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Video Game review – Metal Gear Survive

**May contain spoilers** I try not too but it’s hard writing a review without spoiling some things, read at your discretion. Feel free to ask questions or comment if you have something to add.

Over all I give Metal Gear Survive a 4 of 5 stars. *NOTE* I have not beaten the game yet. I will update this review if it needs it upon completion. I feel I have played enough hours to write a good review for someone who is curious about picking up the game.

Let me first say, I am a huge fan of Hideo Kojima and his Metal Gear Solid video game franchise. I appreciate how the tight mechanics, mature military sci-fi story, superb graphics, and excellent voice acting come together to create thought provoking video games with great content. I was a little skeptical after Hideo Kojima, the main producer of the series, left the game studio Konami. I have read a lot about what caused the split but that is another article entirely. I simply want to give an honest review of Konami’s Metal Gear spin off, without devolving into the Kojima/ Konami fanboy critique.

First and foremost i have read several reviews for the new game and most of them do not say if it is a good game or not. Most reviews I have read simply devolve into how it is NOT Metal Gear.. I got fed up with reading about what people think of the series or the Kojima/Konami situation. I don’t think a single reviewer, actually reviewed the game. It was more about what they didn’t like about it or the story or characters. Still most reviewers put way too much emphasis on the game not being Kojimas Franchise and a cheap cash out by Konami. Most reviews online will tell you all about this. I want to actually discuss the game and why I more or less enjoy it.

It is not a direct prequel or sequel. Metal Gear Survive is an off shoot that happens sometime between the end of Peace Walker and the start of The Phantom Pain in the main story chronology. It is a military story in proper Metal Gear fashion that involves wormholes and other dimensions, combined with infected, zombie like creatures, in a mysterious survival setting. Your character is a silent cuztomizable soldier. You do not directly play as Snake or any of the main characters that you may know. Survive is an entire side story consisting of entirely new characters and some new and old ideas.

That being said, I enjoy this game because of the many formulas at play. Metal Gear Survive is more or less a base building sim that plays a lot like Tom Clancy’s: The Division. It is a well crafted loot-shooter, that combines all of the better mechanics of Metal Gear series, with the looty goodness of The Division, and with a sprinkle of your favorite zombie games peppered in. You have certain amounts of time you can stay out in the environment and you collect materials, food, water, blueprints, and other stuff that you have to take back to a base to count as acquired. You can extend your exploration by preparing yourself with more survival gear, weapons, ammo, food, and water. This allows you to stay out in the harsh environment much longer than if you venture in unprepared. The entire game plays like one huge subsistence mission, where you are entirely un-equipped at the beginning and every single item you use is procured from the environment.

The beginning of this game is not easy. It is a survival type game where the first enemy you encounter is the environment and elements themselves. You have to struggle to find water and keep hydrated as well as cook food. I have read other reviews that described how much of a difficult slog the beginning of the game is and I can definitely agree. I died a lot in the beginning because I was constantly starving to death, either for lack of water or food. Keep at it though because it is deeply satisfying when you start to learn how to keep yourself healthy, well fed, and watered. I was not looking for a game to hold my hand so I enjoyed this steep learning curve. However, people who don’t like slower paced action and stories in general will most likely be put off by the pace of the beginning of the game. This game rewards persistence, and learning from your mistakes.

The action plays well, definitely at a slower pace, compared to the traditional Metal Gear games. I have experienced and played with styles combining run and gun tactics, (once I finally found the blueprints to build a gun) to the quiet and stealthy strategy of the core games. Both work well and the game does a good job balancing and dealing with tension.. A great sense of panic and urgency builds as the zombie like creatures become alert and scream, thus alerting all of the enemies around you. I could feel my excitement rise when I realize a whole hill of those things turns to me and starts running toward me in a large mob. In this game you get to decide whether to take the fight or flight approach, both of which are warranted at different times, a decision which becomes crucial to survival during some parts.

I really enjoy the “Dust” aspect of the game. All around the main base is an ominous cloud called “the dust” . Most of the adventuring is done by gearing up at base and then venturing out into the dust to find, survivors, gear, new materials, or blueprints to craft new things. This brings to mind the Dark Zone of The Division. This area sets up a need to prepare and form a strategy before just casually trekking to that wormhole irregularity. The game does a great job of making the dust disorienting with only small visual clues to help you find your way around. You literally have to make note of direction and recognizable landmarks in order to keep your bearings. This gets more difficult when enemies require you to fight or take alternate routs to avoid being spotted. The lack of direction combined with the fact that you are on an oxygen timer creates quite a tense “oh shit I have to get home” feeling. I think they did this wonderfully it is a great aspect to the game in my opinion.

There is an extensive tutorial menu so every mechanic of the game can be re read to better understand or if you missed some information. I also particularly enjoy that it gives you the option of recovering lost items when you die. You can choose to start right before that last mission started before you left the base, or you can start from base and go try to recover the box full of your items that you lost when you perished. This choice greatly relieves the sense of loss when a game over inevitably happens. I don’t like games that try to waste your time, while in the game.. (that is why I play video games for entertainment). Losing everything for not preparing yourself or making a mistake kinda bugs me but this game gives you an option at least. This is not an easy game so expect to die a lot, especially in the first segment of the game, it is pretty normal, and you aren’t doing anything wrong.

I do have some complaints about the game but none of them are cause enough to make it a bad experience, just something to be desired.

I had hoped the Co-op play would have been in the main quest part of the game. So I could team up with friends to secure the base and loot for materials. For now I believe there are only select staged areas that players can take on cooperatively. I haven’t played too much in Co-op so I will probly update this section a bit when I finish the game.

