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Video Game Review – The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

An all around amazing game that still holds up all these years later.

Amazon.com: Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening - Nintendo Switch : Nintendo of America: Everything Else — A modern remake of the classic Game Boy game.

I finished this game back in January 2022. Just catchin up on some of my game reviews.

I played this game on my Atomic purple Game Boy color way back in the day when it came out in 1993. I remember the game taking me a long time to complete and by the time I was done I had done everythhing there was to do in the game. I recently re played the game but this time I played the 2019 nintendo switch version. It was a great experience overall. The game didn’t take me as long to complete and some of the puzzles were burned into my memory but overall the game was enjoyable and as epic as I remember as a kid. I like taking trips down memory lane.

The game took me just under 20 hours to beat but I have played through it in it’s entirety before. Someone picking it up for the first time can probably expect to spend about 30 – 40 hours if they are familiar with the classic Legend of Zelda formula. The game is presented in a hybrid 2/3d style of overhead camera but the art looks more or less 3d and there is depth to everything. Overall absolutely gorgeous on the Nintendo Switch Console. Bright, colorful, and chipper soundtrack.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Download | GameFabrique

The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening starts you off in rough seas as your boat is being thrashed. A bolt of lightning crashes and you wake up (famously) in a small village. A local girl named Marin found you washed up on the beach and brought you to her home, and from there your quest begins to figure out where you are and how to get home. As you journey through the game the story takes an unconventional twist that strait Fucked me up as a young teen. I won’t spoil anything here but anyone who has beaten this game knows what I’m talking about. It’s not bad or evil or out of the vain of Zelda lore but it’s a key twist that stayed with me for all these years.

The game is classic Legend of Zelda. You start off with basic equipment and as you conquer dungeons and explore the land you become stronger by finding hearts pieces and equipment. You gain access to previously inaccessible areas using the tools you find along the way and in dungeons. The game requires you to remember where obstacles are and you have to back track a little bit in your exploration to uncover all of the secrets and power-ups. It’s a pretty standard video game formula used through out times and in modern gaming. You can say “The Legend of Zelda” kind of pioneered the “open world” adventure action game.

Links awakening is a great game and retains all the features of the game boy color experience with some added levels and stuff to accomplish. The Nintendo Switch version has the color dungeon that was introduced in Links awakening DX for the Game Boy Color hand held game system. The switch version also includes a basic dungeon builder mode with some optional side quests attached to it to unlock an item. These optional side quests are not necessary to the story and game over all, but just an added tid bit new to this remade version of this game.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Nintendo Switch) Screenshots

The graphics in this game are crisp and colorful and the music is great as well. The soundtrack is redone from the original 8bit sound and sound fully performed and little Marin’s voice sounds like an actual voice singing instead of a little beeping tone. Hearing her balad of the wind fish for the first time after all of those years brought a lil tear to my eye. Same feeling and emotion as I felt when I heard Zelda speak for the first time ever in Breat of the Wild. The catchy tunes and memorable jingles are part of the reason people like The Legend of Zelda video games. They are familiar, yet challenging games that have a certain charm about them that most games lack.

Gamers who like actions, puzzles, and exploration would like Zelda games, and this game in particular. The Legend of Zelda is a classic series that most gamers will have at least heard about. Zelda games are exclusive to Nintendo, which may alienate many players from an otherwise great experience. Nintendo has always been seen as a console more geared toward a family and younger demographic. Hands down, Zelda games are difficult and are not necessarily kids games. They require a level of thinking and problem solving that most younger kids may find too difficult.

I’m biased because I love The Legend of Zelda video games but I definitely recommend giving them a try if you never have or ever wanted to. For modern gaming I would recommend Breath of the Wild as a good Zelda entry point. It’s more free flowing and let’s you choose your own path, while classic Zelda games are more structured and require you to take a set path. If you like playing retro games, and remakes then this is a top notch title that is very worth your time if you own a Nintendo Switch.

Finally they are releasing a new entry and sequel to Breath of the Wild. It is slated to release sometime in 2022 but no exact date has been confirmed. Super stoked for that. As always thank you for reading this review and feel free to comment or chime in if you have anyting to add or discuss.

More games to play and write about. Stay tuned and check back for more!

Peace!

Book Review – “Eat That Frog! Get More of the Important Things Done Today” by Brian Tracy

Eat That Frog: Brian Tracy: 9781444765427: Amazon.com: Books

This is one of the audio books that I listened to during my time driving to and from the job a city over. There is no real timeline other than I listened to these between September 2020 and February 2021. I was on a kick of motivation and productivity being at the new job.

I remember this book being short but sweet. This won’t be a very long review I remember laughing because the guy sounds pretty smug in the recording I listened to and I believe it was the author that read it. He sounded like he just made a bunch of money for writing a cheesy book about being productive, time management, and setting goals. To me this books was fairly basic in terms of revolutionary ideas. The past couple books I listened to were much better overall and contained more relevant information.

