One point One-Up

Well, it is now four days after my participation in this year's Extra Life gaming marathon charity event, and while I still haven't found a way to describe it that rolls off the tongue, the event itself was an overwhelming success. I, personally, was able to raise $200 for a local hospital, and the charity itself was able to raise somewhere in the sum of 1.1 million dollars.

Let me say that again - Extra Life raised over ONE point ONE million dollars this year. Not bad. Not bad, at all.

As for personal experiences during the marathon, they're a bit varied. I'm very happy that I was able to participate, and raise money. I will absolutely do this again next year. Hell, there's a make-up day for those that weren't able to complete their 24 hours (or just found out about the charity) this coming Saturday, and I'm tempted to participate in that as well. But I will admit to some ... unkind ... thoughts in the days leading up to the event.

Parts of me were annoyed with myself that I never thought to send a message asking for retweets to Jesse Cox or Totalbiscuit on twitter until somebody else actually did. I actually had to sit here and remind myself, that all the money is going to charity, so as long as the donations are coming in, it shouldn't matter who got the donations. I shouldn't have had to say that to myself, not when I'd been saying it for about a week prior to that event.

I'm also, kind of annoyed that I wasn't able to stream the full 24 hours of gaming. My livestream program crashed with something like four hours of "official" marathon time to go, and I took it as a sign and went to bed, as I'd been struggling to remain awake for the previous hour. I really wanted to stream a full 24 hours of gaming. But I'd been awake for 9 hours prior to me starting the stream, and I had done at least four hours worth of gaming in that time.

If I'd been awake nine hours prior to starting the stream, then why didn't I start the stream earlier, you may find yourself asking. It's really quite simple. I was waiting for a store to open so that I could get some essentials for the marathon, and I didn't want to have to disappear in the middle of my stream in order to do so.

I know this post is a bit rambly, and for that, I apologize. Most of my blog posts tend to go that way, for one reason or another. Anyways, in conclusion, I'd like to thank all the people who participated in Extra Life this year, as well as all the people who donated, and the guys at Sarcastic Gamers for creating this charity.

Extra extra thanks to all the people who donated to support me specifically.
Extra extra extra thanks to Tomaj for keeping me company (and awake), both on skype, and the livestream chat for the entirety of my streaming.
And extra extra extra extra super thanks to Jen and James for all the support they gave me up to and during the event. The sheer amount of promotion they did for me, was unbelievable and they donated too. If I'd ever had any doubts how good people they are, they would've been dashed away.

Thanks again, guys. Extra Life was amazing, and I hope to see you guys next year! And in the time between then and now, as well, of course.

PS: Should you so desire, justin.tv saved about four and a half hours' worth of my stream at http://www.twitch.tv/reverendunk/videos that you can view (Warning: it's from the tail-end of my broadcast, where it was the least interesting and I was fighting to stay awake) for the next couple days. I'd thought they would save the entire thing, but it appears I was wrong.

Howdy, neighbour!

Hey guys. If any of you have happened to wander by my blog in the last month or so, you'll have noticed that I haven't really said anything since I made my Extra Life post. While I have plenty I'd like to blog about, I've been holding it in reserve because I wanted the post about a very good charity (Extra Life durr) to be the top post until the event is over.

The day is quickly approaching when I will be participating - less than four full days until it begins, actually - so I just wanted to ask that, if you haven't already, you read the post I already made, and help support me in this venture any way you can, whether it be donations or even just spreading the word.

Also, as an extra FYI, any gaming that I do on the PC during the event, I will be live-streaming. Justin.tv will automatically tweet the URL when I go live, so if you're not already following me on twitter, that's what you'd need to do to get that info.

Links to my twitter and to donate, are at the top of the page from the little button and the massive header image, respectively. Thanks again guys, for any support you've either given or about to give, and I look forward to not getting any sleep over a 24-hour period for a good cause =)

Play Games. Heal Kids.

Lately I've been looking at two charities that have received some recognition amongst gamers; Child's Play and Extra Life. Child's Play is definitely the more famous of the two as it's the charity run and supported by the Penny Arcade guys, as well as the charity that all donations from the Desert Bus For Hope event go to. Last year they raised two point two million dollars. All donations from that charity go towards buying things on an Amazon wishlist, set up by the participating hospitals to buy video games and such for the sick children to help raise their spirits.

Extra Life is a very similar but entirely different charity, that as well as being primarily supported by gamers also involves gamers on a more person-to-person level. Think of it as the Terry Fox Run, only with playing video games instead of running, if that helps. Somebody who signs up as a player, agrees to play video games - whether they be on console, PC, facebook, or their iphone - for 24 hours straight, and they get people to pledge a certain amount per hour played. So if you pledge $1, you're agreeing to donate $24 to the hospital that the player has chosen to support. The donations attained go directly to the hospitals. Extra Life asks their players to raise a minimum of $100 but of course, hopes for more.

Do NOT get me wrong. I absolutely believe that both charities are amazing and are doing great things. But I personally believe that Extra Life helps the sick children in a much more direct route; helping cure the problem, instead of helping them cope with it. Sometimes the cure isn't attainable in the child's lifetime though, and I understand the need to make them as happy as possible in the interim.

This October 15, I will be participating in the Extra Life charity event, and I encourage you all to support me in supporting them by pledging. This is my donation page.

For further information about Extra Life & Child's Play, I encourage you to read their websites, which can be found at http://www.extra-life.org and http://www.childsplaycharity.org