Five Day Dictionary Challenge - "Save"

(Part two of a five part writing challenge!)

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"You can never save enough" -Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil

A very simple word, and very meaningful for gamers, bankers and theologians alike. (I'll admit, I kind of cheated when picking this word. It was the same page, though, so I'll let it slide.)

For decades, one of the most important features of a game is the ability one's progress, be it a platformer, text adventure or "visual novel." After all, games were longer and often had in-depth stories, unlike much of the quarter-guzzling arcade machines of yesteryear.

One of my earlier experiences with saving (or not, as the case was) involved my first major experience in console gaming: the Sega Dreamcast. We purchased it later in the lifespan of the system, and one of the first games I got was Sonic Adventure.

For a few weeks, we had not yet purchased a memory card for the system. That meant that every time I played the game, I'd be playing through the first few stages again and again. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the stages - but it was rather nice when we got the memory card and I was able to finally make forward progress. (What made it annoying was that cutscenes weren't skippable on the original...)

Still, one mustn't forget to save a lot, as the opening quote reminds us. RPGs in particular are a minefield for running into random encounters that could potentially wipe out your party; or crossing past "points of no return" in the story. Being able to save before major boss fights is a veritable godsend to many games, RPGs among them.

There's also "save states," as seen on most emulators, allowing one to save at any particular instant in a given game. These ones are dangerous, as saving at the wrong spot could ruin an entire run. (Plus, some people would consider it "cheating," of a sort!)

I haven't had any particularly gruesome horror stories about not saving, but what about you dear reader? Anyway, I'll sign off before this becomes a mere list of different types of saving and how great it can be.

And remember, you can never save enough!

Five Day Dictionary Challenge - "Jibe"

In a bid to write some new articles for this blog, I decided to make an attempt at a writing prompt. A personal writing "challenge," if you will. So I grabbed a random dictionary from my shelf, found five random words, and came up with it. (Not a very exciting story, hopefully the results will be a bit more interesting.)

The "Five Day Dictionary Challenge" as I'm tentatively calling it, consists of five days of creative content, inspired by five random words found in a given dictionary. To allow for a bit of freedom, I won't require that the word be used in the work, only that I should indicate the inspiration for the piece.

Prologue aside, let's get to it!

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So the first word I've drawn is "jibe." For looking it up, I learned of a nautical meaning, having to do with maneuvers at sea. However, I'm sure most people use the definition having to do with "two or more things that agree or accord with one another."

So how to write about "jibe?"

"Say apple" -Wheatley

Food.

Specifically, fun combinations of it! I won't pretend to be a particularly good chef, but I've discovered a few combinations that my family has enjoyed. For instance, the usage of various fruit preserves in slow-cooked soups. A particular favorite is using a bit of apricot preserves in chicken stew.

Tastes better than it looks?

Another is the combination of apple and teriyaki sauce, particularly when cooked over stovetop. Adding the fruit to a beef skillet is particular tasty, and I imagine that it would be tasty to cook just the fruit and sauce together. The sweet of the fruit and the savory of the sauce combine to draw out the flavor of the other.

For when you don't want to pay a fortune for your fix

This last one's a bit of a "gimme," but the combination of chocolate and various types of nut butters. (I use a picture of non-Nutella nutella because the "real" stuff is so expensive! :P ) However, an additional combination on top of that is faux-Nutella and grape jelly.

So there you have it. Three combinations of foods that jibe with one another. Thanks for reading, and be sure to look forward to the next entry in the "Five Day Dictionary Challenge!"