I liked the easy read or listen. It was pretty basic in terms of lasting importance. It focuses on prioritizing the biggest most important or otherwise lucrative tasks and goals. It has some solid information and ideas for anyone who struggles with a mountain of things to do or tasks to finish. It was definitely a useful read and I got something out of it for sure. I carried everything that I read and did forward from that time working out of town. I learned a lot and was able to listen to some good material for self growth. It was a good life experience and this little books was a worthy read. Not much I didn’t like about the book. It was short and not complicated. The phrase “eat that frog” gets said a lot but the book describes what it means in better detail.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for help with productivity and accountability as this book provides some good common sense advice and tactics. You could probably finish it in a couple reading sessions but you never know the information could help you manage yourself and your time better.

Overall this is a good little book. Nothing wrong with it even if I didn’t get much out of it. Check it out if longer more in depth books aren’t your thing. It’s easy and thoughtful. A little something for everyone contained within. Hope this review was helpful or informative. As always thank you for reading and feel free to comment or engage.

Pax

Book Review – “Broke Millenial” by Erin Lowry

Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

This was another of the books I listened to while driving to and from work in another city. This was the more modern answer to “The Intelligent Investor”. In this book the author Erin Lowry gives no nonsesne and practical information on budgeting, saving, and a brief explanation of investing. The demographic of this book and her story is aimed at the average millennial. I am a millennial which is described as people born between the years of 1981 – 1996.

I remember the book was good and she more or less told a story of her upbringing and what inspired her and necessitated her need to learn budgeting and financial stability. The story involves teaching and wisdom from her father but ultimately the knowledge and advice contained within is fairly common sense and practical. To me it was nothign really revolutionary but solid information for sure.

Over the past couple years I have been more and more into personal finance. At the time of listening to this story I was making more money at a normal job than I ever had before. I was interested in preserving my money and learning how to maximize my paychecks. This book taught me a lot and I applied the knowledge practically. I no longer work at that job, but I carried all of the habits forward for the most part. I also still have all of my investments and never sold anything.

I think personal investment and finance is important for anyone to learn and for some reason they don’t teach us enough in the course of our normal schooling. I always wondered about that myself. I figured they didn’t want the average man to be learning about high finance and the way those weird systems work. As we’ve seen in the past couple years what happens when the average person has access to the finacial world, modern apps and online brokerages make available what used to be reserved for financiers, investors, and bankers. The past couple years has shown that retail investment can turn whole markets. For mbetter or worse.

I liked that the book was easy to listen to and was aimed at my own demographic. After listening to “The Intelligent Investor” I needed a book that has a bit more modern examples and practices and this book was a perfect answer for that. I enjoyed the easy and relatable nature of the book. There wasn’t much I didn’t like about it. As mentioned it was a no nonsense book of ideas and experiences. If anything the information was rather common sense but it wasn’t bad at all.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in personal finance or who is, like me, a broke millennial trying to make and save money in this backward ass, late stage, capitalist world. It’s an easy read or listen and worth the time really. Anyone can benefit from the basic information and ideas on how to build better habits for your financial success.

Overall thoughts, definitely check it out. Not much more to say about this one. Hoped you enjoyed the review and it was informative. Feel free to comment or share if you dig the material. Till next time.

Pax

Pax C Life Coach – Gratitude

Disclaimer, I am not a professional life coach in any capacity. These are my own methods and experiences that I use to deal with my own anxieties and depressions. I hope you can find something here that is useful or helpful to you. As always thank you for reading.

Today I want to talk about a word, idea, action, and philosophy that has helped me immensely in life and my eternal pursuit of happiness. That word is gratitude. I consider gratitude an action as well because you choose when and when not to show gratitude. Gratitude to me is also an idea and a philosophy, because living a life of gratitude takes a bit of work and is as much of a passive mindset as it is an action.

Gratitude – The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

Not to go into too much details here, I’ve had depression and social anxieties since about middle school. I would get horrible test anxiety and I definitely had a bit of ADD. It’s not so much I had trouble focusing but it’s hard for me to sit still and I get bored easily. Throughout the end of middle school through high school, I dealt with some family traumas that I won’t go into here. Suffice to say, I had a fair amount of adult issues with trust, depression, drugs, addiction, and strange social anxieties.

Through out my 20s (2007 – 02017) I had a hard time in life. I was discovering what it meant to be an adult and I didn’t really have anything to my name that was worth shit. I felt out of place and I partied a lot as an identity. I definitely had hobbies and things to do to keep me entertained but as anyone with depressions and anxieties knows there are ups and downs. Drugs don’t help, they just exacerbate the mental problems and make things worse. On top of it all I got stuck into the life of selling substances to support my means.

