Dear Cia Column

Alo people,
Want to try something new and offer folks yet another venue to earn spongy cheese. ^^

As some of you know, I LOVE answering questions.  Problem is most people are too shy, to afraid, too unsure, or too sure of themselves to ask them -- and that's bad, because most of the smartest people in the world are smart not because the answer questions, but because they ask lots of them.  (though by that extension, that would make me very very stupid. )

So I want to try a little game of sorts that's half Dear Abby, half Musical Chairs.  Each day, players can post any kind of question they want on this thread, and of those pool of daily questions I will select up to three good questions to write good responses for.  "Good Responses" mean I write more than a paragraph to answer them, meaning I may be able to answer ALL daily questions, but if they're mainly snarky one-liners, it's quite likely they weren't good questions to begin with, lol. XD



The people with the winning responses will each receive five free in-game Cheese Blocks.      

People can only submit one question per day, but if they add more than one question, they are free to ask the other non-winning questions again on some other day.  ^^

Oh and for "RP" purposes, each question MUST begin with the words "Dear Cia:" -- as in Jeopardy, failure to include the liner will result in an invalid question (but again, you can try again the following day).

So with that being said, please show me what you guys are made of.  
Everyone is welcomed, including staff, so keep those questions awesome!  

SCOREBOARD

Avocado: 66/66
A4: 31/31
Ice: 28/17
Tex:  20/19
Hannah: 19/19
Lom: 12/12
Rad:  9/9
Luigi: 6/6
Brave: 5/4
Hammy:5/5
Ishida: 5/2
Slayer; 5/0
Mimi:  4/4
Audrey: 4/4
Jammy: 3/3
Spookie: 3/3
Grimm: 3/3
Spit: 2/2
Kiba:  2/0
Miisaka: 2/2
Super: 2/2
Candy: 2/2
Flamm: 2/2
Shad:  2/2
KFC: 1/1
Sarah: 1/1
BUI: 1/1
Alice: 1/0
Sith: 1/0
Crab: 1/1
Colex: 1/0
Chill: 1/1
MOAB: 1/0
Builder: 1/1
Slimer: 1/1


============

Dear Cia:

Im hoping to get into cooking as soon as I leave my house and go off into life on my own. I'm sure it'd be lots of fun to try and experiment with, but i'm wondering how did you get so interested in cooking in the first place? and how come you're so passionate about it today? It seems like an odd thi to get so excited about, and i'm interested to hear your side of it, may encourage me and others in the same way ^_^

Dear Wonderful Wittle Wizard Shad, ^.^

Thank you for having the courage to be the first to post, and with that being said (and coupled by your awesome, beefy, well-written question, you are today's first winner [and don't worry about the cheese -- I should have mentioned that each winning answer is worth One Whitelist Review Point for staff folk, hehe). ^_-

Anyway, funny you should mention that. Despite the occasional omelette or refried beans, I wasn't really much into cooking when I was younger. I LOVED food, particularly things like sandwich and pizza (and I certainly looked like I did), but I didn't have the heart to really learn how to make my own. Part of that is because, as with homework, I'm fairly slow at cooking as well -- and growing up I barely had enough time to do my homework and sleep, let alone cook (or, more relevant to you guys, play games). ^^;

Interestingly-enough, I had to crash-course with cooking in college, seeing as how the bursar office screwed me over on a grant, and I was left with a sizable payment deficit that incurred more hardship on my parents to pay.  Rather than cause undue stress on my family, I simply cut off things I didn't need, such as the college Meal Plan (which was too much luxury anyway).  Then I picked up a job and began to cook on my own -- fumbling around at first, but ultimately getting progressively better as the college years ruled by.  I was no Julia Child, but I kept myself alive and happy.  ^^

But that was survival cooking -- and even up until recently I liked cooking and I liked food, but was never really passionate about it.  In fact, despite my name, I never really "baked" anything seriously from scratch until this year, when I was inspired by the success of our server (and I wanted to not sound like a hypocrite). 

In hindsight, the reason for that is that I kinda felt a little betrayed by food. Abiding by "You Are What You Eat", I believed that eating right would bring about better health -- and yet despite abiding by mainstream "healthy" eating habits and intermittent diet and exercising, I still gained weight, I still had a couple of ailments, I still suffered from insomnia and headaches, I still had frequent depression and brain fog, and so on.  Members of my family and friends still suffered chronic diseases, or passed away from them, and feeling powerless to do anything about it, I simply lost faith in my cherished childhood beliefs of food as the great savior.  I concluded simply that because our environment was more toxic than it used to be in the past, we were all simply and slowly destined to a gradual and painful degradation of health, and so what point was there to invest time eating right?

