Hey, you got a second? In keeping with my trend of Top 10s lately, I’d like to take a moment to shine some light on some of my favorite work from my colleague and friend, Joel. For those of you somehow unaware he writes a series of articles weekly that are about whatever really strikes his fancy. There’s a large amount of variety in each week and you never know what to expect! So gather around won’t you? If you’re new to CAL then these articles can give you a good idea of the style of writing Joel has, a bit of his personality, as well as some of his tastes! Do note that I won’t have a grading criteria, nor will these be in any particular order; this is simply a list of my favorites! I’ll hyperlink the articles to the photos, so if you wanna read along as we go you can! With all that set up, let’s jump into the list!
#10 – We adopted some dogs!
First up is one of my favorite type of posts to get from creators I follow. Life updates! Especially when we get to see the person behind the content for a minute like we do here. Honestly my reasons for liking this one as much as I do are pretty simple; I like learning more about the lives of people I know/follow, I like animals alot, and I like seeing people happy. It’s short, sweet and to the point and sometimes that’s all we need to feel good!
#9 – Difficulty in gaming
On the other end of the spectrum I also really enjoy learning the preferences of people, and enjoy the mix of informative casual that the info in here presents itself as. Like mentioned previously I enjoy learning more about the people I follow, so seeing what games he’s gone big mode on, as well as the reasonings behind it, was also something I enjoyed. I always find it interesting seeing how other people feel on things like difficulty in gaming as it’s such an individualized part of the game that affects everyone differently. I personally am a bit of a masochist when it comes to gaming so I usually start games out on the hardest or second hardest difficulty available depending on if you have to unlock the true hardest difficulty or not. For me you only ever get one first experience with a game, so I like my first time I overcome the challenges of the game and its story to feel intense and well-earned; it helps make the obstacles the character we follow feel all the more intense. Enough about me though, back to the Joel!
#8 – Spotify discovery (the sequel!)
As I’ve said, I like learning more about people. Music is such a deeply human and personal experience that I always find it fascinating to find out other people’s tastes. Sometimes they’re exactly what I expect, other times the music contrasts what I thought of them so much that it fascinates me. Either way it’s a fun experience learning more about people; as for what camp Joel’s music tastes fall in for me it’s a bit of both. Most of the music he shares I’ve never heard before and seems more indie to me which surprised me, but the music itself does seem to fit the kind of music I imagine him liking. My music taste strangely enough consists a lot of OSTs (Official Sound Tracks) of various anime and video games I love. Beyond that though I’m not too picky and don’t really hate any one category of music, but I’m also the type to simply re-listen to what I know I like rather than listening to new stuff. Joel in contrast has a much wider net, and from what I can tell he regularly listens and adds new music to his repertoire.
#7 – DUCK
DUCK! In all seriousness this is just another example of me enjoying learning new things, especially preferential things like this. Duck Game is not at all something I envision when I think of Joel, yet it’s apparently a game he’s quite fond of. The clip shared also blew my mind a bit, I had to rewatch it to fully understand what happened but it’s the exact kind of absurdity that I love in my gaming! There’s also a really interesting point brought up that I never thought much on but absolutely agree with. Gaming with friends/family is much more fun when everyone is of a similar skill level. As covered in the difficulty in gaming article many people enjoy an even level of challenge, and stomping or being stomped doesn’t really provide that.
#6 – Friends working on passions
A really short article but one I really like for two main reasons. One, I love seeing people share and support other creators; I think it’s something so important for the health and growth of both the individual creators and the community as a whole. The other reason is that with just one paragraph it describes how tough it is to turn ideas into products, especially for the uninitiated in the creative process. I think when we imagine doing creative things like, especially when that thought is brought up in criticism of how another did something, it sounds super simple in our heads. But once you try to physically make something we realize just how difficult it can be. That’s why it’s always important to share your thoughts with others that make things so that people know the struggle is worth it. At the end of the day a big part of why we create things for others is to be seen, to know that when we speak out we aren’t just talking to an empty void. It helps us feel connected, at least that’s my two cents on the matter.