This all basically fits into my first point on Gratitude. I am deeply grateful for all of the experiences that I have endured. Yes grateful for them. Those experiences have crafted me into the street smart and otherwise conscious individual that I am. I am thankful for the hard life lessons because they taught me better than having everything handed to me. Life was difficult but I am grateful for the difficulty.

I could have chosen to be angry and resentful. For a long time I was, and I did choose that path. I made life infinitely harder for myself when I was angry, or intoxicated. It takes more energy to be upset and angry, and it ultimately took a toll on my mental and physical health. Over 10 years, I went through a bunch of dead end jobs and just sold ganja and other substances for a living. It was about the age of 26 or 27, I made the conscious choice to be grateful instead of resentful. I made a choice to be thankful for all I had and for my opportunities, instead of continuing to let the past hold me back. I used to have the “must be nice attitude” and that was strait shitty. I would compare myself unfairly to others and not take into account all I was worth and have accomplished in life.

Gratitude broke me out of a rut so to speak. Once I started being more grateful and humble in my daily life it reverberated throughout every other aspect. I started getting into better relationships and receiving better work opportunities. It wasn’t all at once or like some miracle. It was gradual change over a couple years. It took effort and a conscious choice to get better, but it was powerful enough I could see, and could easily recognize the change. My life has been greatly impacted by increased gratitude.

It’s not easy to be grateful all of the time and gratitude can come in many different strengths. Simple to complex. I completely understand that life isn’t all peaches and cream all of the time. There are ups and downs for sure. I’m not here to tell you to not to get angry and frustrated, that is not realistic. Gratitude is a way to help deal with frustration and setbacks. There is no cure all for an over active mind, but there are tools you can learn and use that will help you regulate all of those thoughts and stressors.

Make Gratitude a Habit – To get started you have to make gratitude a habit. It’s easy for find things to be grateful for. I am grateful for my family. however messed up they are or once were, we love each other and have support for one another. Friends can definitely be considered family and of course animals. Everyday I am grateful for my dogs. I am grateful for my failures as as well as my accomplishment. Without failure and defeat you wouldn’t learn important life lessons. Example, I used to think I failed in my career pursuits and failed at being a good cook. In reality I was burned out and desperately needed change. I decided to be grateful for the opportunity, because doing something I didn’t love in my soul taught me what I really wanted to be doing. You have to follow your heart and intuition have gratitude because you are actually grateful not just to try to feel good. It took a leap of faith and change but I am infinitely happier than I was when I was slaving away in any restaurant. Grateful for the experiences but also grateful that I never have to do that work again unless I want to. I am grateful for my health and even my own positive outlook. You can be grateful about pretty much anything really. It’s just making the act of gratitude into a habit or philosophy even. The more grateful you become you start to realize that many of the trivial things you used to stress about don’t really have as much of an impact on your life as you once thought they did.

It isn’t always easy and of course I may seem all happy go lucky as you read this post, but I vent and get frustrated and upset just like any human. Trust me I have strong opinions and beliefs, and honestly gratitude has helped me temper my passion into something manageable in communicable instead of hostile and antagonistic. Here are some ways that you can start to build the habit of gratefulness, and start learning this philosophy.

Start small – Learn to be grateful for the little things in life that are a constant. Say it out loud, write it, post it on social media, or meditate on it. Whatever method you choose, put it out into the cosmos. Start by being grateful for your family or friends, your health, or your pets. A good job. A fun activity or hobby. certain foods or drinks, Anything. small or big. Everyone has something in their life that they can honestly say they enjoy if not love. Be grateful for that thing! Voice it. Be vocal about it. even if it’s just to yourself. Being happy and content in life starts and ends with your ability to be thankful for what you do have and not lust for the things we don’t. This is an everyday thing, and I know some days are way harder than others.

Exercise gratitude – Don’t compare yourself to others. instead of the feeling of “that must be nice” Train your mind to think a simple “good for them” or “that must be such an awesome feeling”. Again voice it! Be Vocal. This is training yourself to automatically think in terms of gratitude. When I see or hear of someone, especially friends or loved ones, doing something great I try to tell them that I am proud of them and that their work is inspiring or motivating. This usually gets a response of some kind and starts a positive line of thought / communication. This is both giving and receiving gratitude at the same time!

Build and Recognize gratitude – As I began to make gratitude into a habitual mind set I began to naturally dig into my own psyche. NOTE: I was in therapy for many years.. various therapists helped me learn tools of unpacking some of my own mental issues. I highly recommend therapy for anyone who may feel the need to express themselves to a neutral party. I always wrote in journals and stuff but talking to another human has a powerful effect on what we are willing to divulge and dive into. I began to unpack some of the things in my young adult life that had carried over. This all took a long time. Years of working through the issues. But I began to find that I was grateful for my experiences back then even if I could never have seen them at the time. This is discovery is more complex and is specific to the individual, and unfortunately it doesn’t happen quickly. This is more or less the goal of gratitude.

