Category: Hobbies & Fun

Video Game Review – Spider Man

I played this game in it’s entirety on the Playstation 4 standard system and got a platinum trophy.  Gamer tag  SL_Blank

I would highly recommend this game for anyone who liked the Batman and Arkham games.  The fluid fighting mechanics are faithfully re-created to make you a web-slinging bad ass after just a short while playing.   Definitely give it two thumbs up.  I will go over some pros and cons but will try not to spoil any major story points.

One of the most memorable things I liked about the game was the freedom of movement that felt genuinely… well, Spider-Man.  After an opening sequence and tutorial for the mechanics, from the very onset of the game, you can do all of the favorite movements.  After some practice you can effortlessly re-create your favorite scenes from the movies including vaulting over buildings and doing graceful back flips between every web swing.  The game captures the movement and essence of Spider-Man really well.

The story was also a highlight and I was expecting something a little bit lighter in subject matter.  This is definitely a darker and more mature  exploration of the characters that have been portrayed countless times in varying media.  The cinematics are absolutely gorgeous and rival the best CG films I’ve ever scene.  The eyes and basic animations are pretty solid.  The voices and movements of all of the characters sound pretty good and are believable.  Not a single one of them are super cheesy and ruin it.  I genuinely cared about most of the story issues being presented.  Most people know the back story of the Spider-Man series so I appreciated that this game dove right in and gave tons of little nods to nostalgia as well as more about he characters and lore of this particular Marvel Game Universe (MGU), although I personally craved a bit more.  I enjoyed learning about this MGU Peter Parker and his various friends and enemies.  I wish they had have given a bit more back story over all.

There will definitely be more Games in this series.  Overall the game does all the basic open world mechanics really well.  Base Clearing, random pop-up events, collectables, challenges, leveling up, unlocking new skills, etc is all included.  There was nothing super cutting edge that I noticed.  I know by now that they wouldn’t put all of the best things in the first entry in the series.  What it does well, it does REALLY well, However there was a strong desire for more, and I am not being greedy.  I have read other reviews with this exact sentiment.  There could have been a lot more interaction with civilians and urban landscapes.  I personally would have appreciated a lot more variety in the missions and side missions.  Again, this is not to discredit the great moments, but some of the time in between felt repetitive from an early stage and didn’t really abate much.

I understand this is a symptom of pretty much any game you go on to platinum.  By the end you have done literally almost everything that the creators of the game put in there for you to do, so it’s bound to be a little repetitive.  This overall observation didn’t negate from the fact that I had a blast traversing this accurate portrayal of Manhattan.  The game lacked a definitive day and night cycle and eventually gives you the option to change the time of day at your leisure.  Both day and night looked stunning from high on top of the Empire State Building.  Pretty accurate, as I have been up to the observation deck of that particular building!  Spider-Man can just run his happy ass up the side of the building!  Screw waiting in lines!

Yep, that is pretty much my basic review, There have been a ton of other reviews discussing the nitty gritty.  This is just a strait up review from a casual gamer.

Final Thoughs…  Honestly at this point you can probly find it used for cheaper and even more so if you wait till after Thanksgiving.  I highly recommend this game!  If you enjoy being comic book characters in a fluid and seamless open world than this is a great game for you.  If you like tight and cinematic combat, you’d probably enjoy it as an action game.  Of course if you love spider man you most certainly will dig.  It’s been a long time since a good Spidey game came out and this one was a blast to play.   I eagerly await the next installments over the next year or two.

As always Thanks for Reading, feel free to comment and share your experiences!

 

 

 

Book review – Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

Just finished “Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman this morning and I was surprised what impact it had overall.  I was skeptical because it has been made into a major movie.  For some reason I feel like books that are turned into movies are cookie cutter because they are easily adaptable,  the production took a quarter of a century, so boy was I wrong.   I don’t even know why it took me half of the book to really get into it, but upon finishing I realize that is the whole point of the style of the writing it is almost like a spiritual manual but played out with characters that are interesting yet pretty normal.  You kinda learn what the point of everything is as you continue on into the story.  All at once it became a page turner as I had do discover what the main character was seeking just as much as he was.

First a little bit about the Author.  Dan Millman is  a world champion Gymnast and Sports trainer who studied at University of California in Berkeley.   He later taught sports, fitness, and was a trainer at Oberlin.  He has traveled the world and for many years he studied different forms of martial arts, meditation, yoga, and other training pertaining to personal betterment and well-being.

