Welcome Back to Derry

 It's been a while since I wrote anything on here, but I think it is time to come back. So what is bringing me back? 

Welcome to Derry!

Before I get into it, I am really enjoying this show. There may be spoilers in this for either the show or the movies. Though if you're worried about spoilers for the movies that came out a while ago, that is your own fault at this point. 

From here on out, there will probably be spoilers.

In Episode 1 we have a character, Matty, who seemingly dies to start everything off. After that, what we think of our cast of characters is introduced and come together in what is meant to remind us of the Loser's club from the movies: Lily, Teddy, Phil, Susie, and Ronnie.

Parallels:

I've seen people bring up that Teddy seems like the stand-in for Bill and Lily the stand-in for Beverly, but I don't think that is quite right. I don't think any of these kids are stand-ins, exactly, but if I were to say that any of them like Bill, I would say Lily is the most like Bill, not Beverly. The main things that she has common with Beverly are being a girl and hearing voices in the pipes of the bathroom Yes, Teddy feels guilt and his family gets mad at him for asking questions, but I would say it' a pale reflection and that Lily is a stronger reflection.

Lily feels guilt over Matty's death, but she also is already primed for it because she also feels guilt over her father's death. Her mother also shuts her down a bit more, getting mad at her because she is still having difficulty with her father's death and even leaving her at Juniper Hill.

Manifestation of Guilt

Guilt and Fear:

Guilt tends to build upon itself. Lily blames herself for her father's death. Now, she wasn't to blame for it, it was an accident involving machinery that everyone thought was off. We will come back to that in a little while. This guilt over her father's death is compounded by Matty's death. She may have still felt guilt over Matty, but I don't think it would have been as intense if she didn't already have the guilt over her father. Pennywise keeps playing on her guilt, using her guilt to feed her fears. This isn't the only time Pennywise uses guilt to feed into the fear; he does the same to Ronnie. Both of these characters feel guilt for events that were completely outside of their control and this guilt is used to fuel their fears. Every event that happens that they feel they could have avoided, doesn't just add to that guilt, it multiplies it. Live in this too long and you start to look at all the ways you could have done things differently and you hold onto that guilt, and it becomes anxiety and fear.

IT's Powers:

It seems to be a lot more powerful and have a lot more control than he does in the movies set later in the timeline. In the first episode, he is able to manifest an entire car complete with mom, dad, sister, brother, and later, a mutant baby. He operates more out in the open, not just in sewers or in the hidden places (though there are some instances in the movies where he is a bit more out in the open, but not to the same extent.) Why does he seem more powerful here than in the movies set later? Well, because he is.

In one of the episodes, we get a flashback to 1906, and IT is relegated to the woods. Later on, Derry is built and is, at least partially, within the bounds of these woods. In another episode, we see why he is relegated to this space and that he became more powerful as he consumed. 

Let's get into why I think he seems more powerful here. In this story's universe, the Kitchener Ironworks explosion happened in 1908. This was a large event and, I think, all those that died in this event, helped gorge IT. In the Bradley Gang event of the 1930's, he gained more power. Each of these large events, auguries, feed and power him. By the cycle we're currently watching, he is like a flea filled with blood and looks like he could pop. All the souls he picked off and all the souls that perished in those large-scale events feed him and are stuck in Derry and IT. Even the psychic aura of the townsfolk just being generally unpleasant help feed him, and in turn, helps create this cycle, similar to our guilt issue from above.

We only have 2 episodes left this season, but I think something is going to happen that doesn't defeat IT but does take away some of his power. He still can affect things, he still has influence, but he doesn't have quite the same level as he does in this prequel. After this, there are supposed to be 2 more seasons, going backwards, the 1930's and the 1900's, respectively. I think as we go backwards, we'll see how Pennywise (IT) got more powerful.

IT's Influence:

Beyond the obvious influence that he seems to have over those in Derry, I think he has influence over machinery and events even when he's not active or awake. In the movie universe, Mike Hanlon's parents die in an apartment fire, and he is raised by his grandfather. The prequel follows both Mike's father (Will) and Grandparents (Leroy & Charlotte). Even though that fire happened sometime between the 27-year feeding cycle, I have a feeling it had a hand in it. Same with Lily's father. The machinery should have been shut down but it powered up and killed Lily's father when it shouldn't have been possible. Once IT killed Lily's father, Lily was marked for the start of his next feeding cycle. Mike has probably been marked for a long time since both his grandparents and father have had dealings with IT.

