The personal website of Cedrick Lui, used to promote and present his projects as well as act as a blog.
Hello everyone!
This post is quick and a bit later than my usual monday post. I have been busy with family lately, but decided to do a quick update post instead of missing one. As you can read by the title, I am now an uncle to my new nephew Winston!
Congratulations to my brother/sister in law for their beautiful boy! My son now has a future cousin to play with.
Each gaming company has its own flavour, and the fans know what to expect at the mere mention of the company name. Bethesda means that there will be a incredibly deep, sprawling, and glitchy world to explore. Square-Enix has a strong history of gorgeous JRPGs with high production value and a sense of wonder. If I could sum up Blizzard in two words, they’d easily be ‘Quality’ and ‘Addictive’.
Blizzard is a company that is so powerful and influential, that it takes its own broad category for me. There are console games, PC games, and Blizzard games. Regular readers are probably wondering why it had taken me so long to blog about a Blizzard game, since I’ve probably mentioned them in a post or two. The truth is, the games were such a big part of my life that I could probably start a whole new blog about my experiences with Blizzard.
All through this month, I will take on the task of summarizing a huge franchise with three feature-length posts. What Blizzard property will it be? Well the title spoils the reveal, it’s Diablo. Tomorrow I will be kicking off Diablo month with the first in the series, so be sure to drop in and re-live Tristram from its gloomy beginning.
Parker,
Yesterday morning, your great grandmother passed away. She lived a long, full life and was surrounded by her family. Four feet away from her hospital bed, were photos of you.
Your great grandmother helped raise the most of the family. She raised 6 daughters and 2 sons, only to go on and raise a good majority of her children's children. By the time you were born, she was already in her 90's and all of the children in the family were out of town or grown up. She was stricken with painful arthritis, and had already gone through both a stroke and a heart attack.
Despite the pain, for the last few months before she passed, your great grandmother always made an effort to see you. Your grandma (my mom) would watch you every week from Monday to Wednesday, and your great grandmother would come see you. When she woke up, I was told she couldn't wait to see you. She would ask to see you all the time, and every time she did she'd have a smile that I hadn't seen in years.
I simply can not put into words how proud I am of you. You may be looking back at this thinking that this might be silly. At the time, you weren't even two years old and you may feel like it wasn't really you because you were so young. No matter what you think or the philosophies you hold, I can assure you that it WAS you.
Two days before she died, your grandpa Tim insisted we bring you to the hospital. When we brought you into the dim and somber room, you were scared. You held me tight as you looked around at the strange lights and menacing tubes. Even still, you called her name, leaned in, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. This was one of the last smiles that she would have. She fell into a half consciousness that night, and eventually her age caught up to her spirit.
For those months before she died, seeing you with her always hit me. You would call her name and kiss her cheek. You would offer her your half eaten grapes and try climbing on her before being pulled off urgently by your grandma. You brought her a light at the end of her life that no one else could have. I am proud of you son, and I am thankful that you were here for my grandma.
Yesterday I found out that an incredible comic book store is closing here in Ottawa. When I started my collection, I had asked my cousin for some suggestions, and he said that 'The Amazing Spider-man: Coming Home' was a great place to start. Of course, I got that very book from the Silver Snail in Ottawa, and it stands as the starting gun for my collection of every 'Amazing Spider-man' trade paperback going forward from that run. For this, and many reasons, that comic shop will always hold a special place in my heart.
As with everything I get into, I obsessed over comics, and made sure to hit up every store in the area. When I went to Silver Snail, I was surprised how suited the store was for me. A huge supply of graphic novels at the best prices meant that Silver Snail was a treat for me and my wallet whenever I wanted to binge buy books. Unfortunately, I live and work so far away from the store, and my visits became less frequent as responsibilities piled on. Still, I would make an effort to drop by the store whenever I was in the area.
As my reading deepened, I found myself getting into more independent titles. Silver Snail also set itself apart by being the store that had all of the quirky little books you couldn't find anywhere else. Instead of hitting the lowest common denominator by piling up super heroes, Silver Snail dove into edgy, wacky, artful, and just plain beautiful books. One stand-out for me is the 'Jim Henson's Tale of Sand' book sitting on my shelf that I will be sure to blog about later on. There is no way I would have discovered or bought this book without Silver Snail, and that would have definitely been my loss.
Lastly, and most importantly, I want to talk about the amazing staff at Silver Snail. Some stores have staff that run the huge gamut of nerdom which is great, but can have you at a loss when waiting for the resident expert. Silver Snail was different. Yes, you could still pick up your figures and games, but Silver Snail was a comic book shop, through and through. I have gotten great opinions on books from people I can trust to know what they're talking about. As a reader, I found this to be invaluable.
So with that, I bid farewell to the Silver Snail Ottawa, you will surely be missed. I urge everyone who is reading this to drop by and take advantage of their closing out sale and thank the awesome comic enthusiasts behind the counter.
Hello Everyone!
So, it's hard to believe, but tomorrow I will officially be crossing into the second year of my blog! Originally, I was using this blog as a way to market myself and my comic 'Son of God', but I decided to push my ambitions and keep up with the posts. Since I started back in 2014, I have kept to my schedule of 2 posts a week and miraculously haven't missed a single one. With bonus and update posts, that total comes to almost 120! I really wasn't sure if I'd be able to keep it up, but it has been a real exercise in routine and persistence.
The end goal of the blog is not for views, a fact that I am reminded of every time I look at the traffic coming into the site. Instead, it's to catalog and curate my weird obsessions and interests throughout my life as a sort of legacy project. The interesting side effect of keeping up with the blog is that it has helped me keep a work mentality. the blog has reminded me to do a little everyday on my creative projects outside and including the blog itself. It hasn't been easy with a full time job and a baby (now a toddler), but looking at the number of posts I've accumulated is pretty satisfying.
In celebration of my first anniversary of the blog, I will count down some of my favourite posts from the last year. I'll break it down into the top 3 nostalgia-based posts, and the top 3 obscure posts. Please be sure to drop by tomorrow and see what I deemed to be my favourites. Maybe if I actually get a viewership one day, I'll ask for people to vote up their favourites.
Also, I want to take the time to thank everyone who has been commenting or throwing likes at my posts through facebook and twitter. It lets me know that I'm not just talking to myself and helps my other friends get annoyed by my constant posting.
For those wondering what I've been doing with all my free time (HA! free time...), I have been working on a new project that is very nerdy and will be making it's way onto my projects page soon... hopefully. It is a project that has been taking up a big chunk of my time, so I hope that it pans out. Stay tuned!