The characters are decent but not as instantly lovable as the main protagonists of the Core games. Many people will be put off right from the start because you don’t play as snake or one of his colleagues. For the first several hours I found it hard to take the characters seriously, However, after I played for a while I actually kinda started to care whether this group of random characters will ever get home. Also the main conflict, why the characters are stuck in this world, is fairly thought provoking and I want to know who is behind everything and why/how the characters are being manipulated. All of these things, coupled with the inclusion of aspects from the Core metal gear series, make for a pretty compelling survival game with the soul of it’s name sake.

The Metal Gear series is known for it’s tight gameplay, chiseled graphics, and mature (sometimes ludicrous) sci-fi / military stories. Metal Gear Survive definitely embraces these qualities while giving something a bit different. Overall not perfect but pretty good in my opinion. Definitely worth a play through if you like good looking, tight playing, survival games. I highly recommend this if you desired more from The Division. This game feels a lot like that. If you are looking for another Metal Gear Solid game, don’t bother. It is a different experience overall and uses a bunch of new mechanics and other story drivers that may not satiate the common Metal Gear fanboy.

Well I hope this was informative. Please comment or share if you fancy. Much love and Happy Gaming!

Upgraded and Updated – Back to the smartphone

At the beginning of January I purchased another smart phone. Essentially this ended my media diet and now I am back to the full swing of hateful, trollish, and divisive media. I’m just kidding, I’ll write for just a moment about some of the pros and cons I observed, of myself, over the months of NOT being constantly connected to a smart phone.

Having a basic flip (stupid) phone succeeded in ridding me of negative news media and the more pointless social media. In the several months I had the stupid phone I was finishing a business degree and I was taking calculus and managerial accounting. Some pretty tough courses that required my full attention and time. Happy to say I passed my courses and achieved my Associates degree in Business and Information Technology.

The original reason that I downgraded to a flip phone originally was because I found myself spending 2, 3, even 4 hours a day just needlessly scrolling. Looking at bull shit that happened three days ago that I had already seen like 30 times, and getting pissed off about dumb comments. flip phone simply changed that. Those hours no longer spent on my phone were now free to be spent on more productive and important tasks. Indeed this did take will power, to not just jump on the computer constantly, but I don’t have time to just sit around my house on my computer all day. Eventually the feeling of even needing to check it at all, just disappeared.

I seem to be less stressed out in general. I have written how I am plagued by social media and the scroll type arrangement of most websites. With the stupid phone, after about a month, I stopped needing to check my phone because there was simply nothing on it. No notifications, no games, no internet at all. Just talk, text, and a voicemail that nobody uses. We are really unaware of how much that incessant buzzing or ringing or dinging makes us think that we have to be checking on things all the time. It creates a sense of panic almost, and a need to check in to your device to see what it was about for fear you may miss something. It stresses us the fuck out. Now that I have had a smart phone again for the past month I still only use social media on my computer and I don’t check my device as much as I ever remember. I simply turned off all of the notifications for the various apps that come pre loaded on the phone and now it is a quiet brick thing that rings and can look up maps or take better pictures. It is no longer a staple of my every day activities, other than for communication or the occasional blog or news article.

My productivity went up drastically. I got more chores and cleaning adventures done than I think I ever have over a three or four month period. I’m not exaggerating, I really did do more around the house and I had more of a drive to handle tasks in general. I was way more proactive when it came to homework and I didn’t have anything readily available to distract me. I did well on assignments and finished strong.

There were some things I missed about having a smart phone pretty much the whole time. These things were mostly convenience related like lack of uber or other apps, no gps, no camera, and shitty text messaging interface. I thought that I would stop texting so much and call and use the phone to talk to people more. While I did call people more, I fast figured out that the standard mode of communication in the modern world is some sort of text message. I ended up just missing the full range key boards that the smart devices have. It just makes it easier to communicate in general. I quickly re learned how to T9 text but it was a pain in the ass. Menu’s are a nightmare and there is no copy paste function.

Overall, I still enjoy having a smart phone. I am a productive person and it benefits me to have some of the features. I just like the convenience and I have indeed gotten used to the higher quality camera and communication apps. I genuinely missed them and feel I communicate better now than when I had the stupid phone.

I will give the stupid phone every bit of credit it deserves. I was able to focus and get through some very intense classes. I felt my aptitude and proactive drive increase and I hope this stays with me. Downgrading ultimately reduced my dependency on the phone in general. I don’t needlessly check or even pick up my phone as much, I just don’t feel the need to, I hope this continues as well.

If you feel upset or stressed all the time, or like shit is overbearing and hopeless. I strongly encourage you to downgrade your phone, if even for a little while.. they have tons of super low cost cellular services that don’t require a contract. A break from the small screens may just be the breath of fresh air that you need in your life. There is a lot of negative shit coming out of those little screens.. If you feel like you need a recharge, maybe give it a try. It definitely helped me appreciate having one again, and gave me a needed bit of disconnection and reflection.

Thanks for reading.

Downgraded – Smart phones making people dumber

**Update at bottom**

I recently downgraded my communication device to a stupid phone. I feel that while the phones are getting smarter and smarter, people appear to get stupider and stupider. I had been milling over the idea for a while now and I finally made the switch about a month and a half ago. I specifically chose one of the most basic and simple phones I could find. Just a basic flip phone with only talk, text, and voicemail.

This is the new high tech mobular communication device! aka. stupid phone.

I chose to do a downgrade because I was getting hopelessly distracted and upset by all of the dumb media in the world today. I found myself spending way too much time scrolling down on various news and social media websites with no real purpose or aim. I would then worry about everything else in the world except for what is really important. I also started getting bitter at the blatant falseness, how people eat it up, and how people behave with each other. I started becoming more and more of a troll.