Anyway, this answer has gone on a bit too long, and there's a lot that can be left for later questions, but in short I developed a passion for food, nutrition and health after rediscovering that, yes, we are indeed what we eat, and food is indeed a powerful agent for change. As with everything in our modern world, change is only possible when questioning preconceived notions of what was once assumed to be self-evident (in case you ever wonder why I'm so obsessed about having people ask questions) -- I failed before because I accepted, without question, what constituted a healthy diet. After discovering for myself what it truly means to eat well and feel well, and once I slowly but surely began to undo some of the wreckage that bad eating had done to me, and to some of my friends and family members, then I ceased to feel helpless and powerless, and I felt motivated and empowered to learn more and expand my horizons.

Is it odd to be passionate about food? I used to think so; but when you consider that without food and water you die, it's really not that trivial a thing, and it's a bit odd how very little we really truly pay attention to what we put in ourselves.  When you consider that food offers the main building blocks for our skin, organs, nerve, heart, immune system and especially our brains, we really truly are what we eat; and we owe it to ourselves to [mine?]craft our bodies and minds carefully. ^^


--Cia

Dear Cia!

I'm an animal person and if anyone of my friends asked me to look after their pets I'd have no problem whatsoever! So I was wondering whether you have any pets or (If not) what pets you would like? Are you a cat, dog, bird, or a small creatures type of person? Did you have any childhoods pets that helped lead up to you being that type of person?

Thaannkkk youu!

~Jammy

Dear Jammy Jam,  

I'm glad you asked that question... in case some of our timid visitors think that I ONLY talk about nutrition 24/7.  ^^

To answer your question the short short way, yes I do have two dogs (they belong to my parents, but I love them to bits <3 ), plus I regularly take care of my brother's silly cat (which is unusually loving and dog-like for a cat).  As far as common pets are concerned, I think I would be more of a dog lover, although I favor very independent-minded dogs.  Shiba Inus in particular are very cat-like dogs, and despite not being overly-loving, they have a fundamental grace, loyalty and wildness that strikes me as more of a partnership than a simple master-pet relationship. ^^

[ergo, I even want my pets to ask questions]  

As far as childhood pets, I actually had none of my own, although my brother had plenty.  I have nightmares of some huge dogs they used to own, that I used to be terrified of, climbing up sofas and cabinets trying to escape the horrible barking. I have nightmares of my uncle's big burly cat that would hiss and swipe its claws at me.  I have unpleasant memories of my brother's birds which would poop like there was no tomorrow and die like fireflies. And I can't say I was much of a small creatures fan, as I had to grow up chasing and stomping on leagues of roaches in my old apartment.  Don't even get me started on fish experiments. >.<

So I believe that doesn't make me an avid pet person -- however, that does not mean I'm not an avid animal person.  I do in fact love dogs and cats and birds and insects and other critters -- I simply prefer to see them happy and healthy in their own environments, eating their own natural food, and mingling with their own kind (if they're social animals). Insects in the wild particular fascinate me, not just because of their endless variety, but also because of how important they are to soil health (and hence, my plants).  Bugs and worms are nature's tillers, and wherever I let them thrive the earth becomes very nutrient rich and great for planting.  In our previous house I once unearthed a whole section of our yard that was bricked over, and the earth was sandy and lifeless. Over the months I dumped compost and refuse on that land, and let weeds and insects thrive in it.  Soon after the soil was teeming with life, and from it I was able to grow just about anything, from tomatoes to flowers to fruit trees, and everything seemed strong and healthy.  Not a drop of fertilizer was used, just shade and nitrogen fixing from the "weeds", and poop and soil aeration from the bugs, worms, birds, squirrels, etc.

If I ever do get "pets", I'd love for them to be farm animals, like cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, guinea fowl, turkeys, and lake fish.  Critters I can keep outside and be relatively-free range and independent, but can offer renewable resources to me in the form of milk, eggs, cheese, wool, weed control, bug control, controled grazing (very useful for desert reclamation!), and natural composting (fertilizer from poop!).  I like the option to not necessarily eat these animals if I grow attached to them -- an animal's value is not always based solely in its meat. That may sound strange coming from someone who is now essentially a bigger carnivore, but with great nutrition knowledge comes greater appreciation and respect for the sources of food, and all farm animals should be respected and treated better FAR more than they are now by agribusiness, which exist to commoditize everything including both human and animal life.


