The Console I Blew Into and the Book I Haven't Written

I bought a Switch 2 this past week. It's been brewing in me for a while, ever since Nintendo announced the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake. Ever since that trailer dropped, my TikTok feed has been filled with an increasing number of millennial content creators reacting to the news. It always begins with something like "No! No, no, no!" when that initial ocarina sound is played, they go crazy when they realize the game is what they thought it was, and in most cases it also ends with a teary-eyed "this year?!" when they realize Nintendo is mostly ready to get this game in our hands.

I get sucked into each one of them. Not just because it's fun to see a dream come true for a fellow human, but because I'm resonating with the reaction. I would be among them if the remake was for, say, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.

Truth be told, I played many Zelda games in my youth, starting with the very first one. But Ocarina of Time was not one of them. I never owned a Nintendo 64, which is where I believe it originated. I played the first game on a console called Megason, or at least that's what we called it at home. It had those cassettes you had to blow into if the game got stuck. Those were the days.

The first thing I did when I unboxed my Switch 2 was redeem the Mario Kart game that came with it, but after that, I imported all of my Switch 1 games into it. My Switch 1 had been sitting unused for a while because I was only really playing it for the gym-and-league Pokémon games, and it's been a while since the last one of those. It seems like now it's all about Pokopia. A bit of a hot take from my side: I don't really see the thrill. It's the same reason why I don't play The Sims. I did my 1000 hours in that game a decade ago and I am done.

But playing Oracle of Ages on a bigger screen was an immediate dopamine hit. I can replay that game many more times.

So far, I'm enjoying the experience, but I know I could be doing so much more with the Switch 2. Give me time and I'll get there. I even have a docking station if I want to stream the games I play.

The Switch 2 hasn't been the only thing feeding my inner nerd this week, though.

I'm Deep Into Mistborn: The Final Empire

Thanks to the mix of listening and reading, I'm almost halfway through The Final Empire. Just today I listened to 5-6 chapters alone on my errands.

And it also seems the video I made at the beginning of the week about Warbreaker is picking up, too. It has crossed 400 views today. If you missed it, you can find it here:

I'm Having Rebel Thoughts

When I walked among the aisles of books today, before sitting down and starting to write this letter, I had a rebellious thought.

What if I also wrote a book?

The idea is not new. I have had a book floating in me for years. I'm just not really doing anything about it.

But standing there today, I kept seeing all the author names on the spines. Some of those books are so thin. You can be the author of a book that changes people's lives, and it doesn't have to be a huge tome. Not everybody needs to publish Sanderson-like 1000s of pages novels.

I'm dreaming of a future where I wake up to freedom in the morning. Coffee, and then write, or make a YouTube video. No contract with a company, any company, that takes your best years and the best hours of your day. And a place to call your own.

I dream of bookshelves upon bookshelves in a personal library. Some of the books in that library are signed by authors, just like three of the Stormlight Archive books I own are signed by Sanderson himself.

I dream of making videos and publishing essays about the things I love: technology, gaming, nerd culture. Engaging in comments and voice replies, and flying to conventions to meet fellow fans of the people I love. One day I'll have a picture with Mark Meer.

It's a distant future. I don't believe it's an impossible one.

Thank you for reading my rambling. I'll see you next week! ❤️

Oren