It is completely OK not to be grateful for things and situations in life. However, finding some gratitude for as much as you can is a powerful way to go about living. Life is not black and white and not everyone has the same experience. I understand that this philosophy won’t apply to everyone. I completely understand that there are things and events that happen in life that in no way deserve gratitude, respect, or even forgiveness. Every individual has to choose when and where and how they show gratitude. Gratitude is an action as much as it is a passive mindset.

I think I’ve basically given a good over view of the word and it’s functions and I encourage you to be grateful for the small things. Practice and build up your gratuity. It adds up and before you know it positivity and better opportunities will present themselves in your life. I takes time and the will power to change your habits and evolve as a human. This is not easy. But I believe in you and your ability to do anything you want in life. You deserve to be happy.

I hope this post helped someone one. I am just a human living in this crazy time and navigating this crazy world. I only want to share my methods and experiences to maybe help others. Feel free to reach out if you ever need a talk or vent. I will do my best to answer or respond. Much love and stay tuned for more if you like what you read.

Pax

Book Review – “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham

The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed. - (collins Business Essentials) Annotated By Benjamin Graham (paperback) : Target

This books was listened to during the fall / winter of 2020. The overall text is mostly analytics and investment theory with provided examples. To me a lot of it was common sense information. However the smaller details were life changing and overall helped me get a better grasp on my personal finances and budget. To me some of the information was kind of hard to follow because I was driving and the reader would run through examples with numbers and stats and it was difficult for me not to be able to see it ion paper. I think I would have gotten a bit more out of the book if I would have read it.

The information contained in the book has been proven throughout time. The book remains vital reading into the fundamentals of intelligent investing. I believe this book was written in the 1940’s or 50’s by Benjamin Graham, a renowned and successful investor. The data and stats in this book reflect the time in which they were originally written. It definitely would be nice to have an abridged modern version that would run some of the numbers with modern day stats and inflation and wages. Lets face it the standard of living was much different in the 1950’s.

This book was very informative to me overall. I was currently working a new job and learning about my finances in a more mature light. For the first time in my life I was thinking about the future and making plans for long term savings and investing. Also this was all relevant information to me because a certain security i owned had recently taken on a massive upswing. For the first time in my life I had a stash of “Nest Egg” money that I didn’t know what to do with. More than anything I wanted to learn how to protect my investment and make the most of the opportunity. This book set me on a path of great knowledge and understanding about my personal finances.

The book was great in that all of the knowledge was easy to follow and the examples were real life and not pertaining to billionaires or the super rich. The text is aimed at helping the average man handle his finances better and pointing one in the right direction to start investing correctly and smartly.

My one negative critique of this book was the older examples but it is no fault of the author. This book was written in a different time and money and finances were a lot different. I took the information and applied it as best as i could to my own personal situation was able to learn and take a lot from the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to better their base knowledge of finances, budgets, and investing. This is not a strategy book, and it doesn’t dive into analyzing companies or anything like that. This book gives some solid metrics on what is healthy savings, what percent of income you should be investing long term, and overall ideas on good financial health. it was a fairly quick book from what I remember.

Great book overall. There are definitely more relatable books out there on this subject that have more modern examples and numbers. In regards to the information in the book it is solid knowledge for anyone to have. I got a lot out of it and if you are interested in finance, or curious about investing you should probably check this book out as a good starting point.

Hope you enjoyed the review. Hope it was helpful. Stay tuned for more. Playing a bit of catch up on my media reviews. haha Procrastination nation!!

Pax

Video Game Review – Assassins Creed: Valhalla

Assassin's Creed Valhalla lets you change Eivor's gender whenever you want | PC Gamer — Eivor the main character (Female) of Assassins Creed: Valhalla

To start I want to say i do not support the way Ubisoft treats it’s employees. I follow gaming news closely and I know about all the internal allegations and misconduct. I fully support the better treatment of workers. I choose to support the games and the franchises because I genuinely enjoy the world the developers and people on the ground create. I support the artists, voices, designers, engineers, musicians, testers, software developers etc etc who make these games come to life. It’s sad that such a collaborative art can be held tight in such a strangle hold of capitalist and dude bro toxicity. So I Support the workers who make these games come to life. I enjoy the games and the world they build for me to experience.

I have always found video games to be a release or escape. Like a good book, movie, or TV show, video games have always given me great stories, interesting puzzles, or downright memorable characters. Assassins Creed Games satisfy all the gaming itches that I feel. I completely understand the criticisms of the game for being overly bloated with side content, or being too long, or having convoluted stories and endings. Those reasons are why I LOVE AC games. Especially since AC Origins, when the series dove more into the RPG mechanics. To me that is when the series really started to shine. I’ve been into the AC series since it opened up a bit in part AC3 with Connor.

