Bump on a Blog is a feature on useful or interesting sites across the internet. I spend a ton of time each week looking for headlines for the show or ways to increase At the Buzzer’s networking, and certain places have popped out due to their strong writing or utility. I figure those places deserve a shout-out.

Recollections of Play

Nostalgia’s a hell of a drug, isn’t it?

Time has a knack for making people more fond of the past and less optimistic about the future. For example, when I was in elementary school, I was pretty miserable for most of third and fourth grade because my parents were getting divorced. I cried at the drop of a hat and struggled with fitting in (maybe because my mom still dressed me and I wore my pants too high?). But when I look back on those days now that many years have passed, the good times are what float to the surface of my brain. My friends and teachers, the experiences we shared — those are the memories I take away from my younger life at school.

If you like nostalgia, I may have found the perfect place for you: Recollections of Play. Cary has put together a blog that talks about her memories of gaming from then and now, and ties it all together with a writing style that really conveys her passion for the topic. She also has a rainbow cat. So there’s that.

Cary tackles both sides of the spectrum: She writes about things that she experienced when she was younger and how they impacted her life then, and also talks about her journey through gaming in her current life, where she’s married to a fellow gamer and dealing with a broken PS3. Her writing is engaging and personable, making her stories easy to relate to whether you’ve played the game(s) in question or not.

Recollections of Play is nearing its one-year anniversary, and in that time cary has posted a couple of times a week on average pretty consistently. As we mentioned on the show a couple episodes, I think that consistency is one of the biggest factors in building an audience and growing a website, and in the case of RoP it shows — most of her posts get comments from a variety of people.

Sometimes I subscribe to websites on WordPress because I use them as a source of news or because I see talented people who might not have the biggest backing yet. In this case, it’s not about utility, but the simple fact that I enjoy cary’s writing every time she posts. If you find yourself reminiscing about the past from time to time and have ever enjoyed video games, go give her site a quick read. I think you’ll discover a connection to your own nostalgia.