--Cia

Dear Cia:

I've been playing Minecraft for a long time now, and I'm sure a lot of other people have played even longer than I have. I was wondering how you started playing the game yourself. ^_^

Thanks, Radda.

Dear Cia,

Hello (:

I love to read books! Last week I finished reading the last Harry Potter book, ("Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2"), unfortunately I have ran out of books to read and I cant find any that I like. D: Gotten anything to recommend?, and what is your favourite book?

--Thanks


From Mimi !

YAY!!!!  Thank you Rad and Mimi!!  

Well since it IS our first day here, I will answer both your questions (and owe you both 3 cheese blocks).  ^^

Hold on, whipping up some replies as we speak.  

Dear Rad,

Ah, a Minecraft question!  Well it's only apropos all things considered.  

I meant to talk about this a little for the server anniversary, but up until a few months prior to joining Gunia's on September 2013, I didn't even play Minecraft.  I had heard about it, but I wasn't in much of a gaming mood TBH.  In the old days I would be prone to serious bouts of depression and after a failed relationship I didn't really want to do much of anything. It was a very dark moment in my short life, full of grief, heartache, long work hours and uncertainty.  

I got to know a coworker who was a great artist and also played some Minecraft, including being on Gunia's server for a while.  He had an old abandoned server of sorts set to a 1.7 snapshot, and encouraged me to get Minecraft and play a little since I liked building so much. And I did for a few days and I really loved it, enough to play on my own in singleplayer as well.  

This might have been July or so;  I met Cay during that time as well, and as my friend's interest began to wane and the decision to close his private server finalized, it was Cay that encouraged me to join her on Gunia's server.  I wasn't sure if I was ready to mingle with so many people online, but eventually I drew the courage to sign on and...

The rest, as they say, is history
So in a way, you can say I've only been playing the game for about a year.  I appear to be a fast learner, though, because I've adapted quite well to it, IMHO.  It just seems to fit very naturally for me, which is why I hate that it got sold to Microsoft (since something I love is now entangled with something I loathe).  ^^

And in case you were wondering, I chose the username "ciabatta1" because "ciabatta" was already taken, and I used to love ciabatta bread.  Oh, how much has changed in a year.

--Cia 

Dear Mimi,

Hi!  I'm so happy to see you do so much in your short amount of time here.  That ice town is gorgeous!

Traditionally I have not been much of a reader, believe it or not.  I was burned so much by school textbooks, that I grew tired of books after a while.  True, once in a while I'd engage in some good fiction, but never for anything long-term, and usually for classics like Catcher in the Rye, War of the Worlds, the Time Machine, the Jungle (the uncensored version), the Little Prince and so forth.  I love books with strong and resourceful heroines in unique and uncommon settings, so books like Jean M. Auel's "Clan of the Cave Bear" or Hiyao Miyazaki's "Nausicaä" are very appealing to me, but somewhat rare too.  I would still recommend you give those a try if you can.  

Due to my scheduling, I almost always watch movie versions since I don't have much time to read the actual book (audiobooks are the exception).  

Where I DO make an exception is with non-fiction -- I LOVE non-fiction.  Either non-fiction books or news stories or blog articles or research papers -- these are things I'm comfortable spending time in because I feel I gain new insight every time I do.  It was thanks to books that I've become very adept at nutrition now, whereas only 8 months ago I wouldn't know much beyond spewing the usual bad health advice on TV.  XD

That being said, my favourite non-fiction book is clearly Wheat Belly by William Davis MD, since I feel it literally changed (maybe even SAVED) my life, and that of family and friends close to me.  It didn't show me everything I needed to know, but it didn't have to... it was so thought-provoking, honest, well-written, scientific and yet easy-to-read and witty, that it got the ball rolling very well.  I've since read various other books on similar or related subjects, covering everything from grain-induced neuro-damage, the function of cholesterol in our bodies, chemical differences of various fatty acid structures, and even functional anti-diabetes dietary cures written as far back as the late 1800's!  Right now I'm reading the sequel to Wheat Belly, and loving it... though since I often go walking a lot, I also have the audiobook version to listen during peaceful afternoons and evenings. ^^


--Cia

Dear Cia,
 Do you like sushi?Also if you do love sushi, what's your favourite kind?