This game features a main voiced and acted character, Eivor. You can choose whether you want to play as a male or a female gendered character and the game even slyly justifies you being able to change midway through the game. The game implying that the DNA is so old that the Animus system is unable to determine gender (or something to that degree) It’s a non issue, just thought it was clever. I chose to play as a Female character “letting the animus decide”, it didn’t change for the whole game and I never messed with it again. I think if you make certain choices it may change your gender at some point in the story, but as I said the Animus decided I was a female Eivor for the whole game till conclusion. There is very little difference in dialogue options and story other than the voice of the Character.

The controls are a bit looser than the past entries. I don’t know how to explain it. The blocking and parrying is a bit delayed it felt, compared to AC Odyssey. I very quickly got used to it and it was a non issue after the first hour of play. Just something I noticed. It may be tightened up now a year and some months after release. All the other functions worked well. There are a lot of systems in this game. But as in any game that is part of the fun of learning and becomes second nature

AC Valhalla is a tale of brotherhood, and loyalty. A story or triumph and a touch of AC’s famous mystical, metaphysical, sci-fi, computer shit. It follows you leaving your clan to attain your own glory and status in the world. Tired of the old ways Eivor and her brother Sigurd, whose family adopted Eivor, decide to leave their clan in the icy north for the shores of what would be medieval England. From there you establish a settlement village by going on viking style raids up and down rivers and the coasts of the beautifully crafted world map. this all gets more complicated when you meet up with your brother and he is obsessed with these strange visions and beliefs. You slowly conquer your way through the land helping replace thrones and otherwise help people along the way. This game loop was fun for me. The characters are well written and voiced well.

I genuinely liked being a Viking and learning about their culture through the games lore and my own curiosity. Assassins Creed games genuinely interest me because they inspire me to learn more about the time setting and see what may or may not have been actual history and what was completely AC Fiction. Regardless it inspires me to do light research into history to further personify the character I’m spending dozens of hours with.

I liked the raiding aspect and the overall RPG elements felt good. The world they crafted is absolutely beautiful and the Music is solid. The settlement you build feels alive and subtle audio details enrich the visuals, like wind in trees and the sounds of animals and people chatting and singing. The music is enchanting, and I never got tired of stopping at my home settlement just to play some dice, rest, upgrade, or plan my next series of event for the main story. The winter festival was absolutely wonderful and decked out he whole settlement in decorations and let me take part in dorky drinking games and drunken boxing matches. Great little touches like that is why I still admire AC games and the people who make and design them. (NOT shitty CEOs or Shareholders)

The game play loop of conquering areas of the map, raiding monasteries, and upgrading the settlement in pursuit of keeping your brother happy felt mostly balanced to me. I enjoy the combat in these games because I change it up regularly. I don’t repeat the same tactics because then the action would get boring. there are so many ways to take out enemies that the game should only ever really get bored if you let yourself get bored with it. Usually by that time in a game I’m more than powerful enough to just finish the main story at least. There were some good mind****s in proper AC fashion. The ending is bat-shit crazy and begs to be discussed. I implore you, Finish your games.. so we can talk about them. 🙂

Some things that may be seen as negative. Assassins Creed is long. I don’t mind this as much but I also make time to play video games. Someone with less time may not enjoy the sheer amount of playtime it would take to explore and see and keep up with the story. There are tons of side content that distracts you from the main story or conflict. I am used to these games and I have two different play styles. I alternate my time playing side content, collection, and exploration, then the next session I am usually strong enough to power through a larger chunk of the main story or complete a full quest line. instead of constantly distracting myself in-between major story missions. It helps me keep track of where the story is, I’ll get to a good stopping point, and then switch to exploration and side quests.

People who get bugged easily by glitches may be annoyed sometimes. It was never game breaking but during the larger sequences, A LOT is going on on the screen at once. Sometimes I would see some pretty funny glitches. Bodies flying and glitching out in silly ways, NPC’s not helping me bash down doors, and other minor sound and visual anomaly. The one that bugged me the most was the audio being absent in dialogue sequences. The subtitles worked so it wasn’t game breaking but would require me to save and restart from the main menu. Again nothing terrible. I bought it on launch day and in my 100+ hours in the game it only ever fully crashed maybe 2 or 3 times playing on old ps4 hardware. i’m sure it’s a much tighter experience by this time a year on.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Review | Scholarly Gamers

This game was great to me. A wonderful way to spend the coldest parts of the year. A good story where your choices have some impact on the final scenes. Some of the music still rings in my head from time to time. Eivor was a solid character and some of the philosophies they spoke were relatable and thought provoking. I try to go into every game pretending like it’s a new experience. I know games can be cheesy and ultimately fall flat for some people. That’s completely OK. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a long story in a beautifully crafted world. As a player it felt up to me whether I was playing the story or whether I was engaged in side content and collection.
who would enjoy this game.