I feel the modern smartphone is just like America in general, an overly complicated, super expensive, mostly pointless idea. Don’t get me wrong I loved my I Tele and all of it’s features that I barely ever used… Let’s face it they sell us on the fact that they make us think we need all these fancy little widgets and apps to do everyday stuff when we got along just fine without all that crap before. All Smartphones have done is create an overly entitled society that has no patients and ultimately destroys any need or desire to work for anything. Smart phones further remove us from the value of hard work and setting goals, when we can just look anything up at any time or buy anything at a moments notice, it diminishes our sense of satisfaction and achievement. True, I will admit, smartphones help productive people be more productive, however people who use them correctly are already usually ahead of the curve in the productivity and information area anyways. The device itself won’t make a lazy person any more active or motivated, quite the opposite. There is an overall lack of enthusiasm and motivation in the modern world today. I believe it is linked to the westernized worlds fixation and attachment on our little screens.

There are maybe a thousand or so people on the whole planet who absolutely need a smartphone for their everyday life. You and I are not one of them. It’s pretty sad that people are willing to shell out 700 plus dollars once a year or every other year for a mobile communication device. It’s even sadder that they make us feel we have to, to stay current or up to date. It’s only getting worse as well, the new Iphone X announced recently and they are touting it as being the first device to carry a 1000+ dollar price tag for the flagship model. It has a bunch of new gizmos and gimmicks that are sure to have people shelling out big bucks when it launches. The smartphone craze is going nowhere anytime soon.

My personal infatuation with them is slowly going away. I am pulling out the stupid phone for no reason less and less. I used to open my phone and open the internet application and then scroll down so often, it became a habit. It has been interesting to open the phone everyday and there is no apps at all, not even internet.

I have already noticed my motivation levels have increased, while my stress levels have been much lower. I don’t stress out about dumb internet bullshit! It’s nice really. I have been more productive overall with my studies, and with my spare time I have read like two books and it has only been a little over a month. I have been more willing to get out of my house, and have been doing other chores and cleaning activities that I normally would be too lazy or distracted to do. I hope to notice a real difference when the more difficult homework starts here in a couple weeks.

I will continue to document my quality of life in these Blog posts but for now everything seems to be going well. I like it and it has not become annoying to not have a modern smart phone. It hasn’t really forced any genuine communication yet because stupid text messaging is still the preferred method of communication in today’s world. I do miss the nice Camera and Map application and those will be the hardest to get over. I forgot to write down directions the other day, for the first time since middle school, and had to call my friend to get directions to his house. So little things I am finding out are definitely more convenient with the smartphones but there is still nothing that I cannot look up on my computer when I get home. I have to remember to look up locations and directions before I leave. All in all, I rarely need to know anything right that instant, lest talk to anyone right at that moment any time anywhere.. I don’t think I am that important really..

Well thanks for reading, have a good day, and let’s make the future better by communicating better with each other. Much love!

Hey there I upgraded back to a smart phone at the beginning of January. Please read my update blog! Thank you! https://thebottomlessblog.com/2018/01/27/upgraded-and-updated-back-to-the-smartphone/

Time to log out! – an observational opinion.

I notice, these days, that I get super flustered over the dumbest shit in the world. I feel stressed just scrolling down and reading all of the bullshit I see. I call people out over their own bull shit and I am overly sensitive. I could even call myself a troll. I like to debate with people about things I know nothing about while putting up an image that I actually care about what we are even debating. I shit post and I am overly rude and cynical. I like to get a rise out of people. I will even call myself a bully sometimes.

The catch is… I only do this shit online.

I hate social media with a passion and I am painfully addicted to it. Fuck, you can’t feel connected or get invited to shit without it because people don’t just call each other anymore. Word of mouth is almost a thing of the past and online social networking has become the solid norm. I feel it is degrading our abilities to communicate and otherwise interact in person.

I’m lucky.. I was born in 1986.. I like to say that a couple years make a big difference… I remember playing outside with other kids and otherwise socializing and living unconnected from any network or online gadget. It was just the norm. I played video games a lot but even then my Mother would make us go outside and play or take us for some outdoor activity. this was the early 1990s.

I remember computers in schools being these big blocky things that were down in an underground “computer lab” where this geeky guy named Jeff was all stoked that he had networked our elementary school so everyone could get a fuckin email at the same time!!! Back then that was a big deal. He would take the classes down there and it was hot as hell and all the screens were super old black and white Macintosh computers but he would let us play little games and show us how to send emails and open up word documents. Super Basic.

My middle school all the kids were getting mobile phones. I was late in getting a cell phone of any kind and used the landline till I was like 15 or 16, where most kids had them for several years already… By the time I had one I already felt behind the game in many ways. I noticed over 10 years ago how people were hopelessly addicted to their phones. The phones themselves quickly gained new features that allowed people to communicate faster, albeit more informally, with small chunks of text typing that is now the solid way that most people communicate.

Now our modern phones are literally small computers complete with state of the art resolution, color, cameras, and sound capabilities. Not to mention that nearly all phones have the ability to connect to the internet so gone is the days of having to reference books or look up stuff in data bases or spend time in libraries. Now literally anyone with a “smartphone” can look up, watch, listen, download, or purchase literally anything in the known world with the touch of a button. This has created a sense of misplaced urgency and stress that overall, I believe, is damaging the fundamentals of patience, self worth, work ethic, and overall human character.