Conclusion:
All of this to say that I am enjoying the show and am really looking forward to what is coming in the last 2 episodes and in the future (or rather past) of Derry, Maine. 

Game Review: Potion Punch by Monstronauts

I play all sorts of games - from board to mobile to console and everything in between. Recently I came across a game called Potion Punch by Monstronauts. I stumbled across it  while I was looking for something else and found I really enjoyed it.

I had been playing Diner Dash, which I've played in various incarnations over the years, but there were some things I didn't particularly gel with in this version and decided to find something similar but that I would find more enjoyable. I was looking for a game I used to play called Coffee Buzz which was time management-esque game with a matching element. I didn't find it, but I did find a few other games that I installed and played and then uninstalled that very same day. Some just weren't engaging enough or weren't visually interesting or had interface issues that made it difficult to play.

And then I stumbled across Potion Punch from Monstronauts. I thought I'd give it a try thinking I'd probably end up uninstalling it as I had so many other games that day. But no, it surprised me and it is still on my phone and I am still playing it on an almost daily basis.

Source: http://potionpunch.com/

Potion Punch is a fun resource management game where you mix potions and grill up geckos and roots and serve them to customers. The longer you take, the more the customers lose there patience.

The opening is done in a comic panel style. There are no words but, like its comic influences, it doesn't need them to get across the story. It starts off pretty easy with a gnome showing you the ropes and filling customers' orders. As you earn coins, you can buy upgrades for items and venues. As you progress through the days, the difficulty ramps up (perhaps a little too quickly at times, but never game stopping.) Besides the theme of a medieval/fantasy tavern that serves potions, its art style is visually pleasing and it has a vibrant color palette that draws me in. While it does feel like it ramps up fairly quickly, it is not game-stopping or game breaking. You can continue on with your game whether you hit your goal or lose a few customers, you just won't earn as much.

When I first got the game, there were only two locations open but there has been an update since then and another location and more challenges have been added.

Also, did I mention the game is free? Yes! It is free and it is available for both Apple and Android devices.

You can find out more at Monstronauts website http://monstronauts.com/

Automated Levels

My boyfriend got me Super Mario Maker for my birthday last year. In Super Mario Maker you can create levels and you can also play other people's levels. Creating levels is a lot of fun and you get
new resources every day. You can upload your levels and the only caveat is you have to be able to beat it.

One of the ways to play people's levels is by going through the 100 Mario Challenge. There are various difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Expert. You get 100 lives to pass a certain number of levels in a difficulty level and you get a costume as a reward. You can only do it so many times on easy mode before you won't get any more costumes and you have to go to a more difficult mode. There are a wide variety of skill levels and imagination from so-so to amazingly well done.

And then there are automated levels.

In these levels you do nothing. It takes you through the whole thing and drops you off at the finish line. From a creative standpoint, they are very clever (most of the time.) For the most part, they are masterpieces of timing and creativity and it is obvious they worked very hard to get the timing right. But from a player viewpoint, I hate them.

I struggle with this in some ways because I understand how much work often went into them, but at the same time I don't get to play. They haven't made a level, they made a YouTube video. There is no interactivity in them, there are no choices to make, the only way you can fail is to try to move on your own. These aren't levels. It isn't a partnership between their skill as a designer and the player's skill as a player. The success of these levels is only possible by the player not doing anything, lest it throws off the timing.

Do I think these should go away? While they annoy me, it is still how someone wants to play the game and I wouldn't take that away from them. And while I think the space is big enough for a little bit of everything, including automated levels, I don't have to like everything. I will still probably cringe every time I see a title along the lines of "Stand Still" and "No Touchies."

DCU Theory

I saw Batman V. Superman, and saying it had some problems feels like a bit of an understatement.  But there are plenty of reactions and opinions and you probably have enough of your own, so I’m not going to focus on that.

From this point on: there may be some spoilers and I am going to make a theory for Suicide Squad and the cinematic DCU, particularly focusing on Batman and Joker. There are also some spoilers for the comics, but if you haven’t read them by now, what are you waiting for.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

So in the new Batman V. Superman movie, we have a much harder Batman. We have a Batman who kills, who is obviously haunted, and is a much darker version of Batman. 

It has been brought up to me that if we have a Batman who kills, there is no way the Joker would still be alive.

So what happened?

The Joker is dead.