All in all I highly recommend this game. It’s a long, epic game, but should be experienced by anyone who loves rich colorful worlds, walks through historical settings, or fairly consistent action or exploration. RPG lovers may take to the modern formula of Assassins Creed games as well. This series may have gotten stale for some, but the games have gotten better since Black Flag in my opinion. I finished this game around February of 2021, so it’s been a minute. Just catching up. Thanks for reading, hope this review was helpful or informative.

Pax

Book Review – “Art of Solitude” by Stephen Batchelor

This was one of my audio book experiences while I was working at the medical dispensary in the city about an hour away form my house. I guess you could say I was going through a transformational period myself. The overall impact of the COVID pandemic plus the isolation of being on the road for 2 hours a day was tough for me. Factor in a schedule that didn’t allow much free time and I was feeling the burn of solitude and isolation. I was motivated to try and promised a lot that ended up not panning out. This book was a symbol of me trying to cope with the isolation of a work grind with over 2+ hours of driving daily. This is all to add some context of why I chose these self help, motivational, and personal productivity type books.

The book wasn’t bad at all. In fact it was really good but I do remember the readers voice being very monotone and not very exciting to listen to. The book is basically the tellings of a famous guru type Buddhist Teacher philosopher named Stephen Batchelor. Stephen basically quit his teaching and took on a journey that sought clarification into his own mortality and isolation, as well as, a deep dive into his thoughts on lonliness and solitude. I thought this relevant to all that was happening in our personal and social lives during the onset of the COVID pandemic during the late summer and fall of 2020.

The book was fairly short and nothing really stuck as being super enlightening and impactful to me at least. It was a long time ago that I finished listening to this book, but it was less teachings and advice and more of his experiences during this period in his life. Some of the more entertaining parts had the author describe attending various psychedelic rituals involving Peyote and Ayahuaska. I have experienced these substances and can more or less relate to someone who has never tried them and is experiencing them for the first time.

I liked the even tone of the book. There was more substance aside from his personal experiences. The author would add his own statements and ideas that relate to all the great thinkers in our history. I appreciated that he did a deep dive into what solitude means to himself, although, I didn’t quite connect to some of the concepts. In some of the experiences he was not alone and he was not in solitude but in a group setting. To me solitude is .. solitude. Like being up, tripping face, doing art or music at 3:45am when the rest of the world sleeps and nobody will disturb you.. solitude.

Not to get all philosophical with it, (pun intended) I think for an upper class academic who most likely has never really dove into the world of intense psychedelics, his accounts are all the more valid because he went to the deepest end of the rabbit hole doing ritualistic doses and purges of Peyote and Ayahuaska. Holy shit.. I bet he felt alone on the steps of death at points… I can honestly say I’ve experienced similar feelings on massive head-fulls.. but never in a ritualistic setting with all the spiritual mumbo jumbo attached to it.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is into philosophy, or has a desire to seek answers within themselves. This book has way more positive content than I can factually remember and it contains tons of solid quotes and ideologies by a professional thinker.

My overall thoughts are that this book would probably have meant more to me if i had listened to it in a non work or non driving setting. The audio books have to keep my attention and I feel like my mind probably wandered a bit during this book. As always I hope this was helpful or informative. Please let me know in comments if you ever want to discuss or talk about any book or subject.

Thanks for reading!

Pax

Book Review – “Zen and Now: on the trail of Robert Pirsig and the art of mototcycle maintenence” By Mark Richardson

I listened to this book on audio book, as I was driving to and from a job a city over. The expeience was good and the reader was clear and had character.

This book is a re telling of a famous book called “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” written by Rober Pirsig, of his own accounts of a cross country motorcycle journey with his son. I have not read the original book which was published in 1968. The author of this book I read is named Mark Richardson and he basically followed the famous path of Pirsig and wrote it his own accounts and philosophies as a docu/memoir. If i remember correctly he was in touch with some members of Robert Pirsigs family or friends. Mark Richardson studied and took great interest in the story, man, and philosophy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, to the degree where he literally followed in the late authors footsteps and retraced his epic journey for himself, only solo and with no passenger.

In this story, the author describes his situation and need to escape and all that encompasses the desire to ride solo across the country on an old motorcycle. Throughout the book he relates philosophies of the original “Zen and the art” book as he sees them in relevance to his own life and relationships with his family and others. Mark goes on a journey two thirds of the way across the country as a quest to himself for his birthday and more or less to ponder who he is. Maybe like a midlife crisis thing or maybe to satisfy that itch that only a writer/journalist would know. The overall story is entertaining and not as much actual motorcycle maintenance as I thought it would be.

I liked the relation to Zen and motorcycles. A friend of mine recommended the original “Zen and the art” and when I needed something to listen to on my long solo drives I found this “Zen and Now” book by Mark Richardson. I believe the author even Read the book for the audio book I listened to. I found the story satisfying and entertaining. The philosophy is mild but relatable and the motorcycle jargon was a nice fit for my attention while driving. I didn’t find my self bored and I could pay attention easily.