I always find books, who’s authors choose to use their own name for the main character, intresting.  I always wonder how much of the themselves the author puts into the character.  This is a partial fiction I believe.  He writes largely of his time in Berkeley and says many of the instances of his life are included in the book.  Although I think the main characters mentor, aptly named Socrates, is fictional.  Regardless of fact or fiction this book contained a small amount of adventure, spirituality, intrigue, and almost a form of life manual.  Dan Millman’s other books are range from story books about his characters, back stories, all the way too literal Self help and Enlightened living manuals.  I will definitely check out some of these as they have peaked my interest already.

The story focuses on a smart, successful, attractive, athelete type dude named Dan who seems to be at the top of his game and for some reason just isn’t feeling content in his various life situations.  By random chance he stops at a small gas station close to his college campus and befriends a mysterious and interesting clerk, Socrates, who becomes his Mentor so to speak.   The story builds slowly as Socrates molds Dan into what he calls a “peaceful warrior”.  I instantly loved this term.  My name means Peace in Latin.  I have always considered myself and any great characters who fight for the better good, “peaceful warriors”.

The story overall is filled with a type of mystery about who Socrates actually is or if he is just an embodiment of Dan himself at that particular time in his life.  There good but balanced humor in this book.  It doesn’t have to try hard as you can feel Dan’s frustrations at the absurdness of some of his mentors teachings.  I found myself laughing aloud many times at the things Socrates would tell Dan during their various sessions together.

The story blended well with my life in a way as well I read it over several months and finished the last half of the book in two nights.  It slowly built up and taught Dan what he needed to live a content life.  By half way through the book the various lessons Socrates tells Dan become more serious and forthright and not so abstract and whimsical.  I almost felt like I was learning a little bit about the characters experiences, as any good book should.  The characters definitely are pretty good all said and done, I want to know more about Dan’s journey and more about how Socrates came to be the comedic guru that he is.  I think those will be fine tales, with much to learn, besides being just worth a good read.

The way of the peaceful warrior is a guide to enlightenment, or so I have come to understand, and I would like to read more of this authors books because he delves much further into these concepts and even has manuals for helping one live the way of his peaceful warrior.

Anyways, if you like based on real life stories, personal growth and discovery, or just a thought provoking adventure I definitely recommend giving this book or any of Dan Millmans other books a read.  This story encourages dreams, imagination, and meditation.  The reading is easy and flows well.  Easy language and not very long.  Not necessarily a page turner but has a nice flow to it regardless, can be read in small parts or all at once to great effect.

Thanks for reading my book review.  Much love!

Book review – Poland by James A, Michener

May I first start by saying, few nations in history have had such a tragic, yet naturally beautiful, dignified, and proud history.  It was an honor to learn about Easter Europe’s history through the lens of such a timeless and knowledgeable writer

  First a little bit about the author.  James A Michener is an American classic author who wrote dozens of books throughout his lifetime.  He passed away in 1997 at the age of ninety.  His books are mainly novels in the Anthropological fiction sub genre.  In summary, Michener takes a region or place in our world and goes back a thousand years, to before you knew anything about that particular place, and starts to build a narrative based on made up characters.  His books end up being about 85% factual history mixed with 15% of the narrative liberties taken to make a cohesive story which spans hundreds if not thousands of years.

Michener himself was an avid traveler in his lifetime (which I have done and admire greatly), and I believe he was in the Navy during world war 2 and from his journals and letters he ultimately penned one of his first and most popular books “Tales from the South Pacific”, which I have yet to read.  This is how he generally makes the material for his books it would seem.  His research usually involved living and absorbing the places he would then write about.  For Poland he spent much time in Eastern Europe and took great care to piece together what was ultimately a region with a shattered history.

I was drawn to his style of writing because of his use of language which is classic but not olde.. it was easy to read and very few times did he use overly elegant words which I had to look up.  The hardest part of reading his books  is the Languages and names of the characters which I often times had no idea how to pronounce properly.  This small detail, of course, was not enough to detract from the Majesty of the tale he weaves.