In the movie there is the Robin costume with the message to Batman. In the comics, Jason Todd was not a very popular Robin and there was a vote to kill him off. The Joker beat Jason Todd to death with a crowbar.  And this is where the cinematic universe veers into an alternate timeline from the comics. In the comics, the Joker is alive, but in this timeline, Batman killed the Joker.

It would explain why he doesn’t have as many qualms about killing and why he is a much more haunted Batman. Not only is this after Jason Todd was killed, this is after he broke his rule and killed the Joker.(Note: if you want to go back to Batman's inception, yes, he did kill. But in the current form that a lot of people accept as Batman, he has his rules and one of them he doesn't kill)

And then we get to Suicide Squad. Joker is definitely in that, but is he in the timeline we think he is? Are all those times that he’s shown actually in the present? He’s not really shown with most of the Suicide Squad, I recall him being in the trailer with Harley Quinn. And there were a lot of clips of him by himself. And there was his laugh that the team reacted to, but that could’ve been editing or that he isn’t as dead as Batman thought he was. Everything he is wearing looks somewhat dated.

A very dated look

So what does this mean for the future?

I’ve heard they might do the Red Hood and, it was pointed out to me by someone who is more up on Batman than I am, this might put a wrinkle in my theory. But could it still work? Yes. So now we have a Batman who doesn’t have a problem getting his hands dirty, but part of the problem Batman has with Red Hood involves his willingness to kill. But if Batman doesn’t have the problem with killing, he would still need to have some reason he doesn’t agree with Red Hood’s methods and a reason why they would clash. And here is where they make it take a more psychological turn. The reason Batman and the Red Hood clash now isn’t because of their difference in methods – it is now because Batman is seeing himself in the Red Hood and doesn’t like what he sees. The reason we dislike something so strongly in another is often because we possess that trait ourselves and don’t want to face that reality. This telling would have Batman recognizing the Red Hood is really just himself. Perhaps in this retelling, it is him while he’s blacked out from one of his “Knightmares.” Whether it’s him or who it is in the comics (I’m not going to spoil everything), it would be an interesting look at his psyche and also a way to get him back on his path.

But then, all of this is just a theory while I while away my time waiting for Suicide Squad.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/MZwsbcW-d-E

Tell me your fears

"What are you afraid of?" asks the clown looking down on me from the billboard, as if he didn't already know.

Oh he knows. He KNOWS.

I have a lot of fears, and many of them are not super rational. But if I were to dissect my fears, they are the symptoms of my real fears and not really my actual fears. My two biggest fears are clowns and getting swarmed by butterflies or spiders. (Note: I am not afraid of spiders, just by being swarmed by them.) Both of these are symptom fears, they are the runny nose of a much bigger flu.

Awhile ago my friend took me to an acting class. She had been trying to get me to go for awhile and I had finally relented. I had stepped away from the theatre awhile back and knew how easy it would be to fall back in. When you first start class, they give you a student interview where everyone gets to ask you questions. We were on the last question and two people raised their hands, my friend and someone else. I called on the other person because I figure my friend either already knows or has a question I don't want to answer.

Eventually my curiosity gets the better of me and I have to ask what her question was.

"What is your greatest fear?"

I thought about it for a moment. Really thought about. Evil clowns? The dark? Being swarmed? Monsters in my closet? Yellow balloons? Getting trapped somewhere? Getting lost and not being able to find my way back? Some of them touched on it, but none of them really sent a shiver down my spine until I looked at their theme and then I had it.

"What do you think it is?"

"Failure?"

This was not it. I don't like failing, but I'm not afraid of it. I've failed before and I'll fail again but I pick myself up and learn. Heck, I'm more afraid of success than I am of failure. The only part of failing that instills fear in me is that I won't be able to pick myself up or I won't learn and I'll be stuck. And there it is, my real fear.

Tell me your fear

Evil clowns is a symptom fear of the much larger fear of trusting people. That people are not what they seem and are hiding something, but this is still one of my minor fears. Most of my fears are symptomatic of one specific fear.

Almost every symptom fear is really my fear of stagnation. Of staying forever where I am and watching the world change around me, but never changing with it. To be stuck.

So, what are you afraid of?

Game Review - Cartoon Edition

Recently I decided to play some games based on cartoons I love: Phineas and Ferb and the Quest For Cool Stuff, Penguins of Madagascar, and Ducktales: Remastered. I steeled myself. A lot of times, when games are based on movies, they come out pretty terribly. I was prepared for the worst, but I was hoping they were at least playable.

Phineas and Ferb: Quest For Cool Stuff

This is a 2D platformer where the player collects items and defeats enemies by jumping on them or using a spin attack. There are 2 stories going on, Perry’s and Dr.

