AGDQ 2022
Perhaps you’ve experienced this before: you hear about something again, maybe you’ve forgotten about it for a long time, but the moment you hear of it there’s this immediate elation, that feeling that so much good can come because of it?
(I can hear some of yours answers: kids after picking them up from daycare, Thai food, reruns of the hit show The Big Bang Theory).
What’s that thing for me?
It’s a marathon charity event called Awesome Games Done Quick.
For those of you that don’t know, Awesome Games Done Quick is a week-long charity event featuring some of the best speedrunners from around the world (people who play video games in the quickest manner possible depending on the category—think: beating Super Mario Bros. 3 in under 2 minutes!). It’s a 24/7 online event streamed over 7 days over at Twitch.tv showcasing some of the best runs of video games, all the while raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Historically, the event has raised an average of 2 million dollars per event, all of which goes to charity and a good cause.
What makes Awesome Games Done Quick such a wholesome spectacle is it’s commitment to two great mediums: a showcase of some of the most talented people in the world demonstrating their craft, and also that of a group of people coming together to do some good in the world. And after the beginning of the New Year, when signs of abandoned resolutions and the bitter uptick in wintry weather begins, there’s no better place to look for goodness than those institutions that come around to remind us of joy and community working towards something greater.
Unfortunately, the event will be remote this year again due to the newest resurgence of Covid-19, but none of that detracts from the mission of putting on a good show. AGDQ is truly unique in that people from every walk of life tune in, either to bask in the once-upon-a-time glory of nostalgia, or to support a favorite streamer or game being featured. Tens of thousands watch at any given moment during the 7-day marathon, taking the time to donate and connect through an event that blasts through bandwidth every January.
Here is a sampling of noteworthy runs I’m looking forward to this week:
AGDQ 2022 airs January 9-15. Below is a link to the Twitch.tv stream. You can check out the schedule of games being played here.
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DATES & DETAILS #1
[This is the beginning of a new segment called Dates & Details where I give short anecdotes of things I’ve experienced while online dating over the past few months. These aren’t exactly stories, more like small happenings that I’ve found peculiar and worth writing about. I’ll post about these experiences from time to time when they arise, starting with this first segment below about matching up with others…]
Refuted Match
I’ve seen this a few times where someone attempts to match with me through a comment that disputes something I had put on my dating profile. The most recent example was someone who responded with “It takes more than 2 days to travel across the country by train.”
So, in hopes of helping anyone else who has the idea of refuting a dating profile prompt, here’s my advice: don’t do it.
If you’re curious, this woman’s comment was attached to this prompt: Two Truths and a Lie. My answer to this prompt was:
“1.) Once took a two-day train ride across the country…in coach, 2.) Hockey player, 3.) Discovered Uranium.”
Not a bad prompt answer, but not the greatest. However, quality is mostly beside the point. Other than following the rule: “don’t be boring, be specific,” the point of a prompt is act as an ice-breaker, something that gets the conversation started. Answers are not facts, nor are they intended to be. I’m not writing my Wikipedia page on a dating profile, I’m just trying to catch your eye about something. Likewise, if someone has photos of themselves skydiving, it doesn’t mean they are avid skydivers or know the mechanics of jumping out of small aircraft like an expert…it’s just something they did once and thought interesting to share. Photos of adventure seekers are saying, “I like adventures and want someone who also enjoys this sort of thing, are you someone like me?”
That’s because prompts are really segues into the bigger discussion of, “Do we have chemistry or not?” Which, in my own personal experience, is only discovered once out on an actual date.
So, what was this person doing by refuting my prompt? What was the play?
I think someone who needs to refute the “accuracy” of something said on a dating profile isn’t trying to connect with someone at all; they are being confrontational for their own sake. It’s an insecurity, which is often why people attack one another. I’m guessing this person has had little luck with getting responses and is going on the attack because nothing else is working. It could be bitterness, it could be a lot of things, but when there’s a lack of curiosity when reaching out to someone new, there’s also a lack of confidence, and it says much more about you (the attacker) than it does me (the dating prospect).
In my opinion, when you refute a part of someone’s dating profile, it also disqualifies you as a candidate for a date (which, get this, is the point of a dating app). You’re not going to change anyone’s mind about what they said in the prompt. Even if someone wrote, “I once traveled to the capital of Michigan, Detroit, and hated it,” by telling someone, “Uh, the capital of Michigan is actually Lansing,” is not going to change their answer. And really, as an experienced dating app user, you should have learned enough about this person based on the incorrect location of where he/she thinks the capital of Michigan is, so the answer is to move along to the next person anyway.
Online dating isn’t about “being right”, it’s about finding someone compatible with you.
If you want to be confrontational from the start, what does that say about the potential first date? Am I going to have to defend myself against a chronic fact-checker? Is this person like this always? Refutation is a bad first impression, simply put.
In my own defense (since I’m willing to share my prompt with all of you), this person read the answer to my prompt incorrectly. She thought I meant, “It only takes two days on a train to travel across the country.” What I actually said was, “I spent two days on a train traveling across the country,” meaning, I spent two days OF TIME on a train traveling across the country. I didn’t mean that was the precise, physical distance a train travels to get to the other side of the country.
Which, you know, says more about her than it does for me, obviously.
Then again, I’m the fool writing about this on the internet, so who is really the smart one here?
Either way, I’ll shrug at this just as I did when deleting her comment and move on my merry way.
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THE SWITCH TO APPLE MUSIC
This is likely to be one of the more controversial things I write about, but it must be said bluntly:
I’ve made the switch from Spotify to Apple Music.
*Cue the boos and cries of treason here.*
I know, I know. Such news is scandalous and I’m sure there’s something to answer for…but I just don’t care. I’m not a devoted user of any platform so much as I see the current benefit of using it. I was an Android user for several years but have made the switch to Apple. And not for some fanboy-ism reason, but simply because the platform does what I need it to do right now—I like how everything is integrated between devices.
So, what was wrong with Spotify? Nothing, it’s a great platform. Apple Music, in my experience, just sounds better on an Apple Device, and (whether this is imagined or not) that’s really the only reason for the switch. Spotify has a better interface, easier music liking features, better sharing capabilities, and the catered playlists are pretty damned good, too.
But I like the uptick in sound quality I have with Apple Music, so I’ll stay this route for a while longer.
So, with that, I’ll shrug at all the ill will about which platform to support (supposing a thing should ever be important on this website—I don’t care either way). I like what I like, and that’s all there is to it.
What matters, really, is finding new music, which continues below with some great new finds. Here’s the list this week and a new graphic to go with it:
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Wishing everyone as well as they can be. You’re not alone out there,