I found this story particularly relevant for two reasons. 1) I own a motorcycle and have ridden myself for years so I understand the terminology and the feelings of combined freedom and isolation, confidence and caution. Thoughts and feelings that only comes with being on the road by yourself, on only two wheels. 2) At the time I was driving a full hour to and from work by myself with just my thoughts if not for the Audio book playing.

I think I found a deeper connection with the book itself because of the long hours spent driving. I could relate to the stress of weather and maintenance and traffic issues. Before I had ever heard of the book or it’s title, when people ask me about riding motorcycles, I would automatically tell them it has very zen like qualities to it.. So I learned I was far from the only individual who had ever made that connection.

I would recommend to anyone who is interested in motorcycles, true life adventure, or philosophy. The book isn’t heavy or in depth on any of these subjects but combines them into an entertaining and ultimately satisfying experience.

Overall, thinking back, to when I was working in a different city, I listened to a boatload of music and a handful of audio books and this one is the one that resonated with me the most and has also stuck with me the most. I definitley recommend it all the way around as just a good piece of literature. One that explores the common mans desire for adventure and brushes on the the workings of relationships and how they relate to stress and passage of time.

Good read

Thanks for reading the review! Stay tuned for more.

Pax

Video Game Review – Battlefield 2042

As a long time fan there isn’t much to be said that hasn’t been already. The game has had a piss poor launch and long time fans of the series are rightfully ticked off. The game feels bare bones and ultimately not complete. There are dozens of things missing for me that kind of ruin the core Battlefield experience, and should be a no brained. Battlefield 2042 feels like it went backward in it’s progression. That being said, I do have fun with the game somtimes and it really shines when you play with friends, yet even that aspect has a weird design flaw because there is no way to communicate within the game?!? Overall I have a hard time recommending this game in it’s current state. Even though Battlefield is one of my favorite shooter games for the past decade or more.

The game is trying to be something that it is not. It’s leaning heavy into the hero shooter mechanics of special abilities and goofy “specialist” characters, instead of the nameless soldier classes that encouraged teamwork and a rock-paper-scissors style of strategy. In Battlefield 2042 It’s just a mess of the exact same model of characters, all of which can revive and also carry a rocket launcher, with a light machine gun that lacks recoil, or a sniper rifle. The game just feels very “meta”ish. Now everyone runs around with the most effective gear and that’s about what you see. The action is so spread out it often just feels like chaos with no sense of holding points or strategized movement and flanking.

The game plays decently on the Playstation5 console and luckily I haven’t experienced the game breaking bugs that a lot of people complain about. The game runs fairly smoothly for me. Only occasionally will it freeze or not load me into a match. The visuals are OK but nothing dazzling and atmospheric like the past two entries. This game just has a generic samey feel that I can’t quite put my finger on. I joke and call the game Battle of Apex Duty Field: present day fight game. The gun play is good and tight for me and the sound is decent but it all lacks some of the chunk and boom and umph of the past titles.

I like the setting and the time period, but like so many others I was hoping more for an updated BF4 style and feel. I really like calling in vehicles and equipment even if they Ranger drone is kinda worthless I can imagine the future with all kinds of other equipment that you can call in. Playing with friends is definitely the highlight for me. Unfortunately for a team focused game, it completely lacks any formal communication system within the game. This had me scratching my head as it renders one of the featured game modes pretty much unplayable. The maps are good in my opinion but I will be honest, compared to the past 2 titles the maps in this game feel very sterile and empty, even soul less. There is no gun emplacements, or blown up wreckage, there is no trash in the big cities except for a plastic bag blowing around every now and then.. For such massive and gorgeous maps they lack any atmosphere whatsoever.

Of course by now you can tell that there are plenty of things that I am not happy with. I don’t like the fact that there is no in game voice chat. This ruins any sense of team play and coordination. Aside from there being no way to communicate outside of discord, the game doesn’t reward the player for doing team related stuff. There are no bonuses for following the leaders orders, there are no real assist bonuses for spotting and killing enemies or sticking with your squad. There are no squad bonuses at all except for small ones for spawning on squad mates and marking enemies. This is a drag as it just promotes a solo playstyle where everyone just kinda plays for themselves. Medics don’t revive, Everyone can be carry a Sniper rifle AND have rocket launchers, and now characters can literally squirrel suit and zip their way to you with spring grappling hooks.. One of my biggest gripes is that there is no scoreboard or out of match stats. One of the things I geeked out on as a long time player was seeing how many kills I got with each piece of equipment or in total over the countless hours i would spend with the game. There is none of that lasting appeal in this game. I don’t care about dorky skins and stupid cosmetics. I just want a Battlefield game that feels finished. The game needs balancing as well yada yada yada, I could literally write a full post on what I think could be balanced for a better experience, alas I am no developer or game designer..