Doofenshmirtz’ story and the kids’ story. This is very much like the cartoon where there are two stories going on and they intersect at times.  The tutorial with Perry the Platypus is nicely done and immersive. The difficulty ramps up at a good pace and there are different unlockables you earn as you go that help you access new parts of levels.

Verdict: The game was fun and surprisingly well done. The animation was a little bit off but it didn’t detract much and the other elements of the game more than made up for a small bit of off animation.

Penguins of Madagascar

This is another 2D platformer where you play as the penguins and use their strengths to get through levels. The basic story is that you are collecting Cheesy Dibbles and completing missions. I wanted to like this one, I really did and it wasn't really a bad game, but I put it down after only an hour. The game itself was actually fairly decent, but it really needed the penguins' voices to make it work. Juicy is when your game has aesthetic elements that give your game character and life. This game lacked juiciness. One thing I did like is that you can switch between the four penguins while playing. If it had been a purely aesthetic switch, it would've been cute and nice to be able to play as your favorite penguin but they took the concept and made it better, it went beyond aesthetics. Each penguin had a different special move and each one had specific skills that you had to use to get past the level.

Verdict: It's not a bad game, but it's really not a good game either. What pushed it into being good was being able to switch between the penguins and use their abilities. Unfortunately, the lack of voices brought it down to mediocrity. I wouldn't buy it.

Ducktales: Remastered

Ducktales is, yet another, 2D platformer. In this one you play as Scrooge McDuck and collect treasures and coins while defeating enemies. This is based on the 1989 NES game, which I unfortunately didn't play. The original scenes are all in there with some expansions and two new levels, a vault tutorial and a volcano level. The characters have all been hand-drawn and the game is fully voiced. It's a fun game and the voices are a nice touch. Once you get past the vault, you can do any of the scenes in any order with the exception of the volcano scene, which doesn't open until all the other scenes are done. This makes it a little bland on ramping up the difficulty. There is a bit of a glitch on the volcano level where your character disappears whenever you do a pogo jump. It's not game-breaking, but it is disconcerting. For me it was probably about 4 hours of gameplay, for others it would probably be more like 3.

Verdict: It’s a fun game that plays on nostalgia and is really decent game. I probably still wouldn't buy it because I finished it in 4 hours and felt like there wasn't that much more I could get out of it.

FINAL VERDICT:

Both Phineas & Ferb and Ducktales worked and Penguins would have worked with the inclusion of voices. I think part of the reason these games worked was because they had the essence of their source material without copying it. The reason most movies don't make the transition as well has a lot to do with the execution. A lot of times movie-based games are treated as a money-grab, "the movie is popular so let's capitalize." Enough time and care isn't given and/or they rehash what was already done in the movie. We don't need a rehashing; we know how that story went. To really work, besides time and care, we need the essence of the material. We need a continuation of the story; we need to be part of something that didn't already happen.

Heroes and Villains

Note: Spoilers on Disney's the Hunchback of Notre Dame ahead. But seriously, if you haven't seen it by now, do yourself a favor and Netflix it and then come back.

My favorite Disney movie used to be The Little Mermaid. I knew all the songs and dialogue and I could name every single character. When I went back to college, every once in awhile they would have me dissect a movie in an essay. I think I exclusively stuck to Disney movies. Why? Because they are a great study of setting up characters quickly and of nonverbal communication but also because a lot of their more complex aspects tend to be a lot more accesible than in other movies. Plus, I find I pay attention to them more than live action movies. I used Little Mermaid for quickly setting up characters and Tangled for nonverbal communication. In psychology I had to dissect a movie for shadow and cognitive dissonance. The first that came to mind was Hunchback of Notre Dame. I'd watched it many times before, but had never considered it a contender for being one of my favorites. And then I really watched it.

Source

I've been coming to the realization that, over time, it has managed to push aside Little Mermaid to become my favorite. And the reason? Because it changed with me. When I was a kid a lot of the stuff with Frollo made me really uncomfortable but then the gargoyles were there to put me back at ease. He was a great villian, but the levels of villainy was a little deep for me but now I can see what a great villain he is. I liked the gargoyles when I was a kid, but I'm no longer as fond of them. I've grown out of them; they were never made for me now, they were made for me back then. Little Mermaid never changed for me, it never changed with me. It remains a nostalgic piece that always takes me back to the moment I was sitting next to my mom at the theatre and we were both crying because all hope was lost. Hunchback has taken more, and more persistent, holds in my memories. 