If Yes hug a kidbat.
If no hug a kidbat anyways.

~From Kidbat~

YAY!  Well I will definitely give a Kiba a hug. ^^



But the answer will have to wait till tomorrow, since... we're already WAY past the 3 question limit, hehe.  

Until tomorrow, thank you SO much to everynoe who participated in this.  You've made a happy cia happy!  

Dear Cia

What do you think my home state is like? just curious.

Dear Tex,

*hugs*

Thank you for posting your question.  ^^
It was posted after the 3-day limit, but not to worry!  All this means is that come some time tomorrow, when I have a chance either during or after work, I'll be able to respond in kind.  What you may hear may surprise you.  

Dear Cia:

In the past, you've stated that you prefer forums, email and other channels of discussion in which you are permitted time to gather your thoughts as opposed to the speed-chess that is conversation/chat. In this regard, what are your thoughts on the nature of a discourse community?

A discourse community, as described by linguist Jonathan Swales (1990) contains the six following characteristics:

1. "...Has a broadly agreed set of common public goals..."
   
2. "...Has mechanisms of Intercommunication amongst its members..."
   
3. "...Uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback..."
   
4. "...Utilizes and hence possesses one one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims..."
   
5. "...Has acquired some specific lexis [jargon]..."
   
6. "...Has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise..."
   

(1990)

Examples of these communities can be seen in a number of places - Swales himself particularly mentions his own experience in a stamp collection discourse community. Other examples I can provide would be a discourse community formed for the sake of improving writing through letters, or in a more modern light, a forum for maximizing computer graphical capabilities.

So my question is: what are your thoughts on this concept?

Reference:
Swales, John. "The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.

Yay! more questions!  

Typing replies as we speak, but note that I just added a scoreboard on the main topic.  This will keep in track points accumulated, plus points reclaimed -- I have a lot of people I owe cheese to, so this will help remind me how much to give you.  

Dear Kiba,

Sorry for the wait.  
Anyway, you partially know the answer since I already spoiled you, but for the uninitiated I actually do NOT like sushi.  In fact, up until recently, I did not like seafood at all... I had a perceived allergy to shellfish ("perceived" because in retrospect it might have been something else), and a general aversion to fish.  That's changed a lot thanks to my new diet lifestyle, and I AM eating more fatty fish for sure... but I still prefer it cooked and without any visible heads and stuff that make me queasy.  XD

Sushi still encompasses a lot of what I don't like as far as taste and texture, and despite insistence to the contrary, I'm not convinced that raw fish doesn't pose the risk of parasitic or at least harmful chemical ingestion.  Could be wrong, but don't care...  XD

But that's just me; obviously sushi is popular among many people, and from a nutritional standpoint it's probably great at offering whole vitamins, minerals and fatty acids since heating destroys these over time (overcook anything, and you literally burn out whatever nutritional value it can give you).  Omega-3 in particular is very important for good heart health, and if you were to consume this in full whole sources that will definitely help offset the ingestion of access omega-6 in other foods (like nasty processed seed oils). XP

That being said, I don't have a favourite "real" sushi, though if I were stuck in a restaurant that served nothing BUT sushi (and I have), then I can get by with one of those vegan rolls like the ones filled with cucumber and avocado.  For delicious Japanese food, I'd rather have okonomiyaki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki

Think of it like a Japanese pizza -- and like with pizza, I probably can't eat it anymore outright since it uses flour to bind the cabbage.  XD
But I can make that at home using another binding agent, and with more delicious ingredients to me (less fish, except maybe bonito flakes which I do kinda like a little). ^^


--Cia

Dear Tex, 

Thank you for waiting as well.  

Well, let's start with the basics. ^^
Texas is a big state, the biggest in the US, and fiercely independent given it enjoyed sovereignty from the US before being annexed by it.  As with Hawaii, there are some who feel the status as a state is illegal under international law given it formally seceded from the United States a few years after the formal annexation, and then illegally occupied militarily during the Civil War.  

Being of Mexican decent, Texas is a bit of a sore point given it encompasses land that ceded by a carefully-orchestrated land grab of sorts.  But that's essentially a moot point, since the area of the Great Plains always belonged to the Natives that lived there, and after several centuries it may not be much of a discussion topic anymore.  