In Poland, Michener outlines the chapters so the reader has a sense of what is actual history and what is fictional.  He creates three family lines One noble, one middle class gentry, and one peasant.  He then proceeds to introduce them briefly before launching you almost one thousand years back in time to when these characters  great, great, great on an on, ancestors lived.

It was almost as if I was teleported to the beautifully barren lands of Eastern Europe.  I could feel and see the lush forests and serene rivers where the characters family lines originated from.  In all this beauty comes the tragedy and triumph of a country that never really had central leadership and was often the scapegoat of other nations greed, anger, and mistrust.

The story takes the reader from when the barbarians and sons of Genghis Khan would terrorize the villages and castles, through the tumultuous crusades when Poland was terrorized even when they preyed to the same gods as their oppressors.. all the way to the inevitable Nazi occupation and through the subsequent Holocaust.

My breadth of knowledge about this country stopped in World War 2.  I Personally have been to Poland and the infamous town of Oswiecim, which the Nazis named Auschwitz..  I have been to Birkenau, one of the Nazis most “efficient” death camps.  Needless to say traveling through the country and taking in physically and directly, some of that tragedy..  When I found out about this Author and then discovered that he had written a book about this countries history I bought it without a second guess.  I’m proud that I did.

By far one of the more chunky books I have ever read up there with Shantaram, i believe there about 650+ pages.  However don’t be intimidated by the size.  The tale that Michener weaves is so intriguing and full of knowledge that the pages seem to melt away and I would read till three or four in the morning before I would even notice the time.

Micheners books are definitely for people who enjoy literature.  His books are mostly all literary Epics, in scope, and Mastery in content.  His Pulitzer Prize winning stories are beautifully created within the confines and ruthless happenings of

History.  I recommend his books to anyone who likes or loves history, as well as large and very detailed novels.  Despite the length of the story he wraps up all of the timelines and Ancestory so well that it’s hard to tell it was a seven hundred page book.

I will undoubtedly be reviewing many of James A, Michener books.  Stay tuned and feel free to comment if you have any favorites or recommendations!

Much Love, as always, thank you for braving the bottomless blog.

Book review – The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

This was an exciting story that I read over the past year, on and off.  A lot of life happened in my 2017 year, and so the book further captivated me by literally showing me that the content and arch of the books plot, is really a reflection of the happenings in my real life.  More over, in all of our lives.

This book is a novel about a seemingly random guy who gets hold of some information.  Through a series of learning, practicing, and evolving the main character is compelled to go on this epic journey to the country of Peru, and to the ancient cities and monuments there.  His quest and conflict get tied up in this “manuscript” that supposedly holds the keys to religion or spirituality.  The conflicting force in this story is the church, for they feel that this manuscript denounces and de-legitimizes Christianity and uniform religion in general.

However this book is not about religion at all.  Well not in a traditional sense.  This story explores not who or what religion, but HOW one becomes, or already is, religious..  more in the spiritual sense rather than deity worship.  The arch of the story focuses on connection to our surrounding, energy forces in nature and fellow humans, and the coincidences that bring us to learn, grow, and experience life.

This was an easy to read and pretty swift adventure.  Most of the character dialogue content is on the meta-physical, and philosophical level, but it is put into many different scenarios and situations so the story gives literal examples of what the characters were talking about and describing to each other.  It seems complex but it flows really nicely and the language is basic so it is fairly easy to wrap my head around.   There were a couple parts I had to read a second time, to be able to grasp the concept that the characters were talking about, but nothing was out of my sphere of understanding.

I really liked this book because the main character is constantly learning how to see and experience the world around him.  A lot of it has to do with meditation and relaxation.  Really taking in your surroundings.  I love this concept because I have always been a practitioner of meditation and relaxation to calm me when I get stressed out.  It’s good to be reminded of the world around you and to remember to relax sometimes, because there is really nothing we can do in some situations and our attitude really does affect the overall outcome of our life scenarios.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes self discovery, growth, meditation, or those who are interested in spirituality on any level.   Again this book is not about religion directly but encompasses the broader notion of personal spirituality.  The reading can be understood by any age really.  I didn’t know what to expect when it was given to me.  After reading it I am surprised by how much I took from it.

From what I understand there are many books in this series I would like to read more.  If I ever do I will definitely review them and if you have read any of the others let me know how they are.

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and share if you or someone you know needs a good book recommendation.

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.

What I downgraded from. An IphoneSE.

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/

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!

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!