One of the reasons I think Hunchback may be one of the best Disney movies is because of it's main villain. In almost all Disney animated films, the villain is what make the most impact. The hero can only be as good as its villain. Why did Pocahontas and Tarzan not have that much impact on me? They had a poorly done villain. Here's a little secret: I prefer the direct-to-video Pocahontas sequel to the original. In the original, Pocahontus wasn't a very good heroine because she didn't have a good foil. Governor Ratcliffe was just greedy in the first one and he really didn't have much impact. He had little to no direct interaction with the main character. In the second one, they were on his turf. He had power, he had the home advantage, he had direct interaction with the main protagonist and the movie was better because of it. 

Probably won't believe it, but this guy is the villain

Frollo was unlike many of the Disney villains I've seen before or since. He was an evil man, he did deplorable things, but he never saw himself as evil. To the contrary, he saw himself as a good and righteous man fighting the evil surrounding him. He didn't revel in his evilocitude like Ursula or Jafar. He is someone who is relatable because we can easily see people like that around us. Though most of us would prefer not to admit it or do not see it, we may have those traits in ourselves. That is a very scary but relatable thing and it can be very uncomfortable to have those thoughts. If you speak to most people, you will find out they see themselves as the hero and those around them are the villains, but there's a good chance they are the villain in someone else's story. Very few people think they are the persecutor, it's the world and everything else that is against them. They couldn't possibly the one doing anything wrong. 

While it is easy to tell in Hunchback who the heroes and villains are, but in life it's a lot harder to tell who are villains and who are the heroes. This is probably because we are neither and both. Unless you come with the best song (such as Hellfire), then you are most definitely the villain.

Currently, Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame is on Netflix. It is definitely worth another viewing and it has a great soundtrack. And when you watch a "kids" movie, don't be dismissive and think it has nothing to offer you on the basis of it being animated because it just may surprise you.

Wait For It...Procrastination

I was lamenting to a coworker that I have a lot of projects but I procrastinate a lot. He found this hard to believe based on how I am at work, but I am a different person at home than I am at work. At home I procrastinate all the time, have horrible time management skills, and I am indecisive. In work and school, I am the opposite of all that.

I am getting frustrated with myself.

I currently have:

• 5 plays in various states of doneness
• 3 stories including one with an entire outline and ending
• a video project that I've already outlined
• several pet/organization projects
• a bunch of online classes/ tutorials I want to take 
• Plus need to send in my application for the Amtrak Residency due on March 30

Source

I keep adding more projects and when I get home, I am either too tired from work or I can't decide between projects. I get so caught up in my indecision that I don't get anything done. This needs to change. I've said this before and I have tried making plans and even sticking to them for a short time before I get lax again. This is the first time I'm putting this in writing and dissecting the tactics that work for me in work and school in order to apply it to my personal projects. With this, I am holding myself accountable.

A little background. I have always been a little bad about my indecisiveness but it has been coming out more and more as I've gotten older. This may have to do with having less free time or because I keep adding projects without finishing other ones or it might have to do with realizing my own mortality. It could be a combination of all of these. I used to work on 3 projects at a time. Sometimes more, but usually I'd keep it at 3 and when I finished one, I'd replace it with the next one on my list. I would flit between the 3 projects depending on my mood. I would usually have a comedy and something a little darker for certain moods and an organization project for when I needed to channel and control my neuroticism. (Note: this may be why I've been a little more noticably neurotic lately) This 3-project system worked well for me in the past, but I seem to be having trouble narrowing it down into 3 projects. 

Source

The biggest motivators for me in both work and school are deadlines and being counted on. I hate the thought of letting peopole down because I didn't hold up my end of the work. Deadlines always help me understand the end point. I've heard many people say you shouldn't put deadlines on creative people (though I've also heard the latter) but I tend to not agree. I feel they do tend to help more than hinder, but I also think some people (Me) who make an art out of procastinating need deadlines or we just don't get anything done. Nobody is really counting on me, but I can make deadlines work for me.

Another thing that helped me, especially when I was a payroll specialist, was making lists. I'd have one week that was only for payroll and whatever came up and then I would have an off week. When I finished running payroll, I'd compile my list of tasks for my off-week and I'd color code them based on priority. Whenever something came up, I'd add it to the list and color-code it accordingly. If there was a lot (and there usually was) I'd number within each of the color coded sections.  It took a few minutes to compile but save me a lot of time and kept me focused. It also came in handy when my supervisor exasperatedly exclaimed: "I don't even know what you do all day!" and I handed her the list leaving her speechless.