Overall with the fast, edited, and impersonal communication you get a breed of people on the internet who know that they can now say anything to anyone at anytime, no matter how vile or hateful it may be. The thing is they can do it under the guise of anonymity. Their actions never get proper consequences. Nobody ever sees them but now in the world you have a whole sub culture of people who cannot let people be proud of anything, who spoil new media, who critique EVERYTHING, and who ultimately proliferate a sense that people are vile and horrible overall.

DON’T EVER READ THE COMMENTS!! FOR GOD SAKE!

If you want to ever desire to read some of the worst of the worst of human communication. Go to any honorable or even half way credible news or blog page and read the comments. !! CAUTION !! This may potentially upset you at the sheer stupidity of some people. Comments may potentially disgust you with the sheer amount of small minded, childish, ignorance contained within them.

For real though the “comments section” of most online social media are literally the spaces between the cracks in society where only the most demented, lonely, sad, racist, scared, dissatisfied, or angry people in the world ever show their true faces. It’s sad that most of the internet has devolved into a shit show of trolling and baseless bullshit articles.

One of the most aggravating things in the current social political climate is that people willfully ignore stated facts that are reliable and approved on many spectrums. It’s almost like in the year 2017 you have this battle against factual information. There are whole groups of people who read stuff (or don’t) and just kind of make up their minds about the way it is, or should be. Then they stubbornly stick to it even in the face of sheer disaster and failure. This isn’t a political post but for fuck sake our current president of the united states and the 34% of Americans that still support him have blatantly ignored factual information and instead pander to strait lies bordering on propaganda. This creates a huge paradox in the United States today where the division is further multiplied by stupid people within both sides of the argument who create even more division with their often ill informed stances and ideas. And the overall lack of accountability.. different day different post.

What I noticed when I log out and turn shit off.

Alas there is hope.

I spent anywhere up to 4 hours a day on my phone looking at social media. Sitting there.. scrolling with no purpose or reason. I scroll so much on some sites that I start to see bullshit that I saw 3 days ago. I get mad at the stupidity of the general public when debating pointless ideas. I realized my motivation and enthusiasm in real life was slacking.

So I made the conscious choice to log the fuck out. Simple. I logged out of my social media accounts on my phones and computer. I deleted the apps off of my phone altogether. What I found was pretty fucking cool. It took a week or two to not even attempt to open the stupid websites. I would pick up my phone or open my computer and open the website and start to put in the login information and have to tell myself out loud ” get off this garbage ” and close whatever device it was. It was seriously like an addiction, a fierce habit that I had to break. It took serious time and effort..

Once I was more or less over the urge to always be checking on my status, I realized I was way more productive in the daytime. I had more energy and I started eating a bit better because I was up and moving instead of sitting in one positition staring at a screen. My mood improved because I wasn’t constantly surrounding myself with garbage media and stupid comments. My motivation for music and hobbies came back and I curretnly have a bunch of projects in the work. Overall I noticed a super positive difference when I logged in to life instead of anti social medias and stupid news. My stress levels overall went down day by day and I feel I enjoy social events more when I don’t think, right off the bat, that every conversation I have is going to be with some troll.

Bottom line in real life People are pretty cool, we have a lot in common with our fellow man, no matter what race or color or background. We all fundamentally want the same things in this life. The wants of the individual may be extremely different, but the core needs of any human is not that different from the next. Food, water, shelter, security for the family, and a good place to grow up for the kids. Those things are universal among any “good” person. Despite our various life situations and circumstances, we all really want and need a lot of the same things. It’s pretty easy to have conversations in real life and usually all it takes is a smile and a simple “Hello” or “good afternoon”.

I still battle everyday with social media. I own a business so ultimately I have to have an online persona and way to communicate with people. So I am hopelessly stuck to it if i want to network and succeed. However I have taken a next step to communicate better and live in real life more. I have officially down graded my phone to a normal basic flip phone with no apps or social media. Just talk, text, and basic data. I will document the quality of my life without a smartphone and see if anything changes.

Well the main gist of this post is to possibly try to log out of stuff. Turn off the little screens. If even for a day or two. See if anything changes? Do what you want and makes you feel comfortable. I know I function better and have less stress when I try to stay clear of social media and internet. I feel a lot of people would agree if they were to try it for themselves.

As always thanks for reading! feel free to comment below.

Communication is Key

I find it is getting harder and harder for me to communicate with my peers genuinely. I know I’m not alone in the act of letting a phone call ring out, hoping they will “text me if it’s important”. I am not the only one who has stumbled uncomfortably through in-person interviews. These days there is a growing trend of leaving relationships by just simply not talking to the other person or just completely choosing to ignore them. We live in an age where communication is no longer genuine in the fact that people generally prefer to communicate in forms that allow them to review and then edit their thoughts before they are ever voiced. This destroys the fabric of what one would call genuine human interaction. It’s hard to describe but it’s important to be able to read someone’s body language and tone of voice to be able to tell how they really feel. I believe it is doing damage to our psychological and social realms. The age where we have 500 plus “friends” but don’t know how to genuinely speak to anyone, we feel isolated and alone.

As I grow older I have begun to realize that I deeply enjoy meaningful conversation. I have also begun to realize how important it is to our wellbeing. Humans need an amount of human interaction in order to feel normal, after all we are social creatures which is why social media seems like such a positive thing. I’m not saying that Social media is not a wonderful tool for communication and networking, what I’m getting at is overuse and oversaturation, and the adverse effects it has on us as a civilization over time.

There is nothing in the world more satisfying than sitting and having a good conversation with people who are interesting or have ideas to share, or sharing a good laugh with friends over complete nonsense. Even random encounters and conversations with strangers you meet, Its these conversations that teach us about ourselves and inspire us to do more. It is proven that laughing relieves stress and is great for your core among other things. Genuine communication is part of any relationship both business and personal, and an important factor of any group setting large and small.