Honest recommendation as a long time fan. If you know what you are buying and think you will enjoy it, you probably will. If you are expecting too much or were hoping for an actual Battlefield game, I regret to say.. this isn’t it. Not yet.. This isn’t to say I don’t have hope. It took BF1 and BFV about a year to fully start fleshing out and being dialed in. I am confident that the game will get better as time passes.

The past couple Battlefield games have left a bad taste in my mouth because they took a bunch of my money at full price and then slashed the price of the game less than a couple months after release. That is shitty. I should have known better and waited honestly. I feel slightly cheated. But I think I finally learned my lesson because this wasn’t the only title I purchased in the past several years that were not worth the full price.

I wish I hadn’t have pre-ordered and waited for more content or for a discounted price. Because at this point the game is not worth the full price. I give the game a 2.5 out of 5 stars. I hope it will be more complete in 6 months to a year, but that is a sad statement considering Battlefield used to be one of my go to video games.

Book Review – All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

It was a while ago now, back in fall of 2020 that I listened to this book. I listened on audio book and it was a good experience. At the time I was commuting almost an hour a day to and from work and I had lots of down time driving on an easy highway. Audio books are perfect for driving on highway because you can throw it in cruise control and pay attention to the road, as much as you need to, but also pay attention to what you are hearing. I listened to a lot of audio books in my time at that job. I found that the person who is recorded reading the book makes a big difference. Some just simply read the book with no inflections or change in their voice. These were harder to get through and sometimes I wouldn’t be in the mood. Then some are performed with great tone and variance in their voice. That is the difference, some audio books are just read aloud and recorded and some are performed for the listener. These books are usually of the fantasy and fiction genres. Definitely worth listening too.

The author writes from the German perspective of world war 1, the “war to end all wars”. This books is a fiction but no doubt built from the tales of war and possible real life experiences of the author, Erich Maria Remarque. Erich is German and lived throughout WW1 and WW2. This book is a novelized account of a young soldier and his group of fellow soldiers over the course of several years of the war. Over 200 pages these young men become grizzled veterans. There are light accounts of camaraderie and brotherhood entrenched with accounts of the brutalities of war. There is no triumph in this story as we know through history how World War 1 ended. This story provides a rare glimpse into minds and perspective of a defeated nation.

The book is brief and detailed in it’s execution. The Author doesn’t really waste too much time world building or developing the characters, and this is deliberate. As mentioned previously this story is told from the perspective of the German army and so the story has an “inevitability” factor. You know what is coming but the Author manages to make you curious how these characters and their situation will end up. The characters are presented as young men or even boys. There are no hero characters, no antagonists or protagonists. The author drives home that these aren’t extraordinay men but just normal humans learning how to maintain and survive as they grow together through out the book. This makes the inevitable losses all that much more impactful. With the harsh details provided it’s easy to imagine how terribly this world event left so many people on both sides. Neither side thought they were bad, both sides thought they were in convicted in what they were doing, but couldn’t tell each other why.

I liked the quick pace and details of the battles. There wasn’t too much gore or graphic details but there was definitely enough to really drive home the hell that those men had to endure. While war is not a positive subject, I do find it extremely fascinating. World conflicts in general. I liked this book because it’s not often you get a story that you know basically how it ends up, because it’s told from the “losing” side of history. Although make no mistake in those massive world conflicts back then nobody truly won..

There wasn’t anything I really didn’t like about the book. I could say I didn’t like the ending but that can carry so many things with it. You will have to read the story for yourself and I encourage you to do so. It is hard subject matter and it is supposed to make you feel something, which is why it is an all time classic that is recommended and honored today as great literature. In my opinion modern authors lack the language and overall tone of Authors of the past.

It’s to be noted and I’d like to talk about it. I don’t know why I am so fascinated with warfare and conflict? It’s not like a creepy obsession or anything I simply cannot fathom the sheer numbers that go into massive scale conflicts. Even the most current war in Iraq and the Middle East. I mean we waste soooooo much fucking money on the military every year. I can’t imagine what the full cost of the war was for 20 years. Like full cost including all the corrupt and illegal money. The old wars fascinate me because in my opinion all the rich and smart people of the world realized back then that whole countries can be built and ultimately controlled by a constant state of warfare or conflict. Also LOTS of money can be gained and extorted from the conflicts on both sides. I don’t know why I find it so fascinating and kinda terrifying. Those massive conflicts only happened a short time ago in the grand timeline of life, yet the current generations are just enough removed that they can’t realize how different our lives could have been if a couple of past events had turned out only a little bit differently.

Super interesting for sure. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in warfare or war stories of the classic wars. There is enough detail in the book to learn some facts but not a slog with a bunch of military terminology and descriptions of basic duties. Hope you found this review helpful and let me know if you read or listen to “All Quiet on the Western Front”.