So I Guess I'm a Blogger Now

Yep, I'm starting a blog.

(puffs out chest and struts down freeway)

Twenty-second century man, comin' through!  Make way for me, plebians!  My era is at ha-

(gets hit by speeding clown car; loses a life)

...Great.  Now I've only got eight lives left.  I might have to go back to Level Six and score another twenty million points before I end up dying again.  But that can wait; the important thing is, this may or may not become the platform I use to become something of relative use in this big blue world of ours.  Or at the very least, a guy whose keyboard taps can become something that entertains audiences from one corner of the internet to the other.  Assuming that the internet has corners -- though that begs the question of whether or not one can fall off the edges of the web a la pre-Columbus explorers.

But before I get ahead of myself, I'd better explain myself -- namely, by answering the question "What's a cross-up?"  Here's a handy definition from Urban Dictionary (probably the least-sexually charged definition available):

"cross-up: a common technique seen in fighting games; a jumping attack performed as you jump over the opponent that connects with the opponent from behind."

Get it?  Well here's a description of it in action from IGN's Street Fighter 4 guide:

"For an opponent to guard against a cross-up, he/she must not only change their guard to a high guard but must also press toward the attacker to guard, instead of away from the attacker. Judging the difference between a normal jump-in and a cross-up is often difficult in the heat of battle, so by forcing the opponent to change many directions of his/her guard, you are much more likely to connect your hit, letting you move into a combo."

Neat, huh?  Well, a cross-up is just one of countless fighting game terms and techniques; wavedashing, tri-dashing, chain combos, links, buffering, Tiger Knee motions, the works.  All of them are designed to give the player some sort of weapon to use to mount an effective offense, and maybe even win a match.  But these techniques -- much like this blog's titular cross-up -- aren't guarantees of victory.  You have to have skill and cunning to use it at just the right moment, or else you risk a completely ineffective, and even preventable attack.  (Considering that games like Street Fighter have dozens of anti-air attacks, you're putting your life on the line whenever you take flight.)  Given that, it seems fitting to name the blog Cross-Up.  Not because I want to get knocked out of the sky with a well-placed uppercut to the liver, mind, but because of everything else it symbolizes.  There's no guarantee that this, or anything that I do from here on out will ensure my victory.  Even so, just keeping my feet on the ground hardly seems any more effective.  So I'm going to go ahead and leap for it -- I'll jump, make my move, and hope I don't eat a Shoryuken for my troubles.  And who knows?  I just might be able to land a Super Combo finish.*

So yeah.  I'll be posting whatever I think will entertain, excite, and occasionally draw a skeptical, arched-eyebrow stare.  As I think myself a writer, I'll probably be tossing news about my exploits out there whenever it suits my fancy; maybe I'll leave a snippet of things that I'm working on, or news about my coming ascension to glory.  But since I imagine there's not too much to say most days, I'll probably post plenty of stuff about video games.  Remember, it's not filler if it's awesome!  And maybe I'll actually try my hand at this whole "networking" thing.  You know, spreading the word?  Getting people to visit my site?  Becoming notorious in the blogosphere?  Wink wink?  Nudge nudge?  Sparkle sparkle?

Well, whatever.  Hopefully, this is jthe beginning of something great.  So if you keep dropping in, I'll have more than enough self-esteem to provide.  And hey, maybe I'll do something smokin' sick to earn your praise for eons to come.  It could happen, right?



*In retrospect, that sounded vaguely sexual.