marathon so far. I’ll have more on this as the time draws nearer.