Regarding culture I wouldn't be able to say much since I've never personally been there and I wouldn't want to base my opinions on stereotypes.  No one can expect all Texans to be cowboys, any more than anybody can expect Wisconsinians to be all cheese makers... if anything, thanks to cultural dilution through mass media, you'll find a lot of people pretty much just trying to imitate what they see on television instead (curse you Jersey Shore and Breaking Bad!). There might be some traditional or cultural overlap, but overall that is not as pervasive as it used to be, which may be good or bad depending on how you feel about self-individuality and community.  

Of course, what I am most interested in is food, and especially the notion that "everything is bigger in Texas" -- whether it's true or not is something I'd like to see some day, but if I can have a huge steak or an order of ribs for cheap, that would definitely make me happy.  But more curiously I'd want to see why your state is always picked on as being some sort of rampant, uncontrollable hive of obesity.  You don't actually get fat off steaks or ribs or roast chicken or anything combining dietary fat and protein... but you definitely get fat off of carbohydrates.  Are the steaks served with a huge slab of so-called "Texas Toast" or a humongous gollup of mashed 'taters, and are the ribs drowning in some disgusting ultra-sugarfied barbacue sauce like they often are in the east?  Do people chug down soft drinks like there's no tomorrow?  Do people indulge in non-stop Tex-Mex cuisine which is unnecessarily carboholic?  [and far removed from anything we eat farther down in central Mexico]

Or, per my whole cultural dilution thing above, maybe the vast majority of the population is simply eating what the rest of the country is eating... "heartyhealthywholegrains" and other low-fat carbage, combined with plenty of exercise... and are simply scoring higher in CDC census figures on obesity simply because they're more honest about their weight as a result of this disastrously-bad advice?  XD

Real answer may be a little bit of both, but I guess I'll see whenever I go to Texas... or you can just offer your own thoughts which would also be great.  


--Cia

Dear Ishida-kun,

Ooooh!  So professional, so detailed, so YOU!  
Thank you for providing a definition of "discourse community" -- I have heard of the word "discouse" and "community" but never both in conjunction to form a new meaning.  In reading this, I feel we finally have a way to properly define our own Big Sister "community".

I don't use the word "community" lightly; like with friends, I prefer to keep it strictly with either RL equivalents, or internet communities with a high degree of participation and motivation amongst its members.  Online groupings that reach a kind of participatory "critical mess" are essentially pure communities in my interpretation of the word since they can be self-sustaining and don't require the guidance of some benevolent dictator.  The My Little Pony:FiM fanbase are a good recent example of a community since they are self-motivating in making fanfics, fandrawings, fangames, toys, conventions, blogs, videos, etc, and regularly meet in person.

Therefore, a "community" we are not, and I've stressed this a lot with new applicants.  At the risk of sounding egoistic, sometimes I fear that if I were to ever fall off a plane or get rolled over by a bus, our server would suffer a quick and fiery death because there still seems to be a very uncomfortable over-reliance on me.  THAT IS NOT GOOD, and although we take measures to address that and ensure some kind of continuity plan in the event of my extended (or permanent) absence, I still worry we're not quite there yet.  With any luck, the Microsoft bastards may make this a moot point and destroy our server long before I expect all of you to make hard decisions on your own; but regardless, it's still something that always worries me, and that cements the reality that we are NOT a community.  We are a Minecraft server that's better organized than others, but we're nowhere near critical mass. ^^;

But a discourse community fits the description somewhat, and certainly coincides with my own personal obsession for "communication".  It was bad communication that nearly destroyed Gunia, and our own server was born out of an attempt by Cay and I to provide a new common ground to regroup and recover back when Gunia's forum simply wouldn't cut it and no one really talked to each other.  Cay, for instance, only had contact information for Cory (and old mod) and maybe one other mod... I had to actually reach out to him and Burger directly to get some kind of indication of why Gunia's server ceased to exist and was offline for 3 weeks running.

Therefore the IMMEDIATE goal of the then "Sister Server", now "Big Sister" server was to enhance communication.  First, by providing an alternate location for players to meet, regroup, and have fun in a provisional setting while the main server recovered.  And secondly, by promoting more proliferation of news and discussion on Gunia's forum, which I tried to do....

http://guniasgs.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/9436998-sister-server

Once the chaos subsided and there was actually some form of communication between her staff and I, then things started to improve from there incrementally.  

