We’re going to run this whole blog thing back one more time.

I’m Darkstar Shady, known in real life as Stephan Starnes. I started this site last year with the intention of starting a podcast, writing about what I’m interested in and generally getting to nerd out while flexing my writing skills.

I did write a few posts, I did start a podcast and I did have the site up and running for quite a while.

Then life came at me hard and fast and I had to be ready to adapt. The podcast ended for multiple reasons, the site got neglected and my premium domain and themes expired because I broke both of my arms and couldn’t really type, and I ended up moving back to California.

I’ve got a new focus and plenty of time. The site serves a few purposes now: it’s a jumping off point for all of my social media links on the home page, with a bit of a personal mission statement of sorts, and it has pages dedicated to small portfolios of my written journalism and photography.

My next goal in life is to move back into the creative and reporting worlds.

I really would love to write for a website or publication about video games, WWE, sports or any mix that includes all of the above.

I’m continuing to post to X about WWE and gaming. I’m continuing to make TikTok videos showing off various cards and gaming clips. I’m starting to live stream some of my gaming more!

I’m also working on a fiction novel that I’m hoping to get myself to finish writing within the year. After I finish and edit it, the plan is to self publish it on Amazon through their Kindle Direct Publishing program.

And that’s what led me back to you all. I wanted a centralized place to be found and to be able to share my thoughts with the world.

I’m continuing to use the name Darkstar Shady on this site because that is how I have been known for the last 20 years online in various gaming and social media spaces. While my written work and photography has always fallen under my real name, and I will likely continue to keep my real name on published work for other companies, I want to be known online as the gamer, sports fan and collector that I have been for nearly two thirds of my life.

To finish this off, I want to share a short piece I wrote to be used as a sample of my work for one of the sites I applied to:

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was announced, and us Nintendo fans are waiting to hear if it will be coming to the Nintendo Switch 2.

“We’re committed to getting the franchise on Switch. Both teams are working on it. Will share details when ready,” Activision said in a recent release to IGN.

The thing is, Activision has already made a deal with Nintendo that Call of Duty would be on Nintendo for the next ten years. Last year’s Black Ops 6 was never expected to make the jump to the underpowered Switch console, but with the release of the Switch 2 and its capabilities of playing games such as Cyberpunk 2077, it seems closer than ever that we may be joining lobbies from our handhelds within the next release.

Yes, there are plenty of handhelds on the market now that can technically play Call of Duty. The Asus Rog Ally, a Steam Deck modified to run Windows, or even a cell phone with a controller and an Xbox Game Pass subscription would get you up and running around in a round of Team Deathmatch or Domination. However, with Nintendo coming out of the gate with tons of third party support for their new system, it feels unnatural for a giant franchise like Call of Duty not to be available.

There are even options for Nintendo to get the game to run smoother if it’s a performance issue holding them back. Nintendo is already no stranger to using cloud streaming for some games, and anyone likely to be playing Call of Duty online would have the internet speeds capable of handling streaming.

It’s either that, or Microsoft and Nintendo expand their partnership to add an Xbox Game Pass app to the Switch 2.

Regardless of how they manage it, I’m really hoping that when I acquire a Switch 2, I’ll be able to pull it out of its dock and take it over to my cousin’s house so we can pass the system back and forth between rounds of CoD.