It seems to take people by surprise anymore when you call them because we are all so used to receiving most of our correspondence through some sort of electronic text or picture message. If anything I encourage people to use their phone to actually make voice calls, even if it’s just to call your parents or a good friend. It’s good practice, and it’s always good to hear a loved one’s voice is it not?

Verbal communication is one of the human traits that make us what we are as a species. We have been able to advance faster than any other species in part because of our ability to adapt quickly as well as our ability to communicate. We are the only species on the planet with languages and detailed vocal communication that is not impulsive or instinctive like other creatures. Our languages have developed over thousands and thousands of years. The first human communication most likely came as grunts, pops and clicks, eventually becoming different tones and incorporating more body language. Over thousands of years humans refined it into the dialects and sounds of modern language that have been used and shared to strengthen the human bond over time.

Today that bond is breaking at a rapid pace due to the over saturation and dependence on technological communication. It has only been around for a couple generations in its apex, but already I believe we are witnessing the overall effects of being hopeless dependent on our little screen devices. People can be whoever they want online, and can see information and details about a person without ever actually interacting with said person. Men can lust over pictures of the girls they know but are too shy to ever ask out just as the women can post pictures of themselves every five minutes in a grab for attention or some kind of validation. Despite all of the good and positive, social media is a breeding ground for bullying and trolling with little to no recourse for the people who are cyber bullying others to the point of death in some instances. In the past couple years we have seen kids live stream their own suicide. Like damn… Am I the only one who sees and feels there is a problem? These are not healthy behaviors both on the individual level or the societal level.

In today’s turbulent political and social climate most social media has become simply a shit slinging match from one side to another with neither side offering any logical solution or compromise. Using logic and taking a more centrist stand in hopes of maybe finding compromise usually attracts even more hate. I won’t get into that, I could write a whole other post about that… I probably will eventually.

If you have read this far I encourage you to try to communicate more offline. I realize that technology is a huge factor with communication in the modern world. However, we still have the choice whether we want to use online or offline methods. All of those little smart devices still make and receive calls it’s up to us to use them and to schedule time out of our lives to chat with each other. Yes, It does take effort.

I urge everyone to challenge themselves to try to communicate better. It can be something simple like calling a friend or loved one out of the blue, just to say hi. Possibly scheduling a date or think session with a good friend or coworker just to share ideas with each other. Getting over the angst or nervousness of calling someone is a big part of the battle. I always feel like I am bugging someone when I call them. Bottom line that isn’t usually true and if they are unavailable they will simply silence it and you can leave them a message, because I know everyone just loves voice mails.

If you have to say something important or time sensitive, just call them dammit! So many people (myself included) just let the phone ring then answer with a text. I don’t know what the fuck that is about!?! It takes more effort and energy to write the response than it would be to just answer and say “nothing, yeah let’s meet up later”, or whatever. People spend incalculable amounts of time simply waiting for so n so to answer. Don’t waste either of your time, Fuckin call them.

Play table top, card, and board games. What better way to get a couple friends together? Table top games are excellent ways to have fun with a couple enjoyable people and it is excellent practice for communicating really. It seems kind of corny but it forces us to respond genuinely without any forethought. As well you can learn a lot about people by how they play and react to certain games or situations. Playing any game with others requires communication but even more when you remove the technology or video element.

Practice what you have to say or present before you have to meet face to face. This is a suggestion that has helped me through many class presentations and interviews. It’s kind of a no brainer but practicing beforehand, when I know I have to communicate, really helps me to get my timing down. Also it helps prepare for any questions someone may ask. I practice out loud and time myself if there is a time limit. I will also ask questions of myself and make pretend dialogue, again sounds corny but really helps. When I finally have to talk to whomever it usually seems to take the edge off of my nervousness.

Remember communication is key in any relationship, business or otherwise. Use it! It is one of the amazing tools we are intrinsically gifted as human beings. One of our great essences.

What can I do? – Ways to stick it to the man while living a better and healthier life

I’ve read tons of other blogs and other articles calling on people to do their part to resist the current administration or more generally the “establishment”. While I do generally love this current establishment (Non political, my home country the USA) there is much to be desired as well. We live in a country that more or less gives us right to free speech and an opportunity to seek out our own living based on our acquired skills and experiences.. Please, spare us, I’m not saying that everything is perfect, in fact far from it but I am trying to look at the positive. I observe many people asking what they can do to help, or ways they can make a difference? Lately I have seen an abundance of articles of ways to do just that. This is one of em.

Let’s face it, we live in a world dominated by finance, credit, inflating prices, and stagnant wages. As I have learned pursuing a degree in Business Administration, The USA does have a systematic strata that is set up against the poor, lower, and middle class. This can be taken as my opinion but you can read about that yourself.. It takes massive amounts of money to start and fund businesses on the level required to be sufficient in the fast paced, technology based world. No matter what it always seems like they want money when you don’t have any, with ridiculous fees charged when there isn’t enough to pay the bills in the first place, as well as insane taxes on profits for small business owners. We also have college students who are unable to get good jobs and struggling to pay off loans that were required just to get through school.. won’t even bring up the medical cluster fuck.. The list of ways to stay broke ever increases whereas ways to make a decent living are drastically disappearing.

It does seem hopeless when you pit yourself against “the system” or “the establishment”.. So don’t do it.. There are healthy ways you can join millions of other dissatisfied citizens to subtly fight the good fight without spending your extra stress and energy. With diligence, patience, and motivation you may even be able to make yourself a little extra money on the side. Following is a small list of several things that you can do to take your mind off of the ever stressful world, while giving a little back and ultimately sticking it to the man where it really hurts them… their revenues. $$$

First off! Buy Local!!