"Communication is key, miscommunication is pee", always remember that (or not). XD

So we definitely encompass that, and as far as the other items...

1) Mileage may vary, but I like to think that once we separated from Gunia's and I had a chance to publish some set goals for the future of our server, then things started to go in a particularly flavorful direction:

http://ciabatta-breadalot.blogspot.com/2013/12/sister-server-manifesto-roadmap-for.html

2) Another reason for separating from Gunia's was the poor quality of the communication tools available to us.  Gunia's forum was subpar, and she never gave me moderating rights there or published our IP, so there was no way to properly broadcast who we were -- what we have today is a result of trying to do better.  There was also no central news site, so that was why the blog was born.  Our willingness to be open and share information is why we adopted Dynmap (thank you Shad).  And my emphasis on communication and education is why we have all these wacky zany guides. XD

3) Yes, well the in-game setting itself is still traditional Minecraft, but I think these supplementary resources around the server really give it its character.  And their primary purpose is to inform and enhance communication, but sometimes it's even more fun than playing Minecraft-proper -- not to mention that the services extend to what I call "3rd party" services created by players to carry on the fun elsewhere (including that Steam group, Skype sessions, etc).  

4) Unless I'm misunderstanding what it says, that seems to describe our Little Brother server.  I recognize that not everyone is the same, so we have the choice in case someone wants a different experience than what Big Sis has to offer.  And that also can have its own sub-community as well, and it certainly does when popular mods are involved (e.g., Ars Magica or that Pokemon thing).

5) Oh gawd!  Like bread and cheese jargon?  

6) As in we don't just accept any trash... people who want to join this discourse community must prove themselves through a very rigorous whitelist that carefully encompasses aspects of our philosophy.  Had you accepted the Deputy position, you would have gained access to our secret Whitelist Application Guide, and seen just how purposeful that thing is -- nothing in that list of six questions is frivolous.  ;P

The staff as well are taken from "the best of the best", although not necessarily to what most people might construe as "the best".  More than popularity or building expertise, we need people who are good with dealing with people, eager to interact well with our staff, and most importantly COMMUNICATE!  And they can do this all with the tacit understanding that this is all still just a game and they don't need to sacrifice their lives to obsess over it.  

So there you have it.  Thank you so much for properly categorizing us.  


--Cia

Hey, it's grim. What's your favorite mod, other than the Gulliver mod?

Dear cia,
What kind of youtube videos do you watch usually? Do you like gaming, baking let's plays, music, news or even baking?

I mean,
Dear Cia,
What is your favorite mod, other than the Gulliver Mod?

Dear Cia: I've just been wondering if you ever thought about expanding the server with more mods or interesting server addons. I'm sure people have asked over and over but have you ever actually considered adding anything that would go well with guiller. (You don't need to mention little blocks a.k.a. gulliver mods soul partnered mod)

Ooooh!!!  Thank you!!!  We got the next three questions lined up for tomorrow!  

Let's see which of you earns some delicious cheese... although given it's the Server Anniversary, I may just be generous and award every question maker some cheese. ^^

Dear A4,

Interesting question!  Since I don't make it a habit to post Youtube videos ingame, few people there know what my Youtube tastes are.  However, a quick visit to my Food 101 thread will give you an idea of what I usually watch these days -- a lot of informative or entertaining nutritional/health content, and yes sometimes even cooking content as well.  Whether it's cooking shows, lectures, interviews or documentaries, I like to see it all, digest any new information I find, and add it to my ever-growing knowledge base.  ^^

When not trying to be a food nerd, though, I do regularly watch gaming channels believe it or not -- perhaps since I don't play any other games besides Minecraft (and the occasional Android game), I don't mind other people playing or talking about these games for me.  Ending spoilers in particular are a-okay with me... why slug through Final Fantasy XIII or Mass Effect, when I can watch the cutscenes and have a feel for the full narrative and art direction, which is where the real value for me lies (I couldn't care less about grinding and killing).  

Typically, though, I focus on gaming videos that are clever and creative, in addition to being funny and informative.  Yogscast, GameChap, Game Theorists, AVGN, and Zero Punctuation are but a few examples of the kind of 
videos that appeal most to me.  ^^


--Cia