#5 – Random Things
A nice spoiler free review of the new Batman movie from 2022 that discusses many of the pieces that come together to make it so enjoyable. It’s a sadly overlooked or forgotten detail about Batman that he’s the world’s greatest detective; we rarely see stories anymore that involve grand mysteries for him to solve. I believe a big part of that is that it’s much more difficult to write a good mystery than it is to write a good fight, but fortunately for us Batman does have some enemies that naturally lend towards a story crafted around intrigue. Whenever the Riddler is in a story you can safely expect a puzzle for Batman to need to fix if he wishes to come out on top. Another fun thing about this article is that it announced our first ever voting event on the website that we’ve had a ton of fun with and that I’m quite proud of, so bonus points for that!
#4 Connor and Kenny Have a Second
Alright this is kind of cheating since it’s two articles in one slot and also not Joel writing, but they both have a ton of similar things going for them them that I love and really wanted to share. For starters, we’ve seen both of them write articles before but this has a completely different feel to it. It’s fun to see the contrast in the writing styles, both between Joel and them, as well as them and their other posts given the nature of HYGAS. It’s a nice format that (as far as I can tell) aims to make the creation of the articles more fun and less stressful, and it’s honestly something I should learn from. It’s all about talking about whatever you want to talk about, and they both jump at the opportunity to gush over some of their favorite things. I unfortunately put a ton of pressure on myself when I write my articles to do things a certain way, always include ‘X’ detail or ‘Y’ amount of paragraphs and it makes it so that the process can sometimes be stressful, and that’s not what we do this for. We do this because we enjoy the experience, the chance to grow, and the opportunity to share that with you guys out there! It’s clear when reading these that Connor and Kenny really enjoyed the writing about topics they wrote for in here and it always brings me a smile.
#3 – Daredevil
I love a good discussion/dissertation and I love people gushing over things they love. Much like why I liked the previous entries, it’s clear when reading this just how passionate Joel is about Daredevil here. It’s a really informative article that feels extremely professional as contrasted by the more laid back vibe/approach many of his other articles have. As I’ve mentioned I’m a big fan of lists and Top 10s, so I loved the opportunity this article presented me to learn more about Daredevil and what makes Joel love his character so much. It was also cool to learn about the parallels to Gotham and Hells Kitchen and contrast the different ways Daredevil and Batman approach the task of saving a city from its own corruption.
#2 – Deku
As you may know, I love My Hero Academia. It’s my second favorite anime of all time and can easily be my #1 if it keeps up the pace it’s at. Deku is one of my favorite characters in the show, and it’s really nice to have a show with such a large cast where the main character is so easy to love and root for. Much like with the Daredevil post I like reading about what makes a character so loved by people and really enjoyed ‘comparing notes’ with Joel and myself. He also goes in more detail about one of the shows messages that really hits home for myself and I’m sure many of us. The importance of “You Too Can Be a Hero!” is really hard to overstate; it’s echoes the sentiment we all wish to hear. That we can be who we want to be and that we are good enough. Hearing how that message related to Joel’s life was nice to learn, and it’s good to remember that for every area we have to work really hard to match others in, we have our own areas that we naturally excel at. We just tend to focus on what’s harder for us since we have to think about it more, whereas the areas we excel in we don’t even think about when we do it.
#1 – Return of the Ramblings
This one has some sentiments in it I personally share and mirror. Firstly the appreciation for the internet and the opportunity it has afforded both Joel and myself in doing this. Knowing their are like-minded individuals out there who share in our passions and are interested in hearing what we have to say is a validating and heartening thought. Another point that I think we really need to be aware of though is the dangers of this comfort and ease of access, which is the other sentiment here I share. Whilst it’s great we can go online and order things with the click of the button we must never forget the importance of shops, nor the experience they provide. If you know what you want then shopping online is nice, but the experience of going into a shop and browsing until you find that perfect item you didn’t even know you wanted is so unique and powerful. For every item we get cheaply online I think it’s important we also support our local businesses and buy in-house. Not to mention his pitch about a dream store is quite tantalizing…
And… that’s a wrap! Quite a different approach to things, but nevertheless I hope you found it enriching and checked out his articles as you went! His style and approach contrasts mine in a lot of ways and I think it’s great to see the value in both! Thanks for reading everyone, I hope you enjoyed, and until next time stay healthy!
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