You gotta start small. These are all things that are habits that you have to teach yourself and be diligent with. They aren’t revolutionary new tactics or strange thought processes. Yes it may be a little bit more expensive but the overall act of buying local is a healthy one. That money goes right back to your community, and helps a local family(s) support themselves. This simple habit directly takes millions out of the hands of big retail corporations when practiced on a large scale.

Food manufacturers spend billions on advertising to manipulate people into buying junk food. The simple act of eating healthy, and more locally, is actually sticking it to the man more than you would know. This goes hand in hand with buying local, you can get pretty much anything you would get at the grocery store, at local farmers markets. It takes a little more effort and yes it may be more expensive but being active to pursue a better world requires action, yeah? You know when buying your food from farmers markets that you are getting some of the best local produce available. Seasonally you can find discounts on certain produce as it come in and out of season. And if you like to eat out, which I do, why not smart phone up the best mom and pop local restaurants? You may find a new favorite place to eat and you are putting money back into families in your community. Again this directly takes massive amounts of money money out of the big food corporations bottom line, and puts it directly back into your own community.

Second. Live a healthier more active lifestyle.

Big Pharmaceutical companies are sneaky. This sector makes massive amounts of money effectively by keeping people sick, stressed, disabled, and addicted. Their marketing is genius in that it’s coming up with things to make people think they have something wrong with them and hey!! X company has some pill to make you feel better. This is compounded and made more successful because Americans are advertised and eat shitty food, are unhealthy in general, super stressed out, and addicted to random weird shit. I know I am, but being raised by medical professionals I learned to take care of and listen to my body.

Every single person is different and it’s not fair for me to generalize healthcare in the United States…………. but it’s pretty shitty. Way over priced and my families past several experiences were marred with basically what amounts to customer service problems. All they want to do is push some drugs on you somehow, sign you up for some chemical treatment, or resort to surgery. All these options are wildly expensive and don’t leave the patient with many options.

If you are an unhealthy person and actually need help, get it, don’t let my post deter you from getting the treatment that works best for you. Let us know in the comments. I encourage everyone to explore herbal and holistic treatments as well as a healthy lifestyle as a first way to combat the big pharma corporations.

There are options. It is difficult and it does require change in the way you eat, think, sleep, and work. Eating better is the simplest thing you can do that many people take for granted. I learned personally when i was around 27 years old that I can’t eat fast food like I used too. It just didn’t make me feel good anymore. If you are stressed out or need help focusing try meditating or reading about how to recenter yourself and take hold of emotions. Sleeping is required, it’s super good for you and insomnia is NOT A COOL OR TRENDY THING.. Feeling yourself and how your body reacts to the things you put into it is very important. Being healthy invalidates the big pharmaceutical industry, and effectively takes money out of their earnings. Fuck expensive pills and treatments, try being healthy first.

Third. Growing your own vegetables and fruit.

What better way to combine all of the previously mentioned methods of consumer disobedience into one single act. Growing vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices is arguably the best way to stick it right to every man imaginable.

Having a garden is incredibly relaxing and teaches us how to nurture things. The art of growing anything is a crucial life skill, often taken for granted, and teaches patience. Ultimately a good hobby and habit of gardening of any kind will accomplish all of the above methods of resisting the big money corporations. You will eat healthier overall and be more aware of what you are putting into your body. Gardens give a calming new hobby that will help lower stress and hopefully be productive with healthy consumables you can enjoy most of the year round, which will save little bits of money. Lastly if you have the space and time you may consider growing extra and then selling produce at the local farmers markets, making yourself a small profit for your new hobby.

You can grow small herb and vegetable gardens right on a window sill or small raised beds in the front yard. Many varieties of edible plants are grown in pots or containers as well, it just takes a little bit of effort and will to do. It doesn’t have to be huge or super productive even just the act of gardening is a wholesome one that is great for kids and adults alike.

All of the above methods are simply suggestions of things you can do to help give back to your community overall, as well as live a little happier and healthier. There are many more ways to resist and do your part for a more equal world but All of these habits and actions have a proven effect on the revenues of mega corporations who have for decades taken advantage of workers and their labor.

In the end, we may never see the effects of the changes our single actions make, however if millions of individuals regularly partake in even the smallest ways, it adds up to billions and billions of dollars in lost revenues for the big companies that don’t serve the broader populace. Big corporations have been taking advantage of our economy and livelihood for decades and it feels to me like a shift is happening. You can start and be as active or passive as you want but the fact that you have read this far means you obviously care about our socio political world.

I am a big consumer as well, it’s in our culture. But we as consumers ultimately have the power, Americans have forgotten this. The very dollar that enslaves us is also what the big businesses of the world use as their bottom line for a measure of success. Our dollar and time is what validates them and ultimately makes them worth anything. We have the power, we earn more of it everyday, it’s up to us to use it.

Book review – Shantaram – By: Gregory David Roberts

Shantaram

By: Gregory David Roberts

This is an amazing tale that I would recommend to anyone as just a solid piece of literature. There are many endearing factors of this story, but the characters were the most engaging I think I have ever read about. The setting was detailed and rich, and the action was well paced with the unfolding of the story. Gregory David Roberts, an Australian author, ex heroin addict, convicted bank robber, and humanitarian (you read correctly) writes with an elegant style that is almost poetic at times but strait forward enough to keep readers on track. I just wanted to do a light review of the book and what it meant to me. Basically why I enjoyed this story.