One of the most important things I learned through my courses was scope. How big is your project? What does it entail? This is probably one of the most oft overlooked concepts even though it was consistently drummed into us. It's taking your project and seeing how big it is and making it manageable with your resources. If you have 3 days you can't write your big space epic, but you should be able to write a pretty good short story. It is basically looking at what you want to do and what your resources (including time) are and aligning them. What do you need, what can you cut? What are the most important aspects and what are the things that would be nice to have but are not necesssary?

Source

I think I can find a way to stop wallowing in my indecisive Libra ways and stop procrastinating if I can combine the methods that have worked in the past.

-   Look at the scope of each project 

-   Determine which projects go with which mood

-   List them by priority in category of mood

-   Give myself milestones/deadlines 

By going through this process, I am hoping to work through my paralyzing indecisveness and work on my projects. Working on projects helps keep me a bit more balanced. When I don't have them I tend to get more neurotic and indecisive along with some other stuff. This is an effort to get myself back to a more balanced state.

Becoming MacGyver

Last Saturday, I got a chance to feel like MacGyver. You know, the guy who could blow open a door with some gum and a paperclip.

Yeah, this guy. Source.

Materials

My friend, Jen, and her boyfriend were giving a class on how to cheaply and easily make some pretty useful item. The class was mostly centered on making things out of cans, with one exception.

The exception was a Paracord bracelet. This was the first thing we made and was fairly easy to make. The idea of it is to pack in as much Paracord into the bracelet as possible. Paracord is actually pretty useful, especially when camping, hiking, or for survival purposes. You can use it for lacing up your shoes to using it as a tourniquet to unraveling the inner stings and using them as emergency stitches.

We made or were shown how to make a good number of items, but for me the Paracord bracelet and one other item stood out the most. Probably one of the most awesome things we made was a SuperCat stove. Again, it is something that is pretty easy to make and requires only a few materials. It required an empty, clean cat food can and a hole puncher to make. If you want a hotter fire, you punch in more holes. If you want the fire to burn longer but with less heat, you put in fewer holes. To make the fire, you just put in a little alcohol and light it on fire. It’s an incredibly lightweight stove that won’t take up much room in your backpack and costs a lot less to make than pretty much anything you’ll find on the market. We were able to boil a full pot of water over two of them and have tea at the end of class.

This was kind of a preview class and I was fortunate to be invited so I could learn the sorts of things they were teaching and give my opinions. Overall, the class was pretty good. This was a very basic class to figure out flow and the sorts of things that work and getting used to the space, but it was well done and I came home with some pretty nifty things that I got to make.

This is a popcorn maker

I’m excited to see what they are going to do for future classes and, from talking to them, am pretty excited for the other things they want to teach. They are currently working on a website for the MacGyver classes and I will update when it is up. In the meantime, if you would like to contact Jen about future classes, email her at jen@peakperformacesd.com.

A Brief (personal) History of Gaming

I graduated about 4 months with a B.S. in Game Design. It has been an interesting road and I have learned a lot along the way, but I constantly felt that I was behind. Yes, I did grow up on games, but not really on video games that much except the ones I played on the Commodore 64. Up until I was in middle school, the only times I played console games was when my mom made my brother let me tag along to his friends’ house. They set me in front of the TV and stuck the controller in my hand and went off to do their own stuff and I was making Sonic roll across the screen so I wasn't too worried.

Mostly I played board, card, and word games and there are always strong memories associated with games. My mom is so sweet almost all the time and everyone sees her as being so sweet and mild. They have never played a game of Monopoly, Risk, or Scrabble with her. She is ruthless. She is a merciless goddess on the board game battlefield. 

And. She. Is. Glorious.

My mom has a scorched Earth policy when playing games (Source)

My strategy when I was younger playing Risk with my family was to pit my brother and dad against my mom. It was relatively easy since I was the youngest and not seen as a threat, but it never worked out quite how I planned. She slaughtered them and they only whittled her down a little but not nearly enough.

This is what one of our games might end up looking. I'm the blue. She ran out of pawns.

 As I got older I got better, and a lot of this can be attributed to my mom and the lessons I learned playing against her. Another skill I honed from playing with my mom was a certain level of stubbornness that keeps me trying even though the odds aren’t good.