The story is a novel but it is largely based on the life, trials, and tribulations of the author Mr. Gregory David Roberts. There is much debate over how much of the story is factual versus inflated with fictional aspects. This makes the story so much more endearing and lasting to me, because I know it is steeped with real details from his life.

He himself stated in an interview “Some experiences from my life are described pretty much as they happened, and others are created narratives, informed by my experience. I wanted to write two or three novels on some bare elements from my life, allowing me to explore the themes that interested me, while keeping the narrative immediate by anchoring it to some of my real experiences. They’re novels, not autobiographies, and all of the characters and dialogue is created. It doesn’t matter how much of it is true or not to me, it’s how true they are to all of us, and to our common humanity.”

The characters in this book are absolutely genuine and are expressed with definite sense of passion. Right from the start you are drawn in by the people he describes. Their looks, personalities, emotions, and actions captured with such brilliance that you feel drawn in from the very first couple pages of the book. There are so many characters that you fall in love with because of the things they say and the things they do. Just really well written the dialogue for me was easy enough to follow. Some of the names of the characters got a little confusing because there are so many but the important ones are described in detail many times so you start to remember and even begin to feel like you know them as you continue to read. There are little bits of the native languages peppered throughout the story and that adds to the immersion of the setting. The small bit of language and the accents he uses in his writing are top notch and really drive home that the people speak English only as a second language. The author describes nationalities and ethnicities of many different people and he describes their physical features with the same detail so after a while when he says a person’s name you can get a mental image of what they look like when they walk up to him.

The setting of the story is in Bombay. He describes the city in such a fashion that it seems dangerous but beautiful, diverse but traditional, and all in all like a magical, colorful place. He describes how culturally imbalanced the social strata is and he describes the slums in great details and even lives in one himself. He saw firsthand the class difference from neighborhood to neighborhood. Later on in the book he travels to other locations around Bombay. Being what it is I love to travel and have done quite a bit of globe-trotting, It all sounds so beautiful. This book and the wonderful descriptions of the setting and culture made It a point on my personal bucket list to travel there and experience the sights, sounds, and smells for myself.

The Book has a little bit for everyone: plenty of action, adventure, love, lust, crime, humor, life, and death. All these things blend beautifully together to create a hell of a story. The author Gregory David Roberts is a real person and pretty much is himself in the story. This makes the book all the better to me because I feel more connected to a story when I have experienced some of the feelings and emotions as their characters.

Let’s talk if you have read it!

Happy reading!

Poetry – Let your mind wander

When I sit here awake and so close to sleep, My mind starts to wander… Who am I really? What am I doing here? You know… The usual life to ponder.

Hits from glass and smoke so smooth, feelings be numbed, nervous and stress does it soothe. Into thin wisps the smoke then curls, as I fell into sleep, the world twists and twirls.

A heavy head rests on hands, as I venture through mountains, cross mighty oceans, and dunes of emerald sands. Every love ever lost, Epic Stories never told, So real you can feel the pain of the frost, or the warmth of the fires gold.

In this space I jump and leap, As well, in this place I solemnly weep, For I know this beauty I cannot keep, because it lies to me, this visage of sleep.

The slightest shift, a head starts to turn, abruptly awakened, through un blinded windows sun does burn. Immediately saddened, why couldn’t it last, a pen and empty pages, why does sleep happen so fast?

Now I sit here awake and so far from sleep, get up and face your day yonder… know that that place is inside of you, as long as you let your mind wander..

Loser in Chief – Let’s talk about climate

Sad day in the world. The so called “leader” of the most advanced and richest nation on the face of the earth has pulled us, The United States of America, out of the Paris Climate agreement. It is a fact that we as a country are the single largest contributor to carbon emissions and greenhouse gasses next to china, and that is by a large margin… Worse is the fact that a man in such a high office is ignorant enough to blatantly disregard scientific facts that are overwhelmingly agreed upon throughout the world. It is sickening, and a huge step backward for Americans, and the “free world” in general.

I am not a Trump supporter.. anyone who knows me knows I have the most vile hatred for him and everything he represents in humanity. However I had hope that he would do somethings to actually make America better in some ways and he has miserably failed at every turn and every policy. Our allies across the planet think he is a joke and do not respect him just barely tolerate him. He is mocked at every turn for his hypocrisy, boisterousness, and ignorance, and yet he is the leader of our country and yet still holds a solid base of people who blindly support him no matter how many American ideals he throws down the toilet. When will we wake up?

Now America joins the only TWO other countries on the face of the entire planet who are not in accordance of the Climate agreement. Let’s look at those other two countries. Nicaragua is not a part of the Paris agreement because they said it didn’t do enough to guarantee that countries actually pay their fair share. The Nicaraguan president argued that it should be the richer countries who are contributing many more times the amount of pollutants, than smaller developing countries, who should be required to pay larger amounts. He argued that the agreement was voluntary and didn’t enforce those who didn’t keep up with, or altogether neglected, their agreed contributions. That sounds fair to me. I am sure they have something in the actual agreement stated for smaller developing countries so they can continue to grow. I do not know this for sure but such an extensive plan should if it does not.

The second country is Syria which at this point is barely a country because it is so ravaged by a civil war that has raged for almost a decade. The Assad regime has strict sanctions and cannot even travel to the meetings for the climate agreement, to say whether or not they even want to be a part of it, is unfair. Realistically Syria is not in any position to set up restrictions and regulations on an already devastated infrastructure and population.

Millions of American jobs could have been created and maintained by pursuing a cleaner America. America could have started exporting natural gas and oil to other countries once we lowered our dependency on it. We could have lead the world and paved a path toward a cleaner future.. It is all just really sad and short sighted. Now it is up to individuals, businesses, cities, and states to take control and pursue a cleaner world.

There is still hope.

Alas, all is not completely fucked. Since Trump announced the US exiting the Climate Agreement dozens and dozens of articles have surfaced of states, businesses, and city representatives saying they do not agree and will continue to support and promote the green movement overall. This gives me hope. This means people are finally realizing that we control what actually goes down in our communities, not rich white men thousands of miles away. Knowledge and the urge to know the truth is winning over ignorance and blatant disregard for facts.

One thing Donald Trump has done remarkably well is emboldened the general populace to check the facts and to become a bit more politically active. This makes me very proud and I encourage people to not depend on one news media source but have a collection spanning several views and political affiliations. This guarantees you can get a better rounded picture and a clearer resolve for your own views and beliefs. We are not all meant to agree all the time but knowing how to politely disagree is key to successful debate and dialogue.

There appeared to be a large void of eligible people in the US who simply didn’t care enough to vote. Well look what happens when you sit on your thumb.. No offense.. but it is my opinion that we would have had a much different turnout if people had have voted with a bit of logic instead of a hurt ego.. Trust me I reeeeeeeally wanted Bernie Sanders too. But I didn’t think Hillary’s emails, and various wiki conspiracies were important enough for me to just abandon all hope for something that would beat Trump. Regardless no one will ever know, this is what we have to deal with now.

I encourage people to VOTE! Become politically active, it kinda sucks but at least you have a legitimate argument and opinion based on your own knowledge. Vote in city, county, state, and Midterm Elections. That shit matters. Nobody votes in any midterms but old white people (no offense) but we live in a modern very culturally mixed and fast paced economic world. By not voting we have, as example, our current set of all our worthless politicians who can’t even get a bill finished with someone on their own side. It’s a Joke!! Read about people who you want to represent you, then get out and vote. Even if your opinion disagrees with mine, I am proud of Trumps supporters for organizing and pushing for something they felt was right. good on em.. Now we have to do the same only with sane and legitimate politicians. Lest we become one… lol.

Video game review – Horizon: Zero Dawn

Horizon: Zero Dawn

I recently finished one of the better stories I’ve ever played through. Growing up, I have always thought of video games as a medium to deliver meaningful stories. Video games practically taught me how to read, and they taught me how to distinguish differences between characters better than any book could ever teach. The characters came alive with music and sound effects. Today video games are

a pure form of art as well as a solid form of entertainment that has continued to expand and flourish. The graphics are nearing perfection, it often appears as if you are watching a 60 hour long, CG animated movie. The characters are voiced by real voice actors and coupled with the flawless and perfectly matched facial animations, they can come to life better than ever before. Games today are able to convey a sense of emotion better than they have ever been able to. As with any good story it’s the characters that make you give a shit or not. That is where Horizon really shines is in its character development and details.

We have all started those books, stories, movies, or games that just didn’t grab us. Something didn’t stick and I only end up reading for so long and I may never pick it up again. It’s all too rare for stories to grab at me the way Horizon did. From the onset of the game it paints a very clear personal conflict and it almost instantly makes you want to know more about the main Character, a female named Aloy. I will not spoil anything in the story, but the game does a beautiful job of making meaningful attachment between the characters, whether the relationship is good or bad, as a player I wanted to resolve every conflict and figure out truths throughout the whole game.

The game has excellent pacing as well. A lot of sand box titles offer the standard fetch and escort missions to build experience and level up your character. Horizon sticks to this but I never once found the missions overly tedious or overly boring. Largely, I gained the most experience from hunting the mechanical beasts that roam the world. The game is hard but not unbeatable with adjustable difficulty it’s impossible to get stuck. There were definitely areas that you weren’t supposed to be in based on your player level but never did I feel like I have to grind levels to get past any events. The great pacing of the game provided me with the necessary techniques and tools just about when the problem presented itself. I appreciate non grindy games. However, the side missions and main quests are where the beautiful writing and storytelling really gets unearthed. The world that Guerilla created is absolutely awe inspiring, lush, and feels very alive. Every small mission uncovers pieces of information and bits scenery that really flex the imagination.

Horizon is arguably one of the best put together games I have ever played. Everything made sense overall. Other than a couple minor things I found, it plays perfectly and all of the controls are quick and responsive. The maps and menus all work perfectly so you can get as lost or as on track as you ever want to be as a player. Clunky controls or camera can take the fun out of a game pretty quick but Horizon is solid. Very few times did I encounter small glitches or issues but for such a massive and polished game I was thoroughly impressed with how smooth it ran all the time.

Where this game really shines is its complex and very mature story line. In the age of DLC and games coming out only 60% completed, it is a huge relief to get a solid game that is a complete experience. Guerilla made such a well-crafted story that they needed to tell it all in one sitting in order for the player to grasp the epic scope of the events that unfold. It includes complex psychological, personal, moral, and ethical undertones that really grab at a conscious and attentive player. Other than the main characters arch and development, there are twists a plenty and ultimately the multiple conflicts that present themselves in the game all come down to one epic Mind Fuck. One of the best and probably most memorable stories I’ve ever played in my 30 years of gaming. And I don’t have to pay an extra 60 dollars to enjoy it over the next year of my life.

Obviously I highly recommend this video game to anyone who owns a Playstation4. This is the cream of the video game crop. Little bit scifi, little bit survival, epic adventure, and solidly complete package. Top notch graphics and animation and some of the best voice acting I’ve seen in a video game. One that will stick with you long after the credits roll, and not just the Story and conclusion but the main character and the epic challenge she persevered through.

Cheers, and happy gaming!