While I have a lot of good memories associated with games, I also have some painful ones. I have sprained my arm three times during playground and other made-up games, bruised my hand playing the crocodile game, and managed to get tendonitis due to overplaying video games. To this day I still have an aversion to chess and checkers because my brother taught me checkers with a baseball bat. But even with all that, I still love games because even sometimes an injury is a time to take comfort in playing games. As my dad and I sat waiting tor one of the many times I had to get an x-ray, we played Octo. I made up the name because I can’t remember if we ever had a name for it. In  Octo, you build words of a part of speech such as the prefix oct-. It takes no paper, no score, just a spoken game where you imagine the results. To this day I still remember waiting to be called in and, even though pain was shooting through my arm, I was laughing at the thought on an octopan, a pan with eight handles.

Two things happened when I was in middle school: my grandma’s neighbor had a granddaughter around my age and she had an SNES and my brother got an SNES. I loved playing with my brother, but it never lasted long. I am 5 years younger than him and each year apart, seems to increase the annoyance factor exponentially. We’d play until my constantly moving with Mario annoyed him enough and I was kicked out. It was always a lot easier with my friend; she really didn’t care if I leaned when jumping a chasm. One day she got Zombies Ate My Neighbors (ZAMN) and that is when I fell in love.

ZAMN was the first game I remember playing that was truly co-op. We didn’t have to wait for one person to get through their turn or die; we could both play at the same time. It was also one of the first console games that I have played where one of could play as a regular girl. It may not seem like a huge deal and a lot of people see it as a feminist thing, but it is so much simpler than that. We want our PC to be an extension of ourselves and we want to be able to identify with it. It’s the same thing when you play Monopoly and fights break out over who gets what token. All Hell breaks loose if someone has to be the iron. While ZAMN had its flaws such as too many weapons to scroll through and a level that can act as a stop point but even with these flaws, it has my heart completely.

My first love

When I got into high school, my brother went into the Army and left me his SNES. It wasn’t until later that I got my own copy of ZAMN. The SNES moved around with me and for my 22^nd birthday, I finally got my wish. My parents asked me what I wanted and the only thing that I could think of was a copy of ZAMN. My parents took me to Corvette Diner right after my play and presented me with ZAMN and a couple of Scooby Doo birthday cards. It was the absolute most perfect birthday.

This game remains my most played SNES game and is the game residing in the console as I write this. It continues to influence and inspire me. Whenever I find I doubt myself or question if I chose the right field of study, I start playing. I remember that even when I die, I get a little further each time. I may never have gotten through the whole game, but I never give up. I play and all the connections from my past bubble to the surface sparkling and I am renewed.

Recipe For a Great Cook

I’ve had many people tell they can’t cook. I’m not the best cook, but I know how to cook and for my tastes, I consider myself a good cook. I was very fortunate – I had three people who taught me how to cook. These three people were my grandma, my dad, and my grandma Lee’s neighbor, The Major.

I'm here to help (Source)

Many people will go on about ingredients, temperatures, recipes, and preparation techniques being the most important things about cooking. Some overly sentimental people will tell you the most important thing is the love you put into the food. While those are all important (though the jury is still out on the love thing), they aren’t the most important. You can have all of those things and still mess it up if you are lacking the most important aspects of cooking:

1.     Patience

2.     Imagination

3.     Bravery

Full Disclosure: This did happen once...(Source)

My grandma embodied patience. She taught me how to wait. When to check on things and when to leave them alone and let them cook. She taught me to take the time to prepare the ingredients from a meal properly. She taught me stirring and letting things cook to savory perfection. Patience is the hardest for me to learn and I still struggle with it today; this is why I am only a good cook and not a great cook. But patience is the difference between having a moist and flavorful chicken breast as opposed to a dry and tasteless thing.

My father exudes imagination in everything he does, and cooking is no different. My dad is always ready to try a new recipe or just throw things together and see what happens. Not everything turns out perfect, but some things do and if there were no experimentation, we would miss out on those great dishes.

The Major wasn’t called The Major for nothing. He had been in the military and I never knew his real name, he was always introduced as The Major. He only taught me one dish, orange chicken, but the lesson in bravery may have been even more important than the dish itself. It was an instance and that one instance has stuck with me ever since. We needed some eggs and he taught me to crack the egg and empty its contents with one hand. My first egg fell on the floor. He didn’t get mad about the mess, we just cleaned it up and I tried again and this time I got it in the bowl.  Such a single, simple moment, but it taught me not to be afraid in the kitchen. Being careful is important, but not being afraid of messes, sharp objects, open flames, and errors is also important.

Be Patient: They’ll be done when they’re done.

Be Imaginative: Feel free to experiment and create new combinations.

Be Brave: Don’t be afraid of failing, just clean up and try again.

This took all day to make, the recipe for the
potatoes is my own design, and it was delicious

You Sunk My Battleship!

I was walking along and all of a sudden I saw a poster for Battleship. I had heard about it and seen the posters before, of course, but this was the first time it really hit me: there is a movie coming out based on the game Battleship. I’ll admit, this complete revelation came out of nowhere, walloped me a good one, knocked me on my ass, and, just to make sure it really sunk in, hit me with a lead pipe. As I lifted my bruised self from the pavement under the watchful eye of the Battleship-Revelation, it finally sunk in that this was really happening. On May 18, Battleship will be in theatres and my only question is: Why?

Near the Wilshire/Vermont station

So what I got from watching this trailer is that aliens hid in the ocean because they could. And then they attack, because why not? Then we fight back… with boats. Yeah, that was pretty much what I got from it.

Who knows? Maybe it will be a great movie with a great plotline and not just some thin shadow with a bunch of special effects that is desperately trying to capture the audiences’ sense of nostalgia by forcing it into the ill-fitting frame of a board game.

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I will admit now – I’m not a huge movie person. The last two movies I saw in theatres were Hunger Games a few weeks ago and The Muppets back in November. Both were movies I knew I would enjoy. Hunger Games because of the books and Muppets because of all the memories that tied to them. I also admit that I’m not super-snobby about movies. I’m not lamenting how everything is a sequel, a remake, or filled with FX instead of plot. What I am saying is that maybe not everything needs to be made into a movie.

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Time to switch gears to the videogame industry and the crash in 1983 Follow me, trust me, I’m getting to a point. Anyone play ET on the Atari and think this is what caused the videogame crash? It wasn’t the cause, merely a symptom. ET was like the achy shoulder in a much, much larger flu. Basically anything was being made into a game. It wasn’t just Atari making games, they had little control over their systems and pretty much anyone could make a game for their system and did. Also a lot of games were being rushed into completion.

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With the videogame market being inundated with so many low-quality games that were just made to be made, the game industry in the U.S. sank for a while. Now lets get back to the movies and my point. My thought is that, in some ways, I can see the movie industry paralleling the gaming industry of the 1983. It’s expensive to go to the movies but most of us are a fairly forgiving audience…up to a point. Battleship feels like a movie being made simply to be made and it almost feels that this may be the beginning of the inundation of movies made to be made.

Please let this one be made before the crash  Source

Infinite Undiscovery...Will Remain Undiscovered

Not too long ago, I attempted to play Infinite Undiscovery and I really didn’t give it a fair chance. I have no idea if it was a good game or not because after 20 minutes I stopped playing, put it in its envelope, and mailed it back to Gamefly. In those 20 minutes I got to press buttons (and not to get more text to appear on the screen but for actual gameplay) for maybe 3 minutes. And I’m being generous on calling it 3 minutes. There were so many cutscenes and things to read that I just got annoyed and called it a day. For an actual critique from someone who clearly had more patience than I did, here you go.

I had chosen this game after reading about it (I think in GameInformer, but I’m not exactly sure) because of its unusual name and decided to give it a try simply because of its unusual name with no knowing of pretty much anything else about it. This could be the greatest game ever…but I will never know because I got annoyed with all the cutscenes and textboxes.

A friend of mine once told me that part of dating is figuring out what you will and will not put up with. I’ve found, as I’ve gotten older that this advice applies to pretty much every aspect of life. When I was younger I put up with a lot but as I got older, my propensity to grow annoyed has gotten stronger. In my youth (see early 20s), I would put up with long cutscenes, but now I won’t. They simply have started annoying me and I have outgrown them. Realized that an overly long cutscene is not something I will put up with in my videogame relationship anymore.

A game should be more than just a string of cutscenes where the player gets to intermittently mash a button in between. I’m fine with cutscenes if they’re brief and don’t interfere with the flow of the game. A cutscene should not be so long that I can fix a bowl of Froot Loops (and some have been so long I can even eat said Froot Loops.) The story should be integrated into gameplay with cutscenes being minor and not tedious. 

Was able to eat the whole bowl

 Infinite Undiscovery could be the most fantastically awesome game ever, but I will never know. I don’t know, give it a try – maybe you’ll have more patience than I did.